Here is the list of projects Irish Woman and I will be working on over the next year or so:

Winter 2013

• Finish the work in the bathroom
• Paint our bedroom
• Stretch goal – Re-do trim on built-ins in living room and dining room and paint living room/dining room

Spring 2013

• Finish trim work and painting on the side porch
• Dig out and build three new raised garden beds
• Put up picket fence along eastern property line, complete with two gates big enough for a lawn mower
• Extend the picket fence along our western property line so as to enclose the entire back yard and put in a vehicle sized gate
• Take out old fence line that currently bisects our back yard.  Salvage scrap wood for outdoor projects.
• Put in three new fruit trees
• Plant vegetable garden
• Harvest strawberries and process (canning, drying, freezing)
• Lay in firewood for next winter
• Stretch goal – Build additional firewood storage
• Stretch goal – Build double doors for existing firewood storage

Summer 2013

• Maintain and harvest  from vegetable garden, cherries, apples, nectarines, and grapes, along with produce purchased from you-pick-it and farmers markets
  • Process said produce (canning, drying, freezing)
• Replace floor in kitchen
• Build shelving and cabinets around new location of refrigerator
• Move refrigerator across the kitchen.
• Build new counter and shelving/cabinets in old location of refrigerator
• Remove all old countertops in kitchen and replace with either solid surface or tile (leaning toward tile)
• Build new shelving along top of two walls in kitchen
• Put in new backsplash above countertop and stove
• Put in new cabinetry to the side of the stove
  • Make strong enough to hold 100 pounds of potatoes, 50 pounds of onions, and all of our cast iron pots and pans
• Paint kitchen walls and ceiling.
• Stretch goal – Put in new sink in kitchen, depending on budget

Fall 2013

• Replace basement door
• Build additional outdoor storage units
• Stretch goal – Reskin concrete back porch in same manner as side porch
• Stretch goal – Reskin front porch step in the same manner as side porch
• Stretch goal – Replace basement windows
• Stretch goal – Refinish corrugated steel roofs on outbuildings

Winter 2013

• Tear out existing kitchen cabinets and either replace or refinish them
• Rip out soffits in kitchen and replace with new cabinets or shelves
• Add to storage capabilities in basement.
• Add built-in book shelves and desk in the basement office
• Stretch goal – Redo or replace kitchen pantry
• Stretch goal – Re-do hearth around fireplace
• Stretch goal – Build new mantle for fireplace

In addition, we have agreed to the following goals of things to have done in the next five years:

• Rip down and replace retaining walls in back yard
• Refinish all hardwood floors in the house
  • I may hire out on this one.  We did the dining room and living room a few years ago, it was a bloody mess to do and I screwed it up badly.
• Add a bathroom in the basement
  • Something like this will be necessary
• Replumb the house and replace the 60-year-old copper piping
• Refinish/reconfigure basement
• Screen in side porch
• Depending on whether or not Girlie Bear goes away to college, refinish her room and move Boo into it
  • Return Boo’s room to being an office

I’m not saying we’ll get all of these done, or even most of them.  Budgets in funds, time, and talent will be the limiting factor.  But it looks like no matter what, we’re going to be very busy.

• Mental note – When jacking up a porch/carport so that you can replace the posts, check to make sure the wood you are putting the bottle jack under is actually structural.
• I set a personal best at getting the heck out from under something this afternoon after the “beam” I used to jack up the porch shifted, causing the jack to twist and fall off the porch.
  • No damage.  I had a couple fail safes (4×4 scrap posts) in place to catch any failures.
  • It did make me a little paranoid for the rest of the day.  I figure you have one “Hey, I survived that without anything important breaking” moment each day, and I’d had mine.
• Ladies, when your husband is working on such a project and is paranoid that the roof might make another attempt at killing him, please don’t throw a bunch of old scrap wood in the back of the truck.  This makes a noise which is very similar to a bottle jack falling and a roof sagging.
• Also, saying “Don’t park the truck under the carport.  I have better insurance on you than I do on the truck.”, when told that this is the last-ditch failsafe to make sure your husband isn’t squished like a bug, is not what I would call a warm and fuzzy moment.
• Nothing says “You should have bought a better masonry bit, you cheap bastard.” like having your masonry bit bend 90 degrees while you are trying to drill pilot holes for masonry screws.  No, I wasn’t leaning on it.
• It is amazing how tough it was to drill said pilot holes, even using a carbide bit, in concrete that was probably poured before my mother was born.
• Let’s see if you can guess what’s wrong with these pictures:
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• If you said “There are no nails or screws or brackets or anything securing those posts to the porch, at either the top or bottom, you get a cookie.
  • That’s right, the only thing that’s been holding my porch upright since at least the Johnson administration has been gravity and friction.
  • I am vacillating between being pissed off and being in awe.  Yeah, it’s a bad job, but it lasted decades in that condition.
  • I assure you, it doesn’t look like that now.
• Structural work is done.  Now comes replacing trim, doing a few “Aw crap” repairs, and fixing/finishing the concrete.
• Stay tuned.