Notes from Walnut Hill: Work of Easter week

I'm still getting over the effects of this last bronchitis episode, so today (Good Friday) was a "stay down and rest" day but this week I was able to get a few things done, with the help of friends.

First off, a view of the dining room ceiling sans plaster, thanks to our friends last weekend.

Fortunately, this exposed some wood rot in the floor of the existing upstairs bathroom. That room is due for gutting and rebuilding too, so this should not be a problem now that we know it's there. The old galvanized steel pipe will be going away too. Part of this bathroom will become the new laundry room so I intend to use some of the DWV piping for that, but install new PEX supply lines.

My friend Ed came over Thursday and we tore up more of the kitchen floor. That new Sawzall really eats through those 2" boards like crazy, a real joy to use. We got the debris out to the burn pile via wheel barrow and it went up nicely, along with the lathe and paneling we pulled off the walls on the last workday. We've had a lot of high winds since the workday and I had to go around the yard and retrieve several pieces of the paneling. :)

We also got a good chunk of the fascia on the west side of the barn ripped off and replaced. It was as old and rotten as the two ends had been, but it protected the structure beneath it, all was sound wood. Getting this installed and the guttering up will help to dry out the barn floor during the spring rains.

We were short about four feet of fascia (how did THAT happen?) so I went for some extra fascia board, which comes in 12' lengths which meant the back door of the truck was open a bit to let the board stick out. As I turned a particular corner on the way home the charger, extra battery and case for my impact driver fell out of the back of the truck. I heard the noise and stopped but didn't see it, figured it was an old suitcase falling over in the back of the truck and went on. By the time I realized the loss and went back someone had picked it up. So we had to halt fascia installation for the day. However, another 20 minutes or so of work and it will be up. I went online today and found the right replacement stuff pretty cheap and it should be here by early next week. It helps to have the right tool for the job and I'm not sure how I got along before I had this one.

Earlier in the week I'd started to work on the stairs to the barn loft, however I've run into a snag which I'd love to figure out, but don't think I'll bother to. The three stringers measure out the same, dimensionally. But when I put them in place, the run of the middle stringer is 1" higher than the run on either of the other two. And the rise on the right hand one seems to be one inch farther back towards the barn. The base pad and top header all appear to be level and square to each other, so there is no detectable deviation there I can see. I'm not sure how that is possible, but I feel like I'm working on an Escher painting somehow. Monday I'm going to take them down and lay them on the ground on top of one another and cut SOMEthing to make them all match. This is one of those "Gordian knot" things. I'd love to figure out the "why" of it, but will settle for a functional solution at this point.

Thursday I was able to "let fly" our new homestead's flag, made by my wife's cousin. It is a wonderful "house warming" gift and looked good up on that pole. Unfortunately the wind wouldn't blow when I wanted a picture so I had to drape it over the back fence to give you a peek. It's an outline of some walnut nuts and leaves on a yellow background. It has the same color scheme as a Civil War hospital flag. Not sure why that amuses me so, but I really enjoy the flag.

In preparation for the relaying of the new kitchen floor, I've been doing some reading on what sort of underlayment will be needed. The existing floor is 2" thick, joist to surface, so I've got lots of room to build a nice stiff floor to lay tile on. Looks like 3/4" plywood subfloor, 3/4" underlayment and 1/2" ceramic tile will about meet the existing floor flush. It's a bit tricky because you have to allow the plywood to give a bit with swings in temp and moisture, but sounds like it can be done. It's not the optimum installation, but looks like it might work.

And spring is here! Flowers in the old "sumac patch" north of the barn are popping up! No sign of the sumac coming back, thank goodness!