Summer of Construction - June 6, 2007

I came home from work this day to find my deck gone and the new windows installed. The dogs were a little confused when I had to block their 'doggie-door' out to the deck. So for the next few weeks, I have to toss them out the downstairs window to go do their 'business' every morning and afternoon. The new deck won't be built until my window/siding contractor is finished. I will be putting up siding to match the neighboring townhouses. The windows are maintenance free as will be my new deck.

Summer of Construction - June 2-3, 2007

Travis came out on this Saturday afternoon to remove the large tan shed. He arrived shortly after lunch and carefully and slowly started removing nails and taking the walls apart.

His first task was to saw the roof in half and remove it. He and I were both surprised to discover the walls had two layers of sheetrock in them, making each one particularly heavy.

We both wondered if the prevous owner had lived through a tornado or something as he built this shed way too sturdy. I also heard him mumble a number of times, had he known how heavy they were, he wouldn't have taken the shed. His buddy came out in late afternoon and helped him load the walls and they were able to leave around 9 PM, quickly heading for the closest tavern I'm sure.

Here you can see the area with the shed now gone and only the little brown shed under the deck. He didn't damage the concrete floor, so it will become the landing for the stairs on my new deck which will be moved to the other side.

Sunday afternoon the other bargain hunters arrived. A motley crew of two high school age boys with nose & eyebrow rings anxious to use a borrowed electric saw on anything that they had permission to cut, a woman well into her 40's but trying to pass for high school age, her boyfriend who didn't speak much at all, and a very large friend who could have passed for Andre the Giant. I wasn't watching them closely at first, until I looked out the window and realized they had somehow managed to drive a trailer and pickup inside my yard and were now having difficulty getting all out the yard again without knocking over the the utility boxes. So I quickly went out back and guarded the utility boxes with my body at times, and tried to gently motivate them through quarrels and give suggestions on how to maneuver everything out. At one point the large man got so angry and frustrated that he stomped off to the west into the field yelling and screaming. We all just looked at each other and kept quiet, not one of us offered to go after him, but it was his truck so we just had to wait for him to cool down. He stopped yelling, came back and quietly and slowly moved all out the yard and took off quickly with the trailer and shed rocking down the road. That is the most nervous I'd been so far, and decided the rest of the project would be easy compared to that afternoon.

The only picture I dared to take was after they were all gone. All that is left is to remove the existing deck and start the new construction.

Summer of Construction - May 22, 2007

I finally decided to get my back yard in shape. After paying off my car loan and all my credit cards, I decided it just isn't the American way not to have some debt to work on. So after a trip to my local bank, and a number of interviews with carpenters, I took the first step. I placed a 'give away' ad on the local online classifieds hoping someone would take away two sheds that I don't use and are blocking by view of the valley to the west. My back yard is narrow, enclosed with a chain link fence, and has two utility boxes that cannot be disturbed at the back of the yard, making the whole removal process pretty tricky; hence the 'give-away' ad. That weekend was particularly wet and muddy with over 5 inches of rain falling over 3 days. I hope that is the last time I place that type of ad. I took so many calls and spent the holiday weekend letting people either trudge through my house to the backyard or through my neighbor's yard to get to my gate. Lotz of people made me promise to save it for them, only to not show up again or return my calls.

This was the most popular shed - it is pretty sturdy, had a concrete floor, had a locked door and shingled roof. I finally let a young engineer from one of my company's competitors agree to take it. He was very excited as it matched his siding on his home and he had planned on spending a couple thousand dollars to build a shed exactly like this.

This little odd shaped brown shed was built half under the deck. Only 4' high on the low end and 6' high on the outside end. I suspect at one time it was a dog house for a large dog. When the dog got too big, the previous owner decided to enclose the deck with plywood and use it for the dog house. This one didn't have a foundation, so would be easier to move (I thought) than the larger shed, at least after the larger shed is gone. Kind of hard to get a good picture of it.

Bike to Work Week

Finally going to get some pics uploaded from a fun winter project. I helped a local group of committed bicycle riders plan the first official "Bike to Work Week" in Bismarck. They met in the evenings and due to my work schedule I wasn't able to attend many meetings, but through the magic of email, I kept in touch with them. When they were in need of a poster design for the flyers, brochures, etc. I offered to help.

It was a success and we all were asked to get our photo taken with Governor Hoeven and his Secretary of Ag Roger Johnson.

As we were waiting for the photographers to get set up, one of the guys asked the governor if he biked to work (his residence is less than a block away from the capital). He laughed and said he'd make it faster if he picked up the bike and carried it to work.

I ride with girl behind me in red - Marian. She is going to join me on Candisc this summer. The other person I collaborated with most was a scientist working for the Ag Research Center - Mark - he is in the tan shirt behind the governor and in front of the ND Flag.