Month: November 2020

Last week I posted a number of photos that showed some of the projects we had undertaken in 2020. Pam’s brother Larry asked us if, in retrospect, we would have done things differently.

The answer is a bit more complicated than just yes or no. When we bought 702 Main in September of 2019 we knew the house needed a lot of work and had put together a “to do” list of projects for the first year of occupancy.

The “to do” list included major projects such as putting on a garage addition, installing central air, getting the wiring fixed, bat mitigation, and replacing rotten porch flooring, rails, and spindles. Yard improvements were discussed and planned as well. Pam wanted the catio to be renovated to a degree and, of course, I needed to create a permanent dog run. Painting the house was going to be a major project, but we knew it would take a few years to complete.

All of the above tasks were addressed, although we did not get as far along on the house painting as we had hoped.

What did surprise us were the additional jobs we found that needed to be done. These unanticipated projects added greatly to the summer of 2020 work load. Covid-19 also played a part, particularly by affecting delivery of garage addition materials.

For example, over the last year the furnace was basically rebuilt, having received new burners in 2019 and a new heat exchange unit as part of the central air installation this year. Other than the blower fan, the furnace is now new.

Some plumbing repairs had to be done (and more need to be addressed in the future). A closer inspection revealed a couple of leaking joints and spots that needed to be repaired ASAP. The blue sections, some of which are shown below, replaced the leaking areas.

The pouring of the new walkway between the house, garage, and catio was an example of a project we thought we would do in the future, but after a winter in the house Pam declared the old walk to be a health hazard (snow and ice, as well as pooling water) and replacing it was moved up in the priority list.

Foundation sealing was not even on our “to do” list when we bought the place, but after a winter of cold drafts coming into the basement, rodents calling the place home, and infiltration of bugs and bees, getting this work done seemed like a very good idea and was added to the job list.

These additional projects, while not on our initial year 2020 “to do” list, had to be done to improve the house’s appearance, energy efficiency, and livability factors. We could not have put them off longer.

As we sit back and review the summer’s work, we do get a feeling of satisfaction with the amount of effort we put into 702 Main this year. The house is much improved inside and out and looks better than it did a year ago. Energy efficiency and over-all comfort level is greatly improved. The garage addition lets me put all my big boy toys under cover and gives me space to work on other projects.

And other work continues to get done. I completed inside storm windows for all of the smaller windows in the house (12 total) and now need to tackle the 4 bay windows. Pam has made more improvements in the main hallway. We are putting up Christmas decorations. A few of my web pages display minor updates; Video Gallery pages now show numbers and run times of all videos on the site. More photos have been added to the Heart House and Favorites galleries.

Pam cooked a turkey roast in the crock pot for Thanksgiving and made two delicious pies, one rhubarb custard and the other a traditional pumpkin pie. We spent Turkey Day cooking, eating, doing small chores, reading, and generally relaxing.

There is no doubt the pace of activity here at Heart House has slowed down, at least for me. With last week’s snow still lingering on the ground there has been little yard work done, though I would like to do one last leaf pick-up to collect the stragglers that made their way onto the lawn. It is about time to remove the mower deck from the John Deere rider and replace it with the snow blade and add tire chains. I want to be ready for the next snowfall and, although none is forecast in the next week, it won’t be long until the snow stays for the duration of winter.

With the ending of summer projects I find myself “putzing” around the house and garage. I’ve put summer items (garden hoses, weed-wacker, sprinklers and such) in the garage storage lofts, cleaned my work bench, swept the floor, changed oil and filter in the RAV-4, and put some batteries on battery tenders for the winter. Putting up outside Christmas lights and figuring out, for the first time in this house, what fits where and how to make the lights work took a bit of time. The catio has not yet been wired but I routed an extension cord into the building and found a way to plug in the outdoor cat’s heated water bowl and beds and added an overhead light for Pam’s use. That should get us through the winter. Another overhead light was added to the garage addition, doubling the lighting capacity in that section so I have more light while working on winter projects.

The trick, going forward, is to continue working on smaller and mostly indoor projects. In addition to the afore mentioned 4 bay window frames, I will begin scanning old slides again. Pam is working on this year’s holiday cards and doing some sewing. A list of indoor projects is being put together for January-February and includes revamping two main floor common rooms. (More on that as it happens.) Both of us plan to stay busy, but there will be more rest gaps between finishing one project and starting on another. The pace will be slower. Work one day, rest one day!

For now it is nice to stay in bed a bit later and take on each day at a slower pace. There is no lack of things to do, although some of them may take only a few minutes. (One such job was lubricating my bedroom door hinges. I pulled the 2 pins, cleaned them up with sandpaper, lubricated them, then put them back on the door. I was getting tired of listening to the door groan each time I opened it, and now opening the door is a quiet operation. Took less than half an hour all told.)

We hope all who view this blog had a good Thanksgiving and are looking forward to the holiday season.

Photo Archive

These photos are from 1998 and feature the house we owned in Whitewater, Wisconsin.

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

Pam’s Penny

Heart House renovation is certainly a consuming enterprise, as anticipated. We will likely run out of targeted reno funds and energy before we run out of house.

Generally speaking, living in Iowa is proving to be a tricky transition, at least for me. From the first, the house was the attraction for this move, not Iowa or Elma specifically. During the recent election season, residing in a “red” Midwest state was a change from Colorado’s “purple” state politics, for instance. Additionally, even after a year, I just cannot become accustomed to the smell of hog manure being honey wagoned over the fields surrounding town. (I thought, living on Main Street, farming impacts would be reduced in Elma as opposed to living in the rural area. Nope. I pretty much hate opening my door and being overwhelmed by that noxious hog manure odor.)

I miss living by a waterway. I miss coulees and ridges — any topography really. Iowa is flat, the wind blows constantly — particularly in the winter, from the frigid northwest direction. I do not believe 702 Main in Elma, Iowa will be the final relocation. Time will tell.

Still enjoy fixing the house and growing trees, shrubs and flowers in the yard. Good thing I have projects to occupy my time, as I have not been off the property since early November. Damn pandemic.

Happy Trails.

Pam and I have been reviewing the work we accomplished this past summer. 702 Main underwent major changes in 2020, but sometimes it is hard to remember what we started with.

A few before and after photos serve as a reminder of the work done. We will begin inside the house.

Kitchen

Front Parlor Bedroom

Jerry’s Bedroom

This January Pam painted and put my bedroom together to be ready for my retirement at the end of February.

Stairwell

We don’t have a “before” photo but we do have a “work in progress” and two “finished” shots.

Parlor Doors

We added these two doors to help close off the front parlor. Pam didn’t care for the original green facings so sanded them and put on a coat of stain.

House Exterior

Sidewalks

When we bought the place the sidewalks had not seen any maintenance in decades. One of my first tasks was to clean up the existing walks.

Porches

All three porches received major work. The back porch shows the typical work done.

Catio

Garage

Our major construction for 2020 was the garage addition, a 16′ by 30′ add-on to the original 2-bay garage.

New Garage Walkway

I don’t have a real good photo of the old walkway so take a look at it in this photo of the garage addition in its early stages.

Porch Repairs

Quite a bit of rotten wood was removed and replaced.

Porch Rails and Spindles

Other Work

The list of other work accomplished is extensive. While I do not have before and after photos of some of these jobs, here are a few photos of the work in progress or completed.

Pam painted storm and entry doors

The front door, inside, received a stained glass overlay

Yard

We planted 23 trees and shrubs, relocated dozens of hostas and other flower plants, removed some dead shrubs and cut back others. A garden area was defined and fenced in. Here are a few photos taken around the yard this past year.

Many, many other jobs were completed; the above projects are not a definitive list! Those who follow the blog will, no doubt, be aware of many other tasks undertaken and completed this year. It was an extremely busy season which we expected and had planned for. You can also check out three video clips on my Heart House videos page and more still photos on the Heart House Photo Gallery page.

That’s our trip down memory lane for the summer now passed. My thanks to all of you who check in to see what we are up to and what we have accomplished so far.

Photo Archive

This week I decided to include a few “arial” photos.

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

Pam’s Penny

Good to make a note of the renovation progress. The [mental] list of things still “to do” is lengthy.

Happy Trails.

This past week was a mixed bag of inside and outside activities. With the advent of colder weather we began to work on more “inside” projects. A few left-over outside projects were taken on as well.

The week started on a fairly warm note so I was able to complete the painting of a couple window frames. Old paint was scraped off down to the original wood, the frames were wire brushed, then given a new coat of white. Just in time, too, as rain and snow fell later in the week.

Along those same lines, Pam was able to get paint on the garage’s west window’s trim. She was able to apply a coat of paint on the garden gate as well. That completed the project of getting paint on all new wood installed this year. It is just good to know that all raw wood has a coat of paint in preparation for the upcoming winter weather.

More insulation was installed in the garage addition walls. This will be an on-going project, buying insulation a roll or two at a time and getting it put up.

Another three inside storm windows were put together and installed. I have been getting 1×4 lumber and ripping the boards in half to use as frames. A new “window kit” supplied the double-sided tape and clear plastic for the windows. I am getting better at putting these together, but still have four regular windows plus the four larger bay windows to work on. Again, this will be a project that takes a few weeks to complete.

Pam’s shipment of bulbs [finally] arrived. One afternoon was spent planting them before the ground freezes solid. Each bulb received a covering of potting soil as they were planted; here’s hoping they do well next spring, even though they are going into the ground rather late.

Bulbs included tulips, daffodils, allium, grape hyacinths, and wisteria. A few items were put in pots to over-winter in the basement.

A whole bunch of smaller tasks took up our time as well. Additional decorative fencing was ordered and put up along the west wall of the house, and the fencing that was there was moved to the east side. Some of the fencing will be used as supports for the holiday lights we plan to put up later this month.

A lawn clean-up removed several bags of mulched leaves, but high winds over the next few days blew more [of the neighbors’] leaves onto the lawn, although at a lower amount than previous winds. We are getting toward the end of leaf season but at least one more clean-up will be necessary to prepare the lawn for winter snow.

I worked on my kerosene-powered “torpedo heater” which I use when working in the garage addition. An old and deteriorating filter was causing the unit to misfire and was replaced with the hand-cut homemade filter, which seems to work just fine and appears to have cured the misfire.

Pam began working on the second Spanish-style door that is used to separate the living room from the front parlor. (She had done the first door several months ago.) In a new twist, Pam is using my oscillating tool equipped with a sanding head to remove the old paint. That seems to be working out pretty well; she hopes to finish the job in the next few days.

Yet another indoor project involved making changes to my web pages. In this age of computer security, more web browsers, particularly Apple’s Safari, are reluctant to play videos from an unsecured web site so I undertook the project of adding a security certificate to appleattic.net, converting it from an unsecured to a secured site.

On my Safari address bar the site now shows a closed padlock, indicating the site is secure.

If anyone has my site or blog bookmarked or as a favorite, the old address, which starts with http:// should be changed to https:// either by editing the address or replacing it with the new address: https://www.appleattic.net for the main page or https://www.appleattic.net/blog for the blog page.

Next week is supposed to be a bit milder so we have another batch of indoor and outdoor projects on the docket. However, major exterior work is done for this year. Remaining tasks will be smaller and have less visual impact than those of this past summer. Both of us are ready for a quieter period. The next major undertaking will be putting up Christmas decorations both inside and outside the house.

Photo Archive

Some Fields Family photos grace the page this week.

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

Pam’s Penny

Ah yes, holiday decorating. What indoor decor will Elmo allow to remain intact?

Happy Trails.

As expected, the above-average warm weather last week enabled us to tackle a number of painting projects. With the temperatures expected to deteriorate in the next few days, this warm spell will likely be the last time this year we can move along on house painting. Here are a few photos taken this last week.

We started by setting up an outside work table to use to paint the trim boards.

While these were drying the base, or lowest, board on the house received two coats of Behr #25 Barn Red paint. (This base board is now painted on the south, east, and part of the north sides.)

Once the trim and base boards were dry I was able to install the trim boards. Here are before and after shots of one of the corners under the east side bay window:

The south side base board and trim also received paint and some repair.

Here is a photo of the east side of the house showing the paint as of yesterday, November 6th.

The trim boards were not the only items to receive paint. The front porch flooring was scraped, cleaned, and painted as well. Again, before and after photos of that area:

As with any repainting project, the most time consuming element is the preparation. All the old wood had to be scraped and cleaned, a real challenge on the tongue-and-grove front porch flooring in particular.

It may not be apparent in the above photos but some of the window sills and frames were repainted white. We are trying to get as much done as we can before real winter hits. The upcoming week features a forecast of high temps in the upper 30 degree range so we feel our painting activities are about done for this year.

Painting and repairs, a big part of last week’s activities, were not the only projects undertaken. I was able to install gutters on the north side of the garage and the garage addition. This is a high priority project for me; I want it done before the next rain and snow arrives.

One project was done after knocking off painting for the day. I have updated my “Garage Addition” video clip, adding a number of still photos taken during the process. I also worked on my Family page, adding captions to the photos, replacing the stock numbers that had been there.

A final project, not so high priority, was beginning to insulate the garage addition. I had picked up a couple rolls of insulation and wanted to see how much coverage I would get from each roll. That way I could budget for the remaining rolls I will have to buy. It turns out each roll covers about 3 and 1/2 sections (the spaces between studs) and I will need about 14 more rolls for the walls and at least a dozen rolls for the ceiling. Good to know.

The County Assessor stopped by to confirm the garage addition construction matched the local building permit. (We’re sure to see an increase in property taxes next year.)

And, of course, there are always the smaller events and tasks that get done. Some trim work was done on the wall between the old and new garage sections. I put a bunch of left over construction materials up in the garage attic to get them out of my way. Stuff that might get damaged from freezing, such as spray paint and calking compound, was moved from the garage to the basement. A new computer monitor arrived and was installed, putting my two monitor set-up back in operation.

Pam took advantage of the warm weather (and the ability to use the outside hose) to accomplish the bi-annual cleaning of the house cat boxes.

Today and tomorrow will be wrap-up days. I plan to scrape and paint the first floor bay window frame [north side of the house] as the existing paint is flaking off in large chunks. Pam wants to plant what bulbs she has on hand as it appears the rest of her order will not be delivered before the next freezing temperatures arrive. One more lawn clean-up is on the agenda before rain is predicted on Monday. A mix of freezing rain and snow is predicted for Tuesday and I would like the lawn to be cleaned up before that happens..

I have one little anecdote to relate. One of the local grocery stores, HyVee, offers “fuel points” toward gasoline purchases. Recently they had a promotion going and we accumulated a total discount of $1.20 per gallon, limit 20 gallons. It was great to pump gas at $.58 cents per gallon!

Photo Archive

This week’s archive contains old family photos from Pam’s side of the family.

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

Pam’s Penny

Indian Summer has been great, but tiring. In retirement, I find I prefer one day of projects, one day of rest. This week it has been work-work-work-work-work. My mind will be more at ease over the winter knowing these projects have been accomplished, however.

Still waiting for a house window replacement and garage/catio electrical, but proceeding to Plan B should those contractors not be available.

Happy Trails.

As expected, the snow and cold weather put a crimp in activities this past week. The upcoming week is forecast to be much nicer!

The snow we received was not significant and far less than our relatives to the north saw on the ground. However, along with the cold temperatures, the snow was a good reason to stay inside and work on craft and computer-related projects for a few days.

Activities for the week included another lawn clean-up, cutting back dead flowers, reorganizing parts of the garage, minor work on the catio gutter, adding an access port to the “catio addition” and building 5 inside storm windows. Weather stripping was added to the front door making a much better seal against the cold north wind.

The “Catio addition” is the old window air conditioning cover which was removed when we took out the large first-floor window AC unit, no longer needed after the installation of central AC. The cover is made out of wood and tin and was lined with styrofoam insulation. In keeping with our “re-purposing” mindset, Pam though the cover could be made into an auxiliary cat bed or feeding station. I included a photo of it last week but mentioned I had to cut an access door in the side to enable Pam to put food and water in it. That job was completed. A little touch-up paint and it will be ready to go.

Building inside storm windows was another “indoor” project. In this case, “indoor” means working in the garage addition. I moved my table saw into that area and was able to rip lumber to make the frames then used a window sealing kit to stretch clear plastic, secured with specialized tape, over the frames. So far I have done both upstairs bathroom windows, the kitchen window, and one of my bedroom windows. The laundry room window, using plastic sheeting instead of a window kit, was a challenge as the window frame was missing a piece of wood that had to be replaced before the storm window could be built.

In general this is a time consuming process as each piece has to be custom-cut for a particular window. With non-standard sizes to begin with, settling over the years, and multiple layers of paint, each window presents a unique challenge. This is my first real attempt at this type of construction, and I am learning as I go, so progress is slow.

There are five more “regular” windows to fit with inserts then I get to figure out how to make inserts for the four large bay windows. That will be a particular challenge. I really should make inserts for the two colored glass windows in the stairwell, but access to that pair is difficult. We will see if I attempt it.

In the end this work may not save a lot of energy but a few windows are very drafty and we hope the inserts will block some of that unwanted air circulation.

Along those same lines, I replaced three trim boards on the east side of the house. These will be painted blue and have red boards above and below them. (If you go back a couple of posts you will see a sample of this on the photo of the painted back porch.)

Again, each piece has to be custom fit. To make the new trim match the old boards I had to rip a few boards of a wider width down to the size of the boards I was replacing. Without a table saw this type of work would have been just about impossible. Between these trim boards and the window inserts both the table saw and miter saw have been getting a lot of run time.

Another of my inside jobs was to finish a video of the new walkway being constructed between the house and garage. A glitch that prevented the video clips from downloading correctly from the camera took several hours to overcome, but finally I had all the clips shot during the course of the work. The link to the 8:48 video is: appleattic.net/Galleries/ HeartHouse/Vpages/Walkway.html

I started working on a new gallery of photos from my July motorcycle rally in Colorado, but that will take several hours to complete. Given the weather is supposed to take a turn for the better this week I may not have a chance to complete it for a few weeks.

As I write this Election Day is just a couple days away. I encourage everyone to vote if you have not already done so.

I am gong to close this post with a little anecdote. Saturday night Pam ordered up a couple of pulled pork sandwich meals from the fire department, who was offering them as a fund raising event. When giving directions for home delivery, she said “Its the old Victorian on the corner of Main and 7th” to which Kevin, the delivery guy, responded “The one being painted red? That’s a good color.” It goes to show that people in small towns notice and have opinions on everything going on in their community. (Eventually, when all the painting is completed in a couple of years, we’ll be the red Victorian on the corner.)

Photo Archive

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

Pam’s Penny

This week I came to the practical realization the Heart House exterior painting project is going to take double the time I had originally planned. I started scraping baseboards around the east porch (you can see this scraped siding in Himself’s photo of the new trim boards above). With my “hands on” experience, it became clear to me how much wood rot exists and how much subsequent repair will be needed before applying the barn red and blue/white trim paint colors.

Himself was already aware of this; he tells me he’s been mulling if we can afford to replace the house’s wood siding with cement “hardy board” siding, such as was used on the new and old portions of the garage. We can perhaps afford this in selected areas with the most water damage, like the bay windows. At this point the budget doesn’t support complete siding replacement, however. We have to pick our [financial] battles carefully going forward.

The “new” plan is for the two of us to work our way around the first level of the exterior in 2021, repairing and painting as we go. This will likely include determining the fate of some of the original windows as well. Once the first level is done, we’ll consider our experience on the first level, then re-evaluate how to complete repairing and painting the second level.

The first level, of course, includes the three porches. Two of them have been [mostly] painted this year. The huge wrap-around porch on the front of the house will be a project in and of itself. <sigh>

Privacy screen, aka wind screen on the NW corner of the dog enclosure, was installed this week. We’re trying to break up the wind tunnel effect between houses that resulted in actual breezes through the west side of the house last January-February. At some point in the future the arbor vitae will hopefully provide a hedge in that corner for the same purpose, but they’re too small at present to do much good.

Happy Trails.