Thwarted By the 4th!

I seem to have forgotten last week that this week holds the infamous 4th of July holiday. The 4th is traditionally Boat Day, as Mike and I and our compadrates set sail for the Lewis Bay fireworks. (And when I say "set sail," what I really mean is "not in a sailboat because I hate sailboats.")

But alas - our new boat was not yet ready to go.... If you may recall from a bz'gillion years ago, it was on stands in the backyard... sans trailer... which was in the sideway (side-driveway)... sans functionality.

So Mike took as much time as he could on Sunday - had a friend of his over to help - and worked tirelessly to fix the trailer, pull the boat on, and replace the power steering lines..

The roof? Not yet. The porch? Not yet.

But I'm still quite pleased. The separately parked boat and trailer were taking up double space in the yard and sideway. Now, with the boat on the trailer, the back yard is... well, it's not clean. There's still that stupid Dodge #2 back there. But it's a yard minus a 23' boat - so I'd call that progress!

This weekend? There's that 4th to contend with, of course. Plus, in typical 4th fashion, a party on the eve of the 3rd. I've got the 5th off, but no doubt we'll be dealing with the repercussions of the 3rd and 4th if we even make it to the 5th in one piece!

Get a home insurance quote from Direct Line, voted Britain’s number 1 insurance provider.

Ready to Rock and Roof

Step flashing? Check. Ice & Water? Check.

We're officially ready to roof! Not sure if Mike's talked to Tim yet. He had some errands to do last night in addition to picking up the flashing and ice & water and didn't get home until late. And tonight we're supposed to be getting some potentially severe thunderstorms... so tonight is out.

Maybe Friday night?! Oh I am so excited, you have no idea.

Meanwhile, Mike is going to order some a/v cable from work so we can wire the porch for speakers. In talking about it, he estimates it'll take less then a day to get all that taken care of. I'm thinking Sunday might be that day. Yes, we have a bday party smack dab in the midst of the day, but if Mike can start early, break to go with me to the partay, and then come back to finish in the evening, I'd imagine we'd be golden.

Of course we'd have to prepare for that scenario by purchasing all materials today or tomorrow.... that's doable. Hmmm. Plans 'a brewin over here. (This is what happens when I start writing - I get crazy idears.)

Get a home insurance quote from Direct Line, voted Britain’s number 1 insurance provider.

Excitable Me

How happy was I to see Timmy in the driveway when I got home from work last night?! He and Mike were on the porch... with a tape measure. A tape measure! I could have cried tears of joy.

And suddenly the entire world was filled with hope once again.

Mike just has to pick up some flashing and some ice and water for the garage roof. Tim will be over later this week some day after work to bang it out. The whole thing! In one evening. I'm overjoyed.

For the porch, we have an initial materials list in terms of wood 'n stuff. Our to-do list includes wiring and ceiling decisions. And, while Tim was over, we made another big decision regarding the porch steps. One set of steps is easy - it will lead straight out from the front door area to the lawn. Yippee. The other set of steps is not so easy.

Currently, the temporary side steps leading to the french doors jut right out into the driveway, cutting off massive parking potential. Not the ideal situation considering our vehicle situation. We need as much driveway as we can muster! But, stairs to code would land in near to the same spot. The solution - twist 'em! Yes, rotate those stairs 90 degrees, so they'd be parallel to the house. This will still cut into the driveway, but not as much as a straight out, smack-ya in the face stairway.

One problem - solved in an awesome way. Love it!

And the electrical? It won't be a big to-do, in my opinion. But we do want to wire for speakers, lights, a fan, and outlets to be placed in the ceiling. (Why outlets?! Think xmas lights and other cool decor, my friends.) We already have some wiring in-house, plus some other materials that may come in handy.

And the ceiling? Tongue and groove pine board or whatever it is would be totally swank.... but totally expensive. And as much as I love that 2" wainscotting... I'm not too hip with that on my ceiling either. I'm thinking maybe a similar pre-fab product with a wider design. Something along the lines or 4" or maybe even more. I'm going to see if I can get the Lowes-down (get it?) for some idears.

Once that decision is finalized, we'll order all the mat's from Matt over at Morse Lumber. Our plan for the time being is to complete the ceiling, stairs, and all trimblies essential to the exterior of the porch. Yes, I know it's all exterior - but you know what I mean. As in NECESSARY not DECORATIVE. Railings and such can come at a later date if need be. Although we'll see how it goes. Timmy is very much like Mike in so much as when he's working - he works like crazy until the job is done. And he gets it done quick. And he gets it done right.

So as you can imagine, I'm just going crazay. I can't believe it's all about to happen!

Get a home insurance quote from Direct Line, voted Britain’s number 1 insurance provider.

Renewed and Ready

Back from Laconia, Beek Week.... beek week?! Did I seriously type that? Could have been worse. Could have been Beek Wike.

Yes - Bike Week. The trip was nice - relaxing, fun... short. Too short. But I suppose vacations always are. I can't remember the last time Mike and I had a moment to have something that wasn't an argument. That sounds terrible. Makes it sound like we're not getting along. And that's not true either. We're just under a lot of stress and highly testy.

Now, going back to good news, one of the conversations, of course, was house related. As in, I'm sick of stagnation. As in, "I know you]d rather start a new project then finish the old, but we need to. We made the decision to seek Tim as soon as possible. (You know, Tim the roofer.) That garage addition roof is #1. Also, we want Tim to place a bid on the completion of the farmer's porch. Yes, that's right. The farmer's porch. I made the executive decision on this one. We don't need much that we can't do - but we need it done. (Say that 5 times fast!) Furthermore, we need it done immediately, or sooner if possible. After the difficult stuff is complete, we can do our own staining, railings, etc. etc.

Which brings me to my next point. The yard. With all these new additions, it's time now for landscape planning. And I am no good with plants or researching plants. I want someone to do a design. Mike knows people - so talk to people! Get them over! Do a drawing, give me an estimate, I don't care just do it.

It all starts now. Yes, MB is still in NH until tonight, but this morning our neighbor Richard stopped over. Turns out that while we  were gone, Timmy actually stopped by - ready to roll on the roof! (Figures, right?) Well, I told Richard - we want the roof and we want the porch. And I know Timmy always tries to refuse money. Not this time. No way.

So Richard will talk to Tim, Tim will talk to Mike - maybe even tomorrow - and get started. He told Richard he could finish the garage addition roof in just a couple hours, with only a couple more little materials. (ice & water, that sort of thing) Sweet...

Wouldn't it be awesome if we could get this whole porch done in just a couple weekends?! The very notion....

Get a home insurance quote from Direct Line, voted Britain’s number 1 insurance provider.

Gifts for Above

Upon returning home Wednesday or Thursday of last week, a surprise out back by the garage addition. Roofing shingles!!

Where did they come from? No doubt our roofer Timmy dropped them off. Now the only question is, when can he return to install them? Don't know. Do we need more? Probably. Some other materials too? Probably. A step in the right direction? Sure! Any progress is good progress.

So what is going on at this very moment and why isn't it roofing? Well, Mike is trying to rushedly fix our new boat before the massive thunderstorms and possible tornadoes hit. (We made it on Storm Master G's TorCon forcast with a number 3.) After all, this is the last of our free weekends before the 4th of July. More events events and other events!

Last weekend we worked on the boat trailer - yes, I helped. And then Mike diagnosed the boat so he could purchase parts over the week. I'm most looking forward to just getting the boat off of the sketchy stands at this point and onto the trailer. Reclaiming near to the entire back yard won't be so bad either! Give the grass a fighting chance to live through the rest of the summer...

Who knows if that will happen today though - especially if these storms hit.

Also last week my strathwood chairs arrived. I've been waiting to get these durn things from Amazon for ages. Every time I had money - they weren't available. No money - available! It drove me crazy. So finally, seeing that the ones I wanted were once again available, I just said heck with it and snatched  them up. A couple years ago I bought a chaise and I've been so happy with the quality and the price. (Yes, I sound like a commercial don't I?) In fact, I signed up for this nifty amazon product feature thing just because I wanted to tell y'all about strathwood.

Look elsewhere for wood and/or teak outdoor furniture. It's expensive. We're talkin like $200 per chair - $300+ for a chaise?! That's highway robbery. And I despise plastic, wicker, and metal. With strathwood, the set of 2 chairs WITH CUSHIONS were just $150. Yes, set of 2, $150. Awesome.

I found a rocking chair at OSJL (ocean state job lot) that matched for $140 and I snatched that thing right up, since strathwood doesn't make one.

Of course now I have all this nicey nice furniture on an unfinished porch that's partially taken up by entire house-side's worth of siding. I told Mike I wanted to stain the deck and that's when he reminded me, "hey, who's going to move the siding and to where?!" Grrrr. But a valid point. A frustrating point. I hate that feeling of unable-to-do-anything.

But at least I have chairs. How'd we go from roofing to boat to chairs?! That's just how my mind works I guess. Loyal readers are used to it by now.

Get a home insurance quote from Direct Line, voted Britain’s number 1 insurance provider.