House 173

In the last post I pointed out all the reasons it was time to rehab the shed, including the old basement windows I had put mirrors in and put on the wall of the shed years ago.  But, the old window frame had long since rotted away.  It was time.

This week, after having replaced all the trim, I caulked (almost) every seam in the shed...

Which left the shed looking a bit better already.

But I also added frieze boards, as you can see on the side of the shed.  There's a reason for that, and it'll all come to light in due time!

The problem was, the wall on that side of the shed had bowed maybe 2 or 3 inches over the years, so I had to do some serious shimming!

In lotsa places!

And in the end, I was able to close the gap considerably - thank goodness for caulk!

But, as you can see, it certainly adds a little interest to the shed.  But there's more of a purpose, that'll be clear another day!

Then it was time to start priming.  Ever since the shed was built it had been staine…

Time to spruce up the ol' shed.  I forget exactly when I built it, but it was at least 15, if not closer to 20 years ago.  That's really quite amazing because I built it on the cheap, back then we really had to pinch pennies.  But the shed has held up well all these years!  Two years ago I put a new roof on, but only for aesthetic purposes.  I had a plan then to spruce up the shed, but work and school really got busy, but with school finished...here we go!  Originally, the back yard was much more open, but the fence was a thousand years old and we had a plan for what we wanted.  Here's a picture of the corner where the shed is now.  Early after buying 173, we put in blackberry bushes, but sadly they had to go.  And look at that old flag pole.  The Moshers had a cross bar at the top, and the clothesline pulleys were mounted on it! 

Here's a little wider shot.  By the time of this picture I had replaced the flag pole and planted a maple tree.  Bad idea!  I had not reall…

Doesn't this look like a beautiful ocean storm scene?  The clouds, the white-capped waves - stunning!


Ah, but don't be deceived.  This is actually a cropped photo of a dirty little secret here at 173...


That's right - the kitchen windows here at 173 have been a dirty little secret for years!  The louvred windows were probably pretty cool way back when, but the fact is, this particular set hasn't been opened since probably around 1998.  Yup, 1998.  The problem was the lever that opened them had broken long before we bought the house, and in the beginning we could push them open and pull them closed. But it came to the point that they couldn't be closed tight enough to keep the air out in the winter, so they were pulled as tight as possible and weather stripping, lots of weather stripping was used to try to keep as much arctic air out as possible.  However, that was pretty much in vain, to the point that when dinner was on the table in the winter, whatever was close…

Nephew sent a picture this weekend that, #1 - made me hungry and, #2 - made me jealous!  I'll explain but here's the picture:


The hungry part is obvious right?  I mean, as a New Yorker, pizza has always been my kryptonite, and would you look at those?  The one on the left looks like the cook had a couple too many hefe weizens but as we all know - it probably taste just as good as the one on the right!  But here's the thing, look closely below the pizzas and you'll notice some wood, and a wheel, all of which points to a barbecue grill!  I knew Nephew had built a grill house, so I thought this was a good time to post about it.  I asked nephew to tell the build-story so...here we go...


In a clear example of the difference of generations, Nephew flew a drone over his property to figure out the best placement of the grill house, in this case - the pink area.  What a great idea to use a drone, besides - don't we all want to play with one?? He sent this picture, which ma…