Russian and Playhouse

Been listening to Russian I tapes. I had listened through Lesson 10 about 2 years ago, but lapsed. Started over again, and have re-listened to Lesson 10. That actually helped as hearing it a second time, it is sinking in more. A long way to go though.

Was listening to Russian while making repairs to our playhouse. We put up an 8' x 10' playhouse with a little porch about 7-8 years ago. But it has been unused for a while, and the floor had rotted out. I thought this would be a good afternoon project to repair.

So far, I am up to 3 full days of effort. Like most home projects, the more work I did, the more problems I found..

I found that the rot had gotten to the front wall, so I took that out. Then I found the front porch deck was rotten, as well as the rails. Then I found out it wasn't just a 2 foot section of the floor that was rotten, but about 1/2 of the floor. The problem was that the builder let the front porch slope toward the playhouse, this let water run under the door and onto the floor.

What a mess.

The demolition took about 2 days because I had to keep as much as possible, and remove the sections carefully so I could add the new repaired material. I began the construction today using pressure treated lumber.

I decided to add some flashing to minimize the water incursion. As I was installing the aluminum flashing, I noticed it said "Not for use on pressure treated wood". Thought maybe I should look that one up on the internet.

I knew PT lumber had arsenic in it. Well, it used to. I didn't know it had changed. Nor did I know that it also contained copper. So, that would cause a dissimilar metal problem, and basically would cause the aluminum to rust.

That got me thinking about the bright common nails I had used in buildings the joists and stud wall. Oops. That is a no-no as well. Fortunately, according to an old hand at Lowes, I can just add stainless steel nails (which are ok for PT wood) and I do not have to remove the others I had used. Just be prepared for them to rust.

Anyway, not exactly an adoption story, but it is a part of our preparation for our new child. Well worth it.