20. Yard Work

Haven't posted in four days!!  I have a few updates, but not a lot of new pictures - so here's a generic shot from the front for all you looky-lou's.

Since I was having no luck finding a power meter box replacement cover, on Friday I ordered a whole new box I found on the internet for $70.  I'll simply pop off the cover and place it on mine.  No electrician required.  It should be here on Tuesday, and I'll install it on Wednesday.  I'm hoping FPL won't dally too long getting the power turned on... because Mike the ADT installer is coming on Thurs.  He did say even if the power was off he would put the system in anyway, and come back when the power gets turned on to check everything.

I met with Dave at Superior Trim and Door.  I took my siding sample to him, and discussed having some made to match. I need 160 lf because I'm going all the way to the window rather than have a big seam in the middle, shown by the pink square in the picture.  Turns out that on top of the "blade charge" of $125 the boards would cost me $5.50 per lineal foot which would amount to $880 just for the wood to close up the door on the porch.  Not liking that too much.  Dave gave me a tour of the facility, and explained the process, showing me all the cool wood-shaping machines.  I asked him if I could come when they were doing it and take pictures for the blog and he said he thought that was a great idea.  But don't you get too excited because it may not happen that way.  After I left him, he called and said he had another idea - he had a book of "novelty siding" profiles that were available from a manufacturer and he found one that almost identically matched my piece - and the total would be more like $600.  I liked the sound of that, so I'm going to go in Monday to place that order, so it doesn't look like I'm going to be blogging about any wood-planing machinery just yet.

The City called me and told me the permit for the front door and garage door was approved.  I also received my survey in the mail, so when I go in to pick up the door permit I can make my fence permit application at the same time.

My landscape-artist friend Duke came to the house with me on Saturday, to check it out and help me with a couple of things.  We found somebody's luggage on the front porch!  I'm not letting this kind of thing bother me - nothing was damaged, and I'm sure as people see more activity at the place the situation will improve.  I weed-whacked the front and side lawn, and he took his Round-Up sprayer and hit all the weedy fence lines and everywhere else something needed to die.  Gardening is almost a compulsion for me - it's very hard to wait to work on the garden at Grandview.  It's just silly to do anything out there besides some cleanup and maintenance until the big work is done on the house.  Duke also helped me move some furniture around upstairs and do a rough sweep-up of one bedroom, the first one I will be fixing up for habitation.  We also cleaned out a sliver of space in the basement, and slid in the pre-hung exterior door I had purchased from the surplus place.  By the way this kind of item is going on a running renovation expense list I am keeping - separate from the furnishing allowance I have at the bottom of each post.

While we were there, Rob the Builder popped over for a reconnaissance mission.  I walked around with him and showed him the areas of work I would like him to concentrate on first, and we made up a list of materials for me to have on hand when he starts - looks like the Monday after next.  I don't want he or his brother wasting time running back and forth to Home Depot so I'll be doing all the go-fering.   We talked about the front door and the back deck, but where he's going to start is in the kitchen.  I finally figured out how I want the kitchen laid out and I had my drawing ready to show him.  Of course I'm not doing the whole remodel now, but since he has to put in a load-bearing beam across an opening in there, I needed to have the kitchen plan solidified because once he's done, the main walls aren't changing.  I'll do a post on the kitchen plan, with specific photos, later on.

I also made up a little first-aid kit to keep at the house.  Just in case anyone gets a boo-boo or bug bite.

Balance forward:  $283

$20  first aid kit

Remainder:  $263