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Well after a few “yucky” weekends the weather has turned beautiful and sunny. The boys and I got to do a fun project yesterday. My mother in law’s deck only had a railing around it so we were constantly having to watch the boys to keep them from falling 6 feet and goto the ER. Well she managed to salvage 30 1×1’s that we could use for the railing to keep boys and Jack Russell’s from going over the edge. So in trade for building the slats and mounting them Jane and I get a night out without kiddo’s and having to put them to sleep first.

Dad Hard at Work Before After

Of course i had my helpers who played and helped so hard that nobody made it thru the bedtime stories. Thanks ma.

For more pictures and information click here.

Well spring has definitely arrived in eastern NC, and with that the farmers market. Today the boy’s and I will venture downtown to see what kind of local goodies we can gather up while Mom goes out to support the local chapter of Obama for President. Yes we are out and about trying to get voters to exercise their right to choose. While we both support Obama we really just want local folks to get out there and make a difference whether they vote for Obama or Hillary it really doesn’t matter as long as they vote. So please do what your entitled to and get out and vote.

**Remember all of you who live in NC May 6th is Primary day.**

Where I live in Eastern NC we are charged a fee for storm water run-off on our utility bill. It’s usually a $2 to $3 charge per household per month, which means I pay $24 per year to the city utilities to manage my rain water that runs off my property and into the city storm drain. My question is this there are approximately 4,500 houses in the city of Washington, if they all pay $2 that’s $108,000 per year that the city takes in to manage run-off. If the city would sell environmentally friendly rainwater collection units for say $100 each and half the houses purchased them and then instead of the $2 fee they only charged a $1 fee they would still bring in $54,000 in fee’s per year and $225,000 for the rain barrels. looks like a financial win fall to me. So adopting something that is good for the environment would also make more money because the 1st year alone they would bring in approximately $275,000. which is almost as much as 3 years of straight up fee’s and it’s good for the environment, and that’s only counting if each house buys 1 rain barrel most would probably buy more then 1 due to the size of the house.

Food for thought.

At my new job i get to do a lot of things like run cabling and install phone and network connections. Well last week I was doing some cabling work at a construction companies main office. They are doing major renovations and now was the perfect time to get us in and move/install new computer cabling. While I was on-site I got the pleasure of seeing the same Air Compressor and Air tools that I use for my DIY projects in use at a major construction company. Way to go Jane!

Well I finally have a few free minutes to post. The weather here on the weekends has been nasty to say the least. Last weekend alone we saw over 4.5 inches of rain in 48 hours, and until yesterday I was wondering if the sun had gone missing.

The other reason for not posting, is I got a new job so I have been focusing more on my new career then DIY projects. Don’t worry I’ll be doing somethings in the next few weeks and i even have some stories to tell from the job site. I left corporate America to go work for the small business. It’s a breath of fresh air and I hope it never changes.

My good friend Scott has decided to move back to town and has gotten himself a house. It will need some modifications so look forward to interesting little DIY tips and tricks from this DIY Dad.

Details coming soon I can’t type real well.

Updated 3/15/2008:

Well we have been real busy here in playhouse central. The delay in typing lasted about a week and a half after I shot myself in the finger with my finishing nailer.

Update on the playhouse:

It is complete except for the siding. We now have 3 windows a door and shingles on the roof.

I will do a complete wrap up on the playhouse with full photos when I get the time. I start a new job next week so this may be on hold for a while. I’ll try to write more when I can.

Sorry I haven’t had a chance to write all week it’s been a busy week at work. I’ll have more for everybody tomorrow as we ramp up to the final build day of the playhouse. Till then.

Well today was 50 degrees here in Eastern NC, so we got some progress made on the playhouse. I didn’t like the way the roof trusses were sitting so we took all of them down and restarted from scratch. We got the roof system rebuilt and 100% more stable and 90% of the plywood covering on the roof. Next came the 2 gable ends which took up an entire sheet of plywood each.

So as of today we have 2 sides completed and 90% of the roof. Next weekend weather permitting will be finishing up the walls and roof tar paper and shingle as well as windows and doors.

Here’s to hoping we have a good weather weekend, or if we don’t let it be snow and not rain.

Well it’s another gray misty cold weekend here in Eastern NC, that plus i just don’t feel good today so we’ll pick up on the playhouse next weekend. So for this weekend we are gonna stay inside keep dry and warm and watch the NHL All Star game and skills competition from Atlanta on TV. Tim we’ll see if you can actually score tickets and get me some pictures from the game…