Payson Possible: Time Off for the Move and Ditch Part Three

To give ourselves a jumpstart on the move from the apartment, Mike took the week off (mostly - he did put in a few hours of work during the week). After completing the walk-through and getting the apartment signed off, he packed the truck and trailer for the drive to Payson. Once he arrived, he unloaded all the stuff into the house, including what had been packed in the car as Laurie was too tired to unpack when she got home LATE Sunday night. Now our living room was stuffed with boxes and items that needed a home all over AGAIN! We keep going through this cycle.

Mike planned two activities at the house this week that would take some time and put us in a better position for storage. We had bought a product awhile back called Reflectix to use in the crawlspace of the house. After further research, we found it would be better to use regular insulation and plastic. Now we have all this aluminum bubble barrier product that we have had too long to return (though Laurie did consider it). Since the shed ceilings are not insulated, we decided we could put it to use there. The main concern was the older shed where we were already using the attic for storage. Mike was able to move the items around and get the Reflectix installed. Due to having stuff in the attic already, he decided to run the Reflectix strips (4ft wide) in the direction of the rafters. It wasn't the best way to do it, but still turned out well. He used our electric stapler to attach it to the rafters and then the special aluminum tape to seal the seams. It now looks like a UFO room, though he did notice the next day how much better the temperature up there was with the change.

Reflectix insulation barrier on the ceiling of the older shed

Still cannot think of what this actually reminds us of, but looks UFO-like

The next project was a storage loft in our new shed. You can buy the shed with lofts, but we thought it would be cheaper to do it ourselves. We wanted a loft instead of an attic so it would be open (the older shed has a pull-down ladder which goes into an approx 2' wide opening) and we could store bigger boxes up there. To start, he bought some hurricane brackets to use on the rafter boards since they were only toe-nailed into the frame. He only did the rafters that would be covered by the loft, but will do the rest later. We planned to do a 6'x10' floor (if we need more space, we will do another one on the other end), so we needed four 2'x6'x10' boards for the supports and two 4'x8' tongue and groove OSB floor boards. We were able to use one of the leftover 2'x6'x10' boards that was not needed for our deck to save on cost. It was already stained, so Mike placed it in the back of the loft so it was not as noticeable. The loft went together fairly easily except when he tried to join the two floor boards. They would not completely join and he tried every way of pounding them together (which led to multiple finger injuries) just to find later that some rocks had gotten into the groove on one board - ARRGGHH! Another issue he ran into was when he went to use the two cut pieces from the 4'x8' sheets for the 16"x6' space; the boards did not line up with the joists (did not think that one through very well). In order to finish the job he had to run to Home Depot for another 4'x8' OSB board, but this time he had them cut it to size. It fit like a glove and then he got to play with his nail gun and compressor, which he has not used since the early days of the remodel. That was the best part of the installation. The loft looks great; now to put up the Reflectix and then start storing stuff.

The completed loft from below...

...and from higher up

Mike spent the rest of the week doing various projects to help alleviate some of the clutter made by the apartment items. He reorganized the pantry, installed a shower head (from the apartment), fixed our shoe racks, rearranged all the items in the new shed (we can now walk into it) and his clothes. Our closet space is not very big and he went through all the clothes he has kept but not worn and made a pile to donate. He had about 160 articles of clothing to give away and was able to fit everything he kept in his dresser, nightstand and his half of the closet. During the week, he even had time to do his normal chores and take a day off on Friday, which he needed after the loft install. At night, when Laurie got home from work, we spent time putting away items that needed her direction and we made quite a dent in the apartment pile.

Mike rearranged the new shed as we could barely walk into it

He also did it to clear space so he could install the loft

Mike had this shower head at the apartment and it was better than the one we had

Mike added insulation tubes to shoe rack rails to keep shoes from slipping off

Mike's clothes that he set aside to donate

To finish the week, which included a stop at the Pine thrift store to drop off our donations on our way to a friend's retirement party, we worked on our ditch project (yes, part three). We had to get the rocks our neighbor gave us out of the grassy (actually more weedy) area as it was starting to get overgrown. We had to smooth out the ditch just a little after all the cleanup the town workers did and then we were ready for the weed barrier and rocks. It was like a big puzzle trying to find big rocks to put on the bottom and flatter rocks to put on the sides. Many of the smaller rocks were hard to find in the weeds. In the end, we think we did a fairly good job of covering the area, but ran out of rocks. Now we need to make time to go into the forest and find more, unless our neighbor discovers more in his yard. That will obviously give us a part four.