More Decomposed Granite

Allergy season is fast approaching, so I will be unable to work outside for a couple of months. To put things in the best shape for this, I have filled in all the holes and put decomposed granite over the rocks that fill the walkway areas.



For that section of the walkway which is not yet complete, I put cardboard down and then decomposed granite on top of the cardboard. This should allow the decomposed granite to be shovelled back up when I start digging and put to the side until it can be put down again.

The primary issue on this was then cost. How to get the decomposed granite at minimal cost. I got 1 cubic yard, for $38.02 from Whittlesey Landscape Sales. This is the same place I got the last decomposed granite. That time (September 2011), I got 3 cubic yards and had it delivered. Delivery was $80.

• Option 1 was to have the decomposed granite delivered. $80
• Option 2 would be to buy the decomposed granite from Home Depot or Lowe's. They have it in small plastic bags. Home Depot charges $4.27 a bag (half a cubic foot), which including tax becomes $290.52 for a cubic yard.
  
• Option 3 was to rent a pick-up and deliver it myself. I can rent the pick-up at U-Haul for $19.95. Plus 59 cents a mile. Plus gas. Plus clean-up. It turns out to be 27.6 miles from U-Haul to Whittlesey to my house and back to U-Haul. That's $16.28 in mileage charges. Gas for 28 miles would be maybe 3 gallons, for another $9.00. $1.50 for a self-service car wash to clean the bed out afterwards. Taxes and fees of $6.59, for a total of $53.32. The second (and third ...) cubic yard would cost $25.28 for delivery.
  

Bigger Windows, Part 3

The windows in the two smaller bedrooms (the guest bedroom and the computer room), were too small for the City building requirement for "egress", so they were replaced by larger windows. Unfortunately these were also not quite big enough for "egress", and so they need to be replaced once more.

As before, first the old windows are removed.



Then the openings were made larger, by lowering the bottom. This caused some difficulty since there was an electrical line that ran right below the window. This required some work to replace that wire with a longer one that ran lower in the wall.



Then the new windows can be set in place



The window sills had been put on and off so many times they were showing it, so I had new ones made up. The shape of the old sills is no longer available, but BMC West has a millwork operation that can make custom pieces of trim. I had four (4) 8-foot sills made of red oak -- two were used for this job, and the other two are in the attic for the next time. $380.36.

The rest is finishing. The windows are stained and given two coats of polyurethane. The wall is taped and floated, then textured, and painted.



Outside, the stone work is replaced and mortared in place.



And to finish this saga, the building inspector came by today, 8 Dec 2011, and says these windows past inspection.

With the windows passing inspection, Renewal by Andersen wants to be paid. We had agreed, for the 2nd set of windows, on a cost of $4000 for the two pairs with half ($2000) down. After getting them wrong and having to do it all over again, they discounted this to $3500, so the last payment was $1500.

And in June 2012, we got new blinds for these windows. From Home Depot, Bali 3/8" double-cell blinds; I like to think that the double cell provides a smidge more insulation. The blind for the computer room was Northern Lights Palm Breeze, 58 inches wide by 67 high. The blind for the guest bedroom was Northern Lights Vanilla, 57.5 inches wide by 67 high. Both of them are now cordless -- or really internally corded, which seems to be the standard option at Home Depot. Combined, they were $490.91