Around Waynos house

[wayno]

So this is what I have been doing during daylight hours when it has not been raining.





I did this today, I had to move some axles and heavy wood beam and other stuff that hide the axles.





I only got 5 rows on the first day, when I finished that area and started on this area I only got 5 rows because it is harder to make that first row straight and level, I also have to dig into the dirt next to the patio and move it too low areas, I have run out of extra dirt so I guess I will take the gutter debris to the recyclers and come back with a load of dirt.

It is amazing how ones standards lower after one has been doing something like this for a while, my body hurts enough that I hardly get any sleep as I cannot relax, as I mentioned in a earlier post I am getting too old for stuff like this.

[DRIVEN]

Looks great! I've got some keystone pavers you can do here when you're finished.

[wayno]

I worked on it a little today, then it started raining, the good thing about the rain is it will wash all the dirt off the pavers, it was the same with the last 8 feet of my walkway in the garden, they were filthy when I finished but it rained and they were clean, all I had to do is wait.

I needed fill material as close to the patio enclosure was high, near the garden it is low, but the farther west I moved the more fill dirt I needed, so this morning I went to H & H and looked at what they had, everything was chunky except the 4 leaf compost, I tried using that as fill but it is too spongy, half of it just went in the garden, I only did about 3 or 4 rows, it was way easier to level it out and position the pavers, but when I walked on them they move around, so the next time I go out there I will go get chunky dirt first, I am not going to redo what I did unless it causes big issues.

[wayno]

I redid what I had done with the 4 leaf compost, it all went into the garden, I did this after going to H and H recycling and asking questions about the dirt they sell, I went with the dirt even though it had been rained on and was like sticky clumps, before loading me the guy asked if I would like drier dirt, well it turned out they have a giant pile of premixed dirt under an equally giant tarp, that guy was nice to tell me about that, it worked great and it was not all stuck together in clumps.

I got to where I expected to get to and have 19 tiles left over, I need more tiles, but this got me started, I will need to find more used tiles to cover more area, but I got ma lot done.

OK, this is the last photo I posted.



This is where I am now.



I did all the way to the end of the patio enclosure, I also made the end temporarily even, I cut broken tiles to shore up the end after using an old 2X4 to hold the dirt and tiles in place, then I made a small ramp to roll things up onto the patio.



I also cut tiles to even the ends at the shed.



Dead center in this photo I buried a cat today under the pavers, I had to level out the pavers so it was even with the patio pavers, so I lifted them out and dug a hole, put the poor cat in it and re-installed the pavers, I am down to 5 cats now, I started with 10 cats that I did not want in the first place.



And here it is finished and level, it was within a half inch anyway but I did not want my shoe to catch on the lip and trip me.



Next I had a choice to either move the railroad ties even with the edge of the pavers, or cut pavers to fit, I went with cutting pavers as moving very heavy railroad ties and possibly hurting myself was not worth taking the chance.









I need to get stuff organized now and get rid of the things I do not need/have not used in years.

[wayno]

It started raining here and it is not washing the dirt off very well, I may have to pressure wash it.

Since it has been raining I got the 3rd circuit working on the coffee table train, at one point I had all 3 trains running for likely 15 minutes without a wreck or derailment, that is not always the case, there is always something going wrong, but it was exciting to have it run that long without an issue.

My main issue is this train thing started back in 2005, some of the track has sharp turns that the long locomotives cannot make without binding/stopping or derailing, I have had to take apart these sections and other sections apart because of what would be called hiccups, places that cause derailments, binding/stopping, dead spots, places where some of the cars come unhitched from the locomotive or the car in front of it, the thing is this track is super glued down, some places have been glued down 2 or 3 times, I have ruined several track sections trying to get them loose from the plywood they are glued to, it is especially difficult when the section I am working on is under another section of track, I have considered making a new everything and copying what has been done so far but making it better with what I have learned so far, I am not there yet.

[wayno]

I picked up my 3 new front windows today to replace these windows.



I forgot to take photos of the windows as I had other places to get to, maybe photos tomorrow, I forgot to ask about screens when I ordered them, they did come with screens, they do not have sliders on the bottom like in the photo above, the lower window slides up and down and these lower windows are removable, so my air conditioner will still be exactly where it is in the photo.

[wayno]

Here are my new windows for the living room, I will likely replace all the others also, but I do not want to try and replace them all at once.

[Taterhead]

Windows is one (of many) things I despise replacing. It seems they are always a pain in the ass to me.

[wayno]

I put in a patio(back of house) sliding glass door last month? and that was freaking heavy, I took the sliding part out before installing just so I could actually maneuver it around, I almost lost it once(fall over) but I saved it, I did lose one of the sections of the old door that I took out, but it did not break.

Compared to that sliding glass door these windows are light, all I need to do to install these is cut around an inch and a quarter away around each old window, remove the old window/frame, then install the new window using the 1" plastic tab all the way around the window, then once all 3 are installed I need to put trim around each window to hide what was cut away.

I do regret not holding my ground and getting vinal the color of my siding now, but they told me the Milgard sample in their showroom was not available anymore, and white was the best color because that is what everyone else uses, I wish I had insisted on the "sand" color that was close to the color of my paint on my siding, the neighbor across the street got white vinal with white trim, but there gutters and trim are white also so it looks right, mine is going to look goofy I think with white vinal, red trim, and the sand body color, also the neighbors completely filled in between the windows while I was not going to do that unless my way looks goofy.

[DRIVEN]

It'll look fine, just takes time to get used to it. I replaced all the windows in my Hillsboro house by myself. The worst part for me was cutting back the cedar plank siding. I was working for a door place at the time and has access to PVC composite trim to finish it out.

[Taterhead]

Well, I’ve replaced two windows in this house, and had a new window put in where there was none at all. I am not confident enough in my brick cutting ability to do that. I’m not fond of putting windows in a brick house. Jess is right, and, you’ll get used to the white.

On my old house the windows I replaced were finished out with sheet rock all the way to the vinyl window (no wood trim) & when I installed to the wall studs it deemed necessary to do sheet rock work also.

[wayno]

The only thing I wonder about is the offset of the windows, when installing the new ones I am unsure if I will have to remove/cut the inside boards all around, I do not think there will be a gap looking at them.

My sliding glass door in the back slipped into position easily with zero gap, but in hindsight I should have lowered it almost 2 inches as it sticks up that far, my other sliding door base did not stick up like this one does, I am pretty sure I can lower it, but it is so heavy that I am just not interested in messing with it right now.

[DRIVEN]

I replaced single pane aluminum with double pane vinyl. They were thicker to the outside as well as inside. I removed the interior flat casing in one piece, as a box, and ran then through a table saw on all 4 sides -- if that makes sense. Then I nailed them back in place with shims to center everything. Sorry, I don't have pics to post. You'll get it figured out.

[wayno]

I did not know one could remove the inner boards as one piece, I figured they would need to be removed one piece at a time, and if I do need to remove them I am considering getting a planer and taking the white paint off, the former owner painted half the trim in the house white, what a stupid idea, but that is my opinion, that would mean all the trim would need to be replaced also, I will think about that some more.

When I put raw Oak hardwood floors in back in 2004ish I made one mistake, I removed all the particle board under the carpet/linoleum in the whole house, I should have laid out a layer of some kind of wood before installing the Oak flooring, all my doors have a significant gap between the flooring and the bottom of the door, I am not sure if I would have been able to afford that back then though, now if I want to go back to wood color, I would need to replace all the white doors/trim also, I have the money right now, but am not motivated enough yet.

[wayno]

Do any of you guys here have solar panels of any type?

I finally got my coffee table train working good, I bought another locomotive, the same day one of my small locomotives burnt up, so what I planned with them 2 small black locomotives I run in tandem is not likely going to be, I will think about that some more, they are really cheap on Ebay. I could buy one or two more for less than a $100.00 each, the last one was $85.00 but it was the one that died/smoked, I ran them in tandem to get thru dead spots that one would not get thru by itself, the drive wheels are too close together, but with two of them the one behind would push the one ahead thru, and once the front was thru it would pull the one behind thru, the larger/longer locomotives would not have such a hard time getting thru the dead spot, the small locomotives had to be really moving by themselves, but with two only medium speed worked, now the locomotive crawls thru, and the green one also crawls thru just ever so slightly faster.

I have been working on all the dead spots and am down to one now, that spot is the crossing made by Atlas, it appears that there are high spots in the crossing that lift my locomotives off the tracks and they lose power, I have been cutting/grinding/sanding for a while now and made it better, but I would still have derailing's, the thing about crossings is I am supposed to have straight track/pieces(190mm??) away from the track crossing connections so the locomotive pulls the cars behind it straight thru, the crossing I added was in the middle of a straight section, but the crossing I added has curved pieces before and after the crossing, what is hilarious is the straight track area is what I have most the issues with, last night Amtrack type cars that carry people kept derailing at any speed on the curved crossing, once the locomotive crossed and started turning it would pull the front of the very long car behind it sideways and pull it off the track, but it would also jump too, so I finally grabbed a car and rolled it over the area with my finger and found what was making it jump, I was reluctant to remove the plastic causing this issue, but it was one of the things causing issues with the straight section also, once removed I was looking at a significant gap now(cause of my reluctance to remove it), I ran a couple of my pretty long cars behind the locomotive and it went thru glass smooth, so then I added all the long cars and the short one and it still went thru glass smooth, so then I put the shorter baggage car behind the locomotive where the picture was on box showed it, and going around the curve pulled it off the track, the baggage car can go anywhere but what it shows on the box, otherwise when I removed that piece from the crossing it also made the straight section a lot smoother also, good enough to let me run that locomotive at a crawl also, it still has the slightest hesitation but the locomotive does not stop unless I am running it really slow, the new locomotive will crawl thru at any speed without hesitation, that crossing has had the shit modified out of it, I used a track saw to make grooves deeper both ways, sanded on it and now have removed a piece of it, I am lucky it works at all, this is a photo of the crossing.





Someday I will get this good enough to where I can put the glass in position in the coffee table and not worry about wrecks/derailments, but that is far off into the future, I still need to paint and start on the scenery/trees/ect.

[DRIVEN]

I have the folding portable style. I haven't ever used them though. I bought them to use with a solar generator.

[wayno]

I have the folding portable style. I haven't ever used them though. I bought them to use with a solar generator.

Well I am thinking about solar panels now also.

I also looked at my rear sliding glass door this afternoon, I might deal with that before starting on the front windows, it is starting to warm up here, it is supposed to be near 70 degrees late next week.

[wayno]

I did all my measuring and somehow it was wrong, and I was not paying attention and got it halfway installed before I realized it was not low enough, so I had to remove it again and start over, but the hard part was already done(cutting the wood away on the bottom), the door is now about a 1/16" above the floor and it works properly, I may redo the trim, but what I have works for me right now.

Next is the front windows as it is warming up, I did not re-hurt either of my shoulders today, my left has been bothering me for months and felt better the last week, I worry now as that door is heavy, if it does not bother me tonight when I go to bed, I will be very happy, I like my sleep.

[wayno]

I came across these pavers for cheap, so I bought them, it should be enough to finish what I have started, they are not the same but I myself don't care, 706 6"X9" pavers(see photos) for $125.00 and they have helped me load them, 2 trips so far, about 350 pavers(likely close to 4200lbs), each row has 300 pavers in it.

[DRIVEN]

I've got a big stack of keystone papers and border bricks that I haven't figured out where to use. That's a lot of work, but the price was right. Should be nice when you get it all finished.