Home Improvement Today?

In my old neighborhood, skunks were rampant and started living under my shed. And brought a massive flea infestation. Getting rid of that was bad enough. Neighbors behind me had them under their bedroom fucking or fighting at 3 in the morning, and they pretty much shit the bed when that happened. Friend down the street woke up to a raccoon in his kitchen. Cat would not wear a collar, so magnetic was out. One night of forgetting is all it takes. My risk assessment led me to fuck it.

 

The cat or the skunk.....you sick bastard?

 

Both. A night I'll not soon forget.

 

There are a couple windows plus the front door and sidelight / celestory unit that are fine grain VG Fir , all the rest of the trim work is paint grade

Usually when I am trimming with stain grade clear fir we are doing a craftsman style trim build up with side casings butting into a head casing with square joints . I try to choose pieces that are similar in grain and colour for a complete window or door so it all blends together nicely .

In this house the side casing to head casing is a mitre joint so its even more important that the pieces blend well .

The window trims are all 3/4" stock and I was able to get pieces that worked well together for the 2 windows from my lumber store but the door casings throughout the house are 1" thick so that the casing to baseboard connection is not flush as we are not using plinth blocks .

Getting VG Fir 2x4 was no problem but I wasn't happy with a grain match over the 3 boards I would need , plus it seemed a waste to hack a 1/2" of thickness off all the pieces to get down to my 1" thickness , especially at about $6/ft .

I considered getting a 2x8 and splitting it in half but as my final lengths I need are an 11' , 10' and a 7' , I would need an 18' which they didn't have plus I would still waste the 1/2" of thickness plus it was going to be almost $15/ft

I landed on a 12' 4x4 being sold as mixed grain but with one orientation of fine grain .




A couple rips through the tablesaw



And a few passes through the thickness planer nets me 3 , 12' long , 1" thick pieces that perfectly match in grain and colour , plus it was only $11/foot




Door unit goes in beginning of next week at which point I will trim it out

 

Got the Forms built for my steps today. Been raining on and off all day. Hope to get them poured this week sometime. Bluestone and flagstone are getting delievered this week as well.

 

You should put some peel & stick or similar against the house where the concrete will contact it , you might have had that already sorted but if not , there you go

 

I was going to throw some tar paper up against it. Sufficient enough?

 

If its 30lb felt maybe , regular tar paper , no

 

Frackity frack frack. There is a screen porch on the back of my house. I guess it was built in the 1960's. Only one side has/had glass, the other 2 just screen. I knew that, being open to the elements all these years, the wood had to be rotted. I've been wanting to glass in the other two walls but I knew it was going to be a giant, expensive, time consuming pain in the ass project.

My GF has been after me to install the windows we got when my neighbor upgraded (single hung, vinyl - pretty nice for free). We agreed to take it on next summer after I explained my concerns; it wasn't going to just be framing in new windows. Plus, we have other projects we're working on and are finishing the master bath remodel.

Recently she got the idea to invite both of our parents up to meet (they have not met each yet) and putting in the windows would be a good project for me and the 2 dads to do together. Suspecting there was going to be more too it than framing windows, I decided to do one this weekend to see how it went. Our parents are in their 70's so I don't want them out there busting their backs.

Fuck me it was even worse than I suspected. I'm on the second day and still removing rotted beams, joists, digging out tree roots, etc... I'm so over this and am ready for a beer and some football.

 

I’ve been dealing with some myself,only my football is on saturdays now

Well went out couple weeks ago. Replaced all piping and pump 460’. Well house was falling apart so decided to give it some attention before winter. You know because winters coming John.

 

Got insulation up on almost 2 walls.



And the start of the walls



And continuing the progress... and a little football on in the background. Or Nascar, not sure which was on at that time.

 

Finally got around to taking another look up there, been building a 6ft privacy fence.

2x10's on 16" centers. Worth noting that at least one of the walls is 19.2" centers. Span is ~30'. I'm not good on the technical terms but about 2/3 from one side there is a vertical fire separation wall and 1/3 there is a 2x10 beam running perpendicular to the joists. Other than that its all open, about 7' tall, and my attic steps come up right in the middle.

 

2x10's spanning 30' ?

Are they trusses ?

 

Yes, but there is a large open space in the middle.

 

I guess maybe similar to this? It was late and I was half asleep when I was up there.

 

Well you would need to check the truss specs in that case and whatever you do don't cut anything out

 

Got the front door / sidelight / celestory window unit installed today , I'll work on trimming it out tomorrow




Also installed a book case in the home office alcove I made from VG Fir plywood and solid VG Fir

(There will be a built in wall to wall desk under the window)