Tuesday, January 18, 2011

In Which We Are Finishing a Project

I may have mentioned this before, but I have The Best Parents In The World.

Last summer, Kerry had this done:

There is a bit of a rise from the driveway to the garage, and into his glorious, executive office.
And the four, temporary cinder block steps had reached their expiration, and he wanted to pour concrete steps.  Great idea.  So the excavator dug, and the boys dug, and we had...

a hole.

Grampa Grasshopper to the rescue!

You see, there are two things (among many) you should know about Grampa Grasshopper:

1.  He is a Helper.  With a capital H.  He will do things for you.
And he knows how to do lots of things.

2.  He loves concrete.  Grampa Grasshopper works in concrete, like some artists work in oils.
It's his medium.

In December he spent several days here, building the forms.  All out of his head.  (Stairs are tricky.)
And cutting the rebar, tying it into place, and whatever else needed to be done.

And then it got too cold to pour concrete.
And too wet to pour concrete.
And too snowy to pour concrete.
Then too wet, again...

But today... success!

 Of course, just having the big mixer truck, right there in your driveway, is exciting.
And guess what... there are jobs for boys.
Like pounding on the forms to get the air bubbles out.
Wyatt pounding...
 Tate pounding...
Gunnar supervising... (and looking cute).
And beginning the finish work... still going on, but it's getting dark now.
Pictures of the finished product coming soon!

Woo-hoo!

No more liability obstacle course to get into the garage!

10 comments:

The dB family said...

See, that's one advantage of the west coast. You can still pour concrete in January! Great job men!! Your Grampa Grasshopper sounds like our Grampa Close-by. It is a real blessing to have helpful parents nearby.

Enjoy those new steps!!

Blessings!
Deborah

Cutzi said...

Oh wow! That's going to look so great Julie!

melanie said...

Grampa Grasshopper works in concrete, like some artists work in oils.
It's his medium.

Love this description (being a Helper is great too)

My hubby did some concrete years ago - stamping, staining, fun stuff =) Oh, but not at our house. ;-)

Looks great and HURRAY for Done!

Ruby said...

Good job gang!
Are the Grasshopper grandparents your side or hubby's?

The Hibbard Family said...

Hurray for steps and finished projects!

Herding Grasshoppers said...

Ruby,

They're my side :D
Helps that we live just 15 minutes from them.

Gramma Grasshopper said...

I'm impressed at the 'quickness' of having pics on your blog - I was HOPING pictures were being taken. The 'cover' created for this project was very much appreciated (I'm sure!) to keep everyone out of the rain. And you forgot to mention that it got pretty cool last night - 'cool' enough to snow a little more here at our place :) Nothing stuck though :(

Choate Family said...

What a grand entrance for the executive office! What's the next project?

Anonymous said...

OH! Real work for men in training. Love it! And yes, extremely cute supervisor. ;)

heather west said...

Those pics make me want to make that caveman noise that Tim the Tool Man Taylor makes. Great project and what a relief!