Well after 68 million, 265 thousand, and 900 seconds the story has an ending. On Tuesday the 22nd of October we received the final inspection sign off. It has be a long road but we have finally reached the end. This is not the end of working on the house but it will be the end of this particular chapter and this Blog writeup. Slowly over time I will finish the basement to a usable level and I still have some landscaping to do next year once the weather warms up. Now however, I will be taking it a little easier and hopefully getting to play around in my workshop a little over the winter. I thank those that have followed this Blog and I wish you all the best in the future. I hope this have been informative and maybe usable in your own endeavours.
With this in mind all the best and have a great future.
That's all for now.
Harold
Sunday, 27 November 2016
Sunday, 6 November 2016
Well the upstairs area is essentially done for now
As the title says, I've essentially finished the upstairs area. All that is left is to slowly buy the remaining light fixtures I want and replace the bare bulbs I have now. As well sometime in the future I will most likely make the doors for the upper cabinets. So let's see how we got to this stage.
At the beginning of the month I continued working on the last upper cabinets that I wanted to install in the kitchen. The construction process is the same as the other cabinets. This cabinet will have two cupboard sections on the left side and two shelve sections on the right side. After construction and varathaning they were installed. Here are some photos showing the process. First picture shows the unit during varathaning, you might notice some of the shelves hanging to the left of the unit. To save time I sprayed all the varathane on this unit. Second picture shows installation and last picture shows the extra little shelves installed on the left and cabinets filled up.
While I was varathaning this I also did some work outside since the weather was still nice. First I dug up some dirt on the east side of the garage so that I could make a parking area for my utility trailer. After digging out the dirt I laid a base of gravel for some retaining wall stones and then placed these stones on this prepared base. I laid two coursed just like I did around the house. The continuation of this mini wall will be the outside edge of my driveway when completed next year. I also spread some dirt on the ground on the west side of the garage and graded it for grass seed. I spread grass seed and the weather gods were nice to me and grass has sprouted. Here are a couple of photos showing this work. The dirt in the second picture now has a decent coat of green grass.
Ok now we had some fun. Went out on the third week and decided to finally buy my TV. This TV would be flat panel and hung on the wall. Since I don't have any studs to mount to I needed to be a little careful installing the wall mount. First I calculated where I wanted the TV to hang and then figured out where the wall mount would need to be. I then carefully cut out the drywall from this area and installed a 7/8" thick wood slab that was glued and screwed to the OSB wall structure. I then pre drilled some holes and mounted the wall mount with 10 coarse flat head screws. This TV will not fall down. After the glue dried we mounted the TV and then hooked it up. I now have an entertainment appliance. Here are two photos showing the wall mount and then the TV on the wall.
Earlier in the month I ordered some cast iron railing balusters to use on the front deck railing. They came in mid month and within in the week they were installed. The balusters are secured to the deck by small pocket clips and are slid into the vertical cedar rail piece at the top. Eventually I plan on installing cast iron balusters along the entire front of the deck. Here is a photo showing the west side of the front deck and the finished railing.
Also during the later part of the month I installed the mirror in the spare bathroom. Here you can see a photo of it hanging in place.
Ok we're down to the last two things that happened in October. One I extended the driveway wall eight feet as I still had some stones left. It actually looks like I will be able to extend it another 8 ft this coming month if the weather permits. Then I'll run out of stone and leave the rest till next year. I also started work on installing my weather station. In the section describing the rear storage area the second picture showed the "junk" sitting there. Some might have noticed the black TV tower sections lying there. These will be linked together and raised up on the east side of the garage to act as a base for my weather station. The station is a Davis weather station capable of windspeed and direction, temp, humidity and rainfall. First I dug a 12" hole beside the garage down 4ft and created a rebar cage with three long threaded rods that will stick out of the concrete and allow the tower base to be bolted to it. Once the concrete dried I installed two units together and raised them up to find out where they were in relation the the garage eave. I then picked up some angle iron and have made up a bracket to mount the tower to the side of the garage. At this point I had to stop as I did not have enough hardware to mount the entire tower. I'll finish the installation this week and raise the tower later this week. For now here is a photo showing the base and one tower length lying on the ground.
At the beginning of the month I continued working on the last upper cabinets that I wanted to install in the kitchen. The construction process is the same as the other cabinets. This cabinet will have two cupboard sections on the left side and two shelve sections on the right side. After construction and varathaning they were installed. Here are some photos showing the process. First picture shows the unit during varathaning, you might notice some of the shelves hanging to the left of the unit. To save time I sprayed all the varathane on this unit. Second picture shows installation and last picture shows the extra little shelves installed on the left and cabinets filled up.
While I was varathaning this I also did some work outside since the weather was still nice. First I dug up some dirt on the east side of the garage so that I could make a parking area for my utility trailer. After digging out the dirt I laid a base of gravel for some retaining wall stones and then placed these stones on this prepared base. I laid two coursed just like I did around the house. The continuation of this mini wall will be the outside edge of my driveway when completed next year. I also spread some dirt on the ground on the west side of the garage and graded it for grass seed. I spread grass seed and the weather gods were nice to me and grass has sprouted. Here are a couple of photos showing this work. The dirt in the second picture now has a decent coat of green grass.
Next I decided to dig out some dirt from the rear of the garage and make another storage area for "junk". This time instead of stone I just laid down to rows of 6by6 green pressure treated timber to act as the break between the gravel and the grass. Put down some landscape fabric to help prevent weeds and then spread some gravel. Here is my extra storage area.
Earlier in the month I ordered some cast iron railing balusters to use on the front deck railing. They came in mid month and within in the week they were installed. The balusters are secured to the deck by small pocket clips and are slid into the vertical cedar rail piece at the top. Eventually I plan on installing cast iron balusters along the entire front of the deck. Here is a photo showing the west side of the front deck and the finished railing.
Also during the later part of the month I installed the mirror in the spare bathroom. Here you can see a photo of it hanging in place.
Ok we're down to the last two things that happened in October. One I extended the driveway wall eight feet as I still had some stones left. It actually looks like I will be able to extend it another 8 ft this coming month if the weather permits. Then I'll run out of stone and leave the rest till next year. I also started work on installing my weather station. In the section describing the rear storage area the second picture showed the "junk" sitting there. Some might have noticed the black TV tower sections lying there. These will be linked together and raised up on the east side of the garage to act as a base for my weather station. The station is a Davis weather station capable of windspeed and direction, temp, humidity and rainfall. First I dug a 12" hole beside the garage down 4ft and created a rebar cage with three long threaded rods that will stick out of the concrete and allow the tower base to be bolted to it. Once the concrete dried I installed two units together and raised them up to find out where they were in relation the the garage eave. I then picked up some angle iron and have made up a bracket to mount the tower to the side of the garage. At this point I had to stop as I did not have enough hardware to mount the entire tower. I'll finish the installation this week and raise the tower later this week. For now here is a photo showing the base and one tower length lying on the ground.
Well that's all for now. Next month I should have the results of the final survey in and hopefully have my final inspection as well. See you in December.
Harold
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