Month: August 2020

The major story of the week was my mother’s funeral but progress was made on several renovation projects as well. Result: The week was a real mixed bag of “stuff,” so let’s get to it.

Mom’s Funeral

My mother’s funeral was held near Withee, Wisconsin, at Riverside Cemetery, on Thursday. Wednesday afternoon I drove up to Abbotsford, near Withee, to meet with some family and friends. That evening proved to be a delight as I had the chance to talk to both of my sisters, a niece I had not seen in years, and some friends who had driven in for the funeral.

We had arranged to stay at the same motel and ended up pulling some chairs (and a bench to set food and drinks on) under a pine tree on the grassy front lawn and having a picnic dinner of sorts. Sub sandwiches and other foods were procured from a nearby grocery store by my sister Kitt. Several people brought adult beverages. It was a good time for all who were there.

Thursday was the funeral. My cousin, Kurt Rohland, an ordained minister, performed the service. Several people spoke about memories they had of Mom and Dad, including Mom’s best friend, Mrs. Goeke. (Gay-Key) As the temperature was rather hot most of us stayed in the shade of the surrounding trees for the duration of the service. Most attendees wore masks, as did I.

After the grave side service we adjourned to an event center, Munson Bridge Winery, for a lunch and more socializing.

After several hours of mingling with friends and family, getting lunch, and getting re-acquainted with people I had not seen in decades, I called it a day and started the 5 hour trip back to Elma. Most people had left before me but a few remained to keep the gathering going a bit longer.

The above story is a bit out of sequence for the week, beginning as it does on a Wednesday. In fact, other projects had seen attention earlier in the week.

Garage Addition

Bob the Builder came by and started the process of installing the garage windows. He and his helper needed to determine where the windows would be placed, remove the outside siding, and prepare to cut the window openings.

This meant I had to take down all the hangers and racks I had on the impacted walls. Most of the stuff ended up in the back of the truck but some equipment, such as the snow blower and leaf muncher, had to be moved and parked elsewhere.

Before and after photos:

The north wall received one window. Having the windows makes the building look like a garage and I already appreciate the extra light and ventilation the windows provide!

The main overhead garage door is supposed to be installed this coming Monday. I hope that comes to pass – but – other deadlines have come and gone so we shall see.

Outside Projects

Something else arrived this week…my porch and step railing spindles. This allowed me to get one side of the east porch step rail replaced. (The rest of the east porch rails will follow.)

The new spindles are slightly different than the originals. The width is 1 1/2 inches versus the original’s 1 5/8. The tapered part of the originals is larger than the new ones but since I am replacing the spindles as sets I don’t think the differences will be that noticeable.

As you can see, the step handrail spindles need to be cut at an angle. I had cut the top and bottom rails last week so only had to cut the spindles, install them into the rails, and paint the finished product. Sounds easy, but nothing is easy the first time you ever do a project like this. Call it a learning experience.

Of course, the new paint just shows how much we need to get the rest of the painting done! I’ll be working on the other side of the step rail and the rest of the porch rails this coming week but it is already a pleasure to have the old rail replaced. We went a couple of months without a rail at all, which was inconvenient, but the old rail was in such poor condition we deemed it a safety hazard and had removed it.

For the record, since this blog is also part diary, the spindles are 28 inches long, cut down from 30 inches, and each end is cut at a 30 degree angle as are the 48 inch long top and bottom rails. The spindles, with shipping, cost $3.75 each (on clearance) from Mr Spindle. The rails were produced by a local wood working shop at a cost of about $85.00 for 32 feet.

Yard Work

Although we didn’t transplant any flowers this week, it was time to cut back a bunch of day lilies; there were quite a load of those. Also grass clippings and yard waste was taken to the dump. At last count, 13 of the giant sunflowers are blooming and there are a couple small but ripe watermelons in the garden. The summer cycle is beginning to close.

A few days were deemed too hot to work outside. Temps went into the 90 degree range and the humidity was high, making for very uncomfortable working conditions. Pam continued an embroidery project and I built shelves in the garage and scanned a few more old 35mm slides during these times. Some down time is a good thing!

Photo Archive

This first photo is from a trip to Vancouver, British Columbia, in the early ’80s. We are visiting Buchart Gardens.

Here are Pam and Toby plus one of our cats, circa 1988 (?)

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

Pam’s Two Cents

My embroidery project was making a patchwork top for an ottoman. After five weeks of working on this in the evenings, I “built” the rest of the ottoman cover around the embroidered top. Then, a skirt seemed like an inspired idea. Then, the addition of bows. And all of a sudden I had produced a “tuffet.” Wow, that got out of hand quickly. Fortunately, a tuffet looks appropriate in the parlor bedroom.

You might be from the Midwest if your orthopedic doctor advertises one of his specialties in the local shopper – fixing trigger fingers. That was a first for me. What happened to tennis elbow or rotator cuff?

Happy Trails.

The big news this week concerns my mother. She passed away this last Monday evening.

Mom was 91 and living in a care center in Abbotsford, Wisconsin. I’d had a video chat with her last Thursday and she seemed to be about the same as she’s been for the last several months. (Due to Covid-19 I hadn’t been able to visit her in person.) However, on Sunday I received a call from her chief care giver, my cousin Marge Rohland, with the suggestion that I come to the care center, as Mom had taken a turn for the worse.

I drove to Abbotsford, which is just under 5 hours from Elma, and located the care center. My brother Jon and sister Kitt (Carolyn) were there. My other sister, Sienna, arrived shortly after me.

Not much happened the rest of that day. Jon, who had to work on Monday, left for home (Stoddard, Wisconsin) late in the afternoon.

The three of us – myself, Sienna, and Kitt – returned to the care center Monday morning. Through the day and into the early evening we talked and compared notes about life, kids, and our parents.

I didn’t really want to spend a second night in the hotel and it seemed as if Mom had stabilized at a new level, so I left around 4:30 p.m. to head for home. Sienna, who lives closer to Abbotsford, left later. Kitt, who lives south of Chicago, remained with Mom.

I had no sooner returned home and my phone rang. It was Kitt. She told me Mom had passed away at about 9:28 PM.

While I hadn’t been close to Mom for some time [for a number of reasons] and her passing was not unexpected, it was a sad moment just the same.

My mother’s graveside service will be this Thursday at the Riverside Cemetery near Withee. Mom was born and raised near Withee along with her 8 surviving brothers and 1 sister, many of whom are buried in that same cemetery. Mom and Dad had purchased a plot there decades ago and Mom will be interned next to Dad. The stone had already been prepared and only the date of death needs to be added to make it complete.

A Celebration of Life is planned after the internment has taken place, but it will be restricted to close family and invited guests due to Covid-19. That is sad, as Mom taught school in Greenwood for more than two decades and Dad delivered mail. Both were very well known and respected in the community and many more people, I think, would have stories to tell at a celebration.

If anyone reading this would care to leave a comment, the funeral home has an Obituaries page with a “Post Condolences” link. That site is http://www.cuddiefh.com/obituaries/index.php

I will be driving north a day before the graveside service/celebration of life, meet with some relatives who are coming in for the service, and check to make sure all other arrangements have been made. Kitt is taking the lead on these affairs; I’m just supporting her when appropriate. She and I get along well and are closer than I am to Jon or Sienna.

I will have some photos of the service in my next post. In the meantime, here is a photo of Mom as she appeared a couple years ago.

Next week’s service and celebration will end that chapter in her book of life.

Here at 702, other projects, none large, have received attention. Pam has been sanding the reproduction living room doors we purchased last spring. The bright green oil paint was not to her liking, so she worked to remove the color and re-stain the door. Here is a photo of that work in progress:

Once door #1 is done it will be on to door #2 (at some future point). Pam has decided not to sand the door edges (which are hidden, for the most part, when the doors are in the normally closed positions).

We’re still waiting for the garage door and three windows (which will go in the original garage) so no additional construction was done on the garage addition this week. I did construct a stoop for the back door and put up a few more shelves. My construction projects were done with scrap and left over pieces of wood.

The alley side of the addition received a retaining wall which should help keep gravel off the yard and makes the approach a bit neater.

I also back-filled around the garage addition using dirt from the pile left over from the slab’s excavation.

Around the yard, flowers near the Mary Lynn Memorial Garden (east side of house) are doing very well. Becky requested a photo or two of this area so here you go!

Photo Archive

This week’s archive features pictures of Boreas Pass, Colorado. This pass has special significance for us since Pam’s mother’s ashes are spread at the top near an old cabin. These photos were taken in the late ’70s and early ’80s.

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

Pam’s Penny

Still too hot and humid to start painting porches. At least I finished sanding one of the reproduction doors.

Happy Trails.

This past week saw the tackling and finishing of a lot of small jobs. Each seemed to take longer than expected!

House Updates

Projects for this week included replacing the the damaged (and cheap) combination storm and screen windows located in the front parlor.

The window was missing the screen and the sliding glass panel was no longer staying in the damaged channel. Since we now have central air, a screen window in that location was no longer a priority so I decided to replace it with one of the standard storm windows I had found when cleaning out the basement.

I re-glazed the glass and Pam put a coat of fresh paint on the frame. However, the old window gave me a fight when it was time to make the swap.

The combination window had been glued in place. It was a real chore to get all the parts of it removed. In addition, working from the outside revealed a problem with the deck: more rotten boards.

I had not thought to check the far west end of the porch deck for rot; everything looked OK. However, when I stepped on the boards under the window, my foot almost went through the floor. This led to another repair project, replacing the boards on that end of the deck.

A visit to the local Mennonite hardware store scored some old-fashioned clips to fasten the old storm to the window frame. In the end, a project that should have taken a couple hours turned into a day-long job but I did get both the deck repaired and the window installed.

Sure hope this window does a better job of sealing out cold air this winter. The front parlor was a bit drafty last year.

Another “house job” was re-working the back deck. As I had mentioned before, I had planned to re-use some wood removed during the front porch repair to cover the back deck boards. The goal was to have all three decks sport the same decking.

At the same time, the back steps had always felt a little “squishy” when stepped on. I decided to add two more risers below the steps to fix this problem. This led to a removal of most of the step structure, adding the two risers, and reassembling the steps.

The risers were cut by the local lumber yard to the dimensions of the original risers. Sort of. The local lumber yard is right in town, and they didn’t believe the riser build measurements I initially gave them. One of the guys came out to the house and checked my numbers. I was accurate, but the steps are two inches farther apart than most. (No wonder it feels like such a stretch for the dogs and us to climb them.) I had to do some final tweaking to get everything to match, but now the steps feel solid when stepped on, a noticeable improvement.

Pam painted the face boards before I re-installed them. While more painting is needed — and will be done when we start painting the house — this step eliminated the need to paint while bending over to get at these boards.

Yard

We did quite a bit of yard work this week. The hosta plants located on the south side of the house were dug up, separated, and replanted around the dog run fence and near the garden area. This was a continuation of a project started last week.

There are a few new flowers blooming in the yard. Two varieties of morning glories, Heavenly Blue and Grandpa Ott, both just started to bloom. The giant sunflowers are starting to show their yellow heads.

The sunflowers are around 10 – 12 feet tall. We are surprised they don’t bend and break in the wind, but they seem to do just fine!

Garage Addition

We are still waiting for the main garage door to arrive. This week saw the installation of the “pass through” door that provides internal access between the old and new sections of the garage.

I have used these doors several times this past week. I am pleased they are in place.

I did some other repair work on the garage. The original had 6 small lights installed in the front and rear soffits and they had never worked. Turns out all 6 bulbs were burned out!

I installed LED versions of the bulbs, shown below, and these throw a good amount of light around the front and back of the garage. I don’t know if we will use these much in the summer, but they might come in useful in the early dark of winter.

I purchased the first of three 4-foot work lights for the garage addition. The fixture contains LED lights which produce a very white and evenly distributed illumination. Right now the light is hung from the ceiling and connected to an extension cord but it has already proven to be a welcome addition.

A couple of shelves have been put up. This will be an on-going process but it is good get started and be able to, once again, sort and have access to my stuff. Installation of the pass-though doors meant I had to take a bunch of shelving on that wall down. All the “stuff” had been piled up on my workbench making it inconvenient to find items as I needed them.

It seems like all of the jobs take longer than expected. For example, I had to run out to the hardware store to get the clips to hold the storm window in place when working on that project. About 3/4 of the way through the back step and deck rebuild I ran low on deck screws and had to make a 50 mile round trip to resupply as the local hardware stores close early on Saturdays. A trip to the closest Walmart, where I picked up the lights and did some other shopping, is close to 70 miles plus time in the store. It all adds up!

Photo Archive

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

Pam’s Two Cents

At last, the morning glories (the blue ones, not the purple ones) bloomed. I am particularly fond of the Heavenly Blue variety. I wrote a poem about morning glories for a college class once, long ago, and submitted it for [successful] publication in a garden calendar.

It’s time to identify fall bulbs and perennials for planting @ 702 Main. Some time this week was spent thoroughly reviewing incoming garden catalogs. The south side of the house, the previous spot of the relocated hostas, now needs different plant material.

Per usual, actually working in the yard for a season suggests different plants and locations than initially thought. (Just as living with a house suggests uses for the rooms not originally obvious.)

Happy Trails.

There are quite a few photos in this week’s update as we have progress on the garage and a few other projects (a couple of which were unexpected).

Garage Addition

This continues to be the major activity here at 702. This week the siding arrived and was installed, as was the back door, and the roofing was completed.

Pam and I painted some of the new siding before it was put up. This way I will not have to paint the high east end gable from ladders or hire a lift to get into that peak.

We painted more than is shown in the above photo; I did not want to run short.

Pam also helped clean up some molding corner pieces, as these are no longer manufactured and Bob the Builder wanted to re-use them. (They had been taken off the original garage when construction began.)

Siding installation moved right along on the east wall but was a bit slower on the north and alley sides, as there is more detail to fit the siding around. Here is a shot of the east wall getting siding:

Note the painted siding getting put up in the gable! Below is a shot of the garage as it was as of Friday, August 7th.

Note the addition of the barn ventilator on the roof! There is a story behind that.

Many barns in the area sport ventilators of some type and we have seen them used as yard art. We had agreed it would be kind of cool to have one on the garage addition, but the ones we had seen at antique stores were very large and expensive.

I was out on a rare Sunday motorcycle ride and traveled past another antique store and there it was, sitting outside.

I took a few photos and showed them to Pam when I arrived home. We decided to buy this one, so I went back on Monday, negotiated a better price, and brought the ventilator home.

Pam gave it a new coat of white paint and decided it needed some dark blue detail around the top to set it off a bit.

The builder installed the unit on the roof just before he finished installing the last of the shingles.

The garage is beginning to look quite fine and the ventilator sets it off. Although quite a lot was done on the garage addition, the overhead garage door has not arrived. I hope it comes in this week.

Also MIA so far are the three windows to be installed in the original windowless garage. Another door, a 60-inch wide “pass through,” will get installed this week. This door will go between the old garage and the new addition so I can get between the sections and move stuff around as needed.

New Display Case

Pam had been looking for a display case to show off some of her doll collection, which has been in boxes for months. The same antique store [mentioned previously] had a reasonably priced case that I thought would fit the bill. Another trip and it was home. Here are the photos:

(Remember, you can click on any of these photos to open up a larger version that will reveal more details.)

Elmo The Kitten

Elmo seems to be adapting to home life and the other cats are getting used to him. He must grow an inch each week. So far, Elmo is a pretty laid-back feline.

“Mystery” Flower Identified

Pam identified a bush growing on the NW corner of the house as an older variety of hydrangea. We are delighted with this as Pam had purchased a hydrangea this spring, at one of the Mennonite greenhouses, and she was wondering where to plant it. (It is currently potted.) The two hydrangeas next to each other will be quite attractive – planting problem solved.

The flowers start out white and with almost no aroma, but develop into a pinkish color with a very light and aromatic fragrance.

Transplanting hostas and peonies from their original locations to near the north dog fence has begun. Photos I took of this activity had sun flare in them so I will have to get a couple new shots this week.

Other Projects

A milestone of sorts…all three doors, and their screen doors, now open and close with latches and door knobs. When we moved in none of the doors worked as they should. The screen doors were held closed with eye hooks and the three main doors were held closed with deadbolts, one even during the day so it would not blow open in the wind.

I had worked on the front door some time back and got it opening and closing OK, but did not get to the front screen door until this last week. It received a new latch which makes it easier to actually use.

The main work was on the back and side doors. I removed, repaired, and re-installed the antique lock sets. The side door works well but the back door is still sticking due to, I think, multiple layers of paint that have been applied over the years. I will have to take the door off to work on it a bit more, but it does open and close when you turn the knob. We do not have keys for any of the antique lock sets; added-on deadbolts remain in place for security but these repairs make it much easier to get in and out of the house. Just part of the joys of fixing up an old Victorian…

So, as usual, it was a week full of projects, a few surprises, and a few more items checked off the “to do” list. (To-Do lists never get shorter; new projects get added as soon as some are marked off.) We are making progress but there’s so much more to get done before the weather starts turning cold.

While cold weather seems a bit far off, I plan to spend a couple of September weeks at The Lot in Colorado, then it will be October and getting cold. In reality, we have about 4 – 5 weeks to finish the projects we had hoped to complete this year. That includes getting started on painting the house, a project that will span years.

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

Photo Archive

Pam’s Penny

It’s August already. Wow.

I’ve actually been calling the ventilator a cupola. I think cupola has more class than ventilator.

Anybody else noticing how much earlier we are losing the evening light? Bummer. I’ve been out nightly in the twilight, watering plants and shrubs planted this year. NE Iowa is having a run of no rain (still humid, though).

Happy Trails.

The big projects for this past week are mostly continuations of projects begun over the last couple of weeks, hence the title of this post.

Garage Addition

Construction continued on the garage addition but ran into a problem: the siding, main door, and back door have not arrived. Bob and his helper did what they could, working on soffits and installing windows and roofing, but by Tuesday afternoon had come to the end of their work for this week. Hopefully the rest of the materials will be in next week so this project can be finished!

Decking

A couple of posts ago I had mentioned I would be replacing some of the decking on the front porch. This work would eliminate some rotting wood and seams where boards were pieced together. Note the decking was installed on the diagonal across the entire porch. Here is the “before” photo:

Here are a couple of “during” and “after” photos:

One of the two worst elements of this job was cutting around the posts, which had been installed after the decking in the original construction. It was time consuming to cut templates to fit around the posts then transfer those to the final boards.

Note that the wood is of a tongue-and-groove style which means the boards interlock with each other. This has advantages but makes the margin for error, when cutting around the posts, much smaller.

The other worst element was removing the screws that held the old flooring in place. I had to use a small screwdriver to dig the paint and crud out of the old screw heads before they could be removed. Add in different types of screws used over the years, Phillips and Torex T-25 drive heads, and removing the screws turned out to be the most time consuming part of the job. It was also hard on the knees.

The original builders had used 8-foot boards and pieced in additional lengths when they put in the decking. I used 10-foot lengths which eliminated the need for any additional pieces. I sure wish this had been done in the original build; it would have eliminated the need for replacement now.

The new wood is very solid and we can really feel the difference between it and the old, and somewhat “spongy” feel, of the original wood. It turned out to be more of a project than I thought it would be but I am glad to have it done.

New Kitten

We took our new kitten to the vet for a check-up and blood tests. It turns out that “Elle” is “Elmo,” a young male. The tests turned out OK. Elmo received a rabies shot and de-wormer and is now running around the house. The other cats don’t know quite what to make of him but there are some indications that KitKat may start playing with him.

F-150 Truck

The truck was out of commission for a few days. I had taken it in to get an exhaust manifold leak fixed but the mechanic ran into a few problems: broken studs, bolts that hold the manifold in place. Four of the eight studs had broken. Two were easy to remove and replace but the front two required some special tools, a left-hand drill bit and compact air drill, to remove. More labor than originally estimated was involved.

The truck was repaired and now sounds better than when we first bought it. Nice to have all the exhaust going out the muffler. However, in the meantime, the RAV-4 had to do duty as a wood hauler for some of the new decking materials.

Other Projects

Pam went through some of our boxes – the second floor storage room/guest bedroom is still full of them – and found and hung up some of our wall art on this and a few other walls.

I installed new latches on the side and back doors. The back door latch was worn out and working only part of the time and the side door did not have a latch at all; we were keeping it closed with an eye hook which proved to be very inconvenient. The doors need a lot more work before winter but that is a project for later this fall.

It was another busy week here at the Heart House. The upcoming week should see the start of a major painting project; we hope to start with the front porch now that the floor is taken care of. Some of the wood removed from the front porch will be re-purposed and installed on the back porch as the current decking there does not match the other two porches.

There are three anniversaries of note this month; my birthday and our 46th wedding anniversary both occur in the first two weeks of August. Pam’s older brother Larry turns 70 next week and Pam made him a special birthday card to mark the occasion. COVID protocols mandate extremely limited “celebrations” of these types of events this year.

Photo Archive

Family and friends are featured in these photos from out past.

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

Pam’s Two Cents

Kittens. I used to have their care down to a science. I still have pens and cat boxes and feeders in abundance. What I do not have in abundance, apparently, is the patience I used to employ in kitten care. Because Elmo is into everything. Everything. Which is why a pen will remain in the living room, and Elmo will be in that pen frequently. (Actually, it’s his “safe place” and he climbs in all by himself to sleep in the hammock.)

Cooler weather, predicted for next week, may allow me to start some plant relocations — hostas, mainly, and probably the peony bush currently situated in an awkward location in the back yard. I have a potted maple growing from seed (a seed which probably blew in from the huge maples across Main Street) and it’s time to plant the maple in the east yard. This house greatly needs trees producing summer shade on the east side; I hope we see some of that shade during our stay at 702.

Happy Trails.