Progress and Setbacks

This has been a hugely expensive week. We shelled out several thousand dollars today alone, on top of what we paid out Monday and Tuesday for supplies and materials deliveries. 

A good chunk of it is labor, of course, and there's a lot of labor to be done. But we're heading into the really costly stages, with plumbing and wiring and fixtures and walls and windows and doors and adobes and beams and and and until I'm ready to tear my hair out.

Today started out like this:

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

We had the construction crew and the plumber's crew stepping all over each other (well, actually, they did pretty well at working on separate projects in such a small space). The regular crew got the foam in all the way around and the rest of the rebar tied in, while the plumber's crew dug the conduits for the water lines, laid the pipe, and got the drain set for the ground-floor bathroom.

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

You can see the rebar nestled in the cinder block at right, and the foam edging it all, with the pipe in the center. How they managed to stay out of each other's way enough to do the kind of incredibly neat job that both crews did is beyond me.

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

This is what it looks like tonight: Kitchen rough-in in the foreground; bathroom shower drain in the center; bathroom connections to the left; utility room hook-ups beyond that. They buried all the rest of the pipe so neatly you can't even tell the dirt was ever disturbed.

Now, it all looks like the photo in the widget up at the top. The plumbers are done for a month or more, while they get the walls up, the beams installed, the windows and doors ready, and the wiring done. We still need another load of fill, and another load of crusher fine for mortaring the adobes; we need to get the slab poured next week; we need the massive adobe pallets themselves (along with the delivery charge); we need to go down to Lowe's or Home Depot and go window shopping, literally. We need to arrange for the wiring, which has been pushed back because of the cost of everything that needed to be done this week.

I'm still tearing my hair out.

I said last night that there would be no rest for this, but I had no idea how horribly right I was going to be. The new YouCaring page has had to go up already, and it's a doozy. It's not like we have a choice. We're in this now, and the only way out is forward, however long it takes. So please, share the link from the page itself, use the widgets, spread the code around, all the usual.

As thanks, I'll leave you with this, which reminds me of the Maathai story about the hummingbird:  "I will do what I can." 

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

That's all I can do, and I'm doing it.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

Encouragement

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

It is the people who make me feel like the small animal, spirit ripped from flesh, bone from soul.

The ravens give me encouragement. In spite of it all, they make me feel like i might be able to fly.



All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

#TBT: Walking the Star Road

Photo copyright Wings, 2016; all rights reserved.

It's #ThrowbackThursday at The NDN Silver Blog, with a trip back in time some seven or eight years along the path of the Star Road. It's a work that was part of a very small collection in miniature, one that embodied motifs of wisdom and guidance, visions and dreams, and the existence of worlds beyond this one, worlds reachable by bridges and roads made of stars.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. This piece sold seven or eight years ago, but if it speaks to you, simply inquire via the site's Contact form; Wings can make a version uniquely your own. And, as always, sales are much needed (especially now), so shares of the site links are much appreciated.



All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

Just look at this beautiful round number.

Thanks to so many friends, we hit our goal today for Stage II of our fundraising effort to build a home.

I still can't believe it.

Of course, Stage III is bearing down on us in a matter of hours, not days, but there'll be time tomorrow to put that together. No rest for the weary OR the wicked. But for now, I just want to look at this. I mostly can't see it, because my eyes are leaking.

But the crew made real progress today, so I want to post some photos, too. The cinder block is now all in, and they did an absolutely beautiful job.

Return

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

He is back, this small fierce grandfather spirit, returned to me in defiance of all logic. 

I had not thought to see him again.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

Scouting the Stars

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's one of Wings's recent masterworks in the form of a spirit who scouts the stars on our behalf. This is, for fairly obvious reasons, one of my favorites among his recent works, but it's meant for someone else; I'd like to see it find its way to the home Spirit intends for it.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form.  And, as always, sales are much needed (are they ever right now), so shares of the site links are much appreciated.


All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

Cinderella . . . Umm . . . Cinder *Block*

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

Delivery of the cinder block arrived bright and early, along with the work crew. Actually, it's cinder block, foam core, lumber, bags of Quikrete and lime, and a forklift. The forklift departed with the truck, of course.

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

This is the whole shot, as of around nine-thirty this morning: Pallets of block laid down, individual blocks already stacked around the pad, the cement mixer pressed into service (after realizing that it needed to be washed and have the oil changed, which the guys did in record time). They spent the day on mortaring them into the footer, and made some decent progress, in spite of the heat.

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

This was how it all looked after they stopped for the day. 

Close-up? Sure:

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

That's what will be the north side of the house, otherwise known as the back, looking from the northeast corner to the northwest corner.

Here's a close-up of the blocks in the foreground corner, already mortared:

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

These guys do very neat, very traditional work.

Here's the southeast corner, where the ground rod is sticking up from the inside of the corner:

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

The foam core, all stacked and waiting to be put to use:

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

More lumber, and more cinder block:

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

They made quite a bit of headway on it today. I'm not sure how far they expect to get tomorrow. What I do know is that the pallets of adobes have been ordered (and due to an apparent misreading of the sizes, it will be eighteen pallets, not seven), and are slated for delivery Thursday morning. We've got wiring to be done all too soon, and plumbing rough-in work, and fixtures and windows that need to be ordered. Unfortunately, I can't launch the next phase of fundraising to help us fund the next phase of work until I can close this stage out.

Which means raising another $1,400. Fast.

So please go to our YouCaring page and share the link via the widgets there. Please also scroll down to the bottom, grab the widget code from the purple box on the right, and spread it around liberally. That will give you this:

Donations are also welcome, of course, although I'm more concerned with getting the link in front of broad base of people who might be interested in kicking in a few bucks apiece toward the cause.

Many thanks to everyone who's given us a hand thus far. I am way, WAY behind, on work, on sleep, on EVERYTHING right now. The rest of the week is looking as screwed up as yesterday and today, so I'm not expecting to get very far on my personal task lists, but I'll have my nose to the grindstone. I'll also have another update tomorrow. Thanks for shares, tweets, and any other help you can give us right now.


All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.