Clothes Line

 Finally got around to putting up a clothes line, it's only been 11 years, oops. I picked up a 14 ft 6 x 6 and a couple 4 x 4s for supports. I put the 14 footer 3 1/2 feet down with some cross boards to help with stability and then I used 8 bags of  high strength premixed cement, each was 30 kgs so I'm thinking 240 kgs of cement should hold it in place. I got some deck boards from my brother-in-law for the deck along with metal spindles. I think it turned out great. When I bought the kit it had 150 ft of line, I measured the run and was generous with my estimates and should have had about 6 ft left, will I had just enough. Waste not want not, I guess. Here are a few pictures of my latest job.

Bathroom Upgrade

 It's been a few years (10) since I remodeled the bathroom, prior to us moving in and I was told it was time for an upgrade. I put in 4 ft high V groove wainscot all around the room. Added a new top, refreshed and reused the old quarter round for the bottom. The walls were pained a pail green and the boards white. It turned out great, I can only hope this will last more than 10 years. The first picture is a before look and the rest the new look.

 

Chicken Spa Upgrade

 Last year I put up a few plastic wall in part of the chicken run to give the birds a place to run around in the winter. I noticed the front didn't have a slop and I had to use the roof rack a few times, the back side wasn't that much better. So an upgrade was in order. I just made the front the same pitch as the other roof and a little steeper slop on the back. It will be a bit easier to use the roof rack there. Here is what came out of the upgrade. 

New Deck

 It has been a while since I posted anything, I have been busy, just not everything was done for the house. I did complete a restructure of the east deck. It was 16 x16 and using the support boards and deck block it is now 7 x 30 running down the length of the addition. It's nice to have, great to sit out under the overhang and simpler to access the rest of the yard. I did modify the north stairs to be able to be removed easily because under the patio stones in the middle of the stairs is the septic access point. I just have to remove the top back board, then four bolts and the steps pull away. I built last year a flower box that splits the front to help separate the change is step down. And recently I made a curved flower box at the end for the same purpose. We also redid the patio stone walkway to the house.  Here is what we now have. 

 

Flooring, Finally

It has been a while but we found some flooring that will work in the upper studio, a vinyl click flooring. they are 6 inches wide and have a foam backing, the manufacture does not recommend  using any underlay. It was easy to lay, except working around the two doors with the trim already in place. A little of this, a little less of that, a gentle persuasion with a hammer to move it alone and voila it fits. I have to make a threshold for the transition from the floor in the hall way to the new flooring. Here are a couple of pictures of how it looks. The lighting isn't the best to show the colour, which is grey, but you get idea.

Looking into the new part.

Into the studio.

Before.

After.

Large Built-In Cabinet

It has been a while since I put anything on this site, I have done a lot but mostly work on the house. This latest project is for the house but I thought I'd post it here as well, it is a built-in after all. The end of our mud room had a free standing cabinet in it and the cat boxes and our widow coverings, all very messy. So it was decided that we need a built-in cabinet at the end of this little hall way. I used good one side birch plywood 3 sheets of ¾ inch, 2 sheets of ½ inch and one sheet of ¼ inch,as well for the door frames I used 4 boards of 1 x 8 x 8 ft maple, strong and strait material. After cutting everything to size I cut in some dados and rabbits to join the sides and back. I use mortise and tenon joinery for the door frames and European hinges for the hardware. We are still looking at handles. Here are a few pictures on how things went.

This is why we needed a built-in.

Nice pile of material ready to become a cabinet.

Dry fitting one of the upper cabinets.

I made two uppers, easier to work with
and carry.

Just making sure it fits before I move on.

One of four doors glued up.

They look great, even just leaning on the cabinets.

A dry fit to get the height just right.

Now to install.

Base and uppers installed.

The doors fit great.

Bottom ones look good as well.

40 cubic feet of storage. 

A place for the cats, out of the way.

From Top To Bottom

There have been several little project done but nothing lately that needed to be posted, until this past week (8 days). It all started with the roof, last year I replaced several rows because they were in very poor condition and the remainder weren't that bad. Well shortly after the snow fell and winds picked up several shingles on the front of the house started to come apart. We didn't have any leaks but they it needed to be re-shingled. It has been very hot this summer and the fall is the best time. My Brother-in-Law Joe Foote offered to help and we did the job. My neighbor lent me 4 roof jacks and I bought 4 to help make the job easier, as the roof line is a 12 in 12, very steep. When all was done, cleaned up and I put the old shingles in garbage cans, and large totes to take them to the dump, I took 430 kgs of shingles in, a lot of work.

The next thing that needed my attention was the septic, things were not flowing as they should, last year we had the tank pumped out and I thought that was it but not really. So I dug up the old line from the tank to the septic field to find the blockage and I did. I took up the rest of the line, replaced it, added some gravel, back filled, let it settle a couple days and with a little tractor work cleaned it up some. We'll know more in the spring. But the best part is everything is flowing well.

You can now see why I called this post "From Top To Bottom".

Right side, hard to see but it's bad.

Left side, small part I dd last year, the rest went.

The job site.

Two sets of roof jack makes the job safer.

One side done.

Finishing off the left side.

Done.

Remove a little fenced and the tractor does the rest.

Found the end of the tank and the line.

Over a 60 ft run.

The box is where the tank cover is.

Back filled and fence back up.

A little tractor work to finish off the heavy work.