Category: Projects

Paver project – Day 3:
The day was a bit of a disappointment, but that’s the weather in the Pacific Northwest! Gino ended up working outside by himself in the pouring rain. We purchased 3 truck loads of a gravel/sand mix and then rented a compactor to compress the mix between the 3 loads.

Load 1 of gravel/sand mix.

Gravel/sand mix before being compacted.

There was a slight break in the rain so Isabel is helping daddy “compact” gravel/sand mix.

Compacting in progress!

Works so good it looks like concrete!

Load 2 of gravel/sand mix.

Both loads of gravel/sand mix compacted and complete.
Let’s see what happens tomorrow…

Paver Project – Day 1:
So we have our new door (B.T.W. – Gino did an awesome job!) and now we need a walkway, so we aren’t walking in the mud. Therefore the paver project begins. Some might ask, “Why pavers and not concrete?” Because concrete takes to long to dig out (if you want to do something different later down the road) and pavers you just lift them up and move. No back breaking work there and other reasons too but we won’t go into that…

Gino went out after dinner and began the back breaking job of digging out all the rock to make a nice sloped level base. He dug 6 inches down and 4 feet away from the house and 30 feet long of pathway.

He didn’t get finished this first night.

Paver Project – Day 2:
Since it’s a work day, Gino again headed out after dinner. He actually got all the foundation digging finished this night of the paver project.

Rounded the corner and working toward the back corner of the house.
Almost there!

Isabel just loves playing out here and getting dirty! It was very chilly this day with a breeze, so I made her wear a hood. She didn’t mind and it kept her hair outta her face too.

This door installation is located in our garage. Gino had a contractor guy come out to do an estimate on the project and the guy told Gino that it would take him $1,100.00 to do! Gino said, no thanks, I’ll do it myself and this is how it goes…

The cutout doorway.

Anchor bolts that needed to be cut away.

Marking for doorway trim cutout.

Daddy’s little helper. (Isabel loves to help)

This wood round is leftover from the light installation that we had done back in January. She likes this piece of wood so much; that it’s been brought into the house and she even wanted to sleep with it today at nap time!

Doorway ready for trim.

Unpainted trim work.

Painted trim work.

Door packaging removal.

Door installed…well sort of.

Door leveling and shim installation.
(I’ll have to go out and take a photo of the completed project.)
My hubby did a fantastic job! :o)

We added drawer pulls and cabinet knobs to all the kitchen cabinets this weekend. Gino drilled the holes and I followed behind with placing the knobs in each hole and tightening.

Lower cabinets.

Upper cabinets.

Close up of the actual knobs.