OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

We're all hoping that my neighbor resigns his miserable existence here and just moves away.

OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

You betcha. It's the second easiest way to vent an island. The easiest way is with air admittance valve. However, they can make sucking sounds and go bad and need replacing.
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There's no lack of cleanouts in my system. Almost too many, but there's no such thing. I'm prepared to never use them.
The drywall was finished over the weekend. It looks fantastic. [quoted image]
The beam that you see in the middle of the ceiling is the LVL sandwich. The ceiling height on either side differs by an inch or so. I'll end up boxing that out with wood to make it look like a full wooden beam and then you likely wouldn't notice the ceiling height difference.
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OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

Ah... And this is why he asked me what the depth of my sink would be when he was installing it.[quoted image]

OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

And then this just slapped up in the face this morning. I had taken most of the film off the windows yesterday. Everything is so bright from the morning sun. That was the plan, but it was nice to actually see the plan become reality. No wonder my neighbor is pissed. I have a fantastic backyard.
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OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

Minor update.
Primed, ceiling painted, and lights installed. This is the I need light mode. I'm doing things in this room and I want to see everything. It's bright, but that's how it's supposed to be. Later, when the pendants, under cabinet lighting and table light are installed, you get the ambiance lighting. Looks good but not too bright. I can always throw a dimmer on these.
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OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

Still in the not super exciting realm.
We painted.
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I caught this little guy in my shop multiple times. There's a nest right outside the shop and an easy way in.
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I got rid of all the excess fill in the backyard. I was estimating that it would be about 60 yards or so, about 6-7 truckloads. Well, it turns out that once you start moving clay around, it unpacks quite a bit. I was hauling about 1.5 to 1.75 yards of clay per load, and 8 loads per truckload. I was off by about a factor of 3. I filled that truck 17 times. But finally, it was all gone.
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Now, I want to finish using this loader and sell it off. The last main task with it is to grade the yard. I lost about 100 pines back in 2006 due to a freak October storm that dropped 2 feet of insanely heavy snow. It snapped all of the branches off of the trees. It took me about 3 years to fully recover from that. I had to cut down everything remaining in that area, haul it out to the street, pay to have someone remove the stumps then grade the area and finally put in drainage to handle all of the excess water. The thought of doing that again was not something i was looking forward to ever again.
Why am I bringing this up?
These stupid pine trees are weak and they don't do that well, despite being native around here. I still have about 150 more, but there's a group in the back that has begun dying off.
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This was a few years ago and you can see the browning on one side. I figure it's only going to get worse in the next few years.
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I could wait, and repeat my 2006 performance, or preemptively take them out now, while i have the loader. So, the second that the last load of clay was gone, I got out the chainsaw and started taking down trees. 25, to be exact. The smallest was about 6" in diameter and the largest was about 18". This entire weekend was cutting, and hauling everything out to the curb. All while trying to not kill my cherry and apple trees. We had a couple trees fall the wrong way, despite being tied off. There were just too many branches on one side of the tree, in the opposite direction of where we wanted it to fall.
Like this one. Huge notch and crazy rope tension.
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I was prepared for that to go the wrong way, but was hoping that it wouldn't.
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Now it's on to removing the stumps with the loader and grading while the weather is nice. I'm trying to have a yard by our 4th of July party.

OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

Now it's on to removing the stumps with the loader and grading while the weather is nice. I'm trying to have a yard by our 4th of July party.

OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

... The last main task with it is to grade the yard. I lost about 100 pines back in 2006 due to a freak October storm that dropped 2 feet of insanely heavy snow. It snapped all of the branches off of the trees...

OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

But at this point, we're waiting on the town to clean it up, since this is what we pay them for.
Everyone like to get their 2 cents in.

OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

Still in the not super exciting realm.
We painted.
[quoted image]
I caught this little guy in my shop multiple times. There's a nest right outside the shop and an easy way in.
[quoted image]
I got rid of all the excess fill in the backyard. I was estimating that it would be about 60 yards or so, about 6-7 truckloads. Well, it turns out that once you start moving clay around, it unpacks quite a bit. I was hauling about 1.5 to 1.75 yards of clay per load, and 8 loads per truckload. I was off by about a factor of 3. I filled that truck 17 times. But finally, it was all gone.
[quoted image]
Now, I want to finish using this loader and sell it off. The last main task with it is to grade the yard. I lost about 100 pines back in 2006 due to a freak October storm that dropped 2 feet of insanely heavy snow. It snapped all of the branches off of the trees. It took me about 3 years to fully recover from that. I had to cut down everything remaining in that area, haul it out to the street, pay to have someone remove the stumps then grade the area and finally put in drainage to handle all of the excess water. The thought of doing that again was not something i was looking forward to ever again.
Why am I bringing this up?
These stupid pine trees are weak and they don't do that well, despite being native around here. I still have about 150 more, but there's a group in the back that has begun dying off.
[quoted image]
This was a few years ago and you can see the browning on one side. I figure it's only going to get worse in the next few years.
[quoted image]
I could wait, and repeat my 2006 performance, or preemptively take them out now, while i have the loader. So, the second that the last load of clay was gone, I got out the chainsaw and started taking down trees. 25, to be exact. The smallest was about 6" in diameter and the largest was about 18". This entire weekend was cutting, and hauling everything out to the curb. All while trying to not kill my cherry and apple trees. We had a couple trees fall the wrong way, despite being tied off. There were just too many branches on one side of the tree, in the opposite direction of where we wanted it to fall.
Like this one. Huge notch and crazy rope tension.
[quoted image]
[quoted image]
I was prepared for that to go the wrong way, but was hoping that it wouldn't.
[quoted image]
[quoted image]
[quoted image]
Now it's on to removing the stumps with the loader and grading while the weather is nice. I'm trying to have a yard by our 4th of July party.

OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

No limits mentioned. Until they change it after this pick up.

OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

In love using a chainsaw. They're a blast, but it's absolutely exhausting work. I always file all the teeth before starting. Just a few swipes on each is good enough unless you hit something. I was borrowing a neighbor's saw. Turned out that the tension was way off and I didn't check first. The chain whipped off and beat up the backside of about 30 links. That set me back about an hour, filing all of the nicks off so it slides in the bar again.
Total time was about 26 hours to clear it all out down to stumps. We're having a bout of non-stop nice weather too. Nothing but mid 80's. I'm hoping to start ripping out stumps shortly...

OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

In my head, I believe that to be the case around here as well.

OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

Fun weekend ripping out stumps, putting them out to the curb and finding another neighbor that's a psycho. I've lived here 18 years. Not a kind word ever from this guy. I've wandered over there a few times, just to make sure that nothing that I'm doing is bothering them. "Nope, I have bigger problems than anything you're doing." Was always the reply. Well, I guess that ends with stumps placed on my side of the circle, in the location the highway department told me, not 24 hours earlier. Apparently, the line is tree stumps. Then a gasket can be blown.

Maybe it was too hot this week? Street is clean. Branches and logs are all gone. Maybe he was beaten up by a stump at a young age? We may never know.

OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

In love using a chainsaw. They're a blast, but it's absolutely exhausting work. I always file all the teeth before starting. Just a few swipes on each is good enough unless you hit something.

OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

Fun weekend ripping out stumps, putting them out to the curb and finding another neighbor that's a psycho. I've lived here 18 years. Not a kind word ever from this guy. I've wandered over there a few times, just to make sure that nothing that I'm doing is bothering them. "Nope, I have bigger problems than anything you're doing." Was always the reply. Well, I guess that ends with stumps placed on my side of the circle, in the location the highway department told me, not 24 hours earlier. Apparently, the line is tree stumps. Then a gasket can be blown.

Maybe it was too hot this week? Street is clean. Branches and logs are all gone. Maybe he was beaten up by a stump at a young age? We may never know.

OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

His complaint was literally the stumps. I've never seen someone go from 0 to insane like that.

OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

Fun weekend ripping out stumps, putting them out to the curb and finding another neighbor that's a psycho. I've lived here 18 years. Not a kind word ever from this guy. I've wandered over there a few times, just to make sure that nothing that I'm doing is bothering them. "Nope, I have bigger problems than anything you're doing." Was always the reply. Well, I guess that ends with stumps placed on my side of the circle, in the location the highway department told me, not 24 hours earlier. Apparently, the line is tree stumps. Then a gasket can be blown.

Maybe it was too hot this week? Street is clean. Branches and logs are all gone. Maybe he was beaten up by a stump at a young age? We may never know.

OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

I am the biggest lot in the neighborhood, with a lot of neighboring properties. Some see it and think they can dictate what goes on in it since it encompasses their entire view. I still won't be the largest house. There's a guy that did a lot more additions and has that title, but I likely have the largest footprint.
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Land envy likes to tell me that she would have bought our house if she knew how cheap it was, and never would have touched the trees.
OG insane is the original asshole. His life has been relegated to a shelf and he has severe envy. His wife is one of the worst humans I've ever met.
Insane is the type that has a schedule for each task. Mow the lawn at 3:15 on tues, thurs, sat. Trim bushes at 4:25 on every blah blah blah
Old Miserable Effer is someone that one of my neighbors that in his late 70's referred to as a "Complete Dick from Day 1".
In general we have a lot of great people around.