Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Building a garage-apartment with a pond view

lookin good just lurkin around

OK, I think we have a grip on the stairway dilemna...

As goes so many things in my DIY life, our stairway has forced me to live up to my motto: It ain't done right until it's done twice. As of right now, I think it is finally done right...or at least as close to right as I can get it.
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We completely disassembled it, altered pretty much all the dimensions, and reassembled.
This was the original issue:

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removing one step at the top of the lower staircase and dropping the landing to meet it yields the cure:
(or maybe wearing red makes one look shorter)

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The landing wound up being 42" square...not too bad. The lower treads are still pretty wide at 41" and the upper treads will be 38" wide. It think we're good to go.

[color:#003300] SHOW ME DA MONEY! [/color]
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Saturday was good weather, so we set our sights on the last 3 windows...the star players. Between setting up the ladders and scaffold stuff, moving it from window to window, and wrestling with 5 ft square slider window units, it took us all day. It was worth it.
(Unfortunately, since Saturday ran on for so long, we were unable to get pics until Sunday...the rain day)

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From the moment that I put the knife thru the housewrap and cut open the first window opening, I felt a new rush of inspiration. This was it; what all the work we put out was leading up to.
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inside, 1100 square feet of blank canvas
outside...

The house looks great, but the view is fantastic.

That is really exceptional and would be a dream come true for anyone! "Exceptional" is not even a good enough word. I'm speechless.

Somehow I am thinking this lil garage apt. will be a sufficient paradise for the 2 o' youse. As always, 1st class. Tell Donnaski, the burgermeister is most impressed.

Brettski. That view will never get old. You will be sitting there by the window looking out and the recurring thought will come and you will say "Man are we ever lucky" (It happens to me all the time)

Nice work

Great view Bski you did good.

Beautiful view Brettski. Will the details of the install be forthcoming?

Awesome!!!

Your view speaks for itself. And, to me, one of the amazing parts of your entire LNP story is that you created all of this where there was nothing but woods before.

Looking pretty dang awesome Brettski!

Awe inspiring view especially in the vid. Well done !!!! I have been waiting for that post by you. Thanks.

I recall this post way back among the many by your PB friends. Your early plan did have them anyway.

ewest
Lunker


Registered: March 08, 2005
Posts: 10006
Loc: Miss.
The more windows toward the pond the better. Air flow through the place when windows open. Sun and predominant wind directions. Trees nearby and shade. Easy access to the pond from the house. Just a few thoughts.
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BTW very nice looking water in the lake.

Sweet!

SUPERB !!! Tom (Note sig line)

Nice 3 day weekend. It was a small bundle of misc projects.
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We keep a small (tiny) tree nursery in our backyard at home. More like a garden; maybe 15' x 25'. It's fenced off with 4' chicken wire, mostly to ward off the rabbits. I buy the mail order bundles of seedlings for next to nothing and grow 'em out for transplant. 2 springs ago, we plugged in 25 river birch seedlings. I should'a plucked em' last spring after 1 year's worth of growth, but the LNP project won all my attention. Waiting one more year until this spring wasn't my best decision. Removing them was a bear. In fact, I had to leave 3 of them in cuz the taproot was too large and strong. In the 2 years that they were in our nursery, they went from a bundle of 25 sticks that I could hold in my fist to small trees with trunks that went from 3/4" - 2" in diameter. The 2-inchers found a permanent home within the nursery. The rest of 'em got bull'ed outta the ground with a shovel, wrapped in burlap, and transported to the pond project.
We created 4 clumps to separate the gar/apt from a picnic area. They got chicken wire protection, since the rabbbits are the least of my worries in the land of white tails.
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Each clump follows a run-off line created by 2 slopes that converge right where they are plugged in. We hope/expect that they will grow like weeds....assuming the deer don't mow 'em down first. The various crappy pole timber behind them are marked for removal by the backhoe when my excavator returns for the next set of excavation projects.
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We got an aluminum storm door installed. This project moved up the priority list quickly after seeing the amount of rain water that splashes up after falling from the short gambrel roof eave. Then...the stairs...they're finally done....kind of. We ran over to Menards and grabbed a gallon of porch/floor paint and Dski put the roller and brush to work while I goofed around running a couple more electrical circuits. I say "kinda done" cuz I'm holding back on handrails to facilitate movement of larger, clumsier objects upstairs. Also, I have to decide how serious I need to get with filling in the backs of the risers to meet the "four inch maximum gap" code.

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The siding and trim are due in this week. I have mixed emotions on that one. I'm excited cuz it is a really big step and I'm carrying high hopes that it will look great. But...by the same token, I am not looking forward to having to frame in 20 windows (11 of them at the 2nd floor) and installing 20 square of lap siding. Oh yeah...and the vinyl soffits and fascia, too.

Brettski,

Ever try roottrapper bags for growing out the trees? Suppose to create a great root system and make removal from the ground much easy.

Nice work. One thought on the trees. Consider not taking out all the trees in the pic behind the birch trees. You will want a couple of them ( hardwood with large potential or other you like)for shade .

We took advantage of a decent weather forecast and played out a 3 day weekend. Saturday was 7 am at the siding distributor with a loaded truck and an empty trailer. We were unable to take the entire load due to the overall bulk. Fortunately, the material was loaded in such a way to allow us to take all the trim pieces and 1/2 the lap siding. This, along with a bunch of caulk and some touch up paint, made the trip to LNP.

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We spent all day Saturday "getting ready". Our late start along with having to unload the trailer (to free it up for siding load #2) and other various preparation jobs pretty much killed the day. Sunday and Monday are reserved for production. Yeah...production.
Well, this is the first time I have worked with lap siding. It showed as we plodded along...a mistake here, a lousy measurement there. But, in the end, it came together pretty well.
We elected to go with the Louisiana Pacific Smartside product. This, combined with paying for the the best pre-finish we could find, pretty much broke the piggy bank. The payback...instant gratification.

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It's slow and arduous work, mostly because of windows and doors. Add in the fact that we are working with ladders about 1/2 way up and...well...we did the best/most we could.

Oh yeah...a question for y'all....
In the beginning, the plan was to trim out all the windows with white PVC; mostly for the low maint and long life. That plan changed after I discovered the cost. Also, the PVC really expands and contracts with the temp swings. This pushed us to trim out the windows with the LP smartside (as seen at the window in the pic above).
Anyway...the question: We had already laid in the garage doors with the white PVC brick mould and trim. Should we leave it alone...or paint it to match the window trim? If "yes; paint it", then how much? The brick mould? The brick mould and the casing trim? Or, the the brick mould, casing trim, AND the entire door?

That looks really good Brett. The finish in the picture looks just like red cedar after it has weathered for about a year or so.

I would leave as is. It matches the window.

Very nice look BTW.

I say leave it as is also. While it doesn't exactly match the window, it's really not that big of a difference, and unless you know what you're looking for, it doesn't show up as an "oops".

I'd be more concerned about paint peeling off of the PVC trim, or not getting the color the same as the other trim.

That'll really, really look good when it's all installed!

+1. It looks great the way it is.

I really like the looks of that siding Brettski, actually the overall place is looking fantastic!

after we priced out "fake trim" i went with regular old pre-primed spruce for all window and door trims. personally i like the white against the wood. in fact i'd a probably trimmed the windows in white too.

lookin great b'ski...

looks great. I wouldn't have noticed anything unless you brought it up. I would leave it. It matches the windows just fine.