2006-02-06

From the other blog site

Taken from former blog hosting site:

West Side Story - Posted at 21:14 on 2005-12-29 by Alf
Tried to get the west side (front of house) door prepared for painting before Christmas. No such luck. Just got the door paint all stripped off today, and some more sanding is still needed, as well as stripping and sanding of the door surrounds and at least one window. None of the this allows for the pressing need to get a serious ladder and make progress with stripping the front barge boards, shingles and weatherboard replacements. Carpentry skills and ladder endurance tests are on the near horizon.

Weather drives progress - if you let it! - Posted at 19:19 on 2005-12-15 by Alf
In summer, the days are often warmer and sunnier than is healthy for spending more than a few hours outside. Despite several very warm (above 30C) days in the first half of December, the back of the house is now finished. Standing in the garden, the place looks great! This allows us to see progress in a well-used part of the house while we are relaxing. This could be called a 'quick win'.
The West (front) and North sides are now being prepared and pressure washed. Today was 33C, so only 3 (early morning) hours were put in outdoors.
We can't claim to be 25% complete yet, because:
  • The East side is the short side and the house is much longer than it is wide;
  • Access will be more difficult on the long sides;
  • The time needed for wood repairs will be higher on the other three sides - all of which are part of the original house (before the rear extension was built);
  • Completion of the front depends on when we can have a new bedroom window made (to order);
  • We now expect to spend more than planned on sub-contracting carpentry work.
Christmas is coming, and distractions abound. However the focus will be maintained to ensure steady progress over the 'holiday' season.

Jammed mulcher and broken bolt - Posted at 19:05 on 2005-11-30 by Alf
The mulcher jammed solid late on Monday, despite being treated very sympathetically. On trying to remove a plate to clear the jam, a bolt head got mashed and now needs to be removed with an extractor.
The tool recommended at the shop is not biting the inside of the (now drilled out) screw. I have broken my 4mm bit in the process and am now jammed myself. I need to come up with a new way to solve the jam and the damaged bolt.
This is all a bit of a bummer, since I'd nearly finished mulching the severly pruned tree cuttings on the north and south sides of the house - most of which we'd chopped back on the Sunday afternoon.
Today is St Andrews Day - but there was no haggis.


Getting in the swing - Posted at 19:04 on 2005-11-28 by Alf
I suppose I need to get used to sitting down for 10 minutes a day and updating the blog. I've been working better (getting more done) recently. We even showed some neighbours the back of our house today. The part we've been concentrating on so far. As of today, the weatherboards at the back are washed down (thanks to Bosch power washing equipment on loan from friends) and ready for their first coat. We did no painting today though, since we had to mulch up a whole load of tree branches we chopped down to make space for painting the South wall. More pruning has also been done today, and my hands (and neck) are sore from shoving branches into the electric mulching device. My ears are a bit numb too. It's a noisy business.

The Place I Left Behind - Posted at 19:43 on 2005-11-19 by Alf
This is the idyllic location I left behind in Scotland:
  • The motorcycle in the foreground is my brother's BMW R65.
  • The background is the local sailing club (my friends and family for my last few months there).
  • The shot is taken from the front door of my former flat.
This is what I have 'willingly' given up!

Raison d 'etre - why I am writing this blog - Posted at 19:20 on 2005-11-19 by Alf
This is about me learning to blog, learning to reflect and to share and to keep me thinking beyond the everyday activities I am involved in. It's a way of getting beyond just 'being in my head' and working on home renovations while considering my career resumption options. The blog is also a journal of what and how I am doing with renovating my house. It is a 1926 California Bungalow (i.e. weatherboard). It needs a major repair and clean-up after 12 years of being very 'lived-in'. The major work is on the outside - wood repairs, surface preparation, painting. The project started on 10 November, when I started scraping and sanding paint off the fascia boards above the back door. The first full week was an exercise in slow progress, with a mix of warm sunshine and a hot day. The weekend brought rain, and I decided to take a break to let me start afresh next week. I found that it is hard to estimate how long jobs will take. I also learned that I am probably too fussy about quality to get this job done in an acceptable timeframe.

1 comment:

Alf said...

The original abstract summary was: A journey into the unknown world of home renovation, time away from office work, and the transition back to earning a living again.