Sunday was filled with get-it-done. I haven’t been able to park my car in the garage since my dad and I re-shingled the house: spare roofing materials and tools filled up a chunk of the floor space; and then I kept dumping more in, like the chopped-up, half-rotted pallets that needed thrown out. I finally got around to tackling it.
One of the old pallets I had laying around was in fairly decent shape except for one end that had rotted. I cut the rotted end off and then screwed it to the wall as a tool rack for things like my snow shovel. (No, although it looks like it in the picture, the pallet is not resting on/pressed against the spare siding, it’s about an inch above it.)
It took the better part of the day to complete, and I even swept the floor completely clean. The good news is now I can park my car in the garage again!
The bad news is…to accomplish that, I ended up putting a lot of my tools in the back of the car. I need to sort through them and restock the toolbox, since various tools have migrated out of it and into the tool cupboard, which is why I didn’t worry about putting them in the car. But I need to do that before Saturday – the next Market day!
In the process of cleaning up the garage, I also moved a number of craft-related items that had been languishing on top of the chest freezers. Moving those reminded me that I had gotten a couple of picture frames for an idea I had for Market crafts.
The “pictures” are from my cleanup between colors when I do marble painting. I’ve been using some old packing paper to “soak up” the excess paint left over before I switch colors and thought it looked really pretty. So I picked up a couple of picture frames and inserted some of the paper. Abstract art, and no two pieces will ever be the same!
It was late by the time I got around to them, past my bedtime.
And the final thing I was inspired to do: make use of the storm windows I bought three years ago for making cold frames! Most of them turned out to be either too heavy (frame-wise) or too light (glass-wise) for the cold frame plan I had in mind, but then I thought, “Why not put in a greenhouse?”
I poked around online for a couple of hours, looking at storm window greenhouses others had built and finding out what did and did not work.
Today, I called City Hall and talked to various people (zoning, permits, and building inspections) about putting in a greenhouse. Zoning told me yes, I’m allowed to put one in. Permits told me if it’s under 200 square feet, I don’t need a permit, but I still need to be up to code. And Building Inspections told me the only codes I have to worry about are 50lb-square-foot weight requirements for the roof, 90mph wind resistance requirements (which requires a solid foundation), and tempered glass concerns. The man I spoke with in Building Inspections confirmed that my plan of using corrugated fiberglass sheets would be just fine; I’m working on a plan for the foundation, using cement blocks and rebar; the storm windows are old and probably aren’t made of tempered glass, but as long as I’m not living in the building and keep the windows 18″ off the ground and 24″ away horizontally and vertically from any “slammable” door, it’s okay to use non-tempered glass.
I’m going to swing by Home Depot later this week with my foundation ideas and talk to one of the Pro Desk guys, see what they think. The storage shed that came with the house is bolted to 4″x8″x16″ solid concrete blocks that are sunk in the ground; assuming the person who put it in kept it to code (specifically, the 90mph wind rule), that should be sufficient for the building I’m planning, which will be shaped similarly to the shed. I’m thinking about driving some 4′ rebar in for added reinforcement, though, since I’m not really convinced that shed could withstand 90mph winds.
Most of the work I should be able to do with materials I already have on hand; the exceptions would be the rebar and the corrugated fiberglass roofing material, some sort of siding for the bottom 18″ of wall and the door (north) end of the greenhouse, and the door itself. With any luck, I can find those on craigslist. I may need to acquire a little lumber for the sole and top plates, as well.
While I feel like I’m maybe taking on too much to finish, I also know that the greenhouse will add value to the property, and I’ll have this winter, and probably next summer, to make sure it’s working well.
Because of the bathroom, which I have an idea about, but not one I’m convinced will work, I’ve begun to assume that I will not be able to list the house this winter. It’s almost October, and I’m still at least a month away from where I had hoped to be at this point. It’s not ideal, but when I started the ball rolling this spring, I hoped for ideal, but I planned for staying here another year. That’s the nice thing about careful planning: if everything goes exactly right, a plan can easily run on a compressed schedule; but it’s a lot harder to reschedule a plan when things don’t go right if you didn’t account for that in the first place!
Tomorrow, I’m going to try to rock and roll some more projects.