With a little rain some grass should grow

Unfortunately the little rain is turning out to be a fair amount of rain. So far at least the front lawn is holding out. However we still have it looks like 4-5hrs of rain in the forecast off and on. Then 4-5 days of sunshine. So we'll see what happens. So why am I talking about this well lets see what we did to cause this.

On Sunday morning and late afternoon and evening we moved some dirt around to get a layer of topsoil down on the front lawn.
On Monday I moved more dirt until the heat drove me inside. Once inside I decided I could finish off some drywall mudding in the basement. We spent a few hours finishing off the first coat of drywall mud in the second bedroom, the hallway and one of the two rec room areas. Now the only room not given a first layer of mud is the second rec room and the lower end of the staircase to the basement.
As well I installed a piece of Bamboo countertop in the kitchen area. When I built the kitchen area I built a wall to act as the back of one set of cabinets and to provide an area for a eat in bar area. At the end of this wall where it hits the exterior wall I built two small extensions for a small table there. One of the reasons for this was to hide the gas barbecue pipe that came up there from the basement and went out the wall for the BBQ. Well I picked up a piece of Bamboo countertop at Lowes on Sunday that was 6ft by 25in by 1.5in thick. The piece was cut down to fit, about 48in, and then installed on the small wall extensions. The top is quite heavy so all I did was lay down a decent layer of wood glue on the wooden wall tops and set the piece on this. I then laid down the first of many coats of water based varathane. I finished the day by cutting down to size some of the tiles that would be installed over the shower in the spare bathroom. Here is a picture showing the Bamboo table in the kitchen area.

On Tuesday morning the first thing we did after meeting the gang for coffee was to go to the lumber yard and pick up some 1/2" metal screening. I picked up a two ft square piece and nailed it to a frame work of 2by4's and proceeded to sift dirt for the front yard. Initially I spread out the topsoil but it included the odd stone and some larger clayish lumps. For the last inch or so I wanted no large lumps so I sifted the topsoil to remove anything larger than 1/2". This sifted topsoil was then spread out over the front yard area. I managed over the course of the day to spread out enough dirt to cover about 75% of the yard. In between working on the yard I also spent some time indoors to get away from the heat and the light rain. While inside I installed about 75% of the rear wall of the shower enclosure with tiles. I've decided that instead of cutting a thin strip to finish the wall off I would instead buy a 1" tile to act as a decorative border thereby allowing me to install full height tiles. This meant I had to leave the last two rows empty until I could find a suitable tile for use as a border. As well we put the final coat of paint on the upper cabinet carcass for the laundry room and varathaned the Bamboo counter twice during the day. Here is a picture of the tile work as it sits for now awaiting the decorative border.

On Wednesday morning we finished sifting the dirt and spreading it out over the front lawn. I then rolled the entire lawn twice going north/south once and then east/west. Once that was done I took a lawn rake and scratched the surface to loosen up the lop 1/8"of soil. Next we went around and spread some grass seed. Again we raked the dirt to mix the grass seed in and then spread some more. I did this one more time before we again rolled the yard to ensure the grass seed stayed put. Now all we need to do is wait for some rain and sun to get the grass growing. Once this was all done I went inside and installed some shelf track supports in the upper cabinets before the sister and brother in law came over to help install this unit. The installation went smoothly with the exception of one screw. I had marked and predrilled holes in the poplar 1by4's so that I could install screws in every stud on the wall. Unfortunately one screw fell right on the plate that protected the ABS vent pipe in the wall for the laundry tub. So instead of 10 large screws holding it up only 9 are doing the trick. So here are three pictures, first one shows the front lawn after seeding and rolling, the second picture shows the shelf support track and the third shows the installed upper cabinet.

Some of you will notice the level sitting there. Yes it is bang on level. Later in the day I started work on the lower cabinets and the picture below shows their state at the end of Wednesday.

Well for the rest of the week I had to work however on Friday night managed to get a little bit more work done on the lower cabinets. I had hoped to have them at the stage that they might be ready for painting such that I could paint them next week while recovering from my minor surgery however with the rain today I did not bring home the plywood needed to finish the lower cabinets. So as of now this is what the lowers look  like.

Well due to the surgery mentioned above it will be a few weeks before I can get back to work on the house. About the only thing I might do is water the front lawn with my left hand over the next few weeks to try and get the new grass growing. So until I get back to work I will most likely not be writing any updates. I anticipate being back to work on the house in the second week of October so hopefully around 10 Oct I might have an update. 

Until then have a great few weeks.

Harold