Four Weeks in May

Here comes June. The last four weeks have been...interesting. At the end of April, I pulled off the joists remaining over the Vault area and dug out the valve. The first weekend of May, things got serious.

Week 1 and 2, I removed the decking boards. Getting a good look at the hot tub platform framing made me wonder why I wasn't renting a bulldozer. On the other hand, a lot of the railings volunteered their way off.

Week 3, I remembered my sledge hammer. Even if they didn't want to, the 2x12s and certainly the 2x8s disconnected themselves when the sledge hammer commanded it. On May 18, the hot tub platform framing was still there. By May 19, it was gone, and on May 20, I discovered the upper patio.

Week 4, I excavated the concrete steps (May 23) and on May 26, the junk pile was gone. Casey spent Week 2 in Tucson and Weeks 3 and 4 in quarantine. He missed a lot of the fun.

It's supposed to rain this weekend, so I (finally) applied the hose to the freshly uncovered concrete. Something of a mistake--because it's not all cleared yet, it doesn't drain. As I suspected, the lower patio is red concrete, but it's not very even and the thin layer of sand was hiding a number of cracks and imperfections.

Ready for the rain. Hosing down means spreading the sand, but it's red.

A dozen wagonfuls of dirt will make this a smoother ramp, one day.

The upper and lower patios are flawed, but the steps are excellent.

Wires

I like electrical work, in general. See the workshop and the outdoor light. Where I have drawn the line is working inside breaker boxes and working with 240-volt circuits.

Rubicon crossed. I've now done both, albeit with trepidation. They had a 50-amp 240V line going out to the hot tub. The wires stuck out of the conduit and were buried in dirt when I found them, so yikes, but they ran to an exterior breaker box that served as a shut-off switch (and they were off). The shut-off runs back to the main breaker box, which has also been off as long as I've been here.

Before the junk guys showed up, I cut the conduit so that I could have them take it. I used the saws-all, and it was comical. The 8-gauge stranded wires resisted mightily and the conduit vibrated, so it looked like I was being electrocuted in a cartoon. I looked for flashes of my skeleton, but that didn't happen.

Yesterday, I opened the breaker box, disconnected both sets of wires from the buses and (eventually) disconnected the exterior box from the wall, leaving the 240v wires sticking out. This isn't Romex, these are individual black, red, white, and ground wires.

I think this backs up to a high outlet on the inside.

The next step is to direct these wires inside and close up this hole. Inside, we'll use them to power a new 240V electric water heater for Casey's bathroom. My problem now is not that I'm afraid to work on 240V, just that I really don't want to work in the hella-narrow closet. Perhaps I can direct Casey, or we can get an electrician. Stripping and fastening 8ga wire is a pain, too. Maybe its only 10ga, but I much prefer 14ga Romex.

Something like this, only the bottom hole should be vertical, without the left angle, for 50-amp.

Theory article: https://makezine.com/2016/11/02/understanding-240v-ac-power-heavy-duty-power-tools/

I Miss the Huge Junk Pile

Not really. But now I need to design and build--no more excuses--and that's scary. Armed with my as-built, Peggy shook several designs out of her sleeve quickly and effortlessly.

Sketch #1

Alternate #1

Sketch #2

Sketch #3

Sketch #3 pulls the upper deck away from BA3 to provide access to the vault and the sewage ejector, shown here:

I'd like to have easier access to the vault and the valve than crawling on my belly under the deck.

Sketch #4

In a half-hour Tuesday, I filled and dumped the wagon 5 or 6 times with dirt covering the patio. The hardest work is pulling the full wagon up the side yard.

The line is a taut string that I remember from first moving in--it's a rectangle, sort of.

It occurred to me that this is like keeping your food in a frosty block of ice in your kitchen. One day, you scrape off some of the ice, then a little more, and, gradually, a refrigerator appears. It was under the ice all the time.

For direct comparison, this is the same view before removing 6 wagonfuls. See the taut string? Neither did I.

And, lastly, we now have a safety railing, such as it is. 

Junk Begone!

Buy! Buy! Says the sign in the shop window
Why? Why? Says the junk in the yard
—Paul McCartney, Junk

$1000 for 1,000 cubic feet

Full truck = $867, plus tax, plus 10% tip. Worth it.

Lionel and Jacob used my wagon, with permission, for the little scraps at the bottom of the pile.

Lionel and Jacob from 1-800-GotJunk said they'd be here at 8:30; they knocked at 8:24. By 10:00, the truck was loaded and they'd taken my credit card. Lionel gave me the full truck estimate and said that if it was more, he'd empty the truck and come back for the rest at no additional charge. It filled up the truck--my estimate was 1000 cubic feet of junk (20' x 10' x 5' high) and about a 1000 cubic foot truck (8x8x16), so I agreed with him.

Casey suggested that movers get $10/hour per person, but since they're moving junk they don't have to be as careful, so it could be less. That would be $15/person, since it took them 90 minutes, but I was thinking of giving them $50. Their payment app had a 10% tip ($86.70) button, so I went with that. Oh, and they didn't charge full sales tax--maybe there's a different rate for junk? They added 3.6%. Odd.

Update: They didn't charge 10.1% sales tax at all. They charged a "Solid Waste Refuse Tax" of 3.6%. Then they calculated the 10% tip including the tax, which is not kosher. I thought I was tipping $86.70, but I actually tipped $89.82. I'll sue! The total, with tip, was $988.03. No tip and the full sales tax would have been $954.57--the bee man and the roof cleaner both charged Seattle sales tax

Next challenge--where to put all that dirt

About 94 cubic feet of dirt (3-1/2 cubic yards)

Backyard Status - Memorial Day

EXT. BACKYARD - DAY

ESTABLISHING SHOT of a built environment bordering a verdant forest. The scene is dominated by a good-sized pile of rubbish, mostly demolished deck boards, in the center. We HEAR birds, an industrious bee nearby, and the distant sound of a lawnmower. Our hero is nowhere to be seen.

Palm Tree Visit

Five years ago, I gave my Chinese Fan Palm to a guy named Ken Jensen. Since I'm discovering a concrete patio near the spot where it used to stand, I thought I should drive over and see if it's still alive. It is.

It's doing great at 13215 4th Avenue NW

The tree seems very happy. The tropical blue is still a little jarring, and the roof looks a bit mature.

Deck Status Saturday Night

Progress is slow, but steady. Discovered the full set of concrete steps, not only intact but a model for outdoor steps at 6" risers and 14-1/2" treads. Very comfortable, compared to climbing up and down the hillside as I've been doing. A lot.

1-800-Got-Junk comes Tuesday

 When I hose off the lower concrete, I think it will be red.

How much of the deck framing remains is a function of the final design, which I don't have.

Safety rail support. Also, notice the brick paving beyond the concrete

 The vinca gives up its secrets in tiny increments. It's like pulling vines to get anywhere.

A very nice set of steps. As I said, I think the lower paving is red. I discovered the huge boulder to the left and claimed it for France.