Paint paint paint paint
On the east side, this time. Pictures coming once everything is done, which might be by month’s end oh the optimism.
Oh I’m a lumberjack…
Posted by aaron in landscaping on 19 July 2011
Best workout in a while – taking down parts of well-established buckthorn *trees* using a hatchet. I recommend a soundtrack of late-80s punk, or the NPR podcasts I was actually listening to.
Cheap building materials you say?
Posted by aaron in tools and materials on 15 July 2011
In my never-ending quest for the right fittings for my reclaimed-materials bookcase, I traveled to my local Habitat for Humanity Restore, a veritable treasure trove of stuff I shouldn’t be thinking about buying because I don’t really at this moment have a use for it. Windows and doors, plumbing fixtures, contractor remainders of all types – it’s a great place to pick up cut-rate materials, although you can never be sure what will be in stock. I left with four 4×4 beams (non pressure treated) at $2/piece. Worth checking out the one in your area.
Weeding
Posted by aaron in backyard, landscaping, outside on 14 July 2011
Extensively throughout the yard(s), including a real thorough hack at the stuff growing around my old dwarf apple tree. (In an awesome turn of events, both the dwarf tree and the young apple I planted next to it last year are both bearing fruit; small and probably tart since I haven’t been spending enough time on them, but fruit nonetheless.)
Of particular interest was the discovery of why buckthorn shoots keep cropping up around the dwarf apple – there’s a thick stem *ball* that established itself *under* a low-leaning branch. No way to dig this one up, so I’ve cut all the shoots, dug up the few seedlings nearby, and am now talking with a brother of a friend who is a forester about paint-on pesticides for buckthorn. More updates once the devilish weed is dead.
Excitement on all sides
1) I finished drilling all the beams for the bookcase.
2) A ’63 Cadillac plowed into my neighbor’s rose bushes while trying to avoid another neighbor’s pickup truck at an intersection. No one was hurt. The image of a giant boat of a car nestled amongst foliage, with a flattened stop sign on the ground nearby, will remain in my mind for a while though.
More hammering
And more scraping, trying to finish off the prep work on the east side before a new tenant comes into those rooms.
Did things?
Posted by aaron in Uncategorized on 8 July 2011
Did I do things? I like to think I’ve been doing things that don’t involve betraying my childhood friend and then dying in England (true story; just not mine), but I can’t say for sure.
Such nice weather today – let me get some things posted for my actual job, and then go paint something.
Hey here’s a good idea for homeowners
Posted by aaron in Uncategorized on 5 July 2011
No really, it’s one of those things that, if you haven’t done it already, you’ll smack your head when you read it:
Drill holes in the bottom of your garbage cans/recycling bins so rain can’t collect in them.
That’s it. I did this soon after moving into my house, although after one heavy rainstorm. It’s one of those things that you won’t notice the positive effects so much as you won’t notice the negative ones. Yes. Sentence structure.
For those craving specifics: I think I used a 3/4 inch spade bit on the recycling bins (our town uses 3 gallon buckets for recyclables), one hole dead center; and a 3/8″ or so bit several times on the bottom of the trash can. You shouldn’t be impacting the structural integrity of the can if you drill 2-3 holes spaced out from each other and avoiding any seams.
Paint goes on…
There are four sections of exterior wall that still need painting, and the plan is that they will all be completed this summer – maybe even this month if the weather continues to cooperate. All are second-story sections, three on the west wall (the windward side of the house, so these probably should have gotten attention sooner; at least the shingles are in good shape) and one on the east.
Other things have happened on the house since I last wrote, of course, but today’s *fretfully* exciting update is that one of the four sections – the smallest, easiest to tackle, and least in need of tackling section, that which is north-most on the west side) is almostverynearlynotquite done! All it needs is to paint the five foot by one foot section that looks remarkably like the outline of a ladder’s top.
Also, I swear to some overhead being that the gravel driveway expansion is nearly finished and ready for testing. In the words of Hamlet’s father: SWEAR!
Update (Tuesday night): The five square feet of unpainted wall have been painted. Tada!
Today you may have seen me:
- Drilling holes in the bookcase beams
- Moving more gravel – I think it’s just about done
- Trimming a tree