it’s really going slow. “it” being “everything.”
the deck is coming out very nice… but it’s taking forever. finished installing the decking surface on the upper deck, got maybe 1/3 of the lower deck’s on.

trimming the boards to go around the 4×4 posts as tight as possible took some time. ’specially with a pretty broken jigsaw. ended up doing most of it with a japanese trim saw and a chisel.
trimmed the end of the boards just before nightfall, so i at least feel like there was some accomplishment today.

(more…)

… mixed with a good bit of hard rain every now and then, just to make sure my ass was sufficiently soaked.

(more…)

but is it on the deck? nope.
the framing is complete, the wood is treated…

lovely green, it is. luckily it’ll all be covered/hidden by the decking and facia. the green stuff is a copperex (sold under lotsa brand names), which is an oil-based copper oxide and stain that the wood soaks up real well. prevents water damage, dry rot, fungus, termites, etc… it’s quite similar to what’s used on pressure treated outdoor wood.

(more…)

THAT should be added to the title.
oh, she’s cute… and i love having her work with me… but it definitely takes a lot longer to get things done. it’s not necessarily her being in the way, which she’s actually very good at avoiding, the slowdown comes from things like me playing with her. it sure is cute when she lays in the trench i just dug, and says “HIIIIII” with a big smile…

i do think it’ll be advantageous to both her and myself to have her help me with the work: she’ll get to learn as i did… and i’ll get to teach her. my grandpa had me help with everything, starting when i could walk. mowing a lawn, felling a tree, rebuilding an engine, or repairing a TV. anything and everything in between. sure, part of it was me being free labor (once i was old enough to actually provide proper labor, rather than just make a mess)… but i use what my grandpa taught me, daily. he instilled the “i can do it myself” attitude that led to me learning to do everything myself. further than just doing it myself… doing it right, solving issues, and enjoying it. mechanical aptitude, technical thought and determination (along with stubbornness and being too cheap to have anyone else do the work) has become part of me. i’m proud to have the ability to not only do work with my own hands, but to be good at it. my grandpa imparted upon me a set of values that are priceless.
now it’s my turn. i can only hope that she’ll enjoy it even half as much as i do.

~

the trench:

(more…)

… the deck is closer to being finished. i figure right about the time that the fall/winter rains really start, the deck will be complete. the more i think about it, the dumber it seems to have started a deck project at the very tail end of summer. oh well… the mud room had to come down anyway. if not by my hand, by the forces of gravity and those wee little termites.

for the footings, i dug ~24″ deep, 18″ wide. local code calls for 18″ deep, no apparent specification on width. it was fun breaking through old concrete to pour proper footings…

(more…)

there!

(more…)

… but we’ve got some squeaky clean sofas!

while i was out of town for work, rebecca got an upholstery steam cleaner and went to town on the sofas. you wouldn’t imagine a black sofa looking “brighter”… but they do. it all smells great, too… that “sofa smell” is gone. guess sofa smell = grunge.

while i was gone the oil tank contractors dug a big hole and pumped out all the old oil.

eventually (i suppose) they’ll come back to fill the thing with gravel, and fill the hole back up. this is the first of (hopefully) very few contracted out jobs to the house…
675 gallon heating oil tank… no idea how long it’s been there, but i’d guess at least since the early 50s. now that it’s empty and decommissioned, our sole source of warmth is stealing the blankets. as i’m not particularly good at either stealing them from rebecca, or protecting what blanket i have: it’ll be chilly for a while

(more…)

… the mud room roof is down

after deciding i’d take the roof down piece by piece, to salvage all that i could… i gave up and broke out the chainsaw to bring the roof closer to earth. much easier that way. the only disappointment is i failed to get it on video.

pulled all the nails holding the roof to the house (there really weren’t many of ‘em)… put a 2×4 in as a temporary support under the front… notch-cut the front studs with the trusty chain saw (much like felling a tree), tied a rope to the temporary support and tugged…. BANG! it all came down. neighbors came out of their houses, wondering what the racket was… and it was a serious racket! i was dead surprised just how loud. and how fun.

three layers of asphalt shingles over the original cedar shingles. the cedar, so far, is in pretty good shape. good enough to be used as the starter course when we re-shingle the house. most of the 2×4 dimensional lumber from the framing is salvageable, but i’m reasonably sure everything else is broken real good.

(more…)

… or “what else can we make look worse???”

take this perfectly good looking mud room:

with some slightly worse for wear steps:

(on the plus side they do give the feeling of being a bit tipsy, without the actual expense of drinking)

hour and a half later, we’ve got this:

(more…)