In the garden, and RAIN!!!!
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1005090
PAGE 489 of 1154
Another sunny day here where I am. Out to do things.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Hi Brenda!
Originally posted by Brenda:
Well, I went and bought a small laundry hamper and turned it upside down to use as a writing table of sorts. Still not really high enough, so might have to get something else to add to it.
IDK how expensive or cheap this kind of thing might be, but have you considered ordering something like this?
If you want to do some internet checking, after looking around a bit, the name for this category of furniture is called
drop front desk
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Sounds like you're making excellent progress, SIX!
Just OOC, what do you intend to do with the sunken part of your foundation, if that's what's going on? I'm sure you don't want to take that portion all apart, re-pour the footer and rebuilt the block wall. Or maybe you do? Or is there a simpler fix to raise the foundation so your sill plate is even?
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Happy sunshine day, BRENDA!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Those aren't cheap, even on the low end (around $200 at Walmart and Target). And that one looks to be at least middlingly fancy with quality wood.
If a laundry hamper is what you're trying to use right now Brenda, you could probably find a bar stool at the local goodwill for under 5 bucks.
I'm assuming it's not just the cost that is prohibiting you from getting a proper piece of furniture, but also the ease of being able to bring something home with you as well. A bar stool is lightweight and easy to move around.
You could even get a small piece of plywood cheap and bring that home with you and either drill or glue that to the top of the bar stool. If it has padding, just remove that to affix it to the bare wood.
And if it turns out to be too high for you, all you need to do is saw off the four legs to the length you want it.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
That's a sweet-looking desk, KIKI. If I didn't have a houseful of furniture... some of which I'd like to get rid of... I'd get one!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Sounds like you're making excellent progress, SIX!
Finally getting around to important things instead of doing arts and crafts projects.
Quote:
Just OOC, what do you intend to do with the sunken part of your foundation, if that's what's going on? I'm sure you don't want to take that portion all apart, re-pour the footer and rebuilt the block wall. Or maybe you do? Or is there a simpler fix to raise the foundation so your sill plate is even?
It's not the foundation that sunk. It's a concrete slab porch in the front of the house that goes out about 5 feet from the front door, and 21 feet wide. The overhang extends 4 feet from the siding (3 feet more than the roof overhang on the rest of the front of the house) and is around 20 feet wide... about 19.5 feet wide from column center to column center.
I'm thinking this has probably gone on for many years and had never been addressed, possibly before I even moved in. I know the gutters didn't help, and other things like the ants and moles probably contributed to it. I think putting that blower in the window of the overhang on a heavy wooden table and having that rattle around 12 hours a day all summer last year didn't help... in fact, I didn't get any drywall cracking in the attic until after I was doing that.
Just as I suspected after opening things up, the columns were never supporting any weight to begin with. They were simply decoration. Decoration that was bolted to the slab, and then further bolted into the frame of the overhang. As the slab sunk, it was pulling the overhang down with it, and that was messing up my entire roof.
How did I verify that? Well it did exactly what I thought it would do and my pole jacks that were up tight became loose as I unscrewed the 3 heavy duty hex screws out of the header that went through the columns. I had to continually stop unscrewing that so I could lift my jacks up tight again.
All in all, the overhang went up about a full inch without any help from the jacks.
I'm going to wait a few more days before I jack them up any further. This process will be slow since you don't want to rush it and break stuff. It's hot and humid out, so this is the best time of year to be doing this, but slow and steady wins the race. I can't say for sure how much it needs to be jacked up, but it's got to be at least level. Otherwise the gutters won't work in the front after they're installed on the sides that go out perpendicular to the front door. I might even choose just to put them just a tad higher than level just to slightly future proof any further sinking of the porch slab.
In the mean time, I've got to consider how I'm going to put it back together. I'd like to get more substantial columns for one, since they actually will be supporting weight this time. I want to do a better job of waterproofing them too, since even with the gutters installed they will get wet toward the ground, and ants are not afraid of tearing into green wood that will eventually rot if exposed to water all of the time. I'd also like to put everything back together so it's an easy task to get back in there instead of a 2 day project that requires extra care not to damage things you want to reuse.
My foundational issues are in the back of the house. There is a broken patch under the bathroom window that's just letting water in when we have these heavy rains. That's going right down to the floor and seeping out under the cinderblocks. It's why I had to mop up nearly 200 gallons of water to save the basement that day my brother was here and the city sewers weren't working.
90% of that should be remedied when the gutters are installed, but if I don't patch that all up properly I'll still get water in the basement even with the gutters if we keep having progressively worse springs like we've hat the last 5 or 6 years.
We've
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Whew!
SIGNYM:
Sounds like you're making excellent progress, SIX!
SIX: Finally getting around to important things instead of doing arts and crafts projects.
SIGNY: Just OOC, what do you intend to do with the sunken part of your foundation, if that's what's going on? I'm sure you don't want to take that portion all apart, re-pour the footer and rebuilt the block wall. Or maybe you do? Or is there a simpler fix to raise the foundation so your sill plate is even?
SIX: It's not the foundation that sunk.
Quote:That may have something to do with that intermittent underground stream that KIKI suggested was running under your home. It CAN move ... and remove ... a fair bit of dirt
It's a concrete slab porch in the front of the house that goes out about 5 feet from the front door, and 21 feet wide. The overhang extends 4 feet from the siding (3 feet more than the roof overhang on the rest of the front of the house) and is around 20 feet wide... about 19.5 feet wide from column center to column center.
I'm thinking this has probably gone on for many years and had never been addressed, possibly before I even moved in.
Quote:So I've heard!
I know the gutters didn't help, and other things like the ants and moles probably contributed to it. I think putting that blower in the window of the overhang on a heavy wooden table and having that rattle around 12 hours a day all summer last year didn't help... in fact, I didn't get any drywall cracking in the attic until after I was doing that.
Just as I suspected after opening things up, the columns were never supporting any weight to begin with. They were simply decoration. Decoration that was bolted to the slab, and then further bolted into the frame of the overhang. As the slab sunk, it was pulling the overhang down with it, and that was messing up my entire roof.
How did I verify that? Well it did exactly what I thought it would do and my pole jacks that were up tight became loose as I unscrewed the 3 heavy duty hex screws out of the header that went through the columns. I had to continually stop unscrewing that so I could lift my jacks up tight again.
All in all, the overhang went up about a full inch without any help from the jacks.
I'm going to wait a few more days before I jack them up any further. This process will be slow since you don't want to rush it and break stuff.
Quote:Gutters need to be angled slightly downward toward the downspouts, correct?
It's hot and humid out, so this is the best time of year to be doing this, but slow and steady wins the race. I can't say for sure how much it needs to be jacked up, but it's got to be at least level. Otherwise the gutters won't work in the front after they're installed on the sides that go out perpendicular to the front door. I might even choose just to put them just a tad higher than level just to slightly future proof any further sinking of the porch slab.
Quote:So basically the answer to the sunken (sinking?) slab is to put in taller columns, right?
In the mean time, I've got to consider how I'm going to put it back together. I'd like to get more substantial columns for one, since they actually will be supporting weight this time. I want to do a better job of waterproofing them too, since even with the gutters installed they will get wet toward the ground, and ants are not afraid of tearing into green wood that will eventually rot if exposed to water all of the time. I'd also like to put everything back together so it's an easy task to get back in there instead of a 2 day project that requires extra care not to damage things you want to reuse.
Quote:
My foundational issues are in the back of the house. There is a broken patch under the bathroom window that's just letting water in when we have these heavy rains. That's going right down to the floor and seeping out under the cinderblocks. It's why I hadNOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I made a few remedial pictures while you were writing that response regarding the overhang issue. Forgive me for making something that looks like a 3rd grader did. I don't have a proper CAD program, and I'd be about 20 years rusty on it if I did.
I think it conveys the point though...
Do Right, Be Right. :)
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Managed to get out my three bins of yardwaste, and dug into the tax statements and banking records to figure out ONE of hubby's retirement fuckups. That one is a simple fix even tho it involved two institutions making several mistakes in a row, it only left a problem on the 1099. Not sure about the other one, but I did manage to explain in detail to the research team what happened with the first problem.
Have been helping hubby sort things and put the garage in order. It's been my mission to sort and label all of his wood screws. machine bolts, eyebolts etc and he has a crap=ton! An 8'X16" shelf-full!
Heard from an ex-colleague of mine that one of the former souce testers has fourth stage pancreatic cancer. That's terrible news. I didn't really like a lot of people that I worked with, I thought most of them were just amoral, but this tester was a real standup kind of guy, and didn't mind crossing TPTB to get things done. I'm trying to write an email to him, but I don't know what to say.
Other than that, I'm just keeping on keeping on. Nothing special or big going on. Need to get my rear in gear on the legal aspects of our daughter's future, and do some concerted work in that direction.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME