garage sales and patio stuff.

So we've hit up a few garage sales here and there this year, but today was the official kickoff of the season with the annual Lakeland Hills community sale. Community sales are the best cos you can hit lots of houses with minimal effort. Too many in this community in fact. But it was a rocking good day - sunny and sixties and unexpected (was supposed to be rain) and quite literally one of the first sales we drove up to (glad I took Stuart!) I got a pressure washer for $20 and an 8' Werner fiberglass ladder for $5 (we later saw that same ladder today at a store for $100) -

Sweet. And another $5 burr grinder -

Awesome. Some more speakers for $5, a 24-hub switch for $2 (though not gigabit, but thanks to Leopard's crap nonsense I'm stuck in 100x speeds until I likely downgrade all of our Macs back to Tiger - quickly becoming IMO the last great Mac OS but I digress ... ) and some other stuff.

We had Stuart properly filled - we hit up the new Pick Quick location for lunch before trucking it back home.

And then I got to work in the garage putting together a quick mockup of my new patio cover design. After finding a lumber outlet in Tacoma (Trevor got all the lumber for his fence there last year) that sells cedar for the same price as crap treated stuff, I moved to an all-cedar design. And because I can't get über-cheap cedar in lots of dimensions (and to keep this from being über-expensive) I had to redesign my plan a bit. I knew I would. It's what I do.

So in keeping with my fondness for multiple depths to designs, I am using 4x4 cedar posts for the six vertical supports I'll pour cement footing for and then tacking on 1x6s (that I'm ripping an inch off so they only stick out 1/2" from each side of the 4x4) to give the posts some dimension.

But backing up some - I also found a guy here in town that sells cedar directly from a mill out of his driveway so I hit him up for some samples more or less on a handshake that I'd be back for more. He had the 1x6s and 2x4s which I am thinking of using for the overhead beams. So I cut and ripped this stuff down today and put it together.

First had to cut the notch for where the 4x4s will cross each other - took a circ saw set to a depth of 1-3/4" (half the depth of a 4x4) and hacked across each 4x4 with cuts set about 3/4" apart (the width of my chisel - which I've since bought a wider one) by just moving my trusty speed square I was using as a guide -

Then it was a simple matter of chiseling out the scraps -

times two and - wallah - intersecting 4x4s -

Then I quick tacked on the 1x6 that I had ripped to 1x5 -

and tested out the stain I had leftover from doing the cedar shakes in the porch gable last year (the nice custom mix that the guy at Mclendons made up for me that I'll have to get to mix me up another gallon) -

I'm afraid the dimensions of the wood I'm using are going to yield a patio cover that looks sort of tiny (such as no 4x8s or 4x6s - of which that one I was using as a sample had lots of) and only 2x4s as the cross beams (instead of 4x6s) - which is why I wanted to put together this little mockup - to check the scale of it in real-life as opposed to the sketches I have worked up.

But - those larger dimensions would probably make this patio cover exponentially more expensive (like that guy could order me 2x4x16s from the mill but the price goes from $4 for a 2x4x8 to $1.50/lin ft or $24 vs. $8 for two 8-foot sections connected in the middle multiplied by sixteen which is how many cross beams I have designed to use). And 4x6 or 4x8 cedar posts would probably be quite expensive as well - and not sure where I'd find them.

And - as I am now - keeping in mind the fact I am going to be moving at some point in the relatively near future ... no sense in going overboard. Spending the money instead on some nice patio furniture and a gas heater that I can take with me to my next house ... and hoping it'll look good anyway with the garage finished, some Christmas lights looped around it and hanging out on warm summer evenings.

Time to buy some lumber.

patio.

So we had our first really nice weather weekend these last two days and that, well, makes me want to work on stuff outside. So yeah - the bathroom sits, still mostly gutted, waiting for ... I'm not sure what.

But now - like I was out of nowhere completely random about building new stair railings and the subsequent complete painting of my house - I am motivated on something just as ridiculous ... putting in the back patio and then - building a patio cover over it.

I know - I should be doing a lot of other things. The garage overhaul will also for-sure come this summer. But during the month of May I'm now thinking I will spend it finishing the backyard landscaping and, well, putting in a patio and such.

So once I put in the two front sidewalks using a combination of 6x6 and 6x9 cement pavers, I realized it (like most - er, all - of this remodeling business) ain't rocket science and decided at once to use the same pavers for the patio I've been planning for something like four years = since I had the yard tore out, regraded and planted anew. Which is just to say at that time I measured out the 12x20' space that would become the patio and didn't plant any seeds so ... it turned into a 12x20' weed garden. Good times.

But that just say I've had this plan for a while now and it's time to act on it. Building the patio will be easy, if not a bit back-breaking but hopefully all-in-all not terrible. It'll take a truckload (or two) of sand from the landscaping place I pick up my mulch and now stones. And a truckload (or two) of pavers from the Depot (haven't been able to find them anywhere else). Removing a lot of weeds and leveling the whole two-hundred-and-forty square feet before dumping in the sand. Tamping it all down then starting to insert the pavers. One. At. A. Time.

It'll be tons of fun, but it'll look nice (hopefully) when it's done. Then the real fun will start ... building a patio cover.

Luckily - like the space - I've had a plan in mind for years based off this random structure in the middle of a parking lot at a nearby elementary school. Yeah, I have no idea why it's there but the first time I saw it I remember thinking 'that would make a cool patio cover.' And so today I biked over there with my camera to take some detailed photos of how it was put together, then with a tape measure and some graph paper to sketch out all the measurements and dimensions so I could figure out how much lumber I would need.

Yikes - that's a lot of lumber ... must find a place to get cheap - ideally recycled - lumber.

And a couple notes to self -

- run an electrical conduit from the garage to one of the posts and put in a double-gang outlet - for Christmas lights, the charcoal lighter and the iPod dock or something

- build the plans from knockoffwood for the chaise lounges

- incorporate a clothesline on the patio cover
- put in a fruit/vegetable garden in the strip between the patio and the garage