Bogieblog

And the Winning Color is -

Saturday I brought home a billion color samples and Benjamin Moore Blue Heather (1620) was my choice. Saturday was not a good day for painting as it was cold with intermittent rain. Yesterday, although heavily overcast, was a bit warmer and no rain. I was able to get two coats on the backside of the house and one coat on the south side of the house. It makes quite the difference and I didn't make a total mess of things.

The guys will be surprised when they go back there today since the two sides they see driving up are the north and front side.

 

Back Porch and Stairs Are Useable

Friday a lot of progress was made on the renovation of the back porch (Previous post, "Slow Progress"). They still have some finish work to do on the porch and stairs, but I am able to use them - and I love it!

The non-pressure treated material is Trex decking in the color "Foggy Warf".  If I were going by the website pictures, I never would have picked that one; I would have opted for something close to the color of PT lumber. But, I trusted Zak (the owner of the company doing the work). When I had indicated I didn't want a darker brown, he suggested Foggy Warf as a way to help tie in the color of the (blue) shed to the house. After seeing pictures from one of his actual projects, I agreed.

The porch sections still need railings as part of the contracted portion. However, knowing that I have excess material, I have asked them to cover the pressure treated boards of the base framing also.

And of course the stairs still need railings as part of the contracted portion. And for an add on, I have asked that they also cover the PT transitions from steps to porch sections.

There is one piece still needed under the door sill as part of the contracted work. The white against the house is the flashing material.

See that dark piece in the picture above? Well, the home improvement center apparently messed up the order and added two pieces of Trex "Clam Shell," which is described as, "an easy-to-match shade of medium grey". In my opinion,it isn't a medium shade, but on the dark side. The home improvement store was informed of the mess up of materials upon delivery (they were extra pieces), but they were uninterested in taking them back at that time, nor have they been interested in picking it up since then (probably cost them more than just writing them off).

Anyway, I had not planned on those dark pieces being part of the build, but realized early Friday morning, that those would be perfect to break up the porch sections and stairs as visual notice there is a level change.

There is also other visual touch up work that I have added. It drives me crazy that there is a waffle pattern at the side of each step, and Trex offers no end caps whatsoever. Zak has figured out a way to deal with that. (the below is a snip of the first picture that is heavily cropped/blown up, so is a bit blurry)

I have been thinking over the last couple of years that I would like to change the yellow portion of the house, and now the new porch gives me both the incentive and the visualization of that new color.

Slow Progress on Back Porch - But Geting There

So on September 9, I had posted about the back porch and ramp being removed. I was hoping the project would go quickly (as were the guys doing the work), but Mother Nature did not cooperate last week. We actually did have a nice day at the end of the week, but they had other appointments so couldn't get here. Then this past Monday, once again it was lots of rain.

Tuesday was a nice day, and they got the porch framed in and the support pads poured.

Wednesday I forgot to take pictures, but there were some SNAFUs, so not much progress was realized. But yesterday, there was a bunch of progress and it is taking on its shape very well. Note the shallow stairs - custom made for me. Not as easy as just buying the stringers for standard steps but I wanted something that would make a nod to my getting ever older, and also make it easier for delivery of new appliances as they eventually wear out.

Today is supposed to be the last nice day for a while and I'm hoping that everything but the roof extension will be completed.

Sign that Summer is Almost Over

The Sweet Autumn Clematis is nearly in full bloom. The bees are loving it.

This is from the northern side, but enough west so you don't see the majority of areas bare of flowers. The tallest part is growing on a 5' pillar. Toward the front right, the clemtis is covering a small azalea. And to the back, right it is covering one of the Rose of Sharons.

This is from the south west side, where you can see the trunk of the RoS. To the right of the RoS, is my poorly planned siting of some turtleheads that get covered so you can't see their blooms. And further back, is all the spent stalks and foliage from the day lilies, and I'm happy those are covered as they would detract from the pictures. The peony foliage still looks really nice and is peeking out on that right hand side.

One of the many bees that were on the clematis (it is difficult to see - look for the pollen patch it is carrying plus the wing). They weren't staying still for long and it is the best picture I could get.

Something else flowering, and attracting bees, is the pincushion flower.

There were actually 3-4 bees around this particular bunch of flowers, but again, the were flitting to-and-fro, so this is the best picture I could get.

 

Rooms Without a View

I'm having some work done on the back side of the house. The ramp and back porch started tilting towards the house in the last couple of years directing rain water and snow melt right to the house. So replacing with a larger back porch (not much bigger), and changing to shallow steps. But first things first. While they have the porch/ramp off, they blocked in the basement and garage windows that are useless (and of which at least 2 of the 4 panes in each were broken/missing when I bought the house) and of which the sills and framing were rotting away.

The ramp/porch removed. Last year I had crawled my way under the ramp and installed concrete backer board over the windows and rotting sills to keep them from getting even wetter (or letting critters in).

Both windows removed and blocked in

Close up of Garage then basement windows blocked in

Basement window from inside. There were some challenges they had to overcome including the safe, that is 600# empty, so wasn't going to be moved out of the way.

Someone on a forum asked why I didn't just replace the windows, or put in glas blocks. Well, here is why not:

Those are where's Waldo pictures - find the windows - LOL. The basement window is under, and partially blocked by the ramp so doesn't really supply any light, nor does it supply an egress (not that the window opened anyway). The garage window is blocked by both the ramp and railings.

In 2017 or 2018 I had covered up inside the basement window with rigid foam insulation and sheetrock,

I had already torn that section out last year when I thought I had someone to do the block work (without removing the ramp). But they bailed on me after doing the outside painting.

Hopefully the new porch and stairs will be installed next week. We'll see how well the weather cooperates as we are entering an unsettled pattern.

Fall Cleaning

Cleaned out my garage Friday and then yesterday morning cleaned out my holding area for might-be-usefull-someday-and-I-don't-want-to-deal-with-it pile that was sitting next to a tree. Usually things disappear pretty quickly from in front of my house, but I seriously doubted much of it would go. But at least it would be easy to put in my truck to take to the dump.

Friday afternoon the first two pictures of stuff went out. I figured the 3 pallets would go quickly. Meanwhile, I went to the dump with all the cr*p I pulled from the garage.

 

3 pallets, gas can no lid, cat litter (from the former neighbor across the street - not a kind I use), rubber mat, and a tempered glass piece

3 pallets, gas can no lid, cat litter (from the former neighbor across the street - not a kind I use), rubber mat, and a tempered glass piece. Oh, and that random small piece of plywood.

Old metal shelves. Those were here when I bought this place and old/rusty then and I had painted them with rustoleum at least once. and two grass catchers from mowers I no longer have. One of those grass catchers has to be from the mower that the previous owner left as it had been used - I always mulch and don't use the bags. The other bag was like new.

Old metal shelves. Those were here when I bought this place and old/rusty then and I had painted them with rustoleum at least once. and two grass catchers from mowers I no longer have. One of those grass catchers has to be from the mower that the previous owner left as it had been used - I always mulch and don't use the bags. The other bag was like new.

Well, nothing left my yard Friday so Saturday morning I put a post on the town's FB page with an honest description of each. Before I even went anywhere for the day, the cat litter was gone. Then I went for an early run to Home Depot (30 miles away) to buy some plastic shelves to replace the ones I was heaving. When I got back, the shelves were gone as well as the rubber matting.

Sunday morning, I laid the 3rd pallet on top of the other two, and realized that dinky piece of plywood went BEFORE the pallets did. And then realized the grass catchers had also gone. Totally strange as people are always looking for pallets around here. Als0 put out the landscape timbers, took this picture, put it on my town's FB page, and less than 5 minutes later a neighbor drives up and loads them up. We talked for a couple minutes about then he leaves and I start on the next stuff.

So then I dig out the 16 full-sized cinder blocks that used to be raised beds, those suckers were heavy and I was glad I have the 4-wheel cart to move them. The holes are full of (wet) dirt and rocks, and again, they were old when I bought this house. I snapped this picture and put it on the town's FB page, the next town's FB page, and the town's freecycle page. I had little hope the cinder blocks would go as I did describe them as probably only good for a firepit or fill.

Pretty soon a guy about 2.5 miles down my road (but in the next town) comes by for the pallets. He was at least in his 80's and I helped him load them up. Then he asked about the gas can (I had left that off the FB description as I had little hope of it going). Well I'll be darned, another item is gone.

Then I get a comment on the town FB ad, someone asking if the cinder blocks are still there. Another neighbor, about 3/4 miles down my road made two trips to get them all so they wouldn't over-weight their SUV.

I also took all the buckets of small rocks I had dug up over the years and stored under the tree, and dumped them in the ditch by the road between the new house and mine. All the water rushing thru the newly dug area had really done a number on it, so I figured kill two birds with one stone (ha-ha); stabilize the dirt while getting rid of rocks.

The only things left at the side of the road are a couple of plant pots I put out late yesterday and the piece of tempered glass. I've tried to get rid of that a couple of times and hate to throw it away at the dump, but I might have to. Actually, I did a lot better at getting stuff recycled than I ever thought I would so I'm happy.

Well, nothing left my yard Friday so Saturday morning I put a post on the town's FB page with an honest description of each. Before I even went anywhre for the day, the cat litter was gone. Then I went for an early run to Home Depot (30 miles away) to buy some plastic shelves to replace the ones I was heaving. When I got back, the shelves were gone as well as the rubber matting.

Very Wet Summer

I haven't talked about rain in a while as it has really slowed down in the last couple of weeks. On the local news last night, they broke it down:

Concord, NH, although having a wet summer (note - meteorological summer is June thru August), it was only the 13th wettest on record. Here is the article/video if interested (which is where I got this screen shot from).

However, other places got much more. Sunapee is a lot closer to me than Concord, but I'm pretty sure I didn't get quite that much as the last couple of big rain-makers missed me. (this pic taken during the TV broadcast).

Mount Washington definitely had it's all time record this summer. The previous record was broken back on August 9, at a bit less than 39".

My guess is that I got right in between Concord and Sunapee totals, so around 20" during those 3 months.