Since the hot tub will be set down into the deck I had to get it propped up on some beams and supports and then do a little repair work before I build the deck.
I made two major mistakes with my hot tub:
1) I let it sit through the winter without draining it completely and some of the plumbing cracked and had to be replaced. This wasn’t too tough. The most annoying part is the seal inside the wet end of the motor that is connected to the plastic propeller. I had to order a new propeller and the part should be here soon.
2) I also made the mistake of wiring my 110v tub up to 220v. That kind of fried the GFCI switch so I had to put a new one on.
Here’s the beautiful mess:
That GFCI has definitely seen better days. I’m lucky my whole hot tub didn’t catch on fire and burn to the ground :-).
September 23, 2008 – 6:37 am
It wouldn’t be a good project if you didn’t start off with an injury so before we get to the new deck i have to show you my battle scars. I was offloading the deck wood from the top of the jeep and I had a little run in with the hatchback.
I was out cold for a few minutes and when i came to it was evident that stitches would be required before i could continue working. So i went to the bathroom and took care of business.
The key to giving yourself stiches is gritting your teeth and trying to remove yourself from your body and pretend you’re doing it to someone else…that seems to make it a little less painful.
September 9, 2008 – 6:28 am
is working on stuff together….well, not really but it sort of is if you’re a Tardy. i’ve been lucky to have two of my bros, and then two of my sisters visit over the last couple weeks (not all at the same time) and we’ve done some good bonding working on the ol’ house…
Cameron and David helped me finish the fence:
Then my sister Bre helped me pressure wash and re-seal the driveway…it’s drying right now so i’ll get the finished pic up hopefully later this week.
The new HUSKY power washer from Home Depot was a great investment and it has a nice driveway feature that significantly speeds up the job…
This has to be the stickiest mess anyone could create.
Bre did a very nice job of sealing the edges with the paint brush while I filled in the rest with the sqweegee.
This seal job is actually take two…we started it the first time and about half way through it started raining…which meant we got to do it all over. When the label says “Do not use if rain is expected in 24 hours” I learned you should kind of follow that advice.
It’s been a couple months since I’ve posted since I’ve actually been doing more work than blogging. Here are some pictures from a few of the things I’ve been working on over the last couple months:
Planters by the front door add a nice splash of color:
A new rail fence looks so much nicer than the old chain link that was there:
I’ve finally been able to do some actual landscaping. It’s amazing how much plants and trees complete the look of the house…it’s been a long time coming:
Current Before and After…it’s come a long ways!
I scored a free gate along with a lot of fence materials from an old fence they were taking down by our church to make room for a new road. It didn’t look like much to start with but after a couple coats of rustproofing paint it’s as good as new!
Right after my last post about Bradford Pears, I looked out in my yard to find that one of the branches had snapped right off!
Bradford Pears are really pretty this time of year. This picture is of the two full grown trees in my front yard. They provide great shade and have a nice shape.
However, on a recent trip to the local nursery I learned that builders in Williamson County are no longer allowed to plant these trees. I was curious as to why so I did some reading up on them…apparently they cause a lot of problems. You can read more about the pro’s and cons of the specimen’s from Sarah over at www.Learn2Grow.com.
I got 100 pressure treated fence posts off craigslist for 250 bucks. Not bad considering they are usually 6-8$ per board when new. This summer I plan to take out the chain link and put in a equestrian rail fence like this:
Still a lot of work to do but I thought I’d put up a before and after shot from the front for everyone to see the progress.
Next step: Landscaping!
Before: (June 2007)
Current: (March 2008)
When I was on my roof fixing up the gable vents I made a startling discovery:
The rubber boot around the sewage gas vent was inverted and separated from the pipe…
thus allowing water to flow right down into the wall.
My theory is that this happened when I was replacing my drainage plumbing in the crawl space a couple weeks ago. When I jerked out the drain pipe that this vent pipe was connected to the vent pipe slid down through the wall and thudded against the ground right by my ear. I guess at the time I was too traumatized by my recent brush with this potentially skull crushing incident that I didn’t have the presence of mind to think about the chain reaction.
Whenever you change something in your house there is almost always a chain reaction…in this case something I did in the crawl space changed something on the roof. You have to do your best to anticipate this chain reaction so you don’t end up with a bigger problem later.
Fortunately it hasn’t been like this long so I doubt much water has had the chance to seep down into my wall, but left like this for too long and it would have turned into a major issue.
The fix was pretty simple and only took about 5 minutes. With a screwdriver I simply popped the boot back out the right way.
Then I sealed the gap with some regular caulk since that’s all I had at the time. Later I will peel off the regular white caulk and apply some silicone caulk for better adhesion and water proofing. Then to make it more aesthetically pleasing I’ll hit the whole pipe with some black, flat spray paint so it doesn’t stand out as much from the ground.
