New Grass

My neighbor down the street is having some major landscaping work done on her yard. They’ve put in a new sprinkler system, leveled all of the yard, and today started laying sod.

I went down this afternoon and asked one of the guys if they had any scrap pieces they were throwing away. He pointed to a palette over on the curb and said,  “Have at it!”

I came back with the truck and loaded up a bunch of pieces. 

I’ve been wanting to do something with my little triangle corner of grass over on the corner of Waverly and Wall. I’ve tried several times to replant grass there but nothing has taken.

So, with the help of Cole Anderson from down the street, we (Cole) dug out the old crappy grass, leveled the ground and then we (us) laid the grass in.

It’s the best it has ever looked!

It makes the rest of my lawn look like crap!

  

Yard Sale Day

 As promised, it’s supposed to rain today. When we started setting up this morning, it started raining. Not too bad, but stuff was getting wet.

By the time we got the tents up, it had stopped raining and so far, the rain has stayed away.

We’ve had some pretty good crowds and we think we’ve made about 100 bucks so far.

The main thing is that we managed to unload this old Hammond Organ that we had in the Carriage House for the last 15 years. It doesn’t work but the guy who’s coming to get it knows about these organs and can probably fix it.

I also sold my old golf clubs that were my Grandfather’s. I got 15 bucks for the bag, a complete set of 50 year old clubs and about $20.00 worth of new golf balls. I’m happy!

Corbin Park Yard Sale 2025

This Saturday is the Annual Corbin Park Neighborhood Yard Sale. We don’t participate every year but this year we decided it was time to unload some of our crap…I mean, underutilized items.

So all this week we are prepping for the sale. The last two days, we’ve been tearing into “the Hole”. It’s an upstairs storage area where we stored lots of boxes when we moved in twenty years ago and then forgot about it.

We are pulling out a lot of crap…stuff we will never use. Interspersed, there are little gems that I forgot we had. Books, like my old Yearbooks, pictures, fun little niknaks, and some stuff we’re finding is kind of valuable. Cool!

The weather has been spectacular for a good month. It’s been hot but not too hot. The tradition of the neighborhood yard sale is that we always manage to pick the weekend in June when it rains.

I was looking at the forecast today and here’s what it shows.

Let the tradition continue.

FAN-TAS-TIC!

I would like to take a moment to comment on our kitchen fan. 

Our gas cooktop is located on the island and it required a downdraft fan. We were able to locate a nice GE brand fan for about 800 bucks.

Susan is making Split Pea Soup. She is currently boiling the hambone left over from Easter.

The pot is on the burner, simmering away, and I was noticing how the steam was gracefully being sucked into the fan.

The fan vents on the back of the house.

I went out on the front porch to enjoy a beer. While sitting on the porch…at the front of the house…I distinctly smelled ham.

That’s quite a powerful fan. I’m feeling better now about spending that 800.

Steinway Come Home

After five months and three days, our piano has returned.

It left us last November 25th, for sound board repair. It was now returned all shiny and new. Unfortunately, it is completely out of tune. I mean, it is not even close.

The Tuner will come on Friday and try to clean it up a bit and then will be back in another couple of weeks to finish the job.

The strings have to acclimate and stretch a little before they can be properly tuned.

Anyway,  she’s back.

Almost A Wrap

 Okay! We are going to attempt (again) to finish getting all the tiles up on the kitchen ceiling. After that there is some caulking that needs to done but that shouldn’t take long.

The wall has been patched and painted. 

We only have three tiles to go. It’s 2:43PM.

2:53 PM: There’s one tile up. It’s a really tight work space. 

3:05 PM: There’s the second tile in place. We’re down to the last one. The final corner piece has to be cut on two sides, so it’s a little trickier than the others. We starting with a cardboard template.

3:39 PM: VICTORY! That last tile took some ciphering. The corner is totally not square.  Here’s a picture of the last placement.

But, the tile portion is done.

Me happy! Susan says it’s not done.

Five Tiles To Go

 We are working on the last five tiles for the ceiling. We really want together this finished. It’s been going on since January.

This is how the last unfinished space looks. It is 12 noon right now. Let’s see how long this takes.

It turns out it won’t take so long. But we’re not finished.

I’m on my way to Sherwin-Williams to get a quart of the wall paint that has hardened up on us. So that took us 20 minutes to get to this stopping point.

1:10PM: I’m back from the paint store and I was able to get a quart of the paint we need. Susan has filled in the gap on the wall above the cabinets and now we need to wait for it to dry. 

So, unless we finish this tonight, I think we’re done for the day.

I’m going out to do my first mow.

So Close

We completed another row of ceiling tiles today. Just one row left. That last row will probably take longer because every tile will need to trimmed and some of the spots are going to be difficult to access. The oven cabinet and the one above the fridge are 36” deep which makes it hard to get the tile measurements and work in the tight space.

I still have a little prep work to do too. This final row is where the soffit was for the old kitchen cabinets. There are some uneven areas on the ceiling where the soffit connected to the ceiling. I pulled out a putty knife and started scraping. It’s making a horrible mess of drywall chunks and dust. I tried holding a dust pan to catch the debris but it’s still pretty messy.

This and That

We have both been pretty productive over the last couple of days.

Yesterday I did a little yard work. I cleaned up the leaves in the front gutter, I emptied the pond in the east back yard of all the water and leaves, and I emptied some unwanted paper stencils from the top floor of the Carriage House. 

Back when we painted windows, we would make stencils if there was a logo or lettering we had to do. I always saved them and that actually paid off a couple of times. 

But we are now done painting windows for the holidays so it’s time to get rid of these stencils.

I backed my truck into the alley, positioning the bed under the alley door, and tossed all the stencils down into my truck bed. I have some other crap I’m taking to the dump so that trip will be in a couple of days.

I took my scissors to the chive shrubbery and cut it way back. I want to see how quickly this thing will recover

I also got a shot of my Sterling hops. I have documented it here before but it’s really amazing to watch how fast these things grow.

I will bet that little sprout will be up to the decking on the back porch by May First.

Susan got out her mud bucket and did some spackling along the side wall of the kitchen where the ceiling meets the wall. We had substantial gaps that would still be exposed once we tiled the area. So, just to make sure, she filled in this gaps. She will do a little touch up painting tomorrow and then we will be ready to finish the last two rows.

Let the productivity continue!

Closing In On the End

We got up another row of tile on the ceiling. And this row is momentous because it was the last row we had to contend with obstacles. We had to deal with two lights and I’m happy to say that everything went quite swimmingly.

We only have two rows to go but I think we have a little work to do where the south wall meets the ceiling.  There are some sizable cracks that the tile is not going to be able to hide.

We’ll get up one more row and then try to figure out what our next move is. The crack shown in the picture above is probably the biggest problem we have to deal with.

Difficulties with the Difficult Part

We managed to finish the other two panels where lights are but we ran into a little problem with the western most island light.

The box in the ceiling that we hang the light from is not in terribly square. That means that one of the screws that the light attaches to is a little higher than the other. When we tried to reattach he light, that one screw was barely showing through the face plate of the light.

So, after a brief diversion to the Hub, we had to run over to the General Store and get an inch and a half 8/32 screw. That set me back 25 cents.

In the end, it all worked out. That first light is the one I’m talking about.

We still have to finish the rest of the row to the west. That’s only 3 and a half panels. 

Then, only four rows to go. We’re getting close.

The Difficult Part of the Ceiling

We got started on the difficult part of the ceiling today. We didn’t get a whole row up. We had a late start because Susan wanted to complete some caulking.

While she was doing that, I removed the middle light above the island in anticipation of placing our first light hole cut tile there. The light came down easily, as I expected it would and I did not electrocute myself as everyone is expecting I will.

Our first tile placement for this row was between the lights. It has worked out quite well that there is a full tile in between each of the lights. Having a tile edge to measure from makes everything easier.

We used a cardboard template to locate the hole and make sure we liked the placement before we cut an actual tile.

It all went just as planned. The most difficult part of the whole operation was holding the light up while I reconnected the wires. That wore me out!

I expect we will finish the whole row tomorrow. The first two tiles we will lay will have the light hole cut outs. After that, it’s smooth tiling.

The only other concern is that we have enough tiles to finish the job. My math says we do. However, I can feel the hot rancid disapproving breath of Mrs. Bridge breathing down on me.

Mrs. Bridge was my fifth grade math teacher. Fifth grade was the year we learned fractions. I was lost. Didn’t have a clue. It seems so funny now because I turn fractions around in my head with no effort at all.

Half Way Finished

Today, we put up the remaining ceiling tiles on the north end of the kitchen.

My concern was covering the hole patch I did the other day. It wasn’t quite as secure as I had hoped it would be. It had a little more movement to it than I would have liked.

But, it served its purpose.

We only needed four tiles to finish the row. They all went pretty smoothly. Even over the patch. We had to add some extra glue in that area and it ended up working well.

We got down to this final piece in the corner. It was tricky because we had to make two cuts. It ended up fitting nicely and we are quite happy with the results.

Now we move on to the difficult part. The area with all the lights.

Caulking and Patching

We had to take a break from ceiling tiling today to get a little caught up on a couple of aspects of the project. 

Susan wanted to caulk all the seams from the tiles we put up this past week and I had to patch a hole in order to finish the remaining tiles on the last row at the north wall.

My plan didn’t work out exactly as I had planned it but I was able to make the patch and I think it will work.

I’ll know if it worked for sure when we place a tile there and you can’t tell there was a patch there.

And so, we wait.  

A Little More Ceiling Tile

We made a little more progress today and our fix on the corner tile worked beautifully.

The only way anyone will ever know is by reading this post. So stop right now.

More Ceiling Tile

We got up another row of ceiling tile today. Actually, we got up a row and a half. We are now over half way finished.

The one problem we had was with the tile that goes into this corner.

We ended up cutting a little too much and there was a pretty noticeable gap against the shaded side of the wall.

Susan came up with a brilliant plan to save the tile. She glued the strip we removed back into place. We hope we can recut it and use the tile rather than waste it.

You can see the cut line in the picture above but I think we are going to be able to use it. It seems as though the glued joint is strong and once we add a coat of paint, I’m betting it will be nearly invisible.

According to my ciphering, we only have one extra tile. So screw ups are not going to be tolerated.

By the way, having only one extra tile may not be correct. Because we are cutting such a small sliver off that final row shown above, I’m hoping we can use the rest of the tile sheet when we finish on the other side of the kitchen.

After finishing up this final section against the north wall, we will be moving to the most difficult part of the installation because of all the light fixtures we have to work around.

Stay tuned.

Yak Red - Day 2

 It has been two days since we started the Yak Red Blend. That’s what I’m calling it.

The yeast took off almost immediately. The vapor lock I have on the Must Bucket started bubbling within an hour of pitching the yeast.

Here is what it’s doing right now.

When I’m sitting alone in the kitchen, the bubbling is quite pronounced. It makes me think there is something wrong with my stomach.

2025 Red Blend

One of the gifts Susan gave me during my Birthday Week was a wine kit.

We didn’t make it down to Prosser this past year to get any grapes so this kit will end up being our entry into the Wine Competition at the fair this Fall.

The kit purports to be grapes from the Yakima Valley. It’s called a Red Blend. Not much more detail than that.

We started the kit today. Making wine from a kit is just about as simple as you could make it. This one comes with a variety of chemicals, grape juice concentrate and wine yeast.

After cleaning and sterilizing my fermenter vessel and all the assorted tools, we completed the Day One tasks. That involved mixing up some Bentonite with 12 cups of warm water, which works as a clarifying agent, adding the grape juice, topping off with water and pitching the yeast. That’s it!

The Original Gravity was 1.082 which gives this wine the potential to be 12% ABV.

We tasted the must and it tastes like good ol’ Welch's Grape Juice.

It’s just sitting there now, waiting for the yeast to activate. We will pretty much leave it alone over the next two weeks, at which point we’ll take another gravity reading to see if it’s ready for the next step, which will be racking to a clean fermenter and more clarifying.

In any event, we are back in the wine game!  

InterWeb...the Necessary Evil

 I am writing this post in the notes programs of my iPad because I cannot presently get on line.

We just had a visit from Dillon, a technician with QuantumFiber, the internet provider we are switching to. I would like to say good bye CenturyLink and good riddance. Unfortunately, Quantum is the company that CenturyLink is being absorbed by.

Dillon told me that because CenturyLink is slowly going away, they have reduced funding to their Customer Service. I am ready to attest to the fact that their Customer Service is pretty bad.

Dillon came in and installed the new high speed modem we will be using. Dillon was a 25 year old guy who seemed quite competent. 

Dillon has just left and we still don’t have our internet back. Apparently, there is a problem in Dallas (the one in Texas) at one of their facilities that is preventing them from contacting our modem. 

Our phone is still working, so that is good news.

Dillon hopes the problem will be resolved by noon but definitely today. They told him to move on to his next job and whatever the problem is here can be resolved over the airwaves.

That, of course, remains to be seen.

So, once again, here we sit without interweb connection. It makes me feel sad, alone and very sarcastic.

Stand by!

A Good Productive Day

We’ve had some pretty great weather over the last few days. I went skiing last Thursday and it was a really great day. Sunny, good snow, I could get used to that.

Today we did a pretty good job of cleaning up this free standing closet that we have had down in the basement for years. I’ve used it in the past to store my summer shorts during the winter and and winter shirts in the summer. Lately, it’s just taken up space.

Today, Susan and I went through the whole thing and put the clothes in boxes designated for Goodwill or our church Rummage Sale.

Then we were able to dismantle the thing and open up a whole bunch of space in the closet it was blocking.

As I said I the title, a good productive day.

No InterWeb

We have been without internet since noon on Friday. Every time I call CenturyLink, they just extend the time until it will be repaired.

The only thing that pisses me off about this whole thing is the realization of how addicted to the Internet I’ve become. It finally came back on this morning.

Ceiling Continuation

We got up another row of ceiling tiles today.

It’s looking pretty good.

We took a break in the process and Susan caulked the seams of what we put up. We’ve been having some problems with alignment and she wanted to be sure she could fix the visual incongruities with caulk.

I’m confident in saying that, “Yes, she can!”

The one tricky spot we had to deal with today involved the end of the run on the west wall. We have this little outcropping of wall to deal with and it made placing the last tile a little challenging.

As you can see, we met the challenge and overcame it.

We are thinking we are pretty awesome.

Boiler Update

We got the quote for the boiler installation today and whoa…it is not pretty.

We were thinking that because we already have the boiler, this would be a much less expensive proposition. We were wrong.

For some reason we had it in our heads that it would be somewhere around ten to fifteen thousand dollars to complete this project. 

We already have the quote to remove the old boiler. That’s $5,000.00.

To install the new one is $20,388.69.

So we’re looking at 25K to do this job.

Fortunately, we have the money in our 401k account. We need a meeting with our financial guy to see what kind of a dent this is going to do to us. I think we’re okay but Susan, being the more frugal of us two, is not very thrilled at the moment.

Boiler Replacement Prep

We managed to get another row of ceiling tiles in place yesterday. 

We had a problem with alignment in the area where that hump is. It took some doing, but we think we have it fixed as best we can. It will require some creative caulking to hide the problem and then only you and us will know it’s there.

I just had a couple of electricians in the house to look at the boiler to see what they had to do to accommodate our power needs for the new unit.

I told them that I had done a lot of the wiring in the house and they were not allowed to laugh at my work until they left. They didn’t seem too shocked by what they saw and they should have a quote to Zane at Element Air by tomorrow. Then we will know the total cost of this Boiler Replacement Project.

For another day, the snow continues to fall. It hasn’t been much of an accumulation so far today and I think it is going to turn to rain soon. It’s very wet coming down.

Phase II of Phase IV Begins

It is official...we are now working on the ceiling tiles in the kitchen.

Earlier today, we decided to get started by finding the center of the kitchen. Once that was accomplished, we snapped a chalk line and then decided we might as well start putting up tiles.

The first row we put up had no obstructions for us to deal with so it went pretty fast. We got the first row up in about 50 minutes. 

We got the second row up in about 35 minutes. We had one screw up with a mismeasurement on an end tile but we are hoping we can use it somewhere else.

With two rows under our belts, we called it a day. I expect we will be back at it tomorrow.  

Boiler Removal Quote

Today we were visited by Doug Geier of Affordable Asbestos Abatement. I took him down into the bowls of the house for a look at our gargantuan, asbestos encased boiler.

He was here only a brief time but came back with a quote in just a couple of hours.

To remove the old boiler will cost just short of $5,000.00. We were hoping we could keep this in the range ten grand, so that’s half the budget right there. I am hopeful that because we already have the boiler that we have saved some dinero there.

Finally! Snow

 For the third day in a row, I got up this morning and plowed the sidewalks and bywalks of the neighborhood. Mostly just the area around the house.

We have gone the whole winter without any appreciable snow and then, three days in February change everything. It’s a Winter Wonderland out there.

I haven’t heard the official report for how much snow we’ve gotten. My own personal report is…

…about six inches.That’s 14 1/2 centimeters to you Canadians.

As far as the forecast goes, it looks like we may have another snowfall on Saturday but I don’t know how much.

Alls I know is I gots the big red machine out thar and she’s ready for snow!

Ceiling Tile Update

We are getting pretty close to embarking on Phase Two of Phase Four of our kitchen remodel.

To update, Phase One was getting the old linoleum floor cut up and hauled away. Phase Two involved the excavation and general destruction of the old kitchen followed by prepping the walls, floors and wiring for the new kitchen. Phase Three concerned the installation of the new cabinets and flooring. And good ol’ Phase Four consists of the placement of the ceiling tile.

As you know by reading the most recent posts, we have finished Phase One of Phase Four, the pantry area. That was our test area to work out the bugs of installing these things and see if we were up to the job. The pantry is just a paltry 56 square feet, which made it pretty easy to work on. The kitchen, Phase Two of Phase Four, is over 400 square feet and it has many more challenges to contend with. There are six lights that have to be dealt with and a couple of jags in the wall.

We have spent the last couple of days painting the remaining tiles. I think we will have that wrapped up by this weekend.

I still have a couple of things to do to prep the ceiling…the main thing being filling in this 12x12 hole that we’ve had for about 18 years. It’s  been a small eyesore but was essential access for running wire for the additional lights over the island. I need to get a small piece of 3/8” dry wall which, of course I don’t have. One eighth, I’ve got a whole sheet. Half inch, got it! That’s how these things work.

Another Major Project - the Boiler

Today marks the very beginning stages of a major project for the enhancement of this house.

We have been talking for a few years now about replacing our very old  boiler. It may be original to the house which puts it over 100 years old.

A couple of years ago, our friend Mark came across a Rheem Boiler that will hang on the wall. It became available through the Plumbing Supply company he worked for. This unit had been special ordered, canceled, and sat on their shelf for a year before they decided to throw it away. Mark was able to snag it and gave it to us. I assume we are savings a couple thousand right off the bat. 

You will note a slight dent in the front of the boiler which is why they were going to throw it away.

One issue was that we had no idea if this boiler unit was compatible with our house. As I said, it has been sitting in our basement for at least two years while we have debated over proceeding with this project.

Today, we had Zane and Isaiah from Element Air come by to give us a bid on replacing the boiler. 

They looked over the new unit and thought that it was sufficient for the house.

They took lots of pictures and had a good look around to check out the project.

One thing that has to happen is removing the old, asbestos encrusted boiler. Zane said he will be contacting a guy for that aspect of the job.

The advantages of moving forward with this project are multifold. First we are replacing a very old boiler with a newer, more efficient model. The new unit hangs on the wall which will open up a lot of square footage when the old boiler is gone.

Best of all, the new unit will also provide our hot water. It is one of those instant-on hot water units as well as a boiler to heat the house. 

We will be eliminating TWO hot water heaters that are well over 20 years old. I think the savings compared to what we are paying to heat this place now will more than pay for itself in a very short time. Plus, we will be gaining a little more square footage where the hot water tanks used to be.

We are not planning on moving forward with this project until May…maybe even the first of June. In the meantime, we are waiting to hear from Zane and from the Asbestos Abatement Guy.

First Big Snowfall

We went to bed last night as the snow was starting to fall. I got up during the night around three and it was still coming down. It was clear we were going to get some coverage.

This was the first opportunity I’ve had this winter to use my re-built snowblower. It worked great. It really turns on a dime now…much more easily than before the re-build.

It was only a couple of inches of snow so it went quickly and easily. That was good because I’m to the point where this job is becoming harder and harder for me.

Everything is cleaned off and safe for walkers around the park.

One of the really amazing things I need to comment on is the lack of any appreciable snowfall this year. Here it is, February and I have pulled out the snowblower for the first time. Fortunately, the mountains have lots of snow which makes us skiers happy. As for us elderly and in-firmed snowblowers, keep the snow in the mountains.

Pantry Conclusion?

The Pantry is now completely tiled and all the seams have been caulked.

We are very pleased with the results. I was hoping this would finish the project but I think I’m going to be made to put up crown molding around the perimeter.

Well, we almost done.

Ceiling Tile - Day Three

We did not work on the ceiling yesterday because it was a ski day for me. I have my priorities!

But jumped on it today and made great progress. An added bonus is that we are still married.

Here are the pictorial results.

We have just the corners to put up and the pantry will be almost finished. We have decided that a small crown molding around the perimeter would look nicer than the sort of rough exposed edge that we have now.

Please also notice that all the bulbs in the light are working. Susan fixed it by simply putting different bulbs in the fixture. Don't ask me why that worked. I don't care. 

Ceiling Tile - Day Two

We are really going to get going today.

The light is back together and ready to be hung after we place the first row of tiles. 

The spot where the light is wired is almost the center of the room. Close enough that we have decided to place the first tile dead center on the light.

We made a template out of a piece of poster board we bought to properly locate the hole before we ruined a tile. It went perfectly.

We placed several dabs of glue on the back of the tile, placed the edge of the tile on the line we snapped to find center, and we were off. 

Once you get going, it goes quite quickly.

We finished the first row and decided that was enough for the day. We really wanted to get the light back up.

Hanging the light turned out to be quite an ordeal. The problem was that the light is kind of heavy and cumbersome, we are old, and it's a tight spot that is eleven feet from the floor. It took a while, and there was a LOT of grunting, moaning, and heavy breathing but we got it up, we got it wired and it mostly worked.

We have this light on a motion sensor so whenever we walk into the pantry, the light comes on for about 30 seconds. If no other motion is detected, it goes out. Sometimes, if you're looking for something for a while, you have to wave your arms every 30 seconds to reactivate the light. Also, if we just walk by the pantry on the way to the kitchen sink, it turns on.

For some reason, one of the bulbs works like it should. It comes on when the motion is detected. One of the bulbs stays on all the time. The third bulb does not come on at all.

I don't know what's going on but I will work on it later.