Garage is lifted

Lifted the garage today. I have to say I'm a bit nervous to get that big puppy off the ground. None of the studs or corner posts are touching the ground.

Today I've cleaned out the concrete, dirt and debris. I've laid a frame for the concrete.

This picture shows the space created by the jacks--to bad I have to take the whole thing up five more inches! The one side has sunk almost a foot over the 92 years. Concrete will mend the space under the structure and give me a place to lay a new pressure treated sole plate.

The bottom of this two by has been eaten away. With a new footing and sole plate, new pressure treated two by studs should keep that side of the garage from sinking. That is if the thing doesn't fall in on me.

The Garage is Straight!

Today my neighbor, Pat, came over with an idea to straighten my garage. For years the garage has slowly settled, slanting to the left. After I hit it over the winter, the garage took a turn for the worse. The garage door broke making it impossible for me to get inside.

Pat's idea was to use two by fours as something he called bow braces. He put one end of the two bys against the foundation of his garage. Check out the pictures below.

The two bys flex one way then when they are pulled up they flex back pushing the garage in the opposite direction.

I then spent a few hours cleaning out the foliage from behind the garage and installing several pieces of plywood. This will help keep the garage straight.

Here are some braces I installed the other day. The bow braces beat the hell out of the idea I had. I planned to have a bunch of guys come over and push it Amish style, until it was straight. Then screw the board in quickly to brace it.

Here the three bow braces flex and hold the garage straight.

The whole set up from a far. Amazing job!

Here is the pudding. The garage is straight. Now I have to figure out a way to brace it from inside. I have a plan but need to order long two by sixes to hold the structure tight. Next steps--ordering a dumpster to clean out the garage and take off the roof. Then new roof, electric and siding to match the house!

Bathroom finishes

We finally found a vanity we liked for our bathroom!

Porch rails complete!

Yesterday I took advantage of the time off to finish up a late summer project-my porch rails. They are a bit of a pain to install and more expensive than the wood ones I built ten years ago. Thankfully I'll never have to paint them and they will look ok for a long time.

Porch railings

This weekend I winterized the house putting away summer stuff. I ripped out the porch rails I built 13 years ago to install vinyl rails. No painting and they always look nice was a big factor in redoing them. This picture shows the first post installed then I ran out of time.

Boston Red Sox room

A few weeks ago I gave an idea to my friend that wanted to do a Red Sox themed room for his son. I though. It would be cool if he had the left field fence from Fenway Park- The Green Monster. I could see it sticking out of the wall a bit rather than painting it on the wall like a mural. My friend called me yesterday and I offered to start it with him. We got 2x3s, 2x4s and mdf board. We made a nailing frame and screwed it to the wall. This defined our space for the "fence" and gave us something to nail the mdf into. It took us a few hours, getting materials from home depot included. In the end the green monster sticks out from the wall two inches and once it's green it will really look good.

Front walkway

Last week I took four days to redo our front walkway. Eleven years ago I did interlocking pavers for the walkway to the patio. It was the first time I had ever down something like that. With a few under my belt now I felt confident I could get this one done quickly.

Day one we removed the grass and began to dig down to a depth I had already determined. Three shovels in I hit tree roots and that was the start of back breaking work. It took me the rest of the day to dig out.

Day two I had base rock and sand delivered and ordered the pavers. Two great companies to deal with. Really liked the guys from R. T. Masters, Webster, NY. I had them put it on the front yard. My son had already destroyed the grass playing baseball out front so I wasn't worried about the grass. My advice would be to get the pavers delivered as close as you can to the work. I then used a plastic wagon to bring piles of the different stone to the work area.

Day three I rented a plate tamper and began packing down the base material. I kept the rock wet and it really packed down. I should have laid the sand down and tamped that too but I had to return the machine. Not sure what the right thing to do whether to tamp the sand out just leave it loose. I began to lay pagers and got halfway finished. My kids came out to help me cart pavers or shovel Sand from time to time. On this project my son Jack seemed the most willing to help out. Nice to see him that the responsibility rather than older sister, Kate.
Day four it took me all day to lay the pavers. About eleven o'clock I saw I was running out of two sizes of pavers. I ran to R. T. Masters to throw them the mini van. Too heavy but they offered to bring me some within an hour. At home I kept working and the delivery showed up right in time-I had just run out of pavers. In the end I was able to finish by cutting only four pavers! Threw in poly-something sand to fill in the gaps and project complete.

Clean up was on another day and that stunk.