Merry Christmas | 2009

Tomorrow is Christmas but I took advantage of my day off today to make a trip to the dump. Yep that's right I went to the dump on Christmas Eve day. Actually I was going to go by the Cottage Garden next door to the Blue Myrtle House and get a last minute Christmas gift. They weren't open yet so I decided to take the trailer Todd and I filled up on Saturday and empty it. The dump was only open a half day so I had to get there by noon. Since I've mentioned the dump so many times I figured I'd put a picture of it on for you. I took it with my phone so it's not that great.

From December 2009

Rain Forecasted

The weatherman said it was going to storm this afternoon and by all indications it looked like he was going to be right. I left the Blue Myrtle House in a mess on Saturday and the trailer was uncovered too. I took off from work early so I could clean up the debris and cover the trailer before the rain got here. I stopped by home to change clothes, while there Todd offered to help me with the work I needed to do on Myrtle. We picked up all the debris from Saturday and tossed it into the trailer. We filled the trailer then covered it. It took us about an hour to get everything done. It started to rain just as we were leaving.

Almost Topless

The entire roof is nearly off. I worked most of the day clearing debris from the second level. It sure piles up fast. I cleaned up the alley side of the house. I didn't mention in the last post about the big sewer pipe we pulled off the side of the house. There are, or were 2 big sewer pipes that ran/run up the side of the house. The only thing holding one of the pipes in place was the hole it was fished through in the roof. One still remains and is actually attached to the side of the house. You can kinda see the big pipes going up the side of the house in the picture below, click on it to enlarge. I don't know what they are made of but they are very heavy. Mark held the pipe in place and tied a rope around the top. I went to the ground and pulled the rope in the direction we wanted the pipe to fall. Had it fell on its own it would have probably smashed the white picket fence along the alley.

Today I freed the last remaining portion of the roof from the top plates of the walls. This was another great video moment missed. When I cut the last remaining support it came down with a crash within the interior of the house. Man was it loud! I'm pleasantly surprised how sturdy this house is considering its condition. After I pulled off the metal sheathing, old asphalt shingles, and most of the planks from the fallen section I called it quits. I can't remember if I mentioned there was a layer of asphalt shingles under the metal sheathing or not in a previous post. It's actually rolled asphalt and it is very dried out and crumbly. What you see me covered in is that stuff. It's a good thing it doesn't snow here or else this roof woulda collapsed under the weight years ago.

From June 2009

I Like Hanes

7:00am
Today I got started pretty early. I dropped Todd and Alec off at school and then drove straight to the Myrtle House. Mark said he would meet me at 9am to start work, so I decided to make a quick trip to the dump. Have I told you how much I love going to the dump aka landfill? The trailer was filled up and ready to go. The landfill opened at 7:30. I got there about 8:00. Mark texted me just as I chucked the last board off the trailer. He was just letting me know he was on schedule and wanted to know if I was too.

9:00am
Mark jumped right into it. He had no hesitation about getting up on the roof. Unlike myself who was more cautious he began pushin' and pullin' on the rafters to get a feel for how sturdy they were. I didn't have a problem with the pushin' and pullin', I got a little nervous cause he was doing it while standing on them. After about the 4th time of tugging on the rafters I told him I like Hanes. He gave me a funny look. I explained to him if he keeps it up I'm going to need some new undies for Christmas! If you've read my previous posts you'll know how much I'm NOT enjoying taking the roof off.

11:30am
Mark had to leave for his real job. We actually got a lot done in 2 1/2 hours. We didn't get the entire roof off, but we got it to the point that I can handle the rest of it by myself. I spent the rest of the day taking off a little more of the roof and filling up the trailer with blue myrtle debris.

3:00pm
Alec called needing a ride home from school. I told him he was going to have to walk cause I was not at a good stopping point. I told him I'd be done in about 45 minutes.

One of the neighbors stopped by. Ryan from down the street introduced himself. He told me he was an electrician by trade and offered his services. I told him I probably wouldn't be needing any electrical work til spring. He said he'd bring one of his biz cards back and asked if I'd keep him in mind.

I Hear Music

I could hear band music in the distance just as I started to climb up on the roof today. I looked around but couldn't see where it was coming from exactly. It sounded like it was coming from the downtown area a few blocks away. I figured it was some preparation for a Glendale Glitters event later tonight. After a few minutes the music started to get louder so I stopped what I was doing and moved around to the side of the house where I could get a better look. That's when noticed a couple of motorcycle cops driving up 58th Ave. They stopped the cross traffic on Myrtle Ave to make way for a parade. I'm not sure what the theme of the parade was, but there were a lot of people marching, dancing, and a few floats. It lasted about 20 minutes. Dang, I had a whole street full of potential customers! I gotta get this biz open asap.

Anyway, I worked on the roof for a few hours today. I didn't make too much progress. The front part of the roof was proving to be a little more difficult than the back. I was by myself and didn't want to take any chances with major demolishing. It was time to bring in the big guns, so I called Mark. He said he could make it by Monday morning to give me a hand. I finished the day filling up the trailer with blue myrtle debris.

Back Roof Off

I worked for nearly 9 hours non-stop today. Todd came down after lunch to give me a hand. We got the roof on the back of the house down. We missed two great video moments. The first was when we collapsed one side of the roof onto the top-plates of the second floor. That was a fairly big crash. The second was when I pushed a large portion of the roof off the back of the house. That was pretty loud when it hit the ground. Carol from next door yelled at me through the oleanders calling me a crazy man. She's right about that!

Dump Count

Since May I've been to the dump at least 8 times. I like going to the dump and all, but it's getting a little old even for me. I figured I could cut down on the number of trips if I had a bigger trailer. So I made my trailer bigger.