Second Concrete Pour

In support of the new heatpump/furnace, I decided to pour a pad for the propane tanks to sit on.  This one got poured today and is roughly 6x3.  Things went better the second time around, although I probably erred on the side of "too dry" this time.  The whole middle looks good, just  the edges are a little rough.  For some reason I decided to put concrete around the edges early on in the pour and I think that caused them to be setting up too soon.  They wound up with a rough surface, like the other pour.  Anyways, I'm happy to be done with furnace-related projects for a while.  Next weekend I should just have to relocate the dryer (vent and outlet) and can spend the rest of the weekend on the garage.

First Concrete Pour

No pictures yet, but last weekend's projects included a 6x4 concrete pad for the new heat pump arriving  next week.  It took 11, 80-pound bags of quickcrete.  I was relatively surprised by A) my tiny pickup's ability to carry 15, 80-pound bags and B) my ability to move them around so easily.  I really thought I would get halfway through the job and be totally whooped.  But I wasn't even very sore the next day.

The finish on the pad isn't great.  I think overall I used too much water.  At the end, water was rising to the top and forming a puddle on the concrete.  I figured that this indicated that there was a low spot where the puddle was forming and went about trying to even things out.  In the process, I pushed most of the water off the slab, which I think took the cement that should have been the surface of the pad with it.  So the surface is pretty rocky and pock-marked where surface rocks have been knocked away.

Luckily the pad will mostly be covered by the AC.  I might be tackling another pad for the propane tanks to sit on this weekend.  I'm currently working on my list of projects for this weekend:  Another pad (maybe), siding (if the weather gets nicer), electrical work in the garage (nothing stopping me), honey-dos (TBD). 

I put up the soffits and fascia on the one finished wall today. This included mounting the light boxes for the floodlights. This is my best corner so far.

This is my second best corner so far.

I also mounted the back light box and another row of siding. In the back is the first corner I did. Its the worst, and I'll be taking it back down to redo it with what I've learned so far.

First Post

I've been working on my new garage a lot lately.  I'm a total hack and don't feel really confident that I'm doing things right.  Somehow others seem to interpret this as an unshakable confidence.  Go figure.  

Anyways, my father-in-law DOES know how to do these things properly.  I've been wanting to share photos with him, so figured this was a good way to do it.  Plus I know my Mom will want to see too.

I'm not really sure how Picasa integrates with blogger.com.  So, here is my first shot at posting my photos:

edslittleblog