More Home Improvements

I had some serious plans for the early part of this week to accomplish a great deal on the shed.  These plans however were hampered by really wet weather here in SLC so far this week.  I was however, able to find some other ways to stay busy with my time and keeping up on the home maintenance and improvement front.

One of the nice effects of the shed project is that I had to dig almost a full yard of soil out of the footprint of the shed in order to keep the new floor joists and framing out of the dirt where it would rot.  Because of this we had a healthy surplus of soil just sitting around waiting for me to find a use for it.  The previous owners of the house were so nice as to instal an automatic sprinkler system, but weren't nice enough to make sure the soil was tamped back down on their lines nor were they nice enough to level the soil back out.  The problem we have been having because of this, is that water tends to pool up near our foundation during the wet months.  The dogs of course seemed to always find this mud hole and make it worse.  So naturally I was quick to find a use for all the extra soil we had laying around!

As you can see, the soil follows the contour of the depressed area of the yard against the house.  This is where I spread and tamped and raked some of the extra soil to fill in.  The yellow grainy stuff you see spread on the soil is all the grass seed I spread to reseed this area.  After this shot was taken I then raked it into the soil about 1/16-1/4 inch deep.  Suzanne and I are very hopeful that this will turn out well and not turn into a disaster.

This was probably the easiest of the projects from the last few days.  We have these air intake vents on the front of our house and they were quite rusty and I felt like they had become an eyesore on the house.  So I took them down and painted them while I painted some decorative door trim for our basement bathroom remodel.  They are actually white now and look much better mounted on the front of the house!

One of the more pesky but non-urgent problems Suzanne and I have had with the house was the mailbox post.  The previous post was maybe 1/128" thick steel pipe that was almost completely rusted through in most areas.  In fact it was rusted out in the middle and the previous owners of the home had put a PVC pipe around it to keep it upright.  Classy right?  Yeah that's how we've been reppin our mail the last couple years.  Well, due to the rain, I went to my Dads and hit him up for some work and materials and he threw this bad boy together right quick while I worked on some angle brackets for the shed.  This is 3/8" thick galvanized steel 3" pipe.  To top it off, or rather, to bottom it out, I threw in about 100 pounds of concrete to keep this nice and solid.  No more punk teenagers screwin around with our mailbox, twisting it around and whatnot!

 About a month ago, I popped in at the West Jordan utility complex and reserved a neighborhood dumpster for the shed project.  I knew I would have quite a bit of trash and had no way to dispose of it, so this was the best option.  It finally arrived on Wednesday and I was able to put all my trash in it before the rest of the 'hood threw their items in.  This is a 3 day reservation so Suzanne and I have had to endure having this 20 foot long 8 feet wide bright orange mini-dump with the word "Crip" tagged on the side, parked right in front of our house.  It's definitely been worth it though!

 

  The best part of the bad weather and the down time of not being able to work on the shed has been being able to hang with this cool kid.  Nothing beats time with Suzanne and our sweet little man.  This kid is a stud!  This was a night where it was just the Alexander men at home and this was the net effect. 

New Shed

Adding to my list of things to do, Suzanne and I decided this was the year for a new shed.  We've had a "tough shed" ever since Suzanne first moved into the house.  I use the quotations because tough is not the word I would use to describe this shed.  Even when Suzanne was first looking at the house, her Mom had come with her to check out the house and when they checked out the shed, her Mom got stung by a yellow jacket that called the rotting shed floor home.  This is just one example of problems we experienced with this shed.  I could go on and on about the problems Suzanne and I had with this shed but to just list a few:

• The floor was rotting through, including many holes that had broken clean through.
• The front and sides were rotting through.
• The doors were hanging by one hinge each because of the poor quality of building materials.
• The shed was in a weird spot in our yard.
• There was not enough room for all of our tools and equipment.  
• Because the doors only hung by one hinge, the doors could not be properly secured.
• The paint was haggard and had peeled most of the way off.  
• The shed was not level.
• The shed did not have a foundation and was sitting directly on the soil so the rate of rot was rapidly accelerating.
• The position of the shed provided too much shade on out garden area.
• The shed had an overall shabby appearance and made our yard look cheap. 

There.  Like I said, I only listed a couple of the reasons we loathed the old shed. 
Anyhow................... A couple of years ago I helped my dad build a new shed in his backyard that was to some serious industrial standards and ever since then, Suzanne and I have wanted one like it in our yard.  Having one would greatly improve the quality of the overall shed, the aesthetics of our yard, and the amount of space we would have to store and maintain our equipment. 

Now, in order to begin our project I first had to tear down the old shed.  I started by relocating all of our stuff to the garage to protect and secure our goods.  Then the fun but pesky part of demolition began. 

 The most difficult part of the demolition project was the roof by far.  The shed had been re-shingled once so there was two layers of shingles on the roof.  Because of this cutting through the roof with my reciprocating saw was eating my blades like there was no tomorrow, so I left the roof sections largely intact.  My aversion to using up blades only caused me more grief because I had to figure out how to remove 200 lb 8ft long sections of the roof without assistance.

Here is one of the 8ft sections I removed.  I had to set it down and take a break before tossing this pig over the gate like a real man!  

Here, I needed to prop that pig up to keep it from collapsing on my head with all the shingle nails poking through to impale me while it was at it.  I removed the section just to the right first because it was shorter and lighter and then I removed this section last.  

Finally down to just one wall and the floor.  I avoided this wall till last because I hadn't wanted to deal with my wood pile quite yet.  Eventually I took care of business and removed the whole thing, section by section. 

Here is an example of the stellar construction were were dealing with here...  As you can see, the 2x4's under the floor sit right in the soil there, facilitating the rotting nature of the shed.  I'm fairly certain the hole right in the middle of the photo is the hole the yellow jackets used to victimize Suzanne's Mom.  This was one of the worst areas of rot we had going on in the floor but there were other holes elsewhere.

This was the front of the old shed.  Originally I was just going to remove the bulk of the front wall and rebuild it all, but the rot had gotten so bad through both the siding and the framing that there was just no way to do it that way.  

Yet another example of the rot of the old shed. 

Here lie several sections of wall awaiting the city dumpster I have scheduled to come so I can dispose of all this stuff once and for all. 

Another view. 

Construction on the new shed finally began after demo was completed.  My dad came over and helped me lay out the foundation with the Transit, so all 6 pier blocks are nice and level with one another and the building as a whole is nice and square.  Then we busted out the outside framework.  

Here is the outside framework and the floor joists mounted every 16 inches on center for some serious floor stability.  Notice the shed being build above ground here...  not straight on the soil so this one rots in a year or two like the old one.  This one will be built to last.

This is an ongoing project so this is all I have right now, but Suzanne and I will check back in in a few days to update the completion or near completion of this project.  Also coming soon is the before, during, and after of our basement bathroom remodel which I haven't completed, nor posted about yet. 

Letter to MSNBC

 In light of the recent Anti-Mormon campaign waged by MSNBC, I decided to write a letter expressing myself to the CEO, The O'Donnell Show, and the Public Relations department.

 

I’m a fairly understanding person.  I understand that sometimes a person mistakenly says something that they didn’t mean to say, or something that didn’t come out quite right.  I am also not so naïve to think that these “mistakes” can’t become pattern.  As I sat and watched O’Donnell rant about Mitt Romney’s “Mormon Problem”, I can’t help but notice a growing pattern in his and MSNBC's rhetoric of falsities and downright lies about Mormons.  My utter disgust only grew as he continued to vomit his vile speech upon the American people.  The MSNBC “news” channel has openly admitted to having a progressive and liberal agenda.  The very premise of this liberal and progressive agenda preaches acceptance and tolerance and understanding of all others.  This being said, I only see complete hypocrisy on the part of MSNBC and its hosts and affiliates.  I watched Howard Dean on MSNBC talk about how disgusted he is about a supposed GOP bashing of Gays, Muslims, Latino’s, Immigrants, and Women.  But then I see O’Donnell bashing Mormons to the point of slander on his show.  Where is Howard Dean and the rest of MSNBC standing up for a liberal war on Mormonism?  Great job, MSNBC, at upholding even your most basic tenets in liberalism and progressivism.  I’ve seen some pretty disgusting things said on both the left and the right in politics and I have seen the fallout when that does happen.  Never though, have I seen a more blatant disregard for all decency than I just saw in O’Donnell.  When someone on the right makes a statement such as this, the left, including your hosts, explode into an uproar and demand that action be taken against the perpetrator.  Now, as I said, I am not a naïve man, and in this particular case, I am not so naïve as to think a reputable company such as yours will do anything about this. 

You have thoroughly lost my business and anyone I can share this with in my, “crusade”, if you will, against your hypocrisy and pattern of false reporting. 

Sincerely,

Mike Alexander