When doing projects around the house, it seems good to take into account how your methods will affect the house in the long-term, as well as how repairs will need to be done later, or how the same job will be handled when it needs to be redone in a decade or two or three.
Gary's finding some frustrations with how things were fixed around here by previous owners. For example, when they put together (or repaired?) the deck in days past, they used a wide variety of screws: some deck screws and some that would rust, as well as several different varieties of screw-heads. Gary wants ONE kind of screw so that he won't have to keep hauling out different screw-drivers when he makes repairs someday.
Today's stunner was when they found that one of the posts/pylons holding up the deck wasn't attached to the joists that it was supposed to be attached to. When the deck was initially built, they just kinda sorta missed when they put in the bolts. So THAT's why the deck sagged there.Philip's been digging out mud from underneath the deck. (Some previous owners put down non-porous plastic under the deck too. Then critters dug and threw dirt on top of the tarp. That stuff is muddddddY!) Today Gary and Paul did some more digging to clean up the wetness underneath the deck. And that's when the found the deck not attached to the supports.
So Gary and Paul came up with a plan. They would use the jack from the car to lift the deck back up to the height it was supposed to be. They dug down a little further, and then applied the jack near the place it had become detached. A little cranking, and it was in the right place, ready to be re-attached.
We are so proud of these resourceful guys! Like Gary said, he didn't expect to be able to fix this unless we paid somebody thousands of dollars to do it. We'd figured we'd just live with the deck being saggy. The guys sure are working hard and throwing a lot of physical labor into the spiffing-of-the-deck. But they're doing a better job of it than I'd expect of somebody who was just doing it for the money and didn't have to live with the long-term ramifications of how the repairs are accomplished.
I can so identify with this! The previous homeowner here was an immigrant from Italy and improvised whenever possible! 19 years later we are still correcting his improvisations. Ugh! Good for Gary and his manual labor.
ReplyDeleteWe've had to deal with so many short cuts taken by the builders of this house. Their parents never taught them something that you are continually teaching your kids: If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right. (One of my grandpa's favorites!)
ReplyDeleteHi-my question is related to "houses", though not to this post directly (maybe "projects around the house?", I don't have your e-mail, though, so here, 'tis, because you are the expert in all things homemaking, and many other experts in that field read your blog. We're moving into a new apartment and ... It didn't occur to me to ask if the previous occupants were smokers before letting them settle on this one for us. It is gross to smell and may bother my allergies once we are actually sleeping here, but my biggest concern is that we get rid of it before moving our couches and bed in so that they don't become stinky. The used the ozone machine, and that seemed to help, but now it's worse again, they're going to bring it in again, but... must take matters into my own hands as well. I would wash the walls, but there's a fresh coat of cheap (the non-washable kind :( ) on them, I suppose I can wash the wall-paper and kitchen down, and maybe try baking soda on the carpet--any other ideas? Thanks a bunch!
ReplyDelete--New On Old Dover
Rebecca, the best luck I've had with getting rid of the smoke is sunshine and fresh air. People have told me that washing walls and floors helps (and it does), and to try using baking soda and/or charcoal. I did use the baking soda and saw very little improvement. The "real charcoal" though is something that I haven't bothered to hunt for at a pet store or wherever you find it.
ReplyDeleteThe best help I've had is sunning pillows, taking rugs outdoors, opening windows, etc. And I have been entirely amazed at what has happened to the hall closet since I've been hanging towels on the line. We have two hall closets: one is linens and the other is "stuff" like band-aids and epsom salts and the ammonia bottle and an unopened box of Puffs, etc. I would launder towels and hang them on the line, and if a few went back into the closet, that sweetened up the closet immensely. And it's not just a cover-up smell. It seems to be counteracting the smoke. After two months of cycling line-dried cloth through that closet, the difference in smoke-smell between the two closets is unbelievable. I keep telling myself that I should take couch cushions out to the lawn to air, but don't get around to it. Anything freshened by the sun and outdoorsy air seems to help indoors more than anything. At least, that's been my experience; your mileage may vary. :-) Also, to be fair, the smoke smell in here was not strong. We didn't even realize that they were smokers until after we'd moved in.
Thank you!
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