Project Report Part II: New Shed Skirting

Wauchula, FL - Events of Saturday, February 16 to Thursday, February 28, 2019

As we said in our last post, Paul had to remove the lattice skirting from the front of the shed in order to put concrete pavers down in that area. The lattice skirting that Paul installed when we first got our shed in 2016 looked nice at first, but the lattice buckled due to uneven thermal expansion and due to the fact the shed settled a little over time.

Buckled skirting on the shed

Since Paul had to remove the lattice from the front of the shed to install the pavers, he decided it was a good time to remove and replace all the lattice with regular mobile home skirting. Mobile home skirting is installed with a wide PVC strip at the top that allows the top of the skirting to float both vertically and horizontally so it won't buckle.

After Paul finished installing all the pavers, he got to work on the new skirting. The first step was to fasten down the bottom rail. He fastened the rail to the concrete pavers at the front of the shed with outdoor construction adhesive. Since the garden area at the side of the shed facing the street has river-rock mulch that is pretty uneven, Paul put a pressure-treated 2 x 4 under the bottom rail on this side of the shed to even things out. The bottom rail on this side is fastened to the 2 x 4 with galvanized roofing nails.

Bottom rail fastened to concrete pavers in front (right) and to a 2 x 4 at the side of the shed

The bottom rails on the remaining two sides of the shed rest directly on fine gravel and are held in place with 7" long aluminum spikes.

Bottom rail fastened to the ground with spikes on remaining two sides

The top rail is made up of two pieces that sandwich the top of the skirting between them allowing the top of the skirting to float. The next step was to install the back half of the top rail directly under the bottom row of siding.

Back half of top rail in place

Next, pieces of mobile home skirting were cut to length (about 1" shorter than the bottom of the white bead on the top to the top rail) and set in place in the bottom rail around the entire perimeter of the shed.

Skirting in place

Finally, the front half of the top rail was snapped into place under the white bead of the back half of the rail.

Skirting complete

In other news, when we haven't been busy with our own projects, with Co-op meetings, or with Co-op projects we have found time to eat out a few times at a couple of our favorite restaurants. Since we have written about those places numerous times before, we usually don't mention them anymore except occasionally in passing.

We did eat at a new place called the Faded Bistro that we wrote about in our last post. Last week, we went to a restaurant we have written about before, but haven't been to in a long time so we thought we would write an update. Last Thursday, we went to the Wauchula Family Restaurant.

Wauchula Family Restaurant isn't much to look at on the outside. It's a bit run down, and up until a few months ago didn't even have a sign outside because their old one was destroyed by Hurricane Irma in fall of 2017. They finally got a new sign, but the place still isn't very impressive. The inside is a little better, but is still dated. For one thing, the carpet really needs to be replaced or at least cleaned, and they need to replace the aluminum foil on the south-facing window with some blinds or shutters.

The food at Wauchula Family Restaurant, however, is very good. Dinners range in price from about $8 to $19 and include a small salad and two sides. Prices are up $1 to $3 from the last time we were there, but they are still pretty reasonable. Margery had a dinner called the Athenian ($13.95), which is lightly breaded and grilled grouper. She had potato salad and cole slaw for her sides. Paul had one of the daily specials - a 10-ounce sirloin steak for $12.95. He had mashed potatoes and cole slaw for his sides.

Paul with his sirloin steak

Paul's steak and mashed potatoes

Margery's grouper was excellent, as was Paul's steak. Paul was impressed by the presentation of the mashed potatoes; but sadly, they were instant. Except for the mashed potatoes, however, we were very happy with our choices.

So that's about it for now. Thanks for stopping by.