Let's get right to it.
After more than a year of off and on work, I am in the middle of a second round of yard cleanup. This blog will show how big a job this is, and also document my progress.
This was occasioned by a spring purge of the house which made all the rooms in the house accessible and at least minimally usable.
So first let me post a photo of a thumbnail sketch showing the layout of the house and yard. This shows the 9 sheds (1-9) and 3 trailers (A-C) on the 40 x 100 lot.
The circle in the upper left is a very large maple and between sheds #7 and 8 is a large blue spruce.
Now that we are oriented, I can show photos of how things were earlier in the summer. This was after a couple of weeks of clean up and sorting and tossing trash in many areas of the yard. It gave me access down the back sidewalk to the side gate. Photos:
This is the back sidewalk. Photo is taken looking toward the side gate, leading to the side public sidewalk. Just to the left of the ladder is a set of scaffolding and the back of the house.
This is standing at the gate, looking back the other way. On the right is a tarp covered pile of kitchen stuff and a tarp covered pile of tools. On the left is a tarp covered table full of kitchen stuff and misc. Just to the left of the photo is shed #1.
This is standing back from where the first photo was taken, with the tarps removed from the piles, and looking toward shed #1, which I have designated as an automotive shed. All my car repair tools and supplies are being put in here, so that the one car attached garage can be used as a metalworking and machining shop.
Time to take a quick break...
Back again.
Lest you think things haven't improved since the last photo, I'll post a photo of one spot that got cleaned up recently. This location, next to the big maple tree, used to have a pile of stuff about 12' in diameter and chest high, all covered with tarps. I don't have much in the way of before photos, as I was too busy working on it to take them. In the last few days I sorted, tossed, organized and put away the remainder, so all that is left is some leaves and debris to rake up. Many other areas have also been attended to, and we'll look at each in turn, as we go along.
Yesterday was taken up with trying to install sway bar links on the Astro Van, a task that I failed at because of missing a part of one sway bar end. But I took the van up and got it washed, after it sitting under trees for a year. I put a new battery in it the other day. And yesterday I cleared it out and used a brush to brush out the carpeting. The van had become a catch all and storage place, so the task took all day. Here are the results. Note it is still on jack stands. And that IS a nice Arcan aluminum 3 ton jack.
Had to take a break and go to the Dr.'s office for flue shots, so sitting in the parking lot at CVS while Julie get some stuff.
So you might ask, why so many sheds? Well, they just sort of grew. And they are allowed, so why not. But they have become permanent storage structures, not daily use things. Part of the reason for that, is I never made proper doors for them. Some have been closed up for over a year. Now I am opening them up and sorting, tossing and organizing them. Each is assigned a particular use, automotive, woodworking, office supplies etc. Do I need this much storage? Yes, at the moment I do. I'm purging the house so needed repairs and improvements can occur. And while the stuff is stored in the sheds, I am going through it again and again, and tossing more things each time. In fact, I tore into the long shed again yesterday, and today will continue with that work. 10/23/2015
10/23/2015 Noon update.
I feel a lot freer to update this blog, than to post on GJ. I don't have to do what posters require of me, because there are no comments here, save my own. I can do what I want.
Today I was to continue on working in the long shed, but couldn't get started. So I decided to look for my box of electrical supplies, that I had spent some time looking for yesterday, without success.
I had looked in the shed, dining room, kitchen, garage, auto shed, even the bedroom. It ended up being in the dining room, in a stack of boxes of kitchen stuff.
The task I had in mind, was to finish installing an outlet on the front of the house. There was already an exterior box, conduit and a PVC-LB conduit body. I just needed to install wiring, and outlet and fasten the box to the wall.
Of course, that set off a search for the proper tools. I had some Tapcon screws the right size for the brick facing on the house, but no bit. So halted in my tracks, I went out and started working on the shed. After emptying 3 boxes of my old papers into the dumpster, I ran into something I didn't even think I ever had..........the Tapcon drill bit, in the proper size! Turns out the bit is an SDS type, and luckily I have a Hilti TE2 hammer drill, and found it in the garage!
So I just went and installed the outlet and wiring and secured the receptacle box to the wall. NICE! Now I want to install a couple more. Funny thing is that the first two holes ran big, so I had to use the next larger Tapcon screw. The next 2 did OK. Need more boxes and screws.
It is SO satisfying to have the tools and knowledge to do things like that!
10/24 AM
Woke up early this morning and it's raining. Forgot to keep up with the weather and I left a lot of stuff out of the long shed. Drat! Had to run out and cover and put things away! Everything was wet but a lot of stuff was in boxes that just got soggy outsides. Lesson learned.
Probably work inside today as it's supposed to rain this afternoon too.
Did work inside. Cleaned up the office.
10/25 2:30PM
Went through all my clothes hanging in two closets. Organized and rehung on better hangers. Set one closet for flannel shirts (Have about 50) and pants. One closet for heavy and light jackets and one set of dress clothes. All the short sleeved silk Hawaiian shirts will go in storage somewhere. I'm going to pick 2 dress outfits and 4 ties and toss all the other sport coats and ties. I never use them nor do I ever expect to use them. I had my years of office dress. Now I like to dress down as much as possible. Jeans and T-shirt or flannel, that's it.
Went through another leather suitcase and tossed it.
Did the clothes sorting. Tossed 6 sport coats and kept 2. Tossed all but about 8 ties and 2 dress shirts. Still need a place for 8 pair of pants and the same number of Hawaiian shirts. Got a couple of little practice sessions on the guitar in while doing it, and fixed a cauliflower for dinner. Office isn't complete, but you can walk around in it and get to most everything. Cleaned out and vacuumed the closet that now holds the spring/fall and winter coats.
10/26 1:15PM
The last 10% ALWAYS takes 50% of the effort.
Woke up today and realized I still hadn't gone through all my hanging clothes and put them properly away.
Found some more of the nice thick aluminum hangers and had to switch a bunch of shirts I had hung up yesterday on wooden hangers, to the aluminum ones.
[IMG]https://img0.etsystatic.com/004/0/7069185/il_570xN.376919036_pvaw.jpg[/IMG]
Also decided to use the pants hangers instead of just looping pants over a bar type hanger. Now they hang full length. It helped make a little space, as everything is real tight.
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Tossed all the odd wire and plastic hangers, but still have a stack of Hawaiian shirts to transfer to the wooden hangers, so I can toss the rest of the old wire and plastic ones.
Should be outside in the good weather, but wanted to finish this, once and for all.
Still feeling a little loss at tossing all the sport coats and ties, but I would never use them and would have to just live over them.
10/27 7:30AM
Tonight we are due to have an entire night of rain, so time to button things up in the yard and install the tarp on the roof as additional insurance. I need to get a fall protection kit for that 2nd floor roof, as I'm scared of heights. Also want to use the leaf blower, although the rain will likely bring down lots more leaves.
Moved the keyboard and stand into the office/music room. It had been blocking my dresser in the bedroom.
Another problem that we have is wasting food. We only go grocery shopping on the weekend, so tend to overbuy. Hard to shop for only 2 people. Having a couple of small under counter fridges helps, since we can only keep so much. It makes you keep up with tossing food that is kept too long. But these fridges are not self defrosting. So I defrosted one last night. Cleaned out and defrosted the small under counter freezer the other day as well.
Need to get all the winter hats and gloves and boots into the closet with all the winter coats.
The more you look for things that need doing, the more you find.
10/27 Evening
Rain coming tonight. Remnants of the hurricane. Should be an all night and day thing. Everything is buttoned up and dogs inside. 4 1/2 96 gallon curbside trash cans full of leaves and trash for Thursday pick up.
Remembered this today:
https://www.google.com/search?newwin...87.LSGfhx1XRwU
10/29 Mid day
6 dumpsters (96 gallon) picked up today. A mix of leaves and trash and tossed things.
More leaves on the ground from storms and wind. Raked into big piles and will go out and fill 2 more dumpsters.
Cleared all the boxes and bins and baskets of clothes off the stairs and put in Julies dressing room for her to sort.
Just took a look at some old photos of the house and yard. WOW! What a change!!! Still have a long ways to go, but man, there has been so much stuff tossed over the last year and a half or so. Now it's a matter of going deeper into things and finding small pockets of stuff that I don't need. It really is becoming more difficult to find those items, while at the same time, I'm getting much better at parting with them.
10/31 Paying the price...
The price for not having a particular place for everything.
The other day, when I finished using the circular saw, I tucked it away under the covered area, just so it wouldn't get rained on.
Today, I uncovered the pile of lumber on the trailer, determined to do some carpentry, and use up some of the lumber.
Then I went looking for the saw. I looked EVERYWHERE in the house, yard, sheds, vehicles, piles under tarps, even in the trash cans. I tore the long shed apart again and organized it even more, in the search for the saw.
Rain coming this evening, so had to put everything away, cover everything and button everything up.
Just started to sprinkle and I went one last time, and looked at the first place I had looked.......and there it was! To late to use it today.
A place for everything and everything in it's place. That takes on new meaning for me now.
11/2 Morning
Hope everyone changed their clocks. Most of ours are battery powered, so I changed the batteries.
It's a good time to change the in smoke detectors and check the CO2 detectors too.
Yesterday was a beautiful day here, but couldn't get Julie to go outside and see it. She did make a slow cook meal.
I started the day by cutting a bunch of 2x4's from the lumber pile on the trailer. These will be the walls for the covered area. That's where all the rest of the misc. stuff in the yard will go. Tore down the existing roof and will rebuild it with better and stronger framing.
Got interrupted because I had to go pick up a free table saw I found on Craigslist. It was 45 minutes away, so that took up the rest of the afternoon.
Supposed to be another gorgeous day today, sunny and high of 68, so will be framing and sheathing this addition and then stocking it.
The whole week should be good outside working weather. We'll see how much I can accomplish before the ground freezes.
My leaf blower quit, and now the ground is covered with leaves. I think I'll leave them until they all fall, and rake them.
Still want to get a post hole digger and straighten the fence.
Went into the basement twice last evening, to reset a fuse. Not as bad as I thought. Doable, but must wait for outside work.
Julie's car is leaking trans fluid, so that will have to be done as well.
On a more positive note, I am finding that having things in a particular place, is saving some difficulty. Car needed a quart of oil this morning, and i knew just where to go to get it. I find that when something is assigned a permanent place, it doesn't matter where that place is, as long as it doesn't change. Your mind reinforces that as THE place for the item, and you always know that. Moving things from one temporary place to another confuses you. It's like playing a game of hide and seek with yourself. A cruel game for us with failing short term memories. It takes two habits to be ingrained. One is to assign a permanent place for each and every thing you own. The other is to always put things away after use. The payback makes it worth doing.
11/2/2015 Update
We've been having unseasonably mild weather, that will end Sunday. I've been working outside. But today, despite the great weather, I started on the basement. That is the big scary job here. It flooded years ago, and is full of ruined things. When I say full, I mean hoarder full. I've filled 1 1/2 dumpsters and have been pulling lots of stuff out.I've filled the basement stair 4 times, with boxes and piles of stuff, and then brought it outside. This evening I disassembled a ruined piano. Here are some photos just after I began. I've got a long way to go.
Looking at my own photos, I am struck at how awful this looks, and is. What a mess to clean up. Progress has been made since these photos were taken, early in the day. Will post more tomorrow.
Actually, it's pretty easy. Almost everything is ruined. The hard part is the physical work of going up the stairs with heavy load after load. I'm out of shape and old, panting and sweating and gasping for breath. Probably only have done a 20th of it so far. I feel like going down there and doing more tonight, but I haven't got any gas left in the tank. Will have to hit it hard early in the morning. Lift that barge and tote that bale.
Update 11/3/2015 4PM
3 sessions today.
Got going late. Just didn't want to do it.
First sessions was quick. I wanted to try out the new leaf blower, but didn't want to do the whole yard. Takes too long and leaves are still falling. Instead, I went up and down the sidewalks with a 100' cord. Looked better, but more leaves have fallen since then.
Then, after a break for The Woodwright's Shop and a little play on the computer, I got down to business.
Moved a full dumpster out and brought in an empty. Started filling it. Dragged buckets of drek, and armloads of wood from the broken up piano, up the stairs and out. Filled the second dumpster. Dragged piano sub-assemblies up the stairs and out. Shoveled up buckets and trash cans full of misc. and toted them up.
Finally, I finished disassembling the heart of the piano. the steel frame, from the large wood main beam. Had to cut every piano string, undo dozens of screws and remove large lag bolts and very tight large screws.
Then, after everything else was out, I had a 200 plus pound steel main frame to lug up the stairs, inch by inch and tread by tread. I started by pushing from below, but it slipped and almost got me, so I worked from above after that. It's now on the back porch The scrapers are going to love it.
This Thursday is trash day, and also bulk trash pick up day. So I don't even have to cut these big pieces of wood up to fit them in the dumpster. Just lay them on the curb.
My hips are talking to me, and telling me to take a break. so I will.
Here are some photos showing the progress. They show a pile of the piano parts at the foot of the stairs, the big metal part in the basement and then on the porch, a bunch of the bigger sub-assemblies outside with the electrical panels. and the trash can. Just a few of the things I hauled out. This only cleaned a small area at the bottom of the basement stairs.
Bill
