Friday - No Wind deck construction

Today was picture perfect - 75, sunny, and NO WIND. I had a Dr. appointment (A1C=6.3%!!), so I got to take off from work early. My doctor moved his office from the far north side to the far south side of Lincoln. I was home from my 3:00 appointment by 3:15. I loaded up my wheelborrow tool caddy, grabbed a cold pop, and headed out back for a beautiful day of deck work. JP left to pick up the boys and I immediately locked myself out of the house. I was missing my radio and shovel, but was able to find enough to do to keep myself busy for an hour.

Tonight I finished digging out the footer and was able to lay half of the concrete blocks for the stair risers despite being accosted by Gary the beer guy and my other neighbor that has a keg of cold Sun-Dog summer wheat ale on tap in his basement.

Just another weekend

Saturday, 5/10, we started work on the deck at 7:00 and by 9:00 it started raining. Usually it will only rain for a little while, so I paced about the house all day waiting for it to end. It rained all day until 9:00 that night. After the rain, the wind picked up and we had 18 hours of 40 mph winds.

Sunday morning we went to Home Depot to purchase more pieces for the deck. As we battled the wind crossing the parking lot, GP remarked that the calendar might say it was Sunday, but it should say that it was cold-and-sunnyday.

We completed the deck framework and built some prototype stairs that were per my blueprints but we found to be too shallow. I spent some time in CAD land redesigning them and we built another set which were much better.

JP called for pricing on the 8x8 x 10' cedar posts for the pergola. At $375 each, we decided that we could live with skinnier 6x6 posts. Menard's is having a sale on cedar, so JP ordered the deck planks and bought the 6x6's.

On Tuesday, the city inspector came out and approved our framework. Full speed ahead! Our goal of completing the project by Memorial Day is looking good.

More Deck Construction

Friday night I installed the posts onto the poured concrete footings. Later that night we had a storm race through that dumped 6" of snow in western Nebraska.

Saturday morning we went to the Mayor's Race downtown. Normally I like to get an early start on the day, but it was so cold & windy, I didn't mind starting at 11:00. By Saturday night, we had 4 of the 5 outer frame pieces up, squared, and bolted down. JP kept her hooded winter coat on all day.

On Sunday, we were treated to warmer temps and less wind. We Hit Menard's and purchased the remainder of the structural lumber. Total so far: $1700. We installed all of the normal joists, the 45° facia, and one of the mitered joists. We have three more joists, one more double-beam, a few seismic ties, and then we can call the inspector.

I had my shirt off most of the day and I feel like I've been out in the desert for a week. My back aches & burns, my hands are throbbing, and I am looking forward to spending the day in my office tomorrow. I enjoy construction projects, but every time we do one, I am reminded why I chose my profession.

Mayor's Run

This is the weekend of the Lincoln Marathon downtown. The day before the big race, the city holds the "Mayor's Run" for all the kids. It's a 1-mile run around the capitol building. CP had no interest in it, but GP was fired up from the start. JP got him positioned in the pack and decided to run it herself.

We had sunshine, temperatures in the 30's, and a nice 15 mph breeze to keep everyone nice & cool.

Another Deck Weekend

This morning we were at Menard's by 9:00. JP's untility vehicle handled 2x8 x 18' treated boards with no problem. Like Honda says: "Respect the van."



Despite having frost on the grass this morning and a 10 mph steady breeze, we were in the sun and out of the wind all morning. We elevated our 2x4 frame to the finished level of the deck (about 1.5" below the house floor) and constructed two of the four beams. The biggest hassle was trying to level everything and making the boards conform.

Next step: order the 2x12 cedar boards to replace our make-believe 2x4's for the perimiter frame.

Lincoln Field Trip

I took a day off this week to go with CP's class on a field trip to downtown Lincoln.



We saw the County/City building, a fancy architectural firm, the main library, and went on a fun walking tour of downtown.

Deck Construction

The inspector came out and signed off on our footer holes and explained that we really did not need to have dug-out footers, despite what the guy that issued our permit told us. We anchored the posts to the patio and finished up the holes.

All the neighbors like to watch the slow progress. They all seem to think that it's funny to come by with cold beer, knowing that I have 6 more hours of work to do.

Today we poured the concrete footers. I think we used nearly 20 sacks of concrete for 5 footings. Next time we will rent a mixer.

Tomorrow we'll hit Menards for some 2x10's.

GP's Tooth

GP had three wiggly teeth. After yanking one out, he now has two.

Last week we had almost two inches of rain and the wind blew 30 mph non-stop all week. On Friday we had giant snow flakes mixed with the rain. Saturday morning the wind stopped and the sun came out and we had 70 ° with absolutely no wind all day. We worked on the deck and got sunburned.

Back from the Dead

We have not posted anything new lately - the hard drive on JP's laptop committed hari-kari and refuses to succumb to my amazing powers of resurrection. We lost all our family photos from October 2007 forward. Note to self: "Time to start a periodic backup program." Fortunately, I uploaded most of our Utah vacation photos to our web album, so all is not lost. I bought a backup drive a couple years ago, but it's full of junk and needs backing up itself.

Besides trying to rescue files from a dead hard drive, this past week I put in some CAD time and completed our deck plans. I haven't done any CAD work in quite a while, and I've never done anything architectural. I'm used to working with fairly detailed manufacturing drawings and my deck plans reflect that. When JP took them downtown for approval the guy laughed at them because they are somewhat oerkill for a deck project.

The drawings turned out to be OK and we got our building permit. Today we go to Menard's to start the real work. Step one will be to buy a hammer.

Utah Vacation - Day 1

We left Easter Sunday for sunny St. George, Utah, for a fast-paced (would we do it any other way) 3-day vacation with Gramma & Grampa. After breakfast, we grabbed the 4-wheeler and big wheel (sand motorcycle) and headed for the dunes at Sand Hollow park.

The boys were a little more than excited to ride around. The weather was absolutely perfect and the scenery even better. We had blue skies, orange sand, snow on the mountain, clear water, and 80°. The concept of public lands is good for the soul. JP & I rode up on top of sand mountain to take in the scenery.

Too bad St. George isn't a hotbed of engineering jobs.

Easter Sunrise

As usual, the boys were up before the dawn on Easter. The Grammas were here, so we had a real sit-down dinner and the Easter bunny came and went and left some goodies.

Springtime orienteering

Today we went orienteering with the cub scout pack for our March activity. Last year at this time, we enjoyed blue skies and warm weather. This year it was cloudy, cold, and breezy. JP gave up after CP took her neck gaiter. I think she enjoyed watching the snowflakes from inside the van.

The boys all had fun, as they were bundled up and more active than the adults.

The Grammas arrived Thursday on their way to OK City to see RK. He got home last week after serving in Iraq.

That's the way we've always done it.

Sorry, no pictures - I just need to vent a little.

The official Nebraska motto is "That's the way we've always done it."

This week the Lincoln city council voted to keep their tradition of allowing council members to have business contracts with the city. Their reasoning: "That's the way we've always done it." The news girl covering the story kept talking about it as if it was an issue of fairness, not ethics.

Our cub scout cubmaster has his own goofy way of choosing which dens do what during the monthly pack meetings. This entire year, the tiger cubs (1st graders) have done everything while the older, more capable boys have done nothing. The tiger cubs can barely read, much less do skits and group demonstrations. When I suggested that perhaps the older kids should be doing the more age-appropriate activities, I got "That's the way we've always done it."

This is the land of the eternal comfort zone. If change scares the pants off you, come to Nebraska where you can stay the same forever and ever.

CP's new Look

CP is growing up and has joined the 4-eyes club. He's fired up about his new glasses.

Paper V-2

This weekend we worked on GP's balsa Hawker Hurricane and finished up the paper V-2 that has been sitting around for months. One of the cool things from the 'net is the availability of card models. Just download and print and you now have several pages of small parts to cutout and glue together to make something big. Most of the V-2 was OK, but last night I worked for an hour assembling one of four steering vane assemblies (1/2" x 3/8" made of several pieces of paper). This morning I found it smashed, so I decided that the other three were not worth the effort. I found plans for a 36" paper model of the USS Arizona. It looks like it would require more work than I am willing to spend. Besides, within a month we will be starting on our deck, and then a MAME cabinet, and who knows what else. We have so much planned for summer already, I almost feel like it's over before it has started.

Last trip to the Zoo?

Last weekend was nice and we all had a bad case of spring fever, so we headed east and hit the Henry Doorly zoo in Omaha.

As we wandered around, I couldn't help to wonder if this would be our last visit to the zoo. Our annual membership is up in April and the boys are getting older and don't get into it like they used to.