Saturday, November 05, 2005

 

Why is it?/

Why is it that we hate messing up the house to accomplish something that needs to be done.
We spend time every day straightening up our homes. Then along comes a task that we know should be done. Then we have to take down everything, empty any shelfs that might reflect the pounding overhead when done.
I have spent most of the summer making things in my wood shop to hold items just so I could make my home look neater. Now here i am tearing everythin down, just to have to reput them up all over again later.
Like you and your wife did mr haney when you had to empty the room inorder to do the floor. Then will need to replace things back when you are done. We work moving things out, then we work repairing,. then we need to work again putting everything back into place. Work, work, work, that is the chores we make for ourself.
To get back to the foor--Then along came a small leak in my Kitchen ceiling. Here already this summer two of my sons went and had new black paper and new shingles, plus a tin drip edge onto the high roof of the main part of the house. So, where does the leak show up? of course on the only place I didn`t have the new roof done-- on the addition we added to the house back in 1973, if I remember correctly. I had new shingles put on a few yrs ago, even insisted that the wood boarding be pulled loose enough to be able to slide tin under the boards and under the new roofing. Figured that would keep any rain from running under the down the board siding on the top of the origional house and under the rolled roofing. That did cure where it leaked where the addition was added to the rest of the house. Worked for years, but not any longer. Had the leak spot tarred to get me thru last winter, but think the heat of the sun softened the tar allowing another leak spot.
Tired of repairing, so have decided to have my son build the roof up to give it a higher peak to help the snow slide of better. Problem started when we added the closed in porch to the house to increase the size of the kitchen. That caused that side of the kitchen to have a lesser slant than the other side .
So, intend to make a new roof over the old one having both sides come straight down from the slightly higher peak. One straight slant will replace the half down slant connecting to a lesser slant.
One big problem-- have an upstair window on that end of the main house thats just a short distance above the roof. So, can only raise the roof slant a little more above where the present roof is now.
just hope none of the house siding boards crack when they are removed as they don`t sell the ceder size we had before and I only have a couple more spare ones to use. Had a grandson who was going to climb up onto the kitchen roof and repaint those siding boards for me. But, if they are taken off I could cut them to fit the new area and paint them before putting them back up.
Hoping my son with the truck will have time to pick up everything for me as it cost me $50. for the last delivery, and could be even more now. Couldn`t reach him last night, so he may be gone fishing with his boat for the weekend. Won`t be many more good weekends before gets colder, so I don`t blame him if he did.
Well to get back to the origional topic- cleaning the house and then comes along a day for messing it up. I have loads of breakable items on shelf over the window ( Horses, Bud Clysdale steins and Cups with horses on, and other Horse items)- , plus on the shelves we added in the origional wall that was the outside of the house before the porch was added on. We needed better circulation allowing the heat to go into that end of the new kitchen. So, I decided to just cut out the origional wall about half way done and replace that opening with a mirrored like trim and add three shelfs going across in the opening. Each shelf is about 5 1/2 feet long x 1 foot wide x about 11 1/2 high. Only the bottom shelf is enclosed with plexiglass to protect the expensive Budweisner 8 Clysdale horses hitched to a large wagon ( wagon can be used as a large planter, but with that price I don`t wish to) . Bought it from The budweisner Co. years ago. This one cost way too much to chance having it broken. But left the two top shelfs unclosed for the heat to flow thru. Do have another 8 Horse set with a smaller wagon on the center self, and that one was worth $300 when it was bought many years ago.
So, last evening I started taking everything breakable down and packing them temporarily into some large clear plastic bins. Only a little more left to take down before they could begin pounding overhead. Figured I should get it done ahead of time and have it ready.
One more thing I did when we added on the porch was to leave supports in the wall that was removed adding the porch to the kitchen. Walt asked me how I was going to keep any support under the roof on that long wall we were removing. Simple. We were left with an 8 foot opening where the wall was removed. I simply had two 2x4`s nailed (placed tightly together for a 4x4 support) ) about 4 feet into the room and added 4 shelfs going from one end of the main wall to the double 2x4`s this gave extra strength to that area. Then I used some of the extra wallboard to enclose all 4 sides of the 2x4 section so it matches the walls and looks like it belonged to the shelf section. Then I bought some of the foam lined outside corner edgings in the light varnish color to match the shelf varnish to glue up each of the 4 edges going from the bottom shelf up to where the 2x4 section ended about a foot from the ceiling. This foot we closed up for extra support going across the entire 8 foot opening and covered that side with matching wallboard. The other side lined up with the drop ceiling on the other half of the kitchen. Oh, yes first i made a rectangular open box to hold the first shelf up about 5 inches off the floor So, it came out fine. Surprised Walt when it was finished as he couldn`t understand what I was talking about till it was done.
Can`t wait till the boys can get the new roof made so I can find my house again. Looks funny with all the shelfs empty= well not quite all the shelfs as didn`t need to remove the electrical appliances from the 3 bottom shelfs on the room divider effect that supports the opening.
Walt would be impressed if he could see all the things I made in my wood shop this summer. He would have been surprised seeing the garage doors as the most he ever saw me paint was a few pictures. Guess all the Mechanmical drawing and designing in High school did come in handy after all. So did the alegbra and geometry that I only took because math was easy for me. you never realize how much what you took up on high School might help you in later years.
Well, guess if I don`t want to become glued to this chair, then I better get moving and get more things done.
Then I can come back and play on the comp some more :).

Comments:
looks like a lot of work dot but i know you will get it done because that is the kind of person that you are.
 
Thanks for the compliment Mr Haney.
I managed to finish raking up the leaves in the back yard and put them out beside the co0mpost bins. No sense raking the front yard as there are still lots of leaves on the trees across the road and most of them usually are wind blown into my front yard. Still have most of the empty lot to rake- only 60 feet by 100 feet, but still a lot of leaves there. Well, it`s not realy empty as it has trees on it and lots of raking yet to do there.
Probably be another weekend before the boys can get to my roof. Just hoping it doesn`t rain then.
 
Incredible for a man of your age!!! So much of work...from your writing I feel that you love what you do, Sir.
I wished, I had a man like you as my neighbour to give me directions for my renovations and ideas for my house.
Give us more.
 
I am so foolish, thought you are a man until this time.
You have to see the expression on my face Ma'am.
 
8-} this is for silly.
 
jac, If i was your neighbor i would have been glad to help you out. It`s easy to understand why you thought I was a man. I do lots of work that men normally would do. But I have loved making things every since I was small. Had a Father who was willing to help me learn many things, and an Aunt willing to teach me how to crochet. I was lucky that way.Even my grandmother spent some time showing me how to do the fancy crochet pattern she was using for making a bedspread. I come from a close family where everyone was willing to help each other when we feel needed.
I would love to have seen the expression on your face, not to make fun of you, but to respect you for being so honest about it. :)
 
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