A Step in the Right Direction!

Now that we have a new set of doors to grace the entrance to our humble abode, perhaps it was time to add some curb appeal, not to mention safety and convenience, to complement the latest additions!

Ensconced between the walls of the garage and house, just below the main entrance door, there stood a set of weathered concrete steps that had undoubtedly been there for a good 30 years. These steps had definitely shown the rigors of time and the blatant disregard for maintenance over the years. Large cracks had formed and sections of the stair treads had even broken away causing a potentially hazardous descent! To protect the ankles of those who would darken our doorways, and reduce the risk of a lawsuit, it was decided that this monolithic edifice had to be removed!

Naivety and experience would clash with my next actions! You see, in my tumultuous enthusiasm and anticipation of DEMOLITION, it hadn't occurred to me that the actual physical dynamics of concrete may be a factor here. But at that point, there was only one thing going through my mind... HULK, SMASH!! A quick trip to our local hardware store and I return like a kid from a candy store that had just bought a sledgehammer... from a candy store...

Fortunately, there are no photos of my feeble attempts to reduce these seemingly fragile and dilapidated steps to rubble and it didn't take long for my construction experience to kick in and say, "quit screwin' around and get the real demolition toys out here!" This is also where I had come to my senses and realized that concrete takes about 30 years to fully cure and once cured, is about the next hardest thing to solid granite!

Alright, so now that I have returned from a second trip to the hardware store, this time armed with a large concrete breaker (of course this was the smarter way to go), it was time for a beer, I mean it was time to get the real demolition efforts under way! Upon commencement of the demolition, I was inundated with the feeling that I was being watched... As I turned to see who had taken an interest in my endeavor, I was surprised and delighted to see my daughter Meghan's face smiling in the window above the "destruction zone" so I asked her if she would like to take a crack at it. Thinking that she would not show the slightest interest other than sheer curiosity fulfilled from the window, she surprised me again by gladly and enthusiastically agreeing to the challenge! Of this I have photos and video! Great job Meghan! This would turn out to be one of Meghan's new favourite toys, (tools) followed closely by the hammer stapler!




What I thought would have only taken a couple of hours to demolish, turned out to be a weekend long ordeal but I was able to get this monstrosity torn down to manageable, bite-size pieces, (where they would sit in the driveway until such time when they could be removed, again, a story for another time!)

So that was actually the hard part, now on to the gravy! I already had a design in my head of how I was going to construct the new steps and landing and what the finished product might look. I had taken into account what was previously in place and how that system could be improved. The next few hours were relatively simple and effortless. A quick trip to the lumber store to pick up some goodies and this project is under way!






Well there it is, the new finished steps and landing!! Much easier and safer to ascend and descend and it's not hard to look at either!

Until next time, keep your monkey wrenched! ;)

Your door, is ajar...

Well let's just keep this ball rolling shall we!

After last winter we had realized how cold some areas of our house could potentially get and I knew that we had to do something about it, more than just putting plastic over the windows, which of course seemed to be a yearly tradition, mainly to keep us and the kids from freezing but also to save on the energy bills!

So, just about 18 months ago, we made the decision to do something about it. There was a lot of hype about the eco-energy retrofit grant thinger that the government was offering back to homeowners that made the effort to improve the energy efficiency of their homes, thus reducing their carbon footprint, you know the story... or maybe not. So to take advantage of the situation and try to help save the world in the process, we had a company come in to inspect our home and report on our current energy loss and where it can be improved. Long story short, we had a few directions to go in!

Since the main entrance doors seemed to be a huge factor in our energy loss, we decided to start there! Actually, simply saying that we were loosing heat around the doors would be a huge understatement! As it turned out, the doors that I planned to removed had only a single pane of glass in them and any weather stripping that was once in place had been long gone! More than that though, our main entrance door was not a solid door as previously expected, but a hollow core door that had virtually no insulating capabilities other than slowing down the icy winds slightly, thus reducing the wind chill factor over the cats water dish a couple of notches!! "Well THERE'S your problem!"

The photo above shows the main entrance to the porch and the photo below it shows the back yard entrance to the porch. It may not be apparent in the photos, but there was a lot of room for improvement... especially around the jambs!

So, after choosing some new doors from our local hardware and lumber store, (and storing them for about 6-8 months, that's another story), it was finally time to have some fun! That means DEMOLITION and there is no better way to release some frustrations than to take them out on an inanimate object! lol! A sawzall and a couple of beers later and voila, we have a breezeway!

So the doors have been removed! Next step, throw in the new doors, right? WRONG!! Due to the fact that construction standards were at the pinnacle of minimalistic expectations way back when, a wee bit of structural work was required to, you know, hold up the walls and roof since I have now removed the structural supporting members... of course I am talking about the doors themselves!! Ah, the joy of renovating an old house!

Since removing the doors also included replacing the sill and threshold, it was time utilize some good ol' fashioned mill work and craftsmanship! Ah who am I trying to kid, I just wanted to play with my table saw!! ;)

I do have to give props to the building methods of years past though, especially when it comes to demolition, common nails make it easier to tear out old framing because they are smooth!!

Lets run through the checklist, shall we!? Old doors removed, check! New framing in walls, check! Openings prepared for new doors, check! Can't wait for my next pay, check! I guess it's time for the new doors! So by the magic of editing and for the simple fact of forgetting to take pictures during the actual install, here are the finished products!! (Well finished meaning the damn things are in and they close properly!)



Until next time, keep your hammer polished!

New Fence!

Hello again!

Well here is a little story that should get this ball rolling again, for a while at least! This post is about a fence... a "fence post" if you will!! ;)

So as many of you would know, or maybe not, when we bought this house, there was an old fence in the back yard which was in a state of disrepair. The cedar posts were rotted through to the core, paint was peeling off, the rails and pickets were being held up by moss alone because the nails had long since rusted away!

As the story goes with this particular fence, our backyard neighbour, Dave, had constructed this fence some time ago to prevent both the riff and the raff that once resided here, from invading his territory. We had met this particular riffraff... this fence was a smart move on Dave's part!!

Well as it so happens, nature would eventually have it's way with this old fence and it would succumb to the elements, taking a new perpendicular position to that which it previously held. Interestingly though, it was almost as if this fence had know that it's purpose had been served and it could now lay down arms and rest knowing that it's duty was fulfilled... that or the thing just rotted and fell over!!

One day there was a knock at the door. It was the fence... actually, it was the fence's builder Dave and his son, coming the retrieve what was left of the fence and to offer up a suggestion. Originally, Dave and his son were planning to rebuild the fence during the summer of 2010, (ah summer...) and they wondered if I would be able to give them a hand to get a new fence put up before the fall. Naturally I agreed to help them since I had the necessary tools and the skills for the job. But as things turned out, for whatever reason, Dave and his son were unfortunately unable to follow through with their plans and we were left with a stack of fence boards sitting in our back yard.

What now, you ask? Enter Mr. Gibson!

After accepting the request from Dave to build the fence in his place, I called upon my good friend and fellow carpenter Doug and my son Jamie to help me create this masterpiece! I use that term loosely at this point because neither one us had ever constructed a pre-fab panel fence before and we really had no idea what direction we were to go in! Well, besides right to left, but after a bit of head scratching and brainstorming, we had the first 2 panels in place!

Soon after our first beer we had a system worked out and the rest of the work was gravy! Fasten one side of the panel to the post which we had previously cemented into the ground, dig the next hole with the post hole auger, drop in a post, fasten it to the panel making sure that it's level and plumb, fill the hole with post concrete and move to the next section!! That's it! Were able to get 60 feet of 6' high pre-fab panel fence, including posts and concrete, installed in 2 hours and we could spend the rest of that beautiful summer day remembering how happy we were that it wasn't... winter!! So long everybody!

Start Time - 10:00 am
Beer Time - 10:03 am
Completion Time - 12:00 noon!

Thanks for reading! Please feel free to leave your comments! I'll be back soon with another edition to our addition! Cheers!

Oh how the time flies!

Hello all!

We are sorry that we have neglected our blog and in turn kept all of you in the dark for so long!! It's amazing how fast time goes by when life takes precedence and the simple pleasures like keeping up relations fall by the wayside. We have been very busy with work and with our family's extracurricular activities, each of which warrants a blog of their own! So as a result, regular blog updates get fewer and farther between, which is obvious looking at the date of last post! ;) Luckily, the work on the house has progressed much farther than the work on the blog and we have many more stories of discovery, wonder, triumph and utter confusion to tell you about... just as soon as I can get my butt in gear!! It won't be long, I promise! Sounds kinda like a quote I heard from a joke someone told to someone else somewhere some time ago... "I have a great story to tell you about procrastination, but you'll have to wait for it!" Until then, take care! Corrie