projects on the go
Sunday today. The main floor tenants were home. I hope I didn’t make too much noise.
I removed the last of the lath boards and old flooring (all remaining five layers) from the kitchen today. I cut the remaining flooring into squares to aid in removal. I set the circular saw to 2mm or so less than its total thickness and carved away. Unfortunately, I gave myself sore sinuses doing it. But it is done.
Today FT and I removed the kitchen cabinet, a bunch of plaster, and flooring from the kitchen. OMG, was that a lot of work. There were 7 contractor bags of plaster and six layers of old flooring (seven if you count the 1/4″ particle board):
A before and after comparison:
So we bought all that cement board siding (Hardie Board) for the exterior of 520 rear. But, after adding continuous (no furrow strips) soundproofing and insulation, the width of the wall is now extended 2-7/8″ past the sheathing, or 3-1/4″ past the studs, which are only 2×4. What kind of hardware is needed to hang cement board siding that far out from the studs? Once the calculations are done, the cement board siding comes in at 93 lbs. per 4×8′ area.
Some of the wild flower seeds must have been what Sandra has identified as “wild lettuce”. They grow like trees! Now my fruit trees are inundated by what amounts to giant weeds. I’ll have to pull some.
Some of the shrubs in the front, next to the sidewalk, have died off. I pulled four dead shrubs and kept two that were half-dead. I’ll have to trim them sometime. In the mean time, I watered the two new shrubs. I hope they take.
The wild flower garden has filled in with various colours.
Unfortunately, some of it is just wild weeds. … But what is a “weed”, anyway?
The rear tenant wants a little privacy. To that end, we’re adding pickets to the rear deck which will create a visual barrier between the two areas. They still have to be cut to the appropriate height (i.e. the tallest point not rotted away!), power washed, and stained.
The fence posts are painted now, in Tremclad black, ready for holes to be drilled for rails. Four new pads are now installed, gravel and sand underneath.
Next: move the shed out of the house’s rear walkway, drill the holes, exchange the bolts (should have 5″, not 4″), and put up the rails.
I took a wire wheel to the steel fence posts to remove the surface rust. I could have painted right over the rust with Tremclad paint, according to others around me, but, according to the directions on the can, this is a no-no. Take the rust off first!
We’re mixing cement today, putting in the last (hopefully) fence posts.
All went well enough except the last post – too many roots. The hole was in the wrong place because the roots pushed pushed the power auger off to one side.
Now what? Next time I’ll cut the roots off as far down as I can and complete the job.
