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Are You Handy? 2

I've managed to drywall the "mudroom" area - the little alcove you see below (the small step up area with the exposed blue switch). That concrete floor will be tiled, and inside that small space will be a nice coat rack.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v353/SPOCKED/CLOSET2.jpg

The space where the dry-vac sits was going to be a sort of media closet, but now I'm thinking it might make a nice place for a mini-fridge or a wine cooler. Or it might become a built in bookcase. We made sure to string an outlet in there for whatever it becomes :)

a closer view of the mudroom..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v353/SPOCKED/CLOSET.jpg

The switch on the outer wall starts the fan motor which will pull warm, pellet stove heat from the living room into this new basement room.

August 3rd update...

To get moving on tiling of the window wells, one of the older, wooden basement windows needed to get replaced since it was aging. On Sunday we did the replacement. Nothing about this was smooth since the previous owner just slapped concrete all around it and on the outside to form a sill. Anyway, here are the interior and exterior pics...

DSCN0964-1.jpg


^ I had to pull out some of the window well to do this (fortunately, no drywall had to come down)

DSCN0967.jpg


^ I've certainly never replaced a window before and I have to say it came out pretty nice. I mitered the sill at a 15 degree angle and shot the frame in with my brad nailer. Foam insulation fills in all the gaps nicely. Later I'll clean it up and do some extended framing and painting.

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Yesterday morning, we decided to FINALLY tackle our shed problem. It needed to get cleaned, detrashed, and organized. The door was long overdue for some renovation since the lower frame was rotting away. Somewhere along the line we decided that we might as well plan to paint the whole thing (though that's a task for another day). While the cleaning effort was exhausting and took all day, the door repair was actually fun to do.

DSCN1012.jpg


^ at this point the door is on the sawhorses in the shade. Everything in the shed came out and the shop vac went to work. We had mice in there over the winter and so it was a huge mess.

DSCN1011.jpg


^ On the table, I ripped off all the rotting framework and rusty screws and replaced with exterior composite. A coat of primer and caulked the seams. Since we're replacing the old hardware with something nicer
and much larger, I had to make some mounting adjustments and that worked out very well. The new composite frame will get primed probably today, though we sort of promised ourselves that since we worked until nightfall, we'd take the day off (yeah, right ;) )

DSCN1014.jpg


^ Here the door is rehung without much of a hitch. We primed most of the face of the shed in anticipation of painting, as I said. The door will get the same red (cranberry whip) as the house doors (except for the X and frame which will get the creame colored trim) and the shed will also match the house ("Athenian") green.
 
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Thankfully, power was already hooked up :techman: After it's all painted, I'll come off the breaker box and string cables for front (lantern) and rear (motion sensor) exterior lights.
 
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Sheds are incredibly handy and sheds with electricity are even better. Looks like you got a good one there SPOCKED, especially after the work you guys put in on it.
 
We are doing a little bit of follow up stuff today - the important thing was to make sure we got the door up on it's hinges before nightfall. But it's max hot and humid outside today and we want a little break, especially since I was up until almost 2am, not to mention how sore my neck and shoulders are today. It's coming along, though.
 
Man SPOCKED, you folks sure are doing a great job - on all of them.

I'll have to be fixing up a 10 X 16 shed but not until I move it a couple hundred feet.
 
Man SPOCKED, you folks sure are doing a great job - on all of them.
Thanks :)

I'll have to be fixing up a 10 X 16 shed but not until I move it a couple hundred feet.
Ours is roughly the same size and we also plan on moving it (though not as far.) It sits on cinder blocks. How were you planning on moving it... with a fork truck?
 
Sounds like back-breaking work... sure beats sweating in a gym though - you're actually using your energies to make a lovely home for yourselves. Amazing how much can be achieved in such a short time!
 
Ours is roughly the same size and we also plan on moving it (though not as far.) It sits on cinder blocks. How were you planning on moving it... with a fork truck?

You could get a slide bed tow truck to move it if you have the room. But the easiest method I've found (and planning on using) is to use rollers under the shed. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNRW-WFyLkU)

I've got lots of small diameter trees to cut down and use but you can also use metal or PVC pipe. Just put a couple under the shed and lay out some in front. Then simply roll the shed along over the pipes. Have some friends pick them up when the shed rolls past them and put them in the front again.

With mine I have to actually go up a 4 high grade and that may prove difficult. I do have a boat load of 2X10s left over so I may use those on top of the ground to make smoother 'tracks' to run over.

I'll definitely be taking pictures of my success or folly. :)
 
I'm the guy they make the Idiot's Guide and Time-Life book series for!

I want to be more handy, but unfortunately, you learn from experience and it's not easy to get that experience. Especially with a tight budget.
 
I'll definitely be taking pictures of my success or folly. :)
:lol: Our shed is much bigger, much heavier than that video. Like you, the ground is much more irregular so this wouldn't work for us. And, over the weekend, we've been rethinking the need to move it after all. I'd like to, but it's not life or death. The idea was to get it up much closer to the dirt road. It's private so the town doesn't have any obligation to plow it in winter - though sometimes they do anyway. We want to put a driveway right up to the road and have a new overhang off the shed to cover the whole thing. That way we could just pull right out avoiding deep frozen ruts like we have the past few winters.
 
As usual nice work. Love the shed, I'm getting a Sear's prefab one for the side of our house. It would be nice to have the use of at least one of the stalls of my THREE car garage...
 
I'll definitely be taking pictures of my success or folly. :)
:lol: Our shed is much bigger, much heavier than that video. Like you, the ground is much more irregular so this wouldn't work for us. And, over the weekend, we've been rethinking the need to move it after all. I'd like to, but it's not life or death. The idea was to get it up much closer to the dirt road. It's private so the town doesn't have any obligation to plow it in winter - though sometimes they do anyway. We want to put a driveway right up to the road and have a new overhang off the shed to cover the whole thing. That way we could just pull right out avoiding deep frozen ruts like we have the past few winters.

Yeah, that one was pretty small. The incline is what might give me grief. I'm going to stop by the local rental place and see if they have any dolly wheels or even the motorized option these guys have: http://www.shedsmoved.com/images/P4250603.JPG

I need mine near the driveway to place my tractor for clearing the driveway. Plus it will be easier for the kids bikes and pool chemicals.
 
It's private so the town doesn't have any obligation to plow it in winter - though sometimes they do anyway.
My Mother's (former :() house is on a private road, so the town never plowed it. Then my Mother called up the Town Hall and asked if that meant she'd be paying less taxes. They've been plowing it ever since. :D
 
Well today I feel a little more handy about the house :) Okay, I'm not up to changing the shingles or finishing a basement, but today, today I cleaned the rain gutters :hugegrin:

Well, actually I only did the first two trips up the ladder, while mr trampledamage held the ladder. Then he realised that it wasn't actually going to be as skanky a job as he was worried about and since he is much better at climbing ladders than I am, he did the rest. And it cost us money, because we had to buy the ladder. But hey, it'll be free next time! And more importantly it actually got done!

And I could have done it all if I'd had to.

I'm feeling quite proud of myself :cool:
 
At least you didn't find any birds. Birds love to nest in rain gutters. :D
 
^ I've neglected my gutters, td - in fact, I've only cleaned one side since we moved in :eek: The other side has trees and stuff growing in it (which my neighbors were busting my nuts about last night during our annual Labor Day weekend bbq - they call it a "gutter garden" :lol:)

The weather has been glorious so I'm back outside. Here's some progress with the shed...

DSCN1028.jpg


Again, all of the trim will get painted a light cream, including the X on the door... the door itself will be painted red (I don't have enough "Cranberry Whip" left in the can right now so it's gonna wait awhile) Then we need to prime and paint all around. I will also be adding corner trim and replacing that god-awful ramp with some pressure treated wood and then some kind of skirting will finish the job.


I've moved over to the house and begun scraping the old paint above the shingles. NOT as satisfying as painting...

DSCN1027.jpg


but it has to be done. This area will, of course, get Athenian Green paint after I do some caulking and minor repair (this work should happen today :) )
 
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At least you didn't find any birds. Birds love to nest in rain gutters. :D

I was amazed by how little fauna was up there - it was just dried dead leaves mostly (thank you Saskatchewan for your inhospitable climate!)

Yeah, SPOCKED, that's what got us started - our next door neighbour offered to lend us his ladders because he said we had stuff growing up there!
 
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