More Sanding and Snow Pole Update

I am going to be waaaaay off on my Snow Pole Prediction. Fortunately, there is no money involved so I'm not really out anything except my dignity, which went out the door a long time ago.

We have had nothing but rain for the last few days and all the snow I was hoping for in January and February has failed to materialize. I was so hoping to break our seasonal snowfall record this year but that is on the same trip with my dignity.

I guess I should concentrate on my other goal of getting the stairs sanded before St. Patty's Day. That seems more attainable, especially after my progress tonight. Both upper landings are cleared of stain and I will be moving on to more steps tomorrow. Now that I am not obsessed with bare wood, I am moving along quite nicely.

I was forced to stop tonight because I ran out of sand paper. It was not from lack of planning. It was from lack of purchasing the right sized belt for the belt sander. I have it correct now and will have the right stuff here for tomorrow's session.

I would like to write now of my impending senility. It's coming quicker than I had planned. I have had two recent episodes that left me wondering how much longer before I'm in diapers.

A few weeks ago I was installing a new light in the hallway. I went downstairs to my electrical supplies box to retrieve a switch. I quickly found one and proceeded to bring it upstairs to install it. Somewhere between the basement and the installation area, I lost the switch. I had it in my hand, got distracted by something, put it down and let it fall into an vortex that has not reappeared. I still haven't found it.

Tonight, I recieved my license tabs for the car in the mail. The tab was taped to the new registration paper. Almost as soon as I untaped the tab, I got distracted by something and placed them in the same vortex as the switch. I looked around the kitchen for 45 minutes trying to figure out what I did with the stupid little tab. It was not to be found and I could not for the life of me remember where I might have laid it. I went so far as looking for the number of the county registrar of lost tabs department so I could explain that I lost the tab in my Depends.

Fortunately, I had an epiphony which allowed me to locate the tab hidden on top of a cookbook with an uncanny resemblance to the back of the tab. I probably would not have found it had I not picked up the book to look under it.

Still, I'm sure my sanity is waning and it is only a matter of time before poor Susan will be feeding me and then shipping me off to a home. At that point, she will find the switch and put it away.

Snow Competition

I have been keeping an eye on my snow pole and wondering when it will fall over. If the rain continues the way it did yesterday, it should fall over within the week. If we get a little snow as they are suggesting we might, it could be longer. I'm going to choose March 13th.Currently, the snow pole is sitting in a bank of snow that is about se7en inches high. However, the area of snow around the base of the pole is a bit lower as it is melting more around the pole than the surrounding snow. If it snows in the next couple of days, it might fill in that hole and add additional support. It's very hard to say and I am only speculating now in order to make more words in today's post.

Sanding continues on the stairs but we have decided that I am being too aggressive in my efforts. We will be re-staining the steps a dark dark brown so it really isn't necessary to sand them down to bare wood.

When I say we have decided I'm being too aggressive, I mean not me. However, after consulting with others, I been persuaded to believe that perhaps Susan is Ri...rrrrrr.....not wrong.

Anyway, I shall continue in a less aggressive manner and hopefully have it all done before...oh let's see, I'm not very good at setting goals and then meeting them. Okay, let's say St. Patrick's Day!

I have started a new batch of beer which I am planning on entering in the fair this coming September. I am developing what I believe to be a rather unusual recipe. I shall not reveal my ingredients at this point. I think it will suffice to say that "Skunk Pelt Beer" will be the talk of the fair.I was surprised by the amount of spooge (official brewing term) the primary fermenter (another official brewing term) contained when I racked (Yup) the wort (uh huh). There was a good inch of spoogie sediment in the bottle. Probably a good idea to get it racked outta that stuff. (non-official brewing term)

I also had to add almost a gallon of water to top it off. It didn't seem to effect the taste or the gravity reading but it definitely effects the alcohol content. This should be around 5 percent. It's a porter and they are generally not high alcohol beverages.

I will be bottling it in about a week which means I better start now to get all my bottling equipment together. I'm only going to bottle about a gallon of the five gallon batch. The rest will go in the keg. The requirements of the fair force me to bottle. I don't do it often and so I am often scrambling to find everything I need at bottling time. (Drink beer now)

Sanding Continues...Sort of

I didn't do very much sanding tonight because I had to perform a meticulous search of each and every step for hidden staples, nails and foreign metal objects. It took the bulk of my time to get this accomplished and it was a necessary task to get out of the way. I severely damaged a couple of perfectly good sanding pads last night because of contact with foreign metal matter causing rips in the sand paper.

I also found more trim to remove that I had not previously considered for removal because I did not see it. Trim can hide in the most unexpected of places. It's as if they purposely stuck it in all sorts of nooks and crannies. Nooks aren't so bad but the crannies are very difficult to get the trim out of.

Anyway, I only used two more pieces of sand paper tonight. Many more to come.

Sanding: #01

The Staircase renovation has begun. Susan had to work tonight so it seemed a perfect time to begin sanding the staircase. I believe I made fairly good progress.

Here you can see the base of the stairs as they were before I began the arduous task removing 99 years of stain, dirt, mold, slime, goo, schmagma, crap, and poo from the surface.

I started with our detail sander but quickly realized that I should start large and finish small. So I pulled out the palm sander and, using 60 grit sand paper, went to work. The treads and the siding sanded to bare wood pretty easily and quickly. I discovered that you can't get too attached to any particular piece of sand paper. You use them up quickly and without prejudice. When it is no longer doing the job for you, it is not prudent to keep using the same worn out piece of sand paper. (There are so many metaphors I could use here, but every one of them gets me in trouble with someone who might read this)Once you add a fresh replacement, the difference is amazing and readily noticeable. I only completed four steps tonight but that was in the span of about an hour and a half.

The odd thing is that the side trim and the treads sand to wood pretty easily. The risers are much more difficult to sand. For one thing, I can see that we missed a LOT of staples and nails when we pulled the carpet up four years ago. I'm going to have to meticulously examine each riser for staples and nails. If you miss one, particularly a broken staple, it rips the hell out of your sandpaper.

I used one sheet of sand paper on tonight's efforts. I figure I need about se7en more sheets. Probably more!

times se7en!

Happy Valentine's Day

Many people will be surprised and totally caught off guard to learn that today is Valentine's Day. We call these people "Men".

I have been pro-active in the whole Valentine's thing because I realized early in my marriage that, despite what a woman may tell you, Valentine's Day is very important and you better not blow it.

I have done many little things around the house this week as part of my Valentine's gifting. I installed a light that shold have been installed a loooooooooong time ago.

I cleaned my closet. That was long overdue.

I bought two dozen roses to be delivered to her at work with a cheesy poem.

And last night, we went to dinner at the Cedars Floating Restaurant.

So while I have successfully fulfilled my Valen-duties, I must say that Susan out did me in the gifts department. She made me some little Valentine's Cakes, she bought me cigars, as well as some Hershey's Hugs and Kisses, and she had an old watch that was my grandfather's repaired. That was perhaps the best and most thoughtful gift.

I'll have to try better next year.

Wrecking Havoc

We've been stalled for a week trying to figure out our next move. I really wanted to see what was behind the wall in the front entry way, so it was decided that the wall comes crumbling down.It didn't really take all that long to remove the plaster. No more than a couple of hours from start to finish, including clean up. Unfortunately, removing the plaster did not reveal the hidden door frame we hoped was there.

We have always suspected that upon entering the house, there was a door into what is now our TV room. We thought it might have been used as a receiving parlor. We were hoping to find a door frame verifying our suspicions.No door frame. There are two water pipes in the wall that at one time were tied into the Boiler Radiator system that heats the house. They probably fed the radiator in our bedroom. Sadly, the bedroom radiator was removed before we moved in. If we want our door idea to work, the pipes will have to go as well.

I must say how much I enjoy removing plaster and lath. It's very cathartic and destructive. I also like the rustic look of the lath.

Having made this move we are well entrenched into what will now be known as, "The Year of the Entryway".

A Lazy Sunday

I don't want to run the risk of offending the National Football League and getting into copyright infringement issues, so I will only say that today there is a big game known as the Uper-Say Owl-Bay.

We went out to Scotty's Bar & Grill for the festivities. That gave us a lazy morning to sit around and do nothing. We still managed to be a little bit productive but nothing on the house.

At the start of the season, I was involved in a Fantasy Football League where you pick 4 teams and then you win points depending on how your teams did. I didn't do too badly because my teams were Colorado, San Diego, NY Giants and Arizona. Arizona won me $20.00 by making it into the Uper-Say Owl-Bay and I had the opportunity for $40.00 more if they won. You can therefore make your own assumptions about which team I was supporting.

Unfortunately, they came very close and made it a great game but I will not be doing the happy dance. The final score was 27-23 with Arizona not winning. I will not say the name of the team that won even though I am really not emotionally vested in either team.

Anyway, congrats to those other guys and now it is time to get back to work on the house.