When Scattered Means Scatter-Your-Brain

This has been the most frustrating day.

I checked the weather several million times yesterday and this morning. Scattered showers - chance of rain 30%. 30% chance is not so great of a chance. So I figured at least some point during the day I'd be in the clear for more painting. Hopefully in the morning before my friend and co-party planner Amanda came over.

Mike put together the scaffolding for me this morning before he took off. He even got out the air hose and blew off a lot of the old paint so I wouldn't have to scrape. Awe. At 10am it was practically pretty out - the sun was shining through the partly clouds. Good temp. Not too hot with a nice warm sun and gentle breeze.



Perfect.

Too bad a sudden burst of exhaustion took over me. I felt like I couldn't even stand. I just wanted to sleep. How was that possible? It wasn't even 2 hours ago that I had gotten up! I laid down right after he left and slept for nearly 3 hours. How frustrating!

But around 1 I figured that maybe a good lunch would help get me going - plus I needed to go over to the deepHo and buy another paint brush, as I had retired my old one the day before. (She was a good old paint brush, but had painted at least 5 rooms and the garage - it was her time.)

The DeepHo was madness. I went to the grocery store. The grocery store was even more madness. I was still pretty pooped at this point and about ready to just give up on everything and go back home to bed.

Somehow I made it home, made some lunch, and actually felt much better. The problem - it was raining. I checked the weather radar on weather.com. Ok - the green stuff was moving through. All I had to do was wait it out. So I began painting the french doors. But the rain kept raining. I checked the radar again - nothing. But it was still misting out. I painted some of the window trim under the roof of the porch and waited.

It stopped raining every now and again, but everything was soaked. I couldn't paint wet stuff. So frustrating. Just enough wetness to make painting impossible. The french doors were taking forever to dry, so I decided to just throw in the towel.

Plus, I never got the call from my co-party planner. Double bummer. And so I took a shower and in a minute I'm going to do my nails like some princess girly girl and blow dry my hair. I hate leaving things in a half done mess!

Decisions Decisions

I happened to catch that deepHo commercial last night. You know, the woman paints her room to match her snazzy pink shoes for a party?

At the end of the spot I caught what I was looking for. It's that magical time when HD offers a rebate on paint. $5 off a gallon and $10 off 5 gallons, I believe.

So that kinda puts the nail in the should-i-get-paint coffin. Plus I have that $5 off $50 or more purchase coupon. Wow, double the savings, double the fun - double mint gum.

I hate gum. People stick it everywhere and I step in it or put my hand on it under a desk or a seat by chance. And then they chew it loudly while talking - or pop it. I find it just totally gross. What's the point? Get an altoid if you want fresh breath.

Ok - now that I got that outta my system.

I went out first thing this morning and bought five gallons of a very very very light almost white grey color and one gallon of green called "Patio Green" How ironic!


And then I spent today painting - honestly, I just finished up like an hour and a half ago. I'm exhausted! But the garage looks much improved. Of course I used the white for the body and trim, and the green for the side door, which was formerly that awful blue color that I nicknamed "Thompson Blue" after the previous owners of the home who seemed to love it so much.


I also painted the garage door - which I hadn't planned on doing since we're replacing it sooner or later. But it just looked so horrible. It was just a stain on a beautiful dress... well, not a beautiful dress. More like a comfy t-shirt that's been washed about a zillion times. Anyway, you still don't want a big 'ol stain on it that you can see from the main road. So I painted it. And that makes all the difference when you look at it from afar.

Now all that's left to do is the way-up-high portion of the garage that I can't reach with my famous little blue step stool. This part looks so horrible, it's worse than a stain. It's so bad, it defies all stupid metaphors. The problem - it's not made of wood. It seems like some sort of particle board and it's just falling apart, as you can well imagine. It can barely hold paint.

I primed it about a year ago and it's already back to its previous state of crapness. So, once again, I have to try to scrape all the crapness off of there and re-re paint. I'm not even going to bother with the primer this time because apparently, it doesn't do anything anyway.

Luckily, we still have the borrowed scaffolding we used to take the siding off the house. I'm hoping Mike has time to set it up for me tomorrow morning before he heads off to TJ's house. This way, I'll feel so much safer than being up on stupid ladders. (I'm not too balanced in general, nevermind an extra 6' in the air.)

Then, in the afternoon, I'll hopefully be getting a break for some much anticipated Halloween party planning! I can hardly believe it's nearly time to start putting together invitations again.

For those of you who haven't heard, our Halloween party is the end all be all must be there in costume event of the year! And, as always, I have a huge to-do list of stuff to do around the house before the party. Having the garage out of the way will be a huge relief.

Arbor Day Foundation!!

I'm just a post machine today, huh?

Not by design - I just had to post again about trees. Why? Well, after this morning's rant, I decided to go searching online for more information about trees. Why? I like trees, ok? You got a problem with that, punk?

Anyway, that's when the Arbor Day Foundation website popped up. I had never considered them a viable tree-resource before, but now that I think about it, it makes perfect sense. It's the one and only foundation for tree-lovers! (At least as far as I know.) What I did not know - they also sell trees. Not big trees, but little trees. Nevertheless, their tress are guaranteed to grow, and they even have a nifty tree finder that helps you select the right tree for your zip code, soil type, tree type, growth rate speed, sun exposure, and more.... pretty sweet, huh?

And here's the really cool part: become an Arbor Day Foundation member for one year for just $15 and receive 10 free trees! (type of your choosing) That's right - 10, 1' trees. Sure, they're not big, but they're free and guaranteed. After that, your membership gives you a discount on the purchase of other trees and shrubs - all available right on their website and varying in size up to about 3' - wow.

And get this - the member price for said trees & shrubs - like $6-8! So if I manage to kill them (and they are guaranteed, so the foundation would replace them if they died) I wouldn't be losing 10s of thousands of dollars.... or hundreds. You know, I tend to exaggerate.

So pending pay check next week, I'll join the Arbor Day Foundation and my trees will be shipped during the fall season - around Nov. I thought at first that might be too late to plant, but the foundation says trees can be planted successfully right up until the ground freezes. And I think they know what they're talking about - they're tree people.

I'm so excited! I can't wait to get a buncha little trees! Maybe if I succeed with the little trees, I can graduate up to the purchase of a big tree next spring!

It's the Plague!

Does anyone out there have problems with locusts? Not the bugs - the trees. I have several in my yard and we've had several that we've cut down over the years. I hate them. They're ugly, sparse trees with sharp spines on the branches.

And even if you cut them down - they'll pop up new trees from the old stump and roots!

With this summer being as busy as it has been, we've hardly had time for yard work. But this Sunday morning, I just had to take the locust problem into my own hands. Over the entire summer, new locust plants had sprung up everywhere! There were 5 or 6 in the side yard, one by the porch, one in the front yard, two or three on the hill in the back - the whole yard was practically under attack by these ugly spiny plants! They're all springing up from old root systems and stumps of trees that we cut down a year ago or more.

What can I do to stop them?! On Sunday I grabbed the clippers and just snipped 'em all off. But I know that's not a permanent solution. They're all just going to keep coming back.

Why do disgusting plants thrive while nice plants die in my yard? It's so frustrating. And to make matters worse, as I've said before, I'm no gardener. I can barely keep my cacti alive. We barely can keep our grass alive!

I can't wait to get some nice trees in the yard, because I do love trees and the shade really helps the grass grow. Unfortunately, I want to purchase older, bigger trees, and those are the expensive ones. I spec'd out one particular kind of flowering tree I like about a year ago at a nursery. A large 6' or taller tree was $350. And I want at least three of those. Gulp! That's crazy money.... and then what if it dies?!

We'll end up with locusts only - ew!

3 Day Weekend Allure

Nothing is more exciting in home improvement land then a 3 day weekend. The possibilities are just endless! What's even more exciting? An extra Friday off.... which I happen to have this week. My mind is already spinning - I don't know what to do with myself.

I've considered at first painting the garage - which I primed about 2 years ago and still haven't gotten around to actually painting. This would be relatively easy and inexpensive and it's something I could do all by myself.

Yard work was another possibility for Friday - but we kinda tackled that this past Sunday morning.

And then there's the fact that all my friends want to hang out. They all think I'm waaaay too overproductive and need to relax a bit. It's probably true. And honestly I wouldn't mind maybe one day for relaxing.... just so long as something gets done too. Best of both worlds.

I have to talk to Mike about the possibility of stairs. Stairs would be great. In fact, if we could get a jump on it this week - during the week - it would be super great. Maybe drill all the holes one night, next night cut the railing and attach the banister..... I don't know. I'm probably hoping for too much considering how busy busy this whole month has been.

Oh - and did I mention I got some home depot coupons in the mail?! Highly tempting stuff there people. Again, the possibilities are endless....

August = Ahhhh, Uuugh, Grrrr, Urg, Sh*t, Tired

The past few weeks have been nothing but pure unadulterated madness. And though I've said that many a time before, this is some kind of August super madness never before seen! I've been traveling for work, working early, working late, stressing out.... Meanwhile Mike's been taking guy's weekends, working mad side jobs, stressing out, going to dentist appointments, working for friends....

There have been disasters and emergencies too - just sprinkled in, you know, to keep me on my toes.

Here it is the 20th, and I've barely had time to count the minutes ticking by! Even now, I'm here working early, writing as I'm rendering, and dreaming of bad bad bad for me food. Not that it will help me get through this, another crazay day.

Back at home, everything lies in waste. The balusters haven't been attached to the stair railing. The bottom stair railing has not been started. Chad has not come over to give us an estimate on the roofing. And for once I can say that procrastination and lazyness have no part in the equation!

But last weekend being the tax free weekend - and me having several hours in between prepping for a little girls dinner party.... not little girls, little dinner party. Anyway, I had to make some sort of purchase to help out the economy. You know me, always thinking of the economy. =)

I would have liked to purchase all the roofing on tax free weekend, had I time to have planned ahead. But no dwelling on lack o' Chad for now, no time. So I purchased some wood blinds for the kitchen at Lowe's.

I was pleasantly surprised at the price - and they had my color and size in stock. I had decided, since the Lowes was in a brand new shopping plaza, I should shop around and see if any of the other stores had them for a lower price. Shockingly - no other store even had them. Not Target, Linens 'n Things, JC Penny.... at JC Penny you'd have to order them. Isn't that ridiculous? There was one lady ordering some blinds and I nearly told her to go over to Lowes. But, again, lack of time prevented it.

Now here's the really amazing thing - I went home and installed them myself and they turned out great. Normally, when I try and do anything I end up putting it together backwards or I have something upside down... it never seems to work out. But these are perfect.

That's my one story. I'm really hoping that things calm down and return to normal after this weekend.... I can't take much more of this.

Putting Him Back Together Again

Last Tuesday night Mike gave everything a second coat of stain.

Last Wednesday night, we set about installing it all. We had already pre-drilled, pre-fit, pre-everything everything on Sunday and had only taken it apart for staining purposes. Now was time to really put it all together.



And really that took no time at all - less than an hour I'd say. The only thing we couldn't do was to connect the balusters - Mike had left the correct size allen wrench at work.



Let me tell you I am so impressed with the railing. It's gorgeous and somehow, we managed to stain it nearly the exact same color as the hardwood floor. There's really only one word to describe it - WOW.

Before

After

Getting a Railing

This past Sunday was just a phenomenal day. Everything went perfectly, despite Mike's pessimistic, "This-is-going-to-suck-i-hate-you" attitude.

The plan, if you remember, included purchasing all the stair railing stuff from Home Depot and installing as much of it as humanly possible in one Sunday. (With the deepHo card paid off and in the clear, I had no problem whatsoever making a purchase over 299 that I would be a year in the clear over.)

When we originally did the upstairs hardwood floors last year, we purchased some stair railing stuff. Three newels with trim, one baluster with trim, and the oak board that all would attach to. But we never got further than installing the oak board, cutting the holes for the newels, and staining the newels. (Newels by the way = posts.)

The balusters I wanted were the black iron ones with the cool swirly designs in the middle, and we had purchased just one to check it out, see how it would look and attach - all that fun stuff. That first time around, I also grabbed a "How-to-Install-These-Things" info brochure.... which then sat aside like everything else for dam near a year.

But, if you remember, railings (or lack thereof throughout the house) were near the top of our new home insurance's list of Stuff To Be Fixed. So, with the card paid and the exterior work on hold, I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to tackle this project.

First step - figure out what the heck we needed. Lucky for me, I had saved that "How-to-Install-These-Things" info brochure... And - amazingly - remembered where I had put it! But the brochure only provided some info - for the real deal, we went to the company's website where they had compete print out instructions. Very handy!

So the standard height for the railing had to be between 36" and 41" and the distance between the balusters on a straight run had to be 4" on center. On the stairs, there would be two balusters per stair. Ok cool.

We did some measuring and counting and ended up with a total of 46 balusters. Plus we needed top and bottom trim pieces for each baluster, several sections of railing (at 10', 7', and 3'), hardware to attach railing to newel, a rosette for where the railing meets the wall, some drill attachments, more oak board for our top landing, more stain, and, just for the fun of it, I figured we could get a simple pole-type railing for the basement stairs plus the little railing holder things while we were there.

Wow - does that seem like a lot to you? Because for some reason or another I was worried about making the 299 at the deepHo. HA! Do you know how much just one of those cool iron balusters with the swirly things on it costs?! Nearly $9 a piece. $9 times 46 of them. HAHAHAHAHAAHA! Plus all that other stuff.

Yup. It was around $800 for the whole shebang. Can you believe it? They should make discount packs of the balusters - who ever buys just one anyway?! If we didn't need a railing for the over-the-stairs balcony, the whole thing would have been much more cost effective. We would have only needed 19 balusters. Such is life. You don't think about these things when you're designing your upstairs. You say, "Oh I'll worry about that later."

Anyway - as I said, I was ok with the whole thing after just paying off the card. No sweat.

Back home, we got to work. Our plan was to fit and test and drill everything - then, take it all back apart for staining. It was a lot of work, but pretty much everything went smoothly.

We installed the newels, then measured and marked every 4" for balusters. Then we drilled a 5/8" hole on each mark and stuffed all the balusters in. (Tight fit!)




Next, we measured out and cut the right length of railing and repeated the same 4" measuring, marking, and drilling to match the baluster holes in the floor.Then, we pre-drilled and attached the railing to the newels and double checked the baluster fit. Everything looked great.


We repeated the process on the small 3' section, but added a rosette at one end that would attach to the wall.

It was late in the afternoon at this point and everything was looking great. So we took it all apart. The railings and newels came out, the oak bottom piece came out, and all the balusters were set aside. We brought all the wood downstairs and Mike gave everything a first coat of stain while I cleaned up all the saw dust and wood shavings upstairs.



Nothing else we could do until the stain dried anyway. Plus it would all need a second coat. But since everything is pre-drilled and ready to rock - we shouldn't have any problems getting it up and installed for real this week!


The actual stairs will present different challenges. And, unfortunately, since I spilled paint on them and let it set for a million days - it won't clean off. So we have to sand and refinish all the stair treads. What a pain. But once that's done, figuring out the baluster heights and cutting them shouldn't be so hard. The info brochure outlined a pretty cool method that even I thought I could figure out. Plus, we have a metal chop saw already, so cutting the iron is no big deal either.

I figure we could tackle all that in a day too.... who knows which day....

Rescheduled, Thank God

I'm not sure why - but the roofing date has gone from Oct to Aug.

Believe me, I'm not complaining in the least! I'm psyched, actually. Late Aug Chad will be able to do the roof. We're still waiting for him to come by and give us his estimate - but there's still plenty of time. No big deal.

If we do the roof in late Aug, that would leave September for siding - and that would be perfect! Absolutely perfect. Theoretically, we could be done and cleaned up by October, well in time for the Halloween party and well in time to protect from the cold weather.

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.