0705-power-tool-shelf
The shelves for power tools and fastenners is progressing.

0709-bush-trimming
This is the first iteration of trimming the bushes in the front of the house. I had to wait for birds to fledge in two of the bushes. The last photo is the mess of bushes planted too close to each other on the south side of the house.

0709-office-demo
The office demolition is now done. The desktop is out. It is ready for sheet rock repair (touch up mostly) and painting. Duane and Ed handled that while I continued yard work.

0709-power-tool-shelf
The power tool shelves now has a few of the lower shelves in place.

0711-power-tool-shelf
The power tool and fastenner shelves are now done. They have already proven to be too small. Large boxes of nails and spikes have to find a home somewhere else and the power tools are jammed in place with some on the top of the toolbox shelf.

0713-cd-changer-knobs
The lettering over the CD changer knobs and buttons are small and it is sometimes a little dark in that spot. So I took a photo that I can refer to. This is a used 300 CD changer that I just bought.

0718-phone-pole
Since everyone needs three phone poles in the corner of their yard the power company added another. The other two were lonely. This taller pole was apparently to get the power up higher and keep things safe for the Fidium fiber optic workers with still enough room for cable and POTS (plain old telephone service). The good news is Fidium fiber is coming here .. someday.

0719-blueberries
These are green blueberries. There are a lot of them. Most of them ripenned and I ate plenty of them.

0720-plants
This is another blueberry plant and the bushes by the driveway after some trimming. This was an improvement but some transplanting will be needed since plants are too close to each other.

0723-sailboat-view
Another sailboat went by so I took more photos from the deck outside the kitchen.

0724-thai-stew-ingrediants
This in ingredients for Thai vegetable stew. The balsamic vinegar and coconut oil in the back are not ingredients and are just photobombing the shot.

0728-sailboat-view
Yet another sailboat went by so I have a few more photos from the deck.

0729-magnolia
This is a star magnolia. It grows to be 15 feet in diameter. Being planter 4 feet from the house might be a problem at some point but it is already too big to replant without machinery. For now it will just have to be trimmed a lot each year.

0730-sailboat-view
Another sailboat goes by. This one is way in the distance, likely 4-5 miles away. The little white bump on the water to the right of the boat is a buoy about 5 miles away. It is a clear day for the buoy to be visible with the camera.

0802-chana-masala-ingredients
This is the ingredients for chana masala. Two more cans of chickpeas are needed but not in the photo. Some spinach is added.

0802-top-deck-view
This is the view from the upstairs deck. The cupola is part of my neighbor's house.

0803-back-weeds
Sometimes it is helpful to take before and after photos. This is the back tiny patio by the hot tub. It is completely overgrown with weeds. The vegatable garden was worse but I didn't get a photo before weeding that. I will likely tear this out and make a good sized patio here.

0803-chana-masala
Completed chana masala. All that is needed is a little fresh cilantro, some lime juice, and some nan.

0803-sailboat-view
A sailboat passed close by and I got one photo each from the deck off the kitchen and from the upstairs deck.

0804-bush-progress
The side yard is progressing. The unhappy bush was transplanted from the middle of the mess of too closely planted bushes. Someone had tried to kill it by cutting it down but it regrew. I thought it was a small bush so hacked the roots with the pick and axe finding out that it was more tree like with a 4-5 inch stump with shoots growing from it. I'm not sure what it is but it seems to have survived the move.

0805-bush-progress
At this point I have edged all the way around the side beds to the back and have dug the soil near the edging. I'm still removing excess soil to bring the level of the soil down for water to better flow away from the house. I will then add mulch.

0806-dual-tesla
My neighbor's visiting relative drove their Tesla Model Y up from Maryland realizing on arrival that there were no superchargers nearby. There are four within an hour drive but none in Belfast. So I suggested he charge at my house. I texted a few people that I bought another Tesla and Shannon believed me (the only one).

0806-sailboat-view
And yet another sailboat and set of photos from the deck near the kitchen. Still a little far off and blurry.

0806-tame-doves
There is one young dove in the first photo above the label on the shovel and there are two young dove in the second photo. They are not at all afraid of me. When I got the shovel the dove looked up and when I stepped back continued eating. I rolled the wheelbarrow past the two about 6 feet away four times and they were not concerned about it. Maybe they hatched nearby and are used to me.

0807-office-painted
Things look messy but the painting in the office and the adjacent halway is done. Everything is almost ready for cabinets to go in.

0812-old-deck
These are photos of the front porch and back deck that came with the house. In the full resolution photos the peeling trim paint is clearly visible.

0814-cabinet-boxes
The office cabinets were delivered and placed in the garage. They were well packed but regardless a trim piece got damaged in transit and was later replaced for free.

0814-start-upper-deck
This is the upstairs deck framing after the soft decking was removed. The framing was pressure treated and in good shape. The roof under the deck was also in good shape.

0816-demo-back-deck
This is the first step in removing the old deck. The deck framing was not properly supported and was starting to lean south causing the rail posts to lean and gaps to open up in the mitered outing decking. There was known rot in the inner corner of the house by the hot tub but the extent of the rot was not yet known.

0818-demo-deck-framing
This was the next step in removing the old deck. The lack of support in the inner corner of the deck near the hot tub is evident. The lack of diagonals on the vertical posts led to the leaning of the posts and deck that initially prompted replacement of the framing.

0819-bald-mountain
This was Bald Mountain near Weld and Wilton Maine. The hike is short but steep and the trail was very wet. This was my first hike with my new friend Sandy.

0824-cabinet-install
The cabinets were finally installed in the in-home office. There is no deskto (aka countertop) and there is a support under the desk draweres that needed reinforcement. I had to deal with that myself.

0824-new-upper-deck
This is the second floor deck after replacement. Chris did a gret job and the deck looks great.

0827-smash-footing
This is the first of a few concrete footings that were removed (by me) the old fashioned way with the 20 lb sledge hammer.

0827-tomatoes
I tore the weeds out of the garden that I inherited with the house and much to my surprise there were tomato plants in there and also mint.

0828-landscape-ties
This is the beginning of a project to frame beneath the new deck with landscape ties just to keep the rock in and the mulch in adjacent gardens out. A big problem was the black nylon sheets of under the rock that was intended to keep out weeds but had the opposite effect.

0829-landscape-ties
A little more progress was made on the landscape ties.

0901-landscape-ties
After putting in a few more ties it was time to mark where the septic tank inflow pipe to the house was. The septic guy came over with a metal detector and declared it discovered. I decided it was a good idea to dig and check. Instead of going out the west side of the tank the pipe went out the north side, took and approximate 90 degree turn, and headed west toward the house. This had it pass under the deck about 6 feet away from where it originally was marked. The purpose it to avoid breaking the septic pipe when putting in footings. It was good that I dug and checked.

0902-landscape-ties
The rough shape of the new deck (slightly different than the original) is starting to emerge from the placement of the ties.

0903-landscape-ties
Slightly more progress on the ties and another perspective on the shape of the deck.

0904-hot-tub-weeds
The patio around the hot tub had some prize dandelions. The paving stones set on dirt made the perfect home for weeds. It was impossible to get the full root of the weeds without removing stones and the weeds would just grow back after being pulled.

0905-lumber-rack
This is what a truck is used for. You can't put 16 foot lengths of lumber in the back of an SUV but a lumber rack works fine. The shorter 8'-10' lumber can go in the truck bed. This is also why 6.5 ft or shorter beds are fairly useless.

0905-precipice-map
These are map details for the Precipice Trail in Acadia National Park. Lots of topo lines get crossed in a short distance.

0906-demo-front-deck
The front porch was mostly removed and the scaffolding is to allow painting of the roof trim.

0910-landscape-ties
The landscape ties have mostly taken shape and the task at hand is raking the 3/4 inch stone north, removing the tarp underneath it and moving the stones south, then leveling.

0913-footing-marks
The piles of 3/4 inch stone have been moved south after all the tarp was removed. Leveling the ground and then stone is still needed.

0914-distant-sail
This was an attempt to get a photo of a sailboat passing at a distance from the upper deck but the distance was too great for the resolution of the cell phone camera.

0914-landscape-ties
The 3/4 inch stone is now level and stakes are in place to mark where the footing should go.

0915-footings
The footings are in. They are 7.5 foot poles with a big screw on the bottom that a 6,000 lb machine puts in place. One hit a big rock so sticks up a foot or so. They all need to be cut and a brace added for either a short 6x6 or nominal 6 inch width of framing for the shorter parts of the deck.

0918-new-desk
This is the brace I added to support the deck drawers and then the installed desktop. The braces were two 4.5 in wide by 3/4 inch poplar put in notches made in the cabinet sides with a router. The stone installer said that relying on the countertop to support the drawers might not have worked but this was way more than adequate support.

0920-computer-setup
These photos show how 11 feet of desktop got filled up quickly. Things got more crowded later before some space was freed up.

0923-deck-beams
Back to the deck framing. Framing and a few joists were put in to establish level on the top part of the deck. The second part is a big rectangle about 18" lower that that. This was just prior to investigating the rot in the inner corner of the house.

0924-chana-masala
This is the ingredients for the channa masala slow cooker recipie that I make fairly often.

0926-heron
A very young blue heron decided to land in my front yard just outside the windows. Photos through the screens were not very good but walking outside had him or her walking away.