Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
I am sure you are all just thrilled about my new utility trailer. I know I am. I have been having dreams about driving around with it.
Yesterday, I went to Home Depot in Windham to pick up a bunch of supplies. The project was to put wooden sides on the new trailer, so mulch and stuff like that doesn’t fall out. I also wanted wooden sides to kind of shield anything I am towing from bad weather.
I bought a lot of stuff, including plywood, bolts, nuts, washers, drill bits, spray paint, a tarp, a ball for the lawnmower hitch, etc… I have found that purchasing the entire box of bolts is a lot better than buying them individually. I am always looking for nuts and bolts and now I might just have some.
I was confronted with a little issue while browsing for the plywood I was going to use for this project. I went in the store with every intention of getting two sheets of 3/4″ pressure treated plywood. I left with two sheets of 1/2″ non-pressure treated plywood. The reason for this? Well, I was going to seal whatever I got up with Thompson’s Water Seal anyway. I have had good luck with sealing natural wood up and it’s weathered the environment. With the 1/2″ sheets going for about $11 each, I just couldn’t pass it up. Plus, I wanted to keep things light on the trailer. It’s really not intended for heavy-duty towing.
Here, let me show you the photos and then we can talk about them.
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John Deere lawnmower towing utility trailer
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New ball hitch for John Deere lawnmower
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Wooden sides on utility trailer
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Rear view of wooden side on utility trailer
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Tarp covering utility trailer
Okay, the first thing I would like to discuss is how great the trailer looks with the John Deere lawn mower. I bought a 1 7/8″ ball with a 3/4″ shaft yesterday, just for this occasion. I am going to have fun towing stuff around the yard now.
The wooden sides came out better than I thought. I planned on drilling a bunch of holes through the steel and really anchoring the wood down to the trailer. As it ends up, once everything was framed, I didn’t need to do that. I only actually drilled two holes in the steel towards the back of the trailer. Now, all I need to do is to take those two bolts out and the whole wood unit comes right out. It’s as snug as a bug in a rug and rock solid. You really should check it out. Everything is straight too. Wait, I lied…I drilled six holes on the ramp to hold that one piece of plywood all the way at the back. Whoops.
I also picked up a nice heavy duty tarp to cover whatever I have on the trailer. You can see that it is brown. I really hate those ugly blue tarps. They are a disgrace to look at and doesn’t help out the neighborhood if I have to cover something up, like a wood pile. From now on, brown tarps it is.
Home Depot didn’t have any Thompson’s Water Seal. After building this today, I am kind of glad. I decided that I can paint the wood black and things will match much better. If I pop the wood portion out and slop on some black Rust-Oleum, it will look a lot less than some home-made trailer rolling down the road. I will cruise in style.
Just as I was finishing up, Laura pulled in the driveway. I told her I had a surprise for her and held her hand as I helped her in the trailer. She sat down and I hopped on the mower. Then, I proceeded to drive her around the yard. We looked like total idiots, but I will tell you, that stuff is fun. I guess we didn’t look any worse than when she pulled me around the yard right afterwards. Man, I have been trying to get that girl on this lawnmower ever since I got it. Strange how she hopped right on today. Maybe it has something to do with the weather.
I need to pick up that black paint. I’ll take some more pics when it’s all finished and sealed up.
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Monday, February 2nd, 2009
That’s two down and a bunch more to go.
I really don’t like painting. It’s not that bad once I get into it, but getting into it is the problem. I have found that doing short bursts throughout the day helps. If I put it off for a few days, I am in trouble. I won’t want to start again.
So everyone knows that pretty much the first thing to do when you move into a house is paint. In our last house, we had to paint over the smoke stained walls. That was nice. There were also many problems beyond that. It took me weeks just to prep one room. Everything came out nice in the end, but the whole project took longer than I would have liked it too. Just as I finished every last thing I could have done to that house, we moved.
This time, there really is no prepping. In this last room, I had to spackle 4 tack hole that I put there. It’s refreshing when people don’t smoke, have holes in the walls or wallpaper on the ceiling. Oh, the good ol’ days. I remember laying in bed a few years ago saying, “Pumpkin, we have wallpaper on the ceiling.”
Painting the red room didn’t take long at all. In just a few weeks, it was done. Most of that time was my procrastination. We closed out the era of the dark red and painted on a brighter blue/gray. Again, this is one of those paint colors that changes color throughout the day. I am sure all paint does that.
The dark red was okay, but we wanted to change up the wood grain trim and make it white. We also wanted to room to appear slightly larger. Brighter paint will do that.
I have said many times before, I love white trim. It’s bright and cheery and easily repaired when damaged. Just touch it up. My heart breaks when I paint over this nice wood, but it’s something that I have to do.
Here are some before and after pictures:
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Red room – before it was painted
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Red room – after it was painted
I think the toughest part was all the taping around the windows. I wanted to maintain the wood window frames, but paint all the trim around it. That way, they don’t get painted shut and they will look more natural. Also, taking the door off the hinges and closet doors down (and painting them) took a while. Other than that, everything went well.
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Wednesday, January 28th, 2009
Throughout this winter, I have been putting together a short mental list of things I am going to tackle once the good weather arrives. I thought I might share that list with you, partly to entertain you and partly to remind me what in the world I had on my mental list once I have the urge to do some of these things.
EXTERIOR:
1. Order tons of pine trees from ArborDay.org and plant them all over the place.
2. Get the lawn in order.
3. Begin work on Laura’s garden. Need fencing and shrubs.
4. Clean out under porch. Take nails out of 2×4s and stack somewhere else so they are hidden. Throw out vinyl lattice (unless of course you want it).
5. Order more pellets to restock basement for next year.
6. Repair driveway again from this winter’s damage.
7. Admire mailbox.
8. Order 30 yards of mulch.
9. Mulch front garden and top off last year’s mulch.
10. Enlarge garden in front to include those 3 large rocks. Mulch that too.
INTERIOR:
1. Finish painting upstairs bedroom.
2. Remove carpet and tile from downstairs (main floor) and install tile over the whole area.
3. Paint downstairs (main floor).
4. Continue wondering how difficult it would be to replace suspended ceiling in basement with sheetrock.
5. Continue fantasizing about turning the laundry room into a giant bathroom with a giant bathtub and a giant shower.
6. Finish painting upstairs.
Wow, that’s quite a list. Am I going to get all these things done this spring? Heck no. I think I might be able to get those pine trees though. I am getting tired just looking at that list.
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Friday, January 9th, 2009
When we moved here, I asked a few people who have been here for a while, what type of winters we were in store for. I wasn’t expecting huge changes from what we were used to, since we are only about two hours away from where we used to live. The responses I got ranged from, “same thing as your hometown,” “about 6-8 good snows per year,” and “a lot of ice.”
We have already experienced the snow storms. They feel about the same as where we just came from. Now, we are experiencing the ice.
See, describing winter in New York to someone is a tricky endeavor. There are many micro-climates. I think the temperatures vary to some degree, but what varies even more is the snowfall amounts. Rochester is a far cry from Long Island. Even the Catskills are much different from Westchester.
When Laura and I were out walking one day back at the old house, we stopped to chat with one of the neighbors. We started talking about snow, when she laughed and said, “Oh, you have never experienced a winter around here?” I was like, “C’mon lady, gimme a break. We are an hour away from where we used to live.” She was sort of right, there was a little more snow than we were used to.
Way, way, way back in the day, like 12 years ago, when I was attending Westchester Community College, we had an ice storm. This storm left the roads completely covered for an entire week. It didn’t help that it was about 12 degrees outside for all that time, keeping the roads frozen. I remember that I couldn’t get to the first week’s worth of classes because of all the ice. I would drive about 3 miles in the car down through town and turn around. It was maddening.
When I finally made it to class, I expected everyone else to talk about all their terrifying experiences trying to get to school. The funny thing is that no one even knew what I was talking about. They all lived in Westchester and got no ice. Either that, or it just melted faster.
Pieces of ice on driveway
Connecticut is a bit different from New York. The way it was explained to me from the sales guy at the John Deere dealership was like this: There are basically three zones in Connecticut. The first one is from Interstate 84 and north. They get snow. From Interstate 84 down to Interstate 95, we get icy, slushy mix. From 95 south, they get rain. Of course, that’s not always true, but most likely would occur in the early season and the late season. That’s fine with me.
We got some freezing rain a few days ago. It coated the ground and pavement and has been hanging around ever since. Yesterday, the sun melted most of the driveway, but not all of it. I was walking around on it today and nearly killed myself. For some reason, it’s like a magnet to me. It calls out my name…”Jay, come over and do the moonwalk on me. Act like you are walking on a treadmill. Do the robot and the running man, like Rob.” It just happens, I can’t help it.
Icy sidewalk
Icy driveway
Today, while we were at Home Depot getting some paint for the next bedroom, I went over and grabbed some calcium chloride snow melt stuff. It’s like little white beads. I think it was calcium chloride or the other stuff. The one I got said it wasn’t as bad for the environment than the calcium chloride. It could have been magnesium chloride or potassium chloride. It probably would have been a good idea to read the bag before I started writing. Either way, I got the snow melt stuff.
As you could have guessed, I was excited to throw some of it around on the ice to see how it worked.
When we got back to the house, I unloaded the bag, dropped it on the floor, raced over to get a small bucket and went to work. When I got everything situated, I started tossing the little white pellets all over the place. It was pretty fun. After I unloaded my first batch, I stood back and listened. I always like to hear the soft, “crack, crack, crack” of the ice being melted by the whatever chloride.
I did this a few times and some of the ice was melted. I think I need to add more because I now have a sheet of ice with about a million little holes in it. I always try to be conservative with this type of material, so I don’t think I get the best results. Plus, I don’t want to throw the whole ten bucks away at one sitting.
I’ll let you know how it looks in the morning.
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Wednesday, January 7th, 2009
I played a little tennis this morning. I didn’t know if I was going to make it, because the weather was kind of rough out there. I gave the club a call about 45 minutes before the clinic started and they let me know it was “on.” If I tell you one thing today, let it be that I love all-wheel-drive. This is like the tenth time I spun all four wheels going up the driveway. I keep doing it because it’s so much fun. This X5 freakin’ rules. I drive around in the snow like it’s nobody’s business. It also has descent control, so when I want to get back down the driveway, all I do is push a button.
I showed up on time, but the others were late. That was fine with me, because it gave me a chance to become acquainted with the ball machine. Man, about 5 minutes with that thing and I was whooped. I really need to get out there more. The older I get, the worse it becomes.
Laura has been talking about a treadmill lately, so I have a feeling that is going to be making its way into the basement. There are days when we can’t walk because of the weather. I tell her that I have an allergy to the whole “exercise at home” thing. I have seen basements full of rarely used equipment all my life. I have to give her credit though, she is beating up that Bowflex. I have never met someone who actually does what she says like this. Amazing.
Tennis was fun. There were only three of us, plus the pro. Small groups are always a good time and we used our time wisely. I am still practicing my forehand, so things are a little weird, but I expect to get it one of these days. I remember back when I was on the swim team over at the town beach. I was the worst one in the whole group at freestyle. I was doing 22 second laps. I went to visit a family friend in Long Island with my father one weekend and practiced swimming in their pool. When I came back, I was doing 16 second laps. I remember the look on the coach’s face…”WHAT?” That ended up being my best stroke. I’m tellin’ ya Mike, I’m tellin’ ya.
In between other things for the past few days, I have been painting the purple room. If you forget what the purple room looks like, you can check it out here. It’s the one that’s purple. I decided to get off my duff and start painting upstairs of the house. It took a while, but I’m doing it. I cleaned out the room, painted it and then moved my office in it tonight. Here, you can take a look…
Office
Oh, you know I went down to the flooring place in town. I was going to go all out with the top floor, one room at a time. I was first going to put down new carpeting in each room, then I lost heart at during my visit. I brought back samples of pre-finished hardwood. It only took a few hours for me to completely change my mind and lose all motivation to turn this into a multi-week project. If we ever want to re-do the floors, we’ll do them. For now, we are only going to worry about paint.
By the way, can you believe I have that much stuff in the little office? Geez.
Now that the old office is cleaned out, we can start painting in there. After that, the bedroom and finally, Laura’s office. It will probably be spring by that point, so I’ll be outside for the rest of the season.
After I was finished moving all the furniture, I went downstairs to grab myself a glass of Brandy. I must tell you, after tasting that Scotch, I have admitted that I am a Brandy man. It’s the whole, “after dinner” thing, I think. It’s just the way I am. I don’t need any more hair on my chest.
I did a little looking around and decided that perhaps someone should buy me a nice bottle of Christian Brothers XO Rare Reserve Brandy. I would really like that. If you want to just drop it off, cool. If you want to meet me someplace, I can do that, just let me know when.
Finally, let’s talk about music. I am done organizing my albums into nice, neat folders on my computer (backed up, of course). I have a whole slew of them and they are mixed with most of Laura’s. She still has a while to go. As I was sitting here in the new office tonight, drinking my Brandy, I decided to cruise through some of the folders. I knew what all my albums were, but there are some of Laura’s that I really am not all too familiar with.
I first listened to one of my favorites, Christopher Cross. Then, after that was done, I opened one of hers. I listed to the first part of the first song and decided to give it a chance. I was in the middle of working, so I didn’t notice all that much after that, until the third song. It was “Days Of The New – Enemy.”
Now, I know you are chuckling under your breath, mumbling that I am not as “hip” as you are when it comes to music. You’re probably right, but I have already gotten over it. I really like the song and I would like to share it with you. Enjoy. (You’ll have to click here to see it. They disabled embedding.)
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Thursday, December 13th, 2007
I finished up the sanding of the joint compound last night. Two nights ago, I used the power sander…the little palm one. That was great to do the first major sand with. Then, I reapplied the joint compound and sanded by hand. Overall, everything came out pretty nicely.
I was excited to get some paint on the walls. Paint means the major dust of the project is gone. I put up plastic in the doorways to keep the majority of dust from the rest of the house. Also, I used my new safety goggles and the new respirator I bought yesterday. I must remind you that one of my least favorite activities with remodeling is sanding joint compound. I really hate it. There is such a temptation to just paint over the compound before it’s sanded. I didn’t do that and things are really smooth.
We (I mean “I” – Laura was a little shocked) went with a light gray/blue color for the paint. This was a little bit of a surprise. It looked different on the one and a half inch by two inch tab from the paint store. It is growing on us. I think, with the light colored floor and dark cabinets, things will look great.
I didn’t sand and paint the spots where cabinets would be. I bought one gallon of paint, so this worked out nicely. Any spot that I don’t have to sand is a good spot. Also, apparently, I used an overhead projector marker to mark the areas that needed to be cut for an outlet or a switch. Let’s just say that I have put about eight coats of paint on those marker lines to only see the green of the marker bleed right through. Don’t use an overhead projector marker to mark sheetrock.
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Sunday, September 3rd, 2006
Please take a look at this front porch. It’s the one that came with our house. Tell me if you see anything wrong with it.
For months, I didn’t give it a second thought, but soon enough, in the mornings, as I pulled out of the driveway and started to drive down the road, I would look it at and get crazier and crazier every time. Forget the fact that the paint is chipping off of it and the fake, plastic lattice has green fungus all over it, doesn’t it look like it is bowed down in the middle? Also, what is with the 3.5 foot wide stairs? You have all that room on both sides.
One day this spring (2006) I was working on another project, which you will hear all about in another post, and I just happened to glance at the porch. I said to myself, “That really looks horrible.” I guess this is what a front porch looks like when it is built incorrectly and not taken care of. I walked over to it and began to wiggle and pull on things. Next thing I know, I looked at my watch and it was an hour later. I looked at the porch and the whole thing was torn down. Uh oh, what was Laura going to think when she got home? Oh well, she’ll LOVE it I told myself very proudly. What woman doesn’t love a man who knows how to tear down a porch with absolutely no idea how to put it back up?
Laura got home and didn’t really care. She had faith. So that night and for many nights after that, I was on the internet gathering ideas and tips. I made many trips to Home Depot and brought back supplies strapped to my new Thule roof rack I had purchased just for this type of work. I started putting things back together, but this time I did them the way I wanted.
I put a center footing in, jacked up the center of the porch and put a nice 6″x6″ post there. The problem was that there was no center support for an 11′ span. Of course it was going to bow downward. I also put new 6″x6″ corner posts in below the porch to the existing footings as well as above the porch to the overhang. I used the existing footings because they were the correct depth and width. I know this because I tried to dig one of them out and gave up after an hour. I really wanted a WHOLE new porch, but with something this secure already installed (and inspected by the building inspector), I’ll take it. I used one inch high galvanized spacers in between the bottoms of the posts and the footings as to avoid wood rot. I screwed a 2″x6″ to the front of the porch as a lip for the top stair which would come later. I also put corner pieces in for nothing more than aesthetics. I found that idea on the internet.
If you noticed on the first photo, the bottom of the stairs were rested on a cement slab. I hate cement slabs. I broke that one up with a sledge hammer and got rid of it. I dug three more holes and put in footers for the bottom of the stairs. I used 5 stringers (3 of which I reused from the old stairs, they were in great shape) for the stairs. The horozontal part of the steps were 6 foot 2″x12″s and for the vertical part I reused the 2″x6″ pieces from the top of the porch. I reused a lot of lumber because it was in great shape and I didn’t want to waste wood as well as throw money out the window.
The stairs went up smoothly and I was ready to move on. I took my…ummm…40th trip to Home Depot and picked up all the supplies for the handrails. Before I stared the handrails, I screwed an 8′ 2″x6″ to either side of the top of the deck. This gave me a perfectly straight running surface for my circular saw to cut off the uneven ends of wood. For the handrails, I used a pretty good system of sandwiching 1″x1″ pieces in between 2 of what they call “Lattice Moulding” 4 inches apart. Code calls for each of the 1″x1″ to be no further than 4″ apart. Then, I placed this new “unit” on top of a vertical 2″x6″ and tucked under the actual handrail piece. This hides all the screw heads for the 1″x1″s. The reason I used the vertical 2″x6″s is because I didn’t want to see any sagging of the rail after 2 months (like I am sure we have all seen). This was a lot of fun and gave me the feeling of really getting somewhere. I cut holes in the floor for the vertical posts and screwed and bolted them to the inside of the joists underneath. I did this because I didn’t want to see the outside of these posts just screwed to the side of the porch. I wanted them hidden. This takes longer but looks much better.
I finished up the stair portion of the railings by using a vertical 2″x4″ instead of the 2″x6″ because when the wood is cut on an angle, the 2″x6″ was just too high and didn’t meet the next piece correctly. Also, please note that I used “screws” for all of this construction. I never understood why people used nails when building things like this. How many times have you stubbed your tow or worse on a nail popping up from someone’s porch? Also, all the wood was pressure treated. These days, you always need to use pressure treated lumber when building anything outside.
After a few weeks I picked up two gallons of Thompson’s Water Seal and gave it a nice coating with a brush. I used only 3/4 of a gallon, so I guess I have enough for next time. The back of the can said that it will last for two years before it needs to be reapplied. When it comes time to reapply, I will use a sprayer. Also, the can said to wait 30 days before applying any protectant, so if you have ever heard the myth about waiting a year before applying anything, that’s wrong. Your porch or deck will be gray by that point. I waited about 3 weeks and figured that the wood has probably been sitting for a while, so I was safe.
Now, when I pull out of the driveway in the morning, I see a nice straight and level porch!
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