Monthly Archives: May 2011

Concrete Drainage Bandaids

Posted on May 31, 2011 | Leave a comment

As I mentioned in a post last week, there were still some lingering issues with the drainage from the downspout on the back of the house as it transitions from the trench in front of the garage and from there as it tries to make its way out to the alley.

After addressing the first step; the downspout itself; it was time to tackle the area here:

During heavy rain the water found its way under the door and would pool up in the corner, leaving a constantly wet area probably adding to the mosquito population back there.  The first step I took was to pour a tiny stop or curb of sorts in this dead corner to keep the water from collecting there.

You’ll also notice there is some I poured in the trench itself.  As I cleaned out all of the muck that had collected over the years I noticed that there was not even any concrete left here.  I dug down about 6″ and filled in with concrete, trying my best to smooth it out and make it slope with the rest of the trench.

This was sort of phase 1 I guess and I took care of it on Saturday morning.  The next step was to address where the water actually was getting under the door.  I built a form that was as flush as possible with the wall of the garage and the lip of the trench.  On the inside of the garage I let the form sit just a tad bit higher so that the step would eventually have just enough slop that water would run off of it and back into the trench.  To address the water being able to get from the patio trench into the garage trench, I took a piece of leftover corrugated drain pipe and cut it in half.  I made sure it fit snuggly between the two sides of the form.  I figured this way I could pour concrete right over top of it and have a permanent means for the water to be directed into the garage trench.

I got the concrete in by about 11 am Monday…in the oppressive heat.  I needed to get it done though before we got another period of rain or something…or before I lost motivation in general due to what I think is going to be a really really hot summer. 

I pulled the forms off today and here is the final product:

Its not going to win a beauty contest and I’m not quitting my day job, but it should be functional.  I dumped a couple buckets of water through the drain pipe to see how it worked and it seems to be doing its job.

You can see here a little better the half pipe laid into the form.  You also can see as the concrete went down in the form it didn’t settle perfectly so there is a little aggregate showing.  I probably should have paid more attention to tapping the form, but this is only the 2nd or 3rd time I have done this, so hopefully when I get to phase 3 and some other projects, I’ll have a better handle of this.

Now I need to cut down the door a little bit to accomodate for the new height difference.  I also have one more leak/overflow area at the very back of the garage.  The actual trench curb has cracked and is about to fall off right as the water makes its way out of the garage causing the back edge of the garage to semi-flood.  This should just be a simply 4′ x 3″ or so straight line curb to guide the water out of the garage.  I think I can get to that this weekend and thankfully I won’t be working in direct sunlight this time.

As I said before I have just a few more finishing touches out back on the patio and then I can move back to inside projects just in time for summer it seems.

Stay tuned.

P.S. – the transition to the website format is coming along well and I hope to be ready to make the switch in the next week or two.

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Posted in concrete, drainage, patio, rowhouse garage

Patio Updates

Posted on May 25, 2011 | 1 Comment

I had originally intended to post an update a couple days ago, but I was delayed by the possibility of moving the blog to the locustpointrowhouse.com domain I purchased back in January.  Funny thing is, much like every house project, easier said then done.

That said, some time in the coming months, I hope for the Locust Point Rowhouse to be readable in all of its glory on a full blown website where the progress over the last 22 months (wow hard to believe) can be read more efficiently.  I am working with my limited webdesign knowledge and slightly less limited photoshop skills to put together a site that I can transition to in the future.

Anyways, on to the updates.  I rushed all last week and into Saturday to get the bulk of the major final touches done for the weekend.  I got a third coat of paint on the kitchen door and a second on the garage door.  If anyone wants the color, let me know, but it escapes me at the moment.  I know its pretty intense.

The treads got painted a gray color called granite from Behr.  Whats funny is I think that the paint scheme (grey treads and white risers) amplifies the unlevel nature of the steps.  I guess just remember they’re the ancient moldy steps from who knows which decade that cost no more then an hour of my time with the sawzall.  Over all I really like the way they turned out and how the colors contrast.  I am thinking I may paint the window sill the same gray as well.

Oh and it appears as though Huey and his massive underbite agree…

He doesn’t always look like that, but it seems as though most of the time I only get pictures of him panting profusely or with his lip tucked under his big crooked teeth.  As evidenced by this picture:

This leaves the patio in a state of pretty-much-almost-entirely-complete, not unlike many of the other areas of the house.  If anyone is keeping track (I don’t blame you if you aren’t), that leaves the following:

1) Pour concrete curb at garage door
2) Power wash the concrete patio
3) Touch-up a few more areas of brick on the back of the house.
4) Wire up the outdoor speakers
5) Bother Chuckbama until he buys a new grill and “needs” to get rid of the old one.

“What about the window planter box you said you ordered?”

Oh that…yeah it showed up…its 60″ wide alright…but it looked so gigantic under the window that it is now serving as an herb garden along the non fence wall.  More on that when it sneaks its way into a photograph.  I should have known there was trouble when the only vehicle I could get it in to transport it downtown was the jeep.  Regardless it is serving a purpose now and doesn’t look bad.

With the patio done and probably no budget to dream of for the garage until next spring, we turn our attention back to…

Thresholds for the bathrooms:

And the shower door I’ve wanted since the shower was framed:

Oh and the stack of baseboards in the basement to finish various rooms…

More on a multitude of things that need to be finished up soon.  Oh and I got my 40ish yr old AC unit recharged for a second inefficient and expensive season.

Stay tuned.

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Posted in Huey, paint, rowhouse patio, stairs, thresholds

Door Paint and the Return of the Trough

Posted on May 18, 2011 | Leave a comment

Last weekend again fell victim to the weather.  Beth and I got some more plants for the patio and picked out paint for the steps and doors.  I seem to have a habit of picking out obnoxious fire-engine red, but I guess I like it because its bold and not boring.  It always seems like the paint swatch appears darker and less intense then it does when it gets on the door.  The good news is, some how I picked out a shade that is not too far off what the garage door was painted already.  All in all I am happy with how it looks so far after two coats:

As you can see here the steps are primed and ready for the gray paint that was picked out Sunday morning.  It keeps raining so I haven’t had a chance to wipe down the steps, let them dry, and start putting paint on them.  The door atleast is set back a bit and really doesn’t get rained on.  With any luck I can put a 3rd and final coat on before the weekend.    On the right in the dead area between the stairs and the neighbor’s wall, I picked up some 12″ block and made a step like structure to support some more plants.  At the top of the picture you will notice the bottom of the old sanitary pipe on the outside of the house.  If you’ve been reading for a while you’ll remember what a struggle it was for my Dad and I to cut down the 8′ section we did.  Maybe this summer I will get bored/brave enough to try and cut some more of it down.

Appearing again on the list of unfinished items is the area around the stained glass above the door.  It needs a coupe more pieces of trim and some paint.  I hope to take care of that in the near future as I am actually wrapping things up on the patio quicker then expected.

As I have found with almost every project I have gotten into with this house, there is really no clear cut, blanket explanation about how to do things.  When we built the fence, the downspout had to be moved.  It was originally sitting on what was basically the property line.

Problem solved right?  Well its tough to explain…  I know this is not in any way exciting, but I guess on the off chance someone else is dealing with a similar situation, maybe this series of pictures will help in some way. From here, the water goes into a piece of drain pipe and dumps out into a trough in the front of the garage wall:

That trough runs along the garage wall until it gets to the garage door.  At which point we arrive at my next project:

At some point someone decided the garage door wouldn’t close because of the concrete curb.  They broke some of it off.  Now the door closes, but the garage gets wet during a heavy downpour.

Previously I had run pieces of downspout like a game of snake all the way from the wall of the house, down the patio, down the front of the garage wall, under the door and out the back of the garage into the alley.  This all seemed good in theory, but that only got all of the roof water to the alley.  The rest of the water would get trapped either at the door or overflow the trough somewhere in the garage.

Look its even still damp!  What a mess.  You may recall when this area was filled with trash it would over flow.  You may also recall when the house had no working bathroom…well anyways… 

The garage is clearer now.  There is one solitary pile of trash and a rusty old hot water heater begging to be taken to the dump sitting in the middle.  A wooden ramp that my brother some how snuck in there occupies some more space.  Some top secret tools take up some other space.  All in all, a marked improvement of months past.

To quote my friend Chris, “you’ll never get your car in there.”  At this point, hes kind of right.  It looks more like I’m trying to start a BMX shop.  I’ll get to my whole plan for getting a roll up door and building a demising wall, but that’s on the back burner for now.  A cleaner garage for now means that I can do some concrete work to stop the water from getting anywhere but out the back of the house.  I will try and build some forms this weekend and perhaps at least pour a new curb/step for underneath the door.  Aside from the countless interior projects I have left to finish up, I am happy to have gotten the patio 90% complete. 

Its funny that there is even garage talk today as the car is in for major surgery at the moment…but thats whole other money pit story.

I think that is all for now.  Stay tuned.

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Posted in drain, patio, red door, rowhouse garage

A Huge Leap Forward for the Patio

Posted on May 8, 2011 | 5 Comments

In light of the fact that I probably won’t have the energy to post anything after Mother’s day dinner, I wanted to post some of the pictures now.

My Dad and I knocked out the rest of the fence work this morning…and in a shocking 45 minutes or so.  That is lightening fast for projects here at the LocustPointRowhouse.  Please keep in mind the patio still needs to be powerwashed and the stairs and doors be painted among a laundry list of little other things.

First consider we started with this:

And here is as of my stop of work at 3 pm today:

Until I can decide on a decorative way to finish off the top of the fence where the last 6″ or so of the posts stick up, I got some plant hooks from the Depot.  They look good for now I think.  Also you can see that that end table has no top…still trying to decide what to do there.  It either needs to be glass, tile, or maybe I can cut some slats of wood and paint it black to make it look as close to the table and chairs as possible.

This picture sorta shows the window that the 60″ planter will go under.  I hope that gets here soon.

For anyone who hasn’t been following the blog for a long time, this is the door and window that lead to my garage.  The window basket had been waiting to get flowers for almost a year.  The shutters are from Second Chance and the door is the old kitchen door that was on the house when I bought it in 09′.  I think I am going to repaint the garage door and kitchen door a darker shade of red (the kitchen door is currently primer white).

The yellow cushions may not be for everyone, but they came from Ollie’s…and they were dirt cheap.

The as seen on TV gimick Topsy Turvys were meant to go on the brick wall of the house but the brackets I have wouldn’t stay on the wall without pulling off, so for now they will have to stay on the garage wall.  I’m really glad I saved my money and energy not putting up fence on the other wall.  While it would have helped for uniformity, it would have been much more challenging and cost another couple hundred dollars.

As far as the fence goes, because it is pressure treated pine, I need to wait several months for it to dry out.  I think probably some time in the fall it will get stained a color which is to be determined.  I’m happy I was able to still do a design that kept with the horizontally oriented board look like the horizontal fence pictures I posted along the way.  I would also love to have pavers put down, but its just not in the budget this year.

I have a 60″ window box planter on its way to put below the kitchen windows which I hope to receive and install this week. The small end table needs a top of sorts.  I bought it at Second Chance ages ago because it was black metal and matched all of the other furniture.  I still want to do some overhead string lights and get my outdoor speakers wired up, but atleast now there is a place to sit.  Its been a long weekend so enjoy and I hope to follow up this post soon!

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Posted in horizontal fence, planter, rowhouse patio, stain, steps, table

Fence Progress/Teaser

Posted on May 8, 2011 | 2 Comments

I meant to post these yesterday but didn’t get the time to.  I figure they’re still relevant before I hopefully finish up things this morning. A couple areas of the patio have seen some change since I last posted.  I won’t go into complete detail until I get to post pictures of the completed fence and the patio cleaned up but here is what has been happening lately:

I filled in the top half of the old basement door opening with some leftover cedar shingles I had from when I did the garage wall.  I also did a nice and sloppy job filling in the missing bricks.  I think I’ve said this before, but if I lost my job I definitely would never make it as a mason.  Needless to say, its done, the bricks haven’t fallen out, and that masonry paint I’ve been using should cover it nicely.  The shingles have since been caulked and primed.  The good thing about the whole design of the basement fill-in operation is that the floor panel lifts out and the shingles are adhered to a half sheet of plywood screwed to the door frame, so if it ever all had to come out for some reason (I hope not) it would relatively easy.

More importantly…

I know the horizontal boards might not be for everyone, but I like them and they don’t look like mass produced pre-assembled panel.  The boards are staggered and in an interlocking pattern.  At this point I am leaning towards staining them, but I need to get the fence up before I worry about that.  Also if you were being intuitive, they aren’t red cedar or trex…its yellow pine.  Seems to be a theme around here…oh well, it was under $200 for the materials and they boards are going up nicely.  I hope to have another update this evening.

Happy Mother’s day.

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Posted in basement pit, fence, shingles