Month: September 2013
A man’s got to know his limitations – Clint Eastwood
Well I’m back and been a little bit busy, that is why I skipped posting last weekend.
Last Friday morning I took Lynn to the emergency room and he spent the night in ICU so they could get his heart back in rhythm. That was a little scary for both of us. It has been a week since they have tried to get his medication to stabilize his heart. Next Wednesday he will be visiting with his heart doctor and we will see where we go from here. But this blog isn’t about Lynn’s sickness, but then again it is.
Lynn is a very or should I say varry stubborn Scotsman. This porch would have been done a long time ago, except Lynn felt he could do it with me, and we wouldn’t have to “pay someone to do what we could do.” Well, try as I might, I tried to make that so. But we are now headed into the rainy and cold time of the year, so we had this long heart to heart, and he has, kinda consented to letting me hire someone to finish the porch roof.
I think the clincher for me was when I came home from work on Wednesday and my poor Kinzie was soaked to the bone with water and mud. She has a dog house, but doesn’t know what to do with it. I don’t believe she has ever gotten in it. There is also a shed that doesn’t have a door and she could have easily gotten in there, but nope, not gonna’ happen. She has to be on the porch sleeping by the back door so she can protect her family from wayward pigs. That’s right a very big pig. Never know what you are going to wake up to in the country.
So, where was I… Oh yeah, we are going to hire someone to finish the roof. I still need to do the railing and painting and putting up the picture rail, and Lynn will do the minor electrical, maybe. But I am waiting on a contractor to call to give us a quote. Shouldn’t be very much and they can probably whip it out in a day. We gotta keep our puppy dry.
Speaking of puppy (aka Kinzie), today is her birthday and she is 2 years old. Our pets give us so much unconditional love, and they live in the moment, something we should all practice.
Stay with me an I will update you on our new journey.
Annie, the general contractor 🙂
Working Our Way Up the Porch
The railings are starting to go up. One at least.
Lynn went to Spokane this past week for his consultation on getting a pacemaker. He is a candidate for the modified pacemaker, but to satisfy the insurance company they have to monitor him for the next 3 months and then get another heart echo, before he is eligible. Irregardless of the fact, that they have been trying to control his arrhythmia with medications for the last 5 years. The doctor also changed his heart medication and that has really caused him to be extremely tired and lethargic. Hopefully, after the pacemaker is in, and functioning well, he can get off of some of the medications he is on. He feels he is over-medicated, but which one do you get rid of? Alright this is a blog about DIY Building projects, just thought I would let you know that my significant other has not been able to get into this project, too good. I am amazed at what he can do, as he will be turning 74 in a couple months.
We didn’t get the scaffolding moved like we wanted this weekend, so I had to settle for working on the railing. I really wanted to work on the porch by the stairs leading from the side yard, but we have some other things that need to be done first and that involves the scaffolding. Next week we will tackle that.
Our do-it-yourself center that is closest to us, is Home Depot, so that is where we buy all our paint and most other building products. I have found that their paint is good if you use a good foundation primer. I prefer the Kilz Premium Primer as it works the best. It is worth the extra money if you want the finish to match. I had primed the balustrades and the 2×4’s before putting them up, then quickly put on 1 coat of the Behr Semi-Gloss White. It will need one more coat. Hopefully, I can paint the whole porch before bad weather sets in.
I guess I will be in the roofing business one for time before I hang up my hammer. We have decided to put up asphalt shingles to match the rest of the house, if we can match the color. If not, we will get as close as we can. I would have like to put up metal roofing, but that should be done professionally, and that isn’t in the budget.
This particular blog will be short as I am pooped. Gotta fix supper, do sock fairy duties, take a shower and get ready for another week at the salt-minds.
Take care,
Annie, the porch wizard.
Labor Day Progress on the Porch
Looked forward to making some progress on this 3 day weekend. I am happy to say that we did make some noticeable progress. Still a little bit more before we can start sheeting the roof and put the shingles on. Sprinkling when we stopped working. Looks like it might rain on Wednesday, but we will not get to the roofing part until a week or two. Need to set up the scaffolding to be able to have easier access to the roof. Neither of us bounce anymore and doing it from a ladder, isn’t going to do it.
Saturday I did a little bit of painting to areas I knew I wouldn’t be able to reach when the roof starts going up.
Sunday, Lynn put up the roof rafters and I began putting on the clips. There were two rafters that had a twist in them so they are not battened down just yet, but when the scaffolding is put up we can tackle that job. It was hard on Lynn, but he managed to do them with a lot of resting in between. I am so proud of him. I know he doesn’t feel good, but he will not let me hire it done. He doesn’t want to hire anyone to do what he feels he can do.
Today, I spent the morning putting up the ceiling joists while Lynn used the nail gun on them. We stopped around1:30 as we were both tuckered out. This is all that will get done this weekend.
Tomorrow, Lynn has a consultation with the doctor that will be placing his pace maker. I hope all goes well at that meeting as they have been unable to regulate his heartbeat with medication. His heartbeat is always racing 110 to 140+ beats per minute, and that is the resting heart rate. No wonder he feels exhausted all the time. This has been happening over an extended period of time, so he hasn’t felt well in a long long time.
Things left to do are, sheeting and roofing, building the balusters, and making gates or doors. Then a little more painting. After that I need to finish taking off and replacing the crown molding and fascia on the side of the house, that needs to be done before winter. Then I will be moving inside for the winter. I can work outside in the heat, but I hate the cold.
Now for the pictures.
Annie, palm-nailing queen.
A short Saturday post
Saturdays we don’t usually get very much accomplished on the porch. But today I was pleasantly surprised as Lynn felt up to cutting a few boards. I intended on getting some painting done, but decided to put on some of the joist hangers for the ceiling joists of the porch. A little painting came later.
All the boards for the roof rafters and the spacers are cut and ready to be nailed up tomorrow. While Lynn was doing that, I began to put the ceiling joists hangers on a 2×6, actually 2 2×6’s so far. I knew I could do this with my handy dandy palm nailer, so that was my designated job. With Lynn’s suggestion, it was a lot easier than how I was thinking of doing it. That’s why I keep him around, for his wonderful, intelligent, winning disposition. 🙂 Well the first two for sure.
He said I should put the hangers on before we nailed the 2×6’s up on the wall. Good idea, I can do that. So I made sure I had the end hanger in the right place then centered the rest 16 inches apart. Worked wonderfully. Then we put up a chalk line and put up the first two board. There is about 3 feet more to put up, but we have to do a little revising on that first.
After that, Lynn was done in, but I had a little more energy, so I decided to caulk some holes and put some primer on the eves and down one side to make ready for the two coats of green. By that time, I was done for today. Tomorrow the plan is to put up all the roof rafters and possibly some of the ceiling joist, plus put on the two coats of paint before I don’t have access to that area. We would like to get up the sheeting on, but that is just too much to hope for.
So stay tuned for tomorrow’s update.
Annie, the happy weekend warrior.
15yearsandcountingdream 