biggerboat's building boondoggle blog
I started this in H&F but this seems a better place for it. These are my H&F posts. A bit long-winded but hopefully en
Yeah it does!
In the next slip (the tan color), is there a reason that boat is hanging at what seems to be an awkward angle?
Yeah it does!
In the next slip (the tan color), is there a reason that boat is hanging at what seems to be an awkward angle?
I think that's just the picture. The boat is on there fine.
Could be. Even enlarged, it looks to me like a cover for the top, tilted so the far part is higher than the near.
I'm sure, as biggerboat said, it's just my interpretation of the picture.
And it also looks like the new wall extends past your property line to the neighbors. Did they absorb some of the cost?
It looks like you made the right choice. The work looks exquisite.
And it also looks like the new wall extends past your property line to the neighbors. Did they absorb some of the cost?
It looks like you made the right choice. The work looks exquisite.
No, it butts up to both neighbors' existing seawalls.
Could be. Even enlarged, it looks to me like a cover for the top, tilted so the far part is higher than the near.
I'm sure, as biggerboat said, it's just my interpretation of the picture.
It's an illusion. The part you are thinking of as the top is not horizontal. It's more like a 45 degree angle. It's not like a row boat, it has a cabin.
The seawall is finished! They put the dock back together today and cleaned up. They did a stellar job. Couldn't be happier. Well, my bank account could be.
I took another picture of the boat next door for reference.
On to the next project. The old sprinkler lines went along the old seawall and got destroyed. We are going to run new lines, but not where the old ones were. We started digging last weekend to sort of outline where we were putting them. Look for the string.
We also have to redo the brick pavers near the seawall to match the new wall that is about 8 inches taller than the old one.
And, I have to reconnect the fresh water line and the electric to the dock.
Then add some fill dirt and rocks to even up with the seawall.
This was all agreed upon before I signed the contract.
Ugh, lots of work.
Whew, project over! Time to get to work!
I see on the neighbor's boat. I thought cover only kinda went over the open part, not pretty much a boat wrapper. Got it now.
First job today was run conduit under the dock so I can hook up the boat lift. There was no way to do it without getting in the canal under the dock. The cold wind was supposed to get here around noon. Fortunately we had a really low tide this morning. Put on my rubber boots which worked until I stepped in the mud and sank enough for water to pour in. But we got it done. Still need to hook everything up, another day.
We decided to continue trenching for the sprinkler system. We were getting about a teaspoon of dirt at a time. So many roots around the palm trees and some old big roots from an oak tree that the previous owners removed. But we finally got through all that. Once we did it went really fast. We pretty much finished when my wife's hip dislocated. It happens when she does yard work. My back had enough as well so we called it a day.
We did enough to be able to put the water lines in next time. Might be a while though. We have stuff going on the next two weekends.
I decided to hook up the dock electricity. The wires coming in from the main panel were fine, but the wires they connected to that went to the dock were black from corrosion. Even though it was working before I disconnected everything I figured I would take the opportunity to replace them. Ugh.
They had 4 10 guage and a 12 guage running through 1/2 inch conduit with 4 90 degree bends. Couldn't budge them.
So i cut the conduit about half way thinking i could pull them through 2 bends then the other two. As soon as I cut it, water gushed out. The conduit was full of, what i guess, water from the flood. And even after cutting it I couldn't pull the wires. So I cut it into smaller pieces and got the old wire out. I set the conduit aside so the water could drain and dry out some.
Ain't nothing easy.
That doesn't seem great. Good thing it never shorted.
Now that you've learned that, is it more trenching work to make a straight(er) line and new conduit?
That doesn't seem great. Good thing it never shorted.
Now that you've learned that, is it more trenching work to make a straight(er) line and new conduit?
This particular conduit isn't underground. It is attached to the dock. I could just go buy some 3/4" because I have it all torn apart, but all the bends are already there so I'll just reuse it.
Incoming TR.
My wife and I decided to take a weekend trip for our anniversary. We picked Charleston out of a hat. Not sure why, but it did not disappoint.
First of all, it was cold.
The drive was about 7 hours. We got there around check in time and didn't have anything planned for the first night.
If you haven't been, there is a central area of charleston that appears to be somewhat surrounded by water. It is mostly very old building that have been refurbished. The neighborhood isn't very big and can be walked easily. We felt very safe there.
The hotel was really cool. It was small but very convenient. Other than our trip to the plantation (more on this later) we walked everywhere. The bottom floor of the hotel was basically an art gallery and a restaurant. There wasn't a front desk, just a guy with a computer greeting everyone and checking them in. The art was pretty cool. Whoever did it liked dogs and red. There was a lot of art. Here's a picture of a dog.
This was pretty cool. All of the viewfinders had a picture on them so you could look at each one.
Even the bathrooms were artsy fartsy.
This was on our bathroom mirror in our room. I googled it and the ai, said "it appears to be french writing, possibly on a mirror." Haha, thanks google.
We walked to the nearby pier and checked out the harbor.
We had a few drinks at the rooftop bar there, and had a pretty good dinner, although it was a chain. The local restaurants near us were all booked.
The next morning we went to the Magnolia Plantation. It was a lot bigger than I had anticipated and pretty cool. There was a big house but you couldn't go in unless you paid for a tour. Mostly it was just a lot of trails around the grounds. Very well kept. Some really big and cool trees.
They also had a little zoo with some random animals. A goat that was allowed to roam around. Sadly I did not get a picture of him. Mostly they were rescue animals I think.
The grounds were a combination of big grassy areas and wooded areas. They had a lot of trees with really pretty blooms on them, although it appeared they were at the end of their bloom cycle. Pretty nonetheless
There were also some slave houses. Very tiny one room houses without much of anything in them except for a fireplace. A couple of them appeared to be duplexes.
We spent about 2 hours there just walking around. It was great.
When we got back into town we decided to take a tour, but we really didn't want to be crammed on a bus, or a horse drawn carriage. So we downloaded this app that was a tour. It turned out to be a ghost tour. It was a little cheesy but fun and we got to see a lot of the area. Turns out Charleston has a history of women jumping out of balconies, and becoming ghosts to haunt the buildings. Who knew.
We still had a little time to kill before our dinner reservation so we checked out the aquarium. It was rather smallish compared to some we've been to, but I still love aquariums so it was worth it to check it out.
Here's a lionfish.
We had dinner at the nice restaurant in the hotel. Pretty pricey but it was good.
Our last stop was a little comedy theater we picked out beforehand. It was sooooo much fun! They do a little comedy mystery with four actors. But they take volunteers from the audience to read the parts of the other characters. I don't usually volunteer for that sort of thing, but they needed one more male actor and he sort of volunteered me. I'm glad I did. They give you a piece of the script and it says which line to look for and when before your part comes up. Then they have your lines in bold, along with the other actors' lines. Mine was pretty short but some people had quite a few lines. I performed flawlessly, although the house actor botched one of his lines. I laughed in the middle of the act but nobody caught on why except for the actor. The whole thing was a ton of fun. Everyone in the audience was involved. If you ever go to Charleston, you HAVE to check this out. It's called the Black Fedora.
Anyway, that's pretty much it. We had a fantastic time.
Literally out of a hat?
Happy anniversary. Glad you had a nice time, thanks for the TR.
I was in Charleston for a short time many years ago. Toured the ship you showed in the one picture (seems like it was that and a submarine?). Anyway, pretty interesting. I'm not much of a military history buff, but it was interesting to see how the men lived in WWII vessels.
This particular conduit isn't underground. It is attached to the dock. I could just go buy some 3/4" because I have it all torn apart, but all the bends are already there so I'll just reuse it.
Finished up with this. It would have been way easier just to buy some 3/4 inch conduit but I'm stubborn and cheap. Took about 2 hours to get it all back together but we switched it on and nothing exploded. Time to get the boat out.
