The Woodshed

No, we're not talking about that famous bar in Brewster. (With the rockinest Halloween party ever, I might add.) We're talking about a shed in which to place wood... Which we have a lot of since Nstar removed the locust from the front yard. Mike decided build one yesterday.

But what of Sandy, large storm affecting out area with high winds today? Well, unlike last year (Irene) there was very little we needed to do to prepare. Tree is down. Kitchen roof is done. All we had to do was to clean the yard, hit the dump, and secure and stow everything on the farmers porch. It's like we have an Easy button or something. "That was easy."

And Mike wanted to build his shed with some free plywood he obtained. I asked him if he could finish the project in one day. (How many unfinished projects do we have in progress now?) well, mike said he could do it and that he'd pay for the wood he needed with Home Depot returns. A project that could be finished in an afternoon and cost next to nothing? Could such a thing even exist?!

I must admit, mike did not disappoint. He built a 16' wood shed that reminded me of a bus stop. (It was almost a shame to put wood in it. I wanted to put in a bench and a schedule.) And he finished it in plenty of time to even load it up with all the wood.

His design was pretty nifty. He built it in the shelter of the hill and used pallets for the floor. That way, once they rot out (an eventuality with wood and ground contact) he can simply replace with more free pallets.

With us both off due to the storm today, mike will be tackling the basement closet doors at long last!

Take That, Locust

Last year during hurricane Irene, a huge branch fell off our front yard locust tree, knocking out our power for 6 days. Compounding the problem, Nstar was lax in their response to the problem, despite our poor two year old, who had the stomach flu through half of the outage. Nstar continued to mark the job as "completed" when in fact it wasn't. We were still in the dark when the rest of the town... and the rest of the street were on. Mike and I were livid. Mike told them over the phone, "I want you to come out here after this is all over and remove this tree. You owe us that."

Just over a year later, they did in fact make good on that promise.

When I saw the trucks arrive in front of our house, I was ecstatic. I grabbed my camera, pulled up a chair on the porch, and enjoyed the show - Sweet revenge on that ugly, ugly pain in the butt tree.

The "Before" as the trucks have just arrived.

Boom man cuts the low branches first

Moving up, cutting branches

Time to give this guy a hair cut

Cutting and dropping

Up to the tippy top

Carrying down the branches

Dopping branches

Tree's looking uglier than ever

There goes the top

Bringing it down to size

Halfway there

Now for the big logs

Last few logs

Time to drop it!

Finishing the incision

Timber!

And it's down!

We elected to keep the wood - it will be lots of good firewood after it's seasoned, and after we get the wood stove installed of course.

And what a nice view in the front yard without that ugly thing.

Ruffin It

Remember when I mentioned that our good roofing pal Timmy came by and measured/made a materials list for the garage addition a couple weekends ago?

Well, last Saturday night, Mike went to the HD and purchased the first load of said materials (No trim, just the basics.) And when he got home he said to me, "That's a LOT of wood, I think it's too much. You're going to sh*t when you see how much wood that is."

Jokingly, I replied, "I'll probably sh*t when I see the bill." Unfortunately he turned to me seriously and said, "You probably will."

But we both thought at the time, "eh, some of it will go back."

Nope.

The guys worked on Sunday - Mike, Timmy, TJ - even our friend Shawn was over. (Meanwhile I was hanging out with 3 other moms, 3 other babies, a 6 year old, a 7 year old, an 8 year old, and of course my own little Mikey. Total full house! But that's another story.)

And yes, the guys used all 24 16' 2x8's in construction of the roof.

They didn't have time to start plywooding, but as you can see, everything's ready to go.

Of course I have yet to look at the bill for it all, but considering how much I can't wait to get the yard cleaned up, there's no doubt it'll be well worth it.

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