The Fence

It was another big week with progress made on lots of fronts and a handful of visitors stopping by. After buttoning up a few odds and ends on the windows, Bob got started on the privacy fence. Oceana and I went to work clearing the last of the Brazilian pepper trees along the back of the property near the carport. We had left these standing to maintain a bit of privacy from the road and the sidewalk. With the trees gone, there was no privacy at all. We cut and drug and slowly cleared out the area. We were a little rusty – it had been what, 6 months since we’ve done that here?! Haha. We made short work of clearing the way for Bob to run the fence – or at least half of it. We stopped clearing around the middle of the shop. If we went any further, we were going to run out of room to pile the branches. I’m sure Tom will be willing to come by and give us a hand with that portion of the work, but that will have to wait for another day.

Fence install

Bob got to work and set the posts with concrete and then strung up the 2x4s. Everything was pretty uneventful except for that root that he cut with the sawzall that was made from PVC and was full of pressurized water. Fortunately it was our water line, and even more fortunately I had installed the shut off valve on our side of the chain link fence. Otherwise I would have had to drive out to 27 to get to our meter. The water line was hidden under a root that was slightly bigger than the water line, so Bob never saw it. I cleaned it up and threw a coupling on and we were back in business. Bob continued on with the fence and got the posts and 2x4s set the first day. The next day he made short work of installing the pickets. Finally. Privacy. I can’t say how much I like having this fence here.

The shingles are gone

After that, Bob kept on with removing the old shingles off of the house. He got them off of the south side of the house as well as off of the gables. There’s no shingles left on the siding anymore! Finally. We’ve got them bagged and tagged and will get them off to the landfill one of these days. There’s some paperwork that will need to be filled out and submitted to the landfill 48 hours in advance of disposal so I will have to plan my schedule accordingly.

Old siding

The old siding looks rough, but most of it is in decent shape. There will definitely be some siding replacement, but I don’t think we’ll have to replace all of it. Take a look at the picture below – there’s evidence of 4 additions. Starting up front – the front porch was an add on to the master bedroom, the master bedroom was an add on to the main structure, then the bathroom was added on to the master, and then the kitchen was added on. Incredible.

Back Bedroom

After Bob (and his helper) buttoned up the exterior work, Bob got started in the back bedroom. He took down some old framing and finalized the framing around the windows. Next he got the exterior walls insulated. Also on the exterior walls, he got the missing areas of drywall hung. There’s still a bit of drywall work to do before he can start slinging some mud but he’s getting there. He also got started with the ceiling framing. We’re going to be adding new 2×4 rafters below the existing rafters so that we have a little more room for insulation in the ceiling. That should help keep the A/C unit from working harder than it needs to.

Visitors

My Aunt Connie and Uncle Ron came to visit the house this week. Connie and my Aunt Suzie came to visit in February last year shortly after we had purchased the place. Their expression when they looked at the property with us was priceless. They didn’t say it, but you could tell that they were thinking we’re a little crazy taking on this house. Connie enjoyed the tour and the amount of changes that have been made since her last visit. It was good to see her and Ron again and to sit down and chat. It’s been too long.

More visitors

We had another visitor this week. This one wasn’t invited though. Any neighbors missing a cat? (just kidding!….)

New A/C

The new A/C unit arrived this week. I’ll still have a bit of work to do before we can get it fired up but at least it’s here. Also, I talked to the guys at Bagwell Lumber about ordering more impact windows for the rest of the house. I found out that if I order today, they can get them here……..in February……..next year. Bummer. It is what it is, though. Guess I should get them on order sooner rather than later.

That’s all for this week. As always, thanks for following along on our crazy journey!