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Apr. 10th, 2005 09:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellyssianFinally got started on several of the home projects - Justin's room, which was originally slated for a Dec 2004-June 2005 schedule is now on an April 2005-March 2006 schedule. For some odd reason my original estimation of lumber costs came out to about a fifth of what lumber actually sells for. Instead of getting all the basic materials for floor, framing, and insulation in one month (which didn't happen in December as I had originally planned), I have to space it out a bit more.
My father and I picked up the floor insulation (R13) last weekend. There's already some blown-in stuff, but it seems to be settling quite a lot, so we're going to lay this down on top of it. The existing flooring - which covers 50% of the space - will get ripped out as we go. Next week or the following, I'm going to pick up the first 4 sheets of plywood. The flooring in there now is pressboard, and also cut to odd shapes that will make it more work to fit the remainder. Given that the cost of plywood is the same as the pressboard, and that plywood is a better material, and the addition of flooring insulation, we decided to go with redoing the entire floor. It will actually have better construction than the remainder of the house...
The lumber yard was out of 3/4" plywood when we went Friday, but we were able to get the pressure treated wood for the kiwi trellis and the PVC piping for the drains. My father, Justin, and I got the 4x4 framing for the trellis assembled and installed in 17" holes - actually tried to dig deeper, but hit a very large rock or a tree or some other immovable object in the center hole. A rock in the left-most post hole took 90% of our effort, and probably 50% of the time. Used a large auger drill bit to do a lot of the digging - from the initial opening to softening up the thick-packed clay for removal. On the third and last hole I discovered that if you dip the drill in and pull it up you can clear a reasonable amount of soil without having to switch to a shovel. Need to watch for rocks, though - the drill bit would catch and tug itself downward with more torque than was easy to handle. Even undid itself once, opening the chuck and setting itself free. That caveat aside, it was extremely useful, and highly recommended for any digging tasks.
I didn't get the 4" PVC pipe-to-drainspout adapters, but I did remove the mismatched, dented metal drainspout elbows and runs and replaced them with the PVC pipe and elbows. My dad cut them with a hacksaw while I was cooking Jim Beam burgers and barbecued chicken. They look a bit heavy and oversized, but that's the point - and they'll eventually be buried as I raise the level of the foundation bed and get plantings in all around the house.
Have a bunch of tasks lined up for today:
- Make a pass through the yard to remove the thorny, weedy vine that seems to show up everywhere
- Grab a load of dirt and rocks from the back of the property and bury the exposed wires (cable tv, phone, and electrical) that were exposed in the stream bottom after the last storm
- Collect driveway gravel that was redistributed during snow shoveling and cover the washout at the bottom of the driveway
- Remove the last two lifting braces we used to hold the trellis together when we lifted it into place
- Tighten the 4x4 cross beams on the trellis - they shifted and loosened as we put it up
- Assemble two pressure treated 2x4 "ladders" to finish off the trellis
- Move the mailbox closer to the road to prevent tire ruts and washouts at the end of the driveway
- Overseed the lawn (looks like weather will be good - while rain would reduce the amount I have to water, it also causes the seed to flow downstream... =)
We'll see how much we get to... I'm hoping for some additional help from Rachel on the driveway gravel and Justin - who, as of yesterday, officially joined the ranks of teenager - on the dirt relocation and trellis work.
My father and I picked up the floor insulation (R13) last weekend. There's already some blown-in stuff, but it seems to be settling quite a lot, so we're going to lay this down on top of it. The existing flooring - which covers 50% of the space - will get ripped out as we go. Next week or the following, I'm going to pick up the first 4 sheets of plywood. The flooring in there now is pressboard, and also cut to odd shapes that will make it more work to fit the remainder. Given that the cost of plywood is the same as the pressboard, and that plywood is a better material, and the addition of flooring insulation, we decided to go with redoing the entire floor. It will actually have better construction than the remainder of the house...
The lumber yard was out of 3/4" plywood when we went Friday, but we were able to get the pressure treated wood for the kiwi trellis and the PVC piping for the drains. My father, Justin, and I got the 4x4 framing for the trellis assembled and installed in 17" holes - actually tried to dig deeper, but hit a very large rock or a tree or some other immovable object in the center hole. A rock in the left-most post hole took 90% of our effort, and probably 50% of the time. Used a large auger drill bit to do a lot of the digging - from the initial opening to softening up the thick-packed clay for removal. On the third and last hole I discovered that if you dip the drill in and pull it up you can clear a reasonable amount of soil without having to switch to a shovel. Need to watch for rocks, though - the drill bit would catch and tug itself downward with more torque than was easy to handle. Even undid itself once, opening the chuck and setting itself free. That caveat aside, it was extremely useful, and highly recommended for any digging tasks.
I didn't get the 4" PVC pipe-to-drainspout adapters, but I did remove the mismatched, dented metal drainspout elbows and runs and replaced them with the PVC pipe and elbows. My dad cut them with a hacksaw while I was cooking Jim Beam burgers and barbecued chicken. They look a bit heavy and oversized, but that's the point - and they'll eventually be buried as I raise the level of the foundation bed and get plantings in all around the house.
Have a bunch of tasks lined up for today:
- Make a pass through the yard to remove the thorny, weedy vine that seems to show up everywhere
- Grab a load of dirt and rocks from the back of the property and bury the exposed wires (cable tv, phone, and electrical) that were exposed in the stream bottom after the last storm
- Collect driveway gravel that was redistributed during snow shoveling and cover the washout at the bottom of the driveway
- Remove the last two lifting braces we used to hold the trellis together when we lifted it into place
- Tighten the 4x4 cross beams on the trellis - they shifted and loosened as we put it up
- Assemble two pressure treated 2x4 "ladders" to finish off the trellis
- Move the mailbox closer to the road to prevent tire ruts and washouts at the end of the driveway
- Overseed the lawn (looks like weather will be good - while rain would reduce the amount I have to water, it also causes the seed to flow downstream... =)
We'll see how much we get to... I'm hoping for some additional help from Rachel on the driveway gravel and Justin - who, as of yesterday, officially joined the ranks of teenager - on the dirt relocation and trellis work.
