We were hoping to ignore the back yard until the winter came, letting the cold and snow take care of everything for us. But we’ve heard rumblings from neighbors as to the state of the back yard, so we’ve decided to bubble it a little higher on our task list.
Over the weekend, Liz and I spent some time attending to the piles of debris that have accumulated in our backyard. Though it’s a more expensive option compared to an actual dumpster, we opted to yet again go with a Bagster bag, just for the ease.
One thing we are focusing on is getting the back basement area prepped and ready. We’re going to be installing a new security door in back, and filling in the back half of the large hole we dug. If we can get this back area cleared and cleaned away, and the floor poured, we could technically have the back basement area done!
First piece down! We have strips of wood that were glued to the floor joists, and another layer of glue bonding the plywood with the strips. We used a nailer (powered by a pretty large compressor) to hold everything down. My first attempt at the nailer had me accidentally shooting out two nails at once. But after that small hiccup, I got the hang of how it works. Man, those things are powerful.
We finally got around to putting together Jake’s old grill, which he was kind enough to give us. Last weekend, Liz and brought the thing inside and started assembling it in our kitchen. One night after work, I helped with the final install and I’m delighted to say we have the thing up and running again! The grill, relocated and…
After work today, Liz spent some time clearing out a small pathway. On arriving home, I saw this and needed to take a picture – as it seemed like she was carving a very narrow pathway across the entire backyard.
Last night, after dinner, Liz decided to let the rabbits out of their pen area so they could roam around a bit more. Our house is still pretty messy, and there are lots of areas where we’re trying to keep the buns away from… but we were able to cordon off the main room and the stairs, allowing them to explore just a bit.
Tonight, after many, many months away… I’m happy to say that Phineas and Quincy are back home with us again. We were concerned that the state of construction at the house would be too much for their systems (lots of dust and particles in the air), so we kept them away while the bulk of the demo work has been going on.
One of the pieces I took out was the original lead pipe that brought in water from the city. We’ve since replaced it with something more modern/stable, but this guy was just a crazy thing from the past. I’m really glad to see it finally gone, as it was not the safest thing to have in our basement.
Came across this photo, and was just reminded of the start of it all. Crazy to think that a lot of this is now set up, inside our house.
This is the back bedroom (my unofficial office). Liz amd Julie cut through the wall here, to give the plumber access to the pipes feeding the shower. I think with this right here, every single room now has been touched by us since our arrival.
Today, I made a mistake in terms of commuting. I was under the assumption that our plumber would be done, and that we could move back in to our place (we’ve been staying in Frankfort for a long while – three weeks now, by our count). Liz was less certain the plumber would be done, but didn’t want to argue with me as I was frantically getting laundry done and things arranged, the night before.
I have this really bad habit – something I’ve noticed in myself, over the years. When doing something new, if I don’t do it correct or perfect the first time, I get very frustrated. Naturally, it takes repetition and practice. But I notice that I want to be good at something, right out of the game.
We went through a process of throwing in some sand, wetting it down with water, and then tamping it down. Repeated this for a while (though I have to say, having a spigot and working water again in the basement feels like a treat and a luxury).
Down in the basement, I got to see what our plumber had been up to. He’s successfully replaced our lead pipe, and things are markedly less dangerous/unstable. We were originally going to have to freeze the pipe to work on it, but he was able to do it without the freezing (and ended up saving us a few hundred dollars, as a result).