Friday, September 25, 2015

Feeling dirty

My new pressure washer is amazing.
I love the thing so much that I've pressure washed the driveway, sidewalk, and curb, 
the front walkway, 
the brick columns on the porch,
my parents house.

Hell, I even pressured washed the damn cat litter scoop.
Now that's dedication.

Before
After
Ryobi 3100 PSI 2.5 GPM Gas Pressure Washer with Idle Down (bought at Home Depot)

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

They sguiggle when you spray it


This was hiding in the soffit. We through a fogger 'football' in it and about 30 red paper wasps came flying out--one-by-one this time. (compared to all of them racing out toward Fernando like kamikazes)

There's 72 larvae in this thing

Baby Pomegranate!

There's 3 of them   : )


Sunday, September 13, 2015

The Evening Glow

The halogen work light really shows off the eave on the house. #LandscapeLightingInspiration

Fernando relaxing with a beer after a hard nights work

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Recycling Materials...the wrong way

Apparently a previous owner decided to use this beautiful old piece of vintage beadboard to make a support leg for the wooden fence I tore down from the driveway


Spectacular piece of wood!

Friday, September 11, 2015

Baby Dinosaur

Found this little guy sleeping on my iron gate! He was only about 2 inches long





Thursday, September 10, 2015

Peak concerns

Ladder didn't reach there. Guess I'll tie something heavy to a rope and pull it down...


Update: DONE!

and yes, that's a toilet in my backyard. Seemed like a totally reasonable place to put it

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Tearing down the mega fence

The previous owner of my home had installed a large boundary fence along the driveway that has been bugging me since I first moved in. 
  1. It's hard to back down the driveway, 
  2. I prefer my car unscratched,
  3. Wood fences are unsightly and unwelcoming,
  4. My neighbor and his wife have been bitter about the fence since the day it was built by the previous owner. Not only did it block all their windows, but my neighbor couldn't access the side of his property without climbing over the a/c unit.
  5. It made the driveway feel too confined.
So we worked together and the fence went 'bye-bye' this weekend. What a difference! 


I'll talk to the neighbor to see if we can work together to remove the plywood over the windows, likely there since Hurricane Ike hit back in 2007.  At the time there was no point to removing it since all they'd have to look out to would have been a giant wood fence. (Update: He wants to take it down now that the fence is gone! Yay!)
Years back, my neighbor removed the asbestos-cement shingles from his house. Since the area was so confined by the fence, they'd left pieces of foil sheathing and tar-paper strips dangling on their house (again, there was no point in removing them since the fence blocked it from sight). We worked together to clean up the area by raking, pulling the weeds and disposing of the remaining, tiny pieces of cement board that littered the ground.
It feels so much more open and airy now!

Fernando had the unfortunate luck of discovering 2 giant wasps nests in the soffits, so progress on the exterior of the house has been stifled until we can deal with those. The wasps have been aggressive ever since their nest was uncovered.

With all the aluminum removed from the house, my backyard is currently doubling as a junkyard...


Surround shot of the backyard

Saturday, September 5, 2015

Salvage finds

Stopped by the Historic Houston's Salvage Warehouse today to pick up some wood for the exterior repairs. They had cedar 105 clapbard siding, as indicated by the tapered/bevel cut just like the cypress  wood on my house. The only difference is that mine has a vertical cut grain to it and a rougher texture since it only has 1 layer of the original paint on it.

For the sake of ease I just purchased the 15' boards. I think the end result will come out better if large sections are replaced so that the walls are seamless.

My oh my! What you can fit in a Mitsubishi Eclipse!
15' boards. Only 4' of wood protuded from the back. 
The green board on top is a broken piece of siding from my house. Almost an exact match!

Good Neighbors, Good Fortune

My neighbor Whit gave me this original craftsman front door that came off a house in the Montrose area! What a beauty! Can't wait to install it!


and he also had one of the original roof brackets from a house down the street which he's letting me borrow to replicate, since mine were stripped from the house.

Check out the size of this thing—it must weigh over 40 pounds!