Staining Baseboards

I have finally completed cutting all the baseboard for the TV Room. I can't say I'm thrilled with the job I did on the coping corners. I only needed to cut three corners. Some look better than others. Thankfully, they are in the corners and they are dark.

I'm starting the staining process today. I've just painted on the wood conditioner and I'll begin staining in about 15 minutes. 

I'm staining the smaller boards today. If everything goes well, I might be able to devote some attention to my two really long boards...but I doubt it.

Above is the only picture I remembered to take during the staining process. The good news is that I was able to get all my boards treated and stained. So that gets me that much closer to having the baseboards ready to go.

We are planning on refinishing the floor this coming weekend. It's the Fourth of July so we have a three day weekend. I will probably have a four day weekend, which is a whole day better.

Once the floor is completed, we will be really close to finishing this project.

I am pretty happy with my efforts to match the north facing board with the curve in the floor.

I ended up making three passes to get it where I was satisfied. The final pass closed the gap even more than shown above.

Baseboard Part Deux

I think I have solved the baseboard problem.

I took my construction pencil and laid it on the floor with the lead up against the baseboard. Starting at the left end where the gap was really big, I drew the pencil along the board and created a cut line that followed the contour of the floor. 

I then used my jigsaw on the board, cutting right to the line, which created an arc that presumably matched the bow in the floor.

It worked! The board now sits much more snugly and flush against the floor. I ended up doing this procedure twice and I have gotten the left side to where the base shoe covers the gap. I might run it one more time to really snug it up.

I'm happy.

TV Room Base Board Predicament

I'm trying to figure out what to do with the baseboard I have milled for the TV Room.

The problem is shown above in the picture that shows the problem.

There appears to be a high point in the floor that does not allow the baseboard to lie flush to the floor at the left edge.

The other edge is not much better. However, the gap is small enough that the base shoe would cover it.

The gap at the left end is an inch high. The base shoe slides right under it.

I am thinking the way to solve this problem is to mark the midpoint of the board where the high point is and cut a straight line from the corner to that midpoint, about half an inch from the bottom. Then I would continue the cut at a slight angle towards a second mark further down the board and then straight for the bottom corner at the right end of the board.

I am essentially cutting a crude bow to match the floor. The base shoe will then hide the bow cut and the gap.

It doesn't have to be perfect, but it has to be better than it is.

The Hunt Begins

I found a junk box at work that had an assortment of promotional items in it, including a rain gauge to place in the yard. I screwed it to a fence post on Friday. Upon checking it this morning after yesterdays' rains, I measured .35 inches of moisture within the capture tube. Isn't that exciting!

It looks like it could be another day of rain but we don't care as we have begun the hunt for a couch in the TV Room.

We went out yesterday and found the style we are looking for although not the color or price range. The couch pictured above is basically what we are looking for. The two sides recline. The seat in the middle does not. This one was priced at $1,500.00.

We found a couple more, equally as nice and comfy at a furniture store close to us on Monroe. They had a similar couch that reclined electrically for 700 bucks.

We are going to continue the hunt today. Since we are a good ways off from finishing the room, we are not in a panic to buy.

Dumpster Day

It is a rainy wet Saturday so my plans to work outside are in the dumpster. I had a good mostly rain free day yesterday which allowed me to get several of the baseboards cut to length for the TV Room.

I decided to work on a minor little problem that popped up. When removing the plaster and lath walls, we left a chunk of plaster at the bottom of the wall. While it was close to being flush with the floor, it was not flush with the wall. The baseboards would not have fit up snugly to the wall.

So today we chipped out the plaster. It turned out to be quite a mess. However, it is done now and one more impediment removed to being done with this two year project.

I think my next move is to start sanding the floor. We are saving the main sanding for Fourth of July weekend but we can get a good head start by sanding the edges of the room. Since I have a couple of hand sanders, it should be no problem.

We are heading out shortly to look for a new couch for the TV Room. The La-Z-Boy store sent us a flyer concerning a sale that ends today. Probably not the best time to start looking. We're not even sure what we are looking for. Only that it reclines, is at least a three seater and is no more than eight feet long. Cup holders would be nice, but not mandatory. It's going to have to be comfy because I plan on logging a lot of time in this unit.

Baseboard Duty

I spent the bulk of my day milling the baseboards for the TV Room. Here is what we ended up with.

They're not fancy but they do have a passing resemblance to the baseboards on the rest of the main floor. 

My next project is to cut the boards to length and then get them stained. But first, a trip to Costco.

A Note to Our Scumbags

Victims of the Riot

It looks like we are an unhappy casualties from the riots last night.

Susan was preparing for her run while I was mowing tonight when she called to me and pointed to the front garden. I walked over, not sure what she was pointing at, only to discover our cement bench was missing.

This was the unfortunate scene. Our poor tin man just hanging there.

And this is what was taken. That bench was heavy so we figured someone must have really planned on taking it. They must have driven up and quickly loaded it into a vehicle. 

Scumbags like this are why we can't have anything nice.

We've brought the tin man in until we can replace the bench.

Historical Review

A week ago on Memorial Day, a man named George Floyd was arrested by Minneapolis Police. Three cops stood around while a fourth pressed his knee into the handcuffed man's neck. After about five or six minutes, Mr Floyd was dead.

Demonstrations started in Minneapolis the next night and turned to rioting. The rioting has spread to L.A., New York, Portland, San Francisco, Madison, Wisconsin, and last night, Spokane.

The protest started earlier in the day and was peaceful. It remained peaceful for a couple of hours. The crowd started to disperse when some anarchy supporting shit heads started damaging property. A bunch of storefront windows were shattered and the idiot crowd threw bricks at the Police line and the Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets.

Susan and I had just finished streaming a TV show when we came upon the local channels with "Breaking News". Channels 2, 4 and 6 were all reporting about the situation in downtown.

A curfew was in place for the downtown core and people were told to go home. A lot stayed around for a long time.

I finally went to bed around 11 and tried to keep a wary hear to the night outside. Of course, I fell asleep and the night passed peacefully.

It will be interesting to see what happens over the next couple of nights.

Cold and Windy Sunday

I was going to try and mow today but the weather is not cooperating. It's cold, windy and a strong chance of rain.

This doesn't seem to be a good day to start the Boiler Game, but it is done. I turned the heat off this morning. The Boiler Game is of course, the game where we turn off the furnace and see how long we can go until it must be turned on again. We have made it well into October before. In any event, let the game begin.

To celebrate the re-opening of stuff, we went out to breakfast with our friend Mark. We were going to go to this little place within walking distance called Cabot's Kitchen. But they were still closed. So we went to the new location of the Kalico Kitchen, which used to occupy Cabot's place before moving to this new locale.

Breakfast was good and the place was as full as they could make it under the new reduced occupancy rules.

I am about to conduct a search of this blog to find out when we re-did the floors in the TV Room. I'll let you know how I fare.

2:16PM: Success!  I was beginning to think I had blogged about the staining but not written done the formula. As it turns out, I did write it down.

It's the same formula we are currently using on the trim. I discovered it in a post dated September 6th, 2010. The surprising part to me was learning we put down 5 coats of varnish.

Chores for Friday

My project for today is to mill the lumber for the baseboards in the TV Room. Susan wants to match the baseboards everywhere else on the main floor and that makes sense to me.

However, they are not simple baseboards.

Here is a picture of what I'm trying to recreate. I'm going to use my newly acquired Dado blade and make the baseboard out of one piece of wood. I'll add the base shoe at the end.

I also need to make a trip to Costco and I want to do that early. However, Costco doesn't open until ten. So I have a couple hours to get some stuff done, take a Costco break, and then get back here and get to work.

12:36PM: I've been to Costco and back. 

I set up everything in the backyard and went to work. First I had to cut my boards down from ten inches to about eight and a half. That all went reasonably well. 

I changed out the saw blade for my half inch Dado blade and decided to try it out on my shortest board. I'm cutting nearly two and a quarter inches out of the board and it appears to be very stressful on my saw. It tripped the breaker on the saw. I was able to reset it but even taking it really slow didn't prevent the saw from tripping the breaker again.

My plans have been foiled by a malfunctioning table saw. Specifically, the reset button on the table saw. I have just returned from a venture out into the world to procure another reset button, but it's specific enough to the table saw application that I have to try and find it on line. Here I go!

1:07PM: It is possible I have found the part and it is available in Spokane. I found it through Grainger.com, who seem to have everything. I'm waiting for an e-mail telling me to go and pick it up.

In the meantime, I'm dead in the water with my baseboard project until I get this part. I guess I'll go clean up.

2:30PM: I just returned from Grainger in the Valley with my new part. Unfortunately, it is not even close to the part I ordered. I should have checked it before leaving. Now I have to go back.

Shit!

I can't make it there before they close for the day. And they're not open until Monday. Unfortunately, they close at 3 which is most inconvenient.

SHIT!

Time to go to the pool.

The Return of the Hub

We have just returned from the re-opening of the Hub. It was so nice to be back in our little neighborhood bar. They cut the capacity from 49 to 24 1/2. It wasn't terribly busy but people were just happy to be back.

It's amazing how we miss the little things. I'm going to try and appreciate the stupid stuff we take for granted. Like drinking beer in the privacy of your own neighborhood bar.

Lawn of Crap and Other Stuff

We are deep in the grips of the Memorial Day weekend. I've been off since Friday but I really didn't accomplish much that day. Everything I wanted to do required being outside and it kept raining...like it has all week. I really need to mow the lawn even though it pretty much looks like a step above a waste land.

My big project for the weekend is to get all the trim stained. It's a two stain process in order to achieve the color we like. The above picture shows about half of my boards.

This picture shows me getting ready to stain. Notice I am social distancing AND wearing my protective mask.

Susan is out beautifying the front yard with some flower planting. I'm heading out for round two of my staining.

I still have one more trim cutting project to do. I have to cut all the baseboard but Susan wants it to match what we have in the rest of the house. That will require some special milling which I will get in to when the time comes.

In the meantime, here's some of the stained wood from yesterday.

Okay, a little time has passed and I have completed the staining. Just by the hair of  my chinny chin chin. I got right down to the bottom of the can. I have just returned from the General Store where I acquired another small can of Dark Walnut. I was worried the General Store wasn't big enough to stock a bunch of colors. I also had a slight fear that they discontinued Dark Walnut.

But I lucked out and found it.

Here is a picture illustrating the difference between the first coat and the second. This picture doesn't quite show how much darker the board on the right is from the one on the left.

Anyway, we have a formula to follow and follow it we shall.

Susan has completed her farming almost and now we look respectable enough to be in this neighborhood. Don't look at the back yard.

So now, it's time to mellow out and enjoy the rest of the day.

Saturday Musings

It is a beautiful Spring Saturday and we are going to do some stuff today. I don't want to be more pacific than that for fear of sounding stupid.

We've just returned from church where we dropped off some food our Pastor is collecting to deliver to the food bank. It looks like we are making a nice haul.

While there, we observed the damage from the fire on Wednesday that burned up a good portion of our shrubbery. 

I counted at least 40 to 45 shrubs that need to be replaced. We have no culprits regarding how this happened but we suspect smoking kids.

I spent a good portion of yesterday with my power washer. I cleaned Mom's patio and washed her patio carpets. Then I came home and power washed the deck. Man...did it need it! I'm going to break out the chairs at some point this weekend.

Today I'm going to continue with the power washing theme. We have two outdoor carpets for the front porch that need a good scrubbing. While I have it out and operating, I'm going to wash my car and hose down the barbecue, which we will be using tonight for to make a fabulous Saturday evening meal. Steaks and asparagus! Yum!!

It's approaching noon o'clock and we are just now having a breakfast burrito that Susan made. Yum!!

We are still in the midst of the Covid-19 Lockdown where we are all staying home and trying not to interact with each other. People are starting to get antsy and many are calling for the opening of some businesses. It will probably be a while before we can return to the Hub but there is no problem going to the store or anywhere else as long as you maintain a 6 foot distance from others.

Okay, time to get outside and not spread the Covie.

Window Work

We are still in the midst of a Stay Home order as the Covid-19 Corona-virus continues to shut down the world. Susan and I are both still working. We received our Gub'ment Stimulus money this past week which added $2,400.00 to our bank account. So we are still surviving this comfortably.

Fortunately, we have stuff to do here at the house which is keeping us from going stir crazy. We work on the house by day and watch TV by night. Currently, we are working our way through "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" on Amazon and "Tiger King" on Netflix.

The project I wanted to complete this weekend was to make this window open. I am trying to restore all the windows as we go through the rooms so that they work reasonably well. That usually includes stripping them down the bare wood, tearing in to the window, and replacing the ropes that hold the weights.

This window was painted shut on the outside and then to make it even more unopenable, someone caulked the lower part of the window to the sill. I'm sure that was done to seal up the gap but it could be as easily sealed with a nice rubber strip along the bottom, which is what I intend to do.

It took a while and quite a bit of patience. I've done work on this window before and in the process, cracked the glass. I did not want to repeat that.

The hardest part was dealing with the weights. They must easily weigh 50 pounds each. While attaching the weights, I had a major problem with the rope falling off the pulleys and getting jammed. It took a while but we prevailed.

Susan has finished up the stripping and is concentrating on some small detail work on the door jams. She now thinks we are ready to start painting and putting up the picture rail and crown molding.

It's approaching three o'clock and time to relax with a cold malty beverage on the front porch.

Roofing News

We got very serious about this roof. I went so far as to look into a loan from our mortgage company and one from my local bank. We figured we could put down $5,000.00 and finance $20,000.00. 

We were approved for both loans but then began to re-evaluate our situation. Since Susan isn't working at the arena and I'm only working 30 hours a week, we decided the timing was not right.

The roof still has a couple of years to go on it and there are no leaks so we are not desperate. Of course, in a couple of years, it's not going to be $25,000.00

Easter Weekend 2020

We are at the end of the Lenten Season which means I get to drink beer again. It's been a tough go getting through this. There have been lots of evenings where I have come home and thought how nice a beer would be. The frothy taste, the bubbly foam...ahhhh.

We have someone coming over at 2:00 today to give us an estimate on a new roof. I have big reservations about this because I have a feeling from the phone contact that this is going to be a high pressure sales effort.

Originally, I had the appointment set for Monday. Then they called back and asked if I was married and would my wife be there. I said no and they requested to reschedule when she would be available. That little action alone set off an alarm. We'll see how it goes.

For now, we are making a run over to our church to paint a banner. We are going on our fourth week of suspended services but we thought our church should make a statement in lieu of Easter.

We do not expect that banner to last very long. It was windy out and the non tear fabric I used for the banner was pulling through the staples. At least I have it enshrined here forever...or for ever how long the Inter-web lasts.

After that, I have a couple of friends coming over at noon to enjoy the first beer with me.

4:33PM: I have dranken beer and it was worth the dranking.

The roof guy came by and looked everything over, took some measurement and gave us a bid of $27,000.00. I was expecting it to be around $30K so the three thousand dollar discount was appreciated. But, if we make the decision by Tuesday, the price is $23,000. I'm not sure what is magical about Tuesday that makes the price increase but I expect it has something to do with F.M. 
(Hint: The M stands for "Magic".)

In the meantime, we are winding down our day which has turned out to be a good one. Susan is preparing some food for tomorrow. We are taking food over to Mom's. The house is currently alive with the smell of bacon, which is driving me nuts.

Finding Gold

I am acutely aware that some of the information I post here could be used against us. For instance, I never post about an upcoming vacation or news of a trip until after we are home. I never say anything about the guns we may or may not own. If anybody wants to come over and find out, they are welcome to try.

So I am a little reticent to report that we have returned from a journey to Costco and acquired toilet paper. That was totally unexpected. 

We got to Costco about noon:30 and realized there was a line. From the car, the line didn't seems too long. However, they have learned from Disneyland how to disguise the length of a line.  When we got up to the line, we saw it was much longer.

To their credit, it was fast...probably 15 minutes. We wanted to get a ham for Easter just in case Mom wants to have dinner with us. And we got an assortment of other goodies as well. 

I always make it a habit to check out the toilet paper aisle when I go to the store...any store, even Home Depot. I did not expect to find the gold mine that I discovered.

Including the beer we have been stockpiling during our Season of Lent No Beer sequestration, we are now set up for this Stay at Home Seclusion dealie for quite some time.

Hey Bad Guys! Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson are ready for your visit.

Living Through an Historic Event

We are about 5 days in to an order from the Governor to stay at home. More and more states are making the same declaration. The Congress has passed and the President has signed a $6 trillion stimulus package. I think that may be the most damaging thing to us once this pandemic is over.

Susan and I are still working and we have savings we can use to keep going if this goes on for months. Plus, we have a freezer full of food. Most of it, we can't eat because of a diet we are on for Lent. Once Easter arrives, watch out!

So we are not feeling the pressure that many other people must be feeling. This looks like it could be May or June before things return to normal. The problem with that is nobody knows what normal is going to look like.

Toilet paper has become a major commodity. If you have some, you have some bargaining power. We just figured out a way to extend our toilet paper supply. We purchased an attachment for the toilet that turns it into a bidet. It was astonishingly less expensive than I have seen in the past. So we got two. Does that count as hoarding?

It did occur to us that even with the bidet, we are going to use toilet paper. How else to you dry your ass? A Hair Dryer perhaps.

We are going to try and be productive today. There's no reason to be stuck here and not accomplish anything.

I'm also going to take some squirrel pictures today. Stand by for that.

Later: It's been a few hours now and we have done well with the day.

First, here are the squirrel pictures:

We moved the couch out of the TV Room in order to make room for "The Return to Remodeling".

I discovered a mouse trap under the couch that I had forgotten about. However, the trap had not forgotten how to work. We got one. It did not appear he had been there long.

Susan continued stripping the front window and I set about to measuring the room to see how much wood I need. I need to buy trim for the three doors, trim for the two windows and baseboard for the one floor. I'll need a corresponding amount of base shoe for the floor as well.

We are all set to go out for a walk but suddenly the skies opened up. We're waiting, rethinking. In this peculiar time, you have to be fast on your feet.

Even Later: Nope! No walk. It was coming down pretty good and now the sun is coming out. I will not be baited. It will turn to rain as soon as we get out there.

Better to enjoy a glass of wine on the porch.

The Equinox of Vernalosity

With all the excitement and worry over the Covid 19 Virus and how it has shut down life in America as we know it, Spring snuck in without any fanfare.

Winter is like Lent. When it's over, you really have something to celebrate. Today we are having a really great Spring day. I was out driving around earlier and saw a bank sign that flashed 64 degrees. 

Susan and I have just returned from a bike ride. My stamina still sucks. We did three laps around the park, taking the one mile route and my bike speedometer said 3.34 miles. Perhaps the park got stretched out over the winter. That's close enough to accurate for me.

I'm going to go out on the porch when I finish this and enjoy a glass of wine. I would like to enjoy a glass of beer, but that's still a couple of weeks away. In the meantime, I've lost 12 pounds.

We are talking about getting back on the job of finishing up the TV Room. We haven't worked on it since last Fall. We even moved the couch back in there to accommodate the Christmas tree in the living room. 

Now that we are home more, we might as well get that going.

Now, it's time for some wine followed by some grilled asparagus.