My down-sizing pics.. Anybody else have any you want to share?

Tony M

When I got the first decking boards for my barn shed decking, my truck wouldn't start to come back home. I had it towed back home.

My neighbor is a great f150 mechanic and he diagnosed it as an ignition module OR a distributor something or other that's inside the base of our distributors. He suggested just buying a new distributor IF it didn't start after replacing the module. It didn't start start with the new module.

After putting the new distributor in, it started great but he located a couple vacuum tube leaks right away. We quickly fixed them and thought all was good. It PURRED. So a day or two later, I went back to Lowe's to get the remaining boards I needed and right from the start, the motor seemed to want to stall after stopping at the end of my street. I had to keep it revved a bit at each stop so I continued on. I made it there and back ok. My neighbor suspects BAD GAS / OLD GAS.

Now that the 2 decks are done, I can now focus on getting my truck running better and back to donating again.

So that's why I haven't made any donations from the cottage this past week or longer. But I did finish that deck and cleaned up THAT area. It's been 9 years... Now I can do woodworking projects again.

I have to clean-up / downsize the contents of the barn shed too. Maybe this winter when the spiders are at a minimum. I also need to re-do the roof! I need to make the walls 8' tall instead of 4' tall.

I found 11, yes...11 Black/Brown Widow egg sacks amongst the spacers under the metal-topped table today.
They were also empty... I guess I'll have to be EXTRA careful when moving stuff around inside of the barn shed.

Tony M

Another shout-out to Bengal Bug Spray/fogger. I only saw 1 tiny spider in one spot and about 5 tiny bugs that looked like striped roaches. Amazing bug spray for sure. I just had that Spectracide bug spray just in case.

Not one big waterbug! amazing!





















The cottage's porch WILL hopefully be cleaned off next year!

Clipdat

Outstanding work on the decks, Tony.

Tony M

Thanks Drew.

Now to do other "indoor stuff".
I worked out in the back room some the past few days. Enjoying every minute of it too.

I think I have my truck's running rough during it's stopping issue narrowed down to FUEL problem/s. Maybe the fuel pressure regulator. Symptoms match perfectly. Anyway, the fuel system needs attention with everything related to it.


I organized some stereo equipment in the cottage the past week or two.
I love having room to do such projects.

I don't think I've had "room" to do this "fun" stuff" like this in the back room in years. The sound from speakers is so much more spacious. There's A LOT more downsizing to do in that back room for sure. I made space in the back and then brought some speakers from the front room to back there.

I'll post some picks of my back room system set-ups in the next post. I've been hooking up old pieces to see if they still work and so far, only a Mitsubishi CD disk changer has shown sporadic skipping issues.

I hooked up my KEF Coda 90's back there on Mon.. Fantastic sounding little gems.

The DCM TF350's are hooked up back there now too. Fantastic sounding along with AMAZING bass.

I hooked up my old Nakamichi RE-10 receiver back there a couple of weeks ago. It's awesome too. It's just powering the DCM TF350's for now. What a match.

Now I can walk into the back room and power up either of 5 systems to do organizing by. A friend suggested it might help sell something later on. I hope so.

Tony M

Put a new flag up too. The last windstorm for days tore our old one to shreds.

TEAforONE

That’s a bunch of lumber. Did you hit the lottery?? Looks great!

audioluvr

Tony M wrote: »

Put a new flag up too. The last windstorm for days tore our old one to shreds.

Thank you Tony!

Tony M

Thank you.

I usually change the flag around the 4th of July. This year we had so much rain and wind, the flag didn't make it to late Dec.. That's when I think I'd change it normally.

My Dad was a 21 Army man. After he passed, I mounted a flag in his memory. The flag over a coffin is a powerful image for many of us. It moved me big time.

So this Veteran's Day change to a new flag might be a new tradition for me.

Tony M

TEAforONE wrote: »

That’s a bunch of lumber. Did you hit the lottery?? Looks great!

I waited 1 1/2 years for the prices to come back to where they were. In fact, I had given up hope and didn't check for a few months. I was talking to my neighbor one day and he said the prices were back to normal again. I smiled a BIG SMILE because I knew what I was going to do ASAP.

Then I go and buy the premium grade at twice what the regular grade costs.

But, the SS checks built up and I thought, this will be my last deck I'll probably walk on around here so let's go 1st class.

I'm so glad I bought the premium boards. I've been a cheap and thrifty guy my whole life because I had to be. Heck...the previous decking boards were free from where I worked. The lumber would come in on spacers. Then the spacers were used to deliver loads to job-sites. Then when I returned to the job-sites in a couple days, I'd pick up the straight ones and bring them home every other day or so.
I also brought home a bunch of job-site boards of all kinds that carpenters threw away. The best boards of all might've been the Cedar 1x6x4' spaces. I brought a lot of them home and built folding Adirondack chairs with them. That was fun!

These spacers have served their other purposes very well.

Now these rejects from under the metal table stack, like the previous stack of old sidewalk sections, will be picked up tomorrow by the city. I felt like these were too weathered, warped or what-ever. I still have about hundred great ones leftover from the old cottage's porch and 1/2 from under the metal table .








I took my truck for a short test drive today and saw where somebody else a few streets over from me had cut up an old sun-deck and placed the old rotten boards at the road too. They probably waited for the prices to come back down too.

I'm thinking of building some speaker stands to get me going in my woodworking hobby again. It's been 10 years or more without doing that. I hope termites haven't infested my stored 2x2x various lengths Oak table legs and Oak 1x6x8' boards. Hey...I can use those those Oak table legs for stand material. I made them out of pallet wood 10+ years ago.

I LOVED taking found boards and making NICE furniture out of them.

Tony M

I moved my Polk RT55's from the front room to the back room and hooked them up to hear them again. They sound Fantastic too.

May 2021


Now





Since we're having some warm days again, I painted today to finish up that barn-shed's front area to match. Swapped the old light out too.

There were 4 Frikn black/ brown widow eggs in the base of the old light...









I'm definitely going to look out for black/brown widows next spring and summer!

Tony M

I forgot to mention, I'll fix that rotten roof line rake molding on the left side very soon.

Tony M

Fixed the rake molding on the shed the other day. Had fun working on that new shed porch. It's been a long time. I used the table-saw to make the new molding. The wheels were a little rough to roll the saw around so...having some spare wheels of all shapes and sizes...I grabbed 4 bigger ones (with locking levers) and replaced the saws old ones. I can roll that saw around with 2 fingers now.

There is some long lengths of 1/4" all-thread on the floor of the shed. I have been just rolling the saw gently over them years ago if I wanted to get the table-saw out. Well, after replacing the wheels out on the porch I thought it would be a good time to get those pieces of all-thread to the left side instead of diagonal.

It was a good time to sweep the floor as I worked on doing that project. I kept moving wood and stuff that hasn't been moved in a couple of years to "REMOVE" what was now JUNK.

I quickly noticed the floor sagging where some larger all-thread rods were leaning upward. I thought the weight of the rods made the floor sag. NOPE. well maybe a little but the main reason was the roof leak that I noticed last year or longer ago and patched up. In the pictures you can see the neighbor's tree branches that are cut off now. I was alerted by my neighbor friend about them rubbing that roof years ago. I then saw that hole and fixed it. Then years later, a critter ripped through the shingles and made a BIG hole. I saw that one before and major flooding happened and sealed that hole with a nice piece of plywood. The floor inside ( under where these opening in the roof were ) was really dry now.
The branches do not come over into my property anymore.


Right under the leak was a big bundle of 1x4x4" spruce boards. This big bundle was right in the middle of the sagging floor area.

I went to grab the bundle to lean it out towards me and "CRUNCH". What...? was that crunch the plastic wrap holding the top together like the bottom has also? I grabbed it again to check. TERMITES had eaten half of this bundle.

Termites are smart critters. They'll eat the crap out of something BUT they leave the outer surface and enough of the center structure to maintain SUPPORTING STRUCTURES.

Thank god there is no sign of active termites so far. I think spraying BENGAL all around for years stopped them. Or the stoppage of water dripping right onto the top of the bundle made them leave for wetter wood. The little bustards ate a little into one of my NICE Oak legs I had made years ago that was laying on the floor beside the bundle. It had fallen from a shelf that's right above and beside where the bundle was. There's more legs on that shelf and I think the rest are ok.

Sorry for the rant again.

Just wanted to update some more progress.

My F150 has a mystery running issue. It runs fine for 3 or 4 minutes and then starts sputtering and wants to stall. I'm giving it to the Ford dealership on Dec. 10th. I hope a master mechanic will diagnose the problem as only old gas or fuel filter. Who knows though.

Anyway, donation are put on hold while I do these other home-owner repairs and replacements that got sidetracked for 8 years or more.

I really wanted to replace this rake-molding for years. Now it's done. It's a little thicker but I don't care.

The shingles have to be replaced on this edge of the roof because the door opens up and hits the roof-line a little up there. I never made a door stop. Of course I have spare shingles to fix this little edging. Maybe tomorrow.





Oh, I replaced a light fixture in the barn shed. For some reason, ALL 3 other light fixtures are working again...I don't know why. They've been barely wanting to come on for years. Having full lighting in there again is AWESOME. That was partly why I did some clearing out in there today.

Of course...I'm on full alert looking for ANY spiders or bugs that might move. So far so good.

Tony M

Painted that rake molding the other day when it was about 70*. It was such a nice day, I thought I'd spread some more paint onto the inside of the door to "brighten" that side up more so I could spot spiders A LOT easier if they were to hide in the many corners of it on the inside. A day or two later I put a rain deflector on the bottom of the barn door.
Been saving that rain deflector for 30 years.....

I've learned a few things about spiders in my many years of fearing them. They DO NOT like to set up shop in a place where they stand out from the backdrop. I've been painting homes for a lot of my life and noticed outside spider webs being "almost" non-existent on "light colored" soffits. Orb spiders sometimes will spin a web on a soffit IF it can hide during the day in some nook or cranny. Wasps will snatch a spider multiple times a day to plant with their embryos as a food source for them to feed on until they're big enough to bust out of the mud encasements.

Anyway, I should've painted the inside of the barn-shed right after I built it 30+ years ago. I did go around this barn many times a year looking under it's eaves. Not many set-up shop but there were the common orb spiders that would start to. Their mistake.

I also just had most of the sparsely wooded field behind my barn stripped out BUT now there is a shipping container behind the barn. It might be a spider habitat think. I'll look at it closer. I can spray my property weekly if it looks like a problem arises.

Here's some more pics.
I also have been working a little in the cottage here and there but tonight I spent 4 hours re-arranging. Of course...I had a blast listening to a few systems here and there or all together. Not too loud tonight, just great listening fun again.
























It was good to get back at looking at some more of my stuff I haven't laid my eyes on since way back in August before the last Aug.. about 15 months Or less.

I still have my F150 with the running issue but it is what it is. My "Brother in Law" being a "certified master mechanic" told me tonight that it sounds like the fuel pump is acting up. He unfortunately lives exactly 300 miles from me. He has a tester of course.
It was NICE to speak to him again. It's been a while.

What's next? TRY to sell some more...

Or get that barn-shed with 75% of my work ability directed at it so I can see "exactly" what I have that's worth saving anymore. Killing spiders and bugs and kicking out any critters that have made it a homestead. Then the other 25% directed to downsizing my collection some more.

SeleniumFalcon

Ah, Chewy boxes, I get quite a few of them myself. Good for parts storage.

pitdogg2

SeleniumFalcon wrote: »

Ah, Chewy boxes, I get quite a few of them myself.

I find they're pretty bland if you do not use some hot sauce....

Tony M

With this weather here in NC, I'm attacking the mess in the barn-shed everyday now. Still no live bugs.

The metal shelving unit is now in the front room of the cottage. The 1/4" all-thread is up high on the left now. 10+ years it was on the floor...in my way whenever I went in for something.

Tony M

Completed the barn shed "inside" clean-up. The roof needs replacing asap but it's ok for this winter I think.

Started organizing the front room of the cottage again the other day too.

Tony M

Hard to believe I started to seal the ceiling in the front room on April 28th of this year.
I've done so much since then. It's all because I got rid of stuff I really didn't need to hang onto anymore.

verb

Wow Tony - You continue to make incredible progress! Nice work on all the projects too!

Tony M

Thanks Dave.

Now I really want to downsize my stored wood and stuff on the side porch of the cottage ASAP.
Maybe I'll start tomorrow if it doesn't rain.

I organized it a few years ago. I really did.

Tony M

Downsizing/organizing the side porch has now begun.

I also got my truck problem fixed by the dealership. I can haul anything to a donation center now.

Before.


1.5 hours later;

Tony M

I'm still working on the front room downsizing but it's been slower of course since I've done a few other things. Here's how it looks right now.








That 1st attack to clean up the side porch was only an hour. Felt longer.

Anyway, I got out there today to clean up 2 sections some-what. I accomplished that. It was awesome to walk around the corner of the cottage again just on decking.

Found about 6 black house-spiders. One had babies around it. They're all dead now. I also found about 6 yellow jackets in a kind of hibernation. I just moved those. No rat/mice nests.

I'd pick up a piece of wood and think, man this is a nice piece, maybe I can use it "for something" in the future. It's a disease!

I will go through my woodworking magazines in the near future. MAYBE those mags will tell me what I might use.

I plan on putting boards up on shelving supports now. It will clear the floor/decking but I just thought it will provide bird habitat. I guess I'll hang a tarp draped over it. Well, I know I have way too much wood saved. That's a fact!

I will put up some standards and brackets soon. Of course I'll have to move all the leaning boards away from the wall if I do it.





Going to the road soon;

Clipdat

Shoulda killed the yellow jackets.

Tony M

I hate spiders more.

The benefits of yellow jackets
Even if it may seem like there are no major benefits from having these buzzing insects around, there actually are a few advantages in allowing yellow jackets to live near your garden. As we’ve said before, they feed on insects such as spiders, flies, and caterpillars.

This turns them into a great organic pest controller. If you have plants you grow for food and you want to protect them from such intruders, attracting yellow jackets to your garden is a beneficial thing to do.

Tony M

Did some more clearing/cleaning/organizing 2 days ago and some more today on the side porch.

I've now moved every board on that side porch. The pile going to the road for trash pick-up, was picked up by my neighbor today. He'll use some stuff and the rest will be kindlin for his fire barrel burns this winter, if we ever have one. The nights have been right cold but the days...they've been wonderful. The weather allowed us to clean the yard of a ton of leaves while also clearing out stuff I've stored since 1998 or so.
I still have way too much.

I didn't get pictures tonight after I finally made space to walk from the front corner to the cottage's back door. I haven't been able to do that in about 9 years, I guess.

This plywood was put against the wall at an angle tonight. I couldn't believe how much plywood I have. I still have a full piece of 13 ply(?) Mahagony 3/4" that weighs so much I could barely pick it up an inch if that. I had forgotten all about it.

This picture was what I still had to go through along with what was all around it and behind it against the wall. It was all moved today and swept clean. I had moved some stuff behind the plywood before tonight's work.





The wet spot on the deck was where a poor squirrel got stuck inside a gutter down-spout I had leaning there. It was half in and half out. The head and front legs were outside. I can see where he scraped the deck for a while. It just couldn't come out or back up. It's a very SAD painful death it suffered because I wanted to save a stupid downspout tube I'll probably never use.



I now have to get going on getting all these boards put back under cover before Thurs. rain comes.
I don't have much room along the wall (I don't think) to put them all back.

Tony M

I actually had a lot of similar boards placed in different locations on the side porch. Like 1x6s in 3 different places. I have treated, spruce, yellow pine and Cypress 1x6's. They're getting more organized now. 1x12's of different species are all in one row now, I think. Organizing by size instead of species helped consolidate space a lot.

Almost done moving every piece of wood I own, and every stereo related items too, everything except some stuff in the house. Not too much in the house needs organizing but it's on the to-do list still.

My wife can't believe the space I've made out there in the cottage, the cottage's front porch, barn shed and now the side porch. I can't believe it either. I'm getting there.

















Before;


After;


Most of my saved 2x( ) lumber is now beside the door. I'll have to put the short length boards up near the front. I ran out of time. I think I'll put shelf supports on the wall and put 4' boards on shelfs instead of leaning or stacking them vertically on top of each other like they were.


I'll be downsizing the interior rooms again now.

Tony M

Just saw this collection on the web.

Clipdat

How much for that boombox in the window?

Tony M

I do love how the toolbox is still accessible.

Tony M

Instead of another post in the joke thread, I'll post some pics here of what I did today after mostly resting for a few days.

It was a beautiful day, but I got started late. Still, I got done all I set out to do by 6:30. My back feels good. I took it slow and steady. I did find that I had 2 old stumps in the way. I thought I'd have to notch the support boards but I was getting a shovel and saw an ax in the rack. It was sharp too. I forgot I had one.

I dropped the ax on one stump and POW, the stump was somewhat rotten. The second one was just as easily chopped up. I quickly axed the 2 stumps to below ground level and cleaned up the bits and pieces. I DID rest in my cottage's cool air for 20 minutes listening to some FM stations after that. Then I got back to work on the last front 2 sections. It went really well.









I still want to do something at the front right corner where the steps and walk-way meet.
I don't know what yet.

The yard is prepped for this new year. We took the med. amount of remaining mulch away from the house. It seemed to be a breeding mat for "pearl weeds" The pearls would grow under the mulch and above the weed block. It was CRAZY! So now it's just "Miracle Grow topsoil" and then Black Kow layered on top of it all. I also spread a good amount of Black Kow over my front and side yards.

About 300.00 spent this spring but I have 60.00+ in "Milorganite" (4 bags) to feed the yard throughout the summer. The yard is looking good already.