Spring Sprung
This weekend the sunny skies hinted of spring and temperatures up to 60 degrees teased all of us for a while.
Sure, we’ll have plenty of wet weather to come, but everyone up and down the street looked for excuses to work outside–me included.On Friday I tackled two primary jobs: installation of the ductless heat pump and removal of the teardown debris from the slab. Friday I carted load after load of messy bits and pieces to the dump piles in the front yard. You didn’t have to look far past the dump piles to see Spring waving, “Hi, I’m here!” As I mentally welcomed the sun and spring blossoms, I had to say a goodbye to dear little Wally.
Wally was an unfortunate creature. At some point when the addition was first built years ago, Wally was a rat encased inside one of the walls. The little mummified guy got his first glimpse of sun in decades as I carried him and other debris to the front yard. I wondered if he passed while waiting for Home Depot online to deliver a tiny door to let him out of the wall.
Troy was once again my right-hand man armed with drywall saw and battery operated impact screwdriver. He got the mounting plate fully installed where I wanted it for the heat pump and we worked together on either side of the wall to feed the lines through from the inside to the outside parts of the unit. On Wednesday at noon the Master Installer comes out to verify the work, charge the lines and fire up the unit. I am SO looking forward to that.
Troy’s next big undertaking will be jack hammering up the foundation. He has a new-to-him jack hammer.
When you talk with him about it, he gets that certain sparkle in his eyes. Yes, he’s a man with a new power tool. Tim Taylor would be so proud.
I covered some other ventures on the weekend. I began pulling nails from and cutting the boards for my raised bed gardens. I’m using wood that was formerly the siding inside the room we just tore down. I now have the nails out and one end of every board cut at a 45 degree bevel. Next I’ll measure them up and cut the other ends. I got more junk put away and hung a window treatment over the newly installed bedroom door. On Sunday my lawnmower came back home so I mowed the 8-inch deep grass. That took quite awhile! And on Sunday, I relocated Lucile along with half of the front garden that will be in the way of the new foundation and wall once built. Lucile, by the way, was the sweet aged lavender bush.They don’t typically transplant well. It broke my heart to dig her up and replant her, but if I didn’t, Troy would have and I doubt he would have been gentle with her.
