Tag Archives: building

I’m ready to cry Uncle.

October 9, 2020 Rivergirl 28 Comments

First it was not at all temporary temporary doors. Then insulation and a ceiling and new light fixtures and floor moulding and quarter round.

Now?

The husband is installing strapping to cover the plywood ceiling seams.

Technically this is finish work. And we all know that is not where his talents lie.

Was the strapping straight?

Not so much.

Of course when I helpfully pointed that out, I got booted from the barn/man cave/Maine Taj Mahal.

When I went back 2 hours later? He informed me the strapping wasn’t right and needed to be redone.

Hmm. Why didn’t I think of that?

Cutting and more cutting.

Cutting around the light fixtures I tried to tell him to center 2 weeks ago.

But all the cutting resulted in straighter lines.

Aggravating? No doubt.

But…

We did have gorgeous fall foliage in the background so I’ll call it a win.

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And then there was wood.

August 3, 2020 Rivergirl 16 Comments

But you probably guessed that from the first picture.

More specifically it was 16 foot long boards that weighed a ton and had to be dragged out of the big barn and across the lawn with yours truly trying my best not to drop them on her toes.

Of course it would have been too easy if they’d fit in the 16 foot long spaces. Where’s the fun in that? No… each one had to be measured and cut around the wonky interior frame.

After tar paper was laid out.

Why tar paper? Because the husband wanted a moisture barrier… but more importantly, because he already had two ancient rolls buried in the garage.

What was holding down the tar paper as we attempted to fit the boards you ask?

Absolutely nothing.

Good times.

Was it hot?

A mere 92 degrees in the shade.

Vintage tools and make shift tables?

Check.

Did he have enough boards?

Not really.

Were they all the same width?

Of course not.

Did he care?

I seriously doubt it.

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I thought we were done!

July 30, 2020 Rivergirl 12 Comments

The baby barn.

It really is the gift that keeps on giving. Like venereal disease, but with splinters.

As you know, the baby barn had a hard packed dirt floor when we remodeled it. It had a hard packed dirt floor when we moved here 18 years ago and it had a hard packed dirt floor when it was originally built sometime in the mid 1970’s …

And for some inexplicable reason, the husband removed some of that hard packed dirt when he was redoing the frame.

So for the last few months there’s been a decided drop off at the far end.

I’ve said repeatedly he needed to back fill that section and level it off, but no.

I walked out there the other day and found him busy with a shovel instead.

Removing 26 years worth of hard packed dirt.

Why?

I’ll let him tell you…

Good grief Charlie Brown!

The man is a sucker for punishment.

22 wheelbarrow loads full of dirt dumped on the outer edges of our property line later….

He had a smooth playing field…. and an aching back.

And I was called in to assist.

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I needed a holiday from the holiday.

June 19, 2020 Rivergirl 19 Comments

Our last day of the long Memorial Day weekend meant a morning of yard work.

Tag team mowing with the husband on his new toy and me slogging along with the old push mower.

It was a gorgeous day.

The pear tree was blooming.

The mallows I’d planted were thriving.

And everything had finally turned green.

Except the baby barn which I decided to start painting that afternoon.

Let me preface this by saying I used to love to paint.

I used to.

Until I had to use an artist’s tiny brush around all the nooks, corners, flashing and crooked angles on that beast.

Did I wear some paint, get covered in dirt, rip my pants, tumble off a ladder and work until almost 8:00 at night?

Yes I did.

But paint was applied.

And covered a multitude of sins.

Three sides done, one to go!

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Baby barn progress.

June 4, 2020 Rivergirl 26 Comments

So work continued on our project from Hell.

Trim completed, we started shingling the back half of the roof….. and if you know anything about the baby barn?

You know it wasn’t going to cooperate.

Oh, the first row was perfectly level.

Unfortunately…. it was also 5/8ths of an inch short.

If you’ve ever done roofing, you know what a nightmare this is. Tiny little strips of shingles had to be cut for every row and you can’t put them at the end. No, that would be too easy. They had to be tucked somewhere in the middle so it didn’t screw up the pattern… which meant cutting one other shingle on every row as well.

Time consuming? You could say that.

It literally took us all friggin’ day to do the back half of this little roof.

Okay, so the fact that the husband bought the wrong size flashing at Home Depot the night before (because he went without me and therefore to the wrong store) and then had to go back to Home Depot to return it the next day and get the right size flashing (again without telling me and therefore to the wrong store ) and because Home Depot doesn’t sell the right size flashing ( we’d bought the right size flashing across town at Lowes a month ago ) he also had to take a trip to Lowes.

The moral of that lengthy run on sentence? Tell your wife before you go somewhere so she can tell you you’re wrong. It will save you time and aggravation….. and she’ll thoroughly enjoy it.

No, that ridiculous waste of time didn’t help.

Of course, yours truly telling the husband he should have checked with me first didn’t help either…. but you know I had to.

Needless to say I put some physical distance between us after that comment.

I’m not sure the big barn porch was far enough, but at least it was out of hammer strike range.

So progress was slow, but it was progress.

And here’s a picture of a spider carrying off a dead fly….

Just for variety’s sake.

And then finally it was done.

But I didn’t get a picture because I was inside cooking dinner.

Hey, you’ve seen one crooked baby barn roof, you’ve seen them all.

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And we’re back.

June 1, 2020 Rivergirl 25 Comments

Baby barn work commences…. again.

And I have to ask – are we the only ones who take a year to remodel what is in essence a small shed?

On second thought, don’t answer that. I don’t want to know.

So we’ve moved around to the back half to finish our utterly favorite part…..and by that I mean the hellish nightmare that is angled trim work. I believe we’ve established we suck at this and not wanting to break tradition, we still do.

How badly do we suck?

I’m glad you asked.

Badly enough to require shaving corners with less than modern tools if you’re my other half.

What….

You mean 1940’s saws aren’t still viable members of the tool arsenal?

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Yes, that’s always my reaction as well….

But the husband says it still has life left in it.

Corners were turned…

Though not all of them where they should be…

As the poppa barn ( who’s still screaming for paint and agrees with River how wonderful he would look in a nice rusty red with white trim ) looked on in horror.

To be continued.

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I think I have to go there!

April 9, 2020 Rivergirl 27 Comments

(Please try to refrain from telling me where to go, although I know it’s tempting.)

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Fair enough.

But since we’ve previously established my fondness for rocks…. it shouldn’t come as any surprise that I had a sudden itch to visit Spain when I saw this:

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