In case you were wondering ...

Yes, I did finally finish the deck. Here's a look at it prior to my screwing in the outermost boards, the ones that overhang the stairs and outer edges.

I finished the deck, sealed it and everything, in August, and things have been relatively shut down around here since then. In September, I traveled on business to China for little more than a week, and then it took about 21 days for me to recover my sleeping/waking schedule to where I could get things done. By then, October was upon us, and the garden required a lot of cleanup.

Before we knew it, Thanksgiving was here, and while we were able to decorate the house, it's just been crazy around here.

I'm hoping that I'll get some time this winter to get back at finishing up the upstairs bathroom. Fortunately, the changes we'd made last winter (new faucets and sinks/counter) have served us well, to where we once again have his/her sinks in the morning and can get things done more efficiently. Also, the slower work pace has allowed me to rethink some of the ideas in there around the lighting that we have and the mirrors and the like. So we'll see what we'll do...maybe even less drastic, who knows?

Anyway, that's about all for now! A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours, and here's hoping that 2013 will give me more time to get some work done AND post on it!

Stairs finally finished ...

IMG00838-20120810-1821.jpg
Originally uploaded by southsideandy

Here's the side view...there are a couple more shots on Flickr if you click through. All in all, they're sturdy and solid, and that's most important. Well, that and they look nice too.

I'm pleased with how they came out, though obviously a good carpenter would find a few imperfections (gaps don't match between every single board or step, use of shims to compensate for not-so-awesome stringer cutting).

Nonetheless, this part is done. New handrails, balusters, stringers, risers and treads.

Now, on to the surface decking, which will hopefully be the only thing I need to replace on the deck itself. I'm hoping that the joists themselves are in good shape. We shall see.

risers installed

risers installed
Originally uploaded by southsideandy

Of course, it began raining once I finished the risers and started on the treads. So now I have to delay the work. I have the treads all laid out and ready to go, it's just raining.
I got the bottom tread boards cut (around the posts and attached, with the shims and all.

It's nice and solid, so I'm excited about nearly being done with the stairs, finally. Maybe there will be a break in the weather a little later...

The trouble with time ...

Despite my silence over the past eight months (awakened by my cousin, who "complained" that I never update the blog), things have been progressing, albeit on a variety of different projects here at Building a Better Bungalow.

When we last left you, I was in the process of sanding down the vanity in the 2nd floor bathroom. After much sweat and sanding, I got the whole thing stripped down, and then I got to staining it. I'd never truly stained anything before in my life -- just painted -- and aside from an occasional over-absorption in some areas (which I then quickly buffed out and restained to match as best as I could), I was pleased with the final result.

I then switched out the drawer knobs for pulls, so I had to fill and stain the knob holes and re-drill holes for the pulls. This was a bit more challenging, but I made it through just fine. After all that was finished up, we installed the new sink/counter and new faucets, and now we have two working sinks upstairs (which we did not have prior to the renovation)! It's great to have water pressure in both sinks...apparently the waterfall faucets that the previous owner had installed must have been corroded to hell and back inside, because they were non-functional, for the most part. I was happy that new faucets solved the problem that started us down this road to begin with.

After the sinks became functional again, it was spring-time, and that put this project on hold -- waiting for us to select new light fixtures, new mirrors and get an electrician out to move the light fixtures to where we want them. No more recessed lights, and a center-room light, will be nice! But that will come later this fall, hopefully.

Since spring, obviously, it's been gardening time -- my vegetables have been doing well despite the drought conditions, but I keep them very well-watered. I barely water my perennial garden, and fortunately, they're mostly natives and drought-tolerant, so they're actually doing well, although the ultra-warm spring we had really threw off their bloom schedules quite a bit.

I had hoped to get the backyard in better shape -- get new concrete laid in the back and for the sidewalks, dig up the patio pavers that were the base for the old hot tub and move them to a more functional spot, and plant grass where the hot tub formerly was.

However, our deck, which had been poorly constructed and maintained by the previous owner (and then not maintained very well by us, either, unfortunately), decided to crap out. Several of the stair treads warped tremendously and popped their screws, making for a quite dangerous situation. I had hoped to put off renovating the deck for another year or two in order to totally demolish, rebuild and expand it, but there was no way to put it off.

I decided to pull all the surface decking off (treads, risers and decking) and replace it, because it was heavily weathered and installed incorrectly in many instances (cupped upward instead of downward). Furthermore, the screws that the PO used clearly were not the right screws, as they'd corroded and rusted, which is what started much of the problems.

I considered composite decking, but at the end of the day went with cedar. My parents just had a full composite front porch put in, and I don't really care for the look all that much. Plus, I'm confident that I can take better care of cedar than composite, so I went with the cedar.

I also decided I'd replace the balusters and handrails, so basically I was stripping the deck down to the structural pieces, which were in pretty solid shape overall. I began with the handrails and balusters, and replacing those was surprisingly simple.

That having worked smoothly, I confidently moved on to the stairs, and that's where I stand now. You see, one of the reasons the stairs warped and popped loose was that the idiots who installed them used thicker boards for the treads, but only two stair stringers across about 38 inches. None in the middle at all. In reality, we're lucky we never busted through the center of the stairs.

That meant I needed to add stair stringers, and that's when the fun began. Since I had to add two stringers, I decided I would just get rid of the original stringers as well in order to fix the stair run -- another mistake by the original installer, which gave us a bottom step that was approximately 10 inches off the sidewalk (while the other steps were "standard"). For several years, we've had a limestone step up against our stairs in order to "add" a step. No longer will that be necessary.

Now, little did I know that building stair stringers would be an ultra complicated process. But finally, yesterday, I got the third and fourth stringers secured to the deck. There were several issues that came up along the way, most of them involving the poor design of the original deck, which would not accept any standard style stringer attachment.

So, my reinforced stringers are cut and installed, and they are close to level, though I'll need to shim them here and there in order to get the treads screwed down right.

Then, it's on to replacing the decking itself, and trying to figure out why the PO spaced the joists in some erratic pattern (20 inches apart here, 12 there, no rhyme or reason to it). I'll probably end up having to pull down the joists and either move or replace them as well.

Once again, fixing other people's mistakes. I don't have any pictures currently, but will try to be better about taking some or at least uploading the ones I have on my phone to Flickr in order to share them here.

For now, here's hoping I don't go too long without posting again. Or else my cousin will complain. :)

When a DIY plan works ...

side by side comparison
Originally uploaded by southsideandy

Man, it's great to see the fruits of hard work actually come to fruition.

On the right is one of the faces of our bathroom vanity, sanded down by me (about half with my palm sander and half sanded by hand). On the left is the other face (or, what they both looked like before I sanded the one down).

I'm thrilled that this worked, I really thought it was going to be much, much harder to sand in all the crevices and such. It sure wasn't "simple" but taking my time and tinkering around got the job done.

I've also sanded down about half the face of the actual cabinet, and that's coming off nicely as well. I'm happy that this is going well thus far. Again, it's a lot of manual labor, but that's OK. That's the whole point of DIY -- it makes the finished product that much more satisfying!

The benefits of half-assed previous work...

Well, for once, I benefit from the previous owners' half-assed work.

This photo is the old sidesplash for the vanity/sink top that we're getting rid of in the upstairs bathroom. Note how well this sidesplash was attached to the wall. That bead of silicone seal or whatever it is? Yeah, that's the only thing that was holding it to the wall. It was just resting on the top.

Furthermore, I was pleased to find out that these geniuses didn't bother attaching the entire top to the vanity in any way. It was attached to the plumbing, which was the only thing holding it in place. Nice.

That means that removing this will be much easier, which further means that we can keep the vanity and refinish it, rather than spending hundreds of dollars on a new one. Also, because I'll be able to lift this top out undamaged, I can donate it and get a tax writeoff, potentially, as it won't be a broken or damaged item. Score!

So, today I disconnected the plumbing for both sinks and prepared to remove the sink/counter top when I can get some help. I also played around with the sander, seeing how easily the finish would come off the vanity, and it looks as though this will be pretty much a no-brainer of a project.

More this weekend, I'm sure...lots to do. Also, will try to post some pics as I go along.

It begins ...

As mentioned in my previous post, we've finally replaced the bathroom skylight with roof. Finally, there will be no more leaks.

Anyway, to save money on the final bill from the carpenter, I decided I would finish the interior of the project myself (insulate and drywall), mostly because we've decide to us this as an excuse to partially remodel the bathroom.

What's staying: The floor, the toilet, the shower and the shower surround. Also staying: the linen cabinet behind the door.

What's going: The sink faucets, the counter top.

What's changing:
-- Because we're afraid that a 60-inch vanity won't make it up the stairs of our fine Chicago bungalow (we've had trouble with getting the furniture we wanted for upstairs because of the narrow, steep staircase), and there's really nothing wrong with the vanity at the end of the day, we've decided to sand it down and stain it to our liking, along with the matching linen cabinet. We were going to get two separate, smaller vanities, but I checked and found that the floor tile was not run all the way under the current vanity. So if we had gone that route, we'd have had to redo the floor entirely.
--Currently, there are four recessed can lights in the bathroom. They provide plenty of light, but not the kind conducive to shaving or showering or things like that. I hate them and want them out. I'd like to have a more traditional, center-of-the-room light that illuminates the entire room, and then sconce-type lights by the new mirror/medicine cabinets.
--We're definitely getting a new vanity top and new faucets, so we're psyched about that. We might even be able to use both sinks!

What we're "afraid" of:
--Well, I'm nervous about the water pressure. When we changed out the shower head and toilet up in this bathroom, it solved the water pressure issues in those two areas. I'm hoping the same thing will happen here. If not, we will have to have a plumber come out and figure out how to fix the situation.
--We're not sure how the refinishing of the cabinets will go. Hopefully, it will be no problem at all, and that will save us some real money when all is said and done.
--Hopefully we can get the vanity top off the current vanity without any damage. Otherwise, it's square one for the vanity.

So, here's hoping I can keep up and give you all some great updates, with construction now getting back on track here at the bungalow!

Where the time goes ...

Wow, it has been since September since I posted.

Yikes...well, I guess, though, that makes some sense...you see, we've been dragged away from normality by a few things, so it happens. Here are some updates...

First, at the end of September, we got into a serious wreck on the interstate in N.W. Indiana, heading off to the apple orchard. Fortunately, none of us were hurt, but our Altima sure got hurt pretty badly. After wrestling with the other driver's insurance and her own inability to get a statement in, we were found completely fault-free (which we'd figured), and all was paid for. But this took until the week of freakin' Thanksgiving to get sorted out. With that potential budget drain over our heads, we had to hold back on our spending, just in case.

Next, we bid adieu to my roommate and friend of the last 11 years, my dog, Kazak. His hips had started to really go bad on him, and his appetite was also slipping. On Dec. 7 (the day that will live in infamy, which is the only reason I'll remember that was the day that this happened too), he fell down the back stairs and couldn't get up. His liver, it turns out, had also begun to give out on him. The vet believed he had liver cancer as well, and that it was just a matter of time. That day, at the vet, after carrying him to the car and into the vet, I decided to have him put down. R.I.P., my friend. I know you will.

Then, of course, the holidays always get in the way of things. But, we've moved on since the holidays -- not only have we rescued a young pup from Chicago Canine Rescue Foundation (Pillsbury, or Pils, as I call him), but we also had a carpenter come out and finally take care of that stupid, leaky skylight in the bathroom ceiling. It was a dumb idea by some previous owner -- actually, a great idea, just piss-poor execution...or maybe not. So, here are a bunch of before pictures, to give you an idea of what it was... 

And here is an "after" shot of the roof patched up.

What does this mean? Well, more or less, "We're back in business, baby!"

Stay tuned for my next post...which follows up on these developments, of course!

It's a butterfly garden party...

Butterfly garden party 8/31/2011
Originally uploaded by southsideandy

...and apparently, had I not taken the day off and stumbled upon it, I wouldn't have even known that the butterflies were abundant on the butterfly bush today. While assembling my sons' swingset, I'd look over every now and then, and I counted no fewer than 6-7 Monarchs at one time, and there are at least two yellow swallowtails enjoying the flowers of the butterfly bush. It truly is magical.

Then, later, I took a good look at my swamp milkweed plant, wondering if the added Monarch population could be tied to the addition and growth of that plant since last year. Well, I found a Monarch caterpillar, chewing away on one of the seed pods. So damned cool! I love when nature works out well in my urban garden. I've never seen that many butterflies in one place together other than at the zoo's butterfly tent every year.

Now, to get some hummingbirds to come through...ha!

Tomorrow, the roofing company comes to replace the garage roof. It'll be nice to get that done and out of the way. Hopefully it will be simple and straightforward, with no issues. We'll see how it goes. I'll post pictures of the new roof and maybe some of the work-in-progress. We'll see how it goes.

Final corn harvest...

Garden Aug. 21, 2011
Originally uploaded by southsideandy

Here are the last nine ears of corn from my garden...what a great year for the corn. It did so well. I'm thrilled, especially given that I got nothing last year.

I had to cut down my tomato plants because many of the tomatoes had split, and the whole bed was infested with flies. Maybe they'll grow more before the season is over, we'll see. But I'm not hopeful.

I also had to cut back the cucumber plants, because they were trying to grow on the roof of the garage. In the process I found a few really large, really nicely formed cucumbers.

I'm getting some sweet banana peppers, so that's good. But the red and orange bells are still not really producing. Ah well, you win some and lose some, I guess.

Lastly, I've got a boatload of carrots that I'll need to start harvesting -- good thing I like carrots...hopefully Nicky does too, as I'm probably going to process some of them into baby food. :)

And there's more where that came from ...

success with corn!.jpg
Originally uploaded by southsideandy

Having had no success last year with the corn stalks I planted, I wasn't sure when, exactly, I was supposed to pick my corn this year, which is doing really, really well -- many ears, growing nicely, on many stalks.

So Friday, I decided to pick the biggest one and cross my fingers...and this picture is what I got -- AWESOME! A little dry at the top, but I cut that part off and had a nice-sized cob.

So, our block party was Saturday, and I decided to pick more and serve them up...it was delicious and awesome! There are quite a few ears left on the stalks, so I'm really psyched about it. Obviously.

In other garden news, I picked about 16 cucumbers last week too...now the plants, which are growing like mad (trying to bridge the gap between the arbor and the garage, to grow up on the garage roof), are in "rebuilding" mode, growing a few smaller cukes, but it will be awhile before they're ready.

I'm losing my Big Boy tomato plant (it's dying back, drying out, and I'm not sure why), but it's producing nice tomatoes on its way out, so I'm OK with that. The cherry tomato plants are producing as expected, but the problem has been tomatoes splitting while they're orange (rather than red), which just becomes waste. Nonetheless, the two plants are producing really well, and A.J. of course loves going back there and picking the tomatoes.

The onions were a little more of a success this year than last -- got a few decent-sized ones, and a bunch are still in the ground.

Carrots are still growing. I've harvested a few, but am waiting on the rest for now.

And, sadly, the three pepper plants I bought have been tremendously disappointing from a fruit production standpoint. I've gotten ONE pepper off all three, even though they're growing quickly and large. I haven't even had flower production much, to be honest. Maybe it's been the rain or humidity or both, but I thought the heat would really bring out the peppers...so far, no such luck.

Lastly, the strawberry plants I put in the planters are growing like mad as well...with a few strawberries here and there for the picking. If they survive the winter in the containers, we should have a bonanza of strawberries next year, I suspect.

Corn capacitor, um....corning...

pollinating beginning.jpg
Originally uploaded by southsideandy

Here's a shot of the corn stalks, with pollination getting underway about a day or two ago. More of the tassels have opened up since, and I'm really, really hoping that we get some corn this year. Last year, I had half as many stalks (really fewer than that, because some didn't even sprout), so I'm hoping that this year, with twice as many stalks I'll have more corn. I have silks on a few plants, but I had a couple silks last year too. So we shall see.

The rest of the garden's doing well, for the most part. Carrots, growing nicely; onions, growing OK...taste great, but still kind of on the small-ish side; Big Boy tomatoes, going well; Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes, going nuts as usual; all three pepper plants are growing well, but I only have one pepper to show for it at the moment; both cucumber plants are growing like WEEDS, so I'm going to have an overabundance of cucumbers I think. The only plant that didn't do well was the tiny Yellow Pear tomato plant, which dried out no matter how much I watered it. So I pulled it the other day...I got some Swiss Chard seed from One Seed Chicago (www.oneseedchicago.com) because they wanted to use one of my older chard pictures -- I hadn't planned on growing any chard this year, but maybe I'll drop a few seeds in the spot where the yellow pear tomato plant was and see if I get anything by the winter. We'll see.

Otherwise, I'm hoping to schedule the roofer to come out and replace the garage roof, and also to give us an estimate (and probably schedule time) to replace the damned leaky, incorrectly installed by the P.O., bathroom skylight with solid roof. That should be interesting, as it basically will wipe our "master" bathroom upstairs out of commission for a bit (and will create more work for us, in the end). But, it's gotta be done. The leaks are getting worse, not better.

And, of course, there remains the loads of backyard work that needs to be done, starting with replacing the sidewalks and adding a concrete pad next to the garage by the alley. Still worried about how the hell much concrete work will cost...and kinda scared. :) Any of you Chicagoans who have had concrete work done lately, I'm taking recommendations (and any information on how much the going rate for concrete work is around here nowadays).

"You picked the hottest day of the year..."

IMG00468-20110702-1250.jpg
Originally uploaded by southsideandy

Yes, yes I did. Well, my buddy Luis came over this morning to help me get further with the re-fascia-ing and re-soffit-ing of the garage. My brother Eddie and I did the north face and soffit, and Eddie tore down the rotted fascia and soffit on the east side of the garage last week. I put an additional coat of paint on the north fascia and a single coat on that soffit yesterday, then went to get the lumber for the rest of the garage.
First big score was that standard lumber was on sale at Menards for some ridiculously cheap price...so that was huge.
So, despite feeling like Ted Stryker (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iuc8uWMdaDg) for much of the day because of the heat and humidity, we were able to get the entire stretch of fascia up for these two sides.
The soffit on the alley side actually is the first run of soffit on the garage that is NOT rotted and is in pretty good shape, so that was another huge score -- we left it up and intact, with the exception of a piece near the west corner.
Tomorrow, when it's supposed to be a little less hot and humid, I'll head out again and try to paint these two sides and possibly put up the east soffit.
Then, the west face of the garage becomes the issue. I put up a gutter (haphazardly, but it's there) years ago to stop runoff from bombarding my raised garden beds and to collect rainwater for my rainbarrel. At the end of the day, because I'm lazy (even though I love DIY work), I'm hoping against hope that it's in great shape and that I can either leave the soffit up or leave both fascia and soffit. But we'll see...I'm sure I'm not so lucky.
Then, finally, I can get the roofer out here to replace the roof.

New fascia and soffit ... on one side ...

IMG00466-20110625-1646.jpg
Originally uploaded by southsideandy

Well, my bro Eddie came over to help me rip down what was left of the soffit and fascia on this side of the garage...and let me tell you how brittle it was...quite brittle. For the most part the area closest to the camera in this picture was like paper...which I inhaled quite a bit of...oops. I was hacking up something fierce after we bashed out a few of the soffit boards. Yet, too lazy to go inside and get a mask...as Eddie and I joked, the disintegrating soffit wasn't going to give us cancer any more than our Mom's smoking for our entire lives would. We just kept at it.

The other end was a little more solid, but we got it down, no problem. Then, Eddie went around the corner in this picture and pulled the fascia and soffit off the east side of the garage...so now we have a gaping hole on that side of the garage.

A couple things of note...we had a blast tying two 4x8 plywood boards to the top of the Equinox with pathetic twine, since Menards, apparently, will not cut a plywood board in half for you. That's because they can charge twice as much for the 4x4 plywood boards -- assholes. Had I not wanted to get this job done sooner than later, I would have taken my business elsewhere. So we had to strap the 4x8 boards to the top of the Equinox and drive about 25 mph home through Edgebrook, Jeff Park, Forest Glen, Portage Park, etc. It was so much fun, we stopped at Dairy Queen on the way back to grab lunch.

Secondly, thankfully, the dozen or so yellowjacket nests we found were abandoned, except for one, which was only in its infancy, so there was only one yellowjacket hanging around by it. Fortunately Eddie was not stung when he ripped the fascia off it.

So now I have to put up the new boards on the east side and then rip and replace the south (alley) side and west side, which has a gutter on it (protecting my garden). Should be tons o' fun.

But at least this looks nicer (though not spectacular) and gets us one step closer to erasing any signs that there was a broken hot tub and piss-poorly built "carport" over it. Step by step.

Not in Kansas anymore ...

Well, I did go to Kansas for a few days for work, and I'm back, so that works on two levels here, I guess. While I was gone, apparently, Mother Nature decided to torment Downers Grove and Mt. Prospect residents with a tornado (not near us, thankfully), and some serious straight-line winds and strong gusts.

Our house (and neighborhood, for that matter), fared OK, and so did my garden. One of the tomato plants had been completely blown over, cage and all, and all my corn stalks were leveled. I'm hoping that I can straighten them up again, and I may have to stake them, but we'll see.

Otherwise, things have been so-so here at the bungalow. We have ants, so I tried to get rid of them tonight and will continue to spray outside tomorrow. Beyond that, however, there isn't too much on the docket, other than getting the upstairs carpeting deep-cleaned, which a friend of the family's is scheduling soon. We haven't had that done in the four years we lived here, so really, with the boys crawling and running all over up there, we should get it taken care of.

Then it's on to garage repair and concrete search for the backyard. If anyone reading this in Chicagoland can recommend a concrete (sidewalks) guy, please post in the comments field. I'm looking for quotes to start with, and then we'll go from there.

Probably a little fear...

All of a sudden, I feel as though I know everything I want in the rest of the backyard. I can almost envision it.

Problem is, I'm afraid to start any of it, mostly because, it's no longer a "bang one thing out and move to the next" kind of project -- everything has to be planned for and tied together, or it will look patchwork. Problem with THAT is, there's no money to be had for such a monumental project, especially with the garage roof needing replacement and the skylight upstairs needing to be removed and roofed over. Those two things will cost some dough, and they're definitely not DIY projects, particularly for this DIYer.

Right now, there's still a sand/soil pit where the hot tub used to be, surrounded by bricks and concrete slabs...I want to reuse the slabs as a patio in some portion of the yard...then replant the pit with grass (I'd love to turn it into a garden, but with two little boys growing up quickly, they're going to need a serious play area in the backyard -- like *I* had growing up).

I also want to set up and plant a long thin garden along the west fence, in part to eliminate the grass up against the fence, allowing me to not have to get out the trimmer when I cut the grass, at least there, anyway. But this garden can't be too wide, for the reasons mentioned above.

Then, we have the boys' swing set to put somewhere. I wanted to landscape around it with mulch (or rubber mulch, or whatever), raised up a bit too -- not really for safety (we didn't have that in our yard, and we were fine), but more to give it a feel that it belongs there, as part of the overall landscape back there.

On top of this, the deck really is going to need to be redone in the next couple years, I think...and part of me wants to just do it now, but expand it to the west, along the entire back of the house. This, of course, is where the "no money for that" problem really arises.

So I guess one of these days, I will go out and start measuring, and then maybe sketch out a plan...maybe I can do everything with the exception of the deck, but incorporate it into the design for future inclusion. Who knows? Again, it's not like other things around this house don't need to be finished/started/fixed.

The veggies are ... vegging out...

IMG00445-20110513-1921.jpg
Originally uploaded by southsideandy

Well, I got the back two raised beds turned over, supplemented with more topsoil (erosion in a contained bed? Really?), and planted. I'm trying, this year, to give plants like my tomato plants a little more space to spread out and not overcrowd each other (or the walkways), especially since A.J. will certainly be out picking them with me a lot of times.

In fact, A.J. helped me plant the two tomato plants you see here. He dug part of the hole, and when I gave him the plant to put in the hole, he literally threw it in the hole. Good thing they're resilient. :)

The bed partially visible in the lower left-hand corner has carrot seeds and two more tomato varieties. I have one Big Boy plant and a Yellow Pear cherry tomato variety, just for the interesting-ness of it. We'll see how they do and if the Yellow Pear tomatoes taste any good.

All that's left in the garden now is to fill up the expanded end bed, which is now 4 foot by 8 foot, and then plant my corn. I should be able to pack quite a few plants in there, so I hope I'll get some better ears of corn this year. We shall see!

In other news, I have to get the garage fascia and soffit repaired so that I can have the roof replaced, as it's coming down in the area that was attached to the "carport" that covered the hot tub. That's really important to get done, because right now my garage fascia is open for business for any wildlife to sneak into the garage and make itself at home. Thankfully, it has been too inconsistently cold for bees/wasps, which is my biggest concern, honestly.

Then, we just have boatloads of things that need to be done around here, particularly outside, though not limited to outside. I love my boys, but it's tough to get things done when you have the two little ones running around and all that. And, unfortunately, they're nowhere near old enough to truly help (though A.J. tries and wants to help me with things all the time).

C'est la vie, right? :)

Talk about contagious...

Thanks to Denise over at The Bungalow Chronicles, I too have caught the posting bug and have decided to at least give a 2010 roundup...because looking back, though much was NOT accomplished or was only partially finished, well, we got a decent amount done...so, here goes nothing...

First of all, an unnumbered "accomplishment" was the successful birth of our second baby boy in October. He's a BEAST of a boy...was already 16 pounds and super tall at two months old. I might have to shore up the floor joists. ;) He's been great, has been healthy and is a happy, easy-going little guy. His older brother is fast approaching his third birthday already and loves his little brother a ton. So we're thrilled at that...

1. Finally, FINALLY, laid the floor in the basement...laminate over padding over Platon. The final steps to the basement refinishing, however -- the baseboards, chair rail and crown, as well as the final outlets above the crowns (for rope lighting) -- remain unfinished. That's because of No. 2...

2. Dealt with a serious sewer backup into the basement -- floor performed as I hoped, with the Platon keeping the water away from the floor itself...however, had the baseboards been in, the water would have come up on the floor. This sewer backup seriously hurt my motivation to get the trim work done.

3. Also hurting the overall project work around here was the bill for installing a sewer cleanout in front of the house -- to attempt to prevent future sewer backups by getting the line power-rodded every year. That wasn't cheap...but it's done AND the city replaced several feet of sewer pipe out in the street that had become misaligned and broken.

4. Much, much progress in the backyard in 2010. I tore down the entire east privacy fence, which was falling down anyway.

5. Built a half-raised (to level with the neighbor's yard) bed in the back and planted five shrubs that will provide somewhat of a privacy screen, be attractive AND provide food and shelter for the birds. All key factors I wanted from these shrubs...now, hopefully they'll grow as expected and not get really, really wide. :)

6. Modified and improved my four raised veggie beds in the back and installed patio pavers around all four, making it way more presentable and lifting the pathways to above flood stage. I still have some minor alterations/additions I need to make, but for the most part, it looks good back there.

7. Tore out the broken hot tub and tore down the "carport" providing shelter for it -- the yard looks about a thousand times bigger. I used College Hunks Hauling Junk to take away all the demo debris...they were AWESOME and I would recommend them, for sure.

8. Finally, in the very late (but warm) fall, I built a chain-link fence in the east gangway to replace the freestanding privacy fence that, again, was falling down. The last entry on this blog shows the first post going in. Well, I busted my butt working by floodlight at night even to get the fence up, and I only got some help from my buddy Luis, digging the post holes and sinking some of the posts. The rest I did myself, and it wasn't too bad, I'd have to say.

Maybe, if I can hold up this motivation, I will post a "2011 hopes" entry soon...until then, stick with me! :)

chain link posts done...

one post done.many to go.jpg
Originally uploaded by southsideandy

Well, there's been a lag in updates because Gina and I welcomed our second son into the world nearly two weeks ago. But, here's a picture of the last thing I did before the baby was born. :)

I had dug this post hole, and I knew we were going to the hospital the next day, so I wanted to stick the post and lay the concrete. Done and done.

Now, over the past two weeks since, my buddy Luis came over to help me dig the other post holes and stick a couple other posts. Today, I finished the posts up. It's "easy" hard work...and, I discovered, it's best done during the day. One post that I hurriedly stuck during the week after work as night rolled in is, of course, slightly off...not happy about that, but ah well...We'll see what happens, I guess...

Anyway, the chain link fence is almost done...I'll post some pics once I get it going. Now, to go take advantage of the end of Daylight Savings Time and get that extra hour of sleep...aw yeah! :)

Just another brick in the ...

Paver path around veggie beds
Originally uploaded by southsideandy

Finally, about a week and a half ago, I finished the paver path around the four raised veggie beds. It actually looks better than I thought it would, to be arrogant and honest. I did all the work myself.

Just for recap, since this is a bit of a DIY blog...I basically followed the directions I found everywhere for laying patio pavers. The beauty, though, is that I didn't have to dig one inch here. See, this is the area that floods about 5-6 inches deep. So, there you go.

I bought basic paver stones from Menards, as well as the paver base and leveling sand. It took 300-plus paver stones to do this spot (keep in mind, there are three paths that branch to the left between the beds too).

I threw down bags and bags of paver base first. Built it up about three inches or so. Because of the space here, though, the hard part was the tamping down of the paver base. I had to buy a tamper tool and do it by hand (really, by arms and back). One thing I realized though, too, was that rain actually does a really good job of settling paver base for you as well. Since this took several weeks to complete, I found that out during the process. The rain settled the paver base quite well.

I then got the leveling sand and put down about 1-1.5 inches of it, filling in with pavers as I went...leveling each individual one as best as I could, all the while keeping with my (non-level, for drainage away from the garage and out toward the alley) line.

The tricky part was up against the fence on the right, for two reasons.

1. The fence panels now go below the level of the paver path, but I had to find a way to prevent the sand and paver base material from running through the fence pickets into my neighbor's yard -- both permanently AND temporarily. I didn't have the room to install those plastic paver stakes (I wasn't taking the fence down and then putting it back up), and I didn't want to "waste" space either. I ended up buying plastic garden edging -- the rigid plastic, not the rubbery, flexible stuff. I pounded it down into the ground a bit and then kept it wedged tightly between the paver base, leveling sand, pavers and fence pickets. You don't even notice it, really, and it should hold up over time. The fence is likely to wear down before it does.

2. Some idiots (looks in mirror) didn't put the fence up exactly straight, as evidence but the second full row of pavers on the right. That last "freestanding" post is a hair too far to the left of the straight line of the fence. And, as we all know, a hair stretched out over 16 feet of pavers creates a real pain in the ass. So I had to cut about a dozen pavers LENGTHWISE to fill in that gap. Thankfully, I got a wet saw for cutting the end pavers (since I used a running bond pattern) and was actually able to knock out all of the cuts in about two to 2 and a half hours.

For the fill, I wanted something that would not just be sand and flow out of the areas in between over time. So I bought polymeric sand...got the Quik-Crete paver bond stuff. Had heard mixed reviews about it, but I had confidence that I could do it right, and hopefully it would harden up nicely and last. So I swept in about a bag and a half (50 lb. bag) slowly and thoroughly, and followed the directions to mist it lightly a couple times. I built up (as you can see) a couple mounds of it around the fence posts too, for added stability and to try and help prevent washout (or wash-in) of any materials. A few days later, I went out there and checked, and the mounds were solid as a rock. So, score!

For now, as you can see, I have a board at the close end -- I'm going to have to cut that board down, both ways, so that nobody trips over it and it looks a little more "purposeful" there.

But overall, it's really allowed the beds to look nice, and I'm hoping it really helps diminish the flooding problem back there (given that it's now "high ground"). At the very least, I won't have to stand in mud and weeds galore while working in the garden, and that in and of itself is fantastic!