Front Door - Overhang Support Columns

Here's where I get to show you how those squares of concrete with anchor bolts are put to use.

PC stood these columns Saturday morning in the rain. He was happy to get them out of our garage and we are both excited about more visible progress (my interior progress is much slower, though not quite invisible - I'll tell you more about inside later this week).

Here's the first one standing:



He had the base plates of each column lined up perfectly on the trailer so that he could pull them over the edge and line them up exactly where they needed to be to get the anchor bolts in place before standing them.



Perfect fit!
PC did a great job planning everything out (I'm not surprised; he's very good at this type of thing).








Yep, they all four went up, but these are all the pictures for today. May is a very busy month and I have a million other things I have to get done today - including a couple of hours of sanding at The 123.

Check out the TaylorCountyWestVirginia.blogspot.com to see a sampling of the international attention Grafton has been getting and why May is so busy - and there's lots more to come!

Granny Sue & The 123

I posted this same picture last fall, only the trees were bright red. I thought I'd capture the same scene this spring. The white blooms are just beginning to be replaced by young leaves.

I see this everyday when I'm down there working, but imagine my surprise when I saw this caboose over at Granny Sue's blog! And not only the caboose, but Granny Sue stopped by and took pictures of The 123! (Go to Granny Sue's post "Tale of a Tired Storyteller: Grafton")

I wasn't even there to meet her. She was on her way to Rowlesburg and it looks like, from the ladders against the side of the building in her picture, that PC had run off to the hardware store for something. I was at the high school for a baseball game. I hope to catch her in June when she visits again for a telling at Tygart Lake State Park.

The ladders were there for this:

Our temporary sign, just to let people know they can surf over here and see what all the activity is about; with all the outside work, it's obvious that something is going on.

Outside - Pouring Concrete Part 3

This new concrete is a huge step toward getting the front door open.

Here's a shot of one of the square columns with the wooden forms removed:






The anchor bolts are lined up exactly where they need to be:






Here's another:






The duct tape worked well to keep the threads, washer, and nut clean:






Here's a wider view that shows one of these squares and the wall, too:






Here's an even wider view; the jumble of wood there in the middle are pieces of the forms:





See the notch in the back wall? That's where we poured the rest of the concrete. Wheelbarrow loads of soil were removed from up against the building and the concrete went in, sloping away from the building, to keep rain water flowing away.
For right now, this will be a good spot for potted plants, but as we continue to develop our ideas for hillside seating, this will work into the overall design.






You'll notice there is still rebar sticking out from the top of the wall. That's because another pour needs to go on top of this new wall to finish reinforcing this old rock. However, the upper part is not nearly as bad as the bottom was, so it can wait a little while.

Next up will be the support columns for the front door.

Outside - Pouring Concrete Part 2

After the boxes for the column supports were filled, they moved on to the wall.








The view switched around in this next picture because I climbed up on the back wall. That's where the last of the concrete will go.






Here's PC signaling Jim to keep backing up. This back wall is so high that the concrete wouldn't slide down the chute, so Paul had to get in the chute and push it down to me. I raked it away from the edge and made a little pond back against the building where more of the rock was exposed. I sloped it away from the brick and rock to keep the water from pooling there like it had been. PC went back down there late last night -24 hours later- and pulled the forms off the wall. It was too dark to get decent pictures, so when I take more I'll be sure to take them of the upper wall, too.






Here's a nice smooth, wet top:

Outside - Pouring Concrete Part 1

We poured in the early evening. It was the best time according to our schedules, but probably not the best time according to the sun. In the afternoon the sun hits full onto this side of the building and, between the bricks and the asphalt, it can get pretty hot. Add a layer of sunblock and it feels great, but the concrete sets up faster that way. It gets thick and goopy coming down the chute; the driver kept hosing it down to keep it moving easily.


This picture shows the wooden forms PC built against the building:






Remember those asphalt squares that were removed from the parking lot? PC was able to dig them out about 18 inches. The soil beneath the parking lot was packed very tightly and made for some hard digging. He found a few glass shards and some old bones. (Bones!? Yep. There's a story there, don't you think?)
Next, he built wooden forms around the boxes to bring them all up to the same elevation because the parking lot slopes slightly toward the street (I didn't get pictures of the tool he uses to do that - I was busy holding the measuring stick).






This isn't the greatest picture, but it'll give you an idea of what he did. The wood around the outside, obviously, is to form the concrete into shape and to bring it to the proper elevation. The 2x4 across the top is there to hold the 'J' bolts in place. (They're really shaped like the letter 'L' with a long vertical leg, but they're called 'J' bolts. I don't know why, I'm just telling it.) On top you can see those two little knobs - those are the threaded ends with washers and bolts and covered in duct tape to protect them from the concrete (it gets messy). The long ends are floating down in the hole so they're anchored good and tight once everything sets up. You can see the pencil marks on that 2x4, too. He's got it set up perfectly to bolt down the columns that will support the entryway overhang. (Right now the columns are sitting in the garage here at home waiting for me to wire-brush them, sand them and paint them. Instead, I'm sitting here drinking coffee and writing blog entries.)






Here's PC doing some last minute reinforcing. I'm sure that there's some formula for figuring out the amount of pressure that gets exerted against concrete forms, but I don't know what it is. It's enough for me to know that it's a LOT. TONS. Or more.
I've never seen forms blow out, probably because I've always helped pour into forms that PC builds and anything that PC builds will not be going anywhere anytime soon. Anytime soon meaning in the next hundred years or more (way more). (I'll have to show you pictures of the log cabin that he built -but that's way off topic....)
Apparently, though, blowing forms is not all that uncommon. PC has says when it happens they explode. Yikes.






Here it comes, pouring the boxes first, PC ready with the shovel:




A quick thank you to Curtis for helping out with this pour and also to Jim Mayle, the driver from Builder's Service & Supply. This isn't the first time that Jim has brought us concrete. He's delivered to our house at least a couple of times - once core filling the block walls for the garage and once for half of the floor in the garage (one of these days we'll do the other half). Jim is soft-spoken and patient and he knows what he's doing. Thank you, Jim.

Blogger wouldn't let me upload more than these 5 pictures so, instead of fighting to move them around I'll just start another post. I have time, I think; the kids were worn out last night....

Freaking Out with Formatting

If you come over here and see weird things happening to the format of this blog, let me assure you that it will -eventually- be okay.
I'm hoping for better than okay, so it may take me awhile.

If you check in often enough, you may see some pretty interesting colors, layouts, and designs.
I don't know how to make these changes without publishing every one of them....

Wish me luck; I may need it.

Cross Posting from MKStover.com

I've been blogging, but in other places...

• If you have a mother, go check this out: The Home of Mother's Day
• If you have an interest in (or a picture of) The West Virginia Industrial School for Boys (officially named The West Virginia Reform School prior to 1914), check this out: Industrial School for Boys - Call for Pictures
• Check out Grafton's streetscaping project: The New Sidewalks in Grafton
• And, of course, The Grafton 123 - I have avoided posting about the boredom of the drywall mudding marathon, but the mess in the parking lot has gotten some attention. There's more activity happening out there, too, so keep checking in.

And me? What am I doing?

Go here and scroll to the bottom of the post to find out.

***cross-posted at MKStover.com blog

Outside

Structurally speaking, The 123 building is in pretty darn good shape, even without considering it's advanced years. A part of that is due to it's size - it's rather small and definitely narrow, making timber sagging a non-issue. Another, probably larger, part is due to the attention and care that it's received over the years. There have apparently been periods of neglect, but the periods of maintenance have counterbalanced and even outweighed the intermittent disregard.

One area that PC has been concerned with is this stone portion of the wall (west -the broadside that faces the parking lot):



You can see in the above picture the steel rebar that PC is tying into a grid. This is the beginning stages of pouring a concrete wall that will tie into the old stone work.




Here's a closer look:






Up close, against the building, PC dug down beneath the asphalt to provide a foundation for the new wall. The rebar is also tied into the wall at the rear of the parking lot, which is in much better shape (though it will eventually need cleaned and tuck-pointed again).






PC tying steel:



Next will come the wooden forms to 'form' the wet concrete into a wall. (They're already there, I just haven't been able to keep up with the posting).
And remember those square holes in the asphalt of the parking lot? I'll show you more of those, too.

Over at my blog -MKStover.com- I got to talking about drywalling and rototilling.
Over at the Taylor County Blog, I complimented the sidewalks (and Holy Cow! those new sidewalks deserve compliments! It looks great!).
I'll be back here before the end of the week to catch up on PC's weekend work.

What's Up?

These are pics from last weekend, so things have changed already, but here's what's growing behind The 123....


I love the blue-purple of violets - the leaves are crisp and the blue bloom is soft and comforting:








This Creeping Charlie is still looking a little rough. Although some people get rid of it because it's a 'weed,' I like it because it's an easy, pretty, fluffy ground cover:








Dandelions, of course:








The buds won't be far behind, but right now there are Red Clover leaves:

Moose In the Parking Lot

I'm not kidding.


I didn't even realize there was a moose in the parking lot until I was busy sorting and compressing pictures, but sure enough, a moose showed up in the same picture as a wheelbarrow load of asphalt!

Here, look:

See?

Alright, so it's not a real moose, but I didn't intend to snap the picture this way. I was, however, fascinated with the idea of sand dunes in Canada. That's what the side of this U-Haul was telling me.

To look at the critter's antlers, I almost called it an elk. Its face is definitely moose-ish, but the antlers are questionable. Maybe it's just because I cut off the rest of this guy and all of his moose buddies when I took this picture.

We've had some interesting things in the parking lot and now that work has started outside, I imagine there'll be more.

I have a few more posts coming up about what's going on outside. Keep checking in.

Pitching In - Part 2

The 123 is the perfect size -and shape- for a small Coffee House. The layout is just about perfect. The main thing we weren't happy with was the front entrance. While the narrow Main Street face of the building with the single window and slight door were perfect for a small dentist's office, we felt we needed to open things up and create a welcoming entrance. If you've been following along you'll know that we intend to move the main entrance around to the west side facing the parking lot (see this post about brick cutting). And now that we have the inside well under way, it's time to start outside and get ready to open up the building.

One of the main things that needs to be done outside is to construct the gabled overhang that will protect the front entrance from the weather. There are several steps involved in this, but since we're talking about everyone pitching in to help, this post is about Screech and her contribution this past weekend.

See the squares that have been removed from the surface of the parking lot? These had to be removed to enable us to dig down until we hit bedrock. These will be the foundation points for the posts that will support the roof.

Here's Screech prying the last of the asphalt up:

See the yellow handled chisel right behind her? She used that and the hammer to chip a small corner out to give her a place to start to get in under the asphalt. . Then she used that pry bar (a pipe with a flattened end) in her hand to get in underneath and pry it up. When the whole square popped up, she stuffed one of those 2x4 pieces under it and then used a sledgehammer to whack until it cracked into pieces. She then pried up the pieces and set them into the wheelbarrow.

In this picture you can see the squares in relation to the building:

I'll get to what PC is doing in a later post. I do have a couple more pics I want to post that relate to the squares, but I have run to the end of my patience with formatting pics and text. I will have to start another post to add them....

Pitching In - Part 1

I spent most of the afternoon at The 123. I decided I needed to put in a couple of hours of drywall *mudding, so I loaded up Screech and Dozer and headed down there to meet PC.

This Coffee House construction has really become a family project - everyone pitches in according to their ability. I figured that was good fodder for blog food so I went through some pictures....

Here are a couple of shots of one of the scrap recycled wood sculptures that Dozer built:

And here he is pounding away (note the safety glasses - required):

This particular piece, I believe, was random. Once he finished with this, he went on to build a spaceship, at least one boat, and a race car.

*'Mudding' is not a word, at least not according to blogger or my word processing program. I know I'm not the only one who knows 'mud' can be a verb; drywall mudding is not the only type of mud activity for which it should be used as a verb, either.

Tools

Tygart Lake State Park Foundation

I mentioned the Tygart Lake State Park Foundation in an earlier post.
Here's their website: www.tlspf.org

*cross posted at TaylorCountyWestVirginia.blogpot.com

Main Street - looking East

This is the view from in front of the post office, what you're looking at when you come through the light there. Looking East up Main Street, the side of The 123 is highly visible - The brick face is smack-dab in the middle of the picture. The main entrance to the Coffee House will be on this side (go here to see the post about the brick cutting). A classy, eye-catching overhang is planned to go along with the sidewalk cafe style outside seating and this construction is included in the upcoming outside work mentioned in this post.


And wouldn't this wall look great with a mural?


I have a few ideas and there are a few other ideas (and samples) coming in from local visionaries (thank you!). Anyone with artistic leanings is encouraged to put in their two cents (mk@grafton123.com).

Oh! When I uploaded the picture, I realized (for the millionth time) how GREAT the other end of Main Street is looking! With the new sidewalks, streetlights, and park benches, downtown Grafton is reclaiming its beauty. I need to walk down that way and snap some pictures to post so you can see -if you haven't already- what I'm talking about.