computersmiths, family photo album

The Home the Smiths Built
In the beginning ... Dec. 2000 January 2001 February 2001 March 2001 April 2001 May 2001 June 2001 July 2001 August 2001 Sept. 2001 Oct. 2001 Nov. 2001 Dec. 2001 Jan. 2002 Family Album - Homepage	April 2001 They say April showers bring May flowers, well what they didn't know is that it is very unusual for California to have any significant rainfall in April. That is until this April. We couldn't believe it, but our garage slab pour was delayed due to rain. Randy and the boys had at least a week off for Spring Break so they got busy putting up some cripple walls and such, and getting things ready for the framing crew that will show up later on this month.
				Randy is standing in the crawl space of the entry hall. Working with him is Arnold, the father of a friend of Spenser's. So not only is this a family project, we are reeling in friends too. Any one want to visit and pick up a hammer?
		Here's Juan, our new concrete guy. He's checking the steel work before we pour the garage slab.
				As usual, the concrete trucks were late in coming, but once they started we had 5 of them show up for both the garage and the patio below. That means we poured 40 yards of the stuff. Reason why that much is that we have a 6 in. slab in the garage and had to have deep footings for the patio below.
				Here's a view of the finished patio. You can't tell from this photo, but they cut in some nice radiating stress cuts for a sun motif. I love the patio. The wood deck will be above it.
				The finished garage slab.
				In the northeast corner of the garage we laid our hand prints along with Ranger's paw prints. We also laid in a 2000 special state quarter and will epoxy in a 2001 state quarter as soon as we find one. The quarters mark the year we laid the foundations. We are spanning the centuries.
				Randy is putting up our very first full size wall in the garage. The opening will hold a very nice 8 foot mahogany transom window that we found at a salvage yard. In fact we have 4 of these windows of which 3 will be used in the garage.
	The end of the month brought with it great activity. A very fast crew showed up on Saturday, the 28th of April and in one day they managed to throw up most of the walls in the basement. The difference is dramatic, and it's all starting to look like a house. Randy was there when all the magic took place. The boys and I were at a county math competition (Bryant got honorable mention in his math level) and our jaws just dropped the next day when we saw it. Who knew, a few walls could make all the difference. It's all starting to look huge to me!
			A gorgeous Sunday and the boys are amazed at how quickly the walls went up. They are standing on the ledger of the front hallway, below are the walls for their playroom, Randy's workshop and my office space.
			The boys are helping to put in the bolts and washers on the anchor bolts in their playroom. I guess I really should call it an activity room as "playroom" sounds too juvenile for them. The large header you see is over what will be a 12' glass french slider door that opens onto the concrete patio.
	Randy's workshop - we are looking at what will be his double doors and the framed window is in my office.

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