Chris, homeowner and handyman, built this temporary railing out of (mostly) leftover furring strips and 2X4s. The final version will feature vertical balusters in a design based on railings at nearby Shaker buildings. Meanwhile, the balcony is safer and we rather like the corn-crib style of these horizontals.
Category Archives: DIY – Do It Yourself
Spar varnish marathon
150 FSC certified mahogany planks have been delivered for our porch deck. All of them need to be sealed with spar varnish before installation. I’ve completed 85. (Note from wife: Open the window, and come home for dinner.)
Working at the workbench
More painting
Each plank gets primed twice. The first pass is spot priming with shellack based BIN to prevent knots from bleeding through. The second complete coating is with Benjamin Moore Fresh Start.
Spool caddy for telephone cable
Several months ago the phone company, Verizon, dropped off a spool of cable weighing several hundred pounds. Chris built a spool caddy and waited. At long last, the nearest neighbor granted an easement to the nearest utility pole, a date was set for electrical service installation, Chris dug the trench with his father-in-law, National Grid installed the electric cables — and yesterday Chris unwound the cable the length of the trench.
Painting planks, night shift
Chis primed the window parts, working late into the night. They were immediately consumed for carpentry the next day. A generator powered the lights but electrical service is coming soon.
Trenches inspected and approved
National Grid is scheduled to lay out primary electrical service cable tomorrow.
Relocating frogs from our utility trench
Twenty frogs have been relocated to the grandparents’ pond.
Digging the electric service trench
Chris and Ted (Susan’s father) are digging 1,387 feet of trenching to reach our nearest utility pole.
The completion of DIY road construction
Troy Sand & Gravel delivering a load of stone. Each load weighs about 23 tons, and can cover about 60′ of road length.
Pushing out the base stone on the highway fabric.
I rented a Caterpillar D-3 bulldozer from Mario’s hardware in Valatie. With a weight of 15,000 pounds, it is just heavy enough to scrape the top soil. It moves the stone into place easily.
The driveway is about a quarter of a mile long. We have finished the last 170′ of road leading up to the house site. We prepared the base by removing the topsoil and pulling the tree stumps. 12′ wide highway fabric is laid on the path followed by a layer of 3″ stone. A final layer of crusher run is laid on top. We’ve built a strong stable road on the wettest farm field in memory. Strong enough to carry the cement trucks and well-digging equipment to our building site.