Merry Owl

Milly needed the tackiest wreath I could find.  Mission successful!  Merry Christmas, y'all!

Our garage could use a break from all the garbage we're dumping - that's why we'll be taking the next two days off!  We're so nice.  All the particleboard is out of the house except for one room; now that's progress!

Task: Particleboard Removal
Monday: I'm not sure we were physically able to move.
Tuesday: 2.5 hours upstairs particleboard removal
Total Hours: 2.5 hours
Total To Date: 55 hours

Cold Sores

I had a cold.  And my hips were oddly, painfully sore.  It made bending difficult, along with going up and down stairs, or really everything.  We figured out the culprit:

It always comes back to that mailbox.  That pounding action was too much for my hips; I need to ease into this line of work.  I can't be mad, those neon green handles make everything better.  Except for my hips.

It's okay, we have internet!  And TV!  And NCSI!  

And a really cool rotary phone that we swiped from parents for testing purposes.  Or forever. 

The stairs are going down.  Thanks Google for instructions on how to remove newel posts.  They were very tricky indeed, especially if you want to save them for reuse.

But wait, there's more!  

Our work takes many angles and many positions.

And now there's less.  The OSB subloor is strangely incomplete.  Thanks for your fine craftsmanship and pride in your work.

The view is creepy from the basement.

We cut up the rest of the particleboard!  Look at those perfectly straight lines!

This closet was a bit ridiculous for removing staples so that the saw can do its thing unhindered.   Then he didn't even go in there with the saw!  

We finished the gutter work.  Hurray!  Just in time for Christmas and Santa?  I'm not sure how that's related, something about not wanting Santa to see our junky gutters?

The previous owners were supposedly master gardeners, but everything is growing out of control and making it difficult to actually reach the house, so we cut it down!

We're super strong.  I lifted these trunks with my bare hands!  Inside two layers of gloves... 

I'm thinking that gutter is no longer draining the water away from the house...  We trimmed that sucker!

There was an odd pile of dirt in the middle of that grass.  I wonder what it means.

In case you didn't know, downspouts only come in 10' sections.  This is the only hack saw we have.  It was short and slow.  Sometimes it is the size that matters.

The mismatched gutter colors really brings out Milly's beauty.

We had to use some elbow grease.  Har har har.

And some real Michigan ingenuity to level these gutters.  It'll have to do until spring/summer.

Speaking of ingenuity, some driveway markers were inserted into the ground!  We were so smart that we placed half of them into the ground with our body weight before we grabbed a tool to hammer them down.  The tool we grabbed was that hack saw from the gutters.  Super smart.

We're really tired.  That garbage is just going to have to clear itself.  Do it!  Do it now!

Task: Gutters and Floor
Monday: REST DAY
Tuesday: 7.5 hours waiting around for AT&T, moulding removal, staple removal
Wednesday: REST DAY.  Felt like I was dying
Thursday: 3 hours cutting the particleboard and removing the built-in with carpet underneath
Friday: 3 hours banisters and newel posts removal, finished cutting the particleboard
Saturday: 4 hours of gutters, along with a smidge of destruction of Mother Nature
Sunday: 3.5 hours removing the particleboard from the first floor.  Huzzah!
Total Hours: 21 hours
Total To Date: 52.5 hours

Butt(s), Jack, and Post

The hardest part of renovation is all the decisions that you need to make after hours of googling contradicting information on a subject which you have no base knowledge.  Then everything spirals out of control as one thing leads to another.  This weekend was a classic example.

The Butt(s)

There are hornets nests between our gutters and the house.  We're all about safety here, but the saw did not perform well as a nest knocker-downer.  However, while we were up there, we noticed that the spikes holding the gutters up were loose.

And then there were gutters like this.

We had to borrow a ladder and haul it in our undersized car with creative finangling. We drove slow.  After dropping the ladder off at Milly, we drove 30m to the closest Home Depot, where we wandered for over an hour looking at gutters, gutter sealers, gutter screws, gutter spikes, and appliances.  Might as well when you're there already!

This is DH's butt.  I stared up into its magnificence for two hours while he repaired and recaulked some of the gutters.

Featuring more action from behind!  Also, we choose to go with screws instead of spikes for the replacement.

Still had to hammer the originals in!  The echo sounds like rifle shots in our neighborhood.

Then came the scraping with the shovel we bought to bury ...waste while camping.  Seemed appropriate.

"Like horse poop!" exclaimed DH.  The Home Depot bucket was heavy and that load was what we scraped from the gutter over the porch only!  (We started really late after all that ladder and Home Depot delay and had to quit due to the lack of light during our sunny northern winters).

Didn't want to waste the rich compost, so I decided to spread it near the evergreens around our property.  Unfortunately it was already dark and there were protruding branches that formed a protective barricade, so I just dumped it around, kinda near...?  I dumped it on the grass.

The gutters are still a work in process.

The Jack

Our staircase is sagging.  (Ignore the junk in the background, picture was taken during the house inspection.  I kinda wanted to keep the antique washer...)  The inspector advised us to get a lally column and tighten it up every week.

This is a jack post, which in certain parts of the USA is colloquially known as a lally column!  They don't have a cement core, are not grounded in cement, and the connection for the telescoping tubes seem flaky.  We bought it anyway to avoid having to drill into our cement basement!

This is an existing lally columns in our basement with a 2x4 on top for added height...  It's not screwed into the beam.

Our super sturdy 6x6 base!

Careful leveling with a super handy post leveler and a wrench for gently nudging the post in the right direction.

We too have decided to use a 2x4 on the top just like the pros!

And there it is in all its glory, next to the shaky wooden frame currently supporting the bottom of the stairs.  We used a super scientific method of installation known as "stop turning the screw when you hear the wood creaking."

The Post

I spent an inordinate amount of time researching mailboxes, mailbox posts, mailbox post lumber, mailbox installation, and mailbox preservation?  We ended up with a pressure treated 4x4. Pressure treated wood is a process that forces chemical preservatives deep into the wood - wear gloves and do not burn the sawdust!

There are different grades of pressure treated wood - ours was US4A, rated for general use and ground contact. We used Thompson's WaterSeal aerosol to protect the wood above ground. (This was most likely not the correct sealer to use, but it was $5 and I've been wanting to use a spray can. I've had a deprived childhood.)

We dug a hole 26" deep so that the bottom of the mailbox would be between 41"-45" off the ground.  It was mostly DH flexing his muscle.

I had to contort my body in order to lift the dirt out with the post digger.

We attached the new lumber to the mailbox.

We placed the post in the ground and then used a boot-dirt-shovel method, patent pending.  No cement, based on the advice of some random person on the internet.  Someone on the internet with an easier method is always right.

Booyah!  First project 100% completed!  This was the highlight of our weekend.  I am expecting our mailbox to be bursting with junk mail after its five day break. 

Though I am happy that we were able to finish repairing the mailbox, I think I need to get my priorities straight... that post was most likely not worth the time I spent agonizing over cedar vs pressure treated lumber, or what type of coating we needed to buy, etc.

But hey, it's a darn nice looking post.

Task: Putting Up Posts and Cleaning Out the Poop
Saturday: 5 hours getting lost at Home Depot, drilling holes, digging holes, and then taking a magical walking journey across our property in search of rusted wire tree protectors.  There were a lot and we felt it was imperative to go sightseeing.
Sunday: 5 hours loading up the ladder, more wandering at Home Depot, cleaning [1/5 of our] gutters, putting up the two posts.
Total Hours: 10 hours
Total To Date: 31.5 hours

Invaders

They do exist!  Unfortunately.  I'm becoming progressively more grossed out.

Hopefully not for long.  These babies come in a pack of 12.  Instructions say place at least 10 in the kitchen and 2 in the bathroom.  Seems like overkill, but we've spotted and dispatched six roaches already so the entire box was used.

They're also really hard to separate!  It took about 5 minutes of sawing and freaking out because my fingers were touching the chemically holes before we had 12 distinct traps.  They have been deployed and hopefully our roach problems will be no more.  On a side note, I didn't think roaches existed in rural areas...

Now for some heavy duty sawdust work.  Here's DH cutting up the drop cloth for the vents.

At first we carefully cut 3" pieces, but quickly realized that we could go BIGGER!  Bigger is always better?  Our new strategy is to cut long strips between nails.  There's a ton of sawdust in the air from ripping apart particleboard.

Glamour shot with a broom!  It's a woman's job to sweep, amirte?  Kidding!  I cut up most of the particleboard in the living room with the circular saw today while DH removed the boards.  First time using a power tool and it was super fun.  I may never let him touch the tools again while I'm around...

All of the particleboard layer was removed from the living room except for these pieces...

Just like the built-in bookshelf, the particleboard goes underneath the fake bricks.  I'm not Mr. Handyman, but isn't it bad to grout (and mortar) over flaky particleboard?  Methinks that must come out too!

Speaking of things coming out, we removed the rest of the moulding in the house!   Sometimes there is only one nail in the baseboard.  Sometimes there are six.

That escalated quickly.

And here's the glorious pile of moulding and baseboard.  Okay, so when I said we removed the rest of the moulding, I didn't mean from around the windows.  Or around the doors.  Or in the bathroom where it's painted pink and wallpapered.  We'll get there, don't worry!

It was nice moving the garbage out of the house and into the... garage.  Getting a dumpster, it's on our to-do list!

Also on our list is to fix our mailbox.  It was a hit and run!  I'm thinking it was the energy company.  DH wished that our mailbox was metal instead of soft plastic.  Something along the lines of "IF WE BURN, YOU BURN WITH US TOO."

Too much?  

Don't worry, wood samples make everyone feel better. We received Natural Grade (NOFMA Common #1 and #2) white oak, walnut, and rift/quarter sawn red oak.

We sanded.  I'm not sure why we sanded by hand instead of using a power tool. It was hard work to get those milling streaks out!

These are the two finishes that we're considering: Rubio Monocoat Oil Plus 2C-A (the accelerant) in White 5% and Pure.  Only one coat is needed and it smells delicious!  Apparently I love the smell of linseed oil.  Best of all, no VOCs!

It takes a lot of buffing to get the wood to shine...  It's hard to get all the white streaks out...    We were tired from the sanding already, so minimal time was spent on this part, which probably accounts for the streaking below.

Here's the samples in the natural light at Milly.  That's a definite no to the 5% White on the left.  It probably works best with select grade wood that doesn't have all the nooks and crannies of these natural grade samples.  No one but me liked the red oak, pfft.

On a positive note, we're 90% sure we'll have internet at Milly.  That's what the AT&T technician told us and I like to believe everything that people tell me!  Maybe something wasn't configured right, a signal wasn't turned on, puppies were lost, who knows?  Apparently AT&T isn't sure either, but we "should" be getting pair bonding to bring internet to the house - two magical loops of internet awesomeness are better than one!

Task: Destruction
Wednesday: Played around with wood... samples...  Can we even count that?
Thursday: 3 hours of ripping out the particleboard.
Friday: 5 hours of removing 95% of the moulding and actually moving them into the garage.
Total Hours: 8 hours
Total To Date: 21.5 hours