Winter Shangrila

As to the date stamped on the pictures these are the correct ones. Mother Nature has sent us about another ten inches since then.



As some of you know, I spent about seven months in 2007 building this house with my son and wife. We moved into it in late November, and was not able to complete some of the projects that needed to be completed.

The most obvious of course is the siding that will be started, when I have poured the aggregate walkaways. I had prepared these before winter rolled in. I could not get my finisher to come in and complete because of a large contract he had an option on that superseded my work if he obtained. He let me know of course, and fighting time with Winter coming I tried my best. A spring/summer job then.



After the foundation was done and before we started on the house construction, we brought in a 1200lb compactor to make sure that before any concrete was pour inside and out, the future walkways, this process was done. Also to build it up I brought in 2 10 yard truckloads of crush to build it up and pounded again, for levelling and to give it the height in relation to the house.

In construction, there are three main types of compactor; the plate compactor, the "jumping jack" and the road roller. The roller type compactors are used for compacting crushed rock as the base layer underneath concrete or stone foundations or slabs. The plate compactor has a large vibrating baseplate and is suited for creating a level grade, while the jumping jack compactor has a smaller foot. The jumping jack type is mainly used to compact the backfill in narrow trenches for water or gas supply pipes etc. Road rollers may also have vibrating rollers.

If you notice I had some rock work done on the pillars and the front of the house.

Cultured Stone HistoryOwens Corning Cultured Stone products originated in 1962 when brothers Garrett and Floyd Brown of Vallejo, California saw the need for a new kind of building material.

All around this house is stones of similar size, but we went and used a concrete product that looks much like those same rocks. While constructing the foundation, the plans did call for a 4 inch ledge to be in place for these rock additions, but it would have been to cumbersome to use the natural rocks and stone around here. I brought in an old Italian mason to do the work. We were very pleased.