She Who Makes the Dust

Susan has been hard at work on this stupid arch, trying her damnedest to bring it up to her standards. I have been less than helpful with the project as I have been continuing to claim to be infirmed with the Shingles. I fear the clock is ticking on this excuse, so I must make the most of it. I think she is getting very close to starting to get ready to begin the process to commence with the wall papering. Unless of course, the arch does not pass inspection. In that case, the house will continue to have this fine haze of carcinogenic plaster dust floating around.

Government Mandates

We lost an hour last night due to the Government Mandated Time Change. I personally like it because it stays lighter later.

Susan and I finally have a day to spend at home together and we are going to try and make the most of it. So why am I sitting at the keyboard typing away? Well, how else am I going to be able to chronicle all the amazing things we accomplished this day?!

What follows is a pictoral and verboral description of our day.

My first task was to remove the studded tires from Susan's car. This went pretty quickly as I am a master with the tire iron. Next I decided to polish up her shiny chrome wheels which were not looking quite so shiny. They develop rust and a good scrubbing with an S.O.S. pad takes care of that little annoyance.
Next I headed for the Carriage House where the shelves awaited a coat of varnish. This went pretty quickly as I am a master of the tire iron, which means I'm pretty good with a varnish brush too.

While I was doing my stuff, Susan was busy in the entry way getting plastered. I found that shocking since we have given up alcohol for Lent, but I soon learned that it was actual plaster she was working with. She is continuing with the large amount of repair she has to do with the arched doorway in the front hall.

It's a real mess!

While Susan spent her whole day doing this one project, milking it for all it was worth, I did a few other things. I raked up some leaves in the yard, cleaned the gutter out front, put chemicals in the hot tub and, because I am a master with the pillow, I took a nap. (I'm still feeling the effects of shingles so BACK OFF!!!)

Post Birthday

Other than having to work all day, my 54th birthday celebration was very nice. I can feel the waning of the shingles virus that has enveloped me for six weeks now. We went out for dinner last night and got the enjoy the Gonzaga Bulldogs on the TV. They beating their arch rival, the St. Maries Gaels, to win the WCC championship and get an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament, where I predict they will lose in the second round.

Susan did a great job of providing me gifts every day for the last week. I got some tools, some Groupons, some gift certificates, and a wine kit.

We hope to use a couple of the Groupons in the next couple of weeks. They are for an evening at the Jameson Hotel in Wallace, Idaho and a day of skiing at Silver Mountain. We would have used them last weekend but the shingles prevented me from going.

At lunch today, I am going to visit my friend Doug. He's in the Hospital. He had a cardiac event the other day...on his birthday, in fact. I'll find out more when I see him but his future is drastically going to change. My sources tell me that me that the State is petitioning to declare Doug incompetent. He drinks, he smokes and he doesn't seem to be taking very good care of himself.

Details to follow. For previous information on Doug, see Nov. 17, 2010.

Later: Okay, I have returned from visiting Doug and am happy to report that he is upright and lucid and much better than I was imagining. I asked him how he was doing without Vodka and Cigarettes and he held up a shaky hand. But he had a real positive attitude about it. He seems glad to have booze behind him. He seems to realize that he was killing himself. I think Social Services will have a very difficult time trying to declare him incompetent.

Skywalk Specs

Today is my birthday. I'm 54...physically. I'm probably more like 74 metabolically.

We spent the day earning large monies by painting skywalks. It wasn't in the plans to do this but the skywalks pay so well and come up sporadically so we have to jump on them when we can. So we did!

You can kind of see our work there in the picture above. It doesn't help that the windows are tinted. It also doesn't help that the little street urchins who abide the downtown area like to scratch their proof of existence into the paint. We have to make the lettering small enough to fit high up on the windows...out of scratching range.

So now we have another couple of months of remodeling under our financial belt.

That's always cool!

I need to get some specifications down in writing for these skywalks. I run into the same problems every year because I don't have this information to refer to. So here it is.

The large skywalks on Main have 14 windows per side. Each pain of glass is 68" x 118"

The skywalk on Post Street in front of RPS has 11 windows per side and the measure 65" x 118".

It took us almost four hours to finish cutting our stencils for the first skywalk we painted. When we finally got to painting, it took us an hour.

We did the two skywalks today in about five and a half hours.

Pre-Oscar Function

Prior to enjoying the Academy Awards, Susan and I did some actual home remodeling stuff. She has been working for three weeks now on the ceiling in our main hallway. If you look back only a few entries, you'll see us scraping the textured crap off the ceiling.

Since I have been down with the Shingles for the past four weeks, she has been continuing the work on her own. Today, she painted. That a good sign because it's the last thing to do. She has to put up one more coat as you can see some of the touch up areas didn't get completely covered by the paint.
I am still not feeling very good but I am uncharacteristically tired of being useless. So I went to work on the new bookcase upstairs. It's been several months since we stained it. Even more months since we had it installed. It has now cured well enough to varnish.

With these two projects complete, we can now do a thorough cleaning of the house, which has been infested by dust from the endless mudding and sanding process on the aforementioned ceiling. It got so bad it even bothered me.

The big snowfall from Thursday has started to melt and is creating wonderful icicles all around. I'm taking pictures of some of them before I knock them down. I'll have more sickles to show off in the days to come.

And now, it's off to the Oscars!

Overnight Snow Fall

I got up at 6 and went out to start removing the eight inches of snow that fell over the evening.

I managed to get the whole block blown before heading off to work. I had more clean up to do when I got home. Everything is cool and I'm ready for the next storm. And if I know more Spokane Winter Storms, the next one will be in November.

Rare Mid Day Comment

I don't usually take time out in the middle of my day to blog but there appears to be a significant snowfall coming down today and I thought it required a comment. Last night, the TV Weather peoples where working every angle to talk about the impending storm due to hit anytime between now and a point in the future with one inch to 27 feet of snow. I got up this morning to no snow and what looked like a pretty decent day. It was cold but the skies were clear and it didn't look like anything was threatening to dump on us. The snow started falling about ten or elevenish and it's been going steady since then. It looks like I'll have at least one more opportunity to ply the sidewalks and alleys of the neighborhood with my Snow Machine. It has been a wet snow but it is starting to stick. I expect there will be a couple of inches on the ground by the time I get home. I hope I'll get one good snow blowing out of the way tonight and perhaps another quickie in the morn. Ah, I love a good "Quickie in the Morn!" Later that day: I arrived home to two and a half to three inches of light fluffy winter upon the driveway.

I fed the cats and went immediately to the task at hand, getting a beer. Then I went out and started the snow blowing. Here is how things looked before I got started.

It took me about 50 minutes to get everything cleared. that's a little longer than usual because I had to stop after my first few swaths because I discovered I had a broken shear pin.

I don't want to get into it too deeply because it is technical, but a shear pin is the thingy that goes in the dealie on the shaft of the roundy thing in order to keep the scoopy thing twirling. If a shear pin brakes, it's bad. If you don't have one to replace the broken one, that's even worse.

Fortunately, who the hell do you think you're dealing with here? Captain Shear Pin, that's who!

I quickly (and surprisingly) located my one extra shear pin and replaced it with alacrity. Then I finished my beer. Then I finished the snow blowing.

This is how the driveway looked approximately one and half hours after I finished.

Those bright, shiny balls are snow flakes. Again. it was clear skies when I finished clearing the snow. This shit is invasive and quick.

They say we'll have eight inches in the morning. My alarm will be set for 6 and we shall see what sort of quality weather casters we have.

Stand by for "Quickie in the Morn!"

The Importance of Being Christian

On our way to church this morning, I was crossing the Monroe Street Bridge behind two cars going about 22 mph. To be fair, the first car was going 22 and the one behind it was matching the speed, which forced me to do the same. I could have changed lanes and gone around but that seemed like a lot of extra work. At the same time, I could see the approaching green light was becoming stale and in danger of turning. Yet, I stayed my course and allowed my temper to build on the first Scum Sucking Slow Ass driver.

The light changed but not before the two cars in front of me sailed on through. Several expletives coursed through my sub-conscious but did not escape the filter to my mouth. I simmered at the light and let it go.

On our return trip home I was driving down Illinois Avenue and came up behind an SUV doing 21 mph. This time, I did not have the option of changing lanes. I was forced to lumber behind this Dumbass, Shit for Brains, Loser Dumbass. We came to a stop and D.S.f.B.L.D. sallied through the intersection with trepidation. I had no intention of staying behind this Asswipe so as we approached the light, I was heading for whichever lane this person didn't pick. As she played guess the lane, the light changed and she sailed on through.

Again the expletives exploded through my head and I was about to let the onslaught loose when Jesus spoke to me. I remained calm, prayed for the Loser Asswipe souls of both drivers who had vexed me that morning, and forgave them.

So you can clearly see, it's good to be a Christian.

Mild Progression during a Recession

I don't have my usual array of progressive pictures so one would have to refer back to other posts to see the progress here. Or I could point it out.

There is now trim arond the new door and the door knob is installed. It's not much, but it's not regression.

T.J. and the Paw Thing

Susan has been getting on me to get this video up.

So now everyone can see the unbelieveably cute thing that T.J. does when he sits in Susan's lap. Look out "America's Funniest Home Cats"! We're gunning for you.

Scraping By

After a nearly two week absence from the Blogosphere, we return with news of progress with regard to working on the house. We have successfully completed the whole house. No...that's not correct.

We have successfully completed scraping the texture off the ceiling in the entry way. Susan spent about three hours yesterday and together we spent another three hours today and got it done. That is a good feeling. Minor victories that lead to ultimate exhaustion.

We are happy because we thought this was going to take several brack baking hours to finish.

Next, we replace the trim.

Now a word about textured ceilings. It is the waste land of the poor craftsman. It allows you to cut corners and not concentrate very hard on making things square. Textured ceilings hide all kinds of imperfections. I know because we uncovered some today. We however, will be diligently attempting create a ceiling free of flaws and bumps and grooves.

May God have mercy on our souls.

Another Weather Update

There are a few inches of snow on the ground this morning. I must commend the weather gypsies this morning as they did a fine job of accurately predicting this snowfall. There was three to four inches at home and the drive to work was slow but uneventful. I did have to pull off the freeway at one point and clean off my wipers. The snow froze to them and created a blurry sheet of thin ice on my windshield. I finally figured out that I was better off not using the wipers.

The gypsies continue to prognosticate that this snow will fall for a while today and then turn to rain later in the day. That will make for a lovely drive home.

I was right! It was a lovely drive home. I was crossing the freeway, about to enter the on-ramp when I saw the traffic was backed up for as far as I could see. I diverted to Trent Avenue, which was slower but moving. My 20 minute commute turned into a little over an hour.

A Journey of a Thousand Scraps

The project in the entryway continues. We have been on sabbatical long enough.


The next thing to tackle is preparing the walls to be papered. We are going from the entryway we have finished all the way to this arch. The wall papering will continue around the arch to the left and down the hallway to the bathroom and alternate entrance to the TV room.

One of the nightmares that has kept us from starting this portion is the ceiling. We have agonized over what to do with the textured ceiling which we find repulsive and not at all Victorian. The section of the ceiling shown below that is at a 45 degree angle will be papered. I have a couple of hours invested into scraping to remove the texture. More scraping is to follow. It is a messy job that travels throughout the house. Taking it in baby steps is the smart way to go for us.

Another project we shall embark upon is the continued restoration of the stairway. It is all but complete except for this little corner shown in the next photograph.


We surmise that sometime around the time when this house was turned into an upstairs and downstairs apartment, they butchered the woodwork shown in the picture in order to build a wall to separate the upstairs from the down. You can see in the wall the pattern of the molding that used to be there. That piece of wood adjacent to the stairs was broken away, perhaps with a chisel in order to accommodate the afore-mentioned wall.

We are getting back to the staining and varnishing soon as well. Stayed tuned to this blog because, well...what else are you gonna do?!

Thaw in Progress

The thaw is well under way and we could have a great deal less snow by tomorrow. Then it is supposed to get much colder for a few days. Whether or not snow will fall during the chill remains to be seen.

It can't be very interesting to read this and only find updates of the current weather conditions. I suppose I should return to the subject matter for which this blog was originally intended...the freakin house!

I did a little maintenance work in the driveway tonight. As sloppy as it is out there, I was able to skim a layer of snow and/or ice from some areas. I like a tidy driveway.

I then removed a few more remnants of Christmas from around the house. The last big thing I need to do is get the ladder out on the balcony and remove the lights I put up on the roof line up there. That's a Sunday during the day kind of job.

We are in talks now to arrange the continuation of the entry way roject. We have trim to put up but it still needs another coat of stain and then varnish. Anyway, we'll be getting to that soon.

Two More Inches

The snow fell steadily pretty much all day. Steady but not strong. It was an easy trip with the snow blower and I completed my rounds quickly.

I met a neighbor who lives behind me. His name is Joey and he lives in one of three apartments in the house across the alley, second one from the corner. He thanked me for clearing the sidewalk and said how much he appreciated it. I told him the Spider Man credo: With great power, comes great responsibility.

I've have come to realize that I am much better at maintaining my yard in the winter than I am in the summer.

The thing that you never know in this snow control game is what is coming next. They are predicting snow turning to rain tomorrow and there's a good chance that the rain will wash all this snow away. If that is the case, it is going to get sloppy again before it gets washed away and I am glad I have removed a lot of snow.

The last time it thawed (about a month ago) that sloppy thick street slush was very hard to navigate through. Susan's car, being as low to the ground as it is, has a real tough time when the snow gets deep.

Here is a picture I took of the house tonight. It's a nice winter shot.

A Day of Rest

We took it easy today and removed just a few of our Holiday decorations. We got the tree down and out, we removed most of the exterior Christmas lights, and susan stowed most of the decorations around the house. The village is still on the mantle as it depicts a wintery scene as well as a Christmasy scene.

Here are a couple of pictures I took of the house today when it was bright and sunny and freezing cold.

The First Day of the Rest of our Year

As commented upon in the previous post, we spent New Years Eve in Wallace, Idaho...a small mining town in the Silver Valley of about 900 peoples. We left Spokane yesterday and drove the hour and a half to lovely Wallace where we checked in to the Brooks Hotel. It's clean, it's cheap, they don't know what four stars means...and that fine.

We got ourselves settled in and then took off to explore the town. It's the perfect time of year for exploring as the temperature was around 9 degrees. In Wallace, you walk as everything you want to see is within a few blocks of wherever you are.


We were most pleased to discover that the Jameson Hotel has reopened. We have stayed there before and really like it. I think I have described it here as the most authentic reproduction of what an old west hotel must have been like. There are six rooms on the third floor. There are bathrooms down the hall. there are no TVs and no telephones. The telephone is no biggy in this day and age because everyone already has one with them at all times. The no TV thing can be a problem.


Fortunately, the Brooks has TVs and we used ours after our night on the town. More about that to come.


We had a drink at the Jameson and then walked over to the Wallace Brewing Company. It is a local micro brew establishment and the bartender was locking the door as we walked up. He reconsidered and let us in. We only had a beer so we didn't keep him long. It was seven and he hadn't had any business for an hour and this twenty something clearly wanted to get his New Years Eve under way.

We finally ended up eating at the 1313 Club and stayed there until about ten. They were actually shutting down and I'm not sure what other bars stayed open until midnight in Wallace.

We walked back to the Brooks and drank screw drivers and mamosas for the rest of the evening. Once the ball in Timesquare dropped, we fell asleep.

We woke up this morning to a report that it was 4 degrees at Lookout Pass. We got up there about ten and were surprised to find a relatively empty parking lot. The sun was out and we got in nine runs throughout the day, which is good for us.


We hit the road about 2:30 and amnaged to roll home and enjoy the hot tub for a nice long while. This is the time of year when it is great to have a hot tub.

Last Blog of 2010

Happy New Year!

We have decided to take New Years on the road so we are leaving shortly for Wallace, Idaho. It's about an hour and half drive on a lovely four lane freeway so it's really a breeze. We are going to spend the night in Wallace and ring in the new year there.

We will arise on January First, bright eyed and not hungover at all, and enjoy a day of skiing at Lookout Pass.

We should be working on the house, but there's plenty of time for that in Twenty-Eleven.

Last Snowstorm of Twenty-Ten

I got home last after about an hour on the road that would normally have taken about 20 minutes. After getting cats fed and beer open, I set about the task of snow blowing. At first I thought we had gotten about four inches but that was under a tree. When I got out into the middle of the driveway, there was easily se7en inches.

I had to narrow the swath of blowing destruction and slow the blower down a couple of gears so it took a little longer than normal. I think I was out there for two hours. But in the end, I was victorious and had a lot of snow replaced. I did a good portion of the street too.

The city announced they laid off six or seven employees on Christmas day (Merry Christmas, see ya later) and that meant snow plowing was going to take longer. I do not try to depend on the city for this kind of thing and so I took care of it. My little corner of the neighborhood, plus the sidewalks around the block, plus the alley are in good shape.

Here are some pictures.

Another thing I had to deal with last night was the Arbor Vitae. As I said, this was heavy snow and heavy snow is bad for tall shrubbery. Here's a picture of the Arbor Vitae after I had banged off about half of them.

Next, here is a picture to give a good depiction of the amount of snow we got since this morning.

Okay, that's it for me. I'm going in to enjoy an evening of television.

Hey! How's come the TV don't work!?!

Snow Day

I awoke to two wet, heavy, sloppy inches of snow and more coming down. I shoveled the area out to the cars and brushed the snow off our vehicles. There was no sense to snow blow since more is coming. I hate to leave my area un-blown throughout the day but sometimes you just have to accept your limitations.

The drive to work was fun this morning. It's the Holiday Season so traffic is a touch lighter than normal. But this heavy snow creates these really slushy berms in between lanes on the freeway and they can be a bit dicey when changing lanes.

1:30PM - The snow is still falling. It's still pretty wet. By now, I would guess we are looking at five inches on the ground...and it's still coming. It's gonna be some fun snow blowing when I get home.

I guess I had better realize that the forecasters that I deride so often have it right this time. The more in depth forecast says that it is going to get very cold in the next few days. So all this wet white snow is going to harden up soon and really be a bitch to deal with. I'll be doing a complete blow job tonight when I get home. Pictures to follow!