Shed

Back in January we constructed a shed in the backyard. We bought a vinyl one from Costco, and it's roughly 7.5' by 9.0' We had to make a pea-gravel foundation to raise the structure several inches above the grass; we had to make a foundation anyway, since the poured foundation that was in the backyard was not level and damaged. We built a wooden frame out of 2 x 4s and placed it on top of the bad foundation. Then we poured pea-gravel into the empty frame and leveled the whole.

Front of shed:



Side of shed:




Inside of shed:





Once we built the shed, we filled it with all the gardening supplies from the garage. We then cleaned out the garage and installed a tool bench, and a tool rack. Unfortuantely we forgot to take pictures during the construction process, but it was a fairly easy job.

The tool bench with miter saw and tool rack:







Having built a shed, we then started thinking about what would be the easiest way to mow around it. After talking with my mom we decided to build a "porch" in front of the doors, and then make a gravel bed all around the edges. The gravel bed is something we know we should have done before - it will better anchor the foundation by providing support from the outside to keep everything in place.

The porch part was a little time consuming. Nate killed most of the glass where we planned to lay the pavers two months ago with Roundup. Then we pulled away the dead grass and moved the dirt/mud around to make it angle away from the shed. Once that was close, we added some sand and placed the pavers. We worked on two pavers at a time, from one door to the edge, and then from the other door to the edge.

Dead grass:



Pavers set out on the grass:





Placing the pavers:





Leveling:







Aftwards we placed sand on the top and I swept it into the cracks. The sand was somewhat wet, and I've found that it needs a couple of applications to settle all the way between the cracks. We are happy with the result.









We still need to finish the edge next to the shed, and fill that with gravel. I'll add those pictures once we've finished the project.

Mini Project: A Base for the Miter Saw

With all the cutting that we will eventually be doing, we decided that a compound miter saw would be a sound investment. This way, we wouldn't need to borrow from family and friends every time we decided to work on baseboard, exterior boards, siding, or any other project that requires a sure, clean, straight or angled cut. At Sears we bought this model based on its size, features, and brand name (plus it was discounted):
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00921217000P?adCell=A3
We also bought an 80-tooth blade for fine work, and a 32-tooth blade was included at no extra charge. The miter saw came with a 28-tooth blade installed.

I apologize in advance for the photo quality. The light in the garage wasn't very good, so the pictures are a little grainy.

The saw looked like this after assembly:

You may notice that the only thing cushioning it from the ground is an old comforter. They sell stands for these things, but for the time being we decided to attach it onto a board to cushion it and make it easier to set up on different surfaces. I found a chunk of 3/4" plywood in the garage that had two corners cut out but a reasonable sized section in the middle. 15" by 24" would be just enough to set the saw onto with about 1/2" of wood overlap on each side. The plywood was a funny shape, but I was able to use the miter saw to do part of the cut and a hand saw to finish. Here is what the wood looked like after the first cuts:

Then I cut the rectangular section down to size in the other direction. The cut is hidden by the laser line, but you can get an idea of what the laser sight looks like in this picture:

After cutting it down to size, I smoothed the edges and removed splinters with 150-grit wood sandpaper. I set the saw onto the plywood piece and lined it up the way I wanted. Then I used a mechanical pencil with the lead about half an inch longer than usual to make marks at the bottom of the screw holes in the saw base. I used a drill bit to put pilot holes about 1/2" long into the plywood piece, and I screwed the saw onto the plywood with four recycled sheet metal screws. It isn't the most elegant way to set up the saw, but it is quite sturdy and it will be easy to remove if we decide to mount the saw on a table or a stand or just a finer piece of wood at a later date. Here is a close-up of an attached leg of the saw base:

Last but not least, here is an assortment of tools that I used for this project. Some of them are hard to see, but roughly clockwise starting with the miter saw, I used safety glasses, leather gloves, ear plugs, a flashlight, the electric drill/screwdriver, a broom, an "L" square, a yardstick, a toolbox saw, and a pencil.

After using the saw a few times, I am very happy with it. It has made nice clean cuts using only the 28-tooth blade that came with it. The laser line rests slightly to the left of where the actual cut is made (the two just touch), but it seems to be parallel to the blade and not skewed.

Look for more baseboard work in the future. Now all we need is an easy way to bring home 18-foot sections of it!

Project: Insane Work Weekend 1

My parents visited us this weekend and...wow, we got a lot done on the house.

Descriptions of project that were already underway will be updated individually. However, I wanted to be able to explain the numerous other fixes my parents helped N and I do this past Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I also apologize for not having more pictures of this: we were so busy working, and often working in different areas of the house, that not many pictures were taken at all.

My parents first helped us pick up the vanity from Lowe's, and then later Friday afternoon we added another shelf to the Elfa shelving system in our garage. When we originally bought the house, the garage was a disaster: shelving was put up hap-hazardly around the walls of the garage. Besides removing his car, a shovel, and perhaps a few other yard tools, McVicker left the garage in the same disorder as he probably kept it in for five years. A hundred pennies on the ground, 20-odd gallons of paint (some dried out, others unopened), three different brooms, car cleaning and maintenance liquids, large tubs, three small trash bins, a cat traveling house, tile for various areas of the house (including some funky blue tile that matches nothing), grout, cement, pebbles, an extension cord, and 20 bottles of random gardening chemicals.

Funky blue tile:



Now this bounty was not without its price: some of the stuff left was junk (i.e. busted up gasoline containers, with gasoline in them) and some of the bottles of chemicals were so old they were no longer good, and were promptly thrown away, or leaked the most foul odor imaginable. A cloud smelling like death hung around our house for a week after we disturbed the contents of the garage.

After sorting through the McVicker junk and removing the poorly installed McVicker shelving we then installed some Elfa shelving that my parents were unable to use in their garage and placed only the good items on the shelves, cleaning up the majority of the garage. At the time there were only three shelves to install, but my mother surprised N and I with a fourth shelf for a Valentine's Day present, and we were happy to rearrange things in order to have an extra 6 feet of shelving.

Our next mini-project involved removing an old door handle to install a new one. The master bathroom opens with a French door. One of the two doorknobs is a fully functional knob, while the second door's knob is decoration only, although the second door acts as the latch for the first door. The first doorknob was easy for N to install, but neither N nor I could figure out how to remove the decoration knob. We looked in vain for a secret key or hole that would allow us to dismantle either side of the knob. After a fajita dinner my parents looked at the knob and were stumped themselves. We all pried at the knob with screwdrivers, etc. So, bolstered by the fact that four people couldn't solve this, we decided that the only way solution was to use the Dremel to saw off the plate behind the knob, hoping that a clue would surface then.

And, if you haven't already figured it out, nothing is easy with this house. With the plate removed, we still couldn't see a screw or fitting that would facilitate the removal. So N cut the plate on the other side of the door. At that point we were able to snap off the door knobs, and then pull out the pieces fitting into the door. The way these doorknobs were designed to be put together, it appears that the pieces snapped into place without allowing them to be taken apart without completely destroying the parts. Great design door engineers!

The bathroom doors with handles on:


The difficult doorknob completed:


A third mini-project involved pulling off the baseboard near the door to the backyard, since N and I had noticed some mold on that spot a few weeks ago. Once the molding was removed, however, it became clear that there was an ongoing leak from outside into the house when it was raining. A piece of the backdoor has rotted through. We sprayed this area with bleach and then my mother caulked up the cavity. We intend to recycle a piece of the baseboard in the blue bedroom to install here. However, we will still need to replace the exterior door before too long, as this is only a temporary fix.







The fourth project was actually a completion of a repair begun in November. During Ike the winds whipped the satellite dish that McVicker had left attached to the chimney off the house and into the backyard. Subsequently water leaked through the exposed parts of the chimney/roof and after two weeks we noticed a water stain in the now-orange bedroom. The stain was repaired, and we brought planks to replace the wood damaged in the storm. Measurements were incorrect, and more planks were bought and painted. This weekend we were able to nail the final two boards into the chimney, along with more caulk as a precaution. Yeah!

Those were the mini-projects completed this weekend. Most of our time, energy and money was spent continuing work on Projects 1, 4, and 5. Hurray for my wonderful parents, helping us with so much!