Just A Chad Bit....

Mike visited Chad last night. Chad is our soon-to-be-roofer. A few years ago he re-roofed our garage... which, wasn't good at the time, because we had asked him to trim out our new exterior windows. Chad's an interesting dude to say the least. But he's a good roofer and a friend.

So Chad will come by the house and take some measurements to give us an estimate on time and materials. We'll probably purchase all the materials from Morse so we can get our discount and have them delivered - always a big plus on big jobs. Chad will just be roofing the really high and steep parts of the house, while Mike and I will tackle areas like the farmer's porch roof, mudroom roof, etc.

That's the good news. The bad news - we can't do it until late fall. October-ish. My jaw just dropped to the floor. Octoberish?! But even our carpenter agreed that roofing in hot weather is not a good idea. And not just because roofing in hot weather is a highly uncomfortable experience. The roofing itself would go on hot and then when the temperature drops, the roofing would shrink or expand (I forget which, I'm no expert here!) and possibly cause leaks.

Believe me, I don't want any leaks, but having to wait until Octoberish will not be fun... plus that means possible roofing mess during our annual Halloween party! Also not good.

As I recovered from the news, I said to Mike, ok then let's do some siding. More bad news. We can't just take some clapboards and slap 'em up there... our carpenter has to come over and take measurements with his fancy construction calculator to figure out how far apart to space the rows. This way, we won't come up short at the top of a window or anything like that. Plus, we have so many weird additions on the house at different levels, it would be a super pain to figure it out without a fancy calculator.

Nothing is ever easy, I suppose.

So that begs the question - what's next? Well, we have plans on Saturday, but I've already grabbed Mike for Sunday. I hope that we can perhaps start on the upstairs railing - another home inspection must-do. If you remember, my home depot card has been wiped clean and shiny - primed and ready for more 12mo no pay no int. purchases. Ironically, I'm super itchy to make a purchase that I won't have to worry about for a while.

Cross your fingers!

Cancel the Plot

Fishing trip is for Sat night - Sun morning. So my evil plot is canceled and I don't think I could have purchased the tile this weekend anyway. Bummer.

But stuff continues on. And unfortunately, now that Saturday's free - it will be time for some irregularly scheduled maintenance on my truck. It has needed it all summer! I have an exhaust leak, I need an oil change, one of my mirrors needs to be replaced, the new soft top needs to go on, the speaker box needs to go back in, the whole shebang could use a good scrubbing, and I have an annoying piece of metal on the front that scrapes the wheel when I turn and it makes a big loud noise like "ERUSAHDSFALSPKRPHAEEHG"

And it's very embarrassing when I'm making tight turns in crowded parking lots and soccer moms are staring me down... not good people, not good.

Meanwhile the house is in complete disarray - and, like the garage, you all know that I can only stand states of disarray for a short time before they start wearing on my nerves. Plus, time is ticking. We need to do the siding and the roof.... mmm, NOW. Not to mention the fact that the basement still looks like home depot just exploded down there.

At least Mike has been keeping the garage clean. I'm so proud! He's been putting everything back in its place and everything.

Poor Mike, he's been having such a busy time at work, plus working side jobs after work.... I feel horrible about producing a to-do list for Saturday on top of the already scheduled maintenance stuff.

I tend to be a slave driver as everyone knows.

There's just two days left in the week. I don't know. At this point I've just got to wait and see I guess.

Brewing Sinister Plots

This weekend was yet another indication and example of how absolutely insane and out of control summer has become. Let me explain - so, despite exhaustion from a mad week, we awoke early Saturday morning and hit the dump. From there we drove 30min in traffic to my parent's house to meet the boiler man. (A friend of ours who promised to take a look at their exploded oil burner - yes exploded.) A couple hours later, we're at the ATT store to consolidate more phone lines into our family plan. A half hour after that we're driving another 40min with heavier traffic back near home to the super market to pick up food for that afternoon's bbq. The store is madness and we barely escape with our lives and our food. On the way home we hit the liquor store. Then, finally home, we have barely enough time to shower, change, and cut up the veggies before heading out to the bbq. Traffic is horrible and we're a bit late to the bbq.

The bbq is fun and we eat and drink. Night falls and we dance and get ready to hit the town. So we drive another 20min to da club. Surprisingly energetic at 1am, we hit McD's on the way home, and then once at home, eagerly eat up and hit the hay.

Early Sunday AM. Mike's phone is ringing. We have to get up, wake up, drink water and get ready to eat clams at the annual Marconi Club Clam Bake. By 11:30, we're out the door and on our way - although still a bit groggy. But by the time the clams hit the table, we were feeling much better and each ate about 5 baskets. Arriving home at 3:30, we were bushed again and could do nothing but sit around watching TV. I slept for about three hours and could have slept for more, but forced myself to stay up until 10 at which time we finally went to bed.

So as you can tell by that madness - there was absolutely zero time for anything else! I'm lucky we managed to squeeze going to the dump in there!

This weekend though, I thought we were through with summer festivities. Ahhh, a weekend of work and relaxation ahead! And then Mike drops the bomb on me last night - fishing trip. Fishing trip?! Of course, not for me. It's one of those manly man fishing trips.

But then it hit me... What if.... what if I was to purchase the tile for the mudroom... and what if I had my dad come over on Saturday since he's not working Saturdays anymore to help me put it in.... (he used to own his own tile and carpet business and also did our kitchen tile) It's only Tuesday. And at this point a lot is riding on the fact that I have to do some financial juggling after paying off the DeepHo card last week.... But what an opportunity.

I'm glad I have some time to think on it....

Losing Steam

No dump. That was the one thing I was really looking forward to and the one thing that we didn't get to do over the weekend. And honestly I can't help but feel that we're losing steam.

Sure, the guys worked Saturday and framed out the porch ceiling - thus ending work on the porch for now. And sure Mike was good enough to put up the new hanging tool storage solution I bought for the garage last week. Looks fabulous - and organized!

And as for me, I cleaned the house. Woo-2Da-Hoo.

It may be partially because I've been feeling rather useless lately. I haven't been able to do a dam thing around the house except for garage cleaning - and that did feel good, don't get me wrong. I just hate stagnating.

And today I paid off the DeepHo card - had to. One of my 0% interest gigs was expiring 8/3 and I knew I wouldn't have another opportunity to pay it all off before then... There goes another $962.28. But it's paid. Phew. A relief and a bummer all at the same time.

As for the coming weeks - progress is unknown. Siding and roofing are next... a lot depends on a lot of other stuff. As usual, nothing comes together easily. I have to wait until my ebay auctions end, Mike has side jobs, we both have bbq's 'n other summer events to attend...

I'm going to try and be pushy, but we all know how that usually goes. Not well. =)

Fed Up Fri

This has been a lightening fast week.

So why the hell is time moving at 25% speed today of all days? Of course I'm not helping matters by checking the clock every 2.2 seconds.

I just can't wait for the weekend - and once again, oddly enough, I'm really looking forward to going to the dump. Sick, isn't it? But we have to get rid of the remainder of our garage trash before we can call that project officially completed.

Oh, and we also have to put up the hanging tools hooks I bought for Mike over the week. You know, a place to hang the shovels and the rakes and blah and blah and etc. That blah and blah and etc are always getting in the way, you know?!

Then there's that basement mess... but that might be a Sunday project. Saturday the guys will be over to frame out the porch ceiling.

And would you believe that's it? That will be the end. You probably are asking, why? Well, despite the fact that we still have money in the hopper, the siding and the roof just take priority over trimming out the porch.

What a bummer. But nothing I can do about it. Fall is fast 'a coming and there's still so much to do!

Lean Mean Cleaning Machine

Ah, 4th of July weekend. Time for beaches, bbq's, boating, fireworks, friends, fiestas, and garage cleaning.

That's right - garage cleaning.

For quite a while now the garage mess has been annoying me to no end. We can't find stuff when we need it, we think we don't have something so we buy it and then we find out we already had one, carpentry tools are mixed in with mechanical tools and plumbing tools are mixed in with building materials, and so on and so forth. Plus junk and trash and dirt - EVERYWHERE.

It was so bad, you couldn't even walk through. You couldn't even look at it, it was terrible. I said to Mike, I don't know how you can work in here if I'M this annoyed. I just couldn't imagine how he could accomplish anything.

So with the guys on vay-cay from porch work, I told Mike that Sunday was the opportune time to get this mess straightened out. He did not want to spend a day cleaning - but agreed that it was long overdue and we needed to do it.

We employed the HGTV method I learned from watching countless hours of Mission Organization. It's basically a five step process.

1. Remove EVERYTHING from the garage.
2. Separate into organized piles of like items - plumbing tools, building materials, trash, liquids, straps 'n chains, garden tools, stuff-that-should-be-in-the-house, etc.
3. Double check each pile - get rid of anything you don't want or need and consolidate. (For example liquids like oil if you have a million half empty containers like we did.)
4. Clean the now emptied garage and decide where everything is going to go.
5. Put it all back neatly.

Additionally, we had some other challenges. You may remember that our homeowners insurance company had a problem with that wood stove in the garage - so we had to remove that using our skid steer and get it down in the basement. (Using some straps and a plywood stove-surfboard mind you.) Also, our two car garage has just one door. No, not one big door. One small door on the left side. Well, eventually we'd like to put in another door, so we decided to make ready for this by moving Mike's tool box and bench to the opposite side of the garage where the stove once was.

We decided too that to help keep the garage clean, we would store all non-mechanical, non-garden tools and materials in the basement. This includes all carpentry, plumbing, electrical, and paint (non-automotive) supplies, tools, and materials. Unfortunately, we only have one shelf in the basement currently. Not enough storage space by far. And in the interest of time, we decided to leave new-shelf-building for another day. (By the by, we have so much scrap wood, we should be able to build more shelving without purchasing anything but storage boxes 'n stuff.)

So the basement is currently a mess of organized piles. I guess you could call that halfway there. When we get the shelves built, all we'll have to do is put stuff away neatly.

Luckily, we had time to make one dump run - and boy did we get rid of some junk! Phew, what a relief! Next weekend, we'll have to make one more dump run to finish the job. (Dump closes at 3pm, so we weren't able to get everything.)

Now at this point I'm sure you're all wondering, "Where are the before and after photos?"
Well, would you believe I didn't take any before? I was just too horrified by the mess. But I'm so proud of the after that I just want to hang out in the garage all day! Isn't that crazy! Although the basement's mess is going to start cheezing me off soon if we don't get those shelves built....

A little hard to tell the clean with all the bikes in there - but trust me, you should have seen the before!
Here's where the 2nd garage door will eventually go. Now we're ready for it with the bench moved!
I've never seen these shelves so clean since we bought the house. OMG it's amazing!

And finally, the bench area. There's a place for the bench, and the red tool box fits next to the compressor, and the welding cart has a place... so amazing!

I can't wait for the guys to see it next weekend!

Carpenter on a Hot Tin... Er, Hot Plywood Roof

Neither heat nor humidity nor economic depression/recession/regression will keep us from our appointed porch building duties! I'm trying to uphold the mantra, can't you tell?

This weekend was hot - really hot. Not particularly the most comfy time to be up on a roof. But the guys worked on both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday they actually had to re-do some of their previous work on the roof framing, but that worked out just fine because Sunday was all about the plywood.

First thing in the AM we boarded up the French doors (damage control, don't cha know) and Mike and I began ripping off the last of the old shingles. Meanwhile TJ and Paul were on top of us laying ply.

I took this pic leaning out of the 2nd floor window. Notice how the roof's pitch is not too steep - we talked about cutting the bottoms of chairs at an angle so we could sit out there. =)

And here's the same view from on the porch. Funny - the second we got the plywood up, the porch cooled down probably about 20 degrees. And all of a sudden, it looked bigger too. It was so exciting!

The trickiest, but coolest looking part was the joint between the two roof angles, as you can see here.

Here's TJ working on that funky angle.

And here's Mike working on the shingles. Shortly after this, I had to put down the camera and get back to work. Notice the cowboy hat - we were all pimping the cowboy hats - except for TJ, we haven't converted him yet.

Once we had the plywood removed from the top of the french door (because that's where the needed it removed to attach the plywood 'n stuff) we decided to strip the rest of the shingles off this wall. So we took off the protective ply piece and stripped the rest.

Here's the after shot.

The plywooding of the roof was pretty much finished by the time Mike and I finished stripping. And at that point everyone was so hot, we decided to take advantage of the new roof and did some serious chillen out under it.

Then we has some lunch and cleaned up - done for the day. Mike and I were both psyched. This pretty much ends the rough framing portion of our show. Next up is the ceiling of the porch. At the end of Sunday we decided on a height - so that'll be the next step.

Of course, with the 4th next weekend, the guys will probably not be back to work on it until the following.

Between now and then, Mike and I also have to talk to our roofing man. We need an estimate for labor/materials for the ENTIRE house roof, including the porch roof, which needs to be done ASAP, I would imagine, because it's just bare ply right now.

Anybody Out There?!

Feels like an eternity gone by in just a few minutes. I think back on all the goings on of the last couple weeks and my mind is just boggled!

As you all know, we were up at Laconia last weekend having fun on da bike.... That is, after Mike put it in the truck and drove all the way back to our house from NH on Friday and back to NH Friday night to fix the durn thing after we had wiring problems. Just wouldn't be a vacation without a little horrible luck. But Saturday was great... then Sunday we had terrible thunderstorms and had to leave early.

All in all, just another emotional roller coaster.

This weekend's already feeling like tomorrow - despite it only being Tuesday. There's just so much to do between now and then - I doubt I'll even notice a few more days going by.

And then it's back to work on the porch. Time to get a roof on! Plywood anyway. And after that, I'm not sure what's going to happen. We're running low on dough. But we have to get the roofing done and the siding on.....

Then there's that whole other do-to list of exterior jobs. And it's nearly July! Wow. Two mo's to go. Maybe three. We've got to keep pushing forward no matter what!

Raising the Ruff

Nope. It's not the roof. It's the ruff. Get it right.

Saturday was a beautiful day.... and I was stuck working in a windowless auditorium for about 14 hours. Not that I mind terribly - it's just a LONG day. I'm still exhausted.

While I was gone, Mike and the guys began framing the porch roof. This morning I took some pics and one of them came out like this:

I haven't the faintest idea why. If you can look closely and isolate one of these duplicates - which I have trouble with - my eyes just don't like it! You'll see that this is the side portion above the french doors.

And in this normal pic, you can see the front roof section. The only part missing is the difficult part where front and side roof meet. But that will have to wait, because this weekend is bike week weekend! And we'll be gone in NH from Fri until late Sun.... spending a ton of money that I don't have, I'm sure.

And here's the front. I think the funniest thing is that the grass under the porch looks better than the grass outside the porch. I'm sure that won't last long - but it just goes to show what a little shade can do for your grass. That's why I need some trees out front. Maybe next spring.

Sunday Story

Dateline, Sunday June 1st..... yes, it's already June 11th - so I'm 10 days behind. And if you think I've been neglecting this blog - you should hear about all the other stuff I've been neglecting... accidentally mind you.

I think I may have perhaps reached my limit on "stuff" going on. And brain overload has caused side effects too numerous to mention. Meanwhile Mike has been taking on mad side jobs on top of his usual weekly "guy friends to visit after work" list.

On to the Sunday story.

Of course, as you know, Sunday 6/1 was Mike's bday. And even though I hadn't originally wanted to do anything, see anyone, etc etc, a couple friends asked if they could come over with some BBQ stuff for a little impromptu party. I reluctantly agreed, but then decided to stop being such a poop head and invite more people. It was Mike's 30th after all.

But when I told Mike we were all having a party, he was not too enthusiastic about it. "I just want to get work done," he said. Well, then I threw my arms up and thought, "Why do I bother?!" But it was too late to cancel - it was already Friday when all this went down.

You know the story of Saturday. (see previous post) So we'll skip to Sunday.

Mike had me up at around 7 or 8 and we began ripping siding and shingles off the house - just like before, except higher up. (Because now the guys needed something to attach the roof of the porch to.)

I commemorated the occasion on one of the walls with a note and a smiley face.

Around 9 or 10, TJ and Paul had arrived to help us out. Meanwhile, our neighbor Rich brought over his staging for us to borrow, which really helped out on the higher, 8' sections.

Soon after that, I had make a Home Depot run for plywood, tyvek, and lead flashing. And I was not happy about it. The party was supposed to start around noontime and the house and porch were both in shambles and I had to leave my post to go out.

On top of that, the bill for all the materials was outrageous. Do you know how much a 12" wide roll of lead goes for now adays?! $140!!! I nearly died and prayed that this one roll would be able to get us through.

When I got back, I discovered that the guys had appeased the porch gods with some lizard torture.
And I suppose anything to bring some good luck....

Then I had to go on a beer run. Awesome. I was thrilled, as you can imagine. Meanwhile the guys put up plywood and began attaching beams to the posts.

The party started around 1:30, 2ish. And the guys were still working. I didn't even take these pics, I was too busy trying to apologize to everyone that the bday boy did not want to stop working. Despite the construction underway, the guys hung out and watched as Mike and TJ and Paul continued working. Us gals took our drinks to the picnic table in the back yard to at least get out of the kitchen.


The guys just really wanted to get all the plywood on and make the front of the house water tight. That was their goal. So they kept at it. I'm not sure what time they finished up, but at that point, we brought the picnic table on the porch and were finally able to all hang out together.

Here's the finally tally on trash:

And then we tortured the lizard some more...

And of course we had some good food courtesy of everyone (who each brought something to eat or drink) and our neighbor Dana, who made clams casino and jalepeno poppers.

So all in all it turned out to be a really good time and everyone said they had lotsa fun. Plus we got all the plywood attached.

A couple days later, Mike and I stapled on the Tyvek - and that's still at the point we're at now. We took a break last weekend due to extreme heat and did other fun stuff - like a dump run, scrap metal run, Rich's bday party across the street, drive-in movie, boating....

This weekend it'll probably be back to work though.

And that's the Sunday story. For all the pics, check out MYSPACE

So Very Outtofit

Out to lunch. That's the sign I should have put up on this blog. Because I've been 100% not here. Last week was madness, what with my wisdom teeth getting out, a settlement meeting, work madness.... This week will be no better. I got to work early this morning, tomorrow I'll be in the office at 5:30am for a shoot and not back until probably after dark, plus I have to work all day Saturday.

Joy to my world.

And I haven't even told you about the weekend before last.

Well, it was just a tornado of insanity. Saturday (the 31st) I did not feel well, but still I had to prep for Sunday's Impromptu-BQ for Mike's BDay. Meanwhile the guys worked on the porch in the AM and early afternoon - until of course it started looking really stormy out. Of course, after the guys left, it never ended up raining at our house. Figures. The Cape got hit pretty bad though I guess.

Wow. I can't even write coherently. I apologize. This post just sux! But I'll try and continue on anyway.

By the time the guys left on Saturday, the rest of the decking was done. And we had a new mascot - the scary petrified looking lizard. Our neighbor Dana found it in his garden and brought it over to try to scare me with... I wasn't scared, but the guys adopted it as our porch mascot.

At the end of the day, the guys tacked on our old makeshift stairway that used to be on the front door... you know, just so we could retire the step stool.


Here's the completed decking by the door. You can tell the difference between the Morse Lumber decking and the DeepHo decking. DeepHo stores all their stock inside, so their decking is dried out and lighter than the Morse PT decking, which is housed outside and is green. But it won't matter, the two will even out as they age, and we'll be eventually painting or staining it anyway.

But boy were we happy we got the rest of the decking from Morse. Their 14' pieces were as much as the DeepHo 12' pieces. How's that for a royal rip off? I don't even want to know how much I wasted getting all the 16' pieces there. Oh well. It's done now, nothing I can do.

Oh, and I forgot to mention - Saturday morning's delivery was our last huge delivery! All that's left to purchase now is trim, roofing, and clapboards... and paint and little stuff. I shouldn't speak to soon actually. All that little stuff ends up being super expensive.

And since this post is not quite all there, I'll attempt to tell the rest of the story in a second one.

Rain, Materials, and Bdays

I just checked the hour by hour forecast, courtesy of weather.com - providing hour by hour forecasts to psychotic planners like myself. And by 3pm the chance of thunderstorms, wind, and rain jumps up to 80%....

Not good for exterior work.

But despite all that, Mike (hopefully) ordered nearly all of the rest of the materials from Morse today. The remainder of the decking, the stuff for the roof, etc. All that will be left to buy is roofing and trim... and of course siding and all that jazz.

TJ our master carpenter was really eager to get the roof on and all that this weekend - but with Saturday a rain-out and Sunday Mike's Bday - I doubt that's happening.

Sunday we're having a little Impromptu-BQ for Mike. Nothing big. Some friends offered to come over and bring some food and drinks - and who was I to argue?! I've been too tapped out to plan anything.

But if by some bizarre chance the winds shift direction or something like that... which has been happening quite a bit lately... we'll be ready to continue on.

Memorial Madness

Whatta weekend. My brain is 100% mush at this point. I've barely been able to function - let alone think intelligently about anything.

As you know, Mike ordered materials last Friday. They were delivered first thing Saturday morning and the guys arrived shortly after to begin framing the porch.

And I was even pleased at the bill for all that PT - it was less than I had estimated. Always a great way to start the day. Plus the weather was gorgeous - perfect in fact.

It was just incredible to see it all take shape. It quickly became apparent that this porch was going to be awesome. It would be tall, wide - commanding I'd say. It's going to totally change the dynamic of the house.

The guys made fast work of the framing and were finished by the end of saturday.

Here's the view from the side - just look at how big this one portion will be. Still no steps though....

Speaking of which, I've got to give props to this little blue Rubbermaid step stool, which has been our main means of entry into the house since the house lift of 2005. After all is said and done, I'm going to email Rubbermaid and congratulate them on manufacturing such a rugged plastic step stool. This thing has withstood time, weather, and hundreds of ups and downs. It's been buried in snow, drenched in rain, stomped on, fell on, blasted with the rays of the sun.... and still it survives. It doesn't even have one crack in the plastic! And to think, this step stool actually came with the house.... so who knows its actual age and what it had to endure before Mike and I subjected it to the elements.

After the porch steps are finished, it will finally be able to retire to the normal step stool life - giving me the occassional lift to be able to reach the top shelf in a cabinet.

Watch it break when I go to step on it tonight....

Anyway, back to the madness. I woke up on Sunday morning and kinda trudged about the house, cleaning this and that and whatnot. Then Mike got up and immediately said, "What are you doing? Get ready! We have to leave!"

I think I actually replied, "Huh?" And then he explained that the guys were coming back to work and we needed to go to the Home Depot to get decking. Oh! I had no clue work would be continuing on Sunday.

What's more, Mike didn't think they'd get so far in one day - he hadn't ordered the decking from Morse on Friday! And although I wasn't mad, per say, I immediately knew that going to the DeepHo would be utter hell. Not only that, I knew I was about to waste a whole boatload of money - it made me nauseous. I couldn't stand that thought. I was about to purchase stuff at full price that I could have gotten from Morse at a discount. A lot of stuff. I could have given my left arm for a damn coupon I was so frustrated.

But it couldn't wait. The guys were coming. We had to do it.

The Home Depot on Memorial Day weekend. Hell. 100% hell. First off, there's two million idiotic do-it-yourselfers (even though I'm one of them, I still can't deal with the crazy other idiots) and then there's about 3 million employees floating around, not being helpful.

So we go over to the decking section. We need 36 16' and 19 14' long pieces. That's a crazy amount, so we brought two carts.

Well! First off, there's a forklift parked right in front of the 16' pieces. Next to that, there's two carts filled with trash. We moved the two carts of trash - but of course we couldn't move the forklift. Mike starts picking pieces. It's a long process.

Then, all of a sudden I turn around and our second cart is gone! Somebody walked by and just took it! I kicked myself for not putting something on it. So I had to go and find another cart.... all the way out in the parking lot of course.

I got back just in time to see a bunch of employees just hanging out in our section. One employee guy said to us, "Sucks that the forklift is there." And he did nothing to move it - or find someone to move it. Then he asked us how many pieces of decking we needed. We told him 36 16' and 19 14'. He told us they didn't carry 14'. Great. At this point we had only picked about 20 of the 36 16' pieces. And then the guy walked away, on to be of no help to somebody else I suppose.

Finally we had our 36. And we had no clue what to do about the 14' ones, so we just decided to purchase these and come back later when we had figured out what to do. Then when we got back to the truck, it was time to load 'em up.

Despite the fact we have a full size dually dodge diesel pickup truck - 36 16' PT decking is a lot to handle. As we stacked them, they kept wanting to slide off the tailgate where we had them hanging off. So we had to keep strapping them down every time we had a large bunch that I couldn't hold back all by myself anymore. Terrible. Absolutely terrible.

So to recap - we overpaid, we had a bitch of a time picking, they didn't have the 14' length, the place was crowded, the employees were totally unhelpful, we had to load our own stuff.... utter hell.

But when we got back home - finally - the guys got right to work.

Our neighbors even came over to help - we had too many people and not enough work at one point! Imagine that. And with so much bending over going on - TJ just had to pose for some silly crack pics.
OMG - we could have died laughing at this one.

By the end of the day - when we ran out of decking - we were nearly to the front door. Everyone was pretty hot and tired anyway, so we decided to quit for the day. We enjoyed the rest of the evening sitting on the deck with some drinks. Mike and Paul christened our half done porch by lighting off a few firecrackers. And then a couple of our neighbors lit some off.

All in all - a productive weekend. Next weekend - more progress is planned. More materials are needed of course. I'm not sure how much we're ordering this time. And I think we still have to go to the DeepHo for the rest of the decking - or else it won't match what we already have. Urg! Just the thought of having to pick 19 more pieces just kills me... and if HD doesn't carry 14' - we have to buy 16. And that's a cost to waste ratio that does not make me feel warm 'n fuzzy inside.

And yes, it is preferable to go straight 14' instead of breaking it up into smaller pieces and patterning it. (This is for the shorter section by the french doors.)

Plunging In, PT First

Tomorrow's the big dive. Mike's going to order up our first round of materials from Morse Lumber. Notice I did not mention a certain big box store.... and that's key here. Who wants to spend hours and hours hand picking 2x10's from a mountain of cruddy 2x10's? Who wants to load them all in and out of the truck? Who wants to pay up the wazoo?

Not us.

When large quantities of materials are on the line, and I have the cash to cover it, I would much rather order from Morse Lumber, who will deliver it to my driveway same or next day absolutely free and I've always been highly satisfied with the quality of their product. Plus we have an account there, courtesy of our neighbor Matt. (He and his dad run the business, you know.)

The only reason we don't go there for all our small stuff is that I normally don't have the cash to cover it.... and I don't have a normal credit card. Just a DeepHo card. And the Home Depot is a little bit closer to our house. Which is all ridiculous logic... I wouldn't even call it logic, actually.

Anyway, back to the subject on hand. With materials ordered, you just know we'll be working all memorial day weekend. I can't wait - weather's going to be great - I might even buy paint and start on the garage, just for the fun of it. And maybe I'll see if I can dig up some shutters on craigslist....

Weather or Not?

Locals may have noticed that my Friday's weather prediction turned out to be 100% wrong. ("The forecast calls for a 60% chance of poopiness with mostly gross skies and temperatures low in the depths of the sweater drawer.") It was actually sunny, hot, and beautiful out for the majority of the weekend.

In fact, Sunday I sat out for nearly 3 hours in my lawn chair where the porch will soon be, soaking in the rays. (Proving at long last that yes, I do in fact know how to relax.)

But I have to admit, I was still feeling pretty down for the majority of the weekend. You all know that I've been concerned about funds... and I got yet another unexpected bill in the mail on Saturday for $300 something that just made things even worse. Plus, Mike was out of fuel - diesel fuel... another $100 to keep his truck going. And we continued to spend bookoo bucks for more building materials - right on that DeepHo card, which has now crested the $1,000 mark.

I know I shouldn't complain - I can still eat and drive and make house progress, all while paying my bills. It's just a tight squeeze is all. And tight squeezes make me nervous. It helps to blog it out. I know there are so many people out there in worse situations. So don't think I'm not thankful! Please. I am. I'm just nervous is all.

We began work on the house just after the mail came on Saturday. I was trying my best to keep my chin up and focus on the project at hand. Our goal was to install the ledger - the big PT boards that go across the front of the house and help hold up the decking.

We had purchased all the boards and 40 big ass bolts complete with washers and some 1" PVC that we would install behind the bolts to space the boards away from the wall. (That way, water can pass through without getting between the board and the house and rotting the plywood.)

Although we had Tyvek'd the entire front of the house, we were advised to put up an additional, waterproof barrier (Ice & Water) at the bottom of the exterior plywood. Turns out, you don't put on the siding before the porch - so this bottom part of the house remains exposed, sans siding. The ice & water will protect it from the elements. So we lifted up the Tyvek, stuck on the ice & water, then pulled down the Tyvek and re-stapled.

Then we began attaching the boards. It was tough work, even though we had an impact gun to help drive in the bolts - it took the better part of the day to get everything up.


Next step - framing and decking. I'm not sure if we'll be able to start that this weekend or not. I hope so. If not... we'll be stuck in limbo, since I can't spend money on anything else.

Sunday - after my relaxing sun afternoon, Mike put up the window trim in the kitchen for me. It turned out awesome, and I couldn't stop staring at it for the rest of the night. Such a nice end to the weekend.

Give or take a few thousand monkeys, a few thousand typewriters...

The theory states - if you put a few thousand monkeys in a room with a few thousand typewriters and give them unlimited time - they'd eventually write the works of Shakespeare - purely by chance.

The same theory should apply to home renovation by non-professionals. Give or take a few thousand projects, you'll eventually do something right - purely by chance.

Every time we talk to one of our carpenter friends, it's "Well, you're not really supposed to do it that way." or "You're really supposed to use this..." or "It would have been easier if you had..." I guess we haven't hit that magical random project that turns out beautifully perfect by pure random chance.

It was the same story last night. Mike had some questions, and called up a friend of ours, who immediately had changes for us to make to the work we did last weekend. Small changes, mind you. We're usually not too far adrift on the sea of can't-turn-back-now. He also had some advice for this upcoming weekend, as we want to continue to press forward and get as much accomplished as we can - without starting to frame out the porch. (That is not a job for un-professionals, especially when inspections are on the line.)

So he's going to come by tomorrow morning to provide some much needed guidance. I'm not quite sure what's happening yet - something to do with some 2x10 or something that goes... somewhere. I paying about 2% attention to Mike as he was trying to tell me. I was so out of it last night.

2% Attention - great band name. As apposed to Skim Attention and Whole Attention. First album: "Crying Over Spillt Attention"

And I guess we can finish that window trim in the kitchen... and put up the exterior trim on that one mudroom window. And if it doesn't rain I could always start repainting the exterior window trim.

I have to admit, I'm not very enthusiastic about the approaching tomorrow. The forecast calls for a 60% chance of poopiness with mostly gross skies and temperatures low in the depths of the sweater drawer. That, coupled with the fact that bills and a trip to BJ's have stripped us of our stimulus money... it's got me feeling like I should just crawl in bed with a bowl of cookie dough and watch cartoons for 48hrs straight.

Mike would stab me if he saw me doing that. I'd have to lock myself in.

I'd like to start tiling in the mudroom - my dadoo has already agreed to help. (He also did our kitchen tile - which I get more compliments on then anything else.) But I feel like I shouldn't spend anything not exterior-related, since I have that big 'ol list to fulfill.

And I have to keep spending religiously on the exterior if I intend to have it all completed by the end of summer. I can't be cheap because every weekend is precious.

Stay tuned - I don't know what's going to happen next.

Do you HAVE to remind me?

A couple months ago I switched home insurances - from the stupid MA Fair Plan to something more economical. And of course, this meant a home inspection. I always dread these things because, of course, this renovation is still in progress and many things are not finished. Many little things that people like home inspectors like to eat you up over.

When I've had these inspections before, I've been very quiet and let the inspector roam around by themselves. This last time, however, I had a woman who was very talkative and had questions about this or that. But I felt good about the whole thing because she was nice and very complimenting of our upstairs and kitchen. I knew the exterior would be an issue. And she asked about the wood stove in the garage - and I knew that would be our downfall for sure.

But the months went by. No phone calls. The switch went through and we got our new insurance plan in place. I thought, maybe it was ok because they knew we were renovating.

Then yesterday I get a phone call. A phone call with a list of grievances that must be addressed, fixed, removed, etc.

The siding must be replaced.
The chimney must be properly sealed.
The roof must be replaced.
Gutters must be installed.
Railings must be installed on all stairways and exterior entryways.
The wood stove must be removed from the garage.
Debris must be cleaned from the yard.

And honestly, none of this is really all that surprising - except for the debris part. Mike always has junk all over the place by the garage - and the garage is a freakin disaster area all the time and I can't stand it. BUT, I don't see why that would be an issue. I've seen all these places on TV that are absolute disaster areas - and I've been to houses with so much junk in the yard that they were actually condemned.

All we have in front of the garage is the little trash hut, ramps, the grill, some bits of scrap metal, misc parts, and I think there's a snow shovel.

Whatever - it's a good excuse to make Mike clean.

As for the rest, the only thing that worries me is getting it all done this summer. As you know, the farmer's porch and front siding are in the works. However, I hadn't planned on refinishing the rest of the house's exterior.

We did talk to a guy about doing the roof this summer - so that's only a problem of monetary fundage. Gutters are no big woop-de-do, although I hadn't planned on it. That's just another expense, plus time. The wood stove we can take out of the garage any time. And indeed, we do plan to put it in the basement this winter... but then that comes with building another chimney in addition to our current "unsealed" chimney.

And I don't even know what they mean by "unsealed." We built that chimney ourselves with concrete and terra cotta - a kind of, build-your-own-chimney-kit that we purchased from a local masonry place. All it needs in the surround, a decorative facade, and the cap. So... ok. Yet another cost.

The insurance company will be back out to inspect again in mid-September. And obviously, we have to show major progress or else they'll cancel us. More summer fun! Yay! I don't even want to count how many weekends we have to get all this done. It's like a reality show or something... I just wish I would win a million bucks if I did complete everything.

On a lighter note

After this morning's rant-post, I now have to return you to our regularly scheduled programming. When we last left our heroes, they had a long weekend to-do list....

And do it we did! Boy did we do it.

First thing in the AM, we replaced the old leaky dryer vent with the new one.

BEFORE

AFTER

Next, I got up in the attic to see what was up with the track light wiring - was it wired or what? Well, it was wired. So the problem was in the connection of the track light wire to the recessed light box. Turns out, Mike had to squeeze in there and reconnect. But that got it working beautifully!

By then it was early afternoon and Mike's friend JP was over to help us with the french door caulk and pan. So they made a little lunch, then took out the door, caulked all around, installed a drip pan thing at the bottom, and re-installed the door.

Here's the bottom of the inside of the door where you can see the metal drip pan folded up on top of the doorway. Now we're all ready for tile! (Although not this weekend.)

JP left shortly after the door was in, which left us to our next task - the kitchen window! And to think, I don't even think that was on Friday's to-do list! Mike just offered to do it after a giant wasp got into the kitchen the other day.

I wanted a huge sill on this one - for misc junk 'n plants 'n stuff. So we picked out a 10" shelf-like sill as you can see here. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to finish, as we were headed out to the first BBQ of the season down in Yarmouth.

But Sunday. Woa Sunday. We started the morning by working on the window again - but soon realized it was taking way too long - and we had to pull the siding off our house and make it to the dump by 3pm! Crazy time schedule, eh?

We switched gears and started tearing off the old blue siding - only going up 4' because we didn't have enough plywood or time or money to do more then that at that moment.

Here you can see that under the old siding is even older shingles. Can you imagine? So even when we got the siding down, we then had to pull off the shingles.

You can see Mike starting here on the shingles. And for once we thought to put down a tarp first to contain the mess! Finally - I think we're learning! (Takes us a while, ya know?) This way, we were able to just drag the tarp to the truck and dump it.


Under the shingles - barnboard. The stuff that's probably circa 1910.

And, unfortunately, we also found some rot under all that shingles/siding. Look here at the bottom right of this pic and you can see a large beam is crumbling. We replaced many of these during the house lifting process, but the problem with this one - it was covered up on the outside, and looked perfectly solid from the inside. Just goes to show you - you never can really tell what's rotting....

Luckily, this beam was the only one that really needed replacing along the entire front of the house. Great news, actually. So we finished loading up for the dump - dumped the demo - and then stopped at the DeepHo for a PT beam and some 3/4 ply.

When we got home, Mike used the large wooden T we made for leveling the house to jack it up just under the rotted beam. (After the house was put down on its new foundation, it was not level. Our carpenter had to lift the house in portions using the T and jacks and then add wood to the sill to even it out.)

Then Mike cut out the old beam using the sawzall, adding a couple smaller jacks to the sill as it was cleared of the old beam. Then he cut and inserted the new beam and lowered the house back on it. Phew. I always get so nervous when it comes to jobs like this. If that corner of the house were to fall because of a jack failure or anything weird like that.... I don't even want to imagine the repercussions.

At this point, you've noticed the pics have stopped. Of course, Sunday was also mother's day. And unfortunately, Mike couldn't leave while the house was still jacked - so I had to head over to the folks home all by my lonesome.

By the time I got back that evening, Mike had the entire front of the house plywooded. I was just in time to help clean up and get the Tyvek on. At this point it was just getting dark. Mike was so exhausted. But we did it. We got nearly everything done that I'd listed out.

I can't wait to see what this weekend will bring...