Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Razing the Deck

A lot has been going on here lately. I defended my Ph.D. thesis, and will hopefully start a new job in early July - hooray for ending my (very long) stint as a student!!!!! I feel like I have been a student for my whole life... wait, I HAVE been a student for the whole life. I guess it would be an understatement to say that I am ready to be done. 

In house-related news, we had two nice Saturdays in a row, so we've been working hard on a (big!) outdoor project. We tore down the deck!!!!

Here is what we started out with:



As you can see, there is some major wonkiness going on in the floorboard area... which made us VERY nervous whenever we walked on the deck. Upon closer inspection (ie looking under the deck), we found the culprit:


That's right, the deck was literally splitting down the middle. Structural integrity - not so good.  

So, to remedy the problem, we had a deck razing party! (Thanks for your help Mom, Dad, Rozi, & Steve... and yes, Eric did help one of the days, though somehow he didn't end up in any of the pics.)


Railings were first to go, followed by the floorboards, which came off like butter (well, almost) with the help of a 36" FatMax crowbar (no, seriously, that is the name of the crowbar, as evidenced by the huge text of said name emblazoned across the handle). 



Next came the stairs and joists. 


(doesn't my mom look like a monkey in this pic?!? - sorry mom, I had to!)



Almost there!

Meanwhile, my little sis, Rozi, was helping to remove the rocks from around the stump in the front yard. Since then, Eric took an ax to the stump and we leveled it out and added grass seed. Hopefully the grass will fill in quickly. 


Okay, back to the deck. Before we knew it, there was very little left:


Since the deck joists actually protrude out from the house, we sawed them off for now rather than leave gaping holes in the side of the house. They will be removed and the holes filled in before we start building the new deck. There are also 2 more posts that we have yet to be removed from the ground. But, other than that, you might just ask, 'What deck?'. (Okay, the very large pile of used lumber at the side of the house makes that pretty obvious too.)


It is amazing how much more light comes in through the lower bedroom window now that the deck is out of the way. We are in the process of designing the new deck, and allowing light to come through that window is definitely a consideration. It is so exciting to come up with ideas for the new deck - can't wait to see how it turns out!

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

My Rabbit-Proof Garden Gate

I know it has been a while since my last post, but I've finally got my rabbit-proof fence and gate finished and my garden planted! If you remember, in my last post I had built a fence around the garden perimeter, but hadn't yet figured out how I was going to build a gate.

Well... look what I built over Memorial day weekend:


Not bad for a beginner, huh? Here's the how-to...

First, I installed a gate post that the gate would be hooked onto. I measured the height I wanted it to be and added about 8" so that I could put it in a fairly deep hole to keep it nice and sturdy. I used a circular saw cut cut my 2x4 to the desired length. I used untreated wood since I didn't want any chemicals leaching out into my garden and potentially be absorbed into vegetables. It just isn't worth the risk to me. If the gate gets rotten in a couple of years, I'll happily build a new one. Here I've dug a hole and pushed the gate post down into it:


To get it a bit deeper, I used a sledgehammer to really pound it down into the hole:



As you can see, I am a pro sledgehammer-wielder. (Seriously, I only missed hitting the post about 1/2 the times I tried... oh well, it worked anyway!)

Next, I measured the opening I wanted the gate to cover. I used some 1x3" boards I had leftover from my basement renovation project and bought a 1x4" board from Home Depot for the remaining pieces I needed (the lighter colored ones in the picture). I cut the boards to size and used a triangle square tool to make sure the horizontal and vertical pieces were lined up. I put two galvanized nails in each corner to fix the boards together. 



Before going any further, I held the gate piece in the opening to make sure it was going to fit. I made sure to leave a little space on each edge so that it would still fit after I fixed wire fencing material around it. 


I used the same green wire fencing material to wrap around the gate. 


I found these hinges at Home Depot for just a couple dollars. I drilled some small pilot hole on the gate piece and screwed the hinge on in the location I wanted it. Then I lined it up on the gate-post at the height I needed (so that it was high enough that it could swing open but low enough that bunnies couldn't squeeze through the gap). After the first one was in place, the bottom one was easy to line up.



To keep the gate closed, I used a simple hook and eye available from Home Depot, again for just a couple dollars. I screwed it into the gate in the location I wanted and added a loop of wire on the fence side to secure it to. 


I still had some chicken wire fencing protruding from the ground underneath the gate, so I cut another 2x4" piece to create a treshold for my gate. I used a couple of staples to secure the chicken wire to the board. 


Now when I close the gate, it is nice and secure and doesn't have any gaps large enough to allow rabbits to get through!!


Here is what the garden looked like after building the gate:


All ready for planting! I was really excited to transplant the vegetable and herb plants that I started from seed a couple of months ago:




I hope they grow quickly in their new home :) 
Can't wait to harvest some home-grown produce!!