The very first day of work on this project was May 15th, now on October 19th we can say that we have all the outside work done and are ready for what ever winter throws our way. This does not mean to say we are finished outside or inside, but it does mean that we are as far as we can go this year based on our budget as well as the time left for good weather. Today I started by running 3/4" black-pipe for the LP supply to the new furnace that will be in the shop. I didn't do any more than get regulator installed and run the pipe into the garage portion of the shop, but at least it is inside and if time and finances allow we can get the furnace connected. You will note that I installed a union between the pipe that enters the wall and the regulator. This allows the regulator to be changed if there is ever a need.
This close-up shows this detail as well as the fact that I was able to get the pipe painted to blend in with the siding. I did not paint the regulator since it is new and if there is any problem with it I hate to have it all painted up in the event that we need some warranty service. The rest of the day I worked on back filling areas and hauling rock to complete the landscaping. This area, to the west of the wal-in door on the south side, was an area I wasn't sure what to do with. I know that next year we will be pouring a cement sidewalk to connect to the patio area that will also be capped with new cement. Yesterday I had removed the downspout and cut it off a foot so I could fill the area with dirt and rock. Some of the fill will be removed next year but until then it will keep the water from forming a huge puddle in this area.
I also did a little work under the air conditioner. The bricks have been stored in the machine shed ever since we moved in. The previous owner had a pretty good pile of these stored in the shed and warned us not to touch them. After two years I notified him to get them out of the shed or we'd consider them ours and at that point he decided he really didn't have a need for them. I used some of these beside the old shop to cover a cracked up patch of cement so wanted to save these in the event that we'd want to make something out of them. Since these needed to be moved so the shed could come down we decided to lay them in this area. I used a bed of sand under them to try to flatten the area out and surrounded them with rock to keep them from falling over. We also moved a rock to hold up the down spout extension to complete the area.
The rock we used for today's work came from around the machine shed. It didn't take much to shovel it into the trailer since it has plastic beneath it. While I completed this Sandy started cleaning up the mess we made in the new shop over the last month. We had a pretty good pile of scrap to burn along with a huge pile of leaves that Sandy raked up behind the new shop. We will not be working on the project again until Thursday. More than likely the work will be to begin cleaning out the machine shed in preperation for tearing it down.