First, a couple of months ago, I cut down our pear tree. The pears were terrible (although a neighbor who knew the twice-previous owner says they used to be great), and we had to spend the whole late summer and fall picking the damn things up or else the yard smelled like a brewery. The yard looks so much more open now, but we’ll have to get a shade structure for July 4. Unfortunately, while we got rid of the logs (and I kept a big chunk for woodworking someday), we’ve still got a huge pile of sticks and branches in the back driveway waiting for the day we can rent a chipper. Then we have mulch. Lots of mulch.

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Second: for months Jen has been bugging me to put a safety railing around the basement access stairs, so that little girls playing in the back yard wouldn’t risk falling in. I finally had the time and cash to do it. Unfortunately it was pouring rain the whole weekend.

Here’s the original situation, with the chicken wire fence I originally put up as a stopgap a couple of years ago:

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Here’s the materials: two 8′ cedar fence panels and six 8′ pressure treated 2x4s, as well as gate hardware and deck screws. (I love deck screws, especially the ones with the specialty head that doesn’t cam out, and I will never never try to use those zinc-plated Home Depot screws again. Ever.)

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Holes are dug for the fence posts, about 20″ deep.

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The fence is assembled. I was able to do most of this on the shed/workshop floor out of the rain, but of course I mismeasured slightly so I had to go back and re-cut the ~2′ piece that extended the 8′ panel.

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According to Roger Cook, burying a length equal to 1/3 of the fence height should anchor it sufficiently, but I had a bucket full of concrete mix sitting around, so I poured it into the holes.

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And here’s the fence put up, with the holes filled in. It only wiggles a little bit, well within tolerable limits.

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I knew I would have to put the gatepost against the wall instead of suspending it off the end of the fence, but the downspout as built by Bob the Handyman way back when we bought the house was in the way. So I bought some tube and elbows and diverted it.

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And here’s the gatepost, built up out of 2x4s. And that’s where I ran out of time (and energy, having been working out in the rain all weekend).

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The following week, I was able to put up the gate. Unfortunately, the pickets did not fall in a good pattern for the necessary gate width, so I pulled them all off the rails and re-spaced them. Again, Home Depot screws suck, but I happen to have a box of galvanized roofing nails just the right size and used those to put the thing back together. Attaching the hinges and gate hardware was straightforward and easy.

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Last: the next weekend I replaced our faucet. Not only did the old one drip like crazy, but the replacement sprayer leaked whenever the faucet was on, causing a water-hammer-like shudder in the flow. So I looked around Home Depot for a better one, that had a single handle, ceramic cartridge, and pull-out sprayer, at a decent price.

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At first I installed it with the handle to the side like in the show model, but only after it was completely installed did I realize that the faucet was too close to the backsplash to allow for full motion of the handle. I took the whole thing out again and was about to pack it up and exchange it for a different model, when I noticed that there were little alignment flanges on the bottom that allowed for the handle to be in a front position as well as a side position. So I put the whole thing back in again.

Of course I got wet, and my arms got sore from working in gorilla-arm position, and at some point I dropped a screwdriver from arm’s length onto my forehead. Ow.

Next: Even though we’re planning to get rid of the garage, in the short term we want to keep the animals out, so I have to close off the old rotted garage door. I’ve had the composite panels since last summer, but I picked up the 2x4s at the same time as the gate stuff.

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I also got replacement siding to fill in the holes around the new windows and where I closed in the door from Thekla’s bedroom. It doesn’t quite match the 1930(?)-vintage siding on the rest of the house, but at least it won’t be tarpaper. I really want to rip all the siding off the house — vinyl and otherwise — and replace it with Hardiplank, but that’s going to be a long time from now.