6.22.2025

Jim started my car work today - first job, replacing the stabilizer bars.  The new one...

However, the old one on the driver's side was almost impossible to get off.  Jim tried all his tricks, but the bolt would not come out...

He was chipping away at the rubber bushing just so that he could get a bite with his wrench...

He took a break and tried the passenger side, and had better luck.  Old one off but you can see how corroded the old bolt is...

He finally had to get his Sawzall out and slowly cut both above and below the bolt to get the old stabilizer off.  Took him over an hour of just cutting.  

He started working on removing the old sway bar connections too - he got one off.  He now has a list of new parts and bolts to research and order tonight!

High 79.3/Low 67.4

6.21..2025

 Jim is going to do my car work over the next couple of days, so this morning he got it up on the lift and the front tires off to scope out the work...

After lunch, it was back out to the shed to work on the other side of the back fascia.  Cutting it to size...

Pre-drilling...

This was a complicated fit on this side, so Jim took off little bits at a time and we tried it out.  Finally got a perfect fit!

This day goes fast, and we're going to be heading to see Mom and go to church.

High 83.4/Low 55.5

6.20.2025

Like much of the eastern part of the country, we're going to be feeling like summer in a few days, with temperatures into the 90s, which isn't a real common occurrence around here.  We'll be thankful for our air conditioning units, I'm sure!

Jim continues to unearth boxes in the auto bay and he took some up to the shattic (the shed attic).  That's working out better than we could have hoped for.  

Then after lunch, he was back up at the shed to continue siding work.  Working on the ledger board flashing to integrate the two pieces at the corner... 

Getting ready to fasten the last piece in place...

He had gotten another piece marked and pre-drilled before I got out, so that went up next...

Getting another piece marked and pre-drilled...

The lower siding pieces are all up!

Next is the fascia board - Jim's cutting it to size...

Marking and then pre-drilling

Putting the fascia piece in place...

Fastening - really looks nice!

Sometimes Mother Nature can seem cruel.  We found multiple holes where a turtle must have laid its eggs and then a fox or something dug them up - you can see shells all over the ground.  

High 74/Low 61.7

6.19.2025

Jim continued to get more things down from our auto bay storage.  Plus, he made a trip to the dump to take all the cardboard packaging from the elliptical.

Outside, Jim finished putting the rest of the fasteners in the siding on this side... 

Then he started dismantling the scaffolding, moving the platforms around to the back...

Look how beautiful - and done! - this side looks!

Now we turn our attention to the back.  Marking the line for the bottom ledger flashing...

Figuring out how to meld these two pieces together at the corner...

Tacking the ledger board in place before nailing it...

Doing some markings to ensure that the center rib will end up at the center of the roof peak...

Punching screw placement marks...

Pre-drilling...

Putting up the first piece in the back...

Getting the next piece ready...

Second piece up...

We stopped at this point.  We had lucked out with the weather, with only one brief pop-up shower while we were working.  Jim finished off the day with trash duty and doing some grass cutting and trimming...

High 88.6/Low 69.6

6.18.2025

Another on/off rainy day, so Jim was back working on attaching hooks to the ceiling to hang our curtain in the shop... 

You can see there are obstacles that Jim has to work around...

This side is all done - looks great!  We're going to wait until we are done organizing to put up the other side.

This is a nasty process, but we are unearthing more stuff.  Like way too many baseball cards.

High 77.4/Low 64.5 - light rain

6.17.2025

A rainy day, so a day to do some organizing.  Jim started working on a plan to stack up our stored items from downstairs...

He's coming up with a plan to install all the hooks to hang our new curtains...

We uncovered this sign and Jim hung it in the stairwell - perfect!

Some of the parts that Jim ordered for my car work have come in, but he's still waiting on others before he can start...

High 64.8/Low 54.9 - light rain all day

6.16.2025

Kyle and Hope came up yesterday for Father's Day, which was so nice.  Kyle was able to help Jim move the dining room table top.  They got it set up in our space in the work shop so we can start organizing.  We went out to The Local and then to see Mom.  I failed miserably to get any good pictures but it was a nice day. 

Today, Jim spent some time cleaning up his tools from the elliptical assembly and he brought up some more boxes for us to go through.

He got all the tools out before lunch and marked and predrilled the next siding piece for the left side.  We got the first one up in place and Jim started attaching.  He really had to scoot behind all the scaffolding to work here.

More fasteners...

Pre-drilling the next piece...

Jim had also cut the final piece of bottom flashing and we got that in place...

The next piece is up and Jim is fastening...

Using the shear to cut the flange off the final piece of siding on this side...

Up and fastening...

Siding is all done on this side!  Jim wanted to get the top section of scaffolding off..

Bringing down the scaffolding...

Next job was to install the soffit vents.  Jim first figured out where he wanted them to go and started drilling with his hole saw...

Hole drilled!

Jim then uses a drum sander bit to get the hole just a bit bigger for the vent...

Putting the vent in...

All the vents are in on this side...

This side is done!

Moving over to the other side to do the vents.  Drilling the hole...

Sanding...

Installing the vent...

Vents all installed on this side as well!

Jim got everything cleaned up and then finished off the day with some lawn mowing.

High 76.7/Low 56.6