Joy (and Clarity) Comes in the Morning
With more rain in the forecast and my days tied up with clients, Monday evening I was determined to get the two narrow pieces of siding up over the door opening and the back siding installed. The goal is to be entirely finished by the weekend as its supposed to be beautiful and my grass needs to be cut. If I finish the shed I can retrieve my lawn mower from my cousin’s storage locker one final time.
I decided to paint the back panels first, so I brought my saw horses up from the basement in order to paint outside. Even though I was able to carry the full sheets downstairs to cut the side panels, it was a struggle and I decided against that just to paint. I got one panel complete, but realized I would not have enough paint for the entire second panel. I quickly installed the small strips above the door and decided to call it a night. Tuesday I was able to pick up a quart of paint from Lowe’s on a lunch break, so Tuesday evening I started up again.
I painted the second panel and then proceeded to hang the first. I pulled out my house jack thinking this would be a piece of cake. NOT!!! First off it was windy with winds blowing towards me, which meant the panel was being blown towards me and not the shed. I was able to turn my clamps into helpful extra hands, but I could not get that board positioned correctly. I struggled for over two hours, until dark. I accepted the revelation that my wall studs weren’t level; I had a lean that was making it impossible to split the middle of the center stud. I was real close to getting my work light, plugging it in and working until the back panels were hung, but my inner voice spoke to me and said, remember your final door, go to bed. So I re-tarped the panels and did just that.
Rain was headed our way late morning, so I struck out early. Clearly the walls weren’t level, but I knew my floor was, so I screwed three screws to span the 48″ width of the panel were the bottom of the panel should set. They became my ledge. I used clamps to hold the top as it was windier. I got the bottom corner aligned and revealed that the top extended past the edge of structure by about 2″. I needed to draw the structure to meet the board and that I accomplished by using my 50″ clamps. I cranked it as far as it would go and only closed half the gap, so I grabbed my 36″ clamp, piggy backed it on top of the other clamp and cranked until the top corner was flush. Doing so made that panel almost perfectly centered on the middle stud.
The second panel was much easier. I did have to use the house jack as I placed the screws slightly too low. I needed to raise the panel about a half inch. I’m not quite sure what I would have done if the roof rafters weren’t exposed for me to anchor to.
In less than two hours the back was complete, just as the rains started to fall. I know now that placing the rafters exactly perpendicular to the wall joist is crucial. Having level wall studs is crucial, however all in all for a shed rookie working as a solo act, she ain’t half bad. Doors and trim and this shed is a wrap.
coming in the afternoon on Saturday and expected to rain all day Sunday. Bone head move on my part, I decided to start the day installing the drip edge followed by the roofing paper. Well the drip edge actually also goes on top of the fascia. I’m not sure why or how I managed to skip several pages in the plans, but I wasted valuable time and will have to remove it when I do get to the fascia. Fortunately only a waste of about $10 in material.
face trimmers for my dogs and she was kind enough to stay long enough to cook some pasta noodles for me. I just had to heat up some garlic rolls. I’m not sure how I got to age 55 without ever having a significant other in my life, but I sure hope Mr. Right can cook and would enjoy preparing a meal for me to eat at the end of a hard days work. The sauce was fabulous, hearty with a slight kick. I ate it while watching The Way Back on Amazon Prime (not as good as I hoped it would be).
flaky, and tender to the chew. Honestly this is one of the best peach pies I’ve ever had. Not overly sweetened, which made the scoop of vanilla ice cream I had not feel like a put a teaspoon of sugar in my mouth. The peaches were firm, not mushy like so many that I’ve had. She definitely did not use can peaches. Her blend of spices were point on. I most certainly tasted cinnamon, perhaps a hint of ginger and lemon peel too. I’ll definitely get another as a reward for the finished project, this time cherry.
were forecast for Thursday, so I decided to move two of the T1-11 4’x8′ side panels to the basement, so I could cut and paint them. One of the best things I learned by going to the Camp Washington Wood Shop was how to use a straight edge to guide a circular saw cut. These panels were too big to run through my job site sized table saw, plus the side piece cuts were at angles, 23 degrees, according to the plans. I didn’t need to find the degree as the plans showed the low side measurement at 20 1/4″ drop.
plans are working well, easy to follow, but they could have taken a lesson out of the Marion Kent How To Create a Material’s List text book. When my father gave me my material list for our framing projects in the house I had to get various lengths. He maximized cuts from boards, so material waste was minimal. Plans Design listed all 8′ lengths for the 2x4s. Massive waste is occurring. I actually plan to return my roof joist 8’ers and buy 10’ers for the as I could get two from one board. Home Depot would cut them in half for me, need 57″, so easy to get home.
I finally sold my mother’s china cabinet, the last item forcing me to keep a storage locker. I had hoped the garage would have been built by now, so since it is still several months from completion I’m building a lean shed that can hold my lawn mower, snow thrower, and garden tools. I found the plans on Ebay from a company called 
Phase 2, the garage, I’d have a ton of dirt that would need to be blended into the yard. What I was forced to pay someone to do now, could have been incorporated into the garage project. The someone was Robert Jones with Jones Construction Concrete and Excavation who will hopefully also lay the foundation for the garage.
it called a front loader). We pulled dirt from the back of my property as I was trying to minimize the mud field that I knew I’d have once the top layer of grass-weeds was removed. After all I do have two dogs with overgrown coats that will now have more dirt than grass to walk on. Why the government does not consider pet groomers essential businesses is beyond all logic, but I digress.
Covid-19 is slowing down my projects and thus posts, so I thought I’d share something that I hope you’ll find even more uplifting. Steve’s wife Susan is a cellist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and their son Adam is a gifted musician and graduate of the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music. I’ve had the pleasure of hearing this duo live when they played at Norma’s 85th birthday party. In our forced state of Stay at Home, they’ve gotten together to share their talents, I’m sure, to spread joy to all that are missing live classical performances. This is their rendition of Chopin Cello Sonata, Op 65, Adagio. ENJOY!
Zins Plumbing. My basement drains were filled with debris when I bought the house and I used my shop vac to clean them out, so I thought I’d give that a try. No pics of this as I was a hot, muddy, mess by now. I had a 8′ section of metal conduit and I used that to stir up the mud created when I filled the hole with water. I sucked up rocks, glass, wood chunks, mud for two hours. The extensions on my shop vac gave me approximately 4′ reach. I had reached my capacity when finally water started flowing through instead of backing up. Plumbing expense SAVED! My reward for that day’s hard labor……..an Epson Bath Soak. I soaked through sunset listening to jazz.
I’ve been cited by the City of Cincinnati for the outside condition of my house. Apparently they have been sending me letters for almost a year (they’ve been going to my old house), so their final notification to get my attention was sticking a Not Approved for Occupancy sticker on my front door. They want any wood or metal surface painted, they don’t care about the asbestos siding as it won’t rust or rot. Also my front porch is not to code, the side drop is more than 30″ (I guess the 1924 City administration thought differently on heights), so I have to either put a railing on that side of porch or raise the height of the soil.
putting out the ask I was leaning towards Lullaby. While it was a very close vote Lullaby edged out by two, so I picked up my 
