It's been two months since the last entry. And a year since this Monster was created! Wow, that's a long time.
Well, we've been making headway towards putting Stucco on the building. The first step is 2 layers of builders paper, which is a lot like roofing underlayment. It comes in a two layer roll, so that part is easy. It's attached with a normal staple gun, nothing fancy.
This transformed it from a wood "under construction" look to a more finished look. Dramatic, for us, and a nice change. I'm sure the neighbors like to see progress.

Once the paper is up, then you install flashing over the doors and windows. Finally it's time for Lath. That'a an expanded metal sheet nailed every 6 inches.The Stucco is applied over this. I'm getting Stucco estimates now. The Lath requires its own inspection (which passed by the way.) The Stucco has to be up before I can put up a gutter in the back and the deck on the roof. Although I'm thinking I can start doing some of the deck framing without a finished Stucco exterior. I'll figure that part out soon enough.
I thought I'd save some money doing the Lath work, but honestly I think I'll be lucky to get anything beyond the material cost out of that job. I did what I thought was correct, which it is, however the Stucco guys usually use a chicken wire product instead that is faster and cheaper. What I have done is create a rock solid base for the cement version of Stucco. They make modern Stucco materials, but we're matching the house so the regular stuff is fine.

Also put up a new front porch address post! I mounted the address number to an acrylic sheet that I used my random orbital sander on the back side for a frosted look. The acrylic now matches the garage doors and is also lighted at night with a low voltage landscape light that helps the number visibility when it's dark!
Besides all this fun(!) I leveled the back yard, trenched it and put in a sprinkler system. As soon as I can, there will be some 'soil improvement' tilled into the mostly clay yard. Any extra dirt I have is going into the back side of the retaining walls on each side of the driveway.
​I expect that the next blog entry will feature new Stucco!
Never a dull moment!

Working on cars, of course!
​Speaking of working on cars, here's the before picture. Lesson learned, dearest daughter - backing out of driveways.

With 110,000 miles, I'll take the opportunity to replace the timing belt. These belts are rated for 100,000 miles only. So we're lucky and have been driving on borrowed time.
So many parts have to be put back properly.

To replace the timing belt, I had to have access. I have more confidence than you think.

Now that I have some room (taking the front frame down with the bumper, radiators, serpentine belt, yada, yada, yada,) I can see the timing belt. It's on the grey 5 spoked sprocket, upper left-ish side of the engine.
Also replaced the water pump, proactively, since it sits behind the timing belt and acts as one of the pulleys in the timing belt system. Better now than when it blows up!

 Job done! The new timing belt is good for another 100,000 miles. Also saved $1,100 in labor charges doing it myself.
​Looks good and runs good! Happy, Happy!

OK, you may think I'm lolly gagging, but I'm not!

I went in for a little restoration work on myself. Actually two surgeries in the form of a fix for Carpal Tunnel on my right wrist, and a second on my right elbow to remove a Schwannoma. Say it slowly...

Two surgeries for the price of one Anesthetist!

The carpal tunnel was at the heel of my palm (I thought it would be in my wrist proper), a half inch incision and only three stitches. Feels good so far and gaining strength back every day. I pictured a rope through a lifesaver, but the doc said it's more like a rope under a blanket.

A Schwannoma is a cyst of Schwan cells - not a campground at a Boy Scout Jamboree. They're the cells that make the myelin sheath that covers nerves, right? Well "oma" in latin means 'mass.' So there you go. Except mine was a little bigger than a golf ball. The difficulty with this is, as it was part of the Ulnar nerve, Dr Watson spent a generous amount of time using a microscope teasing the remaining nerves away from the golf ball, then removing that golf ball. Picture a ball in the middle of a braided wire cable, where each wire is a smaller set of nerves called a fascicle. You'd see something like that at a craft fair. But not with 12 stitches. It feels better already.

Interesting really. I believed when my pea brain thinks a thought, it gets transmitted by one nerve to the muscle to make a physical movement. So if the Doc removes a fascicle (look it up) I thought I'd loose nerve function. WRONG!! Our nerves are like a computer buss - many nerves express that thought like traffic on an interstate highway through a city, including on and off ramps. My ring and pinkie fingers are moving pretty well, and getting better daily. The trauma of moving the nerves around is something time will heal.

However, while still in gauze and Ace bandages, I installed a dog wash basin and replaced the water heater in the garage. I cut the legs short, for Enzo to hop in and out easily, and I cut the front of the tub for ease of use. The first water heater was useless and is now on Craigslist, it's more of a water warmer. This water heater is also electric but has a six gallon tank so it's good and hot.

So, sorry for the drama, but a blog's a blog.

Painting the inside of the garage is finished, and now I want to keep everything out because it looks so nice! But it will fill up with bicycles, mower, trash and recycle bins, and of course JUNK. But there will always be room for automobiles. The outside still looks like construction in progress so that will be fixed over the course of time (and that time is coming up very soon.) Bright light streams in from the doors at each end allowing for a darker color on the walls, but I kept a white ceiling.
I'll finish installing the outlets in the next day or two, then come up with an idea for LED lights on the ceiling.
That's all for today, short and sweet. Cheers.

Everything finally came together yesterday to get working underground power. The utility company came and connected the new meter to the junction box that sits in the back corner of our lot. They also took out the overhead line (of course) and the old metal pole that used to connect directly to the house. Here's a picture of the new meter with the feeder lines going to the house and the shop. It might be boring to look at for you, but it's exciting to me!

The garage doors were installed on the same day. It looked like a regular construction zone around here, with all the trucks on the street out front. We got the same overhead door style as the shop - which is great because the acrylic windows let in a huge amount of light.

The front door is big enough for 2 cars and the back door is sized for a trailer.

Getting ready to be all bundled up, there's pass through door which leads to the stairs up to the deck. Door knob yes, deadbolt not yet.
Diane has specified a new swanky door, but that will come along when there's time to spare. In the meantime, it's a Home Depot special.

And now, for the ultimate in modern garage life....
Heat!

Merry Christmas everyone! The cold weather is here today and the garage project is a work of art to be admired from a distance - like inside the house with the heat turned up!
The drywall has been hung on the ceiling and walls. Now I'm ready to tape and mud the seams and screw marks. It's another one of those jobs that is not on my list of favorite things to do (seems to be a lot of those?) Who wants to help? I hope to have everything finished under the garage door hardware before those doors are installed next month.
It looks great!

I'm now on the list to have the power line switched. We have always had Colorado Springs Utilities connected by an overhead service from the telephone pole to the house (power lines.) If you tried, you could reach the power line from the roof. Plans are to have the utility buried to the garage and buried feeder lines to the house and shop. After the switch, we'll remove the old meter box along with it's galvanized conduit lines hanging on the side of the house.
Pretty soon there will be garage doors and power! That means heat! Then I can work inside regardless of the weather. SWEET.

Yeah... Not yet. There's still plenty to do before that happens. But from the street things are looking up.
All the steel plates are where they are supposed to be, but I need more screws - since I got the wrong ones shipped to me. (About one in three broke off before the self drilling and self tapping was complete.) After a little 'anger management' and discussion with the vendor and the manufacturer, it turns out they drop shipped light duty screws. The screws I paid for are being shipped as of yesterday. So I used enough of what I had to hang the steel in place. And it looks very cool!

After the walls are fully attached, we will be putting two inch gravel at the bottom between the edge of the concrete and the panels' bottom. Then backfill up to the top. But while we're waiting for the screws to arrive, it's time for low voltage lights along the bottom edges to help out with night time navigation.

I'll be glad when these are 100%.

When I started the front walk, I thought I had enough screws left over from the back deck for this job. Nope. I ordered more screws and, like clockwork, they arrived at 8pm the day before Thanksgiving. I took the next couple of days off because it was so cold and snowy. But yesterday that got wrapped up and finished! It looks good and straight (don't confuse the dog with the snow.)

Today I changed the side door to the garage from 32" wide, to 36" wide. Why? because I changed my mind and I really should have known better than to make an exterior door less than 3 feet wide. Six inches doesn't seem like much, but it makes a big difference.

The next projects to choose from are the driveway retaining walls, hanging drywall before the garage doors are installed, and prepping the exterior for stucco with builders felt and lath. What to do? What to do?

I am an optimistic guy overall. But, I underestimated the demolition of concrete, moving it, and laying out a new frame would only take about five working days. Well, it was a an intense day of demo to return the jack hammer for a half day rental - they were generous with the overtime hour. As you use a jack hammer, you have to move the rubble out of your way to continue, that's why there was such a beautiful pile out front. Then I reused the concrete bits as fill, which took two more days. On the fourth day I did manual detail work with a rock hammer, getting the concrete out from under the bottom of the stucco wall where I couldn't reach with the jack hammer. I also patched the stucco where there were voids created from the destruction. Starting day number five, I framed the front porch, lining everything up with the front door. Four days of framing finished up yesterday, just as the snow began to fall. We got maybe an inch, but the kids are thrilled because it's a Snow Day! 
Constructing the walk was fairly straightforward. It's essentially a deck frame with two rim joists that sit on concrete blocks (you really have to look close to see the blocks.) It took more digging than I gave it credit, to set those blocks below the grade to hold the 2X10s level,  and maintain consistent spacing. At just over 50 feet long, any error would be obvious.

I set up a laser to verify the pitch between the front porch and the driveway edge, which has the drive about 4 1/2 inches higher. Half the walk is level on the house side, and then changes to a slight grade to meet the driveway.
At least I was smart enough to adjust the concrete form before the driveway was poured, so the last five feet is level, matching the walk - not the pitch that our street has. Which reminds me to let you know the walk is just over five feet wide. The level part of the driveway will match the walkway. The frame is square to the house, but you can see in the pic below how the frame is not square to the driveway, which is parallel to the street. It appears to be slightly off but the decking will run lengthwise on the walk and should look just dandy when complete.

Just waiting for some weather good enough to paint the stucco repairs, which should be tomorrow. Then it's time to lay the deck boards!
Of course, as I type this, I notice the missing stucco next to the chimney. I think that can wait until the chimney (which is falling away from the house!) is replaced.

I ordered the garage doors on Monday. They are to take 5-6 weeks before delivery and installation.
In the meantime, we are discussing the stucco siding. It's not something I aspire to do, but I'll be performing parts, if not all, of that job. Before the first coat is applied, 2 layers of roofing felt is put up, then lath. Lath is expanded metal (think of chicken wire) and specialized strips for seams and bottom edges. The lath requires it own inspection.
As fun as stucco sounds, I'd like to finish up what I can to get the power turned on. In order to do that, the garage needs to be weather tight. So now that the roof is complete, I am wrapping up the inside of the garage - because I can. The wiring has been run and the plumbing can wait. This picture shows a complete wall and ceiling of insulation, but I am not quite finished yet.

Never at a loss for things to do, there's a mess in front of the house. When we used the Bobcat to tear out the original paved driveway, we also got rid of the front walk. We kept the front porch intact for the last 6 months because we knew it would be a while until it could be addressed. The old post was removed as it sat on just a few inches of concrete that was scheduled to be removed. Here's the last picture of the front porch with the post removed and temporary support.

Yes I rented yet another tool. Nothing like some personal, intimate, quality time with a 65lb jack hammer. You can see the result of Monday's work. The new post was put up two weeks ago.

So yesterday, today, and hopefully not into tomorrow, I'm moving this lovely pile of rubble into the places where I need fill dirt adjacent to the foundation. It's bigger than it looks!

As soon as this mess is moved, I'll begin construction. Diane loved the Ipe on the deck so much, she insisted (and rightly so) that we do the porch and front walk with the same wood. The Ipe has been here for over a week and is ready to go. As soon as I get this pile moved I'll be constructing again. When that's done, we'll be loving a new Boardwalk to the parking area!