Month: June 2020

As noted in previous posts, I had begun working on installing the permanent dog run to replace the temporary run set up last fall as we moved in. This week the new pen was completed, at least for now. Now all we have to do is open the back door and the dogs are in their run, no more escorting them in-and-out of the old gate!

We may add some decorative elements to the enclosure over time, probably decorative boards on the front of the wooden posts to hide the screw heads. We have seen solar-powered lights that are designed to fit on 4-inch square posts and may add a few of those to dress up the post tops.

Pam did all the painting, including the blue corner triangles in all 3 gates. The run consists of 12 wood posts set in cement, (8 bags of QuickCrete at 60 pounds per bag) along with 13 steel posts and 3 custom-built gates. The outside of the enclosure measures just under 142 feet and required 2 rolls of 1″ x 2″ x 48″ inch mesh fencing. (This fence design only comes in 100 foot rolls locally, so we have some left over.)

Sharp eyes may note the new tree shown in the North side and West side photos above. The local farm supply place, Theisen’s, had plant stock at 50 percent off so we picked up this Amur Maple. I hope it does well in its new home and lives up to its fall color reputation as shown in this internet image:

Now it is on to more projects. Next up will be the repair of the east porch, which needs some new flooring to replace a corner of deteriorating wood. After that, painting the repaired porch will be in order.

I am also planning a trip to Colorado in mid-July to visit The Lot and take part in a motorcycle rally. I’m looking forward to that.

Around the house, more flowers are in bloom. The day lilies, very common in this area, grow like weeds and have a bunch of blossoms. Other lilies, such as those shown below, add their color to the mix.

In other respects, the week was routine. Grocery shopping, lawn mowing, laundry, taking care of the cats and dogs, running out for paint and supplies. We did get out on Thursday for a driving trip to our favorite antique store located in Elkader, Iowa. Lunch was at an Irish pub in Elkader, followed by Dairy Queen cones on the way home. We wore our masks, as required in the antique store, and practiced social distancing at the pub. Even with COVID restrictions, it was a good outing.

Photo Archive

The Weiner Mobile came to town in the fall of 1990 (?) so we had to get a family photo with it!

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Penny

I’ll be subdividing hostas and adding them to the north [lawn] side of the dog run. The existing hosta plants at 702 are huge – some easily 4 feet across – and have grown too big in scale for the planting beds in which they reside. One hosta has already been transplanted next to the newly-installed north gate; you can spot it far to the left in the North side photo shown above .

Happy Trails.

First, a milestone of sorts: I applied for Social Security benefits this week. (I must be getting old.) I hope to begin getting income in August but it remains to be seen how quickly the SSA can put the system in gear. I’ve been told processing could take up to three months so now is the time to get started.

Saturday was the Summer Solstice. Summer is officially here. In some ways I don’t like to see this as it means the sun will now start setting earlier, cutting our work day a bit shorter — we do a lot in the evening hours as the days cool off.

This past week was relatively quiet. The main project was working on the dog run fence; I completed the north and west sides and started on the south side. Yet to do is the rest of the south side and east side.

I have a shopping list of parts that I will need to complete the job which includes a few more wood posts, lumber to build the two remaining gates, and a few other odds and ends. I hope to wrap up by the middle of next week.

All of the wood posts are set in concrete so they can handle the weight of the gates and stress of the corners where the fencing sides meet. Hauling and mixing the QuickCrete takes a bit of time for each post but it should be worth the effort in the long haul.

In spite of a couple rainy days, Pam has been trying out paint combinations on the east end of the catio shed. The appropriate combination will be the eventual house colors, but finding them takes a bit of time and experimentation. For example, she tried at least three different “barn red” paints before deciding on the Behr brand featured below.

While she was at it, Pam painted some other parts of the catio including the cat ramp and some supports. The rest will be painted at a future date.

Filling in the time are other projects. Indoors, Pam painted a wainscot-height wall section, from front entry up the staircase. She found this more than a bit frustrating due to the roughness of the old plaster. It’s extremely difficult to maintain a straight line, particularly where the plaster meets wood.

The dehumidifier arrived and I set it up in the basement. The first few days I emptied the built-in bucket to see how much water would be removed. (Turns out to be a little more than two gallons over a 12 hour period.) After that I installed the automatic drain system and let the dehumidifier run. So far the basement humidity level has dropped from over 90 percent to just under 70 percent. Target level is 50 percent so there is a ways to go.

Dirt removed from digging holes for the dog run posts has been used to fill a few low spots in the yard. New grass from seed is starting to populate these bare spots and eventually they will integrate into the rest of the lawn, making it look better and making mowing less of a jarring task.

I dug out my pole saw and cut a few dead branches, those I could reach from the ground, from our oak trees. Every windy day results in dead twigs, and some green leaves, falling on the lawn. Eventually I will need to get a ladder or lift of some sort and work my way higher into the trees. Not that there are a lot of them, but I would like to cut those branches that I can.

There was one major frustration having to do with ordering porch rail parts, to repair the east/side porch. I had taken a sample of the old rails and spindles to a lumber yard, picked out replacements (which had to be ordered) and had been waiting for them to come in. The yard called and said they could not supply the components in treated wood. I never mentioned wanting treated wood. I don’t know where that came from. This sets back that project by a couple weeks. Now I have to go in again and specify untreated wood.

We also looked at using vinyl components for railings but the cost is almost twice that of wood. Besides, at our age, wood railings will outlast us anyway.

And we are still waiting for our federal tax refund check. Having received our “stimulus check” several weeks ago we know the government has our correct address, but there has been no sign of the refund. We could use it.

All three dogs went to the vet for nail trims/anal expressions and JoJo additionally received a grooming. Pam and I waited in the car while a vet assistant came out and got the dogs one by one. At the final trip the assistant took the credit card, went in and ran a receipt, and brought the last dog, card, and receipt out to us. Thanks, COVID-19!

Photo Archive

This family photo was taken on a trip to Wisconsin in the summer of 1991. We were attending a family reunion, Pam’s side. Merrill, Wisconsin city park is the location, I believe.

The same trip and event yielded this photo of Pam getting a hug from her mother, Lorraine.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents

So, house paint colors. You may recall I was monitoring two shades of green on the catio shed wall through the winter. Well, the house “told” me it did not want to be green again. We’ve found several renditions of green paint layers as we repair the exterior, from dark forest green to the minty blue-green currently on the place. No more green.

We had repainted the mobile in Colorado, during our dozen years there, with a really vibrant shade of red barn paint made by Behr. That red held up extremely well in the hot Colorado sun, and was cheerful to boot. I decided in the conservative Midwest, in a small town on Main Street, a patriotic combination of red, white and blue would probably be a good choice.

Finding the correct shades of each color has been the challenge. The “red” settled upon is more of a brick red barn paint (without the slightly-orange base tint I was finding in some of the barn paints). “White” is true white exterior paint; there is a lot of trim so there will be a lot of white. The “blue” was tricky. On the sample wall, I used a color called Storm’s End on the bottom and it’s sister color Cornflower above [Cornflower on either side of the gray-blue strip]. The gray-blue strip is actually a color left over from a previous owner (dated 2016 on the paint lid) and is planned for use around the base of the porch steps (if the local lumber store can still duplicate the mix). One additional color – medium gray porch and deck paint – is still to be ordered.

I settled on crisp/clean colors that hold their own weight, slightly updated from the traditional flag colors. Overall I guess the effect will be somewhat more traditional than I was originally thinking for a Victorian. However, with the amount of gingerbreading, trim and corbels here at 702 there will be quite a bit of detail to provide interest.

Exterior painting this year will likely be limited to porches and perhaps the first floor on the south and west sides of the house. So I’ll have some time to view the catio sample wall at different times of day and in varying light conditions. And, at that, large scale painting is more likely to occur in the fall rather than during hot, muggy summer days. Several days this week, with the rain and high humidity levels, I wasn’t even sure if the paint on the catio sample wall was going to stick and dry properly. Hopefully we can find a contractor to bid on the remainder of the house paint job next year, depending on if we can complete some needed siding repairs in the meantime.

Happy Trails.

We received word that our building permit has been approved. Turns out one is not needed for putting up fencing but one is needed for the garage addition.

Bob from Bob’s Building Service stopped by and gave us a formal quote on the garage addition, including cement work, and it came in just a bit less than we expected. The disappointing part is that construction won’t begin until late July or early August due to Bob’s building schedule. (The permit is good for a year so that is not an issue.) I just hope to have it done before fall chores begin to pop up.

We did start on a fencing project. Modified, we decided to go with a non-privacy fence due to lack of availability of the vinyl fencing we originally ordered, as well as the cost. For now we will use [mostly existing] wire fencing and a mix of 4×4 wood posts and steel fence posts.

I borrowed a post hole digger from the local lumber yard and started setting the wooden posts and building one of three gates that will be needed. Here is Pam staining some of the posts:

Building the fence will be a lengthy process and will get mention in my next few posts, I’m sure.

Other projects were completed. Pam had ordered some garden fencing to separate her garden area from the rest of the lawn. The fencing was installed the same day it arrived.

(I have begun to open some old paint cans and set them in the sun to dry up. That’s the only way we can dispose of them. Old paint is everywhere in this house – the basement, lined up along the basement stairwell, in some of the rooms.)

Pam planted some dark purple morning glories (Grandpa Ott variety) at the west end of the back porch. They should germinate in a couple weeks or sooner, and have been provided a wire grid to stretch their tendrils on. Hoping to see these by mid-summer.

So far the back yard garden has pumpkins, watermelons, morning glories, hollyhocks, rhubarb, and sunflowers growing in it. That will be it for this year; Pam wants to keep the garden area small and manageable.

Day lilies (and other flowers left by previous residents) have begun to bloom around the yard. This batch is in the bed surrounding two large trees just south of the house. It is nice to be able to look out the kitchen and upstairs bathroom windows and see this color.

And we have more examples of small-town living. As we were working on the fencing, a neighbor drove by, stopped, chatted, and offered us some fence posts and panels he was taking down. I told him I would stop by later this week and take a look at what he had. I will need some extra posts, at the least.

One day Pam told me to look out the window as I would see an unusual sight walking down Main Street in front of the house – two people in costume.

These may be the same people we saw walking the street last fall dressed in dinosaur costumes. No idea what this walk was all about! The two are headed in the direction of the assisted living center at the other end of Main Street.

Photo Archive

I have a couple of photos to post this week. The date of this first one is unknown and features my father, George, along with my Uncle Emil and another uncle in the background, Uncle Julius, I think.

This next guy is Pam’s Uncle Al (King). The image is probably from a family reunion held in the early 1990s.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Penny

Multiple renovation projects, requiring simultaneous planning, make life complex. Indoor, outdoor, this month, this summer, this fall, next year — many scenarios and time frames are currently in play.

Summer Solstice will soon be upon us. When the daylight begins to diminish again, I will seriously miss the long, cool twilight. In last night’s twilight, I saw fireflies for the first time since…I can’t remember when.

Happy Trails.

Jake the Electrician finished his work this week. We can now claim the home’s wiring has been checked, upgraded, and added to by a master electrician.

It is a pleasure to now have outlets in the bathroom along with a ground fault interruptor for safety. Other rooms received a few more outlets and a couple were converted to 4-outlet plugs instead of the traditional 2-outlet style.

One additional outside outlet was added and the other three repaired. Now we will have a place to plug in outdoor Christmas decorations when the time comes. (These are also handy for my use with the electric edger.)

The wiring in the basement has been cleaned up and additional lights added. I can now see down there!

The garage received a three-wire cable, enabling the neutral and ground wires to be on separate busses, which brings that wiring up to code. This was a safety issue identified in the home inspection report [we had done before we bought the place]. I’m pleased to have it resolved.

Speaking of the garage, I reorganized it a bit, bringing my motorcycle and ATV out of storage and parking them in the second garage bay. The Honda is now in the storage unit.

This not only allows me to get out and ride my motorcycle more often but having the John Deere rider in that bay means I don’t have to move a car to get it out of the garage when I need it. That’s very handy, since I seem to be mowing every third day.

We haven’t been using the Honda much, instead relying on the Toyota RAV4 to most of our (limited) errands that require a vehicle. The F-150 is nearby, parked along side the garage, and gets used periodically when I need the extra hauling or towing capacity.

This brings the major projects completed to three; foundation sealed, central air installed, and electrical upgraded. Still left are fencing and the garage addition. We hope to receive word that our permit for the last two projects was approved by the town council at their June meeting.

Other work in progress: Pam and I are both painting smaller items. I did the kitchen window and Pam is working on the front door screen insert. All the front porch spindles have been painted. As mentioned before, everything we do is an improvement but – oh – there is a lot to do!

Outside, two more spirea bushes have joined the original we purchased a few weeks ago. A flat of petunias now graces the east-side flower bed. Work has begun to repair the east porch railing.

Here are several photos taken around the house in the last few days:

Note the hummingbird feeder. We do have some hummers around; sometimes they just hover but occasionally they sit on the attached perches and take a long drink.

And, as nature takes its course, the first peony and day lily blossoms have appeared. Other plants appear to be getting ready to flower in the next few weeks.

As always, projects continue. Every day brings something to finish or something to start. This morning, for example, I took the shop vac and cleaned the two basement levels. Pam is painting the entrance hallway, going up the east wall along the steps. This afternoon we will be doing some yard work. Pam has ordered some “garden fencing” that will arrive next week and will need to be installed. The list goes on!

Photo Archive

This week’s archive photo is of Felicity (far left) and Toby (middle) riding an elephant. Summer (June?) 1990

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents

Thanks to those who commented positively on the painted flower pots. Keeping the potted florals watered – while certainly less time consuming than in drought-level Colorado – is still an ongoing concern.

I’m delighted Himself continues to clean the basement. We have already seen two tornado watches, and inevitably there will be a “seek shelter in basement” weather system before too long. I don’t want the dogs to have too much to get into when that happens. We are identifying items needed to be placed in the basement shelter area. And hoping we don’t have to use them.

Happy Trails.