VaCay Day 8ight

We got a late start on our activities today for which we DO NOT apologize. It's Saturday and we'll take it at our own pace.

I'm down to the waning days of my vacation and it doesn't feel like I accomplished very much. I think I'm feeling that way because there is so little progress in the look of the TV Room. That doesn't mean we haven't been in there working. It's just at a point where the daily progress is not very visible.

Susan and I both spent the afternoon working on the windows. We are removing the paint to return them to a dark stained wood look that is the main motif of the house. It's slow and it's tedious.

We shall continue with the same tomorrow.

VaCay Day Se7en

The tree is coming down today. I'm up early and getting things ready for the tree trimmers. 

Avista showed up yesterday and trimmed the branches away from the power line. David at All Seasons Tree Trimmers called and said he had an opening and would be here at 9:00.

Here are some pictures as it looks now.

9:17AM: The first guy for the All Season's Tree Crew has arrived.

And so has the rain! 

It started light but quickly ramped enough to a steady drizzle. I stopped working out in the yard stripping trim. 

Here are some pictures as the trimmers do their work.

Here's the final stump. It's finally to a manageable size.

It sure does open the area up.

There's a little damage from the hoist on the lawn but my lawn is not in that great of shape. It'll grow back.

They beat the crap out of the cement in the back of the house. Now I don't have to hit it repeatedly with a sledge hammer to haul it away.

 Look at the size of this root. 

There is a nice close up. You can also see how the cement got broken up.

That's one of the reasons the cement is going away. The damn tree has lifted and cracked it all over the place.

I left this four foot stump because if we want to completely remove the stump rather than grind it down, the backhoe operator wants something large to chain up to. Apparently, they work it back and forth until they can loosen it enough to cut the big roots and yank it out.

My only other concern that is not a concern is the lawn. The lift they brought in chewed up my grass a little bit but I bet you won't see it in two weeks. You definitely won't see it in five months cuz it will be under snow.

VaCay Day Sex

I got up at 7 and immediately went to work on a stripping project. I got most everything off the channel trim that holds the big window in place.

At ten, I had to run up to Mom's to take her sewing machine back to the repair shop. 

Once I got home, I went to work on a project I have been putting off for months. I replaced the Utility Sink next to the washer/dryer.

It ended up taking about three hours and three trips to the General Store. I had to replace the fixtures coming out of the wall and it took a while to get the size right. For the record, it's half inch pipe coming out of the wall and the hose attachment is 3/8". The hose has the 3/8" connection and a regular hose connection at the faucet.

Everything is groovy now and it seems to work okay. That means it is not leaking. It's a pretty cheap replacement but it will have to do for now.

VaCay Day 5ive

I am half way through my designated vacation period and I'm going to make up for yesterday's slovenly performance.

I'm heading out shortly to pick up some glass. The east window in the TV Room is a sheet of plexiglass.  I've been replacing plexiglass wherever I encounter it.

I'm also going to stop by Windsor Plywood in search of door casing and baseboard. I did purchase crown molding yesterday at the Ugly Duck.

So that is my set up for the day. Let's see how it goes!

6:17PM: Okay, I've had a myriad of experiences today and I think I was at least, a little bit productive. I got the piece of glass I needed for the east window. That cost $40.00. I had some printing that Susan needed done. AND...I did a lot of scraping on the windows in the TV Room. I made major progress on the east window. 

Here are a few photos of my progress...proof really.

8:27PM: Oh...I also did laundry!!!

VaCay Day Dee

I am trying to plan my day. I am not going to do much in the Carriage House because of the stuff in there I want to sell.

So I'm thinking about straightening up the basement. That could use some attention. But first, I have to do some work on my Wine Label for this year. I have to have it finished by next Tuesday, which is the day our wine bottles are due at the fairgrounds.

10:58AM: I just spent some time working on the wine label and I would like to reiterate that I do not like Macs. I can't find files, I can't find programs. I have to trick it to open Photoshop. I connect my camera to the computer and it does not seem to recognize it. It doesn't show up on the desktop or ANYWHERE except in a photo gallery. The photo gallery is inaccessible to the Photoshop program I tricked into opening. It took me an hour and a half to complete something I could do in 20 minutes on my PC...which is at work. Which is why I'm complaining about the Mac.

Later: I didn't accomplish much today. I'll try better tomorrow.

VaCay Day Trois

I got out of bed a little after 7AM and it was glorious. The house was quiet when I came downstairs and I was on my own. I just finished up a nice hearty breakfast and I am heading over to church to complete the first task of the day. I have to do some work on our Reader Board out front of the church building. Then I have to see if I can figure out the church website.

When I return, I will go full bore on the garage.

Success! I removed our old Pastor's name and replaced it with our new Paster's name.

NooN: I did not go as crazy cleaning out the garage as I originally anticipated. Nonetheless, I am pleased with the results. I moved some stuff around. I found a lot of crap that is going to the Salvation Army and a lot of stuff that's going to the dump.

The main thing now is that one can easily access the car when it's parked in there and I can get the mower out without pulling the car out.

3:12PM: Since I finished with the garage so early, I got to work on the rail on the front porch. It's amazing how paint immediately improves the look of something.

Here is a section of the rail that I had to sand and scrape and patch.

Here it is after the paint is applied.

This pillar has been looking like this all summer.

It looks much better now. I need to get a second coat on the pillar tomorrow.

I also mowed the backyard and did some general organizing.

VaCay Day Two

Susan is not happy with the ceiling. There is a hump that is barely noticeable but it is all she can see. 

I say, if you can't see it in this picture, it's not a problem.

Clearly, I lost this battle. Oh well, it would have driven her crazy if she had not made the attempt to assuage her concerns.

Now we have to wait for that to dry so we 're in a holding pattern for an hour or so. I'm going out to survey the Carriage House.

I'm back from my survey. The Carriage House is a conundrum. I have a bunch of furniture out there that we want to get rid of but haven't. I've advertised some of it on Craig's List but got no takers. I guess I need to do it again and lower the price. I just did that. No takers yet but I couldn't even find it so I'm not sure it took.

Until that furniture is gone, there's not much I can do with the space.

VaCay Day One

Today is the first day of ten days off for me. I'm not going 
anywhere because Susan doesn't have any vacation time built up with her new job. So I'll be trying to do some productive stuff around the house. One project is to clean out and organize the garage. I'm going to do that on Monday.

Another project is to clean out and organize the Carriage House. That will be set for Tuesday.

It's 1PM right now and we are finally getting around to working on the TV Room. We are getting a late start because I had to help Mom with an errand this morning regarding her Sewing Machine. If that is not working, Mom is not going to be happy. 

Our first move is to head to the General Store to get some paint...Primer, really. So we'll be right back!

9:56PM: That was a transformation. As you can see from the pictures, it looks dramatically different once the walls are painted. 

We are mostly pleased with the results, although the paint has highlighted a couple of problem areas that need attention.

That attention will have to wait until tomorrow.

So that's day one of my vacation. I could get used to this.

Lake Pend Orielle - NOT

I am 62 years old and I cannot learn to put stuff away. I spent a good portion of last weekend wandering around the yard looking for a set of pruning shears that I left not in it's proper place.

I think I left them somewhere in the yard and some late night visitor (a skunk or a scumbag) made off with them. Today I spent and good chunk of unproductive time looking for my air nozzle. 

I had to take one of the yard maintenance machines I own to the repair guy today and I wanted to blow it off to clean it up. I can't take the guy a dirty machine. What will he think of me.

Anyway, it took me 20 minutes to find the damn nozzle. It had fallen on the floor.

Susan did another round of mudding in the TV Room. We might be there. She'll know more tomorrow after she sands.

I gathered up all the trim from the room that has been laying on the front porch for over a year and figure out a better place to store it all. I pulled all the nails and wrapped it up in individual bundles and labeled them so I know which opening it previously graced: east window, south hall door, whatever.

I ended up storing them in the garage up in the rafters.

I also performed what has become my Saturday thing, blow the leaves out of the garden and suck them up with the mower. I mowed the whole front lawn but it really didn't need it.

I was working out back and noticed the hops that looks ready to harvest.

There's not a whole bunch up there but it's enough to make a few batches of home brew. Maybe I'll advertise on Craig's List.

Stupid Acts of Construction File #587

It's time this blog got back to it's main mission which was to chronicle the unending remodel jobs we do on the house and the stupid things I do in the course of doing them.

Today, the stupid thing involved the vacuum. As you'll recall, we are remodeling the TV Room. We are currently stuck in mudding and sanding.

While Susan was out doing a variety of things, I got in there and sanded. It didn't take very long and everything looks pretty good, except for the areas that need more mud. That will happen tomorrow.

Once I finished, I broke out the shop vac and started cleaning up all the fine white powder all over the floor. I got the floor about half way cleaned up when I looked at the vacuum and saw a great deal of dust blowing out the exhaust. It's not supposed to do that.

I had forgotten that I cleaned the filter last weekend and had not replaced it. So I spread a nice even coat of dry wall dust all over the entryway, down the haul towards the kitchen and all the way up the stairs.

Stupid!

Damn Tree Quote

The guy from A1 Tree Service came by today to take a look at the damn tree. His quote was $2,000.00 to remove the tree, $250.00 to haul the fire wood away, and $250.00 to grind the stump. With taxes, it came to $2,722.50. That's a thousand more than the previous quote so guess who we're going to.

It's time for it to come down.