C. Branson Family Blog

Mold in the bedroom

2011-01-16T14:06:00.000-08:00

First update since September 2008...that has to be some type of record.

What has happened since then...Kailey graduated and is at BYU. We lost my MIL to cancer. Christina has moved districts. Mikaila is awesome at all things athletic. I am still at Elk Hills.

Sweet. All caught up.

Here are the photos from the mold removal. 75% done.

This first one looks worse than it is. I sprayed a mold killing chemical on the paint and it caused some of the mildew to start running:

Here are the rest of it with the drywall still there...

Here is a photo of the carpet we cut out the day of the water leak presenting itself...

Photos with the baseboards now removed, along with the carpet in the closet:

Here is the lower area with the drywall and insulation removed now...

Upper area...

I have a heater in the closet area drying out the vapor barrier and the wood right now. Once that is done I will put my special mold mask back on and scrub the mold and treat it one more time. Then the mold worries and smell will be gone.

Then drywall and repaint.

Then new carpet throughout the house. Thanks insurance!

I have finally updated the blog!

2008-09-05T19:11:00.000-07:00

Now get off of my back.

Love Dad

Better late than never eh?

2006-06-12T22:55:00.000-07:00

So the patio is finished. I am sooooooo glad I did it though. It looks so much better. The best part was the fact that I was quoted 2200.00 to have it done, and I was able to get it done for about 650.00. Now it took me 4 weeks, but I saved 1600.00 so eat one...

So of course here is the before picture (looks pretty redneck now that I see it again)

And here are the after pictures. (Still sweeping in some sand..)

I realize that I have some cool pictures of the tools and toys that I haven't posted here yet that I used to finish the project, but I will post them later. 4 blog updates in one day is plenty!

Tick

Memorial Day BBQ and Wife's Masters Graduation!

2006-06-12T22:40:00.000-07:00

Did I mention that I love my BBQ? I mean really really love my BBQ. I can cook with the best folks....

This is my BBQ. I love it and use it at least once a week. It is a red blooded American rule. I got it from http://www.santamariabbqoutfitters.com and you can get you one there too!

On the right are some Baby Back Ribs with a nice dry rub. The other flesh is Tri-Tip (for you Californians. For those outside of California you can get it if you go to your butcher and ask him/her for some Beef Boneless Bottom Sirloin Butt. That simple) The one that looks really red has a Teryaki marinade on it. The one that looks whiteish has a Pineapple/Italian marinade. Both pretty much rocked.

Just to show you the BBQ has its mobility

Made this bad boy myself. I was inspired and it was fun. Tasted even better!

You can't tell me that it doesn't look good...

My mom makes these cakes. I tell her that she needs to go into business and we would back her. She doesn't think she could make any money doing it. This cake would go for about 25.00 if she did. Wouldn't you be interested? It is a lemon cake.

This one is a cherry chip cake with a cherry cream cheese frosting. Nice strawberries to finish it off. About 25.00 for this one also....

Will post some more later. Thanks for sharing/stalking my family.

Tick

Graduation Photos round 2...

2006-06-12T22:27:00.000-07:00

Here is some more photos!

Kailey and Kelsey

Unknown, Kailey, Kayla

Some dude that shouldn't wear a black shirt...

Kailey and Nick. Nick lives down the street. We call him Harry Potter. You figure it out. Nick's dad played college ball for Michigan. Nick may play trumpet for Michigan.

Tick

Graduation Photos

2006-06-12T13:41:00.000-07:00

Here are graduation photos of the oldest rug rat! I will post the names of friends that I know...

Some girl my daughter says I know (I don't), Kailey

Mrs. Hilton, Kailey, Mrs. Pelham

Mikaila (daughter), Kailey, Christina (wife)

Kailey, Wife

Mikaila, Kailey

Kailey (Yes, I do know that I will have boy troubles in the future)

I recommended this photo. I am brilliant.

And brilliantly fat!

Kailey and the non-boyfried (RJ). Kailey swears that RJ isn't her boyfriend. RJ swears he isn't Kailey's boyfriend. None of us believe them. He walks her to the bus in the morning, and he walks her home after school. And when he is bored he comes over to the house. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck.....DUCK! So, we call him the non-boyfriend.

Tick

Weekend fishing trip...

2006-05-23T21:20:00.000-07:00

I will edit this post later with a nice description about what is what, this is just to get Jason off of my back! And yes, the patio is done. I will post the final photos with a nice story when I get to it...

Tick

Some Easter photos...

2006-04-28T14:11:00.000-07:00

For my in-laws and other family that aren't local here in town, this is how the family looked on Easter Sunday. (No pictures of me, as I am the cameraman. No pictures of mom.....well you know mom.)

Can anyone guess who gravitates to the camera more than others? Not a hard one is it...

Tick

So the days have blended on....

2006-04-28T14:02:00.000-07:00

We are on about day 13 of actually working the project. I have more work done but I haven't uplaoded the pictures.

Quick update as to where we are now...

Here are a few photos of where we are actually dug down to the roughly 8" deep that we need to be at...

And another...

Now came the hard part of actually getting all of the excess dirt out and doing some measurements to make it semi-flat. The nice part about putting this type of patio in is that you can fix alot of the "level" problems just by making your last exact measurements with the sand. Sand is much easier to manipulate than dirt or gravel.

And as always the opposite side

I will post more pictures of the yard later tonight. I have the gravel all in now and it is just going to be needing the sand first thing tomorrow morning and then the pavers. If everything goes well I will have my entire project finished by Sunday.

We have some left over gravel though, so Christina has already informed me that there is another little "project" that I can do with the left over supplies.

Tick

Day 7

2006-04-07T23:47:00.000-07:00

Since my wife is a teacher, and this is the Friday before Spring Break she was able to get out of work around noon and really help me out. While I was busting it for the "Man", she came home and removed all of the water from the moat. A dirty job but something she took care of.

I am not mechanically inclined. So I pretty much study things to overkill before I start. I have been planning the project for over a year and asked Tai about sprinkler info a year ago. Finally got around to it and YEEHAW. Not nearly as hard as I mentally made it out to be. Was actually kinda fun.

Here is what we did today...When I say we, my wife came out and helped me fill the trenches back in and replace the grass. She was a real big help. Thanks sweetie!

HEre is the pipe that I cut down and capped off. Don't need a sprinkler here, but we did a few feet further down...

Then I added a "T" joint and about 7 feet of line. And a new sprikler head...

Notice the strategic use of a water bottle...

And last but not least.... the "yard" part of the yard almost looks back to normal.

I am going to hammer in the stakes tomorrow and depending on how things go I may be removing some dirt. Gotta fish though and there is hockey so you never know...

Tick

Day 6

2006-04-05T09:32:00.000-07:00

Yeah right....

I will make sure that I go home and take some pictures tonight of the moat that I have in my back yard. 2 straight days of rain and my trenches are now full of water with no end in sight. On the way into work this morning it was raining again.

THIS IS SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA NOT WASHINGTON! THIS IS WHY I LEFT WASHINGTON! AAAARRRRRGHGHGHGHGHHG

So now my deadline of having this done by Easter is going to be very very tight. I am supposed to go fly fishing on Saturday the 8th and then on a deep sea charter fishing thing off of the Channel Islands on the 14th. I am not going to miss either of those! So I may end up having to take another day off from work and get the yard done.

Who knows. I am depressed now though because I was making some major headway.

Tick

Day 4 and 5

2006-04-05T09:02:00.000-07:00

So we were finally starting to make some headway.... AND IT STARTS TO RAIN AGAIN! For the love of....

So when I mentioned to the kids that they weren't going to be recieving an allowance this week they were spurned into action...

My youngest wanted to prove how strong she is...

After about 45 minutes of arguing with me they finally got it all cleaned up and did this much work!

It took me about 1 hour to remove this first strip of grass. Lets just say that it required the use of a buddy's shovel. Mine wasn't up to par...

Now don't think I am lazy or slow. I also used part of that time to cut up the rest of the grass. Cut it into 1 ft. by 2 ft. pieces of grass. Made it easier to handle but still very heavy.

Day 5 Begins...

I spent another hour and a half on the next day and was able to get all of the grass up. This is the first sign of how big the patio is actually going to be.

After removing the grass I was reminded that I was going to have to move a couple of sprinklers. Something I have never done before, but it can't really take a rocket surgeon to do. (I have seen some of the landscape folks around here!) So I spent some time and dug a few trenches.

And now this is where the first sprinkler is going to go. Nothing like getting to dig a 7 foot trench.

And When I started to dig the other trench I found a little suprise. Apparently the landscaping technicians ran two pipes right next to each other. So I get to do a little more digging to give me some working/cutting room. Can't wait... :(

More to follow I am sure...

Tick

Backyard Day 3

2006-03-28T10:26:00.000-08:00

Now work with me here....

When I say "Day 3" that means working days. Apparently the good Lord is under the assumption that we have moved back to the Seattle area and has given us more rain in the last month than poor Noah saw before he started building his boat...

But I have had enough time to get all of the concrete out of the way now....

Or should I say all of the big pieces. I have lifted over 2000 lbs. of concrete at least 4 times now. Off of the ground into the wheelbarrow, from wheelbarrow to driveway, and from driveway to buddies truck. And my body has told me to cut it out. But as you can tell from the lower right hand corner of this picture, I can't even get my offspring to pick up 20 lbs of small pieces. Let's see what happens when they are looking for their allowance in a week. :)

Not too bad I would say. We only had one small stucco accident...

But I have been told there is some "stucco repair kit" I can get at The Home Depot.

The next update you see will have all the grass pulled out. Once that is taken care of I am going to have to move two sprinkler lines and then we can do some digging. I hope to have this all done by April 8th but we will have to see about that one...

Tick

Backyard Day 2

2006-03-24T11:12:00.000-08:00

I woke up relatively sore on Wednesday morning. That 4lb sledge isn't much, but wield it about 2500 times and you start to feel it a little bit. I don't want to use the 12 or 20lb that I have available to me, simply because I don't want to replace the sliding glass doors. (My wife craves French Doors right there, and nothing would make her happier than a chunk of cement flies through there.)

So, I called my cousin who is an electrician and told him what I was doing. He said he had something cool he was going to bring over later....

He shows up with this big drill looking thingy. Plugs it in and drill about 64 holes in the patio. He then switched out the bit and grabs a chisel style bit and starts scoring up the cement. :) About 2 hours later and a few (okay I am lying... a bunch) of precisely place whacks with the sledge and this is what we have at the end of day 2....

A lot more progress. Now all that is left for me to do in the next few days is turn some big rocks into smaller rocks and then move it to the front yard to be disposed of.

I figure that with John's little tools we sped up the work by about 5 days. Can't beat that now can ya...

Tick

Backyard project Day 1

2006-03-24T10:40:00.000-08:00

A little background...

We bought our house in 2001. I promised my wife I would buy her a home before she turned 30 and I sqeaked in with about 3 months to spare.

We found a killer house at a killer bargain. 1850 sq. ft. 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. 2 car garage and it was fully landscaped.

A few things about the house drive me crazy. First off, since the houses are in a new subdivision they are close together. Nothing I can do about that fact. 2 things I can fix though are being done right now. Backyard patio and some tiling in the house. Who is the idiot that puts carpet in a bathroom? I digress though...

This is what the backyard patio looked like before I started...

The pad that was in the back yard was 8 x 8. And it was a mighty fine pad don't get me wrong. It just wasn't doing what we needed it to do. Here are a few more pictures to show you why....

Here is the house looking to the right. And now here is the house looking to the left side...

The problem that I had was that it.... A: Looked really bad, and B: limited what we could do when we had people over.

After measuring I decided by taking the pad out and puting something else in we would go from 8 x 8 to 13 x 13. Alot better if you asked me. I don't like the look of concrete though, so we (when I say "we" I really mean that I am going to be doing the labor but my wife is going to support me with cups of water) are going to be putting in a paver stone patio.

Not being one to wait I started to remove some of the cement with the help of one of my young ones....

And my little helper...

We did alright but it took us 1 1/2 hours to get to this point. Not too bad for a first days work and the help of an 8 year old...

So, at the end of day one we were a little sore and had a few blisters that showed up, but other than that a fine day indeed...

Tick

2006-03-19T23:33:00.000-08:00

Inspired by Tai...

2006-03-19T18:53:00.000-08:00

I am doing some home remodeling. I have been inspired by my buddy Tyler, so I am going to start posting some pictures of my work.

Let me know what you think.....