Sidewalks!

They are in. There is a great amount of satisfaction in finished and curing cement. I dont know why, but it just looks great. I am sure that part of this is the process of getting to the freshly poured concrete with the sledgehammering and the empty dirt spaces where they used to be. In the end its just nice to have it done and to not have the ugliness of the previous sidewalks that inhabited this space.

Then its just the little things. We never talked about how the cuts in the cement were going to go, but the mason did a great job of being a little creative with the sidewalk where it went from the wide part back to the normal width sidewalk. Interesting fact: the cuts in the cement are put there to control the cracking that will happen in the cement no matter how well its poured. By putting the cuts in the cement, the cracking in the cement tends to gravitate towards the thinner areas saving the rest of the cement from cracking. Here's to hoping it works well.

We have officially decided we are adding a backup generator to the infrastructure of the home. To the right of the stairs is the area that I had poured yesterday to accomodate the 8kw generator we are going to be incorporating into the house. The generator is going to be hard wired into both the electrical and natural gas on the home. This will allow us to run the sump pump, a few lights, the refrigerators, the fans on the furnaces, and power to the data center that controls the computers and TV's. This is going to not only be a nice security blanket for us in the event of a big storm, but it will be a great sellling point for us should we ever decide to move.

Womanized lumber. Thats the technical term for treated lumber that is used in the construction of decks and porches. There is a large pile of it in the backyard for the carpenter to start with today. We are really having a hard time finding a specific length of 2 x 2 that is going to make the ballisters on the front porch. Until then, the frame and rest of the porch and deck construction begins today.