Day 214: Clean up distractions

So, I have mentioned to some that I tend to get distracted while doing projects around the house. I'll start one thing and realize 4 hours later that I am doing a third having left the first two half done.

The weekend project was to clean up a lot of rubble and general waste that has accumulated since we last did a dump run. The main targets were a big pile of broken up concrete and stone behind the garage (see last photo on Day 105 for the beginnings of this pile in the background), a pile of garbage left from a month ago when the family was helping in the basement, and several boxes full of mortar and plaster from the basement gutting several months ago.

The new home for all this was a dumpster bag we got off a coupon site for half price. I set it up in the spare parking space behind the garage. That made shovelling the pile of rubble into it fairly straightforward. And, after a few days it is now rather overloaded:

Not as much went in as I had but unfortunately the capacity is finite.

Slightly concerned that this will be over the weight limit. Not sure what that will mean if it is the case.

Obviously, before all the crap in the basement could be hauled up I needed to add risers to the stairwell so that dust and bits didn't continue to coat everything stored under the stairs. We have lots of wood panelling around so this wasn't much of an issue.

Of course cutting the panelling would be more pleasant outside. And cutting them outside would be easier with a couple saw horses. And we have lots of scrap wood around so saw horses could be thrown together no problem. What was I doing in the first place...?

Saw horses in their new, hopefully temporary, home 

Freshly riser-ed stairs to protect the under contents.

 Oh yeah. Cleaning up the basement. Hauling out a bunch of scrap wood and mortar/plaster boxes is heavy but relatively straight forward work. But wait, Luanne knocked down half a brick wall and there are an awful lot of bricks, those should go as well. I hate to waste all those bricks by throwing them out though. I guess I'll just stack them out behind the garage for now. Or maybe use them to pave a section of the spare parking spot. Sounds like a distraction er... plan.

I sorted bricks into a couple walls where that 4x4 is to help me plan out how large an area I could pave with the bricks that were in reasonably good condition. Unfortunately, loose dirt is not the best foundation. Especially for two walls stacked in single width courses a little over 3' high.

After the original walls fell on me as I levelled the area for paving right under it I re-stacked them in a shorter pile over here.

Area for paving is about 8' by 5' with the bricks that passed the rigorous quality testing and survived  falling on me without breaking. This shot is midway in the levelling process.

Luanne, this is what the wall you knocked down looks like just after being  set in place. It is dry and  still covered in mortar/plaster dust.

I like it better when it's wet.

Finished product with reject bricks and the old laundry tub we haven't figured out what to do with yet. If you think something looks crooked in this picture you are right. The newly paved pad is sloped slightly down toward the camera and to the right. Water will have less tendency to pool now and the grades at the far end of the driveway and under the chain link fence line up better.

What was I doing? Oh yeah, cleaning the basement. Maybe I'll go do some more vacuuming after I finish cleaning and moving the food over to the fridge I bought this weekend off Kijiji. (Ice cream tests demonstrated that it gets significantly colder than our old model.)