Open House and Newel Post Lighting

The Open House event at the Muzzy Mansion was really fun...except for the part where we couldn't eat any food or drink any wine.

As previously stated, we are half way through our oppressive diet where we can't drink ANY alcohol or eat anything on the restricted food list. Here's the determining factor; if it tastes good, we can't have it.

Mike and Steven, who own the Muzzy Mansion debuted their new Dining Room. What really pisses off Susan and myself is the fact that they completed this remodel in eight (8) weeks. I'll have to look back at this blog but I think we are on Year Two of the Staircase remodel.

Susan went out with her friends this weekend on their annual foraging of Antique Shops. We have been considering putting a light on the Newel Post at the base of the stairs. We haven't been able to find any kind of fixture that we liked...until now. Susan came home with a nice lamp that we need to re-configure.

The Muzzy Boyz had done the same thing on their staircase.Above is a picture of their light fixture.

In an effort to do the same thing, I began yesterday by drilling a hole into the newel Post. I drilled a 3/4" hole 16 inches into the post. Tonight, I am going to attempt to drill the hole the rest of the distance through the post, into the floor beyond to the basement and on to China.
If Corbin Park erupts into a river of Molten Llamas, you'll know why!

Historic Open House

We are attending an open house this afternoon of two guys I met through a newspaper article about them. Steven and Michael own an historic House not far from us. It began life as the Muzzy Mansion and you can see their work at www.muzzymansion.com. They are quite adept at restoration and researching their home.

Anyway, when they bought the house it was split up into several apartments. They are slowly trying to take the house back and that is the reason for todays' Open House. They have returned an apartment back into the Dining Room and we are very excited to see what they've done.

Susan is currently working on her walls in the entry way and I am poking around the house doing assorted non-productive tasks...this entry being one of them.

We will return here with news and pictures of the Muzzy Boyz progress.

216.1

Wow! Two pounds in one day. I know I can't count on that sort of weight loss pace but I'll take it while I can get it.

I was bad today as I had a couple pieces of bacon at my bartending job. Hopefully, it will not impact me too negatively. I guess I'll find out in the morning.

Editor's Note: I would like to point out that this entry was supposed to have posted to my alternate blog (www.porkymccorpulent.blogspot.com) which chronicles the shaky disposition o me and my alleged health...or lack thereof. Since it is too late to post it in that blog in it's proper chronological order, I have elected to leave it here.

Another Rainy Sunday

It's Valentine's Day and we are cleaning. I should clarify that. Susan is downstairs vacuuming and I am on the Computing Machine making this entry.

I am finishing up a three day weekend as I took one of my vacation days on Frydee. Again, I didn't accomplish as much as I hoped.

I did a bunch of routering and am ready to start cutting the routed trim to size and get it nailed, glued, pried and forced into place. I have discovered that I made the unfortunate mistake of not routering enough trim to complete the job.

Here's the problem. First of all, Hey...it's me! I have no router training and so I am routing blind. Secondly, I have a pretty cheesy router table that I picked up a few years back at a yard sale. It works okay but I am unable to figure out how to get a router bit set where I want it, and then be able to come back to that same setting later. it's real trial and error. And lastly, Hey...it's still me!
Since the trim I am creating requires two passes with two different bits, I find it difficult to get the second setting right without wasting two or three strips of wood. I'm sure there's a better way but I haven't found it yet.

Here's a vid of Captain RouterMan.

Here's another one of the work we're doing on the ceiling.

Okay, that big hole in the ceiling was put there on purpose. But, I thought it was funny to show it of with "Bad Day" playing in the background. The plan is to cover the whole ceiling with wall board rather than try to fix all the holes and cracks. We had to remove the plaster from that area because it was sagging. Now everything will be nice and flat and smooth.

The unusually warm winter persists here in Spokane. Last year at this time we had a ton of snow on the ground. This year, only one snow fall of any consequence fell and it consequentially melted the next day. Today it is raining and that what the forecast looks like for a few days to come.

SuperBowl Sunday

The dust was flying yesterday as both Susan and I went to town on our respective projects. She, prepping the walls in the immediate entryway and I on the staircase.

Susan has one wall ready to be painted or wallpapered or batiked or whatever it is she plans to do. She scrapped some old wallpaper off the opposing wall. She created a great deal of dust.

I added to the dust by finishing up my sanding on the stairs. I had a lot of sanding to do because I was very heavy on the wood putty knife. I learned some good detail sanding techniques. The main thing I learned is to keep fresh clean sandpaper on the sander. It's triangle shaped on the detail sander and I figured out that I can keep pulling it off and rotating the paper until it is worn off or gummed up.

We also selected our stain color...dark walnut. It looks like a good match for the stained trim we already have.

Nothing is happening today except that Susan put some some glossy sealer on the Mosaic Tile in the entryway. It looks much better with a gloss finish. She plans to add a couple more. Other than that, no remodeling type work will occur as we will soon be leaving for the Super Bowl. Oh, I don't think I have the marketing rights to say that. What I mean to say is that we will be attending an NFL Football Post Season Bowl game that will be, by all accounts, Super.

National Holiday Weekend

It is Friday night of Super Bowl Weekend 2010. I think it's Super Bowl Ex Ex Ex Eye Vee Ell Kay Bee two one Four Charley. I don't have to bar tend tomorrow so we are going to try and get some work done since Sunday is going to be a wasted day...as far as working on the house.

I spent my night by sanding. It ha been brought to my attention that I have a very heavy wood putty blade. As such, it requires a great deal of sanding to remove it.I had been sanding with far too light a grit...100 or 120. Tonight I barred down with a 60 grit sand paper and tore into that wood putty. As you can see, I did a hellova job!For the next several entries, I shall be talking about stairways, decorative trim and Newel Posts. The picture below shows our newel post at the top of the stairs. The inset trim is what I am trying to duplicate on the newel post at the bottom of the stairs.Here's a close up of the trim. I have been struggling with trying to duplicate this on my router for a week now. I have finally concluded that I will be happy with what I have come up with.Here is a close up of my recreation. Not great...but good enough. However, I have been brought up on the adage that "Good Enough isn't Good Enough." And so I will struggle a bit more to make it look a little better. We will soon see if this is good enough.

That's One Small Step for Remodeling...

We didn't get to working on the house today until well after noon. Susan plastered some more in the entryway and then began stripping. I asked her if she would like a stripper pole right there in the entryway. She then explained it was another type of stripping. It involved chemicals. "Just like real strippers!" I said. And it involves scraping. "Some of those older strippers..." I began before it all became clear to me.


I was out in the Carriage House playing...I mean working with my router. I'm trying to re-create some trim for the posts in the stairway. It looks to me like I need to make three different passes with three different router bits to make this trim.


I need to investigate a new bit tomorrow. There is a business in the valley called "Woodcrafters" that I am going to visit and seek council with tomorrow. Hopefully they can offer me some guidance one what I need to do.


So there was not a lot accomplished today, but there was some forward momentum.

Eight Hours for ME

Whether the vacation day I am taking today is well deserved or not, it is one of the few perks my job affords me and therefore, I am taking advantage of it.

There is not a lot on my plate today but neither is it a clean plate. I have some things to accomplish but I'm going to enjoy my day as well. I thought I would make use of this journaling opportunity to log my activities...further accentuating the fact that today is
ALL ABOUT MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Obviously, I am up at my normal time of oh-dawn 30. I must collect the cats and trundle them off to the Vet for a 7:30 appointment. This is gonna be fun!

8:56AM: I have returned from the Vet. I managed to round up three out of four cats. Oscar must have sensed something was up because he would not come in the house after his morning routine of sniffing the yard. fortunately, Susan was able to get him in and dropped him off before I left the Vet. The Vet's office is near her work.

Now I'm going to take a walk to a local breakfast spot and scarf down some food.

12:48PM: Wow! The day is flying by and I'm not getting near enough done. Gotta go now!

6:47PM: Well, I have pretty much pissed the day away but I am not concerned. That is because of a lack of critical thinking on my part. And also because I had a pretty productive day despite my plans. The main thing I accomplished was getting the cats to the Vet. Anything beyond that is gravy. To celebrate my gravy, I am going to enjoy a dip in the hot tub.

8:19PM: The hot tub was fabulous and I am considering going back for a second round later in the evening.

I am disappointed in my accomplishment s of the day but I will let it go because of my low standards. Here is my list of what I did today.

Took Cats to Vet
Took a Walk (Ate Breakfast)
Did some Stuff...including laundering bed sheets
Bought some Stuff
Met Susan for Lunch
Ran a couple of errands and ended up at Fast Eddie's
Came Home and got in Hot Tub
Made Bed
Sat at Computer and wrote this list justifying my existence
Drank some mo
Went to Bed

That last one is conjecture on my part but I'm pretty sure it will happen...sooner than later!

Weekend Reality

Now is the time that we will check what I wrote in the last entry and compare all the goals I set for the weekend against what really happened. As one might expect, we were not as prodigious in our efforts as we had hoped. Everything that I wanted to accomplish on Saturday was a bust. We got a couple of things done but nothing like I had hoped.

Sunday was better. Rather than write extensively and boringly about what we accomplished, I present a photo montage of our efforts.This of course is the main staircase looking down and up the aforementioned staircase. I did a great deal of sanding and wood filling. I hope to continue on Wednesday.Susan did some plastering and this little wall on the staircase received particular attention from her. The wall below also got the benefit of her skilled trowel work. The picture does not do it justice.She also went to town on the wall in the entry way. It is all taped and mudded and ready for some sanding.Susan also managed to seal the grout on the tile entry way and she did a little work on the grout in the upstairs bathroom. You may notice that Susan accomplished much more than I. Well, get used to that!

Work continues on the Music Digitalization Project. I'm very close to the end. I have found music I had no idea I had. I also found two copies of the same album. It was a compilation of 80's hits. I figured I could start my own Classic Rock station with just that one CD.

I'm trying to figure out how to print a list of all the music I have. There should be some easy way to do it but I haven't found it yet.

It has taken up about 15 Gigs of space in the computer.

Weekend Wonderfulness

It is Friday night...just about eight o'clock and Susan and I are going into a weekend without work...almost. She has to work tomorrow night for a few hours, but other than that, we are carefree and ready to work on the house.

I should amend that. Tonight, we are going to relax, imbibe heavily in the fruits of the vine, and roll in the hay until the wee hours of the morning.

We do however have ambitious plans for the weekend. She is going to get our new tile entry way sealed and I am going to complete the sanding on the stairs. We also have tickets to the US Figure Skating Event currently taking place downtown. We have already attended two events earlier this week and today we are seeing the Senior pairs Championship. I believe the winners of this event go to the Olympics next month in Canada.

Captain DigiMaster

I have decided that it is time for us to come more into the Digital Age. To that end, I have started loading all our CD's onto the computer. It's mostly a boring process of loading a CD and playing a game of Freecell or Solitaire while waiting for it to rip into my new Digital Music Playroom. For now, I am just building the playroom and loading it with toys in the form of music. I have delusions of one day having all the proper devices that will open the door to the playroom and let me play with the toys wherever I go.

It has been uncommonly warm for Spokane in mid January. The last three days have been almost into the 50s and sunny sunny sunny. It's kind of nice. Last year at this time we were knee deep in the biggest snowfall in history. This year we're close to flood conditions due to the warmth. Another sign the Al Gore is right. (Insert Sarcasm Here)

Hot Tub Project and more

We've had the hot tub for about six months now and I finally got around to getting a new cover for it. The new cover allowed me to properly install the cover lift and accompanied the spa. I couldn't install it before this because the old cover folded in the wrong direction. I have now got a cover with the proper fold and all is good and happy. Almost!

The lift has the adjustable arms to fit the configuration of the cover. It turns out the the adjustable arms were not quite as adjustable as they should be. I had to employ some of my Mickey Mouse Magic to make it work.

I ended up using a pipe compression fitting which worked like a sleeve to join the two pipes to extend the length.

We Are Cleansed

We have completed a cleansing and re-organization of the basement. To an extent. I mean, there is only so much you can do. Part of my reluctance to call this a job complete and well done is that we took a great deal of the stuff that was in the basement and moved it to the Carriage House. When it warms up, we'll clean the Carriage House and move all that crap back to the basement.

Flame On

We have had a very good week staying focused on clean up. The basement is still a long way away from being completed but it is continuing. We have two rooms cleaned and organized and the process is continuing through the rest of the basement.

I have had a stack of wood at the bottom of the basement stairs that has been steadily growing for five years. It's bits and pieces of the house. Flooring, trim, molding, that kind of stuff. I have kept the stack of wood for the purposes of burning it in the fireplace. It finally occurred to me that after five years, it is time to burn it. I want to clean up the space.
So for the last few nights, we have had wonderful fires blazing away in the fireplace. It is the ultimate in ambiance. Nothing says Pacific Northwest Winter like a fire in the fireplace.

More Tile and Beer News

It is very hard for us to walk by the entryway without stopping and looking...sometimes for hours at a time...before continuing on our way. It looks so great. It really changes the whole look and feel to the entryway. Now Susan is going to be on a jag to get the wall done. And then the hardwood floors, and then before you know it, it's 2015.

The beer is perculating along quite nicely. I will have to rack it in a couple of days with the churning activity dies down in order to remove all the hops still floating in the wort. Steeping is one thing but soaking the crap out of the hops is entirely uncalled for.

Keeping the Goal Alive

Work continued tonight on the basement. Susan got the rest of the Christmas Decorations stowed and I finished up cataloging and organizing tools. I will not be buying anything from the Home Depot anytime soon. Reason?! I've already bought it (regardless of what "it" is) and then hidden it in the basement. It has taken this basement cleaning process to rediscover all the stuff I've purchased and not used.

It has been a chilly but snow free winter. The ground is so frozen, that when it warms up a bit and rains, the water just pools and sits. When the inevitable freeze returns, we have little skating rinks all around. There are a couple of good sized ones out in the park. The picture below shows one of the larger ones.

I am considering pulling the hose out and flooding the side yard with some water in order to see what sort of private skating rink I can develop. I have to be careful though. I don't want to have to purchase a Zamboni.

Goal Setting Continued

As promised in our goals thingy, Susan and I reluctantly hauled ourselves to the basement and did a bit of organizing last night.

The first thing we realized it that we have a mess on our hands. We have a lot of crap. We need to divest ourselves of this crap. We are building a Yard Sale Inventory.

To those friends of ours who may have inadvertently added to the inventory with an occasional gift or trinket or piece of crap, we apologize. Only we know who you are!

Susan had to work a Hockey game tonight but I maintained the goal for another night by sorting some tools. Again, a very difficult task to accomplish because I was not sure where to start. I have a shit load of tools. lots of them are duplicates. I have a bunch of screw drivers, Standard and Phillip's, and a bunch of pliers, channel locks, crescent wrenches and assorted other grabbing or bolt tightening devices.

I began trying to isolate everything by category. I have a paint box for all things related to painting. I have a sanding box for all the assorted sand paper. I have a scraping, putty knife, trowel box for scrapers, putty knives...well, you get the idea.

I have made some headway but still have a couple of nights work in front of me. I should have taken before and after pictures but it's pretty embarrassing when I think about how bad it has gotten. Susan the Clean and Order Freak took on a LOT of responsibility when she said "I do" with me!

Goals for the Day

I am reluctant to call it a resolution. However, Susan and I want to accomplish some stuff on the house in the next few months and it will require dedication and focus.


To that end, we are instituting the "Goal of the Day" Program. This will give us a small task to complete each and almost every day.


Today, we want to get started on cleaning and organizing the basement. This will be more than a one day project. The basement is very messy. Plus, it's going to be complicated proposition as far as logistics go. I want to clean this room but I have to clear the stuff out of the other room to make room for the stuff in the first room. AAAAAAUUGH!

Packing it up

It seems we only got the Christmas stuff out a week or so ago. It doesn't feel right to be putting it away already. But, it's outta here.

It was relatively painless. Once we got all the decorations off the tree, I hauled it outside and left a firestorm of needles marking my path. That tree dried out quickly.
The lights all came easily enough and Susan got here village re-packed and stowed. She ran into a little problem when she discovered her village diagram was missing. This is a very important piece of paper in order to maintain the integrity of the village from year to year.

It was actually a very nice day to be outside. The temperature was warm enough to be out with a light jacket and the sun was kind of beaming through the haze.

Now it is the end of the Holiday Weekend and time to return to the drudgery and grind of every day life. Damn! I just broke the resolution to be more positive. Oh Poop! I also broke the resolution to clean up my language. Crap!

One Last Skywalk

It turns out we had one last skywalk to complete. This one crosses Post Street right in front of River Park Square. It was delayed due to lack of focus. Nobody was really sure what they wanted to do on this one and once it got too late, it was decided to follow through with the skating theme.
We got it painted in two and a half hours. Then we went to another near by skywalk and repaired all the extra curricular artwork. It seems everyone is a critic and they think it would be better if they added their own special touch.

This is one of the less obscene scratchings we have covered. It appears to be a daily onslaught. They scratch, the Security Ambassadors paint.

I actually came upon a pair of kids scratching away. As I passed and they didn't stop scratching, I said that my wife and I had spent a lot of time putting that up and would you not mind defacing it. The girl said it was nothing bad. I said, "Yeah, that makes it alright!"

Little Shits!