Garage

Having said that "whatever house we buy, it has to have a garage and horse fencing", we of course ended up with neither. But we'd taken this into account and set aside money from the big land/house swap for the purposes of garage building. And luckily, we actually got around to doing it (even though it seemed a shame - our bank account had never looked so healthy and our bank manager was starting to look benevolently upon us).

We contacted local builder Steve Jameson and he came over and listened to what we wanted and watched us wave our arms around up on the top pad behind the house. He came with references and photos of past projects he'd worked on - many of which were more or less what we were looking for. He gave us a price and said he'd be available shortly because he was just finishing a job.

Seemingly three minutes later, he started on our new garage...
Jan29$19-21.jpg (85533 bytes)
Wednesday, 17th January... virgin pad, awaiting its future...
Jan29$22-24.jpg (64788 bytes) Detail 2
Thursday/Friday 18-19th January... Steve gets the bulldozer in,
the footings are dug (see the red dirt!!). He lines the trenches with rebar...
Jan29$30-32.jpg (73925 bytes) Detail 3
Monday 22nd - Mr County Inspector comes by (assisted by leaving the gate
open and large signs in red directing him up the drive to the site, to make sure
there's no mistake) and signs off on the work. Tuesday 23rd, the concrete
lorry comes to visit and pours the footings. The next day, Wednesday, Steve
brings the gravel lorry in and starts to spread the gravel across the slab.
Detail 4
By Thursday 25th, the slab area is completely covered with
an even layer of gravel, ready for the "big pour"...
Jan29$49-51.jpg (58948 bytes)
...or not...We have a "snow day"... (Friday 26th Jan).
Detail 5
After waiting a few days for the place to dry out, the slab
finally goes in on Tuesday 29th. Unfortunately, they didn't
wait long enough and our top driveway claimed another
victim (the same way it claimed us when we were bringing
Green home the previous Saturday) and the concrete lorry
was forced to park at the house level and pump the concrete
up the hill. Nevertheless, they got it done and even had a tad
leftover to smear on the drive to hopefully help out next time
it rains. During this time, the lumber also arrives and is stacked
under a tarp.
Detail 6
Steve lets the slab dry out so there is no risk of damaging it,
and then starts on the framing on Monday 5th February. Here
he's done the west wall and the smaller of the two garage doors
on the south side.
Detail 7
Tuesday 6th - the rest of the south wall goes in, along
with the east wall. The east wall has the people door and
two large windows we got from friends KC and Mike
in Foresthill after they remodelled their kitchen and living
room.
Detail 8
Wednesday 9th, the north wall goes in, along with the large,
16' wide garage door.
Detail 9
On Thursday 10th, the roof trusses arrive - just in time for
yet more snow. Steve has now put two of the five windows
in, as well as started on the siding... We then have three days
of Alaskan storms, moving California's annual "precipitation" 
up from 65% of our annual amount, up to 85%.Everything is
soaked and covered in slushy snow. A small spring erupts
under the horses' hay storage and forms a creek through the
middle of their paddock. We are not as amused as we hoped -
bearing in mind the snow's too yucky to even play in.  :(