2009 - Spring Sprint

It's been seven months since I last posted here, time to update, don't you think? :)

Since I last wrote we've winterized the pool after only having it open for two weeks. But the good news is that it shouldn't take as long to get it functioning this spring.

We've rebuilt the south end of the barn, adding two new windows and a door, plus a small deck/landing. A set of stairs was to go in before now, but the weather got so cold we had to hold up on that.

Than my shoulders became "frozen" (adhesive capsulitis) and I've had a rough time getting them loosened up again. The three words I hear used repeatedly when I read about recovery from this are "long, slow, painful." So far they've been right, but we keep slogging away.

I've spent a lot of time shopping for new toys, er, tools and am ready to tackle the house again this spring. We need to get it finished by August so we're doing all we can to meet that deadline. We've cut the project in half for a number of reasons. We're going to build it in two stages, the north wing will go up first since it provides the master bedroom/bath and two car garage. When time and funds allow we'll build the great room and the library out the back (west wing).

One snag I ran into last fall was that when I began to strip off the flooring on the kitchen floor it smelled really bad. The animals the previous owners left alone in the house had soiled the floor down through three layers of linoleum and two layers of sheet vinyl and into the wood floor. So I've begun to rip out the floor in the kitchen right down to the joists. My new 15 amp Sawzall made short work of the 2" thick flooring. 5/4" subfloor was rough sawn random width poplar perpendicular to the joists, then narrow strip pine on top of that. Then glue, tarpaper, three layers of linoleum tiles, a layer of sheet vinyl, a layer of luan, then a final layer of sheet vinyl. To get the sawzall blade started my new Hole Hog bored a 1 1/8" hole through it all without breaking a sweat. :) I'm lifting it off in sections about 16" wide and four feet long. Small enough to lift off fairly easily and big enough to not have lots of little chunks to be handled. I found that if I cut mid way between the two joists I can miss the cross bracing and cut along pretty quick.

I hate to cut up this lovely old poplar, but removing it whole isn't an option at this point.

I also recently acquired a Paslode nail gun and a Porter-Cable palm nailer to assist with the construction phase. Driving nails the old fashioned way isn't in the cards with these shoulders. May need to upgrade my compressor to drive them, but we'll see.

You can see a few pix I shot today at this link:

http://community.webshots.com/album/570670508DWVwkR?vhost=community

Thanks for reading and we'll make an effort to keep everyone posted as we move along.

Doug