Another one done!

Our projects tend to be large and often last many weeks or months. The process seems to take a long time sometimes as each piece is designed, crafted painted and assembled. Commonly the pieces are never assembled until we are on the site as they are simply too large to fit together in our shop. Yesterday was due day for the Oyama Estates subdivision project. The owner asked us to hold off delivery and installation until the day of the grand opening so everything would be fresh and new.

The trailer and truck was loaded the night before with all the tools and supplies we would need. Saturday morning we headed out. The day dawned clear and bright. The beautifully wooded site provided the perfect backdrop for the signs we were to install. Phoenix and his crew had finished the rock work last week. We had polished off the tree in the same time period. The landscapers had done their part. Wee would add the finishing touches with the signs.

The theme of the project celebrated the sister city of Mission, B.C. where we were doing the project. Each lot sign had the Japanese symbol for a positive attribute as well as an english translation and the house number. We would be mounting them to the large rocks the owner had placed on each lot. I had to simply drill a hole in the rock and glue in the sign. I had a large generator with us and all the heavy duty tools I needed. What I didn't allow for was the hardness of the rock we were drilling into. The first two concrete bits I used melted down in minutes with only a shallow hole the result. A quick trip to town was necessary to stock up on some new drill bits. Thankfully, only the first rock proved to be that hard and the holes were bored and the signs were mounted in plenty of time.

The bigger signs mounted to the brackets we had built into the 'rock' framework without difficulty. The last sign we had to go in was the unique street sign. Since we only had one hole to drill I used an old fashioned auger to drill the hole. I was thankful we did for as I neared the bottom we hit some type of conduit. I felt it before we did any damage and by simply sliding over the hole we cured the problem without difficulty.

With the last sign in we presented the smiling owner with the bill for the final draw and rushed home to change before we went back for the opening celebrations. Another project was done!

-dan