The contractor set up a tent to beat the heat of the baking sun.
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He started work on the framing.
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And then my husband went out to talk.
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And talk, and talk, and talk.
At the $55 an hour we’re paying this guy, I could do with a little more work and a lot less talk so I hauled the husband inside and got him busy organizing some of his old magazines and newspapers.
Bad idea. Very bad.
Because as soon as he found some interesting ones?
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He took them out to show the contractor.
And then he talked, and talked, and talked.
Jesus wept…we’ll have to remortgage the house before this is through.
And if Jesus weeping wasn’t bad enough?
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The heavens decided to weep that afternoon as well.
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Torrential rain, heavy downpours and big mud puddles.
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Left us with very little progress.
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But there is a great big tool trailer parked on the lawn.
One afternoon, when the temperature was near 90 and the humidity level was almost as high, my husband decided it would be a good time to start ripping up the old deck. You know, the one we hired a contractor to rip up and rebuild.
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It was hard, heavy, hot work. Which is why we’re paying someone else to do it.
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An hour or so into the demolition, said contractor showed up…
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And was a little surprised the husband had already started the project for which we’d hired him.
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But they worked side by side, in the heat…
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Because no one told him husbands who are bored with retirement need to keep busy.
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In less than three hours…
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All the rotted old wood planks had been ripped up…
Home repair projects are lining up faster than ever here at Casa River… and if my husband wants to go back to work instead of enjoying retirement? Then I’m going to spend his reinstated paycheck hiring a contractor to fix the things that need to be fixed.
New driveway? Done.
New windows for the master bedroom? Ordered.
New back deck? Materials being delivered today.
And then there’s the disaster we call a living room ceiling.
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The one that’s been damaged by roof leaks for the the past decade.
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( It doesn’t really look this awful, I had to increase the contrast for the pictures)
Thankfully the cause of the leak was finally found and repaired, but it’s left us with a mess that’s been screaming for help.
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Our house was built in 1974 and an addition was added in 1994. This bump out to the living room included a support beam like structure that has been nothing but trouble.
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It’s slightly sagging in the middle and of course it was also water damaged.
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The problem in fixing and replacing it…. is we don’t really know what’s up there. The only access is through a tiny hole in the den closet and though my husband has crawled up there numerous times, there’s no attic and no way to reach that particular area.
After one contractor quoted us $25,000 to fix it sight unseen, and another quoted $35,000 to completely rework the trusses, we despaired. But the guy who will be doing our back deck and windows agreed to give it a go and brought over some fun equipment to investigate.
This required moving the furniture into a pile on the other side of the room which Lord Dudley Mountcatten did not appreciate.
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How can you fling your mouse off the couch when it’s right next to the coffee table?
Oh, the horror.
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The first step was drilling holes in the ceiling.
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Second step… threading the spy camera lens into the holes.
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Third step… trying to figure out what the hell you’re looking at.
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Fourth step… drawing a highly technical schematic.
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The contractor wasn’t pleased with the outcome, something about overlapping beams and braces and trusses … but agreed to repair and replace it as best he could. This will involve an utter mess and temporary load bearing devices which I’m not looking forward to, but it has to be done.
And until that day?
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We have a beautiful Swiss cheese ceiling to enjoy.
Now that the driveway replacement is complete, it’s time to battle the ditch from Hell.
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This feature has been the bane of my husband’s existence ever since we moved to this house 21 years ago.
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It runs the full length of our property on both sides of the driveway and was dug (illegally as it turns out) by the previous owner.
Our neighbors on the left don’t have a ditch.
Our neighbors on the right don’t have a ditch.
The farm across the street doesn’t have a ditch… but we have a ditch that over the years has been caving in, filling up with gravel and broken road tar and becoming a nightmare to mow, weed whack and kept clean.
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My husband had the grass growing all the way to the road until the town in their infinite wisdom decided to scrape the sides down to gravel last year.
This increased the caving in by making it more unstable to snow plows and mail trucks that ride on top.
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Needless to say we’d had enough of maintaining said ditch and asked the driveway company what it would cost to lay perforated pipe the entire length and cover it with dirt we could seed and mow a flat lawn all the way to the road.
We were told nothing could be done until we had a signed permit. So we went to the town… who told us to go to Maine public works.
So we went to Maine public works… who told us to go the state DOT.
So we went to the state DOT… who told us to go to the town.
After a week and a half of this insanity I wanted to repeatedly stab myself with a fork… but my husband figured marching up to the capitol and finding the head man would be more productive. So that’s what he did. He found the guy who’s in charge of every single road in the state. He explained the situation and arranged for this overworked fellow to visit our property in order to give permission for us to fill in our ditch.
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Head guy came, head guy looked, head guy listened, and said he had to talk to legal.
A week later head guy called with a denial.
To which we wanted to say…
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The lame excuse he gave was this…. if he granted permission for us to fill in the ditch, who’s to say the next owner wouldn’t want up dig it out again.
What the …. what?
Who cares!
To pacify my irate husband, he agreed to visit us again with a proposal that the state could come and dig out the ditch, build up the sides and make it more stable… at their cost. Which sounds good in theory but in reality would just put us back to where we were 21 years ago with a steeper ditch that’s harder to keep clean. And I hate to say it, but we aren’t getting any younger.
Now that the driveway renewal project is complete it’s time to turn our attention to other areas of Casa River that need help…. starting with our back deck.
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Granted it doesn’t look bad from far away.
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And the husband did replace the old wooden railings with these snazzy new metal ones 3 years ago…
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But on closer inspection you can see it’s time for a change.
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This viewing hole was not planned… just the result of dry rotted wood.
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And seeing that it was a direct result of staining this old deck that blew my knee out in 2020? I’m done with old wood.
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If you look closely you can tell this deck is actually composed of two different sized boards. On the left, the original wide planking. On the right, the already weathered, thinner cedar deck boards my husband hauled home from a yard sale because – wait for it – they were free.
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The size difference has driven me crazy for years, but since we’re if it ain’t broke don’t fix it New Englanders … it’s only now that our feet are in danger of breaking through that the whole deck will be replaced.
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With oh crap this stuff is expensive TimberTech composite boards. At $96 per I’m not looking forward to the bill, but if I don’t want to break the leg of my already damaged knee… it has to be done.
One long, dirty, noisy, and inconvenient process later….
After.
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Pardon the little puddle. It’s been raining every day for a freakin’ month.
Before.
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After.
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Before.
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After.
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Before.
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After.
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It’s an amazing difference and I can’t wait to drive on it.
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Since we had the crew replace the culvert as well, sod or grass seed will be in our future.
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But the husband is currently battling with the state DOT to fill in the entire 300 feet of ditch which has been a nightmare since we moved in 20 years ago and doesn’t want to start fixing the lawn until he has a definitive answer.
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The old driveway was a straight shot to the road but now we have a nice open curved entry and no immediate ditch to worry about driving into on dark nights.
The crew pulled in at 7:30am with the big machine but a lot had to happen before they fired up that baby.
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Spray painting for instance.
But when the dump truck with the hot tar arrived, things really kicked into high gear.
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The bump out parking area was the first spot to be paved.
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And I have to say … those laborers I photographed sitting down playing with their phones really earned their pay this day.
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Time is of the essence when the tar is hot and they were positively trotting while dumping wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow full of the heavy stuff into place.
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It’s a whole lotta work.
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In front of the garage by the kitchen porch was next.
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And I’m sure the crew thought the lady who lives here was nuts for running from window to window to take pictures of the progress.
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A little portable packing and smoothing later, that section was done.
As we wait for the smoothed dirt to dry on the newly torn up and backfilled driveway, a word about the inconveniences of this repair/replace project.
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Ours cars now have to sit outside in the elements for the week it’s taking the crew to do the job and probably for 2-3 weeks after that. Forget the fact that Ethel, my Subaru, is a garage virgin and has never spent a night outside…. not being able to use the driveway means the only place we can pull into our property is way out here.
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Which makes walking to your car in the rain and hauling groceries back to the house a right royal pain in the *ss.
And since we contracted to have the culvert replaced?
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Our mailbox had to go as well.
Trying to predict what time the postman will drive by so I can run out there to meet him is getting old fast.
River's world..... 