Today is my final day at the Bolt Hole for a brief while. Terry's off to North Carolina on Monday with her Mom for an army reunion and I'll be taking up cat sitting duty as well as some more firewood cutting at the Aerie.
Mark and I finished our Good Enough Construction Co. project in the basement today. We installed a retaining wall of 6" x 6" timbers, jacked up the north side sill and installed a couple of concrete block piers beneath it. The jacking up of the sill went a long way toward correcting a major sag in the sill but there's still more that will need doing in the future. I've more support work to do down there in various places but nothing that can't wait for a week or two.
Jacking up the northern sill in just one place--directly beneath a joint--has resulted in things in the kitchen...well, changing. The door to the attached wood shed now closes pretty well for the first time since I've been here. The window I put in while the house was sagging is suddenly not level (but, at least, it still opens and closes easily) and the wooden interior shudders didn't latch properly. The stove looks to be tilted but that's probably because the legs on one side were extended to make it level when we put it in position. All those things are in or against the wall we just jacked up.
When we got done, we used some spare T-11 and closed in the huge hole in the south side that allowed us to get the timbers and block down there. That opening is going to be further hidden by the front porch. (Remember the porch? That's what started this whole sheebang. Was supposed to be a one or two day project to replace it.)
I'll be posting pictures Sunday or Monday when I get to the Aerie's high speed connection.
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Once finished, I hitched up the travel trailer to the Tundra and hauled it out of the storage barn. It has to go back to PA for its annual inspection. This is the first time I've moved it since last September when it was inspected. We just never got around to doing any traveling because Terry's been so busy as national president of SAGA. That ends first week in October, however, and we are already talking about a major road trip next summer. Hitching up by myself went smoothly. I was pleased to see all the lights worked fine and that the tires needed only a little air. I had hauled the compressor up for just such a possibility.
The smaller utility trailer went into the barn for the time being. I'll swap again when the travel trailer is brought back to the Bolt Hole on September 8th or 9th.
I'm taking advantage of the enclosed travel trailer to transport some of the "stuff" that we left here when we moved out of NJ in '06. A couple of antique captain's chairs, a pair of old toy boxes, and a few boxes of magazines and cookbooks will make the trip to the Aerie.
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It started raining about sundown on Friday and we had more than an inch overnight. Today we had some rather heavy showers off and on. Right now someone has turned the faucet to the on position.
I'm glad I spent some time yesterday creating trenches and swales to take water away from the foundation of this old house. Again, more needs to be done to channel the rain/snow melt away. At least, I'm getting an idea of the amount of digging/grading that needs to be done and I can see if what I've already done is doing any good.
The rain and chilly temperatures (it never got above 65 today) makes things a bit cool and raw inside as well as out. As a result, I've had to resort to lighting a fire in the kitchen wood burner. And it feels good!
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I'll be up and Aerie bound before 0800 Sunday morning. Here's hoping it's an uneventful trip.
2 comments:
Sure is feeling like an early fall isn't it!
You've had a busy "vacation" at the Bolt Hole, haven't you? And Anchorage weather again, to boot.
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