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.