McCarthy, Bill and me rode up on Friday morning full of ambition and drive. We stopped at the food store along the way for supplies and made decent time in getting to the house.
During the inspection process (to see exactly what we were facing), we found some other things which needed attention, including a small set of stairs for the garage, as well as a new entry porch to the house. Both of these things needed to be completely demo'd and replaced. On top of that, there were a couple of other items that needed attention, too; removing an old AC unit and replacing the wooden panel that was in the window with it, as well as tightening up the deck on the lake side to make it more sturdy.
The weather wasn't doing us any favors (cold and rain) but we managed to clear the tree as well as demo the parts of the stairs that needed to be removed. From there it was a parts and supplies run to Home Depot...which is an hour away...
On our way back, we stopped at Hawg's Pen for a late lunch (it was about 3 by now), and that wound up setting the pace for the rest of the day. We left there, headed to the house and got things unloaded as best we could. It was getting dark, and was still rainy and cold, so we opted to hang inside for the night (Nelly and Storm arrived about 10).
The next morning the rain had slowed to a steady misty/drizzle and the temps were still pretty chilly. It took us until early afternoon to finish the stairs - something that I'd thought we'd be able to knock out in a couple of hours. Humping the materials up and down the stairs didn't do anything for my mood - I was farkin' miserable. How the hell do people work in this kind of weather?!?
From there it was on to the other projects, a couple more supply runs to Home Depot by Bill and Storm while the rest of us kept at things.
We put in a good solid day's work on Saturday and got a lot accomplished. I'd honestly thought (hoped) that we'd have had everything done by end of day, but we still had to finish up the garage stairs and the entry porch to the house.
Saturday night was much tamer. We were pretty beat and just hung in, watching a couple of movies. Before long, most heads were drooping and it was time for our respective beds.
Sunday brought chilly temps again but no rain or drizzle, which was welcome. The sun had actually broken out as we were cleaning up the night before, and was soon greeting us again this day. By late morning, the last screws were set, and the tools began being put away.
Inside, we did a decent clean on the place, got the laundry and dishes done and hit the road. It'd been a long weekend, we were ready for home.
The cold and wet led me to come down with a cold which I've been fighting all week, but I'm finally feeling better...just in time to head back up there this weekend. I'm heading up from work in about a half hour, McCarthy and Michael will be heading up when they're done with work, and then Steph and Ally will be coming up tomorrow.
The focus will be to pull off the front fascia on the garage above the door. When we arrived last week, we saw that it was rotted, so that has to get opened up so we can see what kind of mess awaits us there. Fingers crossed that it's nothing serious, as that's the main support beam for the front of the garage.
No real miles on the bike lately, but not for lack of want. Hopefully next week - although now that I think of it, I've got Thursday and Friday off for the Olean Regatta. So it appears the mileage will remain low for a while.
"Pics or it didn't happen", right? So here you go...
Staircase fixed...
New stairs for the garage.
New entry porch.
AC and panel removed, new window in its place.
Some carriage bolts, some spacers, and that railing won't budge again.
The best for last; McCarthy in his Sunday best, cooking breakfast for us ungrateful slobs.
That's it for now, Happy Friday.
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