15 August 2019
Steve Ingram came over shortly after lunch. Four hours later we had rebuilt the house’s
gravestone front entry steps. Still had
(just barely) all twenty fingers when the job was done! Used five 10 fluid ounce tubes of Loctite PL
Premium® construction adhesive to bind the gravestones together and
two 10 fluid ounce tubes of Geocel Pro Flex® clear flexible caulking
to seal the seams where water could get between the stones, freeze, then push
them apart. The north end of the steps
came out perfect, of course, ‘cause that’s the end that nobody will ever
see. While the south, very visible, end
is less than perfect, Chree says nobody will ever notice but me. You’ve been warned!
14 August 2019
Battled my way through numerous construction
zones on US 7 and finally made it to Lowe’s in South Burlington an hour and a
half later… 50% longer than “usual”.
Returned $700 worth of driveway sealer and defective outdoor spotlights. Then forgot to buy replacement spotlights for
the barn until I was miles away headed south.
Stopped on the way home to pick 7 pints of blueberries. So yummy!
13 August 2019
Removed, disassembled, and cleaned up the front entry
steps concrete pad 2x4 form. Backfilled
around the edges of the pad and replaced (poorly) the front walkway slate
disturbed during this latest bout of construction. That walkway, too, was falling apart and already
on the list to be rebuilt. Spent a
couple of grueling pre-lake hours (oh, my aching back!) this afternoon chipping
off all the PL300 construction adhesive on the 20 front step gravestones, using
my Rockwell Sonicrafter® tool, which happens to have a special
attachment made just for that purpose.
12 August 2019
Wore out my two ½″ concrete drill bits boring 4″
deep holes in the house foundation, so made a quick run to Goodro’s to buy a
new bit and some 2x4’s with which to make a form for the house front steps
concrete pad. Used 2 ton epoxy glue to
ensure that the five rebar pins inserted into those holes will never
pull out. Those pins will ensure that
the pad (and, thus, the front steps) won’t move again with respect to the house
foundation. Manufactured the 2x4 form
for the concrete pad down in the shop then carefully put it into position so
that the form was perfectly level side to side, exactly 16″ below the top of
the porch, and canted ½° away from the
house. Cobbled together Used my
last scraps leftover pieces of #4 rebar to reinforce the edges of the
pad. Just before starting to mix
concrete, took the time to read the information on the bags… (surely my male
union card will be revoked for such egregious behavior). According to that info, the concrete pad
would take somewhat over 12 bags of Sakrete®. Oh, dear!
The one thing you never want to have happen is to run out of concrete in
the middle of a pour. So made a second
(high-speed) run to Goodro’s and herniated myself wrestled 4 more bags
of Sakrete® into the Tacoma.
Once the form was filled up (taking, by the way, 12½ bags of the
concrete mix), Chree helped me screed off the form… which came out looking just
gorgeous… if you’re into wet concrete.
11 August 2019
Used the Kubota’s backhoe to excavate the
monster hole (4″ deep by 3′ wide by 7′ long) for a concrete pad under the house
front steps. What’s the sense of having
boy-toys if you can’t use them?
9 August 2019
Put a first coat of white plus stone dust on the
woodshed ramp Triangle Square Circle logo.
Goodro’s delivered 10 bags of Sakrete® high-strength (4,000
psi) concrete mix, each weighing well over a ton (though the bags were
mismarked “80 pounds”, their actual weight was determined by lifting them off
the truck and onto the Kubota’s forks).
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