We’ve had several projects going on here lately. So far, they’ve gone fairly normal for us. As in lots of errors and time.
First, we got a washer and dryer. Yay! Then we had to prep the kitchen for them. Not so yay. The kitchen is the worst room in the house because of the idiot that added to it a long time ago. The walls are covered first in drywall but on top of that they glued linoleum. In some places, a contact paper kind of stuff was put up. The wood underneath varies. One wall, the wood goes sideways for some reason. Another wall, it is green. We moved the sink several years ago (oy, what a trip that was) and put in a new hook up for the washer/dryer we had. That was a stacked set so had only one plug. This new set is separate so I had to put in a new plug.
Things that went wrong: got wrong box and breaker, took them back, got wrong breaker again but better box; box was better but a PITA to get everything to fit; dryer came with wrong cord, went to exchange it, realized that the cord was right but the outlet was wrong, got a new outlet for that; got a kit for the dryer exhaust but not all the parts were in the box. Finally got to spend most of two days catching up on laundry.
(click on images for larger versions)
Washer in place. I’d not yet figured out the cord and outlet didn’t match for the dryer. Check out the glue mess under the window.
Lorna’s putting a clamp on the dryer vent. It keeps coming lose on the other end and I’m going to have to pay her to lay on the floor and use sheet metal screws to keep it in place. Or duct tape.
Clothes almost all done! Yay!
Now we are working on another project. The dog lot extends around the house to include most of the back porch. We’ve had a dog ramp of sorts in place for the dogs to use to get in and out. We’ve never done it right, just kinda faked one. But we decided that with Joella’s hips and PopCorn’s age, we ought to get it done right. That and I don’t think our patches can be patched again. Friday we got all the wood (well, most of it). Today we took the old thing down and began laying out the pieces to do the new one. We did go back and get more joists but we knew we’d have to get more stuff anyway. We have some obstacles to work around. Like the back porch is not level in the least. I’ll get a pic of the ledger board we put up. It looked so crooked that we dug up a 2nd level just to make sure the first one wasn’t broken. Then there’s the mud. Lots of mud. And the dogs who don’t understand where the ramp went. We put up a barrier of sorts because they were in the way. I was afraid we’d swing a joist around and crack someone’s skull. Or break the joist, which ever broke first. Hopefully, we will get it done tomorrow. The biggest obstacle for that is to get the first section (5’x10′) level and straight. Then it will turn at a right angle and will slope downward for 16′, twice the length it has always been.
current top section
current bottom section
Joella not being happy
PopCorn wondering where she is supposed to lay in the sun
Our attempt to keep the dogs away while we worked/argued
Oh, and check out the limb that fell down a few weeks ago. It is still attached to the tree. We don’t know how we’re going to cut it down.
I’ll let y’all know how tomorrow goes. Lorna has to be back at work on Tuesday so we have to get it done tomorrow. Or at least the main framing. I can use Tuesday to put the planks down.