McHugh/Gant Hangar House

Day 484 - Seeded Rocks

Monday, October 16 -- After asking for a lot of advice in Redding on Friday, doing hours of Internet research over the weekend, and suffering anxiety attacks, the moment of truth came this morning at 8:30 a.m. -- the concrete truck arrived for our aggregate hangar apron "feature" strip.

The truck arrives and we start the pour...

Then comes leveling...

Then bull floating...

After the concrete set up fairly firm, the Coral Sea aggregate was sprinkled on, tamped in, and then floated. Floating brings the concrete "cream" to the top and cover the stones...

Then came the waiting. Standing around and watching concrete dry...

About 1:30 p.m., we decided that the cool weather was allowing the concrete to cure slowly and the slab was setting up nicely. Checking a few areas, we found that just the very top was loose and that the stones were pretty well set. So, Ken gently brushed the top as two hose streams of water flowed over the surface. We got the top layer off and most of the concrete sand. We decided to leave the slab alone until tomorrow when we will wash off the loose sand.

Because of the slow curing, we did not have to use the Coca-Cola to retard the top cream. The slab looks nice and everyone took a deep breath of relief...

Richard came up to reset the hot water recirculation pumps...

The generator got its first real life workout today. The Trinity Public Utility company turned off power in Trinity Center today to make preparations for a major line and switch upgrade. (The switch upgrade work will be Saturday, Oct 28.) Our power went out at 9:30 a.m. and came back on at 3:11 p.m. The generator ran the entire time and automatically switched back over to public power 10 minutes after power was restored. It then shut itself down after a 6 minute cool down. The generator uses 4 gallons of propane per hour.

Here are pictures of the metal/mahogany railings that John finished--good enough for final--on Saturday evening. The final problem with the railing is the 2 inch by 2 inch, 8-foot mahogany rails. These rails warped and twisted while they sat waiting for installation. So... John pieced together a section for the staircase, used a twisted piece for the handrail up the second flight, and we put off installing the balcony rail until we get new ones...

Speaking of "final," the new building inspector came by this morning to do a preliminary inspection. He wants to see the labels on the main service panel, landings at the south garage access door and front stone steps, the guard rail on the circular stairs installed (they are somewhere between Pennsylvania and Trinity Center,) self-closing hinges installed on the garage/laundry, garage/hangar, and garage/mechanical room doors, and a drywall hole filled. Not too bad of a list.

This weekend, we went for a fall color drive and took these pictures north of Coffee Creek...

Art pic...