Joel Murphy

That Irene, she is ‘a blowin’  We got gusty wind and rain

But we ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Time for a break to watch a video from the hikes Deb and I took last weekend. The first day we went up to Pecks Falls. Humid trail with cool relaxing spots by the brook.

Abit further up the trail is Peck’s Falls.

The next day we went to Bellows Pipe Falls. Same area of Greylock as Peck’s. Up Gould road to find parking. Must say the trails are very well maintained.

Preparedness Fail

Paranoid? Safe!

It’s been too damn hot to take pictures, but I went ahead and took some today to show you all. The deck is done! Well, 95% done. I still have to put in all the ‘in-between’ balusters on the spiral staircase to make it ‘code’ worthy, but it’s definitely done enough to give you a tour. Come on outside!

We have a couple of chairs, but we need a bistro table to make it real nice.

This is the drawing that I made a while back in Google Sketchup (awesome program!) Let’s see how it compares to the real thing.

Minus the spiral staircase railing, it’s pretty much like the drawing! if i do say so myself.

Now, the details. The deck is attached to the ‘world’ at its base, with the 4 4×4 posts, and also at the house. Under the deck there is a structure made of 2×6 studs, and the one against the house is bolted in. Even with these attachements and the having the spiral staircase installed, the deck had a bit of a wobble. An undeisreable wobble, if you will. So, I fixed it with some cables.

There are two cables that run diagonally across the underside of the deck. They keep everything nice and tight! There was one other undesireable wobble, this time with the fence. I put the fence there because my neighbors windows are very close. That’s brownstone livin’. To maintain sanity for both of us, I put in the fence, but it wasn’t attached to much of anything and seemed to be a bit of a hazard… cables to the rescue!

the two triangular cables are pulling the vertical support of the fence against a 2×2, and then against the house. The piece of 2×6 there is to help distribute the load. Now the fence is nice and solid. Come on over and dance on the deck!

Here’s some other pics I got today. One from the backyard.

and we put a honeysuckle fine underneath in the hopes that it will like the spiral staircase!

Kabab night!

Deb’s there in the upper right grilling the last batch. Also, corn!

Deb’s back from her weeklong retreat refreshed, rejuvenated, and ready. Not a moment too soon! It’s time to raise the spiral staircase. Looks like everything is lining up With my 1/2″ nut bob.

Spiral stair parts!

Putting down the decking. Using EB-TY spacers. It’s going well, but one of my joists is warped.

That’s quite a day. Now we are able to get to the backyard from our kitchen without going out the front, back in to the downstairs hall, down into the basement, and up through the coal chute. Finishing it up this week.

Got the first two piers up and marked for cutting.

Two posts closer to vanquishing the porch

Ready to drill and bolt in the header

Got on a roll and nailed in the joists. I have to triangulate twice, then I’m done for the day.

Here’s a pic from the doorway upstairs. It’s going to be spatious. I put a triangular piece in with just screws. It dudna do a bit a gud. I think once the decking goes on, it will tighten up. Even so, if there is a wobble, I can put some cables underneath to tighten it up like a drum.

It’s raining now. looks like it’l rain all night.

This is the view out my back door this afternoon. You will notice that there is not a porch there….  Yet. Gonna live blog the porch raising tomorrow.

Check back!

Didn’t think this would come today.

Actually expected it last Thursday. Then the shipper (A. Duie Pyle) said that it was ‘lost’. Then they found it, and arranged a delivery for today, but didn’t contact me. I called them and rescheduled for tomorrow, and then it came today at 10AM. I’m glad it’s here.

Spiral Staircase Parts! I unpacked the crate. Going to store in basement until the porch raising party. Got a big shiny brass ball too!!

I’ll be getting the materials together for the porch this week/weekend.

Tomorrow and Wednesday Millard and his guys are going to pour a slab in the back around my footings. Then we’re ready to build a porch!

We had the guys from Brownstone Authority crawling all over our front yard and stoop last week doing a renovation. They were awesome! The job was to repair and resurface the stoop, along with putting in new bluestone paving. Here’s some pictures.

This is an image of beginning work on scraping the existing stoop, removing old cement and crap and prepping the stone for a scratch-coat.

this is an image of early on from the 2nd floor. the stoop is just starting to get scraped here, and the yard has been cleared for the bluestone patio.

Now you can see that all the old crap has been cut off of the stoop, and the brownstone is carved and scratched and ready to accept an new scratchcoat.

And here is a picture of the state of the stoop today. The scratch coat is going to cure for at least a couple of weeks, and then the Brownstone Authorities will be back to apply a final coat of ‘brownstone mix’ which is going to give us a nice hard brownstoney finish. The bluestone patio is laid on a bed of cement, and grouted in so it won’t move around.