Tag Archives: Home Re-Construction

Tales of us working on our house.

When things go not as expected…

Ponderings, ,

Today I had one goal: to clean up the shed that sits next to the house. It’s more-or-less the tool shed/garden shed/storage shed. During the winter months it tends to get a little neglected and things pile up in it since I don’t like to be out in the cold.

So I start cleaning at around 11 this morning. I’m pulling things out of the shed and stacking them outside in nice, organized piles. I’m even disposing of items that “need to go”, and sorting out the remainder. During the cleaning, I move a shelving unit and what do I find? A HUGE pile of termites and pulpated wood. Crap! Not good. Especially when you live in a 116 year old home made of—you guessed it—WOOD!

termites and pulpated wood
termites and pulpated wood

After showing my findings to the husbear—who has been working in yard landscaping—we investigate more and find the floor supports have been eaten and some of the lower walls were showing signs of damage.

the husbear and the now removed floor and wall
the husbear and the now removed floor and wall

After discussing our options, we decide to raze the shed instead of having it treated and replacing the damaged wood. I guess this pushes ahead the plan on replacing the shed. The new, replacement shed was on next fiscal year’s “to do list”.

Razing the shed complicates things. Now I really have to go through everything, disposing of all sorts of things I collected over time (which was a problem anyway). We took what didn’t get disposed of up to the peafowl shed for temporary storage.

stuff piled up everywhere
stuff piled up everywhere

We knocked down the shed today, and the husbear will start cutting it up tomorrow on his day off and take the remnants up to the wood pile for burning. We want to get it away from the house as soon as possible to avoid any termite contamination. I guess we’ll also have the termite company come out and inspect the house again just to make sure.

the husbear looking studly on his deconstruction
the husbear looking studly on his deconstruction

What a day. All I wanted to do was clean up the shed. I guess this was one extreme way to do it.

me and the husbear after a full day of deconstruction
me and the husbear after a full day of deconstruction

All that, and I still somehow managed a smile.

Until next time...
Erik

Sometimes, it’s the not so little things?

Ponderings, , ,

Drop your pants here
Yesterday, the husbear finally got the new front-loading washer and dryer that he has been wanting for years. We have had the last “old school” set since we got together almost 11 years ago. I’m not sure how long he had them before that. It’s not that the last set quit functioning—they were just not efficient in either water usage or energy consumption.

It’s funny—he was giddy and washing everything in the house. Giddy over doing laundry!

As always, we picked them up and installed them ourselves. And in the process I did something not-so-wonderful to my back… again. Ugh.

Until next time...
Erik

More Closet Space

Ponderings,

There are no closets in our house, with the exception of the one we built in the downstairs bedroom. This was just the nature of homes back when ours was built. People were usually taxed on the number of rooms they had in their home, and a closet was actually considered a room. That’s why so many older homes didn’t have closets, and the occupants stored their items in hutches and wardrobes. These days, we keep lots of stuff around—more than we should.

We needed clothing storage in the upstairs room that is now the Master bedroom. The only place to add the closet was in the adjoining bedroom and use the pass-through as a portion of the closet. In doing so, we made the other upstairs bedroom smaller by about 27.5 square feet—which is now closet space for the Master bedroom.

Until next time...
Erik