OK. I'm gonna try this "blog" thing for this project in Gatlinburg. I'll try and recap what has happened so far.




We packed up and left for Gatlinburg on the 7th of October, getting here on the weekend so that we could be ready to go on Monday morning, when the rest of the people showed up. We're staying in a couple of really nice condos that Mickie found, right off of the highway. Each sleeps about 8-10, so there is plenty of room.



Monday morning we start off with me, Mickie, and four workers.
We are supposed to prep the walls so that we will be able to apply the faux finish. Prepping includes pressure-washing, trimming the frass with a weedeater, cliiping overhanging branches, and blowing stones off of the sidewalks in front of the parapet walls. Sounds relatively easy. However...



I had planned on using the fire hydrants to access water to spray the walls. What I didn't know was that most of the hydrants are hundreds of yards apart. However, when we got here, I found out that the contractor had a water truck! That makes us portable! So we hijacked the truck, and ran our powerwasher from the street where we needed it. I still needed to use the hydrants, so I used the water meter from the contractor that attaches to the hydrant. Of course,, it didn't have a hose fitting on the end, so we had to fashion one. Two, actually, so that we could run hoses form two fittings. (You'd be so proud of me - I've developed into such a plumber that my pants have started sagging in the rear when I bend over! )



(This is a great shot of Jonny - he really got onto the trimmin' thing!) Now, most of the highway where we are working is blocked from traffic, so we didn't have to worry about getting run over. I figured that one person could use the powerwasher, one could blow, one could weedeat, and one could trim. That took about 12 seconds to figure out that we would only be there for about two months if we kept that plan.

So I rented three more washers, put two people in each lift (one to drive, one to clean) and used the other two washers with people on the ground.

It took us about three days before we really got into a rhythm. I finally went out one night and measured all of the walls and the distances from exisitng hydrants. I went out and got enough hose to reach where we needed, and, using splitters, actually got to where we could use 4 sprayers off of one hydrant. (Much more pressure than from the truck.)



When we got here, the grass around the walls was extremely overgrown. Strange, because all of the areas around the alls were clean. Just in front of them. Seems that the contractor and the city were haveing a bit of a dispute as to who's responsibility it was to cut the grass. Well, I didn't have time to wait. I just old my folks to go in there with the weedeater and trim next to the wall. Oh, and watch out for the copperheads and rattlesnakes. We were warned that, being a national park, the place is infested with them. Nice work area, huh?

It took a few days, but we finally gave up on the weedeating. It was simply too much. I kept complaining to anyone who would listen, warning of pulling off of the job, the possibility of getting bit, etc., until FINALLY the city came out and cut the grass! We literally stood on the side of the road and applauded as they drove past!

I will tell you this: cleaning those walls was exhausting! Hauling hoses, working lifts, weedeating (we did end up trimming some areas), and with those 3000psi sprayers, it literally put you back on your heels every time you pulled the trigger! (Poor Jan! Let's hear it for large glasses!)



I can't say enough about the folks that have worked on this so far. (Below they are celebrating finishing the cleaning of the walls!) They have been real troopers. Not really what they expected when they signed up, but it has truly been an experience. We are expecting paint to FINALLY come in this Tuesday, so we can get to doing waht we came here for: PAINT!



More later.

Mike