Hey -- That's My Spot!

Pete decided to take an afternoon nap…in bed. Usually he sleeps in the neighbor’s front yard or in their garage. But where Pa goes, Pete goes. Yes, Michael decided to take an afternoon nap --and Pete joined him leaving no room for me. I don’t have time for napping anyway.

Things You'll Only See Down South

That would be a field of tobacco. I pass several of these during the many trips to Lowe’s (or Home Depot). While I really like living in a rural area, it can be rather inconvenient at times. I was actually just taking a picture of Cessie hanging out of the window (she always does this) because I think she’s cute. I’m sure Michael is looking at this picture wondering how I took it since it is obviously taken while moving and from the passenger side of my vehicle…I’m not telling.

Baby Mama

I saw this "introduction" several years ago (2004) and couldn't believe my ears! This is the way wives introduce their senator husbands?!?! Classy, huh? Every time this particular senator's name was mentioned, all I could think of was "my baby's daddy"...and mentioned it to anyone within earshot. Fast-forward several years and lo and behold this guy is running for president. I was confident the introduction would be played over and over and over. It wasn't. In fact, I never heard it mentioned ANYWHERE. I was beginning to believe I imagined it so I searched the internet. Apparently there were others like me wondering why this was never mentioned and wondering why we could not find a clip (evidence) of Michelle Obama's introduction anywhere. Someone found a CNN transcript but that was it. Finally, we have an audio clip: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_061308/content/01125113.guest.html Let's just imagine the last four First Ladies introducing their husband as "my baby's daddy": Laura Bush? Hillary Clinton? Barbara Bush? Nancy Reagan? Seriously.

Next thing you know the Oval Office will have a velvet Elvis above the recliner (complete with cup holders) and a pink flamingo on front lawn.

Who Needs a Chainsaw When You Have One of These?

Yes, that is an axe. Michael is home and tackled the fallen willow tree today...I watched.

100 Down - 800 To Go...

These will be the plugs to cover the countersunk (is that a word?) screws in the kitchen flooring. There are approximately 900 screws to cover! Since the color and grain pattern of the wood is so varied, I decided not to attempt matching the plugs to each board. Instead, I used the last wide plank remaining and cut all of the plugs from that one board so they will all be the same color (and the floor will have some semblance of order). Thanks to Fred for the use of his drill press!

Monotony.

Since the wide plank flooring

isn't end-matched (doesn't have tongue and groove on ends), the "butt" ends must be attached to the floor with fasteners. The original kitchen floor was face nailed with hand cut nails but we will not be using that method this time. The reasons: they tend to pop up - it hurts when you step on them, the mop catches on them and we don't like the rustic look. Instead we will be using screws. This is a time-consuming process: mark where the screws should be; drill countersink hole; drive in screw...for all 900 or so. And I still have to plug the holes but that is for another day. After a while, I decided I needed a stool - preferably one on wheels. I found a platform with casters but the wheels made indentions in the flooring. So, here is my solution. A cushion on the bottom to protect the floor, followed by a couple of power tool cases, followed by another cushion for my tush. I know - it's ridiculous but it works and gives my knees a break! And the mop bucket? Well, that is to wheel my tools around.

Makeshift Paint Booth

Cabinet boxes are now painted! Used a Fuji Mini-Mite HVLP sprayer. It worked great! I wasn't sure where I would spray the cabinets until a woodworker friend suggested to just spray them outside. In the past, I had problems with dust getting into my finish (hand-brushed indoors) so I was extremely concerned with the amount of dust outside. I had no problem at all with dust. The only issues were the occasional thundershower sending me scrambling to get the cabinets back inside (of course, it always happened when Michael was not home - thank goodness for the hand truck) and the occasional no-seeums getting stuck in the clear topcoat finish. Still, I think it was a better finish than what I would have ended up with had I sprayed indoors. I'm pleased.

Uh Oh...

Well, all the flooring is down now. How does it look? I think Michael said it best when he told me I messed up - as he looked at the floor. What? Apparently the rest of the flooring in the house now looks like crap and will have to be torn out and laid back down like I did in the kitchen. He did ask that I wait until he leaves for Kentucky...

The Essence of Carolina Summers

This is one of the things I truly missed when living in Washington ... the Crepe Myrtles. Right now the white ones are blooming and they are beautiful (I need to get a better photo). The pink ones should be blooming soon - can't wait.

Water, Water -- Everywhere

We had quite the thunderstorm last night. Yes, that is rainwater coming in around the exterior door. Not sure where it is coming from since I can't see it dripping from anywhere - the floor just gets wet. Have mentioned this to the contractor several times, each time he "fixes" the problem. Apparently, it's not fixed and I wouldn't have noticed it at all if the hardwood flooring was finished - I pulled back the tar paper in the pic. But this isn't the only leak. Two of the new windows are leaking as well as dripping from one of the canned lights in the ceiling of the addition!

Kitchen Flooring: Day 2

I have about 1/3 of the flooring down. Ran into a couple of issues today that took some "thinking". The first was getting the flooring to the right of the fireplace tight without having it bend towards the wall from the nailer and still have it meet up with the one board that runs in front of the fireplace (both sides). The solution was to lay out all of the flooring from the wall forward, attach a couple of sacrificial boards at the front board and tighten all the boards to it using a pry bar against the wall.

Once they were all tight, I face nailed the board along the wall, removed the sacrificial boards, removed all the flooring I had set out to get the position of the board against the wall, then placed back into position one row at a time and attached using the flooring nailer. The result: the end board fit snugly and is still straight!

The second was getting the boards that are closest to the opposite wall tight. They are close enough that the floor nailer can't be used. So I rigged up this contraption that snugged the board up against the previous row by hammering the wedge. I then angled a finish nailer in the groove and fired away.

Kitchen Flooring: Work Day One

I can't believe how long this takes. I started at 9am this morning and didn't quit (other than a few breaks and lunch of course) until 8pm. In that time, I cleared everything left in the kitchen (including the washer and dryer), put down the tar paper, chalked reference lines marking the floor joists, chalked parallel lines going across the flooring (so I'll know if the flooring is off before it's too late to correct), leveled the area under washer/dryer, set-up tools for cutting flooring and nailing, and --finally--laid 3 rows of flooring (almost). The fireplace is a problem. The wall to the right of the fireplace is set back about 18 inches from the wall to the left of the fireplace. So, it is taking a lot of measuring to get the flooring "runs" to be even since I have to start from the wall and work out and still have it meet exactly to the floor board directly in front of the fireplace. I know, this doesn't make any sense - it would if you were standing in front of it. Tomorrow morning I'll start back on the right side of the fireplace --I have the measurements completed and just have to start nailing. Once this part is finished, the rest of it should go much faster...until I get to the laundry area on the other side of the kitchen.

Record Temps

All I can say is that it is HOT! For the past week it has been 100 degrees or so. Add in the humidity factor and it is absolutely miserable outside. I was able to finally get my plants into the ground a week ago so they need to be watered frequently since they haven't established yet. This is a little difficult given my well problems but since my neighbor allows me to use their water on occasion, I'm able to keep the plants alive. The new grass is on it's own - I'm not running out my well again or using the neighbor's water for that so I'll just keep my fingers crossed that it rains and cools down soon. Even Pete can't take the heat. He comes inside frequently throughout the day and has even altered his "outdoor hours" - like heading outside at 5am and staying outside until 10 pm (of course coming inside during the hot hours). Smart dog.

The Work is Just Beginning

The flooring for the new kitchen has been quite a task...and I haven't even begun to install it. Our entire house has plank heartpine floors. I wanted to continue this into the kitchen addition (so it wouldn't look like an addition) with a few changes. I pulled up the kitchen flooring to take care of two issues: 1) The original flooring was put down with large gaps between each plank - and no, I really don't believe the flooring shrank THAT much. This is a concern in the kitchen because of food and such getting into the flooring gaps. 2) I couldn't find an exact match on the flooring so I need to mix up the new flooring with the old flooring and it won't be as obvious. I found a local company that salvages old pine and mills it into flooring. They were able to match (somewhat) my current flooring - even the differing widths (5", 9", 11"). Of course it wasn't that simple. When I got ready to lay the flooring, I realized the tongue and grooves didn't match up - the old flooring was centered and the new flooring had the grooves slightly offset. After a week of trying to decide what to do, I finally called the company that milled the flooring for advice. Their advice, "bring it back in and we'll mill it to match". Well isn't that just too simple. In the end, the old flooring AND the new flooring was milled so now it is a perfect match --and I don't have to clean out all of the crap that had fallen into the flooring grooves over the years --and they even planed the old flooring so I won't have to sand off all the old finish! This picture was taken during my break (did I mention that it is 100 degrees?) from unloading the flooring --the rest is in the kitchen. Now we just have to wait 4-5 days for the wood to acclimate before installing. And yes, that is the felled willow tree in the background still on the ground. Hey, Michael will be gone for a week or two --and did I mention it is 100 degrees?

Ahhh... the Comforts of Home

This is just the surface of the problem. We ran out of water. I was watering the new lawn because it hadn't fully established yet and would die in the 100 degree temperatures we've been having (no kidding). Apparently, we can't do any outside watering for two days in a row (the day prior, I gave all my new plants a deep watering). So, I showered at the neighbor's house and filled up a 5-gallon bucket with water from their hose for toilet flushing. The next morning, we have water again. Been trying to get the well inspected to verify the problem but it looks like the well business is a good business to be in - no one has time. We're going to see how this goes before we do anything drastic. The neighbor's, who are on county water, have graciously offerered the use of their spigot to water the new plants (although not a permanent solution) and there is always the option of pumping water from the pond for irrigation. In the end, we may end up tapping into the county water system like all the neighbors.

Don't You Ever Just Get Tired?

Yeah, somedays I feel like this, too. Sometimes we grow weary of standing up to everything that gets thrown our way. We smile and maintain a calm and collected exterior so no one knows how tired and stressed we really are --all the while thinking about how great it would be to lie down and rest. I think that's what my willow tree did. It got tired and for seemingly no reason at all, decided to just fall over in the middle of the night. Anyone have a chainsaw?

Oh, Just Pick One Already!

I found a picture of a beautiful kitchen in one of those kitchen magazines. The walls are blue, the cabinets a simple white, the hardwood floors stained dark. I love the look and decided to paint my new kitchen the same color. I cut a sheet of drywall into small sections, taped the edges, primed and tried out a few colors. When those colors weren’t quite right, I tried a few more…then a few more...then a few more. Still not sure that any of these colors are right, although I’m leaning towards the second one from the right. Who knew blue was such a difficult color – it can be a great color or just really bad. I have 3 more colors to try…

Honest Mistake or Cover Up?

When we lost power to our detached workshop a few months after our new garage was built, the electrician suspected that digging for the new construction was the culprit. He indicated that the wire was probably compromised while digging for the footings but it just took several months of being exposed to the elements to finally cause a problem. Sure enough. We (Dad) isolated the short to this section of wire (center of photo) --yes, it is actually IN the garage footing. This section of the underground wire has been temporarily bypassed (blue outdoor wire nuts in bottom left corner of photo) until the contractor comes up with a permanent solution that doesn't involve an underground splice. So, I still have electricity in the shop for working on the cabinets, flooring, trim, etc. for the kitchen. Geez, it doesn't ever end around here.

Waste not - Want not...Is that a boat?!?!

The trash just keeps piling up around here. No, this isn’t my yard (a few months ago it would have been hard to distinguish the between the landfill, shown here, and my back yard from all the construction debris). I was shocked to see how much good material gets trashed by the building contractors. While I was tempted to save all the material from the “dump pile”, I had to stop myself. Don’t want my yard to look like this. I tried to recycle …like the some of the old deck that was torn down was cut into smaller pieces and made into a platform underneath the lean-to shelter along the back of our shop to store garden tools and a potting bench. Another small piece was used as a step for the workshop. The (6) 12’x3’ roof panels from the sunroom were given to someone to that intended to use them make a deer stand (these things will be great insulators). The frame/doors/etc. for the sunroom was taken by a friend that intends on reconstructing it at her house. The vinyl fencing is now flanking a driveway 75 miles from here. The doors, drawer fronts and facings from the pine kitchen cabinets were given to another friend that intends on incorporating them into her long-awaited (can’t wait to see it) kitchen remodel. The glass storm door and frame was given to my sister for use on the front of her house. The new back door and frame the contractor installed that was replaced by me because it opened the wrong way (I had to pay for the new one – pay attention to the door swings on your plans. Apparently, if you approve the plans, you approve the door swings and will have to pay to replace doors if they don’t open the way you want…even if they open into the cabinets instead of into the room…don’t get me started) was also given to my sister to replace her back door. All of the drawer boxes from the old kitchen cabinets (drawer fronts given to a friend) are being used to store items in the shop (works out great). The bathroom vanities are in the process of being reworked so they can be reused – built new drawer boxes (the old ones were built from pressed board), replaced the pressboard bottom with ¾ cabinet-grade plywood, refinish, etc. I’ve used numerous items from the dump pile and tried to reuse or give away good items rather than sending them to the landfill. In the end, the task became overwhelming and, I’m ashamed to say, too much trouble. We ended up making numerous trips to the county landfill to throw away “stuff” that someone may have found useful…a lot of it was just trash but some of it… Hey, at least we aren’t the ones that dumped this 16’ boat