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).
8 August 2019
Because Goodro’s doesn’t stock gray paint in
less than a one gallon can, went to Countryside Paint & Carpet to procured
a very expensive quart of Benjamin Moore floor & patio low sheen
latex enamel, code named Englewood Cliffs.
Who comes up with these names????
Applied same to the woodshed ramp upon return to Fern Lake.
7 August 2019
Applied a coat of gray paint to the woodshed
ramp and immediately scattered stone dust over the surface. The stone dust will provide beaucoup traction
to those using the ramp, especially during inclement conditions.
5 August 2019
Did some sanding and hole filling on the
woodshed access ramp. Installed the
first exterior spotlight on the barn’s northeast corner, only to discover that
one of the knobs that locks the light in place was stripped, so the light
wouldn’t stay aimed. Said some bad
words, then took that light back down.
Checked the knobs on the second light before putting it up, only to
discover that one of the aiming lock knobs was frozen, rendering that light
useless, too. This is why I try hard NOT
to buy items made in China! On a
positive note, repairing the barn’s damaged overhead door seal was quick and
simple. Just because I had finally
gotten most of the driveway sealer tar off my body, opened up my can of
foundation tar and liberally applied it to my hands the seam between the
driveway turnaround area asphalt and the stonework on the west side of the
woodshed. Last winter water leaked into
the garage under the woodshed like it was Niagara Falls, with that seam being
the suspected culprit.
2 August 2019
Finished sealing the rest of the driveway, hands,
legs, and shoes. The job used exactly 20
buckets of sealer, equal to 95 gallons because a five gallon bucket is only
4.75 gallons these days. That also
equals 294 square feet of coverage per bucket.
Put an extra thick coat of sealer on the area in front of the 4″ pipe that
drains the low spot on the driveway, as the bottom of the pipe always has been
slightly too high… and can’t be lowered.
A few minutes later, discovered that a chipmunk has been using the pipe
as an underground freeway, as there were fresh footprints in the fresh
sealer. Fortunately, a wet trowel soon
removed the evidence. So, if you see a
Black Footed Chipmunk in the area, it’s not really a new species. The lake level now is 5½″ below the top of
the dock and the water temperature is a balmy 80°F.
1 August 2019
Removed the woodshed access ramp and hauled it down
to the shop for repair and repainting.
The ramp detaches from the woodshed by removing five easily accessible
lag screws. Spent the rest of the day
sealing somewhat over half the driveway, parts of my arms and legs, most of my
shoes, and all of my hands. Before
applying the sealer, needed to pressure wash the driveway. In order to reach the Lake Dunmore Road end
of the drive, 400+ feet from the house, had to borrow both Kate’s and Merry’s water
hoses, plus break into Delores to retrieve her holdings. It turns out that the manufacturer
(Gardner-Gibson, Inc. which, amazingly, is actually a U.S. company), knows what
they’re talking about when they say one bucket of sealer will cover ≈300 square
feet of driveway. Thus far I’ve used 9
buckets, which means that I’ve bought almost twice as much sealer as will be
needed. Of course!
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