They Don't Know it's Not Summer

We are in store for another beautiful Summer style sort of a day. It's supposed to be up into the 80s today. I guess nobody told Summer to leave.

We have officially wound up the exterior painting season for the year. We made great progress this year with the east side being completed and two thirds of the south side.

Now we are cleaning up all the dust that has accumulated since before Labor Day and trying to get things back to somewhat normal.

In some news unrelated to Home Remodelment, we had a rape in the park on Saturday night. Some upstanding member of the community apparently convinced a 19 year old girl he met in a McDonald's parking lot that he was a Police Officer. She was carrying an alcoholic drink and he was going to take her to jail unless she "gave him a piece of her". Nice guy! He hand cuffed her and drove her to Corbin Park where he took his piece.

Fortunately, the bastard is cooling his ass in jail and is accused of rape.

I bring this up only because we have been trying to get additional lighting in the park for about four years now. We have the funding through our Neighborhood Council which gets money from Community Development Grants. It takes forever because the Park Department puts us on a low priority. We have additionally screwed up the system by changing the kind of light we want at the eleventh hour.

I'm not sure lights would have prevented this rape but it wouldn't have made it easier. The east end of the park is very dark right now.

Furniture Moving Day

It's a very exciting Sunday here as we are returning furniture to the TV Room. Since I have my camera back I'm going to load up on befores and afters.

Here is a fresh set of befores showing the gloriouly restored floor of the Television and Media Center Room.

And here is the room furnished.

My other big project of the day was to permanently evict all future skunk families and their associated heards from occupying the basement of the Carriage House. It is now effectively sealed from skunkage. I hope! They are very good diggers.

Perfect Summer Day in Autumn

Today was a classic beautiful Fall Day. The temperature was well into the 70s and it was really nice out. I took advantage of an offer to leave the bar early and came home and cleaned the hot tub. It needed it even though I only filled it up about a couple of weeks ago. I didn't do a very good job cleaning it the first time and it had lots of floaty spooge in the water. I hope my efforts today will yield better results. My camera came back to me today. I was worried about getting it back but the Pullman police came through. It cost me $10.00 to have it swent C.O.D. but I'm glad to have it back.

The house painting continues and Ronnie is almost finished for this season. The picture below shows the south side of the house which we were not even expecting to paint this year. Finally, we are ahead of schedule on one of our projects.
She hasn't painted the whole outh side but it is well over half complete.

Happy 2010 Equinox

I celebrated the first full day of Autumn with a score in the Skunk Trap. I believe that now has me up to four skunks for the month and 13 career catch and releases. This one went smoothly with no odious release...although the skunk nearly turned towards me as it was exiting the trap.

The mornings are getting chilly. We turned on the heater in the bedroom last night. I'm going to be reattaching radiators this weekend and filling the system. If that goes well and I detect no leaks, I will be ready to light up the boiler at a moments notice. I will still be trying to go as long as I can before igniting.

Also on the agenda for the weekend will be to return furniture to the TV room and in doing so, start to return to normal. Susan ordered wall paper the other day so soon we will be applying that...and what fun that will be!!!

Another item we need to address is the carpet runner on the stairs. I think we are to the point where we can schedule that. I'm looking forward to seeing how that looks. Plus, I need something there to cushion the fall that is invariably in my future.

Last of Summer

It is the final full day of Summer and looks to be a loverly day. There is no Equinotical Celebration other than the balancing of an egg on end...and I never do that.

I much prefer the Vernal to the Autumnal although all the seasons have their own special appeal.

We have called the floor offically refinished and are beginning our clean up. In a couple more days we will return furniture to its proper place and then move on to the final finish work. That involves trim work...baseboards and such and placing the new stair runner. I'm hopeful it will not linger on our "To Do" list for too long.

Hops and Varnish

It was a busy evening here at the ranch and we fit a lot of stuff into a few short hours.

I started shortly after arriving home with a quick hops harvest. Basically, I chopped a bunch of vines and removed them from the arbor around the deck. I have no plans to keep the hops this year since I still have hops from last year that I have no plans for. I did make a lovely Autumn Wreath with some of the hops and vines. I would love to show you a picture which will serve as my entry into the Gay Hall of Fame but my camera is still in Pullman. The Authorities there are sending the camera to me C.O.D. Plus, I don't believe the Gays would allow me in their Hall. As Gay as I can be, I don't think I'm Gay enough. But...that always gives me something to shoot for.

When Susan got home, we began the Floor Varnishing project. We did some last minute sanding! We vacuumed! We wiped up the floor with tack cloth!

WE VARNISHED!

I think we will be mostly happy with the results. I can safely say this because I know we are not doing any more. The floor is the floor and it will be what it will be and we can live with that!

Okay, I must go now as this is Day One of the network television Fall schedule and the new Hawaii Five-O is about to start. I'm Gay for Hawaii!

Floor Refinishing-Almost The Final Chapter

Today we are going to attempt to fill the holes in the Entryway Hall. We have found a product made by Minwax that is a colored putty. It pretty closely matches the stain color and will let us fill the holes, do a light sanding and then finish with a fifth coat of varnish.

I would very much like to show pictures but we went to an event in Pullman yesterday involving my Fraternity and I left my camera on the dinner table. Such a Dumbass! I'm counting on one of my Frat Bros to recover the camera for me but I will try to make a couple of calls. If I don't get it back, the only real loss is the pictures I took at the event. The camera is on it's last legs and badly needs replacing. perhaps this is the incident that propels me to a new camera.

A couple of hours have passes since the last paragraph was written. We have filled the holes in the floor and we have the sore fingers to prove it. I have sanded most of it but then ran out of sand paper. I am awaiting the return of Susan with more sand paper.

This filling operation appears to be working and I think we will be happy with the outcome.

Susan has just arrived and so I must return to my sanding.

Okay! The sanding is complete and we will apply varnish tomorrow.

Hell Holes

Today we are going to attempt to fill the holes we missed in the Entryway Hall. We have found a putty that Minwax makes that will allow us to fill the holes, do a light sanding and then varnish over the top. This will be coat number five for the entryway.

I hope this works because I have no intention of resanding down to wood and starting over.

Floor Varnishing & House Painting

We returned to floor refinishing last night by sanding the floor in the TV room to get a smoother finish. We have accomplished that but our floor looks rather ratty now. We have been told by several semi-knowledgeable confidants that this ratty look will disappear when a final coat of varnish is applied.

That therefore is our goal for the night. The house painting is continuing and is going along quite nicely. This is a job that we have farmed out to Ronnie the Painter which means our only input into this job is to sign the checks. We were planning to do the east side seen pictured below, but she is cruising along so nicely that we told her to keep going on the south side as well...if she so desires.

You can see from the picture below that she already has a good start on the south side. If she completes it this season, we will finish our house painting project a year ahead of schedule. We don't finish ANYthing ahead of schedule.

We have been contemplating a trip to Walla Walla to see about acquiring Grapes for some homemade wine. From everything I can find, it is still too early for harvesting yet. Besides, it's not like I'm going to announce here when the house will be empty for the weekend. I might as well leave the front door open.

Skunks and Paint

My trap remained empty throughout the night. The good news is that there was no digging. That means I have the opportunity to try and block any further access. When I get home from work today, I'm going to place every large piece of lumber I can haul over in front of the Carriage House. That should be enough to keep them from digging in before I get something permanent down.

The house painting is coming along nicely. It's not done yet but she's getting there. I think I can re-set the hot tub but I have to find out from Ronnie if she is finished in that area. I want to get it running again only to get a good read on how much it costs to operate. I have this past months electricity usage and if it stays somewhat warm for a few more weeks, it should be enough to give me a comparable reading. I just want to know whether the hot tub costs me $20.00 a month or $87.50 a month.

Skunk Free Zone - Not!

There was evidence of digging under the Carriage House this morning so I have set two traps for the night. Unfortunately, as I was returning into the house, Willy bolted out the door. We have both tried to coax him in but he is not responding. I would rather catch a couple of skunks than a skunk and a cat. But then again, spending a night in a trap might do Willy some good.

Another Skunk Rides the Bus

I got up at six to check the trap I set. I was pleased to see I scored! I now believe we have them all rounded up and re-located to the Se7en Mile Hiking Area, an area I would not recommend for a pleasant hike. If I get one more, that will be thirteen skunks I have re-located to that area.


I'm not sure this one will last long. The first thing he did when I set him free was to cross the road. All the others went deep into the forrest.


Number Twelve was also rather agitated and expressed that agitation the way skunks express stuff. I was not hit by the expression but I was definitely in the blast zone. Enough so that I was smelling skunk during our morning SpokeFest ride.


We rode the nine mile course which was actually almost ten. My big accomplishment for the ride was to make it up Doomsday Hill without stopping. I was breathing pretty hard at the top and smelling skunk.


I have just gotten out of the shower and changed into clean clothes and I till think I can smell a faint hit of agitation.


I'll have Susan smell me.

Later That Day: We have returned from the Spokane Interstate Fair where we learned that we scored Red, White and Blue Ribbons in the Wine competition. Our Pinot Blanc got a third place ribbon. I received a Second place ribbon for the label for the Pinot. Susan got a First Place Blue Ribbon for her Coastal Red Label. The Coastal Red Wine itself got nuthin...as I expected it would. It' drinkable but nothing special.

I still kind of smelled skunk on me off and on during the fair and it still is mighty pungent out by the garage where the little stinker let loose.

In Fair news, we ate lots of crap on a stick and looked at bunny's. That's about all I can say for the fair this year. It's getting very expensive to go. Fortunately, we have all that prize money to look forward to.

Final Assessment

We have critiqued our floor refinishing project and have regretfully come to the conclusion that we are not satisfied. We are therefore withholding payment to the re-finishers until they return for a final treatment. That treatment shall involve a light sanding of the entire refinishing area and another coat of varnish if required...and we believe it will be.

We are not happy about any of this. Especially the part where the re-finishers told us they are not available until NEXT WEEKEND. Apparently, they have lives and things to do during the upcoming week that will prevent them from finishing the job in a timely manner that ends before tomorrow.

What we have learned from this experience is:
Do not trust some fly-by-night husband and wife team who seemingly have the knowledge and experience to complete such a job only to discover later that they are us...and us are not knowledgeable or experiencentational to do this right the first time.

Okay, it's not a disaster. But we really feel we should sand very lightly in order to get a more smootherness finishment. If we have to apply another coat of varnish, so be it. We can do that. The only issue is that we can't completely return the house to semi-normal until we get this job done. That means the Living Room will continue to be filled with furniture and the doorways will still be blocked off. I cannot re-install the radiators which means if it does get chilly, and it has been, we are without our main source of heat.

But we do have alcohol!

Have a nice weekend!

The End of Camping

We awokened awake at 5:00AM as the blare of several alarms collided to send our dreams packing. That's the kind of flowery prose I can produce first thing in the morning.

We have now applied four coats of varnish and my mistakes made on the first coat appear to be hidden by the fourth.

We shall return home tonight and hopefully can start to walk around in the forbidden area. Then we can move furniture back on Friday.

Divorce Averted

I really screwed up on my varnishing last night. I was spreading varnish like I was mopping. The result I looked at this morning was a streaky mess. Susan has been castigating me severely and I think she called a lawyer last night.

However, I believe I redeemed myself this morning. The alarm went off at 5:30 and we got up to get a second coat down on the floor. I'm happy with my result. I got a much smoother coat down and the divorce has been deflected...at least delayed.

We will get a third coat down after work today and that should do it. Then we need to let it sit for about 36 hours before we can move furniture and return to normal.

We're still camping!

Varnish Day Coat Number One

It feels like we're camping!

The house is like a maze and there is no direct access to the upstairs. We have to go to the front door and walk across a plank to the stairs or go up the back staircase, which is already a gauntlet of obstacles.

But, we are getting it done. We got the first coat of varnish down and it looks pretty damn good.The picture below shows it going down and it looks pretty glossy. It dries to a satin so it won't be quite that shiny.

We got the first coat down tonight in less than an hour. The plan is to get up early in the morning and get down a second coat. In this manner, we can get the varnishing done in a timely manner and keep us from having to sand in between coats.

Time to stoke the campfire and roll out the sleeping bags.

Refinishing Day Trezz

Official Stain Info Notice:

TV Room Stain - MinWax English Chestnut #233 Apply to 6 board width. Wait 12 to 15 minutes and wipe.

Second Coat - MinWax Dark Walnut #2716 Apply to six board width. Wait 10 minutes and wipe.

Entry Hall Way - Lowe's Brand Kobel Special Walnut. Apply and wipe within 5 minutes. More like 2 to 3 minutes.

Susan was not satisfied with our first coat. It looked good last night but was much lighter looking this morning. So, another coat of a darker stain that we had was decided upon.

We got that done in about an hour and a half and then prepared for the hallway. We wanted to get all our staining finished today. And that is just what we did! I don't mind telling you...We are awesome! Here are some random photos.

I'll try to get some more pictures posted in the next couple of days.

Tomorrow is the deadline to get the wine into the fair. As usual, I have been waiting until the last minute to get my label created. I got up this morning and went to work on this little gem that Susan and I have been mulling in our minds for a couple of days.

MilBurDue is a compilation of Miller, Burke and Dueber. We all joined together to purchase this rather costly wine kit...$180.00.

So this will be the label for the wine entry as well as the Label Contest...duh!

Sanding Day Deux

I think we have now captured all the skunks in the yard. We woke up this morning to another skunk who took the bait. We loaded him into the truck and took him out to the Se7en Mile Release Center that I now call Eleven Skunk Acres...cuz that's how many I have transplanted there.We did ride our bikes down to Pig Out and enjoyed the musical stylings of Junior Cadillac as well as some food.

After a couple of hours, we returned home and returned to the sanding. I did the second sanding with 80 grit paper and smoothed out all the roughness. It only took about 30 minutes and two sheets of sand paper.

Then we went to work on filling all the holes.The picture above shows the back hallway where I replaced much of the flooring. There were some giant spaces between boards that required much putty.

As soon as I finish typing here, I shall begin another round of sanding to remove the excess wood putty. Providing that goes well, we will return the floor sander and try to find a stain to match the living room as seen below.

Blast Off to Sanding

I jumped out of bed at se7en this morning to check my skunk trap.I was victorious...at least partially. I know there is at least one more. I shall set the trap again tonight.

I loaded the little stinker into the truck and took him out to my skunk dumping ground out past Se7en Mile. It's right next to the ORV park. Probably not the best place to hike seeing as how I have now transplanted 10 skunks out there.

I returned to town and headed for the local neighborhood Hardware store to procure a floor sander. Sadly, the local neighborhood Hardware Store was out of them. So I had to go to Home Depot and of course, had no problem acquiring one there. It's not a bad thing, I just prefer to give my money to the locally owned neighborhood Hardware Store.

I got the sander, brought it home and went to work...after getting Susan out of bed.

It went remarkably fast and with very little sanding dust in the air. I started at 10 and I finished my first pass over all 235 square feet at about 1.

There are the befores and afters in the TV Room. It went even faster on the hardwood in the hall and entryway. We still have a lot to do around the edges but that will have to wait as we are biking downtown to Pig out to listen to Junior Cadillac and have some food.

I should also point out the Ronnie stopped by and continued the painting project. She is cruising right along and I expect she will be finished in a couple of days.

Off to Pig Out!

Countdown to Floor Refinishing Continues

We did not accomplish anything last night concerning Floor Refinishing Preparation, because of the intense competition with "Pig Out in the Park".

We decided to go down to the park and listen to "Too Slim and the Taildraggers". They are a popular local band that is getting some minor national exposure. They are a great rockin, bluesy band.

I took the opportunity to show off my high profile cutting edge technology T-Shirtdown at the park. The T-Qualizer was rocking and I probably could have sold 10 of them last night. maybe more. You knows!


So now we have lost another night towards getting ready for Saturday and the big sand. I'm not suggesting we would have done something toward getting ready...I'm just saying we didn't do anything tonight.

Countdown to Floor Refinishing S'Mo

The sanding the other night went well and I accomplished what I wanted to accomplish. The hand sanding hopefully will be limited to small, tight areas as it is kind of tedious. I still have a little work to do around the radiator pipes. Looks like there is a little water damage going on around there.

Tonight, we begin to move the furniture out of the TV Room. We will attempt to arrange it in an orderly fashion in the Living Room.

Tomorrow night, after a trip to "Pig Out", we will begin taping up plastic to prevent the sanding dust from going everywhere...even though it will anyway.

Another project for the weekend is to ultimately and finally and completely remove the two skunks from under the Carriage House. Not exactly sure how successful I will be but it will be chronicled here in these electronic pages.

Stay Tuned!