What home improvement work did you do today?

Wow that is one sharp looking home,congrats Dude!

 

Big surprise, more demo today

 

Nothing all that impressive. Just went to the nursery and picked up a few seasonal plantings. Going to start power washing next.

 

there's an existing drainage system that runs down the center of the side of the house. Landscapers added drains outside of the forms up against the fence so it will sheet flow off the concrete and get picked up and go down to the street.

 

Tundra load not Trudeau load. Spell checker got me.

 

The reality is, drainage completely aside, you need to consider the load of earth that's pushing against that wall. That's likely what's causing the cracks in the brick. The brick should simply be a veneer in this case, without knowing what exact measures they took to buttress behind that brick wall, using either horizontal anchors, some king of lag/line anchor, anything to leverage the dirt pushing against the back of the wall. that's beyond foundation drains, sealing the back of the wall and other bullshit you need to do. I'm struggling to google for examples, this is the best I can come up with: https://anchordiamond.com/resources/design-considerations

(EDIT: See the "direct anchorage system" for example; you can use T-braces or similar for this though)

For the ~36" retention wall in our front yard - which is a fraction of what you've got there - we poured vertical rebar into a 12" thick footer, laid cinder over it, backfilled the cinder with concrete to lock onto the rebar, sealed the rear of the block with some tarry product I don't remember, then veneered with faux stackstone. Looks great. But even with all that forethought, with only 36" high of dirt behind it, the wall still cracked from the forces pushing against it. Soil is heavy af, quite frankly, and water is a multiplier.

 

use Geogrid much faster and easier

 

Building a wall so I can have privacy and more storage for truck parts (once barn door is done)

 

Replaced the barn trim a while back 2015, and apparently failed to paint the lower trim underneath , so I got to do it all over again this weekend. I guess 8+years isn't a bad run.
The rest of the barn is in rough shape, and we are out of here in less than a year, so this is good enough... and Treated.

2015


Yesterday



All the bugs in there were savagely eaten and recycled into fresh eggs.

 

Added two shelves to the Catio today. Pantera approves of them.

 

I think I'm going to go with Skil miter and job site table saw. I little cheaper but has great reviews.

 

Finally got a nice enough day with enough free time to spray two coats of "matching" tan paint on the primed and caulked shed and even more free time to detail all the white trim! Paint sprayer made the big panels easy work.

 

Did he/she tell you to "walk on home boy" after you were done?

 

After the past several months of being out straight prepping our Home for "our big day" in June I took a me day and organized the Sacred wall of fishing rods and gave it a little TLC.
Here's a before & after.

 

I really need to do something similar to this, but don't have ample ceiling space in a place I'd like to hang mine. I had a setup before we remodeled the basement where my shop was, but I got recuded from 17x24 room into a little 6x9 space, and half of that is filled with hanging storage so I can fit 400sf of stuff into a 60sf space.

 

Damn that is a clean shop/garage. I am cleaning and organizing mine on Wednesday. Taking a couple days off work to get the honey do list knocked down a little.

 

We moved in December 23, 2021 so the first photo with an initial trench drain By the builder before drain rocks were added. Basically the builder had some ideas but we’re not executed by the subs. After moving in we had the remaining woods (alder, blackberries, devils club etc) removed and leveled but still had a ledge of earth where the original trench drain ended. We ended up using a local landscaping company as we saw some work they did around the neighborhood. Not the cheapest but good work. The truck photo shows the size of the rocks they used for the large wall. There are drain rocks on the support side, so the water goes into the trench drain. We ended up hooking all the roof drains to to perimeter French drain/ trench drain. The builder had all the drains running to the lawns and garden. It was mud soup. Not shown was we redid all the drains front and sides so the go to the perimeter drain system. Getting back to the wall construction, for the patio we used concrete blocks, that had drain rock on the earth side and French drains at the bottom that also goes to the perimeter drainage. So far everything is looking good and the heaviest rains have been handled by the drain improvements. I could probably write a book on the landscaping we have done, but we give credit to the landscaping guy for it’s execution.

 

I hear you there in regards to no space,we don't have an attic so the basement takes a serious hit with seasonal stuff and I won't even go down that road...
But the garage is pretty much my territory everything is in a strategic spot,kinda like living on a boat with to much shit that is needed but has to find a home.

 

Ugh moving sucks. Not much but got the racks put back together in the new garage.

 

Processed 53 chickens to add to our new deep freezer

Adding to our garden/orchard.

 

Got home late Saturday from work travel and found our new crib had been delivered/gifted by some family. So late night setting that up and getting it ready.



Then got some rest before I worked on installing the new to me screen door on the house. This is our "mud room" entrance that we dont use a lot, so looking forward to one day being able to open the door and let those few days of cool air flow through.





I still have some final adjustments to do on it, but it is up and closing/opening properly.

 

That looks incredible. Inviting...
Request: early evening money shot with those step lights on

 

Congrats, best wishes for delivery and health

 

Thank you! Still beyond terrified, but we are being told things are looking great/healthy/on track.

 

First one? If so ....

I don't read books these days because I needed to read so much for work, and I hated all the unsolicited advice everyone decided to offer - especially parents, because most of what they "know" has been debunked by science at this point. I say this realizing the irony I'm about to offer unsolicited advice...

One bit of unsolicited advice I got, which I now offer to you as unsolicited advice, is this: Moms on Call. This book, 0-6mos specifically, which you can find on scAmazon also, probably cheaper used: https://momsoncall.com/products/moms-on-call-basic-baby-care-0-6-months

Fucking book was a lifesaver for us. I'd have been better reading it 90 days prior to arrival, just because it gives you a clear checklist of what you need and what to expect. But the most important things it gave us, was the understanding a baby cannot schedule itself, but cues into routine, so it's your job as parent to structure everything in a stimulus fashion, that way that's recognizable to a lump of cells with vocal chords, and stick to it. It was a huge eye-opener. And they literally give you the schedules, written clear as day. Outside of that, the advice on sleeping was invaluable to us getting sleep. i.e. blackout room, white noise machine near the kid that emulates womb noises, never let the kid sleep with you, "cry it out" periods (don't jump up right away, let the kid fuss for a minute and try to work it out, lest you teach them 'crying gets me attention').

Anyway, off my soapbox. Newborn parenting is difficult. That book saved my ass, and I've bought it for every friend of mine that's had their first, and they've agreed, it saved their ass. If you need the owners manual/factory service manual nobody ever wrote for having anewborn, there it is.

 

PS - that book is also reference material, not a one-time read. Baby running a fever? Here's what to do. Poop a different color/consistency? Here's what you need to know. Baby not sleeping? Here's what to try. Baby losing hair? Here's how to react. Never cut nails before? Here's what to consider. Q&A for most conceivable things on top of great staging/preparing/scheduling/deploying stuff.

Anyway, off the soapbox.

 

Super peanut version response... my attempt anyway..

I laughed at the first sentence, probably too much... but I get it...

I will check it out, and most likely read it. This is our first and only. She will be 40 when he is here and I am a few months behind her. So we are taking this gift and running with it.

We are actually going more "euro style" and having the baby set up in our oversized mstr bdrm. I have read a lot on this and am dreading it in some cases, but not in others. there are so many opinions on parenting out there, that we basically tuned them all out and are going to see how we do, knowing full well we are going to make some mistakes a long the way. thankfully we both WFH and work slightly adjusted schedules so we hope to do some hand off times in the beginning. We are definitely not going for a quiet environment, and will be taking him early into the world of stimulation. Obviously a lot more details in all this, but it has little to do with house work, other than us doing a lot of retrofitting to our new home. amazing how fast time is already flying, just preparing for him.. I can only imagine how fast things will go when he is here. Thankfully, we are on 5 acres and one day, he will be able to enjoy the area and do stuff I still only dreamed of.

The part I am most nervous of his the sleep routine for both him and us... good thing I already run on lower hours than her.

 

Already on Amazon...

Oh, and thank you!

 

My only bit of parenting advice? Enjoy whatever phase of development your child is in. Don't wish it away hoping for the "easy" next phase. Appreciate the baby when it's still and can't argue with you, soon they'll be running all over the place and using their favorite word, NO. Appreciate the wonder of youth before they learn how messed up things can be. Enjoy their independent phase when they become teens and nurture it. Just enjoy each phase for what it is. IT GOES FAST.



I'm not crying, you're crying.......