July 21, 2010
link party, outdoor stuff stone pathway Leave a comment
I put a link to our stone pathway project on the site “A Soft Place to Land.” Here’s the link to the page that lists loads of other outdoor projects you can check out, too:
A Soft Place to Land: Outdoor Projects
You can follow the steps in the projects by following these links:
July 18, 2010
outdoor stuff, renovations building a shed Leave a comment
Rob put the windows into the shed today. Here’s the view out the back window.
Rob’s father helped him to put up the heavy plywood boards on the roof. I’ve been helping him by holding up trim boards, handing him tools, moving ladders, etc. I can’t lift really heavy things, but I do help when I can.
Some trim boards also went up. Tomorrow, Rob hopes to add on the drip edge, then start putting up roof shingles.
July 10, 2010
outdoor stuff, renovations, tools building a shed, DeWalt tools 3 Comments
This is the question I keep asking myself lately. Handy Man has been talking about this darned shed for over a year now. He took this week off from work so he could do a lot of work on it. He doesn’t expect to finish it, but he wanted to get the framing up.
We have a garage and a basement, so why he also feels the need for a shed is beyond me. Here is how the conversation has been going lately:
Crafty Woman: Do we really need a shed, too?
Handy Man: Yes, I need more room for my lawnmower, my generator, my snowblower, blah blah blah…
Crafty Woman: Is it possible that you just have too much stuff?
Handy Man: *Sighhhhh*
Rob planned out the expense of all the wood and extra gear by making a few trips to Lowe’s and Home Depot. He made a list of materials and wrote down prices. He bought just enough to do the framing and the plywood this week. In order to spread out the expense (and work!), he’ll buy more materials and work on it more over the summer and possibly into September.
Normally, we are “git-r-done” people when it comes to renovations…I can’t stand letting projects drag out for too long. However, this doesn’t involve any kind of construction mess inside the house (yaaay!), so we’ll complete it gradually and spread out the expenses a bit.
Of course, it was HOT and HUMID this week in New England, so there’s been a lot of sweating and drinking of water and lemonade.
Here’s Handy Man with his ginormous DeWalt nail gun. That thing scares me.
I’ve been helping him a bit, but I stay far away from the nail gun. And we make sure that Handy Boy stays away from it, too. Handy Boy has been entertained by using bits of leftover wood, and his own small tools, to build a chair and a table (pictures to follow).
Looking good so far! So, I’ve been supervising, 
and making sure that the Boys drink plenty of water.
We’ve been WICKED busy this week. In between shed construction, we’ve also been squeezing in some fun with Handy Boy. Also, I’ve been working on organizing my scrapbook paper. Stay tuned for more info on both projects.
July 6, 2010
outdoor stuff, renovations building a shed 3 Comments
It’s been hot, but Rob brought home a huge load of wood to continue working on his shed. He covers up the pile with a tarp at night, although there is no rain in the forecast.
He has one of the ends cut out, and he’s trying to figure out a way to raise the end up. We may need some help! But I’m sure he can figure it out.
More details to come about the shed construction…I told Handy Man to take a bit of a break today from it, as it was nearly 100 degrees here! He worked for a short time in the morning, but then did take a break for the rest of the day.
May 20, 2010
outdoor stuff Hunny Do List, stone pathway Leave a comment
Handy Man has been doing tons of outside work lately, since the weather is finally nice. There are always indoor projects to do, but lately we are on an outdoor kick!
Rob finished the stones leading up to the front stairs. He is glad that the job is done.
Last year, Rob made some mulch beds in front of the house, and added some small bushes. The mulch is rubber, so it doesn’t rot or disintegrate. It does settle a bit over time. I think it looks pretty realistic. We could use to add a bit more mulch this year. I guess I’ll add it to the “Honey Do” list!
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May 19, 2010
How-To, before & after, outdoor stuff How to Stain Decks Leave a comment
We have three decks of varying sizes attached to our house. A few years ago, the original decks had paint or stain (all not matching, of course) that were in varying stages of peeling.
Rob wanted to replace all of the decks with Trex decking. However, the cost was SO high, he decided to stain the decks with a light gray stain. That first job was a lot of work: Rob had to scrape down a lot of peeled paint on each deck, then stain the floors, and the rails, etc. When spring came this year, he knew he had to re-stain the floors of the decks. The rails looked fine, but the floors needed help.
Here’s one shot of the “before”…there were many spots even worse than this; winter and all the snow and ice can be harsh on decks:
To make the job easier, Handy Man used a roller to do most of the work. He used a small brush to get into spots he couldn’t get to with the roller.
Front steps: all done! It only took one coat.
“During” on the back deck.
Side deck and stairs.
Do you have any decks or stairs that need maintenance? It can be a huge job. Has anyone used Trex before?
May 9, 2010
Part 3 of putting in the new stone pathway:
Repeat parts 1 and 2 over and over and over. Handy Man says there are only 10 stones left to put in.
The grass is starting to green up a lot, too. We’ve had a decent amount of rain, mixed in with a lot of sun.
Happy Mother’s Day!
April 29, 2010
How-To, outdoor stuff how to put in a stone path 4 Comments
During the previous step, Handy Man dug about two inches of dirt out of the spot he was working on. Then he placed a stone into that spot, and covered it with excess dirt to fill up the space between the stone and the grass.
Next, he used a small whisk broom to compress the dirt around the edges of the stone. Then he scooped up the excess dirt, and used a push broom to further clean the stones.
Here are some of the stones that he finished. I think it looks great already!
We have had a good amount of rain, and the grass around these stones (and in the rest of the yard) has really “greened up.” Handy Man hopes to work on getting more of the stones in this coming weekend, since it’s supposed to be sunny and warm. We’ll see, New England weather is so unpredictable!
See New Stone Pathway, Part 1 (posted on April 26th) for the beginning steps to this project.
April 26, 2010
How-To, outdoor stuff how to put in a stone path 3 Comments
Over the weekend, Handy Man started work on our new stone pathway. We bought some irregular-shaped stones at Lowes. We researched online, and looked in a few stores first, to decide what type of path we wanted. We wanted something for people to walk on, and we wanted to save some extra wear on the grass there, since it turns to muck in the spring. We didn’t want to make it TOO symmetrical or formal, so we just went with these stones.
I’m kind of embarrassed to show you how awful this part of our lawn looks right now, but oh well!
ALL of the grass was really damaged over a very tough New England winter, and a very wet and muddy spring. Plus, this part of the yard where we walk to the side door looks just awful, since it gets a lot of heavy foot traffic. Handy Man laid the stones on top of the grass, and we walked on them to make sure they weren’t spaced too far apart:
Even Handy Boy had to run back and forth, testing them out:
Then Handy Man took a half moon lawn edger, and cut into the ground closely around each stone.
Then, he chopped up the dirt with the lawn edger…(nice legs!)
…and dug out about 2 inches of dirt (about the depth of the stones) with a garden trowel:
I will post more pictures of the process soon. Some of the stones are in the ground already. Soon, Handy Man is going to work on that area of grass, so we can get it to grow in better. Stay tuned!
February 3, 2010
outdoor stuff roof rake 1 Comment
Well, winter is here in New England, and along with it comes plenty of snow. Handy Man has all the tools needed to clean up the snow, including: a snow blower, shovels of different sizes, an ice chopper and a roof rake.
Yes, you read that correctly. A roof rake. The only people who know what a roof rake is probably live in Northern New England.
Or Alaska.
Here is Handy Man, with a ton of extensions on the roof rake, scraping snow off part of our roof so it wouldn’t collapse in December of 2008:
Handy Man also shovels the snow off our back deck. Lots and lots of snow can get wicked heavy, so it needs to be removed so that decks and such don’t collapse. Here is the back deck, also in December of 2008:
No, this is not the frozen tundra, that is really our back deck. And that is our poor grill out there, buried in snow.
And here is Handy Man, shoveling off the deck again recently:
Handy Boy even tried to help a bit, but the snow was pretty heavy for him:
How about you? Do you have any winter chores that you need to do in your neck of the woods? Love winter chores, hate ‘em?
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