Today I skirted the extension on the west side.
The left section is still removable, as that’s where the scaffolding is stored when not in use.
Category Archives: outside
New skirt
A few months after my log home logs were in place and the framing was done, I received a letter from the Colonel (owner of the Stallion Springs subdivision land) stating that I needed to get the pier and beam foundation covered up, as that’s part of the rules in this subdivision. At the time, I needed a quick and cheap solution, which was OSB boards. That did its job until now, but the boards were coming loose and moisture had made them weak. In combination with the slightly exaggerated report that Ozuye was infested with wasps, this trip I’m replacing the OSB with much more aesthetically pleasing cedar planks, a process that is known as skirting.
Above you can see the first result, with the new cedar skirt on the right and the old white OSB on the left.
Copper Fire Pit
It’s been here for a few months now, but I hadn’t seen it myself. This one is copper, hoping that it will last a bit longer than the previous iron ones, that had a tendency to rust away in 2 years.
Getting my head into the gutter
When I installed the rain gutter, it did not come with enough kit to prevent it from leaking a little at the seams. So as it’s nice weather, I decided to setup the scaffolding and fill the gaps from the inside of the gutter with some silicone kit.
It’s much easier to do this with the scaffolding.
Grill upgrade
The old Huntington grill that Mart gave me when he visited back in 2017 has finally given up. After replacing the burner, ignition and hose in March, it just wouldn’t burn anymore now. So it was time for an upgrade.
Kept it very modest, but this one does have three burners instead of two. And a temperature gauge and a tray to keep things warm.
But it’s stainless steel only for the front plates and the tray, so we will see if this one holds up 7 years too. First test will be tonight, Christmas Eve with a nice big steak. 🥩
Update: it’s officially approved. ðŸ¤
Deck repair
About 5 years back, there was a period with frost and the deck boards on the east side were snow/ice covered for a while. As the sun doesn’t reach there, these boards suffered more than on the other 2 decks. I replaced the boards worst damaged and gave them a Federal Blue stain coat.
The lighter ones have been replaced.
As you can see from the picture below, some really weren’t very solid anymore;
Siding Repair
The siding boards were cut by the cabin builder Neil Buie, and some of those cedar boards weren’t top quality. So one decided to split in half. So today I replaced it with a new board.
It stands out now because it’s not stained, but as I’m out of stain that will be done next time I’m over, when I will probably give the logs a fresh coat of stain too
Red-Tailed Hawk
Whilst I was outside on the deck, I heard a swarm of birds take off. Â The reason they did was this guy (or girl, can’t tell)
It’s a Red-Tailed Hawk (according to copilot, because I just noticed it wasn’t a vulture).
They like high vantage points like my power line pole. The picture above is zoomed in as far as I could. below shows the original picture.
Federal Blue
The deck was stained in the color Federal Blue. As that did not show anymore, it was time for a re-staining;
I ran out of stain, so got two new gallons to do the rest.
Keep a lid on it
For the past years, every time I walked up to my home, I was annoyed by the trash can that did not have a lid.
The AC arrived on a big pallet, and since I have little use for a pallet, I decided to make a lid for the trash can.
It won’t win me any prizes, but it keeps the bin rain free, won’t blow off, smell less and it only cost me an hour to make it.
The remainder of the pallet I will use for the fire pit.