New Siding Project – Part 3
When I got home yesterday afternoon after work, it looked like Harland had been trying to build a moat around the house to defend it from marauding armies.
Actually, he had spent the day digging a trench for the electric line. Right now, the line goes overhead from the pole to the house, but this makes is susceptible to being brought down by ice storms. So he decided to dig a trench about 2 feet deep, and lay a new line down in the trench.
First, he rented a trencher. (Think giant chainsaw.) This worked great except for the buried sidewalk we didn’t even know was there.
So he went and rented a backhoe. This worked great to lift the sidewalk chunks out of the way.
Below you can see giant chunks of the sidewalk that he dug out.
He continued to dig the rest of job with the trencher.
But then he ran into some concrete near the house that needed to be broken out. So he returned the backhoe and trencher and rented a jackhammer. He had just finished when I got home. He hoisted the jackhammer into the back of the pick-up and I took it back to the rental place.
When I got back from the rental place, I took a little video while Harland was working on putting the new electric line into a conduit.
Today he’ll connect the line to the house, fill in the trench, and our electric line will be safely underground.
MY HERO
It’s a lot of work, but it’s one of those jobs that only has to be done once thankfully.
Oh, and see those boards in the pic above? They’ll be used to build forms for pouring the new sidewalk and patio.
More to come….
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxxo
I’m enjoying the updates on the projects around your home. Believe it or not, the thing that caught my eye in today’s pictures was the color of your dirt!! Here in the foothills of NC we have very red dirt….and it stains horribly!
Yeah. Sigh. It’s topsoil and it goes down feet, not just a couple inches like in the area where I grew up in MO. It’s black, loose, and wonderful. When I first came here, I fell in love…with the topsoil. I mean Harland! I fell in love with Harland, yeah, that’s what I meant. 😉
Wow! You’re so lucky to have Harlan! I would have hired someone to do this as it is a huge job!
He’s my little Jack of All Trades. I’m very fortunate.
I’m impressed that Harland is so talented!
Loved the video!
Thank you Becca. He constantly amazes me – plumbing, wiring, concrete, equipment operator, etc, etc.
Awesome to have a husband that can do it all!
If there was a like (or love) button here, I’d click on it.
I take it that Kitty is supervising the entire project from the safety of the house?
Yes. She goes from window to window so she can keep an eye on Harland at all times.
And is he laying something metal in the trench so future folk can find it with a metal detector? My expert always forgot that part.
It’s a conduit (plastic pipe) to protect the wire. The wire goes inside the conduit.
I have been admiring Harlands trenching job….in 2003, I dug, by hand, a 20 foot trench from my sisters house to her storage shed…we ran the line through an enclosed PVC pipe.
Will the electrical line at your house be safe from freezing in winter when its that far down?…I wondered too, the front of your house, above front door, appears more level than the rest of the house…do you ever have snow build up there? Its so fun to watch the improvements going on…thanks for sharing…mm,vancouver,wa.
It’s deep enough not to worry about freezing, so it’ll be ok.
The prevailing winds in the winter come out of the north and the front door is on the south, so snow doesn’t usually build up there.
Thanks for stopping by Mary M!
That’s been a big job! Good thing Harland is so talented. Nice smile he has, too! 🙂
Thanks jeanne, I tell him when you guys pay him a compliment, and he gets all, “aww shucks” on me. 🙂
P.S. Yes! Definitely, yes! By all means, do contact Better Homes and Gardens about your lovely yard!! (Your sense of humor is great!)
I love your little home on the praire. That is a big job Harland has gotten himself into. I noticed he doesn’t seem to want to talk on camera…camera shy? We don’t bite and he is really very handsome when he smiles. You are a lucky woman.
A little camera shy, yes…:) Thanks Tina!
It’s looking good! You’ll be glad you documented all this too…it’s quite the project!
lol smarty pants better homes and gardens poor guy working hard and u out picking on him.HAHAHAHAHAHA just teasing lady.
FYI from what I have seen so far of the remod u got a good man there. I do stuff like that, electrical carpentry ect and he is dead on correct. Well from Texas codes grins.
gonna watch the rest just to see how he does the vinyl.
Your house is gonna look good I’m sure