The April Renovation-fest

As if moving tons of gravel wasn't enough (see post below), Viola and I quickly created a list of other small projects that we wanted to have done around the house and property. We tricked my dad and stepmom, Deb, into coming up for a weekend. We said it was going to be a party for Deb...little did they know. The time that wasn't spent at Lowe's was spent working on a Myriad of projects:

My dad and I started out ambitously on Saturday, but got shot down a few times. Here we are sitting up on the roof after discovering that our plan to repair the chimney was well-intentioned, but possibly a little over our heads...so we decided to clean and repair a gutter...it's almost the same.


While this was going on, Deb and Viola were busy trying to clean up the lawn. They removed a bunch of trash and piles of twigs and junk, and got down to removing the wall of cinder blocks leaning against the front of the house (see the first photo of the south-west side in the second post of this blog) so that we could use the space to plant some grass and flowers.

I don't remember the order of the next projects, but let's say it went down like this:
Deb and Viola were going to start bleaching the deck, which had more moss and mildew growing on it than wood was visible, so I thought I'd be helpful and get the hose out so they could wash the bleach off afterward. Well, only then did we realize that there was a fairly large crack in the copper pipe inside the basement, in a really awkward location. It looked pretty grim. But then we had a birthday party for Deb (we weren't lying when we told her we'd have a party), I had a few drinks, and then threatened to repair the broken pipe without the help of a plumber. Here's Deb with her cake, just to back up for a second:

Right, so I've got my Dad worried that I'm going to flood the basement and do more harm than good, he gets me to come to my senses and stop thinking about it, and we all go to bed. Well, when we get up the next morning, the old man had come to his senses and we got to work to sweat some pipe, as we call it in the industry. Here's the finished result:

Oh wait, no, that's my Dad's foot after getting napalmed with hot solder. Let that be a lesson to all of you: never sweat pipe (that's right, I'm in the industry) while wearing sandals. Here's the actual finished pipe. Note the vicinity of the rubber hoses and electrical cables...


Ok, just to make a long blog post a little shorter, we also:


Installed an emergency switch to the furnace. Yes, we did more than just add the fancy "Emergency Switch" plate. We ran a bunch of cable, pouned in a bunch of staples, stripped some wire, yadda yadda yadda...more than just adding the fancy plate. Yes, we're in the electricy industry, also. Just ask Ted and Kristine.


Added lattice to the back porch.


Added some drainage to the side of the house with wood trim.


Installed a dryer vent. Note the before photo where the hose actually went out the window! ...and yes, we made a hell of a mess in our mudroom.


Moved an electric outlet from a weird spot on the middle of our living room wall to floor level. Note: in the first photo, the dog crate isn't ours - it was just there when we first looked at the house.

I think that's about everything we covered. It was a lot of work, but well worth it. Oh, plus we got a new barbeque grill! We're looking forward to using it a lot this summer, so whenever anybody wants to swing by...