In the meantime I found another project...Nat's cabin

They drained the lake her cabin is on to fix the dam, in doing so it allowed access under the dock and we found there is no under the dock there. We have decided to rebuild the dock framing. legs and braces out of wood, working around the existing metal work. So in March or April we will attack that. It has to be done before June when the lake refills.

The wood sections of the dock will receive new cross bracing and footings

Haven't done much but have a lot to do

I haven't really been doing much on the house, the game room is still half painted, but I have mixed emotions about finishing that. I did put up three storm windows, not as easy as it used to be. The storm windows used to just hook on, pivot in and hook closed, but after they installed the vinyl siding years ago, the windows have to be screwed in place. I have decided that since the AC runs in the summer and heat in the winter to make the storm windows permanent. Most of the windows in the house were replaced with double pane when they did the siding and when I get some extra money again I will replace the rest, in the meantime they are getting hard mounted. Three are up, but the siding trim they put on does not allow the windows to seat all the way in. So I screwed in the kitchen window, placed a moulding along the bottom window gap and sealed it with caulking. I will do the others this afternoon. 

I did install blinds in the kitchen on the window and door. 

As for cleaning out the spare room on the second floor I stopped working on it because there are five rather large items to be brought down and tossed in the dumpster, being alone I have not been able to attack that issue, but Reuben is coming over tomorrow and we will get those three bookcases, a head board, an old dresser and an old TV tossed out. After that is done I can get at the rest of the room which has a lot of stored smaller crap to be cleared out. Then that room will be ready for painting.

Cleaning out

Natalie stopped over today, and took us right to work. She is a force to be reckoned with. Before the day was over the spare attic was emptied, videos, books, dvds, games, a bed, and other items were moved into that room so that work can progress on both upstairs rooms. In the second upstairs room we cleared out the closets, and half the floor area. She must have made 50 trips to the dumpster and where the 30 yard dumpster was half full it is now close to capacity. She also helped load the car from the church with items going that way.
She was cussing me out a bit at the end of day, seems she had a car full of clutter to take home. One man's garbage. 

Last of the old junk, moving out

The new junk moving in

oops Wrong pipe...but

Wrong pipe, is a tad lerge but with the rains coming in (starting this morning) I used it. I'll have to make some adaptions later.

Since Joaquin is on it's way...

I figured I'd better get the generator trench filled in.

 I had one of  my guys pick up PVC tubing today, which is being dropped at the house as we speak, When I get home tonight I will cut the main tube to length, attach two 90 degree pipes, place two vertical tubes, run a few tracer lines through it, cap the tubes and fill in the trench. the last thing I want is a water filled moat leading to the basement.

Let there be light

Clearing the upstairs

I assaulted the rear attic yesterday. There are two bedrooms upstairs, behind the north bedroom we had installed a door and a floor over the den ceiling. It's one of those rooms you can stand up straight in, if you five and a half feet tall. That room has more items stored in it that I thought possible. I cleared out, so far, two end tables, four dining room wooden chairs, a four drawer cabinet, and numerous baskets and pieces of luggage. Still to go....a lot, there is a bureau on the far end, a trunk on the near end, fans, more fans, space heaters (the old open face hot grid style), Christmas wrappings, bows, ribbons and boxes for packages. There are a bunch of boxes that I don't now what they hold, perhaps Jimmy Hoffa. In my youth we used to dig up bottle dumps. these were areas near stone walls on the back fields of farms, places the farmers used for a dump. Mostly they were filled with roots and rusted cans plus lots and lots of bottles, soda, medicine, and ailment cures, anything that came in glass could be found in these dumps. I know there are a few boxes of these stuffed up there somewhere and I am in the process of pulling it all out and putting most of it in that new storage bin outback, the 30 yard dumpster. So, that's where I will probably be for the next few days, wading through antiquity.

pictures that aren't there

Blogger sometimes has issues holding photos, no one can say why, but i have seen many blogs with photos that went away... 
Google sent out a complain to blogger link,  and I used it.

It's been a while since I posted anything...

I wouldn't want you to think I haven't been doing anything...
But, I haven't been doing anything, unless you consider throwing out old documents and installing splash blocks something...

No the block is not angled wrong, the photo angle is wrong.

Oh yeah, there is also an 18" deep trench in my backyard. I was thinking of getting some 1960's era G.I. Joes and setting up a WWI scene.

Now, all I need is a lightning strike for energy

Former dining room

Monday...1st day of vacation..

painting

Silver candlestick will run down to where the angled wall meets the vertical wall. 1 gallon only gets you so far. not to mention the room turns into a sauna with the wet paint and heat. Do NOT leave the door closed.

I also want to say, silver candlestick in person is not as gnarly looking at it looks in photos.

Upstairs paint

Sunday's adventure in painting did not really go as anticipated. Because of a morning commitment I was not home until 1 in the after noon. I threw a couple chicken cordon bleu in the oven and went upstairs. The walls needed wiping down with a damp clothe because of all the sanding was done. I got the area wiped down and started painting the trim and borders, pewter candlestick on the ceiling and halfway down the walls. The timer went off, so I went downstairs, pulled out lunch, sat down with it in the recliner and had lunch. Friday I came down with the beginnings of a cold, by Sunday it was full bloom, I fell asleep in the chair. I woke up at around 6pm. The paint brush and the paint tray have united as one.

Even with all the washing of the plaster dust there were areas where the paint would not stick. Tonight (Monday) I will be back up there to repair areas that need repairing, finish the trimming and roll out the main area.

Progressing...The Upstairs

Room has Chicken Pox

As you can see the ceiling rises and falls leaving gaps here and there

the attempt at leveling out the ceiling joints and ail patches was a little time consuming, As you sanded and area the area next to it would chip out. I always thought egg shell paint was a type of finish, never would have guessed to was a paint's condition.

Sometimes you need to look back to be able to look ahead.

Seeing all the work I have left to do, all the main work, plus all the things we left behind to touch up or get later, gets rather depressing some days. You start to get the feeling you are going nowhere and have done nothing.

Then, as if something knows you need a boost, you find something. My computer crashed and had to be kick started to day one, Manufacture default. This means everything I had, photos, documents, downloaded programs, all gone. While that was going on I fired up the old computer that was downstairs, (not wifi compatible). It has a load of photos in it and in that pile was a bunch of pictures I took of Softail, Soft-tail was a kitten that showed up one night in cold weather so I brought it in the house. My cat, Tink, was not happy about the matter. So I went looking for a new home for the little critter, which after three months I found. That kitten left me with some unusual memories, like finding it one morning in the fireplace behind the glass doors. How it got there I could not figure out, until two days later when I watched it walking across the ridge-beam of the house. The idiot came down the chimney. But anyway, I took pictures of it when I first started working on the house, ie...the reason for the kitchen floor replacement.

Man...the house really has come a long way..

frustrations

There's actually quite a bit done on the house....

And a million more things to do...

Working upstairs I found that the ceiling actually pushes up and down against the wall and there seems to be no single straight edge in the ceiling. This means the only way to get a decent seal is to add mouldings, the problem is, there are no straight lines. 

So, while the top of the moulding is butted against the ceiling at the sloped wall and the other end is up against the ceiling at the wall end, the center has a gap. The ceiling has an angle to it.

Look at where the ceiling and angled wall meet. try following that with a straight edge.

The same problem existed on the long wall, aligned at both ends means the center is bowed. So I either have an arched moulding, (an uneven arch) or i mount and fill. I opted for fill. Hopefully when painted it wont be so noticeable. I have also decided not to use the ceiling as a paint line. If I paint the ceiling color down the angled walls and bring the line down to match on the long walls before switching color it may take the accent off that area. 

  
The photo below really shows the gap on the left moulding, The right moulding will actually run true, and is currently just inplace by being wedged between the moulding and the wall.