Now that, that's done on to the work we did this week.
On Monday after work I spent some time backfilling the small retaining wall on the west side of the house that I built last week.
On Tuesday I first started by pulling weeds and filling up the trailer for a second load of weeds to the dump. For reference here's a picture of a trailer load of weeds.
After we went to the dump I went to the local lumber yard and picked up some Poplar 3/4" plywood and some 3/4" solid poplar lumber. This material once brought home was turned into a carcass for some upper cabinets in the laundry room/back entrance. The lumberyard cut my plywood in half so I had 2 pces 24" wide by 96" long. This was easier to transport and easier for me to handle as well. Once home we cut one piece into 37" long pieces and then proceeded to rip these into 12" widths. Luckily the original panel was almost 49" wide so we had one 24" wide piece and one 24-1/2" wide piece. I now had 4 pces 12" wide and 36" long. I notched out two pieces on the back sides of these panels to accept a piece of 1by4 poplar. The lower piece of 1by4 was grooved to accept a pce of 1/2" poplar plywood for the bottom of the cabinet. I then cut down some more of the lumber into 1by2's for the face frame. The top pce was rabbited to allow the top of the cabinet to fit into the rabbit. I also rabbited the bottom pce to accept the three lower pcs that would make the base of the cabinet. Hopefully some pictures will help later on. Once all the pieces were cut and ready we started the assembly by dividing the four side panels over the 92" length of the 1by4's. The upper cabinet will be 36" tall by 92" wide. Later the bottom cabinets will also be 92" wide but they will end up around 40" high and 24" deep. The 1by4's were glued and screwed into the notches on the side panels. Then the upper front face 1by2 was glued and screwed followed by the top plywood. Once that was done we installed the three bottom pieces and then glued and screwed the lower 1by2 face frame onto the plywood. All that was left was to install the 4 pieces of face frame on the front of each panel as well I installed some 5/8" filler strips on the plywood behind the face frames in the location where the hinge plates will go. I did about half of this in the morning and then went outside to spread dirt while I waited for an appraiser to come by to check out the house for my bank. They needed this done before I can receive a Home owners line of credit/mortgage to provide money to finish the house. Once he was done off to the lumber yard to pick up the screws I needed and then back home to finish building the carcass as described above. Here are some photos showing me cutting the plywood, then all the parts prior to assembly. Then we have a photo from the rear of the cabinet showing the 1by4's in place followed by a picture from the front showing the filler strips and the completed face frame. Later in the evening we pulled more weeds to start filling the trailer for the third and final load to the dump.
On Wednesday I started by finishing the weeds on the dirt pile and then taking the last load to the dump. Once this was done I moved the upper cabinet carcass onto the deck and proceeded to round over the majority of the edges as well as giving a final sanding with 120grit paper. As well I had earlier applied wood filler to the screw holes to fill them in prior to sanding. After sanding we touched them up with a little more wood filler and once dry sanded those areas again. After this was done spread out a tarp on the deck and proceeded to prime the entire cabinet. Unfortunately the humidity was extremely high that day so there were times my sweat was dropping onto the paint. However on the positive side the paint dried quite quickly allowing me to put the first coat of Semigloss on the carcass that evening. However this time I moved the carcass into the house on sawhorses so I was not sweating as much. In between painting went back to the lumber yard and picked up some more 3/4" poplar plywood and lumber for the lower cabinets. Their construction will be very similar to the uppers however larger and I will also have drawers in two of the sections. The third section will house a laundry sink. As well there will be an indentation at the bottom for a toe kick. After this was done we again went out in the evening and moved a few more wheelbarrow loads of dirt. Here are some pictures showing the carcass with primer and then paint as well a picture of some of the pieces for the lower cabinets.
On Friday evening we spread a little more dirt and then painted the majority of the uppers with a second coat of paint.
On Saturday we spent the majority of the day moving dirt. However I did take a break around noon hour to spend some time building the stairs to the front porch. Once that was done and it was a little cooler again we went back to moving dirt. Here are two pictures showing the stairs which are functional just not complete, still need railings. As well the second picture shows the front yard after numerous loads of dirt, some racking and then rolling to pack it down. Once the entire yard has its first layer of dirt I will then carefully spread out more where it needs it and then roll it again. Once that is all done I plan on taking a leaf rake and loosening up the top 1/4" of soil and then spreading out grass seed. Then raking it again, spreading out more grass seed before rolling it for the final time. Then we'll need to start watering the yard however I hope mother nature will help in this.
Well that's were we are right now. I hope over the next few days to finish spreading the dirt out front and hopefully even get it all prepared for grass seed. The hope is to have this seeded prior to my going under the knife. I may not be able to do much work but I should be able to spray some water on the seed daily with my left hand. Well we'll how it goes. I'll let you know next week.
Harold
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