Shortly after we moved into our house in Ammon, we decided we needed a sprinkler system. Since my younger brother had experience with them, he came over and looked at the one that was already in place and decided we could either spend the summer trying to fix it – that included digging randomly in the yard to find long-buried sprinkler heads – or start over.
I opted to start over. He helped to lay out a basic system which I added to over the next few summers. It’s finally buried and done and only occasionally do I have to fix things. But there were two summers at least I spent some evenings and all weekends digging trench after trench after trench with a pick and a shovel. Should have rented a trencher, but I was determined to do it by hand.
This summer is making those summers look easy.
PROJECT ONE: Siding. Last April, a hailstorm turned the siding on the back of the house into Swiss cheese. We spent that summer replacing shingles on the roof, which were worn and also hail-battered. Then we paid for part of the house – the tallest portions – to be done professionally. So the siding matches, I decided I could do the rest of the house. The siding now sits in the garage waiting to go up on the house. My lips are numb just thinking about it. But at least the tall parts are done. . .
However, if I want to park the car in the garage come winter, the siding has to be dealt with before the snow flies. So I think my plan of attack is this:
1. North side of the garage, then wrapping around the lower front portion of the house, including the garage (should be simple, mostly a big garage door on that wall) and then the front of the house under the porch. The bay windows are going to be tricky, but JR, the guy who did the siding on the back of the house, gave me a little coaching on fitting the tiny bits in there.
2. That’ll leave only the back corner by the bathroom/electrical boxes to finish. The bathroom wall should be a piece of cake, though it does involve a bit of a gable going up the side of the garage. Getting around the electrical boxes might be trickier, but I do have an electrician up the street I can consult when it comes to that.
3. Then the harder part – the upper front part of the house should be OK, but the other gable end is a bit taller than I remembered, especially on the back of the house. Not quite sure how I’ll do the tall bits there, but I’ll have to figure it out.
Then there’s painting of the soffit and fascia. Maybe we should just save up our money and have it clad in metal next summer . . .
PROJECT TWO: Fencing. Thanks to Carl, our neighbor to the south, that part of the fence is done. But the rest is weathered and falling down, with one portion only being held up by the neighbor’s bushes. So I’ve got to do some fencing this summer. Likely I’ll get one corner done (eliminating the stress on the neighbors’ bushes), and hopefully also the bit between the house and the new fence on Carl’s side, so it all looks the same over there. Liam, who will be doing a service mission locally starting next week, should be home and available to help with some of this work. This could be our summer to get to know each other better – past summers have seen Michelle and the kids at Scout camp while I’m at home working. Depending on the state of the fence posts, I may be able to get more done than this, but I’ve got to concentrate my efforts on the siding.
PROJECT THREE: Bathroom tile. This is becoming a bigger priority. Might have some water infiltration to deal with. But I have the tools and the talent, so it’ll be Miller Time on that.
No comments:
Post a Comment