Author: admin (Page 18 of 62)

Here we are in the middle of winter and there is not much happening at 702 Main. A few projects are progressing, including painting and insulation installation.

Pam’s living room repaint is moving along. She has the lower part of several walls painted in the green hue she chose. Now comes the harder part, picking the shade of color that she wants for the upper portions.

Pam would like a shade of white, but there are hundreds of ‘white’ paints out there. Picking the right one will take some time.

While Pam was painting I was in the garage installing the insulation I bought a couple weeks ago. My goal was to get the eaves enclosed, insulate the west wall, and fill in as much as I could with the rest of the insulation batts. I had just enough to get these priority areas done.

I was able to insulate the south (alley) wall, including the eaves on that side as well. The addition is already warmer than the rest of the garage as a result of this work. Next I will need to buy some more insulation and finish the east wall, but the biggest job will be to get insulation in the ceiling. Those rafters are 24 inches on center and the work will need to be done from a ladder, slowing the installation. I would be nice to have all this done by spring but in the shorter term it gives me a good task to work on.

A recent snow added another cover of white to the area. Very heavy and wet, the snow did not want to slide off the snow blade very well, leaving clumps of snow along the sidewalks and road.

I came across this new word which describes Pam very well.

Photo Archive

I am not sure if I have used these photos before as I lost track of some of their uses. Taken in the late ’70s and early ’80s at a place I have mentioned before, Boreas Pass in Colorado.

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

Pam’s Penny

Although we live in a Victorian/Queen Anne style house, I am not a turn-of-the-previous-century purist when refreshing interior rooms at 702 Main. For one, maintenance of high Victorian decor doesn’t fit our life style. For another, the pets would absolutely destroy velvets, satins and laces. I installed lace curtains in the parlor bedroom, and I can’t tell you how many times I have found cats (usually Elmo) swinging off them.

One thing I am a stickler for is keeping or reproducing, whenever possible, the level of detail this house originally featured. Too many times 702 has been spray-painted a single color; these colors cover both plaster walls and woodwork on interior surfaces, then hide wood rot on exterior surfaces. This is why we are primarily brush-painting the house and repairing as we go along, restoring multi-colored details, and (too often) using artist detail brushes to compensate for previous poor quality workmanship.

All of these issues come into play in the refresh of the two downstairs rooms, which I am renaming the “library” (dining/living room) and the “snug” (Bob’s bedroom-previous owner). I’ve decided to incorporate a bit of art deco design in the library, utilizing the fan shape. I also plan to unpack as many of our books as will fit in the space, make a feature wall of travel posters, and hopefully find ways to display our curios behind glass, away from pet paws. Furniture will need to be pet friendly as well; these two rooms are the main habitat of five cats and three dogs.

It’s a process…more updates as the refresh progresses.

Be Well and Happy Trails.

Our winter activities were typical this week. Pam worked inside the house. I completed a few projects in the garage. Frosty weather created a few photo opportunities.

Last week I mentioned that Pam had started an upgrade on the main floor. This week she completed more painting of the ceiling trim, plus hung some new curtains. She also began the task of sorting and packing Christmas decorations. A busy girl.

I continued an upgrade of my garage work space, adding another storage rack and more shelving. A trip to the Rochester, Minnesota, Menard’s lumber yard yielded the storage rack, shelf brackets, more insulation to be installed, and new wheels for my table saw stand.

The frosty weather, mostly freezing fog that created rime ice, gave rise to a few photo opportunities.

And there were other odds and ends: my sharpened saw blades came back from the lumber yard, Pam measured a stretched-out Elmo at 31 1/2 inches long, and we received our stimulus checks via direct deposit into our bank account. Life goes on even if not documented in any particular way.

While I try not to get into politics in these posts, the events of last Wednesday concern me. Those Capitol rioters tried to interfere with the peaceful transition of power from one administration to another. That transfer is, perhaps, the greatest strength of democracy. To interfere is illegal, un-American, and un-democratic.

One candidate lost and another won. There is no evidence of anyone “stealing” the election. The 60+ lawsuits filed in the courts all found “no merit” in the claims of ballot irregularities. The election was fair and clean. Biden and Harris won.

There is much the Biden – Harris administration will have to clean up before they can begin to move this country forward. However, if Trump supporters refuse to believe in evidence and refuse to accept election results, America as a democracy can not survive.

I could go on (as I am quite angry), but better leave with these comments. As I write this, over 360,000 people have died of COVID-19 which Trump called a hoax. The National Guard had delegated 6,000 men to keep order at the Inauguration, an event which is supposed to be a celebration of the democratic process. The nation is deeper in debt and politically divided as never before.

I would encourage anyone reading this to reconsider the words of the Pledge of Allegiance we have all uttered over the years. “..to the United States of America…” Allegiance not to a person or political party, but to the country. To democratic processes. That is the glue that holds democracy together, and without it, democracy will fail.

Photo Archive

From a trip to Vancouver, British Columbia in 2004:

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

Pam’s Penny

Himself and I have worked VERY hard our whole lives, frequently performing tasks we didn’t really enjoy at all. We anticipated enjoyment in retirement, livin’ the life, setting our own schedules. The continued refurbishment of 702 Main in Elma, IA is our transition project between the work hassle of the past, into the leisure zone. We deserve to enjoy “the fruits of our labors,” as the saying goes.

Then “Bam!” – a virulent worldwide pandemic hit hard, followed by the Big Orange Liar fermenting political violence. Events certainly not on our original retirement radar. My range of emotions in reaction to horrible numbers of COVID deaths and POTUS-directed insurrection is wide – anger, disgust, fear, extreme sadness, a tumult of many more. The political fallout penetrates even rural Iowa.

As a result, be forewarned, family/friends – I am no longer conciliatory in the least toward political idiocy.

Be Safe. Happy Trails.

This is more of a photo gallery than a post. Below is a collection of photos I took on the morning of January 3rd as the sun began to burn off morning fog. Click on each photo to open a larger version, then click on any detail in the photo to enlarge the area around your cursor.

That’s it. Hope you enjoy these.

Jerry

2020 is behind us; let’s hope 2021 is a far better year!

True to recent form, we spent a quiet week at home. Pam finished hemming draperies, made a rhubarb pie (the last of the batch of rhubarb we grew), baked salmon for New Year’s Day (first time!), and started a living room painting / makeover project.

My projects were minor. I put a piece of pegboard up over my workbench; this required moving a few shelves and repositioning a light. I’ve spent a couple of hours on this already and have a bit more work to do.

Going through more boxes in the garage attic, I found a few more tools to hang on peg hooks and located my box of sport court tiles. With the tiles in hand I began assembling a mat in front of the workbench. The extra layer means I am not standing directly on the cold cement floor when at my bench, making working out there more comfortable.

We did get a few inches of snow last Tuesday evening and into Wednesday morning. After some hand shoveling of steps, porches, and the walkway to the garage, I fired up the John Deere garden tractor and spent the next couple hours moving snow around. (Now the neighbors know the snow removal standard I intend to maintain!)

We have been lucky so far this year; December overall was above average in temperatures even though we had a couple of very cold nights.

Overall it was another quiet week. We find we are sleeping in, working a few hours on planned projects, then watching some TV after dinner. It is a much slower pace than we maintained last summer!

Elmo the cat has been up to his usual tricks, finding things to destroy or pull down. For some reason he likes to play on the steps and has succeeded in pulling off all the paper decorations Pam had put up on the step risers. Here he is at work:

To his credit, Elmo does get along with the dogs.

Our Christmas decorations are coming down. Right now the only items left are the lights and garlands on the front and east porch. The tree is down and the window decorations are packed away, including the red rope lights that made up the two hearts Pam had created in the windows. The upcoming week is supposed to have a couple warmer (for January) days and we’ll take down the rest of the garlands and lights and pack everything up for use next year.

2020 is over and we look forward to a better year in 2021. Hopefully our health will hold up and, at some point, we will get one of the COVID-19 vaccinations. Given our rural location and issues with transport and refrigeration of the vaccines, distribution in NE Iowa may be a bit on the slow side.

We hope all who read these notes have a good 2021! We enjoyed hearing from those of you who sent holiday greetings.

Photo Archive

This week’s photos are from a ride we took on the narrow-gauge Silverton & Durango Railroad in 2005.

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

Pam’s Penny

After approximately two months of a painting hiatus, I have begun the “refresh” of the downstairs rooms. (There I am, back up on the ladder again.) At least the ceilings are lower in the two rooms slated for work this round. It will be a slow progression — one day work, one day rest!

Our current [slower] schedule may just be The Universe helping us gather our strength and resources for another year of renovations.

As Himself mentioned, Elma may very well be in a COVID vaccine desert. We’ll be looking for Moderna or Astrazenica by summer – maybe. Our newly-built local clinic should be open by then. Until then, mask – social distance – sanitizer.

Be Well. Happy Trails.

This week was a “lazy” week. With the arrival of very cold weather, some snow, and Christmas Day, only a few projects received attention.

Pam continued to work on her project of adding material to the new drapes. This involves a combination of sewing machine work and time-consuming hand hemming.

Another of Pam’s projects was adding a sign above the kitchen entry, going into the living room:

I went through more boxes in the garage and scanned a few more slides. Minor basement work was done to clean it up a bit; I removed many of the old, and now unused, wire clips and nails from the beams.

Another of my projects was to replace the wick in my old Aladdin TR3000 kerosene heater. I use this, along with my Craftsman kerosene-fueled “torpedo” heater, to give me some heat in the garage when I am working out there.

With the new wick in place the heater works well and produces a good quantity of heat. It is rated at just over 10,000 BTUs which is high for this type of unit. I also found a local supplier of kerosene who I will use when refills are needed to my 5-gallon kerosene can. I only start either heater when I will be in the garage for a longer period of time and welcome the extra comfort.

We received a light dusting of snow on the night of the 23rd which resulted in a white Christmas Day. I took the John Deere out to plow the sidewalks, mostly as a trial run as there was not much snow to be moved. The sidewalks are uneven and the blade caught on several edges so I have to go slow to avoid damaging the blade or tractor. Plowing may also serve as a notice to neighbors that they should clear their walks as well.

On Christmas Day we opened our gifts. Pam received a Weather Tech (brand) phone holder that can be used in the house. I received a new pair of flannel-lined jeans and a pair of “house pants” that are on the order of sweat pants but higher class. Pam’s sister Becky sent us a new doormat and shoe scrubber and Pam’s friend, Julie Nickles, sent a few cat-themed holiday items. We enjoyed opening everything while sitting around the tree and listening to the Christmas music playing in the background. Later, we ate pumpkin pie and enjoyed a slow-cooked roast. Christmas during COVID.

In medical news, Pam’s recent series of medical tests (blood and EKG) were perfectly normal across the board. (The tests were partly as a follow-up to the gall bladder surgery earlier this year.) Good news.

A couple weeks ago I had scheduled a doctor visit so I could get a new prescription to treat my Type-2 diabetes. Up to that point I had been using the prescription from Colorado but it expired on my last refill. As part of the exam a full slate of blood tests were done.

On the positive side, my A1C came in at 6.6 indicating my type 2 diabetes is very well controlled. I’ll take that. But my PSA result (prostate enzyme) was somewhat high. The doctor wants me to have a biopsy taken; that will happen mid-January and I have to drive to Mason City to have the procedure done. Not looking forward to that.

A small change was made to my camera gear. My old point-and shoot was giving me some trouble so I replaced it with a used Panasonic DMC-ZS3 camera. (The above photos were taken with this camera.) Although several years old, the ZS3 has a reputation for being a durable camera which produces very good images. It came without the cable needed to plug it into a computer for image transfer so I had to buy one from Amazon before I could really start shooting with it. A battery and charger were included in the purchase so I did not have to acquire those.

This past week was a mixed bag of small projects, a trend that will continue for the next few weeks as the temperatures fall and snow builds up. There won’t be much to report on so my posts will probably be pretty short!

Photo Archive

This week’s archive features our son Toby. Photos were taking in 2004 and 2005.

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

Pam’s Penny

Frigid white Christmas. Wind chill. Cold dog paws and colder cats in the catio. Did I mention the wind chill? Iowa in winter – not my favorite. But, with the Solstice, at least hours of daylight will s-l-o-w-l-y begin to increase.

Happy Trails.

We didn’t do much this past week that is worth special note. Ongoing projects received some attention as did a few household repairs and garage updates.

Pam finished sending holiday cards and we have received a few in the mail. It’s always good to read the newsletters (when included) and catch up with the goings-on of our friends and relatives.

I ripped some lumber and put up my first section of pegboard in the garage. (The lumber strips are spacers that separate the pegboard from the wall.) It is good to have various tools once again handy and have a dedicated spot to store them. Besides, this is one of my planned “winter” projects and gives me something to do outside the house.

I purchased a free-standing shelf unit for the garage as well. It is time to get some of my lesser-used tools out where I can get at them and these shelves will help. At some point I will buy a couple more, but one unit was all Walmart had on hand this trip.

While unpacking some tools to hang on the pegboard, I found a box containing several packages of slides taken in Colorado between 2003 and 2005. Digging into my old photo supplies, I was able to put these into pages of transparent sleeves. This makes the slides easier to sort and view. The photos in this week’s Archive are scans from this batch.

The water supply line going into the upstairs toilet developed a leak and needed repair. Unfortunately the install had been done with “oddball” parts instead of standard water supply lines so it took two trips to the hardware store to find the correct compression fittings needed to affect the repair. The leak is now gone. But we are looking to get a quote from the local plumbing shop to move the toilet away from the outside wall. (So inconvenient to find frozen slush in one’s toilet on a frigid morning.) This was going to be a future project, but the condition of the plumbing and exposed location of the water line have moved it up on the list.

Pam started a sewing project, adding a border to curtains which will be hung in one of the downstairs rooms she will be refurbishing. The home’s windows are taller than standard curtains cover, which means regularly available curtains must be altered. So, a border to extend them is in order. I had a small part in this as Pam told me to go to the soft goods store and find a suitable shade of thread to match the border fabric. There is a Mennonite-run dry goods store a few miles out of town that has many sewing supplies and a good selection of threads. I was able to find an appropriate shade and the work is now progressing.

Last fall, about the time we had our first snow, Pam dug up a couple self-seeding pansy plants that had established themselves near the house and brought the pansies indoors, in a small pot. One pansy bloomed, a small blossom, but it kind of tickled us. Of course, Elmo discovered the pansy on one of his nocturnal paths of destruction and demolished the flower. (At least we have a photo of it.)

During this downtime, a conversation with my friendly lumber yard manager revealed he regularly utilizes a place to send saw blades to be sharpened. I pulled the blade off my mitre saw and added my 60-tooth table saw blade and took them in. Both blades are 10 inch and carbide-tipped, good blades and expensive to replace. Sharpening will cost about $8.00 each. It may be a week or two until they are returned; by then I will be ready to start working on the bay window winter inserts and will have sharp blades to do the cutting.

I don’t often touch on more personal matters, but one of them cropped up recently. We are in the process of settling my mother’s estate and there was a probate hearing this week. My parents had put all their assets in a trust which was revoked when my mother, in 2018, had a guardian appointed by the courts to handle her estate. This means there was no [recent] valid will; the estate ended up in probate.

The court hearing was to determine who should be Personal Representative for the estate. The choice was between the former court-appointed guardian and my brother Jon. I attended by phone and answered a few questions the judge directed to me. After discussions between the guardian’s lawyer and Jon’s attorney, plus the few questions to me and my sister Carol, the judge decided to appoint Jon as the PR.

Another issue was whether to re-instate a will from 1999 that existed before the trust was revoked. This was an easier issue to resolve as the will was consistent with state statues and processes. There were no contested elements so the judge decided to let the previous will stand.

The estate attorney will now be able to file the necessary paperwork with the courts, publish a “request for claims” against the estate, and take care of getting the land titles cleared in preparation to sell them. (Mom still owned two lots located along the Black River in Greenwood when she passed.) Two different buyers had expressed an interest in buying the lots but nothing could go forward until this hearing settled the representative issue. Jon will contact these people and see if there is still interest in purchasing either or both parcels.

The timeline to settle is not short, certainly into 2021, and this hearing advanced the process another step. Generally settlement tasks are routine; I hope they proceed smoothly in this case.

A Christmas Poem

(My apologies to Clement Clarke Moor and his “Visit from St. Nicolas.”)

T-was the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

The cats and dogs were all snuggled in bed with dreams of cat treats and dog bones stuck in their heads.

Mama in her kerchief, and me in my cap, had just settled in for a long winter’s nap.

When out in the yard there arose such a clatter the dogs jumped from their beds to see what was the matter.

With barking and woofing they ran round the house waking every one, including my spouse.

Out on the lawn there was new fallen snow glistening white beneath the branches and boughs.

From up on the rooftop I hard a strange noise and there was Santa with a sleigh full of toys.

I started to speak but he waved silence and said “2020 was a year that I dread.”

“With angry elections and a pandemic too this past year was a downer, most certainly true.”

“But people rose up, gave each other a hand, and acts of kindness broke out all over the land.”

“The New Year is coming, and we realize friendships and family are the gifts of our lives.“

“The people you love need to know that you care even if you can’t physically be there.” 

Then he jumped in his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle and off they all flew like the down of a thistle.

And I heard him exclaim, as he rode out of site “Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night.”

Photo Archive

The year was 2005 and Felicity visited us (in Colorado) so we took a road trip to the Maroon Bells wilderness area. This well-known attraction is located near Aspen.

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

Pam’s Penny

An unexpected visitor at the outside cat feeding station – an opossum – means I will now be pulling the cat food out of the exterior feeding location every evening. What a surprise to open the access door and have a possum snout peek out at me. Guess I’m lucky it wasn’t a skunk or a coon.

Also, out in the catio, one of the cats has developed a drool, which usually means teeth problems. Assuming I can catch the cat, Zip, he has a vet appointment toward the end of the month. This Iowa vet has obviously not interacted with rescue folks much. For some reason a cat dental was proposed. I don’t care about a feral cat’s dental hygiene, just that he has teeth pulled if needed. Sedation and a tooth extractor would do it. Cat dentals are major surgery and quite expensive. Geez. No good rescue deed goes unpunished. I continue to appreciate the rescue vets who actually worked with me in Colorado.

I’m dreaming of a brown Christmas. So far, so good.

Happy Trails – someday.

This week we concentrated on getting a number of jobs done. Among these were putting up our Christmas tree, adding some more lights and a wreath to the front porch, adding more window decorations, working on cards, and general putzing.

Monday was a good day for a road trip to a tree farm, where we selected and cut a 6-foot Canaan Fir. The farm “wrapped” the tree for transport and it fit nicely into the back of the RAV-4 to make the trip home.

The tree is upstairs in the Media Room, which is closed to the cats and dogs. Lights and ornaments were strung and the tree looks quite nice. You can see the lights through the bay window at night, including the star tree topper.

A wreath was secured from the tree farm’s gift shop as well. I installed it above the front porch steps, as something was needed in that spot. Pam likes to have decorations that look good in daylight, and I’m the “lights by night” kinda guy.

Going through Christmas boxes, Pam found several more wreaths she had purchased last year. One of these was added to the front porch, filling an empty space, and the others were mounted on the dog run and garden gates.

A couple other outside decorations were put up.

Other decorations were put up, including a second “heart” (shown above) in the parlor bedroom bay window and a small lighted decoration on the west wall of the house. The place is looking very festive!

The first batch of cards was mailed out. Writing brief notes for each card is the time consuming part, but cards need a personal greeting, not just a signature and/or a newsletter. Pam handles that task except for the very few I do for my family.

Non-Christmas jobs included replacement of the F-150’s left mirror. I had caught it on the edge of the garage door and broken the glass. A new mirror was purchased through Amazon, and after watching some “how-to” videos on YouTube, I installed the new mirror. (You have to take the door apart to do the replacement.)

Along with the mirror I had ordered a new remote for my TV and was finally able to make changes to the screen. Now the left and right sides are not cut off by our cable TV box. The Sony set we have requires a remote to make these changes as there is no menu built into the TV itself. The original remote got lost somewhere in the move from Colorado.

Another small item was the addition of an antenna to my garage stereo system. Now I get radio reception, including a local station that is playing Christmas music all the time. It is nice to have some tunes while working in the garage (other than my old cassettes and CDs).

I readied the John Deere for snow plowing by removing the bagger and mower deck and installing the blade, suitcase weights, and tire chains. Unfortunately the battery finally died. It had been weak for some time but the cold weather finally overcame the battery’s ability to turn the engine over and start it. A run to the nearest Walmart, on my motorcycle, resulted in getting a new battery. The John Deere now starts easier than it has in several years.

Along the same lines of getting ready for snow season, I checked out and started the snow blower. While the chance of getting snow is low this week, there is a 50% possibility of getting “significant” snow next week. I am not sure what “significant” snow means in Iowa, but am guessing it means there is enough to have to shovel steps and sidewalks.

In summary, it was a “small jobs” type of week with a variety of tasks completed, some holiday related, some not. As the weather gets colder the number of tasks worked on decreases. While there are a few indoor projects in the works, for the next couple of weeks the pace will be much slower than in past months.

Photo Archive

Here are a few more photos taken in 1999 during our trip to England. I had an early digital camera, rated around one megapixel, so these photos do not have a high level of detail.

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

Pam’s Penny

Holiday cards are out. Solstice is almost here – daylight starts to increase once more.

I’m pondering what to purchase for updating two downstairs rooms come January. But for the moment, I’m taking a break from house projects. The dogs could probably use grooming touchups again. Now there’s a project…

Happy Trails.

The big excitement this week was the installation of new windows in the west wall of the downstairs ‘snug’ area. Other activities included adding Christmas decorations to the outside of the house and windows. A final yard leaf pick-up was completed. Holiday card manufacture advanced.

One of the 2020 “to – do” projects was completed on December 2nd when Bob the Builder [and his helper Bill] arrived to install new windows in the downstairs ‘snug’ room.

This room is off the living room and currently houses a sofa that doubles as a dog bed and a trestle table that Pam uses for craft work. The door to the downstairs bathroom enters into this room. Pocket doors (one side operational!) are at the room’s entry.

The snug’s existing window frame had been drastically cut up when a previous owner installed a large window AC unit; the window was leaking copious amounts of cold air in the winter and hot air in the summer.

The new windows are vinyl, double-hung, and have self-storing screens. The glass portions can be tilted inward for cleaning. While not state-of-the-art, they are very good windows and appear to be very well built. We can already feel the difference when we walk into the room — it’s now the same temperature as the living room!

Below are a few photos of the installation. Areas around the frame, never calked when the original windows were installed, received a combination of expanding foam and silicon calk to make sure air leakage was reduced to a minimum.

Note: The bottom sill has been “boxed” with aluminum to cover the badly cut-up sill left over from the window AC unit installation. (Look at the lower right-hand corner of the first photo to see some of the damage.) The finished job looks crisp and attractive!

Now there’s only one more job that we had wished to get completed this year, wiring of the garage addition. We have not heard from Jake the Electrician about when/if he will be here to complete that task.

While several smaller jobs were done this week, the most time consuming job was to finish decorating the outside of the house. I now have the timers set so lights come on and go off at about the same time. One string of lights was replaced when a bulb burned out, shutting off half the lights in the string. I later fixed the defective string by replacing all the bulbs, one at at time, until I found the bad one. Pam laughs at me for spending time doing this as new lights are not that expensive, but I hate to throw things away without some attempt to fix them. We did throw out a bunch of light strands inherited from the previous owner, however.

Speaking of throwing things away…

When Bob the Builder was here he had a large dump trailer parked nearby. The old windows he replaced in the ‘snug’ were put in this trailer to be taken to a disposal site. I mentioned I had a bunch of additional old windows – and a door – I had removed from the basement and were now in the garage attic. Bob offered to let me put these in his trailer as well so I could be rid of them.

Pam and I worked as a team to get the old stuff down from the garage loft. I think there was a total of 12 or 13 old windows, some old screen door frames, and one old (and rotting) wooden door that we were able to put in the trailer.

Along the way some of the old window glass broke, initiating a clean up, but overall the project went pretty well. I was pleased to be able to free up the storage space and get rid of this junk, particularly as I’d had no idea how I was going to dispose of it. My thanks to Bob for his offer.

We did keep the three old-fashioned screen door inserts for the existing porch doors. I had labeled them when putting in the storm glass inserts so I will know which screens go where when we get ready to use them next summer.

Another project involved adding Christmas lights to the porches and inside decorations to windows. This is a work-in-progress as we see what seems to look good and work in our setting.

Pam took one of the rope lights and made a heart in the downstairs east bay window, shown below in the first photo. So far this is the most singular feature of our holiday lights. Here are a few photos taken this past week:

We’ll be cutting our live tree this coming week and it will go in the upstairs Media Room. Pam had already assembled an artificial tree for parlor bedroom bay window display, but the cats thought it was Tree Disneyland, so it ended up out on the porch.

Thursday I finished what looks to be the last leaf clean-up of the year. There are still areas of snow on the north side of the house so my efforts could not cover all areas of the lawn, but I did get the heaviest build-up of leaves from around the garden enclosure, dog run, and near the garage. Some of the mulched leaves ended up on the east side flower bed (the Mary Lynn Memorial bed) and the rest were taken to the compost/dump area I have been using all summer.

Pam encourages me to get out of the house during these shorter winter days and I get a chance to play with my ‘big boy toys’ so we both win. Next week I will put the blade on the John Deere and get ready for winter snows.

Other than that, it was a quieter week than most, with more down time. Between projects I’ve been reading and helping Pam with holiday card production. Pam provides the artistry and design (and most of the assembly) and I help by printing photos and labels. Cards will be going out in the mail over the next ten days.

Photo Archive

Back in 1999 Pam and I took a trip to England. This week’s gallery features some early digital photos of that trip. (More will be featured in upcoming posts.)

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

Pam’s Penny

I was pondering, while assembling holiday cards and writing notes, the greatly-reduced number of cards I now prepare. We sent over 100 back in the day; now it’s slightly under 50. And how it’s very likely, in twenty years or so, sending cards during the holidays will be reduced to about a dozen. Maybe the postal service won’t even exist by then.

Much as Himself enjoys playing with Big Boy Toys, I have always enjoyed cut-and-paste and find it relaxing. Perhaps it’s crazy on my part to assume recipients of a hand-made card appreciate the effort. Himself already sends an increasing number of digital cards for holidays; that may constitute our entire card-giving experience in the future.

Happy Trails.

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.