Manley House

There is a space behind the garage that grows some very tall weeds, over the windows tall. The end of the first summer here I cut or pulled them all and applied a "ground clear" to the area. The next summer the area was bare and I forgot about it. This year they were back.

A few weeks ago I cut them and pulled them out and applied more "ground clear". Yesterday I rolled out some landscaping weedstop and covered it with some gravel that the neighbors had leftover from some work they did. I need to put more down at some point but I was getting tired last night. I also did the backfill for the ground rods at the house.

Well, MG&E canceled on us this morning due to the rain and other outages that take priority, so I'm scheduled for Wednesday morning at 8am, hopefully I can be in to work by noon.

So, instead of doing the house hookup we continued work on the garage wiring. Pictures are in the gallery, many need to be rotated but the rotate feature seems to be broken. I might re-upload them after editing sometime, just tilt your head to the right for most of them for now.

The trench and PVC is done and the wires have been pulled. The garage panel has been replaced and re-connected and the new air-compressor and welder outlets have been added. When the inspector stopped by today he said the trench looked good and could be back-filled (might do that tomorrow after work). He also said that what we had so far and what we had ready looked good, we just needed to tweak some of the grounding which we have since done.

Tomorrow I'll try and fill in the trench and cleanup some in the garage.

Wednesday after the service is disconnected (at the pole and the meter pulled) we have to (hopefully the isolated thunderstorms are isolated somewhere else):

• remove and replace the wire from the meter and connect to the new main panel


• run the wires and conduit from the new panel to the disconnect in the basement


• separate the ground and neutral in the basement disconnect (remove jumper connector?)


• have the whole shebang inspected


• have MG&E plug the meter back in and restore service so the house has power again

It has been slow going but I finally got around to making the trim for some of the bathroom walls. I also made the frames for the doors for the vanity cabinet. Last night I dyed the frames and made the latticework for the panels and dyed them. Next up is the hand chisel work for the lattice and gluing the lattice together and in, then the lacquer can be applied. Then I make the drawers themselves and attach everything to the cabinet. There will be pictures when that is done.

Then it is on to something else, maybe finishing up the caulking and trim around the tub and get the shower curtain up. Or focus might shift to outdoor projects like the possibility of a free if you haul it away and fix it hot-tub and the associated deck replacement. Along with the extension of a larger electrical circuit to the the garage so more can be done there.

I have also been doing some re-arrangement of the shop area, putting the cabinets that I got last fall into a reasonable configuration along the back wall. I have also been moving things out of the massive wall cabinet to hang things directly on the back wall. Then I can finish the doors for the wall cabinet and put *stuff* there, and have them out of the sawdust.

The sink is installed and functional. I mounted the cabinet and attached the sink this afternoon. I only had to get an extension for the drain and now that is in as well. I still need to do some trim around the countertop but at least you can wash your hands now.

Next up is the new table saw. I picked this up yesterday and spent most of the afternoon assembling it. I managed to do it such that I did it solo, it is really heavy. I had a hard time getting the box slid to the tailgate so I could open it and unpack it from there. I just happened to start with it upside down on sawhorses so I was able to tilt it down instead of having to lift it to flip it over.

This afternoon I cleaned and waxed the cast iron top and cut my first piece with it. I then proceeded to make a cross-cut sled as seen on the table behind the saw in the picture. There still needs to be a bit of arranging and I would like to build a router table in the gap of the extension rails. I also picked up a stacked dado set but I need to get some more plates for the saw before using those.

Well the first two things on the list were accomplished, and because the weather was nice a bunch of other things were done instead of the third.

Friday I painted the walls so now everything is white. Saturday afternoon the cabinet got shelves and moved to the basement. It didn't get painted due to a slight change in schedule. Instead the cabinet got two coats of paint and installation on Sunday. The upstairs bathroom cabinets didn't get touched, maybe sometime this week.

This morning the weather was nice enough that I decided to work outside instead of in the basement. apocalyptikitty and feloniouscat were thrilled because it meant they could spend a few hours in the backyard.

The motorcycles got winterized, re-positioned and covered. The lawn mower and snow blowers swapped places and were checked out. Then I made another big pile of leaves for the city to take away. After some more cleaning and planning in the garage I went downstairs and put a coat of paint on the cabinet. After the second coat wasn't tacky anymore I put it up on the shelf and screwed it to the wall stud where it will be staying. It might get doors sometime, but not right now.

Over the past few weeks the garage has been getting torn apart from the inside. The corner shelves were removed, the old base cabinets torn apart, new cabinets built and new tools brought in that needed homes. I have been doing all of this and some organization and shuffling of things instead of grouting the bathroom inside. The last several weeks the garbage pile at the curb has been large, and will be for several more, helped along by the new garbage cans.


My dad came down for the weekend and a lot of progress was made in the garage. Saturday morning after dropping alyska off at the Farmer's Market I stopped by home and picked up a coupon that I was informed came in the latest Shopper Stopper in the mail (if anybody still has one, can I have the Harbor Freight coupon that is in it?) I then proceeded to go get a bunch of stuff at Harbor Freight including a Dust Collector on sale then 20% off. I also got more anti-fatigue mats in the picture. If I can find another coupon I will most likely go back and get a rolling tool chest that is also on good sale before the 20% off. Then it was home to continue with the deconstruction of cabinets and wall surfaces. Shortly after returning home my dad arrived and helped me get the rest of the wall de-skinned.

After getting back from picking alyska up my dad and I went to Menards with our list and got another roll of insulation, some damaged 1/2" BCX fro cheap and some electrical supplies to wire in the expansion. Then while he pulled the new wires I cut and fit the insulation in the walls and ceiling. We ended up doing from the East end of the back window all the way around to the West side of the garage door. The door itself is already insulated so that didn't need to be done, and the other wall might get done some other time, like in a few years. After the insulation was in then the BCX went up on the walls and the massive cabinet also got hung on the wall. By this time it was getting late so we put stuff away and called it a night (early morning)
and it looked like this.

The next morning, since the cabinet was up and could help hold up the ceiling we started on the ceiling. I still need to put some of the fixtures back and drive more screws to keep it from bowing but it is up there. After that we did some moving around of tools and tables and brought in the new cabinets that my dad brought with him. They are desk height instead of standing height so I need to figure out how I am going to integrate them with the one in the foreground. I think I am going to make a riser box on top of them to bring them up to height and maybe add another drawer or something so there will be a continuous counter along the back wall. Before that happens though I will be building the miter saw workstation to go along the West wall. I should also make the shelves and doors for the massive cabinet too.

( current state )

The tile has been going slowly the last week or so, so slow infact that nothing was done. That changed today. Tile was cut and installed to almost fill in the back and bedroom walls. the bullnose still needs to go on the bedroom wall and there is one tile that needs to go in the upper corner of the back wall. It is cut and will go up with the next batch of mortar that is mixed up. There is still the bottom row of tiles that needs to be installed all the way around as well, but I need to come up with a plan of attack on that. Seems I started the rows a touch too tall. oops. We picked up the grout and sealer the other day so now I just need to keep at it and finish it. The next step is to cut out around the faucet controls, then it should go quickly up the wall until I need to cut out for the shower head. After all of that and the fitting to the cabinet I will need to go around and do the bottom row, which will involve cutting around the faucet.

The window boxes also found a more prominent home today. We had picked up some L brackets to mount them with when we got the grout. Today I painted them white and we attached them to the front porch rail after alyska got home.

We also picked up a seal for the bottom of the new door on the garage. I trimmed that down and attached it this afternoon as well. I also did a little bit of general cleanup of the garage and along the fence. A few days ago I also finally got around to cleaning out the watering can that was in the garage when we moved in. I then proceeded to mix up some Ground-Clear and applied it to the side and back of the garage where the weeds have been running rampant. It seems to be doing the trick.

(updated by jeffreyp)

Many things from the previous list are still on the list.

A few things that have progressed since last update

• The Kimono is hung above the stairs, but there are still pictures to go around it.
  
• Workbench painted and placed in the garage, still need the drawer painted and the top sealed.
  
• Interior lights and outlets added to the garage, more is always better though.
  
• Some storage things added in the garage, of course always more to go.
  
• Swords and shelves up in the computer room
  
• Handles and hinges acquired for the kitchen not yet installed though.
  

After the wedding there will be more decor in the house as we planned the wedding decor such that it could be used in and around the house after the wedding.

(Updated by jeffreyp)