Friday morning blues
Oceana, myself, and our one week old little chickies made the trip up on Thursday night. Friday morning we were back to work on the screen porch. Last weekend we got the rest of the trim work done and got everything caulked and primed. This weekend we finished doing some body work on the seams, plugging screw holes, and doing some last minute prep work before starting to paint. Initially we focused on painting the upper part of the posts as I was hoping to get the screen system installed on Saturday and wanted those areas painted before screening. Oceana did a great job on the painting and got 2 coats of blue on all of the posts and got one coat on nearly everything else.
Plugging the screw holes in the drip ledge 
Sherwin Williams Duration paint. Hands down the best paint available. 
Oceana getting started painting 
Lots of progress 
The blue really makes the panels pop
The electrical panel is bad. Real bad.
While Oceana was painting, I started pulling wires for the outlets around the front porch. I used a laser to set my boxes and to layout all of my holes through the studs to keep everything looking tidy. Last thing to do was to pull a home run back to the electrical panel. Easy peasy. Let’s just open up the electrical box and have a look………oh boy! This isn’t good. The main power lines from the meter were loose at their connection to the breaker. One wire was partially charred. The other wire was also loose but didn’t show any signs of charring. After fixing that I got rid of anything questionable (and there was a lot of questionable items) and added circuits back in one at a time. With everything safe in the panel, I finally was able to suit up and pull the wire through the crawl space. Done!…for now…..
Setting boxes and drilling holes 
I’m getting suited up to go into the crawl space 
Looks like someone’s pulled wires into the box before… 
Oh geez. Count the code violations! 
This looks like a great spot to improperly splice wires 
First time I’ve ever seen a wire pulled through a mounting screw hole.
Bye Bye Banyan Tree
After the electrical, it was time to take down more of the Banyan tree. Tom came by and dropped off the dump trailer again so I got started on filling it up. I climbed the banyan tree, pulled up the chainsaw, and dropped a few big limbs. Banyan trees actually break down pretty nicely. Meaning when they’re cut up, they don’t take up too much space when packed well into a trailer.
Pulling the chainsaw up 
Limbs are down. Time to get to work!
Campervan to mobile salon
Saturday morning Oceana took the van to see her clients in Orlando. Since the whole coronavirus deal, her salon suite has been shut down. Because of that, we converted the campervan into a mobile salon so that she could still see a few of her clients. She ended up doing 5 hair cuts and a color. Nice work!
Screen porch. Almost…
Saturday was screen porch day. I finished second coating a few areas with blue paint and then started on the screening. The screen system is called screentight and is sold through Home Depot. They didn’t carry it in stock around here so I ordered it online and had it delivered to our house earlier in the week. The screen system is pretty simple – it consists of a black backer piece, screening, spline, and the white caps. The backer piece has grooves to hold the screen and spline. The white trim snaps in place and easily pops off if a single screen panel needs to be replaced. I worked my way around the porch and found out when I got to the last panel that I should have ordered a 52′ roll of screen. Unfortunately I ordered a 50′ roll. So close! I added in a leftover piece and will replace that panel next weekend. Oh well. It still kept the mosquitoes out!
First side done 
Those screens look great 
Screening in the south side 
So close! I’ll pick up a small roll of screen and finish up next weekend
More Pictures!
Here’s a few more photos for your enjoyment
The chickies are tired after the drive 
Oceana and 3 chicks 
I’m about to head out into public 
This is such an amazing shot
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Hi, Jake and Oceana! I stumbled on your site totally by accident a couple of days ago, and was immediately completely taken in by your project and blog. I currently live in Alabama, but have decades old ties to Lake Byrd – grew up at 98 Lake Byrd Blvd, and spent many fun hours in your “new” house during my childhood in the 1960’s. I so admire your ability to accomplish such a tremendous amount of work in such a short time! Also love your positive and good natured attitude with all the unpleasant surprises you’ve encountered. Thank you so much for sharing this journey. I’m looking forward to watching the transformation!
Hi Jane! We’re glad you found us! I’d love to hear some of your stories about the house. I’ve enjoyed learning about the history of the house and Lake Byrd. Thanks for the kind words and we’re glad to have you following along.
Oh my gosh, each weekend post gets more and more amazing in the way everything is coming out beautiful. Including the van renovation. What a talented person you are and a hard worker Oceana is. Beautiful job.
Thanks! Steady progress makes big changes. We’re real happy with how everything is starting to look!
The screen porch looks soooo nice! The blue trim really sets off the design. It’s amazing how much you guys get done in a weekend. I’m glad to see the banyan tree go…it really hindered your view of the lake. Oceana is a great mother to those chicks. Wishing I could hold them… So glad to see that you have invented another use for the camper van. It looks like a beautiful salon! Keep up the GREAT work both of you!
Thanks! We really like how it looks with the blue on the porch. The chicks are back up with us this weekend. They’re already starting to fly! We had to put a lid on their cage.
Great update, as usual, Jake and Oceana! I’m loving the dejavu experience… i.e., seeing you working in person (as Lake Byrd neighbors/fans), then seeing the “reruns” in your blog! 🙂 Just let me know when you’re ready to spread the word here about your mobile salon. I know at least one person on the lake who would love to support your business with a haircut! (Hint: If this were Facetime, you’d see her looking at you right now.) Cheers!
Love that full face mask! You can never be too safe out in public.
I’m not that much of a internet reader to be honest but your blogs really nice, keep it up!
I’ll go ahead and bookmark your site to come back later.
Many thanks