Painted in Penny

Here's a shim I found painted into the third floor. It was under the

baseboard where a wall used to be. I think I'll leave it, as we are

going to repaint the floors anyway rather than refinish. It is a

Lincoln, not a Wheat Penny so I can't be that old.

Maybe I'll inlay it into the floor in that spot.

Insulation!

We finally bit the bullet and blew insulation in our roof/crawl space yesterday. It was a beast, but what better incentive than a 94 degree day in July to get it going. We sweated all the way through our clothes, but we should be R38+ up there (except for maybe a few tight spots that we couldn't reach). We went with formaldehyde-free AttiCat loose-fill fiberglass from Owens-Corning because it was much lighter (more than twice) than cellulose and way cheaper than foam. Hopefully our plaster repair will withstand the extra weight. Amy even managed to talk the tool rental guy at Home Depot into letting us return the machine 2 hours late, right at closing time, because they didn't include the proper hose attachement to the machine. It did suck not having that attachment, but we were under the 4 hr. time limit and didn't have any time to go back and get it. We got the tool rental for one penny. She's an amazing negotiator.

All in all, a great day's work. We celebrated with some Portabello Burgers from Shake Shack, which were a slam dunk, and some frozen custard. Oh yeah!

Ok Ok

While we haven't posted much of our labor in a long, long while, we feel like getting back going again. This spring we've spent a considerable amount of time in the garden. Thanks to my trust brother Jeremy, we were able to plant two street trees, one European Hornbeam (Fastigata), and one Sourwood. I love Sourwoods and one day this salvaged tree will become a glorious site as well as a brilliant nectar source for our bees. We also were able to plant, thanks to his efforts, a beautiful Pink Dogwood where the old Copper Beech fell. It will be a beautiful anchor and screen to the porch.

Here's the truck loaded with the three trees in NC. It was a long haul, but we survived. The Hornbeam lost some leaves but all is well after some heavy watering.

We relocated our Knockout Roses and they didn't like it one bit. We relocated many other plants and some haven't taken to their new locations like we had hoped. Such is the life of the (learning) gardener. That said, we are really enjoying our back yard these days, having had several dinner parties there. Pre-Mosquito season in Philly is truly magnificent for eating al fresco. We've made a pact to either eat outside in the back, or on the porch.

Here is the scene post-dinner party with Amy and Keith, our trusty friends and MAJAK collaborators, who will be moving to Portland(ia) in the coming month. We are trying to make the most of it with them here. How many hours have we spent together in the yard and on this house, both working and relaxing, we will never be able to tally. We will miss them dearly.







Here are some more garden shots during the day.

 

No We haven't stopped working

Wow. It has been a long time since we've posted things. A very busy summer is turning into a very busy fall, but we're still cranking away on the house. We will post some pics of our progress soon. Here's a few to get you going.

copper roof complete. copper beech stump still there

switching out the old skylight for a new one

copper roof from above

lifting out the stump

trimming the oak (again)

removing the pine

demolishing the second floor front ceiling

filling the path with sand and gravel

test fitting stones in yard before patio

grading for patio

7 cu. yds of mulch

removing buried bits of stump (a lot bigger and harder than it seemed)

laying framing for walkway

temporarily shoring up scaffold on re-purposed stairs

patio nearing completion, and we didn't have to buy one stone.

more to come on each project.

Gravel Path- MAJAKK IV

For our MAJAKK co-op workday, we got a 10yd dumpster and set the crew on demolishing. First we tore up the back yard concrete walk and went to work hauling the bounty of concrete to the dumpster (which was by far the hardest part...) Then for the next two days, Amy and I regraded the yard, constructed the path border, hauled and placed the 2" sand bed and then the 2" pea gravel. It looks great and the yard will drain much better now. This is the first phase of our landscape plan, acting as an axis through the yard. Exciting. Check out the photos below.

Copper Porch Roof

Here's the porch roof as it stands. Almost done, with only some ridge pieces and some flashing left to go. It looks awesome. The gutter is in place, but needs a little fine tuning. It also looks great. Check it out.

Copper Porch Panels

Tony's been moving pretty fast around the porch. It looks great. We are getting comments as people walk down our temporary cul-de-sac to see the crane at work on the church down the street.

Strange living on a dead end in the city- even if it is only for a while.

The end of the day today should be looking really good I hope. I will take some better pics then .

We're on TV

The church on our block is falling apart and was ordered closed by the city's department of licenses and inspections. Action news came out and did a story on the church. More importantly, they interviewed our neighbor Don on our porch. Thanks Don and Action News!

Copper Panels!

We got copper panels up on the front side today. Super exciting!

Scaffolding down!

Tony and his crew took down the scaffolding on the front today. More importantly, they brought the copper panels for the front part of the roof! We should have several panels up tomorrow.