T&G Siding Project

Last spring, I bought a big pile of tongue & groove for the re-roofing project. It ended up there was quite a lot left, but by the time the roofers had actually showed up, it had been sitting out in the weather for 4-months and we could no longer return the leftovers. And it continued to sit there until November, throughout fall and the big drop of black walnut leaves.

So, we decided to try using some of it up by installing it on that framed wall in the basement. We think it will help the space look a little more tidy. 

Over the weekend, Jeff cut pieces roughly the right length and I wiped them down to try and wipe off the dirt. Many were still slightly damp so they're hanging out in the basement with fans and a portable heater.

We're hoping they'll be thoroughly dried out by next weekend and we'll see if we can install them. Then I'll try to reprime and paint them. We need to start moving back in as we're paying storage fees. I'd like to be out of storage before summer.

New Media Console

We bought a new-to-us media console (finally). I've been looking for over a year, but I'm so picky that it was hard to find something on craigslist/Facebook marketplace that met all my parameters. Even this one didn't meet all my parameters, but I really liked the style so we bought it anyway.

This actually came with three amazing doors, but we took two of them off so the remote controls would work. We'll obviously keep the doors for some future time.

I'm hoping to eventually buy or make three replacement doors and put in speaker fabric in place of glass to help keep down the dust.

This winter much of our theater gear is being replaced. In November, we got a new 65-inch TV for Jeff's birthday. It was a huge upgrade from our 15-year-old 37-inch TV. And this past week we ordered a new receiver and speakers for Jeff after the old subwoofer set off the smoke alarm in the middle of the night. It seemed like a good time during the holiday sales.

Basement Storage Painted

I guess I never posted photos of the mostly-finished basement storage area. Tim finished it last week. We had him use the Hubbard Squash-colored paint leftover from our project in the rest of the basement. It looks very yellow, but I'm sure it will look fine once we move back in. The lights were also leftover as I'd purchased them for another project and they hadn't gotten used.

Tim also laid down Rubber Stall Mats on the floor. They were much more affordable than products marketed as gym mats. I don't know exactly what brand he purchased, but they are similar to this product.

Jeff and I are now trying to decide if we'll do any more work in the space before we move back in. We have some tongue & groove boards leftover from the re-roofing project and we are considering installing them on that wall. I think it would help the space look more tidy once everything is back.

Jeff goes back to work tomorrow so it will probably be a while before we make any progress on this, though, I don't want to wait too long because I don't want to keep paying for storage.

Basement Progress

Tim got started on our little basement project on Monday. He and his helper spent the first day cleaning out the space. They took a huge load of scrap to the dumps and vacuumed all the dust and grime for the painting.

We were a little surprised about how he finished the floor. Apparently, Jeff asked for a deck. I would have asked for a floor, but we got a deck. LOL

Tim finished putting down plywood subfloor today and then this evening he primed the walls. That white really brightened up the space.

We think Tim is going to come back after the holiday and do some more painting and then he's going to lay rubber mats on the floor.

Jeff and I have spent a little bit of time trying to figure out which exercise bike to buy. And, if there's space, he may get one of those mini-gyms. The planning continues.

Basement Storage Clear Out

Well, we decided to do one last remodel. This one is more of a spruce up than an actual remodel. 

We have this funky basement storage area in the front portion of our basement.

This space is not original to this house. This is a space that Mr. Leonard (the 2nd owner of the house) actually dug out and finished to store the massive amount of sawdust/wood chips they needed for the house boiler. The front stairs were originally wood and they would simply remove the tread and blow in the wood chips. We were told stories by the Leonard kids of their memory of digging tunnels and playing around in the pile of sawdust/chips. 

We have found this space handy for storing stuff that we should probably get rid of, like wedding momentos and old records.

Anyway, before we remodeled the rest of the basement, we had a little workout area.

After the remodel, we filled this space with the master bedroom furniture and we never set up any dedicated space for working out. But we've been putting weight back on, and we've finally gotten motivated to set up a new workout space. Really, the only space we have left is in this front storage area.

Here is how the space looks tonight. We've been shifting some of our long-term storage (stuff we don't expect to touch again until we move) into the attic. We've also got a growing pile of stuff that we'll toss or donate, as appropriate. Tomorrow we have movers coming and they'll schlep the rest of the stuff to temporary storage.

Tim Austin thinks he'll have time next week to help us spruce up the space. We're going to paint everything a light color, probably Hubbard Squash because we have nearly 5 gallons of it. And he's going to help us cover the floor. He'll probably put down more of the DRICORE Subfloor Tiles, then we're going to put some sort of rubber exercise mat over the top. We have a couple of lights leftover from our earlier basement remodel and we hope to hang those at well. 

We may have to hire an electrician to install some power outlets. It's likely we'll need a place to plug in an exercise bike.

I'll post updates as we have them.

Gutter Leaf Filters Installed

Last Monday we had an appointment with LeafGuard to get all new gutters. We had them on a previous house and really liked them. But it turns out they're larger than standard k-gutters and they need a 6"'wide board to mount to. 

When the installers started talking about cutting off our roof tails, that turned into a big NOPE. We spent about an hour talking about other options (to cutting the wood), but ultimately there was no solution found. We were really disappointed but I was entirely unwilling to deface this house.

So, I went searching for a plan B. There are not a lot of other options available in Portland, Oregon. Ultimately, the one we went for was Leaf Filter. They came out and installed the screens last Wednesday. Allegedly, if our gutters clog up, they'll come out and clean them. Time will tell.

This is the only photo the installers took for me.

They cleaned out and used some of the existing gutters and installed a couple of new ones when we needed to relocate the downspouts. We abandoned the rain chains and had them install downspouts on all the gutters. The rain chains didn't work out because when it snowed they'd get too heavy and fall down. Sometime soon we'll need to add piping to direct the rainwater into our rain gardens. 

New Interlock Roof

Obviously, I've fallen out of the habit of posting regularly. Our new Interlock roof install was finished about a week ago. We are quite happy with how it turned out. Conveniently the roofer sent before-after photos.

We had them install a drain between the two front dormers. In the rain, it tended to turn into a waterfall and it was ruining the wood brackets.

Garage Top View

Shed Top View

They installed new T&G under the rotted front eaves and repaired a rotted rafter tail.

The company advertises this as a lifetime roof. I really hope it is, this time.