project new shed day 4ish

wow, the dek block system rocks. put the block down on a semi level surface and then cut a 4 x 4 block to level out the joist. i kept wanting to square things up and make things perfect. brad was constantly saying "you don't need to, it will take care of itself." but seriously, if you have lot's of rocks in your yard. or you don't want to dig and don't care about seeing a couple of blocks underneath your deck. (i'm sure you can hide them somehow). then dek blocks are for you.

i'm sounding like a commercial. so far it's been a couple of hours each night and brad doing all the work and last night the deck boards started to go on. (yes all by themselves)

on these pictures you can see the 4 x 4 post cut to size to level out the joist. they are toe nailed (screwed ) in. then it's easy peasy from there. (like i would know). so far brad hasn't really let me doing much of anything. i don't exactly know why, but i think it may have something to do with him thinking it would slow him down. and he is right, i would be slow but it's not like i've never used tools before. when i was in the theatre i built a lot of things and used a lot of tools. big tools. tools that i wouldn't touch today. but where was i? oh yeah. the top deck boards have started going in. soon i'll be ready to set up my new metal 8 x 10 shed. that came in a 3 x 6 box. doesn't seem quite right, sizing wise that it. but...when it comes to assembly i don't question, i just pull out everything, make sure all the pieces are there and i read the instructions.

until next time.

project new shed...day uhh 3ish?

things have been happening a little at a time on the new shed. we stopped work last thursday. we took the weekend off. well brad took the weekend off. he had the kids and was working on his plot of land. so on saturday i dismantled the old shed 1 screw at a time. no using the sledge hammer. i patiently unscrewed each corroded, molded, painted over screw on the old rusty shed. now the pieces are stacked up in a pile waiting for haul off.

monday we set the corner blocks for the deck. pictures will come later. yesterday we laid all the other blocks and the floor joist. oh wait. we laid all the blocks but 1. that will happen tonight. so maybe by tomorrow we will be ready to put the floor boards on.

oh concrete ye will nary get the best o' me

this specific concrete that is. ok-so last night was the night to see if we (brad) could break up the concrete enough so we (brad) wouldn't need the jack hammer i was going to rent. i had an idea of what to do with some of the concrete chunks. i am recycling them to make a flower bed wall. they have a rustic flare and lots of edges. and frankly i don't give a shit. what else was i going to do with the concrete pieces? i have sink holes but i really didn't want to fill them in with concrete and my other option was to throw them out into the woods.


i get home, change clothes and head out to start putting the big concrete chunks into my new red wheelbarrow. that i of course cover with thick plastic so the concrete wouldn't scar my new red wheelbarrow. anyway, i soon find out that there is of course a wire mess sheet underneath the concrete. after a lot of hitting and smashing from brad we realize that what we really need to do is remove the wire mesh and then just maneuver the concrete pieces around so we can set the dek block underneath all the rubble. cause that's what it's going to be. rubble. i mean look at it, thousands of rocks. we both vote to hide it.


a little into the job brad has to leave, before he goes i try out the sledge hammer. not to bad. kind of fun. got safety glasses. (i did have brad take a picture but it was staged and didn't turn out good) while he is gone my goal is to pull up the wire mess embedded in the concrete. which i did. i am proud to say. i was exhausted and i could barely lift the sledge hammer but i did it.

the wire is NO longer embedded into the concrete. there is still concrete attached to the wire, but as brad says "no problem, take a sledge hammer to it". which i plan on doing tonight.

to recap-in the beginning my intentions were to remove all concrete from the area so the dek block could set on the earth. now after the destruction and the realization that there is way to much rubble the the rubble will be moved around to accommodate the block. brad and i are too lazy to really clean it all out. and since a deck will be going above it it sounds like the perfect solution.

i need to add that after a good 30 or 40 minutes welding a sledge hammer, not constantly of course, that i only feel pain in the sides of my lower back. and even that isn't to bad. i have a splinter that is causing me more pain.

project "new shed" day 1....kindof

so after all the spending i have been doing fixing things that were breaking around the house i decided to go further into debt and start a project that i was more or less in control of. i have needed a new shed for...well...longer than i have lived at the house. when i bought the house the shed came complete with rusted metal panels and leaky roofs and doors that wouldn't shut completely and were dented. well maybe that is my fault. my car decided to run into them one night when i forgot to pull up the hand brake. but anyway. the shed sat on a reasonable facsimile of a concrete base. it was crumble and crackly and hopefully will make the extraction of said concrete base easy.

project "new shed" was officially started yesterday. even though i cleaned the shed out on sunday...mostly.

one of the things i forgot to do was to take a before picture. so when i came out with my camera phone brad (who i need to mention is a stud) held the shed back up so you could get the idea. it was already on it's side by the time i remembered.









at this point i should say that i was close to being a little stressed because all the screws wouldn't come out of the shed. i was wanting to destroy the thing in an orderly fashion. that didn't happen. that wont happen. bf brad just explained that it was no big deal that he could break it apart using the sledge hammer and proved it. "let go, let goddess".


look at it now. all compacted into one flat pile. it will still need to be dismantled a little more but i feel much better about it.





now onto the concrete base or the reasonable facsimile thereof.











this is the base that will have to come out. with the help from brad i am going to put the new shed on a deck. using lumber of course and dek block. cause i HATE to dig.
i have reserved a jack hammer for friday. but brad tried the sledge hammer and is thinking we may not need it cause so far it seems soft enough to break. or whatever allows concrete to break easy. so if he wants to use his he-man muscles to break apart the concrete who am i to argue. he's good like that.

let's see how the rest of the project goes. luckily i follow directions well. but i do tend to become over whelmed if i am allowed to look at the big picture. as long as i can keep focus on the task at hand and brad doesn't loose patience with me it will all be good.

today i need to buy a wheel barrow. so until next time.
toodles.

i love a rainy night

oooooo weeee. i love me some sleepin' in the rain with the windows open. i don't know what it is about that but i love it. i sleep better and deeper. i especially like the faraway slow rolling thunder. not that i know that it's there most of the time cause i have been known to sleep through thunder storms right over my house. which doesn't bode well for me if a tornado decided to show up. but i so enjoy listening to the sound. before i had my gutters replaced back in december the old gutters had many, many holes in them. most of the holes happened to be right beside the windows. you knew immediately that it was raining. it was also loud but not in a obnoxious way. i remember the first time it rained after i had new gutters. the sound outside wasn't quite right. i missed the loud fast dripping right beside the window. now if the windows are closed it's very hard to tell if it's raining. my house is very sound proof. it's because my ceilings are thousands of pyramids. but that's another story.