Having done its glorious work, it was time to continue making progress. This weekend I wanted to knock out the "Zone: One" chalk pebble bed alongside the house.
But I had a lot ahead of me:
The old beds were a problem, partially because they were too small and partially because, due to bonkers decisions by the previous owners, the AC freon and electrical lines, the plumbing lines, and the sprinkler line all run through it and ~very~ close to the surface, leading all of them to be wrapped up in plant roots many times (to my pocketbook's dismay). So they had to go. The goal is to keep the two plants we have left in the area there, and to leave the rest just pebbles to make servicing easier in the future. I also wanted to keep them about a meter away from the wall on all sides. So time to expand the beds!
I started by pulling up the weed mats under the pebble paths and milling the ground to be level. This took a few hours, those weed mats were about 70% weeds now and took forever to dig out. I also started digging a furrow to mark where my new pebble bed would go.
I also dug out the mostly buried former pavers. They were too stained to be of use for the new bed, there were a lot of them over an inch under dirt:
Hey, bright, shiny, new pavers for the lining! Problem is, I need them to be nice and secure and the issue with the old pavers is that, over time, they slowly sink into the soil. So I had a brilliant idea to combat this!
I spent about an hour leveling the ground and using the old pavers to be a sort of foundation for the new pavers. This turned out to be worth the time!
30 bags of gravel, four trips to Home Depot in my tiny compact car for the gravel, wheelbarrow, and pavers, a pair of destroyed hands, and sorness about everywhere later, the beds are done! And they are lovely.
Under all that is a pretty heavy dosing of Roundup which should kill anything left under there after my initial weeding and keep the weeds out for about 2-4 months. Long and short, I think this was a total success.
You're next, rest of the Encmire! Look upon progress, and despair!
MY SLOW, INEXORABLE MARCH OF CONQUEST CANNOT BE DENIED.
Enc, I admire your resolute and humorous demeanor. However, and I don't want to be a Debbie Downer here, what are you going to do the next time a hurricane come through? Florida wants to be a swamp, and global climate change is only going empower that swampification. I sincerely do not want to dissuade you from doing something you clearly derive pride from, but I would feel remiss not to mention this.
Oh, wow. You know, I never thought about it! You're right! I should just pack up my life, that I have lived in this 30 mile area of swampland for three decades, that my family has lived in for four generations, and just find somewhere else to start over. You know, that's just such a simple and obvious trick, I can't believe I never thought about it before.
Dang. Well I guess thread over everybody!
Enc on
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EncA Fool with CompassionPronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered Userregular
edited December 2017
The non-sarcastic as fuck answer here is rebuild, again. I mean, fuck it Nobeard. What the hell kind of question is that?
As far as living in a swamp, I live on high ground, well above the 100 year flood line, on what is called a Hammock, as does the majority of my town. Flooding hasn't been a problem at all in this thread, and it likely won't be for 200+ years when the entire state is underwater. My property is about 120 feet above sea level, so whoever inherits my great granchildren's property will likely be using it for scuba rentals at some point, but the Battle of the Encmire rages in the present. My problem came from a generational oak tree, which survived through Charley, Ivan, Fran, and a number of other hurricanes and storms but just was hit in the exact wrong direction of wind from Irma to keep standing. Now that the tree is gone, honestly I probably have less storm problems to deal with moving forward (at least until whatever I plant in its place gains 40 years of growth and looms over the house again).
As the final bit on this side-plot, this whole philosophy comes from the sneering, disgusting 'Florida Man' tropes people have about those who reside in the land of Flowers and Dragons. Don't presume to know what it means to live here. Its a beautiful and ugly place filled with more life and decay than anywhere, and humans have lived here for thousands of years with and without modern technologies and have done just fine. I'll be the first to call Florida a lost cause, a hell on earth, and a mire that seeks only to kill everyone within it, but I get to call it that. Because I live here and battle with it each day. I don't need someone coming into this thread telling me that my home and way of life is somehow something I'm too dumb to understand.
EncA Fool with CompassionPronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered Userregular
On the house front, I managed to get another company to drop the roof cost and do higher quality singles, dropping my discrepancy in cost by 5k! Now I just need to get Insurance to spring for 3k more for my porch and I should be operational again as far as structures go. Which is excellent news.
I see now my question was ignorant and condescending. It's stupid of me to presume I know better than you, the person actually living there. I wrongly insulted you and I apologize.
Just as a general rule, if people are posing questions about improving their living situation, and they don't mention moving as an option, that's generally because it's not an option, for whatever reason that may be.
I have a plan once the battle is concluded. In the middle of my yard I want to get a concrete greco-roman pillar (about 3 feet tall) and drill into it a bronze plaque from Things Engraved memorializing the Battle for the Encmire (using classic war memorial rhetoric).
On top I will drill a single, cheap, plastic flamingo wearing a cloth sash (indicating nobility).
Both DC and Philly used to have annual malaria outbreaks before they literally drained the swamps
When they were trenching the erie canal in NY, they had tons of malaria outbreaks too (particularly around Cayuga). There were some exaggerations of how many people died from that though.
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
Not sure if serious, but I'm pretty sure that is frost from the condensed water freezing. We've had a couple of nights with temps below freezing in the part of Florida that I live in, and I haven't actually had to run the air conditioning in over a week. It's kinda nice to have winter weather where shorts and short-sleeved shirts aren't appropriate attire
Of course, it takes a bit for the stuff to melt off your windshield unless you wanna sit in your vehicle and keep the throttle depressed so that's kinda annoying.
Rollers are red, chargers are blue....omae wa mou shindeiru
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EncA Fool with CompassionPronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered Userregular
I should expect so.
I mean, after you've undone so much of their labor while restoring your yard you should have expected the local weather deities to be at least a little miffed.
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EncA Fool with CompassionPronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered Userregular
I should expect so.
I mean, after you've undone so much of their labor while restoring your yard you should have expected the local weather deities to be at least a little miffed.
Whelp, time to take reasonable precautions. I guess I'll need to add a basement.
I should expect so.
I mean, after you've undone so much of their labor while restoring your yard you should have expected the local weather deities to be at least a little miffed.
Whelp, time to take reasonable precautions. I guess I'll need to add a basement.
in florida? didn't we just argue that your house will be swallowed by the sea
Before following any advice, opinions, or thoughts I may have expressed in the above post, be warned: I found Keven Costners "Waterworld" to be a very entertaining film.
To be fair to the Winter Gods, if they came about more than once a decade they probably would get more offerings.
They shattered my 20 year old, ancestral ice scraper when they last came to call. The message was clear:
Such divine instruments do not belong in the hands of an apostate, and I was now unclean in their eyes.
Not sure if serious, but I'm pretty sure that is frost from the condensed water freezing. We've had a couple of nights with temps below freezing in the part of Florida that I live in, and I haven't actually had to run the air conditioning in over a week. It's kinda nice to have winter weather where shorts and short-sleeved shirts aren't appropriate attire
Of course, it takes a bit for the stuff to melt off your windshield unless you wanna sit in your vehicle and keep the throttle depressed so that's kinda annoying.
Using the back of a credit card as a scraper works wonders in these situations.
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EncA Fool with CompassionPronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered Userregular
After negotiation, luck, and a lot of time on phones I've been able to drop that discrepancy between cost for repairs and insurance work from 8k to 1.6k!
Huzzah! I still don't like that number, but that is much more doable in an immediate time frame.
that really should just be a cover all your bases response
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EncA Fool with CompassionPronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered Userregular
edited December 2017
Forget it, mts. It's the Encmire.
Enc on
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EncA Fool with CompassionPronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered Userregular
So, heard back from insurance. They will be covering the remaining funds! Structural repairs are now both scheduled and funded.
On the house front, we got the ivy mostly cleared from the fence and the damage is now easy to see and (hopefully) easy to repair. I'll try to get images of it tomorrow morning if the sun cooperates.
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EncA Fool with CompassionPronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered Userregular
edited December 2017
HOLIDAY UPDATE:
Continuing work on the Encmire, a bunch of work has been done!
Started clearing the fences, the amount of vines was substantial... and also led to the damaged fence mostly collapsing once the vines were gone.
Clearing work has been.. substantial:
BEFORE:
AFTER:
This Japanese plum tree is a problem:
It is currently at a 45 degree angle. It's going to have to come down (which is a shame).
Clearing has been intense, this morning I was really happy to have reached this point (around 10am):
At which point I was told my fencing guy would be here to do the fence gate today! HUZZAH! But there was one problem:
The Death Corner:
Filled with ancient rotting wood, broken terra cotta, and plastic garbage from 30 years ago, I had been avoiding taking care of this because it was disgusting and filled with ants. But with two hours before the fence was to go in, there was nothing to be done. It had to go.
And underneath?
Pavers! Wow!
There was a lot of debries:
For the next 24 hours, Fort Encmire returns! Junk haulers are thankfully scheduled.
My new fence gate should be up in a few hours, but the holiday break has been the greatest breakthrough for the Encmire yet. I'm really happy with all we have accomplished!
But, goddamn. I'm tired.
Enc on
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EncA Fool with CompassionPronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered Userregular
Also: today's hydration is brought to you by the Winking Skeever
Nothing says "I'm feeling ready for another round of work" like drinking from a cup with a giant Skyrim plague rat on it.
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Donovan PuppyfuckerA dagger in the dark isworth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered Userregular
Dude I charge $40/hr for that kind of work (here in Australia), you've been absolutely killing it.
EncA Fool with CompassionPronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered Userregular
edited January 2018
Saving a small fortune then, given that I've probably got 60 or so hours since september dumped into this.
It's also very satisfying. Given that my hands are tied on most of my repairs while I wait for contractors to get through their queue, having something I can do to make progress is great. Also: good exercise.
Enc on
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MayabirdPecking at the keyboardRegistered Userregular
Had a chance to try some La Croix free and thought of you as I choked it down.
Anyway, is the next step replacing that fence?
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EncA Fool with CompassionPronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered Userregular
It is!
I ran into a snag in that I need the neighbor's consent in writing to remove it, and the neighbors are renters. I have a new fence gate already, but it will take a bit more for the rest.
I ran into a snag in that I need the neighbor's consent in writing to remove it, and the neighbors are renters. I have a new fence gate already, but it will take a bit more for the rest.
That fence looks to be facing you, so it may be yours to do with as you please. Definitely look into what the law says about that... You may not need to contact the owner at all, but you might also get some $$$ out of them if it's shared ownership.
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EncA Fool with CompassionPronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered Userregular
I ran into a snag in that I need the neighbor's consent in writing to remove it, and the neighbors are renters. I have a new fence gate already, but it will take a bit more for the rest.
That fence looks to be facing you, so it may be yours to do with as you please. Definitely look into what the law says about that... You may not need to contact the owner at all, but you might also get some $$$ out of them if it's shared ownership.
It's their fence, that isn't the problem. I'm also liable for paying for the replacement, and my insurance has paid me to do so.
My contractor doesn't want to get sued after the fact if the owner decides to be bullshitty, which is a thing that can happen in Florida if you don't have written consent, so now I have to wait for the renters to come home from their vacation so that I can get the landlord's phone number and email and then get the fence taken care of.
Which should be a no big deal thing, since we've talked about it plenty of times since the hurricane.
I ran into a snag in that I need the neighbor's consent in writing to remove it, and the neighbors are renters. I have a new fence gate already, but it will take a bit more for the rest.
That fence looks to be facing you, so it may be yours to do with as you please. Definitely look into what the law says about that... You may not need to contact the owner at all, but you might also get some $$$ out of them if it's shared ownership.
It's their fence, that isn't the problem. I'm also liable for paying for the replacement, and my insurance has paid me to do so.
My contractor doesn't want to get sued after the fact if the owner decides to be bullshitty, which is a thing that can happen in Florida if you don't have written consent, so now I have to wait for the renters to come home from their vacation so that I can get the landlord's phone number and email and then get the fence taken care of.
Which should be a no big deal thing, since we've talked about it plenty of times since the hurricane.
well technically you can just build your fence inside the old one. I think at one point the people who owned our house did that.
I ran into a snag in that I need the neighbor's consent in writing to remove it, and the neighbors are renters. I have a new fence gate already, but it will take a bit more for the rest.
That fence looks to be facing you, so it may be yours to do with as you please. Definitely look into what the law says about that... You may not need to contact the owner at all, but you might also get some $$$ out of them if it's shared ownership.
It's their fence, that isn't the problem. I'm also liable for paying for the replacement, and my insurance has paid me to do so.
My contractor doesn't want to get sued after the fact if the owner decides to be bullshitty, which is a thing that can happen in Florida if you don't have written consent, so now I have to wait for the renters to come home from their vacation so that I can get the landlord's phone number and email and then get the fence taken care of.
Which should be a no big deal thing, since we've talked about it plenty of times since the hurricane.
well technically you can just build your fence inside the old one. I think at one point the people who owned our house did that.
teeeechnically, doing so could be argued as relinquishing a few inches of property to the neighbor though. Like, they could tear down the fence and (after some years) just own that strip of land, with the property line being where you put your fence rather than where it once was.
Posts
Oh, wow. You know, I never thought about it! You're right! I should just pack up my life, that I have lived in this 30 mile area of swampland for three decades, that my family has lived in for four generations, and just find somewhere else to start over. You know, that's just such a simple and obvious trick, I can't believe I never thought about it before.
Dang. Well I guess thread over everybody!
As far as living in a swamp, I live on high ground, well above the 100 year flood line, on what is called a Hammock, as does the majority of my town. Flooding hasn't been a problem at all in this thread, and it likely won't be for 200+ years when the entire state is underwater. My property is about 120 feet above sea level, so whoever inherits my great granchildren's property will likely be using it for scuba rentals at some point, but the Battle of the Encmire rages in the present. My problem came from a generational oak tree, which survived through Charley, Ivan, Fran, and a number of other hurricanes and storms but just was hit in the exact wrong direction of wind from Irma to keep standing. Now that the tree is gone, honestly I probably have less storm problems to deal with moving forward (at least until whatever I plant in its place gains 40 years of growth and looms over the house again).
As the final bit on this side-plot, this whole philosophy comes from the sneering, disgusting 'Florida Man' tropes people have about those who reside in the land of Flowers and Dragons. Don't presume to know what it means to live here. Its a beautiful and ugly place filled with more life and decay than anywhere, and humans have lived here for thousands of years with and without modern technologies and have done just fine. I'll be the first to call Florida a lost cause, a hell on earth, and a mire that seeks only to kill everyone within it, but I get to call it that. Because I live here and battle with it each day. I don't need someone coming into this thread telling me that my home and way of life is somehow something I'm too dumb to understand.
This is what it means to be from Florida: http://lithub.com/the-problem-with-writing-about-florida/
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
THERE IS WHITE STUFF ON MY HOUSE
WHITE STUFF ON THE GROUND
WHAT IS IT
I
DONT
EVEN
I have a plan once the battle is concluded. In the middle of my yard I want to get a concrete greco-roman pillar (about 3 feet tall) and drill into it a bronze plaque from Things Engraved memorializing the Battle for the Encmire (using classic war memorial rhetoric).
On top I will drill a single, cheap, plastic flamingo wearing a cloth sash (indicating nobility).
When they were trenching the erie canal in NY, they had tons of malaria outbreaks too (particularly around Cayuga). There were some exaggerations of how many people died from that though.
Of course, it takes a bit for the stuff to melt off your windshield unless you wanna sit in your vehicle and keep the throttle depressed so that's kinda annoying.
IS IT A WITCH CURSE
DID WE OFFEND THE GODS
I should expect so.
I mean, after you've undone so much of their labor while restoring your yard you should have expected the local weather deities to be at least a little miffed.
Whelp, time to take reasonable precautions. I guess I'll need to add a basement.
in florida? didn't we just argue that your house will be swallowed by the sea
The gods of winter have grown impatient with your lack of piety, and grown jealous of your offers to the earth and sea.
Yup, here it is:
They shattered my 20 year old, ancestral ice scraper when they last came to call. The message was clear:
Such divine instruments do not belong in the hands of an apostate, and I was now unclean in their eyes.
Using the back of a credit card as a scraper works wonders in these situations.
Huzzah! I still don't like that number, but that is much more doable in an immediate time frame.
all that white stuff is cocaine
IS THAT WHY EVERYTHING IS SO INTENSE
that really should just be a cover all your bases response
Forget it, mts. It's the Encmire.
On the house front, we got the ivy mostly cleared from the fence and the damage is now easy to see and (hopefully) easy to repair. I'll try to get images of it tomorrow morning if the sun cooperates.
Continuing work on the Encmire, a bunch of work has been done!
Started clearing the fences, the amount of vines was substantial... and also led to the damaged fence mostly collapsing once the vines were gone.
Clearing work has been.. substantial:
BEFORE:
AFTER:
This Japanese plum tree is a problem:
It is currently at a 45 degree angle. It's going to have to come down (which is a shame).
Clearing has been intense, this morning I was really happy to have reached this point (around 10am):
At which point I was told my fencing guy would be here to do the fence gate today! HUZZAH! But there was one problem:
The Death Corner:
Filled with ancient rotting wood, broken terra cotta, and plastic garbage from 30 years ago, I had been avoiding taking care of this because it was disgusting and filled with ants. But with two hours before the fence was to go in, there was nothing to be done. It had to go.
And underneath?
Pavers! Wow!
There was a lot of debries:
For the next 24 hours, Fort Encmire returns! Junk haulers are thankfully scheduled.
My new fence gate should be up in a few hours, but the holiday break has been the greatest breakthrough for the Encmire yet. I'm really happy with all we have accomplished!
But, goddamn. I'm tired.
Nothing says "I'm feeling ready for another round of work" like drinking from a cup with a giant Skyrim plague rat on it.
It's also very satisfying. Given that my hands are tied on most of my repairs while I wait for contractors to get through their queue, having something I can do to make progress is great. Also: good exercise.
Anyway, is the next step replacing that fence?
I ran into a snag in that I need the neighbor's consent in writing to remove it, and the neighbors are renters. I have a new fence gate already, but it will take a bit more for the rest.
That fence looks to be facing you, so it may be yours to do with as you please. Definitely look into what the law says about that... You may not need to contact the owner at all, but you might also get some $$$ out of them if it's shared ownership.
It's their fence, that isn't the problem. I'm also liable for paying for the replacement, and my insurance has paid me to do so.
My contractor doesn't want to get sued after the fact if the owner decides to be bullshitty, which is a thing that can happen in Florida if you don't have written consent, so now I have to wait for the renters to come home from their vacation so that I can get the landlord's phone number and email and then get the fence taken care of.
Which should be a no big deal thing, since we've talked about it plenty of times since the hurricane.
well technically you can just build your fence inside the old one. I think at one point the people who owned our house did that.
teeeechnically, doing so could be argued as relinquishing a few inches of property to the neighbor though. Like, they could tear down the fence and (after some years) just own that strip of land, with the property line being where you put your fence rather than where it once was.