page 2


in the summer of '03 the szuplats purchased property on 12 vacation lane.

found here will be details of putting a structure up

written mostly by erica and photographed a lot by ben, however like most things in life there are exceptions....

for instance ben wrote that last useless sentence.


on the week ending 0ctober 4th our hole got excavated. here they are locating our ground zero.

dalpe crew using laser sighter to level basement floor

dalpe crew puts the final touches and checks the measurements on the basement excavation and then takes the elevator home

erica on the job!!!

october 8th silva crew arrives and pours footings for the foundation. the previous night we picked up our sky light which comes seperate from the windows, despite being on the same order from home depot. while at home depot we bust into the gift cert recieved by erica in celebration of her birthday from her bro terry and mary. our purchase, two (one with wheels) garbage barrels and one box-o-contracter garbage bags. if we have learned anything about contractors so far (and granted we really have only had two at our site) they are unable to find a piece of ground that will not double as a garbage receptacle. next week..... cement basement walls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

week beginning oct. 19th we had to wait a week for the chimney slab to be added; thanks to ben and his keen eyes! note that in the upper pictures on this page, in the lower right corner of [of the photo and] the foundation footings, there is not a little slab jutting out. looking at the picture directly above, [in the lower right corner] there is! this is the slab that was forgotten by the foundation guys, and added in after ben thankfully noticed it missing! the slab that you may already notice in the left hand side of the photos is the footing for the bulkhead. next come the foundation walls; the picture above shows the forms [into which the concrete walls will be poured] have been delivered. we expect that the walls will be setting by wednesday. ben and i have had some confusion this weekend as to whether or not our basement floor should have another layer of dirt dropped and tamped into it (so that the inner cement footings would be surrounded by dirt.) it appears that this is the case and we had some miscommunication with some contractors somewhere along the line. in any case, this will have to wait until after the walls are poured since the forms are now obviously in the way. the cement slab for the basement floor is poured by someone other than the foundation guys. he wants to pour before the floor of the first floor is framed. the framer wants to frame the floor of the first floor before the slab is poured. hmmm....

in other news, we visited a fabulous salvage warehouse in buzzards bay that had hundreds and hundreds of old doors, windows, and clawfoot bathtubs! there were also old fashioned sinks, school desks and chairs, pews, and even a confessional! we hope to get a clawfoot tub there and will surely take photos on our next visit. we also visited the new home depot in wareham on it's first saturday morning. we had been traveling to north dartmouth previously so this will be nice. as jen fay pointed out however, it would behoove us to coordinate with pete and jen p. so that we could save gas etc.

we are also trying to move ahead with getting town water. we have our engineered drawings and have begun the so-called application process with the water dept. in fact, there seems to be no formal application (despite their detailed list to the contrary) and i had to leave our drawings wtih someone who made it seem like she was doing me a favor by holding on to them and having someone "take a look" at them! of course, when she said she could have an answer by the end of the next workday, i called early, since it was a friday. i was told by the other office worker that the people i needed to talk to were out and she had "no idea where anything is." after that and the previous off-hand comment, "sigh... i mean, i don't even know if they'll let you do this..." i have pasted a smile on my face and look bravely toward future meetings with the water department...-erica

 

on october 21st the silva crew returned with a large pumping truck and poured the foundation into the forms. the man on the far right is operating the crane by remote control as the silva crew manipulates the snout into the proper location.

HERE ARE THE WALLS!

oct. 25........The black stuff is tar (damp-proofing) on the outside of the walls.

we nailed the Tuff-R 2" foiled insulation boards on top of the tar. (these boards are chemically manufactured by your friends and mine over at dow.) Actually, pete brandished the cement nail gun, erica sliced the boards in half, and ben pieced the halves together and made any necessary size adjustments as the boards went around corners etc. we made a slight miscalculation (i think they call it fuzzy math or something) and had to make a second trip to the falmouth lumber to purchase more. luckily, pete had his truck with the flatbed so that was easy. jen p, jen f, and the honorable jim foster all also visited the job site this fabulously warm october morning. we must take a moment to acknowledgeother news not necessarily related to house stuff (is this allowed?!)...erica

1. jim's winningest time at kenyon's market this morning wherein he was the luckiest recipient of a raffled brand new harley davidson!!! cool!

2. note ben's brand new tool-belt. 'thank you each and everyone ' -- all those who have recently gifted home depot gift cards, plane propellers (see below) which will be turned into ceiling fans, the expertise and yes, even, enthusiasm of anyone involved in the project!

3. ollie (the cat) warmed our hearts when after 11 days on the mia list returned home-- a little skinnier but no less fiesty!

 

from (and by, i think) bens friend steve

Watching the Red Sox play well in the regular season, and come in second to the Yankees again: Normal

Watching the Red Sox lose in the ALCS to the Yankees game 7: Crushing

Watching the 49 million dollar payroll Marlins beat the sxxt out of the 180 million dollar payroll Yankees: PRICELESS

Yankees suck.

the plan with the prop that erica is so proudly modeling (provided by ola and dana, thank you very much) is to attach it to a motor and affix it to a beam in our catherdal ceiling, to move some air around.

if your still interested continue on to

page 3

and see us get septic system...? you asked for it


bens first attempt at inserting a counter.....provided by http://www.digits.com/