Waking up late again left us with only 2 hours to work before the football game started so we decided to do decking today since I could continue that by myself after the game started and after the game we could continue together.
So we got a decent amount of the deck down today and I got all the screw/nail holes filled in the window panels we did yesterday.
Got a decent amount put down today.An end in sight!Holes filled - ready to be sanded and primed
I didn’t JUST work on the house today, I got a big batch of mac n’ cheese made today and frozen into 2 portion dishes. I also made some sauce for dinner using the garden tomatoes (and a can of crushed tomatoes since we didn’t have THAT many) 🙂
Now we’re settling down to some dinner and then I’ll relax for the night!
We had a bit of a late night last night visiting with family so we had to make up for some sleep this morning 🙂 Once we got going however we started right in on the second copper triangle. Moving the metal bender outside made it go MUCH faster (instead of carrying the copper inside for every bend).
Copper finished on the bottom!
After copper we did some caulking and started on the bottom piece of the window panels which were by far the hardest pieces to get in because of the copper. We went with screws so we could pull them in straight a bit. After the first one was cut however we realized we needed a third piece of wood for the front one so we made a quick trip over to the lumber yard.
First piece of window panels in!
After our lunch break/lumber yard trip it was back to the window panels. I don’t remember how long it took us but we finally got the bottom row all in.
Even though we were fighting daylight by the end we continued on until just about dark, getting as much in as we could. The angles are troublesome, not because they are angles (22.5 degree cuts) but because the tar paper is uneven and bunches up making it hard to get the pieces to fit together nicely and hard to find the corner at all. We’re using expanding glue in most seams so hopefully once it’s painted it will be hard to see the seams at all.
The first box framed outThe second box framedThe stopping point for the night
Of course that was just the stopping point for outdoor work since it was dark by the time we picked up the tools. We then put together our new UHF antenna and temporarily installed it on the porch (which gets a decent amount of channels)! I also hooked up our patch panel to 3 of our coax outlets and we have our internet running off of one of our “new” outlets as well as a direct line from the cable to the tv which pulls in a few channels.
So we went from no tv at all to some HD channels over the antenna – just in time for Sunday football and the antenna cost was cheaper than 2 months of cable!
Well I got the second coat of urethane on the front door sidelight finally! One more coat to go but at least it’s pretty protected with 2 coats. I had to get it done pretty early so I could leave the door open while it dries which takes a few hours.
Sidelight with 2 coats of urethane
Then I got some blueberry muffins baked and some cherries pitted (to be frozen for shakes). Not a bad day off so far. Time for some quick chores and maybe I’ll get an hour to relax or so before Ryan gets home.
Deck stained - HC 65 Hodley RedHow far we got on the deck
We won’t be working on the house over labor day weekend but hopefully the other weekends in September we can get the siding up (window panels and siding) and the deck a little more completed. The deck doesn’t have to be finished before winter because next year we’ll redo more of it (all the way around) but it would be nice to get the wood we bought laid and protected for winter.
It was a little hotter outside today and it was the last day of our vacation so we took it a little easy. After a quick trip to home depot and some breakfast/lunch at Denny’s we decided to start on the copper.
First we cut the large piece we bought in half so it could do both triangles. That’s an expensive piece of copper!
Cutting the 3' x 9' sheet in half
Then we had to install the small side piece so we cut that from our 6″ wide strip and bent that and put it in. Finally came the slow process of bending, measuring, bending, cutting, bending the large triangle piece. But finally – it’s in!
First corner done!
The other corner at this point just has ice shield, we did pull the aluminum siding off near the corner and put in the small side piece (not pictured) but we didn’t get to the corner today.
Corner before copper
At this point we took a break so Ryan could change his oil – we’ve got to stay on top of the chores even on vacation.
Unfortunately I don’t have more pictures from the rest of the day because I worked on the deck until dark but I sanded the deck down (light sanding) and got the stain on it. The deck isn’t finished but the part that is, is now protected. We’re using HC-65 (Hodley Red) for the stain which is the accent color we plan to use on the house. It may not match exactly since we went with a semi-transparent stain but it should at least match the rest of the house. I’ll try to get a picture in the morning before I head to work.
Time to clean up and relax the rest of the night and it’s back to work tomorrow 🙁
Well this weekend is the end of our vacation – which is sad because it really went too quickly as usual. We had a great day though, we started out with some errands (last trip to the dump for a while hopefully) and then to the lumber yard to buy more decking now that we knew about how much we needed.
Then home to start working on laying the deck some more. While Ryan worked on that I got the “to be flashed” section under the diningroom windows scraped/sanded/primed.
Ryan working on the deckAll primed up
Then I helped ryan with the deck and we figured out what to do with the corner – it was really rotted from the carpenter ant damage so we decided to jack up our new block after we got that in and cut out the rotted wood and replace it with a piece of pressure treated wood.
replaced some of the rotted wood in the corner
Then we continued on with the decking until it was getting kind of late and we switched over to our copper project (although we didn’t leave enough time). We got the ice shield on all around and then started with the front piece of copper which is cut from a 6″ wide strip we bought. This was our first time bending copper ourselves and it went pretty well.
Stopping point for the nightOur first piece of copper installed
The hard part comes tomorrow when we do those large triangles but since we did the ice shield already we have an idea how it will go to cover. We bought a 3′ wide sheet for those, hopefully it’s long enough.
We got a good start on the deck today. First we had to jack up the roof of the porch so we could get the decking out from under the corner post and put in our new block.
Corner supported
Because the corner block hangs off so far and we plan to put a staircase off the back at some point we then put in a new support.
Getting started on the deck
And after a long day of putting down the deck (it’s 3 1/2″ Fir Decking) we got this far:
Stopping for the dayA new porchAnother view of the new deck
We have to put in a few more supports under the new boards, the supports are too far apart and the boards crack a bit. So tomorrow we’ll hit the dump to empty the truck out and swing by home depot and then the lumber yard to get more decking (3 pieces left).
We’d like to get started on the copper flashing by the diningroom windows tomorrow since that was the plan for our vacation. So hopefully we can get an early start tomorrow – lots to do!
While I was gone tonight Ryan was very busy! We now have a door knob on both sides of the bathroom door! This was no easy feat – a larger lockset needed to be installed which meant mortising out a spot for that larger lockset.
It’s not completed – we need to patch up the old holes and repaint but the door knob works! And there’s room to grab it on the outside!
Door knob!It fits with the door closed!
This was a huge surprise and with a few touchups to paint the bathroom will soon be crossed off the list completely!
Today was a short day because Ryan had a dentist appt in the evening and I had a stitch with friends. But we decided to tackle the ant damage on the porch today. First we put in some extra supports. Extra supports added
Then we cut away the rotted wood (most of it). We also sprayed for ants some more. Ant Damage
Then we put in a new piece of wood. New piece to replace the rotted one.
I also got some blocks prepared to put under the posts tomorrow when we start putting this all back together. Blocks for under the posts. Going to be interesting getting the posts raised to put these under!
So far we’ve gone as far around the porch as we plan to go just yet. We’ll start working on the posts and putting on the new decking tomorrow and see how that goes. We still have work to do to fix the rest of the front but that might be a later project.
It’s like all the rain that didn’t come this summer waited to come today – it rained buckets! Of course I couldn’t sit still and do nothing so we decided to do some basement projects.
First We moved all of the poplar wood to Ryan’s shelves which opened up the center floor of the basement finally!! That alone made my vacation worth it, then we put in an outlet for the freezer so now I can finally go to BJs and stock up our freezer!
Poplar all stacked on the shelves finally.New freezer finally running
My patch panel is still in progress but since it’s my other basement project ongoing i took a picture anyway.
Patch panel in progress
Taking another short break, we might work on stripping some more window trim for the tv room if my hands are up to it (they’re a little sore).
