Thread: Some home improvements

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Very, very nice place JB! What's the little auto stuffed in the tree line by the ditch? Is that how farmers there plug holes in fences?

Thanks.
There's actually three of them there, all lo-light (pre '51) Morris Minors that sacrificed their lives to build our wee Morris.
Our next-door neighbour's father-in-law is a Councillor on the local Council and takes himself waaay too seriously; and those dead cars drive him nuts.
He knows (as do I,) that in a rural area I'm allowed to have four dead cars on the side of the road before the Council can order me to remove them.
So I left three there.
He's approached me several times to remove them out of 'the goodness of my heart'.
But if he's involved there's no such thing.
He ripped me off for $100 several years ago after I went out of my way to do him a good turn...so he can whistle.

I tell him they're 'Garden Art'.
I don't think he likes me much.

Originally Posted by johnboy

I tell him they're 'Garden Art'.
I don't think he likes me much.

Some people don't appreciate the finer things of life.

Damn JB, I thought I held a grudge......................

Originally Posted by NTFDAY

Damn JB, I thought I held a grudge......................

I'd better explain and let you lot decide whether I'm wrong or right.
He used to own the farm above me on the mountain side and wanted to drain a swamp, on the boundary fence a bit over a mile back, into my place.
I agreed; but told him he'd have to come about sixty feet into my place to where the swamp dropped about 8ft into a gully that became a creek about 15 ft inside a patch of bush.
He said that was okay.
I heard his contractor's drain-digger (back-hoe to you lot,) working, so went to have a look. The contractor had dug a hole in the swamp in my place and taken his fall from there, leaving a death-trap for my animals.
The contractor was by then several hundred yards up into David's place, I approached him and said he couldn't leave the mess he'd made in my place, he'd have to come back and remedy it.
He told me that David had told him that he wasn't going to pay to drain my property, and that was all there was to it.
"Well you can't leave it like that! I'm going to lose cattle in there! Go back and fix it."
He told me they have a minimum charge of $100, and that's what he'd have to charge me.
"Just do it! It can't be left like that." A beast at that time was worth about $500, and a death-trap like that could kill three or four in a year.
So he walked his machine back through the fence, flattened the 15ft of bush, and side dug from the hole to where the creek started.
Elapsed time of about 25 minutes, of which about 15 minutes was walking time.
I then approached David, but he was adamant; he wasn't going to pay to drain my land.
To say I was upset with him would be an understatement. I was bloody angry.
So I paid the contractor. It wasn't his fault; he was just doing what the customer told him to.

My own digger was parked about 3/4 of a mile away; about an hour's walking in each direction, or I would've done it myself.

Was I right to be annoyed with him or not?

I don't think anyone here will fault you JB.... had one of my neighbors done that, I would've built a dam and flooded his property...

voice activated pocket recorder i began doing this in 79 after a disagreement with a customer. since that day i have had it in my pocket . people have a habit of forgetting what they agree to sometimes.

And he was still standing?

Originally Posted by NTFDAY

And he was still standing?

Yep.
You can't hit anyone through a telephone.

JB, I don't blame you one bit. If I had any kind of digger he would have been having bad days for a while and the garden art would rotate and be uglier each time, and have the 4 you're alloted.

This weekend I didn't get much done on the home improvements. I did finish Izzy's bed, got all the debris from tear out loaded into the bed of the truck, and this morning my Dad came over and we started in on taping and mudding. Izzy's floor is dry so now I have to pick the base board trim, get installed so the final painting can be done. Then we have to find her a rug and get her room all set up for her. Little by little.

Oh how I love doing dry wall. Wait, what? It's even more fun with your spouse whom has mood swings every 5 minutes. Hey, we've done round 1 of mud and sand. Now waiting for the mud to dry and continue on to round 2. By the way, corners suck!

Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe

Oh how I love doing dry wall. Wait, what? It's even more fun with your spouse whom has mood swings every 5 minutes. Hey, we've done round 1 of mud and sand. Now waiting for the mud to dry and continue on to round 2. By the way, corners suck!

It is a truly funny thing, funny strange, that is, but dry walling was a zen thing for me. I preferred to work alone, and just sort of lost myself in the process. I used a lift to hang overheads, and twelves on walls if I had the room, but it was all just an exercise in meditation. After a day of it, I felt good, and when I sprayed the last of the texture and finished, I was content.

.

Today we sanded the 2nd coat, and I got a third coat on. One corner has more work left to do but the rest is really close after this last go around.

I have no real pic worthy progress of Ivvy's room. Although, I am on the 3rd or 5th round of sand, apply mud, let dry, repete.

This isn't a home improvement, but it is a garage improvement. I finally took the time to hang the cabinets we removed from the sun room in the garage. I am going to try to put all my spray can stuff in the LH one. I'm also going to try to get my paint supplies off the far right shelf unit and put them inside one of these cabinets. I also started hauling more of the wife's projects out of the garage and into the basement because the garage is just over ran. I'm tired of the clutter and I'm my biggest enemy. I don't need her help to make a huge mess. Haha