Little did I realize that I was being prophetic when my last thought on the last blog post was that it was probably going to be a long week. It was a loooooong week.
The pictures show some stages of the work they did, including the trail in the front door and into that bedroom. They covered the wood and tile floor, so that they could take all the old cement and dirt out that they dug out, and then they put it down again when they got ready to put all the dirt back and re-cement. I had 5 gallon buckets of dirt lined up along my driveway all week waiting to go back into that hole in the bedroom floor. I didn't take any pictures when it was a deep hole. And I didn't take any pictures of the holes outside. So this is just the inside hole when it had been filled back in, getting ready to cement it, and then the new cement in the hole. In both those pictures you can see the carpet and carpet pad pulled back out of the way.
They actually finished repairing the leaky pipes on Tuesday evening, so we all thought they would be through on Wednesday after the City inspected it. But due to some sort of snafu (with nobody claiming responsibility), the City inspector never showed up on Wednesday! So they rescheduled and he showed up about noon on Thursday. That means they didn't get everything filled back in and fixed on Thursday and had to come back on Friday and finish. Not only did I take Monday off work, I didn't get in to work until between 9:00 - 10:00 am every morning the rest of the week, due to having to wait and let the workers in to the house every morning. Considering I usually get to work at 6:00 am, it was a badly disrupted week. And that doesn't even count that the cats had to be shut in the master bedroom all week with food and a cat box.
I suppose I should be counting my blessings. They in fact did NOT have to destroy my bathroom floor to reach that back leak. They also didn't break any post-tension cables in my foundation when they jack-hammered through. The piece of rebar you see in the picture, they just placed in there to help hold the new cement. The post-tension cable runs below it and perpendicular to it. However, they did go "overtime" though, taking longer to get done than the estimate they supplied me with. So of course "overtime" is billed at an hourly rate and the grand total was significantly more than the estimate. Funny how that always happens, isn't it? No, no, of course I'm not cynical when it comes to anything construction-related. Just because I've NEVER seen a construction-type job done on schedule, doesn't make me cynical.
*sigh* Just the way the world works, I guess. Now I'm down to the last stage - getting the damage to the walls and ceilings caused by the foundation issues repaired. I'm kind of hoping I can be finished with this by the end of the year.
The last week or so I've begun seeing birds other than the sparrows and doves at my feeders. The weather took a cold turn, so I guess it's time. The juncos are back. Thursday morning when I was here waiting on the plumbing guys, there was a small blue-gray parakeet (budgie) out there! I haven't seen him since, but he must have escaped from someone, or they decided they didn't want him and let him go. Poor thing. It's pretty cold for him, and it's not like he's camouflaged, or used to fending for himself in the wild, so I don't suppose he stands much chance out there.
We're supposed to have freezing precipitation tonight and tomorrow morning. I'm hoping we run true to form. Usually when they forecast it like this, it doesn't happen. It comes when we're not expecting it. So I'm hoping since they forecast it, it won't really happen. I had such a broken up week last week, I'd kind of like to get to work tomorrow. I pulled all my aloe vera up against the house and covered them. It's supposed to freeze every night until around Wednesday, so I hope they stay warm enough in this protected area. I know the doves have been hanging out in this area, all puffed up against the cold.
Looks like I didn't knock on wood quite fast enough about the INH. I've begun having some abdominal pain, which is most likely due to that drug. Luckily it's not too severe. Kind of like an ulcer pain, it feels best right after I've eaten, which is a problem since, besides watching my food intake these days, INH is supposed to be taken on an empty stomach. Too bad about that. It's going to be taken with food. And I'm going to have to find a happy medium between keeping my belly full of food and feeling unacceptable pain.
Anyway, that's it for this post. Later.
Actually, I don't have a jack hammer headache yet, but it's probably just a matter of time. Today I'm at home since they began work to repair my slab plumbing leaks. They're currently jack-hammering through the slab foundation in the front bedroom to reach one leak and attempting to reach the second leak by digging under the house from the outside. I'm praying they can reach it that way and not have to jack-hammer through the bathroom floor in the back of the house in the master bathroom too. If they do have to go through that bathroom floor, I'll have to move the cats to the garage. They are currently hiding in the closet back there.
This is a messy, disruptive, NOISY process. I was going to see that they got started and then go into work. But since they don't know yet whether I'll need to move the cats to the garage, I decided to take the day off and stay here, both to monitor and reassure the cats and to follow the worker's progress - and move the cats if necessary.
It's hard to watch someone tear up your house though.
The picture in this post is the two gigantic, ancient cottonwoods at Capital Reef National Park. I'm seriously wishing I were there.
There's now a hole in my bedroom floor, about 2 1/2 feet in diameter and 4+ feet deep, going through the foundation and into the soil underneath. He says he's gotten TO the pipe now, just needs to clear around it to be able to cut the bad section out and replace it with a new section. Don't know how the outside work is progressing.
Just a minor time lapse here. I started this this morning, and it's quitting time. The guys have left for the day. They say they have about 2 - 4 hours digging time left in both holes, outside and inside before they can make the repairs. They're still not 100% sure they won't have to go through my bathroom floor and foundation to reach the leak there, but it doesn't look like it right now. And they still have to dig to the leak in my front yard and repair that. Then once everything's repaired, the City of Arlington has to come out and inspect it before they can fill in all the holes and repair the foundation hole. So probably at least two more days work. *sigh* When they're finally done, I'll be able to get all the damage to the house fixed. That's what I'm really looking forward to.
The cats are out of hiding now, but I've had them shut in the master bedroom/bathroom all day. I've been working from home, ignoring the work guys here as much as possible. Tomorrow I'm going to get them started and go into work, leaving the cats shut up again. Now that I know what to expect of the work I don't feel so uncomfortable doing that. Plus they should be done jack hammering.
Anyway I'm guessing it's going to be a long week. I'll be glad when it's done.
Here I am, wide awake at 5:00 am on a Sunday. That's not particularly unusual for me. The problem is that today that's 4:00 am since last night was Fall Back. Maybe I'll take a nap this afternoon.
I thought I'd post a couple pictures of some of the foundation-related cracks in my house. This is the ceiling in my master bathroom. Not only is the ceiling cracked, but it goes down that corner and cracks the grout at the top of the shower stall. And in the second picture you can kind of see that the cracks extend across the whole bathroom ceiling. The third picture is the corner of the window in the sun room. It's hard to wait 2 - 3 months for the house to finish settling to get them repaired. Considering that the slab leak repairs will probably cause more damage needing repair, it's probably just as well to wait and have everything repaired together though. I currently have a two page list of everything that needs to be repaired. Now I just need to decide whether to have the repairs done in December or wait until after the holidays. I'm leaning toward December, but we'll see.
I gave up on those little pine trees I was growing. I have SUCH a brown thumb. No matter what I've tried, they continue to seem to be dying. Give them more water, give them less water, re-pot them (twice!). The needles keep turning yellow, then brown and that's spreading up the little trees. So this week I put them outside. They're pine trees, so they should be able to live outside, and I figured if they're going to live at all, their chances are better out in the elements, than under my tender loving care. Poor things. It it weren't for cacti and wandering jews, I suspect I couldn't grow any plants at all.
I did plant the three remaining peach tree seedlings out into the yard. The oldest one was looking pretty bad, so we'll see if being planted in the ground will allow it to survive. The other two seem happy enough. I won't believe in their overall survival until they leaf out next Spring though. I haven't replaced any of the shrubbery that died from the foundation work yet. I figured I'd wait until the slab leak guys finish digging up the place and then replace everything that needs it.
I haven't been able to go nine months without drinking alcohol. *laughing* I sound like an alcoholic, but I'm not. I'm not even much of a drinker - basically never drink at home - but when I'm out socially, I do like an occasional drink. So since I've been lucky enough to have zero side effects from the INH (TB drug) I'm taking, I have had three drinks now since the first week in September. Two half glasses of wine and one beer. I'm counting on my liver to be able to handle that much alcohol along with the INH, but I'm not going to push it much more than that. After November, I won't be traveling for work much for several months, so I won't be in those social occasions where I most like to have a drink.
I am traveling the next two weeks though. A BOD meeting in Washington DC next week, then I'm going to give a talk in Florida the following week. Then the third week in November is when they're coming to fix my slab leaks. Then Thanksgiving. I think November is going to fly past even faster than the rest of the year has. Which is scary, considering how fast the rest of the year has passed.
Besides the usual cohort of sparrows, I have a flock of 12 mourning doves under my bird feeders this morning. I hung a second feeder out there because they were going through one feeder so fast. The sparrows and doves are the only birds I'm seeing out there lately. And only the mourning doves - no white-winged doves.
I destroyed my diet yesterday by going out to eat with a friend. It was worth it though. I'll have to be extra good today to make up for some of those calories. I'm really not very strict on this diet. I don't pay much attention to what I eat except I've pretty much stopped eating any fast food, and don't drink cokes except very rarely. Plus I began eating yogurt and fruit. Other than that I just watch portion sizes and keep track of overall calories. In June when I got serious about it, I set my calorie limit to 1400 per day. In the month of June I averaged 1404 calories per day. In July, I averaged 1356/day. In August it was 1303/day. September - 1233/day and October 1188/day. So I've been steadily decreasing my calorie intake just by keeping track.
I have this cool little app on my phone called FatSecret Calorie Counter that lets me keep track easily of calorie intake and expenditure. I need to stop decreasing my overall calories soon though or I won't be taking in enough to keep someone my size healthy.
I guess that's about it for today.
The pictures show some stages of the work they did, including the trail in the front door and into that bedroom. They covered the wood and tile floor, so that they could take all the old cement and dirt out that they dug out, and then they put it down again when they got ready to put all the dirt back and re-cement. I had 5 gallon buckets of dirt lined up along my driveway all week waiting to go back into that hole in the bedroom floor. I didn't take any pictures when it was a deep hole. And I didn't take any pictures of the holes outside. So this is just the inside hole when it had been filled back in, getting ready to cement it, and then the new cement in the hole. In both those pictures you can see the carpet and carpet pad pulled back out of the way.
I suppose I should be counting my blessings. They in fact did NOT have to destroy my bathroom floor to reach that back leak. They also didn't break any post-tension cables in my foundation when they jack-hammered through. The piece of rebar you see in the picture, they just placed in there to help hold the new cement. The post-tension cable runs below it and perpendicular to it. However, they did go "overtime" though, taking longer to get done than the estimate they supplied me with. So of course "overtime" is billed at an hourly rate and the grand total was significantly more than the estimate. Funny how that always happens, isn't it? No, no, of course I'm not cynical when it comes to anything construction-related. Just because I've NEVER seen a construction-type job done on schedule, doesn't make me cynical. 
The last week or so I've begun seeing birds other than the sparrows and doves at my feeders. The weather took a cold turn, so I guess it's time. The juncos are back. Thursday morning when I was here waiting on the plumbing guys, there was a small blue-gray parakeet (budgie) out there! I haven't seen him since, but he must have escaped from someone, or they decided they didn't want him and let him go. Poor thing. It's pretty cold for him, and it's not like he's camouflaged, or used to fending for himself in the wild, so I don't suppose he stands much chance out there.
