Week 3

The Make My House Green crew wrapped up another great week of work and project organization. The demolition was completed on schedule allowing plenty of time to clean up the site and recycle many extracted materials. The individual material piles that lined the boulevard were effectively reused. For instance, the cedar shingles were mulched, all pipes and other metal extracts were turned into Pacific Steel and many of the reusable materials have been stored for the upcoming construction phase. All in all it was a great week despite several days of working late in inclement weather. We did happen to capture most perfect rainbow of all time. Be sure to check out the picture we posted. Several stacks of the lumber were taken to Johnson Brothers at the end of Expressway Boulevard where they will be mulched. This site is continually open to the public and offers the free service of mulching all non-painted wood products.

During week 3 we also dug ditches for the footings and stem walls that will soon be the new garage and the replacement addition. Originally the addition foundation was poured on grade and had been cracking and slumping into the earth for several decades. The excavation was somewhat challenging due to the rocky, compacted valley floor soil we all know was once an old riverbed.

“Holy Cow, that’s a lot of rocks!” exclaimed Neighbor Dave as he rolled in from work. I quickly offered the rocks to Dave if he gathered them up himself. He declined immediately and left us to find a new home for them. Some will be used in landscaping and some will be used as fill.

Caleb loading cedar shingles into the grinder

The fun part of the week was chipping up all those old cedar shake shingles. Despite being in the middle of 20 other jobs, Construction Site Services was able to make another trip to the Longstaff home for more mulching. This time we made use of the excavator bucket to load the grinder. This made the process a whole lot easier. After an hour of chipping the rains came in. The pile was only about half done when Bruce, the owner of Construction Site Services, blew the whistle and called it a day. As the MMHG crew started putting all the equipment away the most beautiful rainbow I have ever seen vibrantly contoured our old home imbedding in my mind an image that will never be forgot. It was the most amazing site I’ve ever seen. Talk about seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Not only was it the most vibrant rainbow I have ever seen, but there was another rainbow elevated in the sky above the vibrant one. It truly is an image that will I will cherish forever. After a long, wet grueling week, the rainbow helped us remember what the project was all about and we knew it was meant to be.

“We’re back on!” exclaimed Bruce. Apparently that rainbow even motivated Bruce to finish chipping and we all charged through and finished that entire shake pile.

Week 3 is now complete and MMHG is very excited to dive into week 4 when we will pour foundations and begin framing. This old broken down home will soon start looking like a house again. Check with www.localmissoula.com for the exclusive updates.