While the Men Play....The Women Work All Day

Today was an all female line up for B & G's deck redo because R and G were in Ohio racing.

On board were two regulars.....J (me) and B. Pitch hitting for R was B's Mom.

B got an early start and continued her painting of the spindles and assorted deck parts. I arrived around 1:30PM. I was late because I needed to dig up some 6" X 18" X 4" cement blocks for the back door slab project. B's Mom arrived shortly after me.

While they painted, I unloaded the cement blocks. We then rearranged the 2 X 10's so that they could get on another coat of cream stain. By this time B and her Mom needed a Mocha Frappe break and I needed to go home and get some work shoes since I forgot and left the house with inappropriate shoes to work in and was currently working barefoot.

Break time.

Breaks over. While they painted some more, I started digging under the tilted slab at the back door of their garage. Over the years the rain had washed away the sand and the slab had fallen forward at a steep angle. Obviously this had happened many years ago since the steps to the deck had been built to accommodate the steep slope. You might be able to see in the next photo how steep it was. I forgot to take a before photo.Once I had dug out enough sand we ventured out to the race shop and found a floor jack. We placed the jack under the middle of the front edge of the slab. We held our breath and slowly raised the slab until it was a tad less than level (for drainage). Here's B checking for level side to side. Dead on. Damn we're good.We then placed the cement blocks under the slab and back filled sand back under the slab. Next we raised the level of the surrounding area with dirt from a pile they had brought in last year. We then tamped down the dirt. Here's B putting some muscle into it.While they shoveled, I sanded the exposed joist ends. Remember R cut them off using a reciprocating saw and I needed to smooth out the rough edges. I put a bevel on the edges after I had sanded them smooth.

Ladies....I think we did a great job today.

I think the ladies deserve tomorrow off.....don't you???

Almost forgot.........Gooooo Smoke! Good luck at Michigan International Speedway tomorrow!

Iron Gate Update

We are getting close to the end of the iron gate restoration.R needed to do a little grinding on the bottom hinge, so that the thick flat washer we added as a shim would lie flat. We needed to add the shim so that the two individual gates would line up.Notice he has on his grinding shorts again.
Notice the floor jack holding up the gate? We used it so we could align the low gate to match the high gate...looks good. The gates were very heavy AND awkward to handle. Their center of gravity (COG) was high and to the hinge side. It was much easier to maneuver around on the floor jack, especially the all aluminum (NASCAR racing jack) floor jack. Looking level and straight.At one point, the installation required 2 floor jacks and we just happen to have this extra floor jack that R just picked up for 2 bucks at a garage sale 2 weeks ago. The seller said it no longer would pump up. Most floor jacks have rebuild kits available for a minimum amount of money. It's usually a bad O ring. Install clean oil and away you go. But this was not the case. R has had his fair share of floor jacks plus he was a journeyman machine repairman (hydraulic tech) for almost 37 years, so he knows that sometimes all that is required is to break the rust layer that has developed. So with all the expertise he could muster, he lifted the jack about 6 inches off the ground and let it hit the floor. He then expertly tested the floor jack for usability. Yup...it worked. He raised the saddle or pad, as some call it, up all the way and down all the way. The handle worked effortlessly. He placed something heavy on the saddle and it remained elevated without drifting down. Not too shabby for 2 bucks. Plus it was a 2 ton jack instead of a ton and a half.
I also added a extra sedum called Autumn Fire to each side of the Autumn Joy that was already planted there.
Tomorrow we work on the latch mechanism and then the gate restoration is complete.