The Great Rear House Reconstruction of 2012

Tina and I knew we were going to redo the back side of the house sooner or later, and sooner finally came before later.  It took quite a while for us to figure out exactly what we wanted to do, but finally a couple of months ago we had it all figured out and set out to select the contractors.  That got delayed a bit by the family reunion, but after we returned we quickly got around to selecting the 3 major contractors ... Septic Tank, Swimming Pool, and House Modifications.  And so on the second week of August we signed the contracts and started the permitting process.

On the day after we signed the contract for the new septic tank, this was delivered in our front yard.

  

Yes indeed!  No permit ... no schedule of when it would be moved, but the lovely contractor placed our new septic tank smack in the middle of our front yard.  One of my employees at work suggested I put a sign on it saying "Mother-in-Law Suite", but I love Linda too much to do that!  :)

 Meanwhile, Tina and I started some of the demolition work ourselves.  We had already torn down and recycled the old screened in structure around the pool.  Then Tina got ambitious and climbed up on the rear patio roof to undo all the screws on the metal roof planks.  I think after an hour of being up there she was reconsidering her ambition.  We also needed to empty out the old shed out back since that's where our new workshop is going.  It's easy to forget how much junk you end up storing in a small shed.

Tina the Handy Woman

Nearly Empty Shed

And then on the 3rd week of August, the real fun began.  With Tina having started nagging at the septic contractor to move the tank from our front yard or else, they finally took the hint (and got the permit) to start the work.  And on the first day, our back yard was a total mess and the reconstruction of the Drago house started in earnest.

Digging the Drain Field

Fun Construction Toys

Anybody for a Swim?

By the end of the first week, the rear patio roof had been removed, the majority of the pool deck was gone, the Mother-in-Law Suite (sorry Linda) was in the ground, and the massive hole for the drain field was dug and partially filled with sand.

So the work has begun.  The septic tank and drain field are done and hopefully the pool work will start this next week.  Unfortunately, we probably have a lot more of a mess to go through before our back yard starts looking like a back yard again.  It was amazing in watching the hole they dug for the drain field just why they call this Rockledge Drive.  We had them save all the coquina rock so we can use it for landscaping.  I'm hoping we have enough landscaping to handle all of this.

Our Future Landscaping Rocks

But at least we do have the start of a back yard again.  It's not a great looking pool yet, but we're just being patient on that.

Septic Tank and Drain Field Complete - One Small Step ... ... ...

Post Hawaii Vacation Follow-up

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

When we took the helicopter ride around Mauai, Blue Hawaiian Helicopters films your trip via 5 camera's spread around the helicopter.  Then for a small price you can buy the DVD of your flight ... which, of course, Tina insisted we do.  A lot of the video doesn't end up being very good due to rain getting on the camera lenses, sun reflections, and other sorts of distortions.  As such, I edited it down quite a bit and managed to reduce a 1 hour video down to 24 minutes of mostly good footage.  Ofcourse to upload it onto the blog, I also had to cut the resolution down a bit so it would upload in less than 3 days.

 

When you're in the helicopter, you're wearing headphones so you can hear the pilot.  At the same time, they're actually playing music into them appropriate for where you are in the journey.  The sound you hear on this video is the actual sounds we were hearing through our headsets during the trip.

Click here for the helicopter ride video

Mahalo again for following this blog.

Catch-up Part II - April thru August 2012

In April we had one of those rare moments in life where we not only had an awesome double rainbow over the river, but it was truly rare in that it was a full end to end double rainbow.  Neither Tina or I had ever seen one before.  Not only was I out taking pictures of it, but people were stopping all along Rockledge Drive to take pictures of it.

Not only were we lucky enough to witness this and catch it on film, but as you can see from the following picture, the pot of gold was just on the other side of the river.  Tina wanted to take the boat over and pick it up, but I thought we ought to leave it for our friends over on Merritt Island.  :)

Our daughter Jessica got married at the end of April to our (now) wonderful son-in-law Adam.  The ceremony was down on the river front in Melbourne and the weather cooperated nicely for the outdoor ceremony.

Towards the end of May I continued on in the battle our son-in-law Chris has helped me start which was the 2012 Drago Ranch Wars Versus Evil Armadillo's.  Chris had gotten 2 when he was visiting before and I tied that number with my newly acquire weapon of mass destruction against armadillo's.

Finally, in July we had our big Drago family reunion up in Buchanan, Tennessee.  Tina and I officially took zero pictures the whole time we were up there.  I kept busy dragging around grand-kids, nieces, nephews and other relatives on the boat doing rafting, knee-boarding, and wake-boarding.  Tina kept busy beating her son-in-laws at tennis, although there's varying reports as to the actual results of those matches.  :)  Regardless, we had a fantastic reunion and I at least borrowed a picture from our daughter Jennifer of most of the people who attended the reunion.

 And so that's all the catching up I will do.  As I'm posting this, our backyard is officially a total mess with the pool mostly dug up and the new septic system being laid.  The next post will start covering the reconstruction effort.

Catch-up - December 2011 to March 2012

So we decided to expand this blog beyond our Hawaiian vacation to include our ongoing travels through life.  Therefore I changed the name of the blog and was intent on posting more pics on an ongoing basis.  Unfortunately, intents and reality sometimes don't meet.   As such, I'm posting a couple of catch-up entries to cover the period from last years end of the anniversary vacation to this summer.  Not only is that rather lame, but also I'm only posting pics from a handful of events because either a) I/Tina were too lazy to interrupt our fun to take pictures of our fun, or b) the pictures we took were not good enough quality to be worthwhile posting.  Regardless, here's what we were left with.

The kids cousin John came for his usual visit after Christmas and helped Shyanne fish off our dock. For the record, John didn't even come close to beating out Shyanne for total fish count.  (I think it was 1 to nothing ... 'nuf said.) 

In January, Mom, Dad, Tina and myself made our yearly brutal "why do live in Florida" trip to NYC.  It wasn't the 12 inch blizzard we'd had the year before, but it was rainy, wet and cold nonetheless.  Down near Wall Street we came across "Drago Shoe Repair" which didn't seem to be offering any discounts to potential family members.  Tina and I also took the opportunity to go down to Cony Island which is pretty much one of the silliest places you can visit in January.  The winter ocean breezes are cold as all get out and every place is closed other than Nathans.  Nathans is not only open but still serves hotdogs, even at 10 AM, just for those silly Florida tourist who happen to want to visit the NY ocean front in January.  :) 

Towards the end of March we did a week long vacation just outside of Asheville, NC with Tina's sister Arrietta, her bf Tommy, and our friends Pat and Debbie.  It was a great time of year for the highlands of NC.  While there we visited the Biltmore Estates and reacquainted ourselves with the fantastic gardens on the premises. 

At the end of the week, Tina and I did a day of hiking around Pisgah Forest and the numerous waterfalls there.  Within a 20 mile radius you can drive to 6 different waterfalls each of which is less than a mile from the roadway.  It was a super fun day, and certainly not nearly as exhausting as the last waterfall we visited over in Kauai. :)

The only downside of the day was when the tree fell down on me an nearly broke my leg, but I persevered and made it down the remaining 50 miles of the trail to safely return Tina back to our cabin.  :)

So, I'll try to do the rest of our catch up posting soon and then it's onto our latest saga ... the reconstruction of the back portion of the Drago River Resort.  :)