Things R amovin Aug.30, 2013

Things are going very fast, now, it seems.  The porch sealed and painted, a railing on the porch, a tree house has been built(first floor), the pine is up on the walls, and a new floor in the living room.  A very busy season. Now, we have started on the loft, but in order to do that, all the tools we had been using for the downstairs, had to be moved out.  So I spent almost an entire day clearing out the loft.  Then taped the drywall, mudded the same, and sanded.  All my favorite jobs.  Then it was time to apply the textured paint. I decided it was time to get herself involved in painting, so we got her an ergonomically designed paint roller handle, loaded her up with paint, and off she went.  Applying textured paint is not the easiest thing to do, as you have to go slow. But, off she went, and did a fine job.  We did run out of paint, so hopefully boy/son will be able to get us some more. 
Labor Day is coming up and hopefully we can finish the paint and then it will be time for some good food, and company.

THE NEW PORCH RAILING JULY 13, 2013

 

In the picture above, I am applying, finally, a coat of fresh, gray paint. I have wanted to at least get the porch floor painted, but other projects keep popping up that needed done more so than the painting of the porch.  The temperature is in the lower 80's, a little breeze, perfect weather for painting. Herself worked on her bookcase surrounding the stair opening to the loft. Please note the green shirt I am wearing. It must be at least 50 years old. It is my Army fatigue shirt, issued to me sometime in 1967. It was old when I got it.  It still fits (as long as I don't button it).

 

 



The picture below is the spindles we will use for the new porch railing. 

The picture below is after herself and I finished the first section of railing.

A fresh coat of paint, everything off the porch, it looks huge, and clean.

 

 

Another view of the first section of porch railing.

NEW WOOD LAMINATE FLOORS-INSTALLED-FINALLY!!!!

It is Monday, June 24, 2013  and I got word that my little granddaughter would not be coming to stay for the two days I babysit her for. So, I asked herself if it would be all right to go to the cabin and get some work done. It was agreed to, so all day Monday I scurried around getting the yard mowed, watering, cleaning, etc. so that Tuesday morning I could head for the cabin.
The first thing I did on arrival was to clean the newer metal storage building. I had some super cleaner to spray on, then had to scrub to get all the grime off. Then I applied the first coat of polyurethane on the pine.

Wednesday morning, I sanded, cleaned, and applied 2nd coat of poly.
Then, since it had been quite some time, I spent the rest of the day working on mowers and 4-wheelers, cleaning lubing, changing oil and filters, then went down and mowed the lake lots.

Thursday, I mowed Craig's lots and then our lot, then worked in the cabin on finishing up some molding around staircase so herself could finish putting up more pine. Then moved everything out of the living room and cleaned the sub floor so I could start the laminate flooring.  Then I rested.
Friday morning I fired up the mower and mowed a neighbors lots and did the weed eating for her.

About noon, I decided I just couldn't sit, I had to move on. So, I started installing the laminate flooring. And once I started, I just couldn't stop, and by the time herself arrived, I had most of it installed except by the staircase, which we finished up Sat. morning.

 

 
 
 

  

                                    


The dark wood flooring with the lighter pine on the walls has totally changed the appearance and the mood of the living room. It now has a cozy, warm feeling, just what we wanted. Also, notice the nice new, old fashioned curtains that herself has worked on. She picked out some nice ones, and they fit in perfectly with the woodwork.

 

 

 

I don't understand how the camera always seems to find me sitting in a chair, but somehow it does. 

 

 

 

 

So, now the downstairs is pretty much finished. We have a little bit of baseboard in the bedroom, and some finishing to do in the bathroom, but nothing critical. All the tools and saws have been lifted to the loft which will require a lot of work, mainly finish trim on the windows, and mudding the drywall seams to prep for painting. But before the upstairs, I want to put a railing on the porch, and before that we have to clean, seal, and paint the porch deck.

We will have worked inside for almost 3 years, mainly on weekends, and only in the summer, and we are now feeling like we have accomplished something.

Finishing Touches

We have learned a lot, had fun and, as usual working together, had a bit of a snit now and then but overall we worked together like a well rehearsed dance team.  We finished out this room with tongue and groove 4" knotty pine.  You will have to see it to believe it. 

We have all the pine up, all the trim done on windows, doors and floors.  Well, almost.  There might be just a bit to do around the bedroom door but Himself could set us straight on that. 

We have this little nail gun and it saved the day!  It made the installation of the tongue and groove (or is in tongue in groove?) pine boards a snap to install!  And will be put to plenty of use for building wooden projects and bird houses and furniture. 

This 'transom' above the bathroom door is made from heavy glass that I dug out of a ditch.  This type of glass was used on store fronts Quality Glass told me, when I had it cut to size.  

I remember glass such as this on our Rexall Drug Store in Afton, back in the 1950s and 60s. 

 

 

 Himself trimmed two transoms out, neat as a pin.  And created two little shadowbox-type structures for me to display little bits and pieces in.

This is one of Himself's favorite work shirts. 

It is a US Army work shirt with the sleeves cut out. 

Please feel free to borrow it. 

 

Please note above, that all the pine boards run horizontally whereas this short wall by the stairway runs vertically.  I really like that we did the change up.  It just seems like such a custom detail.

 

So now, we are ready to put the finish on the walls.  Himself will be going it alone this week, in an effort to try to finish this room by July 4.  He's got all the materials and tools he'll need.  We think.  We'll stock him up with plenty of food and coke and bacon and eggs and instant tea.   We'll turn him loose!  I can't wait to see the finished room!

 

He is there now, as we speak.  Stay tuned. 

 

A new hobby



I have always, all my life, coveted new pine boards.  Well, I have probably coveted walnut and mahogany boards too but as pine is more readily available and easier on the pocketbook . . . and as I am an amateur, it is better that I work in pine for awhile. 

I like wood working. 

I built a shelf in the new bath.  I wanted it to look cottagy to go with the little bear heads and the white wainscoting.  I just put on one coat of paint so the wood shows through.  I have little doodads sitting on the shelf now and I just 'like' it every time I go into the bath.   

Wish I had the photo with the glass items on the shelf.
But you get the idea . . .

 

I had built a temporary wooden bannister around the stairway up in the loft to keep little ones and Nanas from falling down the stairs.  It was time to put in something permanent.  As I had enjoyed making the shelf, I wanted to get some more pine and build something else so I designed a bookcase / bannister.  I started it last trip down and there it set -- on the level but definitely not plumb!  You can see through it, down the stairs. 



 

 

My camera has a definite 'out of focus' problem.  I looked it up on the internet and it is common with this make and model of Canon.  I will get a new phone soon and when I do, I will buy the phone for the camera.  Then I will put this one away and just use my phone. 

 

This trip down, I put backs in the shelves.  It needed to be "stiffened" up and with Himself's suggestion to use up the pine boards, I cut them to fit, one per shelf, and fastened them into two of three bookcases. 

 

The third bookcase sits against the wall and I used left over knotty pine to put in the back of this one and to cover up the dry wall.  I need one more package of the tongue and groove wall pine to finish -- so this project will have to wait until I get to Des Moines. 

 

I think I will finish the bookcases as I did the bathroom shelf.  I think I am going to like the way the bookcase turned out and I like that it is purposeful!  I look forward to more wood projects. 

 

I did enjoy working with the knotty pine in the living room too.  I can't wait to get the finish on the walls and to start on the dark wood floor! 

 

 

Living Room - final touches for the walls!!!

 

The windows have all been trimmed out as best as a couple of rookies could do, and we are on the final wall of the living room putting up the pine.  After we finish with the pine and the molding, it will be time to finish with polyurethane with a satin finish.

We made a trip to Lowe's and picked out our flooring, so once all the finishing touches with the walls are complete we will be ready for the floor. We can hardly wait, as this will mean just a few finishing touches in the bedroom and bathroom, then we will start on the upstairs. A couple of our grand daughters have already spent hours drawing up their plans for us, one of which I just learned was a huge desk big enough to accommodate 12 chairs. We will see.

 

 

Herself concentrates on perfection cutting the small pieces to fit between window casings. She is a carpenter by DNA. Her Dad could work miracles with wood.

 

 

 

Reality Check

A working weekend at Too yanked me back from the pastoral reverie at III.

Oh it was a good weekend.  The weather was Fine.  The nights were cool but not freezing and the days were pretty much glorious although Saturday was windy.  And it felt good to be out from behind my desk --  up, down, climbing, stretching, walking, nailing and building muscle.  It felt great.

In my next career, I will be doing something physical.  Rock climbing?  Road construction?  Mason?  oh who knows what!  I can't wait though as there are some interesting part-time jobs out there.  Park Ranger?  Yes, I could go for that one.

In my way of thinking we have finally made some progress!  Himself will argue this point as he has been making progress right along.  Making progress with the drywall.  It is simply fact that I removed myself from the drywall stage.  I turned my back.  Crawled in a corner and sucked my thumb.  Okay, maybe not.  But I wanted to!  It is a character defect in me -- ignoring the parts I don't like.  I need to learn to appreciate all phases of construction!  And I will.  I promise.  Next time.

This weekend we got to the 4" tongue and groove pine board walls.  I committed to this task.  Accepted it and embraced it. 

Hand me the air nailer and get out of my way : )

THE PINESA GOIN UP April 5, 2013

 

We began the new season a'runnin. I packed all the tools that I needed for work at home during the winter, chop saw, paints, compressor, caulking, and we lit out for the cabin on Friday evening. Saturday, herself lit out for town(s) unknown. I started getting things ready for whatever we decided needed done. The choices was paint the porch deck or get going on the living room. As it was to windy to paint, we decided to start putting up some of the pine planks on the wall. I always try to purchase materials well in advance of us needing them, but it allows me to find the best prices, and when we need it, it is there.  So, the pine planks were purchased September of 2012 and have been stored away in the loft all this time.

So, we started by installing a base board, making sure it was perfectly level, then started installing the pine. It actually went quite smoothly, the pine being full of knots, knurls,  holes, and quite rough in places. But, that's what we want: rustic.

 

 

 

The next day, I worked on trimming out the windows while herself continued installing the pine boards. We only had one chop saw, but most of the time no one had to wait more that a minute or two to use it.

Herself did GREAT!! She had to cut out for the outlets, and I have to say, they were as close to perfect as anyone could have done. As the windows take quite a while to trim out, herself just plugged along and went right up that wall, and was waiting on me to get the window in the south wall done so she could continue. I was holding her back!!

These two days were the most herself has been able to help me at one time, as usually she keeps busy corralling grandkids, shopping, cleaning, and cooking. So this was a real treat having help. We accomplished more than I had ever envisioned. So, two walls down, and two to go. Then we will have to decide on a coating to put on the pine.

 

2013-A NEW YEAR

It is Feburary, 2013. The days are getting longer, and although the winter has not been to bad, we are looking forward to spring and getting to work at the cabin.
Hopefully this year will be a little easier on us, at least a little more relaxing.  We got all the drywall up, which after wiring, sewer, and water was a main  project to have gotten out of the way.  My goals for this year are:

1. Get the pine up on the living room walls
2. Put down flooring of some kind in living room
3. Move in
4. Finish spray foaming under cabin(joy)
5. Railing for porch
6. Plant a couple of pine trees
7. Do some landscaping
8. Think about another door from old cabin kitchen to new cabin steps
9. Think about dogtrot
10.Think about heating system
11.Think about finishing loft for the kids
12.Think about a tree house
13.Relax and drink a beer!!
14. Another beer, please

Of course this is all in addition to mowing the kids' lots, mowing our lot, maintain equipment, taking care of old cabin, and on and on.

But it willl hopefully keep us young!!

BOI

Living Room Ceiling, DONE!! Another milestone

The picture above is what the living room looked like before any drywall was installed.  It looked hopeless.

Herself with her tool belt on ready to work!!the year, 2011

The next picture above is the day the drywall was installed.  I think  it was Memorial Day weekend, with Dana, Chad, Craig and myself doing the installing. the year, 2012

This picture is after I came down on a Thursday, taped, mudded, and sanded to prep for the final ceiling finish. October, 2012

And this picture is the finished ceiling with the the ceiling fans installed.  AND, THEY BOTH WORKED!!

Next step will be to start installing pine on the walls, but that will have to wait till next year.

Hazard Pay, or the pleasures of foam insulation

These boxes look innocent enough, but they contain "foam it green" spray insulation, fun to use, easy to install, saves money and time.  What more could a person ask for???

The picture below is one of the instructional videos provided by the manufacturer to aid us in what was ahead.  Looks clean and neat, so far.

\\


The picture below is me prepping for my journey into the unknown.

The picture below is ME, looks just like in the above mentioned video!!

The picture below is me lying on my back on rocks, sewer and drain pipes, trying to spray as much an area as I can without moving, and according to the instructions, if you stop spraying for 30 seconds, you must change spray nozzels. And as we were only provided with 13 of them, we had to move fast.

The picture below is me covered in my hazmat suit, covered with foam insulation, leaves, sticks, and whatever else.

The picture below, almost finished, as we ran out of spray with only about 10 square feet unfinished, however most of the cabin is now completely insulated. I am anxious to see if we have done any good, or if this was a waste of time and money.  Someday, i hope to finish the rest of the spray insulation, but may have to see if I can recruit a son, or son-in-law, to finish it for me. Over and out.
The BOI

And, now for the rest of the story.  HORRORS!!!!!.  It wasn't bad enough that i could barely move under the cabin. I was supposed to hold the nozzel approx 18 inches from the target, so most of the time i had to look straight up while shooting foam, which meant the overspray was coming directly down on me. It was a darn good thing I had the suit on, and the respirator, and the googles, but eventually the googles were so covered with foam that I couldn't see, and the respirator was becoming clogged so it was difficult to breath, the hazmat suit was catching on everything and eventually came off my head, which allowed some of the overspray to get into what little hair I have left, which in turn attracted dirt, leaves and sticks to be entanged in my hair.

Thanks to herself and a shampoo using acetone we got most of it out.  My sinuses were completely clogged up unitil today, my eyes were burning so bad i could hardly open them until this morning. 

And it was probably a good thing I had the respirator on, as it no doubt kind of muzzeled all the not so kind things I was muttering.  Hopefully no one heard as I even shocked myself a few times. I even told myself to shut the hell up once.

Anyway, its over. I feel much better today, and someday I may even be able to laugh about this.

And herself did a fine job. As we had to change nozzels quite often, that job fell to her, of which she did great. And she had to lug those 60 pound tanks around so the hose would reach wherever I needed to spray.  GOOD JOB!!!!

One man's chore

is another man's entertainment : )

I have waited for and wanted this!  Isn't this great?  We had it delivered this past Wednesday and I had washed 3 loads in it before we left early Saturday morning.  The washer will save us carrying sheets/towels/rugs/clothes back and forth.  We have a dryer too but will have to wait until we get our electrical system updated but that's okay!  Right now, I love using the clothes line!  And I have an old fashioned drying rack upstairs in the big cabin for when it rains or for "dainties" that I don't what the world to see.  And I will hang shirts on hangers so as to avoid wrinkles.

The dryer will stack on top of the washer. 

And I'm living high on the hog! 

(PS:  it looks like I'm growing whiskers on my chin in this pic -- but I'm not!  There's a fan sitting beyond me and the controls of the fan appear to be growing on my chinny chin chin.  And let that be a lesson -- do not believe everything you see!  )



new room; bedroom

Himself and I spent a week at Too. We went down on a Saturday and stayed until the next Saturday morning.  That is the longest we have ever stayed there. The weather was good, it warmed up nice during the days and cooled off for good sleeping at night.  The Lake is still low, the area still needs rain but we had a couple of rains and the grass greened up and we even had to mow.

Good thing we had plenty of work to do!  It kept us moving and pretty much out of trouble.

We worked on the cabin a little, put together a closet unit for our bedroom, trimmed the "to-be" tree house tree, mowed, planted perennial flowers, cleaned and ate and slept!  We got in a couple of golfcart rides and even a walk or two.  I witnessed a spectacular sunshine one evening -- the sky tinted pink and as I watched intensified in color to darker pink, rose and finally deep bright red orange.  It was glorious! 

I love Hollyhock green.  What do you think?  our little bedroom will be sunny with two big windows but will look warm and cozy decked out in hollyhock green. 

Down to the big box store, we stumbled upon a closet organization kit.  We thought (and both agreed!) that we would like it for our bedroom closet -- rather than a real closet.  Of course, admiring an assembled display piece and taking home a 2X4X3' box and dumping out a couple of hundred pieces on the floor are two entirely different things.  We lay out all the pieces and instructions, looked at each other and asked "what the heck are we doing"?

Two days later and lots of muttering, mumbling and brow beating later, we were making progress.  (We are standing at the north end of the bedroom looking out the door at the stairway.  

Due to the nature of our installation and the amount of room we had, we had to make some mighty major adjustments but our persistance (and our frugality) paid off and we will end up with a unique storage unit for our new cabin.  





a projected weekend . . .

Himself and I had a long Labor Day weekend in Mo.  We went with intent and purposes and some of the intentions got done and some of the purposes completed.  (PS:  I wrote a post last evening only to have Blogger hiccup or my internet connection burped . . . but I lost the just completed entry in one fell swoop.  Now here I am, again, getting a warning that my entry has not been auto saved.  ????)

We went down Friday evening after work and got up bright and chipper Saturday morning.  The day started in our, now, familiar routine.  Himself went to work texturing and painting and I went to town.  This time I drove over to Bethany to Eckards, the flooring store.  We wanted carpet tiles and they assured me, over the phone, that they had them.  I like Bethany and hadn't been to shop since the days of III so in I jump into the Flintmobile and off I went. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, our bedroom was taking shape.  I love the shade of green.  I do.  I like the ceiling fan and once we get the carpet smoothed down, I'm going to like it too.  At Eckards, I found only commercial grade, flat napped carpet and we wanted something a little more plush so Eckwards presented this old roll of foam backed carpet and I scooped it up and ran. 

We stained some pine to trim our windows and now just need window trim and baseboard.  I have my curtains, I think.  We'll need a new bed and bedspread and one room will be done! 

Himself's next self-assigned duty is to tape and mud the ceiling in the livingroom.  We have a whole week planned, coming up, so hope to make a lot of progress in that time. 

Meanwhile, when I wasn't able to help Himself, I was cleaning out corners of the little cabin and dragged out this 3/4 finished chair.  I had started it back before III came and went.  I had been dissatisfied with my work; didn't like the pattern; but after dusting it off and finding that I had the cane I needed to finish it, I plopped down on the front porch in the shade and finished it up.  It certainly isn't professional and I don't like it as well as the first seat I ever caned (this is the second) but it'll do. 

I am either going to paint the whole chair antique blue, seat and all, or just darken the wood and stain the seat to make it look older than it is. 

I dragged out more bits and pieces.  That long board in the photo above used to be the top back of that old blue buffet that was in this house when we bought it and which was used upstairs for years for storage.  Did you recognize it?  That and some gingerbread pieces got a coat of black spray paint, then I fastened them on to our old screen door to dress it up.  I like the looks of the door and it gives little hands a place to push other than on the screen.  Wish I had taken a picture of the finished product. 

Now, this old chair is probably 150 years old and hold the first seat I ever caned.  I have moved this chair from here to there and back again . . . and with the #9 wire holding it together, it did hold together.  Then some time in the building of the big cabin, this antique got broken.  I don't know if I'll "githerdone" but my intent is to glue and wire and shore up this old chair.  I want to put it back together.  It still has some bits and pieces of old white paint on it and the top back rail is worn smooth as silk from all the hands that picked it up and carried it and pulled it out and pushed it under the table or desk.  I hope I can at least get it to hold together "for decoration".  I know it will never be a functional chair again. 

So some of the "projected" is done, some not but the fun is in the doing and planning;  and the success or failure, keeps us moving on.  Thanks for stopping in.

Gittinherdone

Oh Yes!  dancing a jig.  Oh Yes!  jumping up and down.  Hubba Hubba! 

We are gettinher done!  Making progress.  Gonna have a finished bathroom  and finally have a washer and a dryer before long! 

Himself has finished all but one wall of the bathroom and he's honing in on the bedroom walls.  He is so close to being done in there, in fact, that Craig "cut in" the paint 'tween the ceiling and the walls last weekend.  thank you, Son!  Himself says he needs another coat of texture below but there's a hint of color on the walls and ceiling and I think I'm going to love it!  I think it will be warm and cozy. 

Now, back to the bathroom, we have a little classic and we have a little whimsey.  I'm calling it the Cottage look.  I love the old fashioned beadboard look and I wanted it laying sideways, not up and down -- tho either is appropriate for cottages.  (Sometimes in the old vacation cottages you found it painted institutional green or medium blue.  Sometimes white too.)  We chose white.  We sort have got a black and white scheme going.  I'm liking it a lot! 

And then the whimsey . . .

A year ago on vacation in Colorado, we found these. 

We found these right outside the Royal Gorge park.  (Thank goodness we stopped at that souvenir shop because the Royal Gorge, west entrance, was closed for the season.  Locked up TIGHT.  We tried to sneak in to no avail -- you ever try to drive across the Royal Gorge?  lol  Ended up, we had to go all the way around to the East entrance to get in . . .  for heaven sakes.  Anyway . . .

OMgosh.  I hope it is the angle of the photo . . . but if it isn't, that picture is not centered over the toilet tank . . . yikes.

Anyway . . . go on reading while I move that picture --

we met the Little Bear towel and TP holders . . . and we were charmed.  It was a bit of a rigamorole to get them bought (something about "last year's prices" lol) but buy them we did -- and then remembered that we had them!  That's pretty remarkable too!  lol

Anyway, progress is being made and we hope to really move ahead the week of September 9.  We have a week of vacation and plan on spending most of it at

Too at Twin Lakes