Another Productive Weekend

We had some chores do do this weekend.

Last weekend we power washed the deck. This Saturday we stained it. We have a south facing deck. I chose a semi-transparent stain hoping it will stand up to the sun,
This is my wife's sister and my wife doing the railing and uprights,



My job was the outwards facing railing surfaces.



Once the railing was done we all claimed a piece of deck and did the decking surface.



Now I know Folgers Coffee gets a lot of hate but they make the best secondary paint containers ever!!

The entire deck took us 7 hours with a break for lunch. I am glad it is done for the next few years.


On Sunday we moved and installed a 100 pound propane tank for the tractor garage. I had it in the garage for the winter and then we moved it out beside the garage in the early spring. It was not hooked up.

First we used the tractor to place the tank on some pavers behind the garage.



Then I drilled holes through the 2x4 garage studs to run the tubing.




ML followed with a file to smooth them out.



Then we ran the Corrugated Stainless Steel Tubing (CSST) through the holes. This was the hardest part of the job.


We cut the tubing with a regular ol' tubing cutter. You just have to be sure to place the cutting wheel into one of the corrugated 'depressions'. My cut was a little uneven but a file touch up fixed that.

The fittings for the CSST are compression fittings. They go on in a specified order and you tighten the brass fittings for a leak proof seal.


We only needed two of those fittings - one at the tank and one at the appliance. I ordered the correct size and every thing fit together easily.

We leak tested the connections with soapy water applied with a pastry brush. The instructions for the CSST said it needed to be grounded. You can see a thin wire attached to the baseplate bolt in the picture.



With confirmation that the seals were tight we test fired the heater. Took forever for propane to arrive.



Lastly we sealed the hole in the garage wall with silicone caulk and we were done!!



So a good productive weekend. But it was hot. We emptied the garage to run the pipe. Wound up cleaning it and re-arranging things. I was exhausted when we were done.
Quick showers and then a trip to the ice cream stand finished things nicely.

Jealous!

Lovely.

Beautiful job, Phil, but from Mary Lou and you one would expect no less.