going up, second floor luxury apartment

After such a perfectly sunny and warm day on Sunday, today turned out to be cool and rainy. It's still raining so an inside project will be the ticket for today. Thought I would tackle the stairs to the garage loft.  It always seems like some things should be quite difficult to do and many people say that about building stairs. I drew them up on my cad program and they came out fine.  There are a few steps involved.

First the layout on the 2 x 12

I dug out a couple of 2 x 12s and laid out 16 steps, tread at 10" and rise at 6.5 inches. Then the cutting of all the notches.

That's one of them.

 I traced the first onto the second and cut it as well.  Now the moment of truth, will they fit.  A bit of a chore to wiggle them into that hallway but all is well and a perfect fit.

In place.

Now the treads.  I am glueing all pieces in place so no squeaks later.  I started this project at 9AM and finished at 8PM.  Nice to have it done and if it continues to rain tomorrow I will start on the walls in the garage loft room.

Going up anyone

Len

Is that your fir in the chipper there?

Lots going on these days. I have been doing a fair bit of digging to prep the site for the shop foundation. This is a bit of a priority as we will need the space for our furniture in a month or so.

After all the trees were de-limbed and cut up the branches were stacked waiting for the chipper. A company in town now rents one so we reserved it. I will be moving the log sections out of the way for splitting later.

Piles along the driveway

From the two trees that were dropped in the yard

The chipping went a lot smoother than last year and I was able to get it back for a half day fee.

Mrs Fargo

Mr Fargo

A lot of useful chips

Our next ongoing project will be the parging. This is a transition concrete type of product for the siding to start at and the dirt to end at. It is applied over the moisture barrier that goes down to the footings.

I apply the first coat

Cath is working in the fiberglass mesh

First coat with mesh completed to the corner

Another task that was overdue was the culvert for our driveway.  The backhoe performed quite well for this job.

I'm getting the hang of this thing

Just cover it over and voila

I shouldn't hear any more comments from my neighbour

It decided to rain for 6 hours over night and that means no digging.  We packed up and went home where I loaded the truck and trailer for the return trip.

I always prepare for the worst in weather but this trip was nice and dry.  It took an hour and a half to unload and then it started to sprinkle.  It's been raining on and off for a couple of hours now.  If it gets too wet again I will be starting on the stairs for the garage room.

Len

I can't believe I cut the whole thing

I spent a good part of the morning in town dealing with issues, a culvert, septic bylaws, wiring regs. etc.

I stopped in to ask why my power pole was put in crooked, it drives me crazy every time I look at it. I put my name on the list for the wood chipper for next Monday.  The rest of the day was spent moving limbs and cutting logs for stacking. I'll have to use our wood splitter so we have some nice dry stuff for this winter. We have a pile that is a couple of years old so it will probably go first.

After cutting the logs

Lots of firewood and lots of branches to grind up

I will probably put a side shed on the shop to store a lot of firewood. Ross came over and we planned the location of the waterline for the house and the shop. That will get going in a couple of weeks.  I also have a couple of contractors coming over to quote on the septic system.  Things are starting to get going out here.

This pile is 2 layers deep

There are lots of piles around the lot that will require chipping so when Cathryn gets here on Friday she will have something to do.  I really have to keep her busy or she gets so bored.

I did go over the Hills  for a shower and a visit to the hot tub for some muscle relaxation, it was great.

Len

Stumped

Today started out dreary and sprinkling but nice and cool for some backhoe work.  I have about 7 stumps to dig out and some of them are quite large.  I found that 2 sets of large ones were actually growing as one large root so as I worked at the one root they both came out as a unit.

I flipped these 2 over to get rid of some dirt around the roots

Lots of digging and prying to get a root this big to come free.  My backoe has an automatic dust suppression system built in with all the little leaks everywhere.

My next big job is to limb and cut the other trees that we didn't get to on the weekend.  They fell on top of the pre-fab walls and roof trusses for the shop but there doesn't seem to be any damage.

We are planning to rent a wood chipper again so I am stacking all the limbs along the driveway. Probably do that next weekend.

The next picture is a repair to the motorhome.  Seems there was just 2 little staples holding a piece of backing for the attachment of the folding shelf unit.  Here I am glueing it properly to reassemble tomorrow.  Never a dull moment around here.

Len

Many hands make much work for many hands

A big weekend with lots of progress.  First, another trip with stuff and the sailboat.

 Much digging and tree removal.  Chris and Kyla came up for the weekend and I put them both to work digging.  Chris had the bigger shovel but both accomplished a lot.

Kyla taking a break from trench work, prepping for the electrical cable, she looks a little too relaxed.  

Chris put in about 6 hours moving dirt.

The tractor developed a fuel leak from the tank when it is full to the top. Seems better now at half a tank. Joe Minette came over and he cut down all the trees I needed for the shop.  It was scary with house right there and the motor home and my piles of lumber. He did a great job and no animals were harmed in the process. 

Of course taking down trees requires a major amount of cleanup afterwards.  The crew work tirelessly until they were tired.

It's amazing what 2 chainsaws and eight hands can get accomplished

I'm still working on the inside and decided to set up a scaffold layer and take out some upper window plywood to let in a little more light.  I also made a deer guard for our raspberries.  Hope it works.

Easy with scaffolding

More to come

Len and others

Digging, it's good for the heart

Doing a little survey work to place the shop. This will determine what trees have to come down.  That should happen next Wednesday after the weekend. I had do create a measuring stick that would stand on its' own.

The digging never ends. This time I am finishing off the drain line for the house foundation.  Not a big deal except that this pipe is crossing over the trench for the underground service to the house. I have to dig it deep enough to go under the electrical service. At least the weather was dry so digging was "pleasant."

The intersection

A drop of 16 inches to go under the electrical

Well off to the coast to visit the in-laws and a little break.  Back to work next week.

Len

And then there were none

Still sprucing up around the old Ponderosa. Everything is ready for the truck.  He came around two and left around three so all the planning was worth the trouble.  I had 15 sheets of 3/4 tongue and groove plywood left over from the house floor and I made a deal to sell it to the lumber yard that sent the truck out.  Should easily cover the moves and then some. So here is what it looks like now all empty and ready for digging.

The covered pile on the left are the shop doors I mentioned and I have been placing all the lumber that was left over from the forms, up along the fence line out of the way,  so they can be reused for the shop. The piles of lumber and siding are now relocated.

All the siding

Soffit materials

I tried digging with a shovel and found the frost level only a few inches down.  It really needs to warm up some more, I don't think the backhoe would do much just yet.  Maybe after Easter.

We bought a half year membership at the hills guest ranch where we all went sledding and skiing that winter.  I go there for a shower and ease my muscles in the hot tub.  It's very nice and fairly convenient as far as things out here go. I took this photo the other day, I'm sure Cathryn and Victoria will remember this barn and all the horses that were there.

Off to bed now and I'll see about removing some trees tomorrow.

Len