Told you that last piece would be the work of minutes. I raced the storm down to the last possible bit of working time yesterday, putting tools away while cringing at thunderclaps.
Yesterday I was supposed to have finished the long wall…
…but I got a wild hair to switch to the south wall to see if putting up the siding would make me less reluctant to pass behind my own cabin. Jury’s still out. I still don’t know what it was about that that raised the hair on my nonexistent ruff. But Claire’s right; I’ll need to do something to doll up that door. It’s a good solid-core door but in that setting there’s something about it that says “mean white trash.” And I do have some small bits of history with mean white trash. Maybe I’ll just paint it a whimsical color or something.
But I started to talk about the long wall – it’s not quite nine in the morning and I should be planning to finish that wall. But the south side is the sunny side and I find I need a little healing time from yesterday’s marathon – I’m sunburned all over my back and my stump’s singing to me. If I take a day now I’ll save 3 or 4 later I’d need if I overdo it. I ain’t young any more, and that old collision damage is making itself known.
But you want to see something funny and also annoying?
Little Bear has moved into the new bedroom.
I can understand it – it’s cool and breezy at night if those two corner windows are open. I put that bit of carpet there exactly where I always intended his bed to be when the damned room was finished and since he had already selected it – But the problem is that now I’ll have to move him out when I’m working on the floor and walls. There’s only one thing Little Bear gets drama queenie about but he’s prepared to make a complete spectacle of himself over it: He hates it when I disrupt his safe corner. He was insufferable last September when I tiled the floor, and now we’re going to go through all that bullshit all over because he jumped the gun.
But at least he agrees that’s a good place for his new bed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vle44kNHxDg
chuckle – Ben there is also a porn flick called The Green Door.
Joel – I think it’s the image of the cinder block steps that are messin’ with you. I think a landing/porch and proper steps would go a long way in helping with the uneasiness. Maybe even a hand rail.
Another though – how about a storm door/screen door to break up the look of an exterior door opening off your bedroom.
“how about a storm door/screen door to break up the look of an exterior door opening off your bedroom.”
Not necessarily cheap, but a great idea! A storm door would give summer ventilation superior to a window, and then with winter window panels it could hold in heat and seal out the inevitable drafts from around the door.
Yeah, I was thinking this morning that pouring the porch/steps might be the next thing after I finish the siding. But – dammit – I’m back to needing rebar.
Well either rebar, or fibered concrete mix. Especially for porch/steps which don’t have to carry the full load of a structure, that’s generally the smart way to go.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/QUIKRETE-Profinish-Crack-Resistant-80-lb-Gray-High-Strength-Concrete-Mix/3026899
-or-
http://www.homedepot.com/p/SAKRETE-80-lb-Crack-Resistant-Concrete-Mix-65201090/100390848
Joel, please, not steps. This is your first opportunity to build a proper, ADA compliant RAMP with handrails and perhaps also a safe landing zone outside the door and midway up so you have one simple easy way in and out. You can put a skid resistant finish on the concrete. Or anti-slip strips on the cured concrete. Or scrap indoor-outdoor carpet on the ramp.
There are quite a few posts recently where you’ve mentioned your ageing body. The timing is right to integrate those thoughts into your egress plans.
But if you steps please make them ADA compliant in step depth, width and rise.
He can’t afford to block the gate to the Chooks, Zelda, and it looks like that gate swings outward. I think that ADA is a non-starter for that “porch”.
I agree with Zelda. Even if you make it a tad steeper than the recommended ADA requirements, a ramp is so friggin much better than steps. Plus it makes it easy to carry or roll things in and out. And a ramp is a heck of a lot better for your hips and your stub.
Mark, it’s difficult to judge space from a photo but it looks as if he can put a safe landing outside the door, then come down on the left (doorknob side) to another safe landing about where the addition ends, the straight parallel to the chicken pen down to the ground. If he needs more space for the gate swing he can come out farther past the addition before the final grade down. But remember all the discussion about the roof slope????? hahahahahaahhaa What do we know from a photo? I sure hope Joel will not do steps, Andrew, because steps, as you said, are not kind. Yes it means more work and more materials, but once done it will be safe and comfortable.