We have had the house up for sale, off and on, for the three years we have lived here. Every time someone goes through it it seems there is just one major hang-up. One thing they don't like and they either can't change it, or they don't want to do the work. I can't blame them, because as much as I love it here, I have those hang-ups too. Mine is the backyard. It isn't kid-friendly and most of it is useless.
For a lot of other people, it has been the lack of RV parking. There is also a great garage in the back, but no good way to get there. So this fall we decided to remedy our parking problem and get an RV pad. We have gotten a few quotes over the years and they have all been so ridiculously high that we didn't really consider it a possibility. But someone gave Tim a referral for a cement guy that was desperate for work and would give us a great deal.
Enter Michael L. Smith, and his pal Jimmy. He did give us a great quote. It was to pour footings, build a 10-foot tall retaining wall, back-fill, compact, and then do flat work on an RV pad, and a ramp and large sidewalk leading to the suspended garage.
Unfortunately, he didn't build a secure form for the wall and our cement blew it out. So then we got to pay extra to have Heath Mote come and reinforce the re-bar skirt and use metal frames to pour a new wall. Then Michael came back at Tim's insistence and did the gravel back-fill and almost all the of the flat work on Halloween. We still have to hire someone ELSE to come and finish the saw cut joint lines, because Michael is MIA. As flaky as Michael has been, Tim still likes the charismatic guy.
So, a few months later, a few thousand dollars extra later, and an unbelievable amount of stress and work (and head-into-cement-mixer-chute injuries) for Tim later, the RV pad is finally finished. Now we just have to build stairs on the Wheeler's property (to replace the ones we tore out because they were halfway on our property), raise the level of the grass at the bottom, and plaster the outside of the wall and then the whole project will actually be done. Hopefully the sprinklers still work in the spring - since day number one on the job, our main line got broken.
For a lot of other people, it has been the lack of RV parking. There is also a great garage in the back, but no good way to get there. So this fall we decided to remedy our parking problem and get an RV pad. We have gotten a few quotes over the years and they have all been so ridiculously high that we didn't really consider it a possibility. But someone gave Tim a referral for a cement guy that was desperate for work and would give us a great deal.
Enter Michael L. Smith, and his pal Jimmy. He did give us a great quote. It was to pour footings, build a 10-foot tall retaining wall, back-fill, compact, and then do flat work on an RV pad, and a ramp and large sidewalk leading to the suspended garage.
Unfortunately, he didn't build a secure form for the wall and our cement blew it out. So then we got to pay extra to have Heath Mote come and reinforce the re-bar skirt and use metal frames to pour a new wall. Then Michael came back at Tim's insistence and did the gravel back-fill and almost all the of the flat work on Halloween. We still have to hire someone ELSE to come and finish the saw cut joint lines, because Michael is MIA. As flaky as Michael has been, Tim still likes the charismatic guy.
So, a few months later, a few thousand dollars extra later, and an unbelievable amount of stress and work (and head-into-cement-mixer-chute injuries) for Tim later, the RV pad is finally finished. Now we just have to build stairs on the Wheeler's property (to replace the ones we tore out because they were halfway on our property), raise the level of the grass at the bottom, and plaster the outside of the wall and then the whole project will actually be done. Hopefully the sprinklers still work in the spring - since day number one on the job, our main line got broken.
Don't worry, Tim got to tear down most of this wall himself.
And here is a nice 5.5 yards of concrete spilling onto the lawn.
Starting over.
