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Time for installment number 4!! Lesley promised to take some time from her bathroom project to help me install the wall on Norman's side. While waiting for her I worked on the floor in the back room by the washing machine and set tubs. I had cut away 3 feet of the original floor to get to the back wall foundation so needed to replace it. While I was at it, I decided to make the floor level. So I cut some 2x4s tapering them to lie directly on the old floor at the kitchen end and nailed to the new back wall on the other end, and lay a 3/4" sheet of plywood lengthwise over these joists (Lesley helped me carry this piece and maneuver it past the dryer and the set tubs). You can see what it looks like from the picture that Abby put up with the last installment showing the shelves across from the set tubs. Unfortunately there is a very shallow step just before the steps going down into the side yard near the shower. Peg almost pitched down the steps and recovered by running down carrying a piece of Plexiglass. She said that it will be a test of the renters' balance. Those who fail the test will probably not rent again. Maybe I should put up a sign.The day before Lesley arrived I built the wall for Norman's side in the yard behind the house as that was the only space big enough to do so. I had to plan so that the wall would just fit between the footing board and the rafter attaching the back wall to the old kitchen roof.
I had to cut a wedge in the 2x4 that went on top of the wall so it would fit between the rafter and the kitchen roof. Lesley arrived about noon on a Tuesday. We had to pick up the wall and lift it over the fence and maneuver it around the 3 inch exhaust pipe to slide it into place, all the while trying not to stumble over all the scrap wood piled up in front of the fence. (About 2 weeks later, Bob informed me that the fence was designed to be picked up and moved, but it probably wouldn't have helped much with the wall maneuvers.) We finally slid the wall into place and it fit perfectly!!!! Lesley helped me nail the plywood over the studs. It sure helped having two people to lift the plywood up to the second and third levels. While I was preparing some studs between the old and new roofs, Lesley was screwing down the floor over by the set tubs. Those studs are not my best work. They were a little skewed. I straightened the worst of them after putting up the plywood. Cutting the plywood piece for this between-roof section was very complicated. Lesley seemed quite surprised that it fit after all the cuts. I was sorry to put up that wall in a way since the morning sun pouring into the back room was quite pleasant. I think Norman and his sister were sorry to see it go up as well since they could no longer see what was going on from their kitchen window. Lesley finished off her day by cutting out and attempting to nail in the final floor joist for the section abutting the new wall. She was very tired when she went off to the bus to catch the 7:15pm boat. She sure did a ton of work in the 6 hours she was here.
The next person to arrive was Ellyn. I knew she would want to start organizing so I rebuilt the shelves Bob had first built near the kitchen door, but I put them across from the set tubs. You can see them in the picture I mentioned above. I also staked out the space next to the shelves under the window to store the tongue and groove we took off the back room roof and walls for the kitchen rebuilding project. Bob has some good-on-one-side tongue and groove he took off the floor of the chicken coop back in Norwell but he is keeping them at Norwell for the time being. The days are warming up. The evenings as well. We no longer need the space heater. As well as rebuilding the shelves (the highest is 7 feet off the ground) I rerouted the exhaust pipe from the water heater. I had Bill install the exhaust pipe through the roof over the spot the water heater would go after the renovation so I had to rig a pipe from the current position over to the new exhaust pipe. Ellyn not only organized the stuff from the back room we had stored in the pantry, but she painted the shelves and a strip around the kitchen door and the door to the pantry when it was a bathroom a nice deep red. I was going to set up the door as a work space along the new wall on Norman's side. It is high enough that the recycling trash barrels fit nicely under it. By the way, when Peg and Bob were bringing the trash barrels over on the Island Queen last weekend, a lady complained vociferously that she was not going to sit next to trash barrels while waiting for the boat. Not even after Bob explained that the trash barrels were full of shingles was she placated. Bob had to move the barrels.
Dan and Tracy and his friend Mike and his wife and two other couples came down for Memorial Day weekend. They were there for R&R but I prepared the window opening in the pink room for the window we took out of the back bedroom when we raised the roof. No sooner did Dan arrive than I had him on the ladder sliding in the window and nailing it down. He was amazed how easily it slipped into place. I learned my lesson when Paul and I installed the window in the back bedroom on the Iroquois side. Paul was on the ladder that time and I thought we would never get it in. Ellyn and I took off for Lexington on Sunday so we could get to Alison's graduation at Yale on Monday. Unfortunately, Dodie was graduating at exactly the same time as Alison. However, his ceremony got over a little early and he ran over to Alison's in his flowing blue robes. It was a good time. Even the kids got into the act, hiding under the robes and snatching the caps. It reminded me of my own kids antics when I had to go the Saint Mary's graduations. One piece of Oak Bluffs business we took care of at New Haven was getting Peg's approval of the door Lesley, Ellyn and I had picked out to replace the kitchen window on the Iroquois side. It will let in plenty of light even when it is closed.Ellyn and I made a trip to Home Depot up in Lexington and I got the strikers for the steps leading down from the porch in front of the new door. I looked to see if Home Depot had a door in stock similar to the one we picked out of the Hinkley's catalog. It didn't so I had to order it when I got back to the Vineyard after taking Ellyn to the plane. Actually, from T.F. Greene airport I drove to Norwell where Peg and Bob loaded up the car with three twin bed mattresses, four big fluffy pillows, a trash can full of shingles in the passenger seat and more shingles jammed in every available space. I couldn't see anything to my right, so I was careful to stay in the right lane all the way down to Woods Hole. I had 2:30 reservations but was early enough that I got on the 1:15 boat. I was very happy to pull up to 38 Samoset Ave and unload the car. I just put the mattresses and pillows in the living room until someone could help me carry them upstairs. Then it was off to Hinkley to order the porch materials, the door, and the wood to finish the trim on the back wall. They said the door would arrive in a week. I hope so.
Peg and Bob decided to come down last Saturday and stay until Monday afternoon. (That was the trip with the three trash barrels) I had kind of pressured Bob into shingling the back wall. He was thinking of waiting until August during the Norris family vacation, but I was reluctant to have our tyveked wall staring at the Narragansett house porch sitters all summer. To prepare the wall for the shingling I had to install the side boards on each corner and paint them. I also had to install, caulk and paint wood trim around each of the windows. I got that done before Peg and Bob arrived. Then I cut out and painted the facia boards and the soffit and waited for a break in the shingling so Bob could help me put them up. 
Also, knowing that Peg would want to clean the upstairs, I reinstalled the inside casing around the new window upstairs. What a mess. I cleaned up most of it before she arrived. Lo and behold, however, the shutters would not close. The new window was thicker than the old one. It was designed for a house with 2x6 studs. The folks who build the vineyard house didn't know what studs were. It is held together with tongue in groove boards and shingles. When I was running the morning after they arrived, I realized that I could add another layer to the casing and make it so the shutters would close. Fortunately I had bought some knot-free 1x5's for the soffit but could use recycled tongue in groove for that. So I built up the casing, making more of a mess, but the shutters now close, blocking the view of the window on Norman's house directly across the alley. (He doesn't use that room, fortunately).Bob was going to run out of shingles so Peg made a Hinkley run right after church. But the shingles were in the warehouse which didn't open on Sunday so they promised a Monday delivery. It took all day for Bob to run out of shingles, however. Peter worked on laying cement blocks at the base of the new stairs, and Peg cleaned like a mad woman, but everyone knocked off in time to go down the the beach for a while around 5. Peter got in up to his knees but it was too cold. Peg had no suit so stayed on the beach, but Bob (in a suit he found in the house) jumped right in and splashed around for longer than seemed humanly possible. It was June 1 after all. The shingles didn't get delivered until almost noon on Monday, so Bob helped me with the facia and soffit.
Peg painted the new window casing and window in the two back bedrooms and also the 2x12's bolted to the walls in those two rooms and finished cleaning the upstairs. I finished the porch and steps for the new door and Peg celebrated by climbing out the window and walking down the stairs to the grill. She will greatly enjoy the quick trip from stove to grill when the door is installed. This coming weekend is a work weekend and Alison and I think Dan will be down as well as Ellyn. We have the downstairs and the porch to clean and the roof over the porch on Norman's side to deshingle and water and ice up if possible. The weather is promising to cooperate.I walked Peg and Bob down to the big boat Monday night and saw what the crane had been working on. They completely replaced the ramp cars use to get onto the ferry. It is much longer, more like a bridge. They also widened the drive way from the street to the boat so more cars can wait there for loading on the boat. The crane finally sailed away last week. I spent the day today putting up that work table in the back room and hanging up all the tools above it. It has been a pain digging through boxes for a tool each time it is needed. Also, I put screening up in the pantry so the whole kitchen and pantry is screened off from the back room. This should help keep the flies and mosquitoes out. Finally, I took off the casing from the window we are going to replace with a door. I encountered tons of big black ants which I sprayed like crazy. I kept expecting to find a place where the window was nailed in place, but when I got off the casing, the window started to fall out. I just pushed it back in place and hoped for the arrival of the door. In keeping with Peg and Bob's example, I went to the beach around 5 and this time got completely submerged. I got out rather quickly though.
Until next time
Peter
1 comment:
It's amazing how much you are accomplishing so fast!
Great post!
-Piers
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