Little Details

It’s amazing what a few (relatively) inexpensive details can do to make you feel like you’re making progress. I’m in the Lowe’s knob section and notice a Schlage package of light duty commercial levers and deadbolts. For some reason, this is the first time I’ve ever noticed them, though I’ve looked before. $300 later, I’m installing the little suckers.

Deadbolts and door handles are on each of the units now so the doors look finished. Too bad it has been more than a month since I installed the door frames because now two of them aren’t quite square any more and I’ll need to do the whole shimming and attaching thing again.

It’s also amazing what a single (expensive) detail can do to keep the water out of your building.

We got a little insurance money for Ike damage to our kitchen, and promptly spent it at MBCI on metal roofing. The valley gutter at the bottom of the slope once again is the tricky part. On the first one, I used sheets of lightweight aluminum that I could bend by hand, fitted them under the windows, along the cricket, and up the slope aways. Then I’d caulk the sheets together and lap the roofing over it and screw the whole thing down. Not too bad, but lots of room for leaks and the aluminum was pretty expensive.

Finally went to United Lumber and they sell rolls of metal for exactly this purpose. I think it’s galvanized steel instead of aluminum, but it will work. It’s lighter weight and one piece will do the whole run, so it’s an improvement. Much cheaper too.

The other big news is that I’ve figured out how to nibble. I was irritated that my expensive tool wasn’t going to work on corrugated metal when I realized that I could rotate the little chewing head sideways. This means that I can make it go up and down the hills and valleys of the corrugation. It’s fast, but it does seem to clog up with debris pretty often. Still figuring it out.

I now have metal roofs on two of the four units, with good waterproofing on all four. Still need to do trim on all of them.