Weekend Project

My wife and I bought a little homestead cabin on 5 acres out near Joshua Tree about a year ago. Talk about a fixer-upper! We try to get out and work on it every other weekend. It's a slowly progressing project, mainly because we have too many other projects! But it's finally starting to feel nearly finished (although this type of project is never truly finished). It may look familiar, as I've posted on it once or twice in the past.

No exaggeration when I said a real fixer, right? It might have made more sense to knock it down, but these little homestead cabins are near and dear to our heart and we really wanted to preserve the integrity of the original cabin. Out behind the cabin are two old water tanks (before city water, the cabin owners hauled in their own water or had it delivered and stored it in tanks). The tanks were generally put up on a platform of some sort to take advantage of gravity to provide the necessary water pressure.

So my project for the last few weeks was to build a platform to hold these two old tanks and give the property that vintage, 1950's look!

Here's a better shot of one of the tanks and an old trailer that was left on the property (my next project!!).

How can so much junk possibly come out of one little cabin??

I hired Charles to do the heavy stuff... I provided the "grunt" labor!

Starting to take shape...

Finishing touches! OK, so Charles, how do we get the tanks up on the platform?? He tells me not to worry so much, he can put them on their side, attach a rope or strap, and pull them up with his truck. He's done it before... piece of cake!

Fast forward a few days. I get a call from Charles: "These tanks are way too heavy. You're gonna need a crane or something!". What!!? That's just great. Stay tuned for my next post: "How to get water tanks up on an 8' platform". You won't want to miss it!!

I will say the little homestead cabin came out great! It now has plumbing (the original did not) and is very functional. I added a porch front and back and can sit out and enjoy the spectacular desert sunsets!

PS: Thanks to Theresa and others for the advice on what to do about Blogger messing with my photos. By turning off "Auto Enhance", it appears my problem is solved!!