Scrub-a-Dub-Dub

If I had my hands around the neck of the person who built the roof joists for our back screened patio, I would squeeze that neck until he turned purple!  He caused us a great deal of work today, with more work to follow tomorrow.

The roof joists are a pain when they need washing
or painting.  Unfortunately, they need both this year.

The roof joists are set up in a lattice pattern so that the support for the fiberglass roof above is in various places.  This helped the builder because he could stagger the joists when nailing them into place.  The staggered joists also provide more support to carry the snow load on the roof in the winter time.

OK, OK, I get it.  I understand why the joists are positioned that way, but that does not make dealing with them any easier.

The vertical support columns are easy to paint, but the
roof supports certainly are not.

We knew that one of our tasks this summer was to wash and to paint the support posts and the roof joists on the back porch.  We spent this morning doing nothing but washing the dirt off of those surfaces.  A little TSP with warm water was the mixture of the day, but the porch was so dirty that each of us went through at least three bucketsful to keep the water relatively usable.  What a pain each little square of joists is to clean!  The corners are nearly impossible to get clean, and having everything overhead certainly did not make the job faster or easier.

Once we got to the outer parts of the joists and the rain gutters, the job did not get any better. In fact, the outside was almost dirtier than the inside.  Rick also took the gutter guards off and found a royal muddy mess inside the gutters which he had to clean.

We scraped the paint where necessary; tomorrow we'll add the prime coat where needed and perhaps a little Kilz in certain areas.  Painting this vertical posts is not difficult, but the joists of the ceiling are more difficult to paint than they are to wash.  Neither of us is looking forward to our job tomorrow.

I just hope the final result of our efforts will protect the porch for a few more years and will be worth the effort in the end.  Even then, I still would have murder on my mind if the designer ever came onto the back porch.

Green, Green Grass of Home

My watch tells me that the time is 3:27 p.m., and other than a small break at lunchtime, this is the first time today that I have had a chance to rest.  Needless to say, this has been another productive day.

The before and after pictures below show how the morning was spent:

The rest of the former garden, awaiting sod.

The side yard as it looks after 20 rolls
of sod. 

We had to go out to the fields where the men were cutting the sod in order to purchase 20 more rolls.  I guess we could not get sod more fresh than that!  We were home by 9:30 and able to lay down the next part of the sod.

We were surprised that we actually had enough to fill in the main mud patch section of the yard.  We still need to do a third trip to pick up sod, though.  We would like to lay down one more strip where the creeping-charlie weeds currently live.  Technically that area is on the neighbor's property, but since our trees grew out over that area (which allowed the weeds to grow) we feel we have the responsibility to remove the weeds and to add some grass.

Our front yard has a couple of places also that would benefit from new sod, and our back yard has the same.  These areas are all depressions in the yard that mark where trees once grew.  We need to add some dirt on top, and then so new sod to get rid of these ankle-turners.  Since driving 45 miles takes gas, we will wait until we know how much sod Lindsay and Chris will need for their yard, and then we will get all of the sod at once.

The afternoon has been spent with the usual Friday cleaning chores and laundry, plus a run to the automatic vehicle wash because our trips to the dump have left the truck filthy.  We are preparing to drive the truck to Milwaukee tomorrow, so we cleaned the inside, restocked it with snacks and water, and Rick filled the tank with gas.  We also made a run to the bank to keep the finances accurate.  Whew!

Once again the weather cooperated so we did not die of heat stroke.  We are both happy to see the major part of that task complete.  Now all we have to do is to add water.

Trees, be Gone!

We were up before 7:00 today because we knew that we were going to be working outside at Lindsay's house, and we wanted to beat the heat of the mid-day sun.

Earlier in the week, we had gone to their house and helped them remove some branches from their two huge evergreen trees at the back of their lot.  Yesterday, Chris contracted with a tree removal contractor to take down the tallest of the trees.  The man with the chainsaw did just that: he cut the trunk about 4 feet from the ground and let the whole tree just drop.  Tim-m-m-ber!

Lindsay walks toward the downed tree as Rick cuts the branches
and Chris started to pile them for transportation to the curb.

Our task today was to go back to help them remove the branches from the fallen tree so Chris and Lindsay could haul the debris to the curb.

We took down the trunk of the smaller tree, but what remains of the larger tree will have to wait until Gary brings over a chain saw.  That's OK since lots of pine needles, pine cones, rocks, weeds, roots, and other nasty-looking stuff was left from where the trees once stood.

Lots of debris remained under the trees.

We each took a rake or a shovel and started to fill five-gallon pails with the afore-mentioned debris.  As Chris brought the buckets up to the front yard using the trailer hooked to his lawn mower, Rick went with him to unload the buckets into the back of our truck.  Lindsay and I stayed in the back yard and continued to fill more buckets.

Another load of debris is ready to be hauled up to the curb.

In the end, we filled about 50 buckets full which measured about 1/2 a yard of debris.  Then Rick and Chris hauled it all to the yard waste dump.  Their yard looks much better.  They still need to drop that final trunk and haul it up to the curb.  Their neighbor down the street takes the wood from there, which is fine with Chris and Lindsay.  As long as it is not in their yard, they don't care who takes it.

They know of a man who they can call to grind down the stumps.  Then they can fill in the spaces with good black dirt and add sod to give them a fresh, green yard.

Some of the tree branches wait to be loaded into the back of the truck.

Once we were home, we talked to the neighbor lady and asked her if she would like some low-hanging branches removed from her front trees.  We have seen her in the past practically crawl under some of the branches to cut her grass.  She was delighted with our offer, so we loaded those branches and a couple that had fallen in our back yard into our truck bed.  After lunch we drove to the dump once more to get rid of those limbs.

My final job of the day was to finish cutting the grass.  I had cut the sides and front yard a couple of days ago; now I wanted to cut the back so we could continue to water the new sod that we previously put down.  With all of the rain and the watering that we have done, the new sods seems to be taking well.  We actually may have a green back yard by the time fall arrives.

Growing Grass

Yesterday was one of those cool, perfect, sunny days to actually work outside in Wisconsin.  We took advantage of the beautiful weather by driving to Black Creek to pick up some sod.

Why Black Creek?  Well, there is a wonderful sod farm there that provides the sod to most of the landscape firms and nurseries in Green Bay.  The problem is that if we buy the sod locally, each roll will cost $4.00.  If we pick it up at the sod farm, we can buy each roll for less than $2.00.  So the 45 minute drive was worth our time.

We ordered 15 rolls of sod.  When we got to the farm, our order was piled on a skid on a fork lift.  A young man came to the truck and lifted each roll like each weighed as much as a roll of paper towel. He threw them into the back of the truck with little or no effort.

The former tree line awaits new grass.

When we got home, we found that both Rick and I had to work together to move each roll from the truck to a small, flat garden cart.  How that young man could both lift and toss each roll so effortlessly is beyond me. We transported four rolls at a time.  Once we lifted them down to the prepared area, Rick would fit the ends while I rolled out the grass.

Fifteen rolls of sod start to make the area look green again.

The whole procedure took us a couple of hours to complete.  Now we just must continue to water, water, water the new sod each day so that it takes.

We estimate that we will need approximately 20 - 25 more rolls to finish the job.  Unfortunately, scheduled medical procedures will interrupt our plans for a few days, so we hope to get back to finishing this process some time next week.

The new sod blurs the line between our yard and that of the
neighbor; however, grass beats a mud patch!

Until then, all we can do is to sit around and watch our new grass grow.

Busy Morning

We have finally gotten back into our Florida routine of working in the cooler temperatures of the morning, and then relaxing and doing some fun activities in the afternoon as the temperatures climb.

Today we awoke early and were at Lindsay's house by 8:00 a.m.  While the day is humid (typical Midwestern summer day), the temperatures are tolerable.  We went to Lindsay's house to help them take down parts of two large pine trees at the back of their property.  Christopher had worked a couple of afternoons this past week sawing through the lower branches of both trees.  Today we set up a ladder and attacked the higher branches with a SawsAll.  While Rick cut the branches, I assisted him and piled the beaches for Christopher to load into the wagon behind his riding lawn mower.

Once the wagon was loaded, he drove it up their hill and to the curb on the street.  Owen has a little Gator battery-operated truck with a small truck bed in the back, so we added some small branches and twigs in that so he could haul wood up the hill also.  He actually carried quite a bit in that small truck, so he really did help!

We topped the first tree, leaving only the larger main trunk.  Gary, Christopher's dad, has some chain saws, so he will have to come with one of those to take the trunk down to the ground.  Our SawsAll just does not have the power nor the blade to complete the job.

The second tree was even taller and larger, so Rick climbed the ladder and trimmed as best he could.  That tree, too, now needs the attention of a chain saw.

Once the trees were down as far as we could take them, we came home.  Since we were sweaty and dirty, we decided to complete some small tasks in our own yard.  We started by finishing our edging.  We had half of the lawn edged a couple of days ago when our old edger died. We have been using that same edger for probably 20 years, so it owed us nothing.  We replaced it with a new edger from Home Depot. The new blade is sharp and true, so the new machine made short work of what was left to trim.

As I cleaned up the edging debris, Rick moved on to the windows.  They were filthy, but a good cleaning system of window cleaner, a broad cloth applicator, and a squeegee made a world of difference.  We did not take the time today to totally disassemble all of the screens and windows, but even getting the top layer of dirt off the outside of the windows has greatly improved the view from inside the house.  I can see blue sky again!

The final task of the morning was to mix up some insecticide and for Rick to spray around the perimeter of the house.  Our house has been crawling with spiders, and the ants are starting to congregate on the sidewalk, so the time had come to spray again.  Rick had not done this before because we seem to get rain every other day.  We have a chance, now, to go a couple of days without rain, so this was great opportunity to finish that job.

By that time, we had come to noon.  The temperatures are starting to rise, so this afternoon will either be inside or at least resting in the shade.  The hammock or the back porch both are welcoming options.

After all, this is summer, so no one should have to work too hard.  At last we have learned to accomplish what we can in the morning, and to not feel guilty about doing what we want to do to relax in the afternoon. And if we do not get everything finished in the morning, there always is tomorrow.

Down in the Dirt

Monday of this week found us digging in the dirt again.  We have had so much rain in the past two weeks that our efforts to add sod to the side yard have been severely hampered.

However, Monday dawned clear so we were able to beat the heat by going to the nearby nursery early in the morning and picking up one truckload (1/2 yard) of pulverized dirt. We spread that out in the back area of the garden near the shed that we needed to fill. While Rick dug it out of the back of the truck and used the wheelbarrow to get it into the garden, I tried to get the mounds smoothed and tamped down.

The first truckload did not go nearly as far as I thought it would, so back we went for a second 1/2 yard of dirt.  The efforts continued, but we still did not fill in the garden as far as we had intended to do so.

Back Rick went for a third truckload of dirt as we repeated the process.  By that time, we had reached lunchtime, and the sun had come around the house far enough for the whole garden to be in the sun. The heat and humidity put an end to our work for that day.

We really need one more truckload of dirt to finish the last area of the garden and to fill in some low spots in both the front and the back yard, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.  We have had other obligations on Tuesday and today, and hard rains are predicted once again for this evening.

The garden that used to hold our trees awaits a bit more dirt
and then lots of sod.

If tomorrow is not a wash-out, we will finish laying down the dirt and order sod for Friday.  All of our work is dependent on one thing: the weather.

Down In the Gutters

Our work continued today on the outside of the house.  As the title implies, that encompassed both washing the siding and getting close to the house gutters on the front and back sides of the house to give them a good cleaning.

The day dawned much cooler than the last couple of stormy, hot days, so I got outside just after 8:00 a.m. to cut the lawn.  Rick and I have been alternating weeks to cut the grass, and this week was my turn to finish that task.  I wanted to cut the lawn before Rick hauled out the power washer and hoses to continue our work on washing down the house.

The lawn was completed in about an hour.  It really needed to be cut!  This past week blessed us with hot temperatures and lots of rain, so we had perfect grass-growing conditions.  Additionally, we had put weed and feed on the lawn earlier this year, so all of the conditions were right for a good, healthy lawn.

Rick sprays the facia and the front gutters on the front of the house.
Since we have gutter guards on the gutters, dirt accumulates where
the water flows over the lip of the guards into the eaves trough. 

Once the grass was cut, we hauled out the equipment to continue to work on the filthy siding on the house.  Rick had completed washing the moldy north side and the moldy porch roof in the back.  Today was our day to tackle the front gutters and facia, the garage door, and a small area of siding as our house steps from one level to the next.  Thankfully, most of the house in front is covered in brick, so that did not need attention.

Rick washed what he could from the ground on
the small bit of siding seen from the front yard.

The front does, however, contain a deep porch, and it has been years since the ceiling on the porch was scrubbed.  We hesitate to spray water there because it gets into the attic through the ventilation holes, but the holes were so plugged with dirt -- probably from the road construction last year -- that no air was getting through the holes either. Something had to be done to restore that ventilation to the area above the porch.

After about an hour's worth of work, the gutters, facia, ceilings, and soffits look much better.

The rest of the siding had to be washed from the roof.

Then Rick went back onto the roof.  He washed down the top of our gutter guards.  That should prevent some of the dirt from washing onto the front lip of the gutters for a while.  Then he sprayed, scrubbed, and rinsed the small section of siding that is only accessible from the roof.  That, too, looks much lighter and brighter.

The good news is that the job is complete.  The bad news is that Rick said our roof soon will need to be replaced.  That is not really a surprise since the roof is probably 25 years old.  The roof will be yet another item on our "to do" list for which we need to start putting aside funds.

After he finished the front, we moved to the back yard and washed both walls on either side of the porch along with the gutters on that side.

The house looks both brighter and cleaner.  We still have the south side to complete, but that will have to wait for a cooler, hopefully cloudier day.  That's the last side to complete, and we both admit that this is a job we hope we do not have to repeat next year!

Grime (and Mold) Does Not Pay

Today was a beautiful day to get outside and to get some work done.  We either could have worked more on the landscape, or we could have hauled out the power washer to start to scrub the house.  Rick opted for the power washer.

As he went to Home Depot to get some ZAP siding cleaner, I started to stage some of the items we would need to wash the house.  The north side of the house particularly was filthy and had started to show signs of mildew and mold.

Rick sprays down the north side of the house.

Rick wet down the house first with the cleaner mixed with water.  We let it sit for a few minutes and then both attacked the side of the house with soft scrub brushes.  Thankfully, we had kept the soft brush with the long, long handle from our camper-scrubbing days, so we were able to scrub from the peak of the house to the ground by just using a step ladder and the long brush.

Step 1: Spray the roof with cleaner.

Step 2: Use the long handled brush to loosen the grime and mold.

Then we moved to the back of the house.  Rather than continue with the siding, Rick wanted to see if he could clean the roof of the screened-in porch.  (Why do we call this structure a porch in Wisconsin but a lanai in Florida?). At any rate, the porch roof was filthy and full of patches of mold.  Rick said the mold looked like crustaceans on the piers and docks down in Florida.

A view from the inside shows the washed and
unwashed areas.

He climbed to the roof and started his work.  Just as a power washer will remove mold from a sidewalk, the same thing happened to the porch roof.  I could not believe the results.

A final rinse resulted in a much brighter porch and house.

The porch roof took a tremendous amount of time and work, but the brown, blotchy roof is now beige again, and it lets so much more light into the kitchen that the transformation is incredible.  Now that we own the power washer, I hope that we can do a light washing of the roof each year to prevent the mud, mildew, and mold from forming once again.

After he finished the roof, I took a regular hose and washed down the inside of the porch.  We are having guests tonight (Lindsay and family), and the weather is pleasant enough that we just may dine on the back porch.