Home Renovation Update

I know you’ve all been waiting for the past few months, praying I’d update you all on What I’d Like to Get Done on My House This Summer.

Well wait no more!

Here it is–the obligatory post to inform you all of the many things that need to get done. At the top of the list is finishing the work that I started last year. (Whoops!) That essentially means I need to scrape the rest of the paint off the barn, sand it up some, and stain it all (Navajo red with white trim, in case you were wondering). This would have happened earlier, but Denisa and I got out there to scrape on ladders, and we discovered that it’s kind of difficult to get any real sort of leverage when you’re precariously perched. So we’ve borrowed these things called pump jacks, which I’ve been assured are the Right Sort of Staging for a project like this.

Now I just need to figure out out to use them, and buy the planks and 2 by 4s I need to put them to work.

So, once I’ve got that done, I can get on to scraping and sanding. Oh–and caulking, too. Mustn’t forget the caulking. Once the barn is in pristine stained condition, I can move on to the second big project outside: building a wood shed. We’re going to be getting a second car this summer, and that means I need space in the garage to store it. Right now, said space has been occupied in the winter by our wood. Since I’ve already experienced the joys of storing my wood outside in a Maine winter (lots of snow and frozen, iced over logs), I need a new place to put it. The plan is to create a lean-to woodshed out behind the barn, big enough to store lots of wood. I plan on having it pretty much wall-free, letting the wood season properly so that it’s ready for winter. Then, when winter comes, I’m going to hang thick canvas or something to keep out the snow and wind. That’s the plan. I had planned on digging big holes for the posts to put then below the frost line, but then I discovered that the barn itself doesn’t have a foundation that goes below the frost line . . . so that pretty much makes that irrelevant.

Those were initially the only two plans for outside, but our silver maple decided to start dropping branches all over the place. Big ones. So the plan to have it pruned or cut down in a few years has been moved up to having it done this year. (It runs right over our power lines, has other branches hanging over the house . . . it could do major damage. Fun.) So we’re getting bids on that right now. If it comes down, we’ll likely have a chainsaw party to get it cut up, with a wood splitter hopefully thrown in. There’s a good cord or two of wood in that tree, after all.

And to top things off, we’re finishing off the floor in the entryway of our house. I’ve already scraped all the paint off, sanded the rest, and now I just have to fix a couple of floorboards, sand some more, then put down the polyurethane.

Of course, we haven’t had all the tools we’ve needed for these projects, so I’ve also been picking those up bit by bit. This year’s acquisitions include a Dremel Multi-Max and a Hitachi Compound Miter Saw. They should be arriving any day. While I’m waiting for them, I’m figuring out just what my lumber needs are going to be, so I can order it all and have it delivered in one fell swoop.

This doesn’t count all the work Denisa is doing in the garden, or the ordering and stacking of more wood for the winter. Yeah. It’s going to be a busy summer. How about you? Got any big renovation projects lined up?