Snow!

It doesnt happen around here all that often so when it does snow it's a big deal.





In regards to the house, I haven't accomplished anything in the last few weeks. I've had too many other things to do and to be honest I've gotten pretty discouraged with working on the house lately. Hopefully I'll get a second wind soon...

Living room wall patching and new porch look.

Yesterday afternoon was spent patching the living room walls. The first thing I had to do was fix all the holes I made when running the wire for the lights.

I took some scrap lathing and cut it into short strips and placed it in the hole using my nailgun to secure it to the lathing around the hole.


Then I cut 1/2" drywall to fit in the hole and screwed it in place.

Here are all the holes covered and ready for mud.

And here they are mudded.

After the holes were patched I patched all the cracks in the rest of the room. As I've mentioned before I'm using drywall mud mixed with play sand. It gives it a texture very similar to plaster and blends in well with the existing plaster.


Unfortunately today I have other things I have to take care of so I doubt I'll get a chance to sand and primer today.

I've come up with a redesign of the front porch, originally it was just a one story porch but at some point a second story porch was added. The second story porch is horribly done with just 4x4 posts, 2x4 joists, and plywood floors. I had thought of removing the second story porch but we really love sitting up there in the evenings.

So I took a picture of the house, played around with a few ideas and came up with this:


I think it keeps with the style of the house nicely and gives us our second story porch to sit on in the evenings. This style of porch was actually popular in this area so it keeps with the period look.

I probably wont get to this project this year, it will have to be something I take on after the rest of the house is finished.

A nice surprise

The living room has finally been cleared out and I have begun the task of scraping the walls.


Once the walls are scraped I need to run some romex for the chandelier and light switch. Then I can begin patching all the cracks.

The wood shed is pretty full now. I need to make a few shelves so I can stack all my wood so I can fit more in there.


Now that all the large pieces are in I need to put the last wall up.

I made a very nice discovery while scraping yesterday. I decided to scrape some of the paint off the mantle, I was expecting pine but what I found is so much better.


That's Tiger Oak! The entire mantle is tiger oak veneer. Somewhere along the way some genius decided to put nails in the top part of the veneer on the face. I should be able to repair that though. I just dont understand how someone could have just painted over these mantles.


The mantle is Empire style. The ones in the Parlor and formal dining room are also Empire style but they have the more common curves on the legs of the mantle. I decided to check those to see what was under the paint:

Formal Dining Room

Parlor

Both are also Tiger Oak! The mantle in the parlor appears to be solid tiger oak, not veneer like the others. They should look great once they are refinished.

Pole Shed part 3 and the living room

The pole shed is about done except for the last wall panel, trim, and paint. I'm thinking barn red. I'm waiting until I finish putting all the large pieces in the shed before I put up the last panel.




The living room and the main guest room have been our storage areas for almost as long as we've been in the house. We are finally getting these two rooms cleared out and moving everything into the shed. So far I've moved about 22 doors and 20 sets of windows into the shed along with a lot of wood.

As soon as the living room is completely empty I'll begin on the scraping and patching of the walls and ceiling. They're in decent shape so I expect to have the room painted before the weekend. I'll post some pics of the room in the next post.

More on the pole shed

Yesterday I started building the walls for the pole shed. The shed will have two windows and one or possibly two doors. One door will be a 3' door at the end of the shed for bringing large objects in. The other door will be on the side if I decide to install it.

The walls are vertically grooved plywood supported by pressure treated 2x4's. The windows are salvaged upper panes. I'm installing them on their side with hinges so they will swing out. The floor will be pallets for now but I may install plywood down the road.

Pole Shed

I've spent the last few days building a pole barn. I have a lot of salvaged wood, windows, and doors sitting in the living room and first guest bedroom. I need to get these rooms cleared out so I can begin working on them. The pole barn will house all of my salvaged material.

I found a level spot in the back yard for it and cleared it out. The barn will be 8x12 in size so I guess it's more of a pole shed than a barn. The inside ceiling height will be close to 9'.

I began by laying out the footprint with string tied to stakes. I made sure it was square by using a drywall square and a 4' level then checked it with the 3-4-5 string method. To do this you make a mark on one of the strings 3' from the corner, and 4' down on the other string then you measure between both marks. The measurement has to be exactly 5' for the corner to be square.

With that done I marked out the locations of the posts and began digging the holes.


I dont know about you but digging post holes by hand in 102 degree weather is not fun.

after all the holes were dug I cemented the poles in place making sure each was perfectly level on both sides.


The next step was to install the headers. These are what the roof trusses will sit on.


After installing the headers I began building the roof trusses. These were fairly simple to build. I used spiked metal mending plates on each side to hold the trusses together. I then installed the trusses on the header roughly 2' on center using hurricane straps.

Next I installed the purlins across the roof trusses. these tie the trusses together and gives you something to screw the tin to.


Next came the tin for the roof. The tin is galvanized, I'll probably paint it green or red. I screwed it to the purlins with steel screws with neoprene washers so it wont leak.



Left to do is the ridge cap for the roof, the face boards on the truss ends, a few windows, a door, and the walls. I'll be using the windows and doors that I have on hand. The plywood for the walls is going to be the most expensive part, costing from $150 to $250. I guess I should mention that I've only spent less than $200 so far.

Deck update #2

I got the deck boards down the day after my last post but because it rained almost the entire time I dont have any shots of the progress. Here is the deck after the boards were laid:




After trimming the edges of the deck I started on the stairs. I wanted to do something to the deck to separate it from other plain decks, so I decided to make the stairs L shaped. This ended up being a lot more complex than I had first imagined but the end result was well worth it.

First I had to calculate the run and the rise of the stringers. the run is the depth of each step and the rise is the height between steps. Once I had that I had to recalculate for the corner stringer, because this one is at a 45 degree angle the runs are longer.




With the stringers in place I began installing the treads. Because the run is 10" the boards would hang over the edge too much so I had to rip the back board on each step. Here are the stairs completed.

I'm not sure if I want to install riser boards or not. I think it looks pretty cool with the stringers exposed.

The next step was to install the posts, handrails and baulisters. This job went so quick that I didnt get any progress pictures. The reason it went so quick was that to install the baulisters I built a tool to speed the process. The tool basically looks like a capitol "I" and is made from the baulisters. I cut the cross pieces to the length of the gap between the baulisters. In this case 4 3/4". All I had to do was measure and level the first board then set the tool between it and the next baulister. It gives you a perfect measurement and level every time. I installed all the baulisters in less than 1/2 an hour.


Now that the deck was done it looked very empty so we had to go get a patio set for it. The one we chose is from the Better Homes and Gardens collection. We got it for about 1/2 it's original price. It's constructed of all wrought and cast aluminum.



At the last minute I decided to change the design a little and add tall posts with lanterns at the top of the stairs. The lanterns are the french wrought iron style.



Installing these was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I had to remove the base from them as it was too wide. I then had to modify the hollow threaded nipple that the base used to attach to by threading the inside of it with a 3/8's tap. I was then able to attach it to the post with a 3/8's lag bolt. I routed a groove on the backside of the post for the wiring and had the intention of covering the back of the post with 1x4 stock to cover the wiring but I've come up with a different idea. It will require that I buy 2 more posts to replace these. I'll rip the posts lengthwise about 3/4" in, route a groove on the inside for the wiring then nail the post back together. this should look much nicer when it's done.

Here's one last shot of the deck taken last evening. I'm hoping to stain and seal it before the 4th.

Rear porch demo and beginning on the rear deck

I've started building the deck in the back yard. I'm doing this project now because I want it done before the 4th of july. we're planning on having a big cookout with a lot of family and friends over.

Before I could start building the deck I had to demo the old, rotted back porch... of course. It seems like I cant start any project without a little demo work first. Here is the back porch from an old picture of the house:

First thing I did was rip the screen out, take out all the 2x4 posts and remove the gutter.

Then I got on the roof and removed the shingles.

I then removed about 2/3 of the boards. I'm leaving the rest for now until the deck is built. Then I'll take it down and build another small overhang in it's place.

then I cut the supports and removed them and the 4x4 corner posts. then I cut the stairs in half since I'll be using them temporarily until the deck's built. Then I removed the floor boards and the joists.



It's hard to see from the last picture but there is a very old brick walkway in front of the stairs. I'll leave it there for now, once I find a use for the bricks I'll remove them from under the deck.

Now it's on to building the deck. I made a quick sketch of my idea for the design of the deck then figured out the measurements.

With that done the first thing I needed to do was hang the ledger boards, these are the boards that attach to the house. First I measured and cut out the siding:


Then I began hanging the ledger boards, not a fun task to do by yourself with pressure treated 2x8x12's.


I'm bolting the ledger boards to the house with 4 1/2" lag screws. Left, right, and center are doubled then there will be a single between each joist.



This is a fairly large deck so I want it to be as sturdy and safe as possible. The joists will be 2x8's. The beams will be 2x10's and the posts will be 4x6's. Because the joists will be running from left to right on the left deck I'll be running the beam under 3 sides of the deck with 7 posts. The joists will be running out from the house on the right deck so I'll be using a single beam with 3 posts, and 3 other single posts between the beam and the house.

I finished all the ledgers yesterday evening.


Today I'll be working on the posts and beams. I have 4 days scheduled for the deck, let's see if I can stay on schedule.