5.4 - Workin' Outside

Three weeks ago I said I'd be working outside: siding, windows, walkways—that kind of thing. Well, that's actually what I've been doing!

On weekend #1, I put fresh siding on the front porch (ok, the house within the vicinity of the front porch), replaced the light (the one that never worked quite right after my brother-in-law messed with it, like, ten years ago), added a new motion sensor, replaced the light switch, and installed a nifty-keen new GFI outlet (power on the porch—yay!). The new setup is really cool, the light stays on a really low here-is-the-door level until it senses motion, then it gets bright so you feel welcomed. I like it a lot, but then again I'm easily impressed.

On weekend #2, I replaced all the siding on the wall above the front porch. There are lots of nasty angles there so it took quite a while. Oh, yeah, I cleaned out the gutters while I was up there, too. Fun.

On weekend #3, I replaced the front window. Ok, that really wasn't much work—maybe an hour and a half or so, so I was a bit of a slacker maybe this last weekend, but hey, the front of my house is looking sweet!

So I'm trying to plan this next weekend (#4 if you've been keeping up). I probably should think about replacing the window above the front porch—since it's not even really a window, it's more of a storm window held into place with some odd bits of slightly inappropriate hardware. It's just about the last bit of nastyness on the front of my house, other than some painting, which I also need to do.

I also still have that vent to install, since the bathroom fan is currently blowing all that moist (FWIW: I really dislike that word) air into the attic which isn't good long term and will be really bad when winter comes and the attic fan isn't running constantly like it does now.

If all that goes well, then hopefully around weekend #6 I can get to walkways and other landscape-y kinds of things between apple picking, hay-bale buying, and pumpkin purchasing trips.

October seems to me to be one of the best times to actually own a house. You work on your house during a very comfortable day, and then as the cool of evening falls, you light a fire in the chimenea and bring out the TV to watch the Yankees win.

It's all very satisfying. You should try it. At least you should come look at my house—it's looking sweet!