The Rain has finally stopped...

...or so they (weather forecasters) say.  

We are inching closer to having the south side of the deck done. 

Here is the to do list....

Finish painting the shingles grey (just a few left)

Finish painting the white trim along the roof edge with semi gloss white

Take down the 3 inch eavestrough and downspout over the kitchen window

Replace 3 inch with 5 inch eavestrough and downspout

Prime and paint the area around the kitchen door

Paint corner trim board by kitchen door

Install bracket and hang small hanging basket

Retrieve the deck flower pots out of the barn loft

Plant the pots with flowers already purchased

Clean the glass table top, coffee table top, and end table top...3rd time's the charm

Remove the saw horses from the deck and put them down on the driveway

Take cushions to upholstery guy

Then there is the Mega To Do List

*Paint the shingles grey

*Paint the windows trim and sashes white (deck area)

*Prime the door trim (new door)

*Paint the door trim white

*Paint the doors white

*Make 4 of the faux wrought iron hinges

*Install the dummy handle on the stationary door

*Touch up the wrought iron furniture with black satin spray paint

*Take the outdoor cushions to the upholstery guy

*Hang 3 wrought iron baskets and plant with flowers 

*Haul out the umbrella and the umbrella stand

*Buy and plant flowers on the deck 

*Buy and plant flowers in the flower boxes on the railings

*Haul out all the deck decor items

*Put down the outdoor rug

*Plant flowers in the window boxes on the front and side of house

*Plant flowers in the pots on the front porch

*Fix paint on the bottom of the front door

*Add wide cove moulding to the bottom of front door

*Remove and replace 3" eavestrough and downspout with 5"
*Rent heavy equipment to break apart what remains of the swimming pool
*Call and get estimate for retaining wall in the backyard
*Cut down almost dead large pine tree
*Finish building gable vent and prime and paint it
*Install gable vent

*Sand and prime bistro set

*Drill holes in the seats and middle of table top
*Paint the bistro set satin black w/bk and wh check table top

*Buy opaque white stain for deck railings

*Stain deck railings white

*Dig up boulders

*Move a few boulders to the area next to the driveway wrought iron gates

R has spent a lot of the non raining hours using the lawn roller to level the dents in our side yard that the tracks on the excavator left imprinted in the sod.  We have had so much rain that the entire side yard has standing water.

No amount of rolling is going to help the backyard. 

The lilacs came and went in about 3 days because of the lower than average temps and the overly heavy rainfall.  I was really looking forward to cutting a big bouquet of lilacs.  I even purchased a large clear vase at Goodwill just for lilac cuttings. 

Maybe I will put peonies in that vase.  Probably not because they haven't even put out any buds yet. 

Go to my Instagram account to read about how an early 1900's glass dish (above photo) was shipped to me in a bag....yes, a non padded plastic bag. 

I think we are now all caught up.

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Shingles are on the New Roof

Just a quick post to catch everyone up on the progress of the new roof.  The shingles will match better once they fade.  We used these same shingles elsewhere on the roof to make a repair and after a couple of weeks you can't tell new from old.  Of course the sun will need to shine for the shingles to fade.  Lately we have been lacking in the sunshine department.

The shingle install started on Wednesday.  The temperature was a high of 28 degrees.  This makes the shingles stiff and will tear easily when you try to bend them to get under old shingles or to lay down ridge cap shingles.  

The roofer first had to finish prepping the roof with the rubber membrane (we were able to get about 50% of it installed ourselves) and then he laid down the tar paper and installed the drip edge.

He spent a lot of the first day removing partial and damaged shingles so he could weave in the new shingles.  All the while it stayed at 28 degrees and heavy fog.  

The photo below is an old ridge cap shingle that was removed.  You can see how much the old shingle had faded compared to the bright green that was protected from the sun.

Thursday and Friday was as cold but no fog and he laid shingles both days.  On Saturday it was slightly warmer but just barely above 32 degrees.  He primarily worked on installing ridge caps.  

He will be back probably on Wednesday when it is forecasted to be over 38 degrees.  He needs to add roofing adhesive under a few caps, some exposed nail heads, and under the shingles around the boot for the electrical mast.

Today R and I ripped some corner boards to the correct width and glued and clamped one corner piece.  We have to have the corner pieces in place before we can install the fascia board and the gutters and downspouts.

We have all the lumber, gutters, downspouts, and all the extra pieces needed to finish the eave troughs on the first story on the back of the house.  The second story will wait until the summer.

Both of us are pleased with how it is looking but we can't wait to be done working outside all day in below freezing temps.

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Deck Step and Shingle Update

The weather has been very cooperative and we should be farther along but we had a feline problem that we needed to stop and deal with right away.  We have over the course of the last three years found homes for or taken feral cats to a rescue home for what has now become 31 cats.

During the summer we had a cute little grey cat show up at our other house.  We nicknamed her Little Bit and worked on socializing her.  She comes to her name, talks to us, but stays about one foot away all time.  I told R one day that she looked thinner.  He agreed but we didn't think she had kittens because she just wasn't that big.  About 6 weeks later she shows up with two little orange kittens.  Little Bit is slate grey and black but we've seen the daddy a couple of times.  He's a big big orange male who just sits on the edge of our property and looks at us.

Last week R saw one of the kittens across the street where two people were trying to catch it.  He spoke with them later on and they did indeed have the kitten.  He explained the deal and they said they would find it a home.  At this point we knew we needed to nab the other kitten before it tried to cross the road or become coyote food.

Three days later the kitten actually went into the large cage we had set up with a blanket and food.  R closed the door and we were relieved, but now what?  We transferred the large cage to the garage and over the next three days we worked on touching it (we think it is a male), litter training (no problem at all), and making sure it calm around people.

We just didn't have time to find it a home so we took it to a local no kill rescue that we had worked with before.  We gave them a $100 donation and 6 bags of kitty litter and they were thrilled.  The lady told R that the kitten was super cute and it would be absolutely no problem to find it a home.  Yea!!!!

But we still need to catch Little Bit before she get pregnant again.  There is also another cat about the same size as Little Bit that is all black but a little more stand offish.  We think they were litter mates.  So that will be two more cats to find homes for or two more donations.

Long story short....we didn't get much done on Monday.  But we had two good days and made some progress.  I might even try to do a little priming tomorrow and painting on Friday.

The step is complete.  We love how it is deep enough that you don't have to break your stride at all when stepping up and walking through the patio doors.

Tomorrow is our final mowing day of the year.  R can use the zero turn on the rental house and our house, so I can paint while he mows.  I normally mow our house with the traditional lawn tractor but painting is a priority right now.

Today I repainted a metal wreath that I purchased for my mother about 20 years ago.  It was from the Neiman Marcus's catalog.  I loved it because it was different.  The wreath is made out of metal banding.  Originally it was rusty metal but my mother spray painted it in a high gloss black.  Today I sprayed it in a satin black.  I like the satin look better but it was hard to tell the difference in the photos.

Before in gloss black

After in black satin

I also spray painted a decorative bracket that was in my mother's stash.  I don't really recall where she ever used this but I knew right away where I could use it and what I could hang from it.  I have 4 large lanterns hanging on my big trees along my driveway.  They are solar with LED bulbs.  The lantern has what appears to be a pillar candle and the bulb in the candle flickers.  For added brightness there are two LED bulbs in the canopy which have a mirrored finish to reflect more light.  It's amazing how realistic they look.

3960KR1 San Rafael II Solar Mission Lantern

The lanterns I have on the trees are 24 inches high.  I figured that would be too big for the bracket and the location but I tried it anyways.  Yup....too big.  The next size that is offered is 14 inches high and that will be perfect.  

The tall lanterns came from Home Depot and eBay.  The 14 inch tall one was ordered today from eBay for $20.82 plus I will receive 5% back from Ebates and they offered free shipping!!!.  

BTW I just received a cash back quarterly check for $49.84,  Ebates has now upgraded their cash back to include cash back when you purchase instore at certain stores.  You link your credit card to the Ebates site and click on any offer that you might use.  I have a feeling that more stores will offer this in the future so you should have a larger choice as time goes on.

You can sign up for Ebates HERE.  You get $10 once you spend $20 online using Ebates.  They send out checks quarterly.  

To help you remember to activate Ebates before you make a purchase just download the Ebates button to your toolbar and it will prompt you when you go to a site that gives cash back.  I have found that 75% of the sites that I go to offer cash back through Ebates.  eBay, Etsy, Lowes, Macy's, Target, Payless, Toys R Us, are a few of the online stores that offer rebates on Ebates. I have so far received back over $522.00!!!!!

Our cat, Elvis, loves sitting on the bundles of shingles.  Whenever another cat tried to sit on either bundle he swatted at them to go away.

 His sister, Patches, had patience and the minute that Elvis was distracted by a bird on the bird feeder, she copped a flop and hunkered down.

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Shingling is Done Until Spring

R and I shingled until after 5PM today. The last few shingles were installed in near darkness.

I was sure we would run of of shingles but to my surprise we still had a 1/3 of a bundle remaining when we installed the last shingle.Last weekend I found the best tool to use when installing cedar shingles. This tiny plane is the perfect size to keep tucked in your pocket. There were so many times I needed to adjust the side of a shingle and ended up having to walk over to the WorkMate, score a line on the shingle, and then either use the saw or a utility knife to cut away the excess shingle. This slowed down progress and as in the case today....we had absolutely no time to spare. So today whenever I needed to make an adjustment, I just pulled out the little plane and made as many passes as needed to get a good fit. This saved a lot of time because I did not have to walk away, make my cuts, and walk back to where I was shingling.

Best part is that this little gadget was less than four bucks at Harbor Freight.

We are both sooo happy that the shingling is done for now. We both have slivers in our fingers and those little slivers hurt big time. My nail tech spent the first 15 minutes on Monday picking slivers out of my fingers. Thank you, Virginia. Virginia and her band, Still Waters, have a CD coming out in February 2010. She filmed her music video last month and I was able to view it a couple of weeks ago. I'll let everyone know when it will be available for viewing on the country music and Christian channels. I was impressed and I am not a fan of that particular genre either. Strictly R n R, jazz, or blues.

Which reminds me that if you have a chance to take in the Trans Siberian Orchestra around this time of year, don't hesitate...go and see them, they put on an excellent show.

Today we had Sweers Eavetrough and Roofing stop by for an estimate to install 6 inch gutters and 5 inch downspouts. We will also have them install the leaf caps on the gutters. We have too many leaves to not have the gutters covered. The new eave troughs will be installed in two weeks.

I am still waiting on the chimney guy to show up. We need chimney caps on 2 of the three chimneys. Each chimney has at least 2 flues. The fireplace in the family room/library needs an expert to look at the firebox. We think that some of the mortar needs replacing. Plus, I want someone to say "yes, it is alright to fire that fireplace up." We have an abundance of wood to burn and it would be nice to use it to help with heating that room. The other two fireplaces can wait for now. I haven't decided if I want gas or not in the living room and master bedroom.

FYI...I still have not located the hinges.

Under the Gun

I think our string of good weather is running out. The forecast for Tuesday is slightly colder than today and after that the forecast is for rain or snow showers.

Tomorrow we have to hit it hard if we are to finish the south wall. The south wall only needs two rows but of course the bottom row is done twice so essentially we have three rows.

I think we have just enough shingles left to finish. I better measure twice and cut once because I do not want to stop and go buy another whole bundle just for a couple of shingles.

We were making good progress today but then we came to the very last small odd shaped shingle. It took forever to get it right. Since it was an interior corner it was important that the fit was tight to keep the rain out.Sometime in the next year we will be replacing those two ugly banks of windows. Who would put a bay window and bow window in the same room? I'm hoping for double hung windows in the same configuration as the windows in the living room which are 8 over 8 flanked on each side by 6 over 6 windows. That would leave the original dining room bay window as the only bay window in the house. The windows in the family room/library are 1960's era windows so they are not original for that room nor the house.

FYI....I still have not located the hinges.

More Shingling

We finished the sun room area two days ago. Remember this mess?It looks like this now.Unfortunately I still have not found the hinges I ordered. So we moved on.

The only two areas left that need shingling are the two areas where we replaced the rotted sill plate. Someone or at sometime dirt was piled up against the house. After we removed all the over grown shrubbery we realized that we also needed to remove quite a lot of dirt so that there was adequate drainage and so that the dirt was no longer in contact with the wood shingles.

Yesterday and today was spent shingling the west side of the family room or the library as it was referred to in the listing when we purchased the home. Tomorrow we will finish this area and start on south side. This should complete the major shingling jobs until we remove the 1960 era window in the game room.

Please excuse the photo's poor quality. It was nearly dark when I remembered that I needed to take a few photos.

One Last Board & We're Done

The weather report today was for rain after 3PM. It was rain free at three but you could feel the cold front moving in from the south.

We have only one board left to install and we will do that tomorrow. That leaves the installation of the windows which cannot be done until I find the hinges.So rather than hear R say, "if you would quit writing and reading blogs all night and look for the hinges instead, we could wrap this project up!" I'll post a quick photo and then it's off to look for the hinges.

More Sun Room Progress

We have now progressed to the point where we are left with the tedious part of the project. All the shingles are installed except for the last two which will be the first thing we do tomorrow.

That leaves the rotted wood area just under the eave. R has removed the 1 X 4 that looked like a chipmunk gnawed through it. We will replace the board because it is missing at least 4 or 5 inches. Once this is done we can reinstall two small trim pieces and we will almost be done.Last on the list is the re installation of the casement windows. But before we do that I must find the hinges that I bought last year. I know I put them somewhere safe so I wouldn't lose them but I forgot where that location is located. Drats!I took care of one of the small details while R was removing the chewed up/rotted board from the fascia. The area right below the sill needed a small piece of trim to cover the nail heads that hold the last row of shingles in place directly under the sill. I knew I wanted something simple and I really did not want to put something like a 1 X 3 board under the sill.

So this morning we made a quick trip to Home Depot and scanned the racks of trim for something appropriate. I was hoping for trim that could be cut on the end without the need of cutting a small return piece to finish it. Nothing struck me as perfect so I went with a small cove type moulding.

I cut each end at a 45 degree angle and then put the saw back to zero degrees and cut off the little point so the trim has what appears to be a nice return. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it looked when it was complete. Installation was fast using the air brad nailer. From first cut to the last nail...total time for installation of trim piece...10 minutes.

The last two photos show what has been done so far and where we will pick up tomorrow. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the 30% chance of rain doesn't materialize.

Continuing the Sun Room Exterior

Waaaaay back last year we started to restore the casement windows in the sun room. The windows were in terrible shape and required a lot more work than what we originally thought. It seems that the windows were held together with the many thick coats of paint they had received over the years. This is a photo of the windows after we removed the paint.The paint covered rot, cracks, loose muntin bars, and loose tenons. Through the power of glue and wood epoxy we were able to bring the casement windows back from near death. This is what the windows look like on the back side of the sun room.One of the other problems with the sun room was the nonconformity between the three sets of windows on the front and back of the sun room. Also the windows were not trimmed out in the same fashion as the rest of the house. Notice the two different sizes of windows in the photo above. The photo below shows how the windows throughout the house are trimmed out on the exterior.So first on the list to remedy this was to rebuild the window jambs so that the windows could be mullioned together. Here is a photo after the shingles were removed but before the new jambs were installed.The photo below shows the new jambs and the start of the sill repairs.We also needed to rework the sills to make it appear as one long sill instead of three small sills. We not only added wood between the three sills but also about four inches to each end of the sill. We cut down a 4 X 4 post to the correct thickness plus about 1/16th of an inch so that we could sand the piece to the exact size once it was in place. Wood glue and a hidden nail held the piece in place. When all is said and done....R will add a small bracket underneath and hidden from view to reinforce the patch. FYI....that is not the hidden nail but an old nail that we could not remove so R countersunk it so we could putty over it.We then trimmed out the windows in the same fashion as the rest of the house trying the best we could to keep the same reveal. The trim measured 4 1/2 inches so we needed to rip about an inch off a 1 X 6. We then used the discarded piece to build up the one edge to give the illusion of a 2 X 4 1/2 which is what is used on the rest of the house. I then sanded off the sharp factory edge on the new wood to make sure the new work blended with 72 year old wood. Once all the trim work was complete we could start shingling.

This is where we were at in the project at the end of the day on Friday. Saturday was beautiful and set a new record of 66 degrees a perfect temperature to shingle. Did we shingle..no....we went to a racing banquet so R could receive his Rookie of the Year jacket and his trophy for 10th place in the Michigan Traditional Sprints Racing Series. He is probably the oldest known Rookie of the Year in captivity....LOL. At the ripe old age of 57 he competed against guys in their 20's and 30's with years of dirt sprint car experience. R on the other hand was coming off the asphalt and use to racing modifieds. So we started shingling on Sunday when the temps were barely 50 degrees. Brrrrrrr

We were able to get approximately 1/3 of the shingling completed today before we ran out of daylight.

We are not looking forward to shingling the area where the sun room attaches to the house. I see a lot of customs cuts are in our future. Grrrrrr

Shingling Through the Rain & Sunshine

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day. This was a perfect fall day unlike 2 days ago. Let me start at the beginning.

Day 1 consisted of removing the security wrought iron door that was installed as an interior door. Some of the bolts needed to be removed by grinding the heads off with a pneumatic grinder with a cut off wheel. This took the majority of the afternoon and it was far to late to start removing the ugly exterior door which then would have left a hole in the wall.

Yes, that is an old Defender game. We also have a Stargate, Tetris, Mr. Do, and an Elevator Action game. This is why this is going to be the game room when we are finished. We also have a 1920's billiard table. This room will be the last room we complete since we have the saws and all the tools stored in this room.
Day 2 started with removing the ugly white aluminum cross buck door. Easy, quick, no problem. Next step was to remove the interior door trim and the door jamb. A reciprocating saw made fast work of this part of the demo. The door sill lifted right out because it was half rotted and this left us with the rough framing. We then measured and cut 2 X 4's to frame in the area so that we could sheath it with 1 X's planks to ready it for shingles.While I cut the 2 X 4's R removed all the remaining shingles from around the door and at least one shingle in every row on the adjacent wall. We needed to remove those shingles so that we could install the shingles in the corner properly. When the shingles were originally installed they did not overlap alternating rows. This is done so that the shingles are less likely to get water behind them in the corner.

Oh wait....I forgot to mention that as soon as we removed the second door and were at the point of no return....it started raining and then it started sleeting and then it started getting very windy. Thankfully I was manning the saw and R was the one outside.....hee hee.

Once the hole was framed in I started looking through our scrap pile for all the 1 X 6's, 1 X 8's, and 1 X anything that we saved when we did any demo. We were lucky in that we had enough used lumber to close off the opening. Once the framing and sheathing was complete we covered the entire areas with 2 inch thick foam board since the remaining untouched part was covered with 2 inch foam board. By the time we finished closing up the opening....the sun popped out and the wind died down. We called it quits at this point.

Day 3 was warmer and actually we had just had sweatshirts on but it was still windy. My mom and dad stopped by for a quick visit and then we assembled all the needed materials and tools except for a utility knife with a sharp blade. Every time I buy a utility knife I also buy a package of blades but when I need a new blade I can never find the spare blades so we were off to the hardware store.

Ace is our hardware store of choice here in Grand Blanc and lucky us.......they were having a 20% off nearly everything sale. We purchased a new utility knife, more utility blades, a package of different size hacksaw blades (for another project), and a handful of caramels. We then decided that since we were out and about that we should stop by the Hot Dog Stand up town and grab a couple of hot dogs.

We finally made it back home and started shingling. The first row takes the longest because essentially you are shingling it twice making sure to stagger the shingles so that none of the gaps between the shingles fall too close to one another. Shingling continued until B & G showed up on their motorcycle. We completed several rows after they left and R informed me that he wanted to watch a sprint car race on TV at 8PM. So we called it quits.Day 4 (today) was warm with a slight breeze. We shingled for about 2 hours and then realized we were running out of nails so it was back to Ace hardware for another box of nails. Had we paid better attention yesterday we could have gotten those same nails for 20% less. We also got another handful of caramels.We had to decide whether to install all the shingles perfectly straight (which is the correct way) or to slightly leave imperfections so that it blended with what was already installed. Whoever installed the shingles adjacent to where we were working did not do the best job. I know over time the shingles shrunk slightly. We chose to try and blend the work so that once it is painted it will look like it was all done at the same time. In a perfect world we would re shingle the entire house but you have to pick your battles and that is currently not on our agenda.

Two hours later we were done shingling. We also removed an ill place light that was by the door. Tomorrow I will pull the wires back through the wall and disconnect it from the switch. R also removed several insulators that were left on the side of the barn and are no longer in use. Just more needless stuff left attached to the exterior of the house.There is also an old mercury vapor light dangling from the peak of the barn and an old basketball hoop that needs to be removed. Both will require the extension ladder to reach them and currently the extension ladder to waiting for me to clean paint off one more storm window hanger.

We finished the day by picking up a couple piles of leaves, planting eight tulip bulbs, and hauling 5 trash cans full of scrap wood to the curb for trash pick up Tuesday morning.

What was that? Oh, I forgot to show you the completed project. Here for your viewing pleasure the completed shingles. Notice the light and insulators that were removed. First a before photo to remind you of the ugliness. Notice ugly door, ugly light, and ugly insulators.

A/C Unit Removal Complete

As dusk fell yesterday, we were at this point in the A/C unit removal......This morning, with rain imminent, R climbed the ladder and I cut shingles and handed them through the window. We used old shingles that were removed in a demo project elsewhere on the house. We even reused that inappropriate trim piece under the window. Previously it had been installed with the thick part down and the thin part directly under the window ledge. The only reason we reinstalled it is because it will all be ripped out next summer when we install French doors and the small balcony. Plus it was raining and we needed to wrap this project up pronto.

So what's on the agenda for tomorrow......I'd like to remove one of the many doors in the game room and close that off while we are in a shingling mood.

Added November 3, 2009....This photo was shot today and gives a better view of the shingle repair that we completed yesterday in the rain. It's not perfect but will suffice until next summer. Plus the price was right.....$00.00 That's right nothing. We used old wood for framing and old shingles. As a matter of fact, R threw the old A/C unit in the scrap trailer, so we probably made 25 cents.