Shipments At The Bamboo Lagoon

Well our shipments have finally come and the house is chock full. We got the last of the moulding installed the day before the first one showed up. We went from mostly empty to pretty darn full.

These first ones are only the first shipment, which was the stuff that had been in storage for 7 years while we were living out of the country. A lot of this stuff is getting purged.

Pile in weight room

Tons of book boxes taking up part of the living room

Dishpacks and book cases in the lving room/diningroom

Just one wall in the project room

The space I am living in until the unpacking is done

Our once empty laundry room

Then three days later (after working 2 10 hour shifts, so no unpacking was done) the second shipment arrived...basically a second half weight-wise. This was the stuff we took overseas with us and is the day to day stuff for the most part.

Weight room with even more stuff

Stacked in front of the first pile

Coming up the stairs to the main floor

Bedroom

Bedroom looking towards closet

Livingroom...so much stuff

Dining room...and table isn't in here yet

Kitchen with squiggle room on the sides

Backporch where some stuff will stay for a while

The nice thing about having it all here, is the ability to get rid of a bunch of stuff that we don't need or won't work with this house. Fortunately we have some great places to donate so a lot of stuff isn't going in the trash necessarily. I am not really interested in selling much of it, I would rather donate, but there are a few items that need to be researched in case they are worth more than we think. As a box gets emptied, a lot of times, it gets repurposed as a donation box for one place or another....we have ReStore, St Vincent's, BioMass, and a book exchange for the majority and then of course a good recycling center for the packing materials and boxes.

It will be quite a while before all of this stuff is unpacked and organized but hope to get the majority of it knocked out over the next few weeks. Even if some of it stays in boxes for a while, it will be organized to deal with at a later date.

Pre-delivery Garage Cleanup

Before cleanup and organization

We have 14,000 lbs of stuff showing up in the next few weeks and getting space in the garage is a must.

In the midst of this, we are having our floor replaced in the main section of the house, so we are really under the gun.

Dismantling the old vanity from our downstairs bathroom that we have been using as counter space in the garage is one of the big things. We can't take it to BioMass without getting all the hardware off it and removing the laminate top. There is also a big stack of wood from the kitchen and entryway tearouts that needs to be sorted.

Over the last few months the garage has been the dumping ground for a lot of the supplies we have for various projects without there really being any organization to it and that has to be dealt with.

Truck loaded up to go

Once everything that was being kept was organized and moved to one side of the garage, the stuff going to Biomass and Restore was loaded in the truck to be dropped off.

Ready for deliveries

Overall the cleanup was very satisfying and absolutely crucial to the eventual delivery of goods.

Attic Projects At The Bamboo Lagoon

There have been a couple of little projects involving the attic in this house on the list for some time. They weren't super intensive projects or anything but just something that needed to be done that hadn't been done.

So in the process of working on another bigger project yesterday, I kind of got forced to deal with one of them and since I was already dealing with one, it made sense to just knockout the other ones.

Dryer Vent Project

The dryer vent in this house goes up and out thru the attic. It has to be this way because of the way that the laundry room and our master bath nest up against each other. I found that the vent wasn't connected to the vent in the roof of the house so for a period of time, renters were venting into the attic space rather than out through the roof vent.

I had to put the vent piece up as high as it could go and originally, I figured I would get in the attic and just fix it there, but the space was way too tight so I ended up getting on the roof and fixing it from there.

Attic view where vent wasn't going through roof of house

Covered attic vent

Before screen and cleanout of lint

 I also cleaned the roof vent out of built up lint and put a new screen on it that can be removed and cleaned periodically since it is only clamped down.

With new bracket attached to keep it from falling into attic

With new screening and clamp attached

Electric Box Cover Project

The lighting in the laundry room used to be a standard overhead light, and at some point in time was changed over to be a florescent tube lighting fixture. When the electric box that previously fed the original light was covered, it was done so poorly. It didn't completely cover the hole in the drywall and it was crooked.

I had purchased a new paintable cover for it, but just hadn't gotten to it because I had to access the attic to push the electric box down flush with the drywall to attach it. Since I was already doing things in the attic, it seems logical to knock this small one out.

Hole and electric box in laundry room ceiling

The cover I bought for it

In place and it can be painted to match when ceiling is painted soon

Attic Access Cover Insulation

The piece of drywall that covers the access to the attic apparently had two bath towels stapled to it to provide insulation. Definitely not adequate. We had some left over insulation from the wall repair (and even though it isn't the same R factor you would use in an attic) and figured it would be a good option. I cut the piece to fit and then stapled it to the attic side of the drywall.

Drywall piece with no insulation

Extra piece of insulation

Finished project, better than it was for sure!

Miscellaneous Attic Checkups

As well as these three little projects, I also had plans to check the insulation in the attic to see if it was adequate (and it was), check the exhaust vents to see if they vented outside (and they do), and check if putting in a pulldown ladder and plywood for storage up there was feasible (and it really isn't). So all in all, even though I didn't get a lot of the other project done, at least that attic stuff is off the list!!

Three Small Projects

Missing board from front

I have had a few little tasks on the to do lists for a while that have been nagging at me but they really required more than one person to get knocked out. As part of a little deal with my SIL to do tasks one day at her house and one day at our house this weekend, I was able to checkmark these babies off the list.

First one was to add board back to our fence on the left side of the house that has been missing for some time. I had purchased the board ages ago but just hadn't had a chance to knock it out.

Due to the fact that the wood fence has a metal gate, the extra board is kind of suspended to the rest of the fence by two added pieces of 2x4. So we cut a 2x4 that I had in the garage so we could reattach two new pieces for anchorage to the fence. I realize that this isn't pressure treated wood, but these fixes are just to get by for a while. I really hope to replace both sections of fence on both sides of the house with a new fence of a completely different style (but that is way down the road for now).

Missing board area from back

New anchors attached

After we attached the new anchor pieces, we attached the new cedar dogeared board after cutting some length off it.

New board from back

New board from the front

The second fence project was to help help support and straighten up a portion that has been leaning for a while. Once again, this is just a temporary fix to keep the fence from coming down completely until we can get a more permanent fix. The issue is that the 4x4 is wobbling in the anchor, and short of digging up the entire cement anchor, this temp fix is the only solution in the short term.

Leaning fence before fix

Fence with support in place

So we attached a small piece of 2x4 to the fence and then cut a length of 2x4 for the support and hammered in a stake in the ground. I'll probably trim up a lot of the vegetation around the fence too in case it is putting pressure on it.

Last project of the day was to put in two hooks in the garage ceiling to hold our 20ft extension ladder. At some point, we'll probably put a couple more up there to hold our 16ft extension ladder as well.

Ladder installed in the ceiling

Felt good to knock out these small nagging tasks with help from my SIL. Sometimes it is the little ones that really bog you down.

Magic Mesh At The Bamboo Lagoon

Spring is coming and that means tons of stuff to do in the yard on top of the humongous list that is already sitting in the back of my brain.

Today, I wanted to get the front and side yard mowed so that I could overseed it and then possibly weed and feed it later this week too. I knocked that out first. Then I grabbed some clippers and made my way around the yard to all the potted things (that I didn't get in the ground in the fall) to see what needed to be trimmed off and who was still living and who wasn't.

Looks like the raspberries made it through a second winter in pots, and all the sedium is doing good too. The herbs were hit pretty bad with the cold weather and so far, I am only seeing signs of life in the chives, orange mint, peppermint, and common sage. I am hoping that given some time, the other sage, the rosemary and the lavendar will come back too. I don't need to plant any of them yet so I pruned off the dead stuff and am hoping for the best.

One of the potted bamboos in the back seems to have died, so I cut it back short and hope that some life comes out of the dirt soon. I might move it to a sunny spot to help this. The botttom of the stalks seemed kind of green so let's hope the roots are still okay and can send up shoots.

Once I had finished pruning up the dead stuff, I decided that I needed to get the screen for the door between the house and the garage done, so this year we can have some airflow in the downstairs without having a ton of bugs get in. The install was pretty easy and hopefully it will keep the bugs down and not end up being a hassle in the doorway.

Additional Tidbits

There is a certain level of motivation that I think hits all of us when we have company coming to visit. At least I know it happens to me...and this is beyond the just wanting to clean up and have things look neat motivation. This is the let's get some shiite done motivation!

I have mentioned before that we had a substantial amount of water damage done to the house by the totally slacking property management company last year. I do realize that I have yet to actually post about that event but I have mentioned it in a few posts that I have put up here.

Anyhow, the downstairs bathroom was one of the most damaged parts of the house and is the only guest bathroom in the house. We lost the floor, several walls, 1/2 of the ceiling, insulation, and a huge 95 inch vanity that ran the length of one wall. We reinstalled the insulation and had the drywall and texturing done right away but paint, floors and vanity have been on the To Do list for some time.

 

The floor and vanity kind of rely on each other depending on what kind of vanity and what kind of flooring is being put in. It was looking more and more like we were going to be putting in a footed vanity rather than a kickplated vanity so reality is, flooring will have to be done first, but with a sale and a discount, this vanity was purchased and put into place temporarily so guests would have a place to put toiletries even if they couldn't use the sink. I hope to get it plumbed at least until we get ready to paint and do the floors so that it can be used soon. Right now, the knobs aren't installed, the top is not secured down and the faucet is not installed. Will get everything done but the top being secured since it will be easier to move it later with the top off.

Second little bug that got tackled was the painting of several covers around the house. Two of the exhaust van covers that can't be replaced with new, the doorbell cover and the intake vent cover all needed to be painted white and put back into place so there wouldn't be any gaping holes around the house. It took a couple of coats of spray paint to get all of the tan to white but they look much better now installed where they are supposed to be.

Little Tidbits At The Bamboo Lagoon

I have stalled out on a few things lately. Part of it is my weird brain and the mentality that each project relies on the completion of another project first and that in turn relies on another project which just keeps piling up until I practically get nothing done.

Yesterday, I decided I was going to knock out a few things regardless of what other projects were looming ahead because I was just sick of it.

Table assembled

So I started by vacuuming the entire upper floor (because I needed to use the vacuum in one of the projects downstairs and didn't want to drag it up and down the stairs more than I had to). Then I vacuumed the entire downstairs. I moved some projects that aren't going to be completed in the next week, into a closet to get them out of my way.

I put together this old 50's style table that has been sitting in pieces in one of the extra rooms so I could use it if necessary. Part of the reason it wasn't put together before this was because I need to paint that room and moving the table in and out of the room to paint is

Small window with blind

harder when it is put together, but since the painting isn't going to happen this week, I decided to forge on. The screws in the table were older flathead screws and one of them was missing so I made a run at lunchtime to our local hardware store to replace all the screws with Phillips Head screws so I could use the cordless drill instead of putting all 24 of them in by hand. While I was out, I picked up a healthy sandwich from the co-op for lunch.

Big window with blind

I rehung the two sets of blinds that I had repaired and cleaned a few months ago. Once again, the reason I hadn't done this before was due to wanting to paint the rooms that they are going in, but I am tired of not having the blinds up so I just put them up. Taking them down for painting won't be that big of a deal later. I had to replace one of the hanger clips on the larger blind but fortunately, I had an extra from the shop I had them fixed at.

I cleaned up the second of our extra rooms downstairs and put in the mats and the weight bench that has been sitting in the garage since last fall. Once again, painting was the reason this had not been done but I was sick of not having room in the
garage, and not being able to use the weight bench where it was. Hopefully this will motivate me to get back to weight lifting too. The downstairs of the house (because it is a split level) is much cooler than any other part of the house so that will be nice for exercising.

Pullup bar

I also installed in the doorway to that room the Perfect Pullup bar that I had purchased a while back. It isn't a good spot for someone that wants to do "real" pullups because of the low ceiling in that room in particular but because I
can't do real pullups yet (and J is not here to do them), I figure it will work for me doing the alternative methods until I get stronger. Once real pullups are required by one or both of us, we can move it to the other door frame where there is more ceiling clearance.

I am hoping that this motivation continues for a bit so I can continue to knock out a few things that have been lingering. Feels good to knock some niggling things off the list.

Small Tidbits At The Bamboo Lagoon

Progress on a few projects have been slow but I have been knocking out a few little things where I can.

Before

The St John's Wort was trying to take over the steps on the left side of the house again so I worked on that as I could, also cleaning out the side beds of any grass or weeds that I saw creeping through. Due to weather, this took me a few days to finish when normally it would be a short afternoon project.

This pic was taken when I had already gotten a few steps done. Since cleaning this up, I have sprayed the crevices with vinegar, which will have to be redone periodically but it does keep the weeds under control without being bad for the environment. I have two pump sprayers and one is for vinegar and one is for brush killer.

After

I have to use brush killer (which isn't good for the environment) on the blackberry, and small oak trees that keep creeping back up. It is unfortunate but other than burning the blackberry (which isn't an option) getting rid of it permanently is pretty hard to do. I have a huge section of it in the upper backyard that needs attention before it becomes a completely out of control. I have been waiting for the flowers on another weed to die so I wouldn't have to deal with the wasps that were all over the place. Now that the flowers are dead, it is time to get those weeds pulled out and the blackberry dealt with. The backyard is a little bit overwhelming for me so I am trying to just focus on small projects rather than the whole big issue that is a lot to deal with at one time.

I got some more mulch from my mom recently and I have mulched the bed that the new bamboos are in, which has really helped with the moisture retention of that area. It was a sloped bed and everytime I tried to water it, the water would run off before it would soak in. Now the bamboos are much happier and it makes the watering much easier and much more effective.

I also finally got the little bed in front that I created months ago, mulched and the plants there are so happy too. I have cut back the daffodills and other early blooming annuals that are done for the year so it is a bit cleaner as well.

I need to take pics of some of the blooming items. Just found some cool looking Chinese Poppies in the backyard but that is for another post.

I feel like I lost my momentum when I finished the main middle bed in the front yard, but I am trying to get back at it and not let the procrastination get the best of me. There is a lot of work to do to get the place back up to snuff but I think that once it is back where I need it, maintenance won't be too bad....it is just the catch up that is killing me.