Spent time tonight after work cleaning up the basement. We’ve let things go for a while down here, and it was time to do some sweeping and reorganization. It always feels like a tradeoff, doing just cleaning/organization. But with a little over two hours, we had some really nice results and a saner, more open…
Our goals for the arbor today were pretty modest: get in the bottom 2×4 cross braces (with pocket screws) and also get in the top 4×4 cross beams.
Despite it being a Friday, Liz and I opted to suit up after work to put in a bit more time getting the arbor in order. We wanted to get some concrete in for the posts (and to also figure out how much more concrete we needed to purchase, in the event we needed more).
At the end of the work day today, Liz and I headed out to do a bit more work on the arbor. The weather turned on us, and we ended up working a bit in the rain.
With our post holes dug, today we focused on getting the arbor posts situated and fixed in place (mostly). We spent a good portion of the morning talking at the kitchen table, going over our approach and how to best figure out the placement of things.
Liz, clearing out some roots and rocks. We learned that whenever the augur would bind and jerk, that was our cue to stop it and remove whatever obstruction was down there with a post hole digger.
This was a lesson I didn’t quite learn when I was going solo – I’d hit a snag, and just keep trying to power through. When what I should have done was stop and clear.
We had a lot of backwards math to do: start with the overall height, then reduce it down to where we wanted it to be. Then figure out the height of the posts themselves. And then also factor in how far the posts should go into the ground.
Liz has been talking about building an arbor in back, and the two of us have been researching a lot online. We’ve landed on an example we like, and I’ve been running over the specs a lot.
More to come.
Liz has a vision for restructuring our backyard. To even begin laying out that plan, one of our garden boxes needed to be relocated.
This isn’t a final move, but more of a “get it out of the way for now” move.
Liz has been working to clean up the main hall windows. Tonight, I got to see an interesting side by side between two of them.
The first hour or so was fine. But it’s been a while since I’ve been around people. As the crowds started to grow, I began to get more and more uncomfortable – particularly around the refrigerator and stove areas on the first floor.
In my head, I called it “the infection zone.”
Liz did a lot of cutting, while I did a bit of sanding in the closet area. I then switched over to priming the vestibule while she continued to cut all the corners/edges along the rest of the hall.
Lately, Liz and I have gone in different directions on house-related work. I’ve been doing more planning and documentation, and she’s started to suit up again after hours, heading in to the basement.
In addition to determining how many boards are needed for the trim in a given room, we’re also trying to carry this across multiple rooms. If we need 7′ 2″ in the living room, and 4′ 10″… then a 12′ board would actually work to handle that.
Our current task: re-measuring all the first floor rooms, and determining how much lumber we need in terms of linear feet (converted to standard 10′, 12′, 14′, and 16′ boards).