It was a long winter. The house and I had grown tense and distant. In the beginning I admired her from afar, longing for us to be back together while replaying the good times in my mind. But it did not last. I became resentful of the cold and our inability to spend time together, so I looked for distractions. Seed catalogs seduced me, and I started a consuming and passionate affair with the garden.

I'm still seeing the garden, but after a long weekend with the house, I think we will be able to work things out. I assured the house that she is my primary partner, and that she was there reason that I even have a garden. I might be falling back in love her.

Progress!

The snow has finally melted, spring is springing, and progress has been made on the house.
The yard is in a slightly different configuration since my last post. I took in the laundry that had been on the line through three snow storms, and moved the wood pile. The home/yard owner wants to plant some apple trees in the far right corner of the yard, and the time has come for planting, so the wood had to move. It was a good exercise to get back into the swing of things.

Yesterday was the first day of any real progress. I worked on the foundation and got about 3/4 of the way through the last course of dirt filled sand bags.


Getting them level has been an exercise in patience and dedication. Tamping is one of the less satisfying activities that I've done for the house. Perhaps because the progress is really slow, and hard to see. Also, I'm not in house building shape anymore so it is exhausting.

The plan for today is to finish up the last stretch of the foundation bags and make a decision about my next step. I need to put down a wood frame over the bags. It will be the base for the door and window frames, and also lift the bales up away from the bags which could potentially wick moisture into them. I have a few options for this. The bales are going to be 18 inches wide, and ideally the wood frame would be the same width. The sandbags are about 2 ft wide, maybe more like 28". I have 8 2 x 12s left and I could just lay them out double wide over the bags, or I could cut them in half lengthwise and put them 18" apart and fill in the intermediate space with gravel, or I could see if I have enough other wood scrapes to do that, or I could buy more wood. I don't particularly want to buy anymore wood since I have a big pile of it in the back yard, and putting down the 2x12 double wide would be the least amount of work, so maybe that is the best option. I don't love the idea of adding more foundation that is wider then the bales, but maybe that just needs to be what it is.