Don’t get so excited.. no T&A here. This just isn’t that kind of place.
Spent the better part of a morning stripping my bomb proof forms, trying to save the curve, so that it could be reused for the floor pour. Was a success, although not easy. A sledge would have been preferred, compared to the labor involved in trying to pull it off whole. In the end we got it done.
Breaking my back…
Stripped, for all the world to see how nice it came out. Unfortunately it almost all gets buried. At most about 1 foot will remain above grade.
Footing drains are in place, along with a downspout system that runs to a drywell. This gets covered with fabric then filled with stone.
Partially full of stone. In all we used 21 tons of stone, and ran short, needing almost 4-1/2 more tons.
That’s a lot of stones… I lost count after 1/2 million.. Just kidding. Who had time to count?
Been working on some other projects at the same time.. More pics to come. Can’t wait to get back to work on OPR though.
Disclaimer: The work above is what I did. I’m not claiming this is the way you should do it in your home. Almost every situation is different, and should be treated accordingly. If you are not sure of what you are doing, or not comfortable doing it, the best advice I could give you is to STOP! Get advice from a Pro that you trust, or at least knowledgeable friends or family. You can make expensive mistakes, or worse – you could get hurt. Be safe !
It went about as well as I thought it would. Being the first real form I ever built by myself, I was worried. I know some things I could have done better in hindsight. But all in all it went well. Have a look.
Compare that last photo to the first. See those diagonal cross braces that are noticeably missing from the first photo? The form against the garage wall had started to buckle when it was about 3/4 full. I shouted to grab some boards and wedge them in there, all was well. Perhaps it was only going to bulge and not burst, but who would want to find that out?
Disclaimer: The work above is what I did. I’m not claiming this is the way you should do it in your home. Almost every situation is different, and should be treated accordingly. If you are not sure of what you are doing, or not comfortable doing it, the best advice I could give you is to STOP! Get advice from a Pro that you trust, or at least knowledgeable friends or family. You can make expensive mistakes, or worse – you could get hurt. Be safe !
Found a touch of rot and some really shoddy repair work today. The only right thing to do is to strip it all back to where it is sound, and rebuild it. Here’s Kevin, who got stuck with the unenviable task of removing wood that really wasn’t more substantial than powder in places. Carpenter ants, followed by what I believe were powder post beetles, left nothing much in the way of support here. Another case of the interior finish holding up the works. Of note, the 16″ repair in the center of what should have been the sill for supporting the window between the studs…
Kevin can still smile in 90° heat – kind of…
We got it back together. I took the window back to the shop and rebuilt it. Installed it on Monday, and we finished the exterior wall on Tuesday. The house is getting painted soon, so it should look nice in the near future.
That’s me, fitting some shakes.
Mike, contemplating jumping…
Leaving you with part of our Saturday fun.. we went kayaking and swimming as a family. In the kayak, wife, during the return voyage.
Good times !!
Disclaimer: The work above is what I did. I’m not claiming this is the way you should do it in your home. Almost every situation is different, and should be treated accordingly. If you are not sure of what you are doing, or not comfortable doing it, the best advice I could give you is to STOP! Get advice from a Pro that you trust, or at least knowledgeable friends or family. You can make expensive mistakes, or worse – you could get hurt. Be safe !
A few minor issues in the middle of the week. If you noticed the blog was offline - a good friend of mine who registered this domain for me, changed his email addy, and didn’t get the renewal notices. It’s all good now. I’ve got a few misc pics to post, from a period of a few days, so let’s get to it.
The finished, temporary steps. Picked up the P/T lumber for the treads on the way home from work at an orange big box. I’ll stick to Williams from now on. A better grade of lumber to be had there. Convenience, as always, has it’s cost.
Tues July 14th. I put this up on FaceCrack, as blog was awol, but here it is anyway. The sky turned this neat color and everything around had this yellowish/greenish tint. It was really cool. Photo is un-retouched snapshot – this is what it looked like!
Blurry again! This seems to be the offspring of Stripe. Let’s call her stripe2 for now. smaller, faster, more agile. Able to surprise me in the dark quicker. This one does not seem to be afraid of people as it kept coming towards me even as I made noises I thought would make it head the other way. Nope, skunk2 advances. Me tripping over the log pile? skunk2 advances. Stomping up the front steps, closing the front door with a bang and racing for a camera? skunk2 advances. Coming back out, after tripping in the dark inside and howling out in pain as I gouged my shin on our coffee table/chest and running back into the yard while banging the front door closed? You guessed it, s2 advances… Shining 1 million candlewatt light on s2 to take pic? skunk2 pauses!! then advances.. This is the best pic I got with the point & shoot. I can’t imagine fiddling with the DSLR while trying to avoid the toxic cloud…
Lastly, this is the start of a cupola for a client’s garage, part of the same job where the curved form was built. btw, we are shooting for a Monday pour.
Disclaimer: The work above is what I did. I’m not claiming this is the way you should do it in your home. Almost every situation is different, and should be treated accordingly. If you are not sure of what you are doing, or not comfortable doing it, the best advice I could give you is to STOP! Get advice from a Pro that you trust, or at least knowledgeable friends or family. You can make expensive mistakes, or worse – you could get hurt. Be safe !
We completed the stairs for the most part the night before. Needed to get a photo in daylight.
Yes, we do intend to replace the treads with P/T lumber.. we just didn’t have any. We also thought about painting the untreated lumber we used, but decided against it.
Later in the day, after the choosing and purchasing of the flowers, a planting takes place.
The designer, builder and flower picker !
This was quite a it of fun to work together and get something done on this house. Yay us !
Disclaimer: The work above is what I did. I’m not claiming this is the way you should do it in your home. Almost every situation is different, and should be treated accordingly. If you are not sure of what you are doing, or not comfortable doing it, the best advice I could give you is to STOP! Get advice from a Pro that you trust, or at least knowledgeable friends or family. You can make expensive mistakes, or worse – you could get hurt. Be safe !
First a pic of some work I am doing in PoK., then we’ll get to the danger part.
Beginnings of a form for a curved concrete 3 season room. Of course, the weather didn’t cooperate this week with temps just under 100. This still needs to be one more row higher, and then connected straight back to the house on both sides. Should be done with it on Monday, then build the inner forms, which can be much simpler on Tuesday. Now on to our regularly scheduled disaster.
When I left the house (you know, the house), Tuesday morning on the way to work, carrying a heavy load, my foot slipped on the kind of cracked and crumbling cement covered brick front steps. That was enough to peel off a layer of the cement, and expose the crumbly loose brick, which over the course of three days and a few UPS deliveries, became extremely unsafe. Something needed to be done. I had an idea to quickly replace them with pressure treated lumber, making two simple steps to replace the two cement and brick steps that were there. I began demolishing the steps around noon or so. Then we cleaned up the 9 or 10 wheelbarrows full of debris.
The front after we removed the collapsing cement and brick steps.
But the architect disagreed with my plan. (At this point, is anyone surprised? Other than me, I mean). Even though these are temporary (around here that can mean two months to 10 years), these steps had to look pretty too. Enter wonder woman. At 3pm or so she sketched out a plan and off to the lumberyard we went. Almost two hours later, after some stops we were back with some lumber, and the fun began.
Wife, cutting some framing lumber for our temporary new front steps.
We finished the framing, and even got temporary treads on them. Not sure yet if we want to have painted treads or just P/T lumber. Decide tomm, as the daylight dwindled and we had to clean up and have dinner. Wonder Woman made that too. I better watch my step as now that she replaced me as lead carpenter around here, I’m worried about my job security. Thank goodness I can do laundry and usually clean up after myself. More pictures another day as we ran out of time tonight.
Disclaimer: The work above is what I did. I’m not claiming this is the way you should do it in your home. Almost every situation is different, and should be treated accordingly. If you are not sure of what you are doing, or not comfortable doing it, the best advice I could give you is to STOP! Get advice from a Pro that you trust, or at least knowledgeable friends or family. You can make expensive mistakes, or worse – you could get hurt. Be safe !
Went on a little jaunt to Maine to visit family. You know how I love animals and try to do them no harm? I harmed some lobsters. Then I harmed a few more. Then, a few more. Lastly, I brought a few to others to harm. I’m a sadist I guess. But look at this:
Now, if that’s not your thing, we can move on to other, less creepy crawly things we did.
How about a 4th celebration? Yep, got one of those.
Ok ok, enough with the obligatory fireworks pics. How about some backstory..
This was in Portland. Pretty neat event. We were at the top of a hill looking down on a harbor. The fireworks were launched from barges, and came up the hill to be just in front of us. It was spectacular. As close as I’ve ever been to the actual pyrotechnics. There was of course a hitch. Some of them fell short, landing back on the barge, and it started a small fire. When the official event was over, random fireworks were still launching but not where intended.. Made for some excitement. We guess the fire prevented them form launching when they were supposed to, but as it burned, it launched them haphazardly. Cool stuff.
Nice shot of the U.S. flag. Lots of people seem to have forgotten what freedom means. No politics, I promise.
I’ll leave you with another creature, only this time I swear, no harm came to it. Do you think they taste like lobster?
Yet another update. The guest bedroom, the one with the crumbling, squirrel urine stained, cracked, sand painted ceiling, has met with it’s demise.
After an hour or so battle against both myself and my superhero helper, the ceiling surrendered to the final stroke of a shovel neatly separating plaster from lathe. Taking down the smelly lathe was quick work as well. Loaded the debris into the pickup and cleaned up in time for an hours drive to CT for a great dinner with some friends. Demo can be so stress relieving.
stripping the crumbling plaster.
superhero helper
Clean as can be. Time to get the HEPA vac out and clean it again. Note the wallpaper at the top that is under 3 coats of paint, except where the crown molding from the 1960’s was. Yech was it hot and was I sweaty. Thank gosh I’m married and she can’t run away now.
Disclaimer: The work above is what I did. I’m not claiming this is the way you should do it in your home. Almost every situation is different, and should be treated accordingly. If you are not sure of what you are doing, or not comfortable doing it, the best advice I could give you is to STOP! Get advice from a Pro that you trust, or at least knowledgeable friends or family. You can make expensive mistakes, or worse – you could get hurt. Be safe !
I’ve had my Specialized Hardrock hybrid/mountain bike I believe since somewhere around 1992 or so. I remember Consumer Reports rated it then as the best value for the $. It’s been a reliable bike. I’ve been wanting a newer bike, something with shocks and a bit lighter. So I started doing all kinds of crazy Internet research, you know, the kind geeks do. I completely changed what I wanted a few times, finally deciding on a Cyclo-cross bike. I was not looking specifically at Specialized bikes, but then I tripped across their TriCross model and the deal was done.
So, in the end, I got something with no shocks, and it’s a single speed to boot !
It looks fast standing still (Oh will the cliche’s never end?)
Interesting short story. I went out on my lunch hour to look in a bike shop about 20 blocks north from work, (Liberty Bicycles ftw if anyone is interested). I only went in to to see if they had the bike in stock, and to get a feel for it. The same model was hanging on the wall, and after a brief chat I asked if they could take it down so I could take a look and handle it. As my sales rep takes it down, he informs me that it’s $180 off the price on the already reduced sticker. I told him if the bike frame was my size, it’s sold. Obviously, it was. On to the good parts. After a tune-up, some small accessories (like a patch kit, pump, and tools for the saddlebag), I head out back to work, thinking of how great it is to finally be walking the walk, and not just talking about being green. I’m going to be riding to and from work on nice days. How cool is that? Wait for it…
I get to my building and head back to the freight area, and after I enter, get told by everyone that the building has a strict no bicycle rule. No exceptions. Now mind you, this is a prestige building in midtown.
‘It’s not safe’, they say.
‘could block a fire exit’.
What? In my office? How?
‘Rules are rules’, they say.
I heard we can petition the building. Get enough individual names, and companies in the building to sign it, and see what happens.
I don’t usually back down on principal, but this is not going to be my fight. I didn’t intend to bike to work often in the next two weeks. It was my plan to to ride around Central Park early mornings, and take the bike upstate with me for the month of July.
NYC, has a GreenNYC campaign, check it.
Go green in NYC, just not here. Or here. Or over here. Only where we tell you it’s ok.
What the fuck is wrong with this country?
I changed cameras again.
You know how it goes with us gearheads. Oooh, Shiny. Next thing you know the plastic is being swiped, you head out from the store and run , hunched over – hiding your precious, to your favorite secret spot where you unwrap and assemble. Then charge batteries, while hiding the receipt, box and packaging from your SO and hoping she doesn’t notice the new gadget. Good thing this one is black, just like the last one !
You already know I change cameras like you change, er, socks. After wife hijacked my Canon SD 800, I got a Lumix FX-37. I love it, but have grown tired of the distorted faces of friends in groups, due to the wide angle lens. The fix? Canon’s S90. Nice manual controls so more friends can wait while I adjust the controls. (Ok ok, it does have Auto modes.. camera companies practically couldn’t sell P&S cameras without this mode).
So far, I like it. Another plus it’s so much easier to carry than a D700 w/grip and 24-70 /2.8 !! The disadvantages? Obviously, the pictures look like nothing that comes from my D700, but that is to be expected.
