new front door

I've been staying at the Bennett hose so away from my borrowed computer and internet access so this will be a bit of an update. I can't seem to get the spaces.text and pics where I want on this post...sorry.

the old front door

The front door I got from Re-Store: I filled the old mortise lock holes and reset hinges to match existing door jam and hung the door.

my bed in living room

The living room is finally painted and I cleaned most of the old paint spills, splatters, and such from the floor and added new 1/4 round. New windows are on order.

3/4" 1/4 round

The 3 grape plants finally get in the ground.

New electric boxes on ceiling in bedroom and kitchen.

The kitchen cabinets get cleaned up and knobs/pulls added and "patches" over holes in the fake wood doors on real wood fronts.

Four of us went to a church parking lot and picked apples from 2 trees near the street in Maplewood. We each left with a good quantity. I hope to cook them into sauce and freeze.

At Bennett the access hatch to the crawl space slab is in place-still needs finishing touches(trim, hasp, handle, etc) . The living room wall work is done and it's all painted. I ordered new windows that I will install in a week or so.

Back on Route K: the new electric service wire/cable that will go from the pole to garage was installed today- Boone Electric will come by and hook it to pole and power soon I hope. The old cable had lots of cracks in the insulation so, in a recent storm, the wind blowing the cable caused a live wire to short to ground- which then broke the ground cable in two.

new concrete ready for framing in opening

The opening to the concrete floored crawlspace/storage area below the rear closed in porch room was repaired with a new post and a patch spliced to the old corner post as well as the new concrete curb to keep the sill off the ground. It is framed up waiting for some sheathing/siding and a door for access.

framed in and ready for sheathing and door/hatch

New blue stripe tires for the 1983 Schwinn and a new cargo rack on rear as well.

new 5/4 x 6" gutter boards-before painting

At Bennett the gutter board is up and gutter and down spout reinstalled. Next I tore into the rotted wood under closed in porch area. I poured a concrete "curb" for a sill and will make the opening an access to area under porch for storage.

rotted below grade wood framing and old cedar post

old wood removed

new concrete "foundation"for new framing and post repair

 

rear fence along alley

The hole in the fence was repaired with some donated salvaged fence boards.

building the reinforcement add-on w/special angles

putting the pieces in place

the reinforced rafter ends and gutter board support

At the Bennett house-the yard is being addressed and I started replacing and sistering wood to repair the rear gutter board. It will get a new board all the way across before I'm done.

Red Dog watches the ducks

the ducks have their own house

 Clifton heights Park near the Bennett house

 extension ladder made a good ramp/slide

cable from pole is pulled from garage + ground broken

On Route k- the electric line came down in a storm and needs attention so I went for a look-see and I picked up a load of misc. paint and tools and supplies to use on the Bennett estate. Oh...and I brought the freezer back too -so I can now make me ice box for refrigerating me food stuff, using blocks of ice made in my efficient freezer.

On Minnesota- T was dancing with bees.

new stops are in place in basement

The new bathroom sink plumbing is in place in the basement ceiling and in the general area up in the bathroom- and all the new stops/valves for all the various hot and cold supplies are in place too. Today I bought a round sink from Re-Store for $10 that I'll build a corner mosaic counter top for. Also, I purchased a used 32" exterior door to replace the existing one with.

the vines coming off the fence along side yard

The yard workis moving along with a helper coming by after school.

More plumbing today. I was hooking up the claw foot tub with new waste/overflow and supplies and a scrounged faucet when I realized the drain line(fairly recent pvc) had no trap for the tub waste. I already knew the bathroom pedestal sink was improperly plumbed with no trap...but the tub too? So I cut and capped the existing hard to reach drain(bathroom outer wall hangs over the foundation about 24") and re-routed it inward to a reasonable and accessible area and included a trap.

Here's a picture of the structure that was possibly a fish pond. It's concrete foundation seems to run quite deep and be substantially built. Maybe it will become a foundation for a tool shed- like one that overhangs the foundation 12" on all sides, making it about 6'x6'. Or possibly a fire pit. We'll see- it needs to be excavated a little more to determine if there is a bottom.

the stack has some fresh paint on it also

At Bennett: Saturday was such a hot day, so in the cool basement with help, 1 long wall was scraped, washed and then painted with a mix of 4 cans of scrounged paint- a fairly white mix, not quite flat that covered well. A great improvement.