Two Weekends down and can't believe what came up ?

Two Weekends going pretty much non-stop , working on our Patio Cover .

To think , I bought the House over eleven (11) yrs. ago . Thinking of doing this many .. many times , but somehow never got to it . Well , actually .. there was just too much other project's on Hand and this wasn't one of the most urgently needed item on that List .

Anyway , so here in only two full Weekends of hard labor .. it is standing there more than half finished . I guess it took my LaoPo's push to get me going and her brother's Wife coming to Visit us end of July or beginning August this year . Of course with today's Economy , I could have not done it without my LaoPo's financial help to get it off the ground .
I've have always been use to , do all I've done in Stages .. as Money was always a factor getting things moving at top speed . This I call "Team Work" ! Even she is very much involved , as she plays .. Contractor's Assistant ( measuring/cutting ) / Lifting and handing needed Tools/Supplies to me / and the most important of all .. she is a "Great" inspector . If you think , I could get away with Lousy and not so perfect Work .. I had another thing coming . Work did not proceed til this was taken care of , to her approval . Of course I knew about those small mistakes and I was going to fix them later , but NO ! This had to be taken care of first .

I never liked Inspector's , but I "LOVE" this one ! So far it is all approved now , but the Water-proofing and Shingles were discussed over and over .. how will you do this ? Have you done this before ? Do we really need all this ? Are you sure , water wont run down from the Roof onto the Patio ? The time I've been questioned , I could have finished with something .. I'm sure . hahaha

So here are some Photo's I took yesterday , before the Top was covered completely .

New Background , hope everyone likes it ?

After trying this and that for days now , I think I've come to at least be able to go around the previous problem I had staying Singed-In into my own Blog . Ahhhh .. if it also works from my Computer at Home , I'm happy again and of course I will continue this ( my favourite ) Blog .

Anyway , been working on the Patio each day after coming Home . It's like a sickness , can't get enough of . I'm either crazy or just excided to be making progress as planned . Photo's of progress will follow soon .

Trouble with this Blogger Site .

This Blog is giving me grey Hairs and I am on the verge of closing it . I sign-in and it gives me the Dashboard and when I go to Post's .. I'm signed out again . The same goes if I write a Comment or a Reply to one .. it will not let me post it as it signs me out everytime I click Post . When I click (on the Blog Page) Sign-in it sends me to the Dashboard again and shows that I'm signed in .. ect. ect.  if it's because of something new from Blogspot.com or whatever they did .. I'm sick of it !!!

Few more Photo's of our Labor , when we suppose to be relaxing .

Saturday & Monday , instead of relaxing .. one does Homework in a sense of the word . Having a House , one is never done working .. as most should know as being true . Anyway , this is what we did for a Fun Weekend  .. WORK ! In the end though , it is all worth it .. I must say with a smile . It's moving alone quite well and should be completed by end of June . On to the next Project then ?

Bring out the Tools .

Why ? Because we are starting on a Project that I was going to do years back already . Digging out my Plans that I made many Moons ago , but never started .. due to Personal or Money issue's at the time . So here I am and decided this would be the Weekend to get it finally going .


" The Patio Cover " in our Back Yard .


After having bought material for the early stages of this Project ( Do it Yourself ) , it was a go this time . My Neighbor offered to Help whenever I needed it . So , as the Hammer and Nails .. the Saw and of course my earlier Know how .. having done Construction work back in New York for four years in the seventies . As the Sun was starting to set , we finished all that we set out to do on Stage 1 . Now it was time to clean/pick up all the Tools and sweep the Deck , sit back and have a few Beers with my Neighbor . Looking at what we accomplished , it felt pretty good . Having done a great Job so far . Having to thank my LaoPo for helping me lift those Header Boards ( 4"x6"x11' ) to the Top of the Post's .. twice .


Now on to the next step , completing the rest of the Rafter's ( 12 more ) and on to put on the Cover and water-proofing the part that will not be open . As for the final touch up , which include Wiring for a over-head Fan .. Lights .. Speaker's for Music and a place for Qing's Buddha .

I will post Picture's as the Project continues to it's completion , which hopefully will be by the end of June .

Life is not easy and we are NOT making it any more easier .

After much struggle with the Computer , disable this and that .. to the point where my Brain was almost disabled and burned up to actually do some damage . Good thing the smoke had a ( two actually ) side openings to let the smoke escape .



A day and a half later and some help from Vince and our Neighbor's Son ( NO .. he was older than 10 yrs. old ) as he finally figured out it was the #@%*#%* Google Toolbar that caused us such un-wanted Pain . Anyway , all this was for Qing to take a Food Handling Course to receive a necessary Certificate .. as everyone who is in the Business of handling any kind of Food .. must have this by no later then July 1st. .

Isn't it nice , how whenever the State needs Money .. they just come up with something that we all of a sudden need to have . I have no idea how we got on all those years without those ? Now these are good for three years ( now that is ) , so that in a couple of years they can make it 2 (two) and then just 1 (one) depending in what money-need they find themselves . What's next , a Cover Charge to enter a Restaurant and eat out ? Oooop's .. don't want to give them any more idea's .

So , all that are handling Food will need this to continue to Work in any Food Serving Business .. here is what it looks like . Took Qing 3 Hours plus to study and answer 40 questions , with a passing score of 75% . She had a score of 92 , so 37 right out of fourthy . Not bad , to think it's in English and I had not to help her in any way . Goes to show , coming here and NOT knowing the Language is getting harder even to find a simple Fast Food Job now .

This Month is going by fast .... but not much ..

After Celebrating our Anniversary and finishing our Garden , not much has happened . It's been kind of slow ( reminds me of Work )at Home . The only thing lately I've been up to .. is making Plans for our Patio Cover in the back of the House . Also contacted a Friend , that is willing to come and help when I'm ready to put up the Ledger Board to the side of the House . The rest is going to be formality . I will definitely post some Photo's when I'm done with that .


The other thing I like to mention , last Weekend while I was checking my side Patio .. I noticed that something strange is happening to my eleven year old Albizia Tree . On the upper part of about have the Branches , I saw that some of the Bark was missing ? After further inspection , I came to the conclusion .. that it must be either Rat's or Squirrels eating the Bark . I'm sure either one of those Pest's , because I can actually see the Teeth marks going around the Branch in a neat fashion . Asking questions at Nurseries if they ever heard of such incidences , all I received back was a surprised .. NO .


So , I could not just leave it at that and have that beautiful Tree die on me . Going to an Home Improvement Store and I armed myself with a Repellant Spray and for the upper part of the Tree .. a mix of Vinagar and Water . This has so far done the Job quite well , with no further Chewing going on at Night . Hopefully , the Tree will recover from this . I would really hate to see it go and have the need to take it out after such a long time .


A Home-Owner's Job is never DONE ... is it ?