Busy Weekend - Recap

We had a very productive weekend of work.

Friday night we started scraping the floor by hand before finally giving in and renting a belt sander with some 36 grit sand paper on Saturday. We also continued to tear down the lathe and plaster on the wall in the kitchen where the door to the office will be moved to. Moving the door will gain us about 22" - 27" of usable counter space depending on how wide we make the door trim.

Saturday we got a bit of a late start after a trip to Home Depot to rent the belt sander. Josh (Rachel's brother) and Tyler (our nephew) were over in the early afternoon. We spent the rainy day putting together the beautiful fire pit that Josh and Jenny (Josh's wife Tyler's mom) gave us for our wedding. After Sunday's activities we certainly have plenty of fuel for it for awhile! After Josh and Tyler took off we sanded the glue off of the kitchen sub-flooring. Several people have asked me why bother? I think, even with some backer-board underlayment, any ceramic tyle we put down will be susceptible to cracking over time from being walked on. I could be wrong about that, but its better to be safe than sorry. Even with the belt sander though it was a hard job and to be honest, Rachel did most of it. Even the little I did made my arms feel like jelly.

Sunday was a really beatiful day and I'm glad it wasn't rainy and cold like Saturday. Rachel's father (Mike) was at the house by the time I got back from returning the belt sander to Home Depot and already had the chainsaw fired up. First target was a medium sized cedar that was growing too close to the large elm we have right behind the deck. I pushed and pushed while he cut into the base, but it fell right towards our neighbors fence. Fortunately the weight was all on the branches and not the fence. We soon had it disassembled. And I started stacking the usable pieces of firewood under the deck. This is what I did most of the afternoon. Other than a smallish dead redbud, that was the only tree we took down, but we trimmed most of the others up by taking down the low hanging branches. I learned alot about pruning from my father-in-law . Here are some tips for novices.

• Ideally you should prune trees in the fall, but it can also be done in the early spring before they bud out.
• Go slowly and take off small branches. Step back and take a look. You can always cut more off, you can't glue it back on.
• Each branch has a collar of bark where the branch meets its parent branch. Do not cut into this or behind it. Instead cut just on the outside (the part being removed). This collar will grow over the stump left behind and seal it up.
• Use good sharp tools and leave a clean cut.
• Prune rose bush stems at an angle, just above a branch.

Josh and Tyler joined us again in the afternoon. Even with all the limbs on the lawn, the yard looks so much better. We were considering renting a chipper to turn them all into some mulch, but, but I think we are going to just haul them away instead. Once the limbs are picked up and the trees have some leaves on them, we'll post some after pictures of the yard.

Rachel and her sister Amanda also took down the aluminum awnings that were over each window. Someday I would like to have some wider window trim, but for now it is fine. Some people might have liked the awnings, but for us they just weren't working. There is a lot more light in the house without them. Of course priority #1 just became some blinds for the bathroom window!

After Mike and Amanda called it a day, Rachel and I stuck around to work on framing up the new wall and doorway in the kitchen. This is the part of the project I've been waiting for from day 1. We are about halfway done with it as of last night.

P.S. - I forgot to upload pictures from the camera, so that is why there are no new pictures today.