4 August 2015

Ian and Sonny finished shingling the house east wall, then moved on to the porch, which has some special challenges because the ceiling over that area is not (damn designer!) at the same height as any other part of the house structure, e.g., the soffits or the window / door tops.  Jimmy, James, and I continued with the retaining wall on the south end of the house.  Early in that project, Jimmy had to leave for awhile.  James and I attempted to set the northern-most capstone for over an hour… with no success.  Jimmy returned and, in another hour, set ALL of the capstones.  The difference between many, many and just a few years experience building stone retaining walls.  That wall ended up being 10 feet tall at the high point, is almost vertical, and 34 feet long… which will make a fabulous climbing challenge for kids, grandkids, and old folks too stupid to know better.  After lunch, while James used the skid-steer to move his namesake mountain of fill dirt over to the north side of the house, Jimmy and I tackled the north-end retaining wall. By 5:30 that wall was built. Though again nicely vertical, that wall is only 6½ feet tall and 16 feet long.  Together, both walls bookend the west side of the house in a very esthetically pleasing manner.  Score one for the designer!