It's Not ALL Fun And Games Here

It might seem like I just play in the wilds of Pure Florida during my forced summer unemployment period, but that would be a misconception. Pure Florida HQ has been in a state of remodel for ... I don't know, it seems like forever ... sigh.

This has slowed lately. We see an expensive year coming up with TWO girls in college, so somethings we'd like to do must wait.

The top picture shows an external "pocket" door I am installing in Jr.'s room. Over the past day or two, I've been sanding, staining, finishing, sanding again, and finally finishing this door and some bifold closet doors. This room opens into the kitchen. It used to be a dining room, but we converted it into a groundfloor bedroom.

We chose this type of door to save some floor space, plus the opening had been originally drywalled for no door, so it's not a standard opening.

Having hung it yesterday, I can see I'll have to change that light switch to one of those flatter, rocker types. As it is now, the door will slide past it, but bumps it. In case you were wondering, there is another light switch in this room.

The aluminum track above the door can be hidden with wood trim, but I am undecided if I will bother right now.

It is a boy's room afterall.

Now, this is a problem.

The pipes that ventilate the internal plumbing of Pure Florida HQ each have these collars around them to prevent rain water dribbling down into the house. There are 4 of them and 3 of the 4 look like this after 18 years in the Pure Florida sun.

That big gap is bad,bad, bad.

Of the 4 vent pipes, the one that is still in great condition is the easiest one to get to. (Doesn't that figure?) It's in the shade of two dormers, and apparently that saved it from the sun damage that the other collars suffered.

Since I never hire out work that I can do, I accepted the challenge of this rooftop work.

Plus, as you long time readers know ...

I love my being up on my very long ladder.

The most challenging of the three pipes was located only a few feet below the peak of our steep 9:12 pitch roof. This was a problem even for my very long ladder as it was beyond it's 32 foot reach, plus I needed to match the slope of the roof just to get near the pipe.

I knew what I needed to do, but first I needed to stabilize the very long ladder's base. In the picture above, you can see part of my solution.

There's a 2x4 stake at the foot of the ladder and I've suspended two 7 gallon buckets of water from the bottom set of rungs.

14 gallons of water X 8.5 pounds per gallon = 119 pounds of ballast. What's not shown is that I also ratchet strapped the ladder to a corner porch column.

Then (and this is where you may be shaking your head and muttering "Idiot!" ) I climbed to the top end of the very long ladder, stopped, and using a rope I hauled up a second, smaller extension ladder.

I then ratchet strapped this normal extension ladder to the side of the very long ladder. Even though that would probably have been enough, I want redundancy on a project like this, so I wove the rope back and forth between the two ladders and cinched it tight.

It may look scary, but it was very stable.

The work itself was hot, scratchy, and uncomfortable. To replace one of these collars, you first have to pry loose the shingle overlaps, pry the collar itself loose, and then work it around the pipes and shingles to remove it.

The new one is then slipped over the pipe and back under the shingles with a fresh dose of roofing caulk.

It's not rocket science, the real challenge was getting to it.

That was ladder science.

Of course, I've also been hard at work spoiling Mr. Flounder as he recoups from his recent foot surgery. That's the injured foot he's showing us.

Here you see him lounging in front of the porch fan on his doggy bed that his pal Gloria gave him. He's doing great ... look at that contented smile.

So now you know, it's not all fun and games around here.

It just seems that way while your reading this blog from work.