Clean Garage?

Well, mostly...

Now that the major construction is done for the summer, we can get the garage back. Up to this point it has been full of tools, equipment, and supplies.

We spent much of the weekend sorting through and cleaning stuff up out there so that we can get a car in there this winter. The nice heavy-duty shelves I picked up at Menards are already full of stuff. As you can see we're close - we have only a few things left to sort through. I still have to move some of the old hooks around and probably get some others so we can more stuff up off the floor. A bunch of this will end up in the house, too. This house is almost the opposite of our old house - here we have plenty of storage space in the basement but little in the garage.

Patios

Several folks have asked for pictures of the completed patios. Here you go!

One of our projects yesterday was to cut off the posts that extended well above the back wall (see previous post). According to the neighbors, these used to be part of a very tall privacy screen along the back and south side. Apparently the screen was put in two owners ago, but only the posts remain.

She Who Must Be Obeyed held the top part of the post while I did the cutting (the family Sawzall is getting a lot of use!). Everything was going well until... the blade made the the final cut. She was surprised by the weight and how top-heavy it was, and then lost the piece over the wall into the neighbor's yard. No one got hurt, but she looked puzzled and asked, "Now what?" I just grinned back and said, "You walk around and get it."

On the second post I gave her the opportunity to make the final cut while I held the post. No problems, but power tools are now back into my domain ("You hold it like a toooy"...) and the remaining posts went without incident.

Old Phone Lines - Part 2

Techs from Qwest came over today to hook up to our underground lines. They got quite a kick out of the old lines.

A while back we'd noticed that the lines running from the pole were not anchored to the house properly. They went though the branches of a large maple and then through a hole in the window frame of one of the second floor bedrooms. It's bad enough that it went through a window frame, but it also wasn't anchored to the house before it went through the window frame... ;-)

The tech anchored it properly and gave us the card for his supervisor, who we should call when we were "ready to replace this mess and do it right", as he put it.

I finished the inside wiring a while ago and finally got around to calling the supervisor this week. He got quite a chuckle when I told him that there were binding posts on the inside of a bedroom window frame. "How did it get like that?" he asked. "I dunno," I replied. "We've only lived here a year, so it has probably been that way since Alexander Graham Bell installed it."

He was very responsive and came out quickly this morning to check everything out. Later in the day another tech came to remove the old wire from the trees and connected a new line to our buried cable. The tech was quite amused too at the way the cables draped into the tree and then to the house. He saved a piece of the old line for us just for fun - note the splices and broken strain relievers in the short span. It's no wonder it stopped working every time it rained. I'd already connected a phone so as soon as he punched down the lines we got dial tone. He was really excited and told my wife, "Hey, hangup and let me call you!" He took out his cell and dialed, but... the phone didn't ring. They looked at each other for a minute and then realized... the ringer was off!

I'm happy with Qwest's response and customer service and glad we could provide fodder for their "shop stories".

Thanks Shawn!

Busy Neighborhood

The neighborhood is crawling with people today - it's the bi-annual Ramsey Hill Association House Tour. It will take us at least a couple of years before we're ready to be on it.

I'm splitting time this weekend between plaster repair and yard work. Several people have already stopped to ask about the house, even though it's not on the tour. When I was out early this morning several neighbors commented on how pleased they are to see the improvements in the house and yard. Being in the middle of it, I sometimes forget how far we've come already - I tend see how far we still have to go. It's nice to get reminded of how far we've come.

Overseeding

Despite this being one of the worst years on record for growing grass from seed, the yard actually doesn't look that bad compared with earlier in the year. The bare spot where Bill and his guys were working has started to fill in nicely. There are still a few little bare spots and thin areas, along with where the trench was dug for the power lines. So, I took a little time to overseed the lawn over the long weekend. In theory this should be the perfect time to seed and seed was on sale. We'll see how it looks later in the fall.

We may have to overseed again next year, but I still think seed is the right way to go with the dense shade that we have. Sod just won't survive without lots of sun.

Study/Bath Door Frame

OK, here's a good one. This is the door from the study to a cool little bathroom under the stairs. This is a fantastic door!

Note the missing doorknob however - don't lock yourself in! ;-)

Now, look more closely at the close-up of the door's frame. That's right, it's split and held together (sort of) by transparent packing tape and scotch tape. Apparently there was a shortage of duct tape at some point in the past... ;-)

It took about 5 minutes to fix this, the right way. Maybe I'll save the door knob for later so I can take the rest of the night off...

It's amazing what you can do with a hammer, a nail set, and the proper sized finish nails.