Author: admin (Page 19 of 62)

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.

As anyone in the Midwest can tell you, summer is over. Shoot, fall is over! Snow is falling and temperatures are well below average for this time of year. Normal highs are in the mid-50s but this week some days will struggle to get above freezing.

We are NOT ready for this. The house needs more winterizing, Pam has bulbs to plant, and some painting should be done to cover bare wood on the east and front decks. I still have gutters to install, but these are vinyl and I don’t want to risk cracking them in the cold. We hope to see an “Indian Summer” after this cold spell and have a few days to get some of this work done. Wait and see, I guess.

The big event of the last week was my round trip to Tulsa and back. Pam and I had decided to “sell” Felicity our 2007 Honda Accord as she, and boyfriend Peter, had no vehicle. They’ve been walking and relying on public transportation and services such as Lyft and Uber to get around Tulsa.

Now that we are both retired we no longer need a 3rd vehicle. The F-150 truck and Toyota RAV4 will suffice for our needs. The Honda had seen little use this past summer and would be a good vehicle for Felicity.

I rented a U-Haul auto transport trailer for the trip. Pam went through our second floor storage room and pulled out a number of boxes we’d been keeping for Felicity (the last 19 years and four moves) and loaded them in the car. We also donated an area rug, a small drop-leaf table and a pair of chairs to Felicity and Peter so they would have a place to sit and eat.

Some of the items from storage were photo albums, childhood toys, and mementos from Felicity’s teen years. Pam had kept a selection of items for both kids in case they ever wanted them when they had places of their own. Toby had received some of his stash of items a few years ago; Felicity had a larger number of boxes still remaining. The philosophy was the kids can go through their things and keep what they want – and dispose of the rest. In any case, there was quite a bit of stuff in the car and truck.

The trip was a bit nasty with lots of rain and wind on the way down and wind on the way back. I must say the three day, 1,300 mile round trip went by uneventfully but there is not a lot of great interest to see along the way.

Otherwise the week was uneventful. Early in the week I was able to do another lawn clean up and Pam was able to plant a poppy plant she had received. (More bulbs are still on order.)

Pam did get some inside painting done, as well as a few details painted on the east porch. The floor of the front entry hall (off the wrap around porch) was in pretty rough shape. As she has done in the past, Pam painted a “fringed rug” to cover the floor damage. Here is a photo of her “painted rug” inside the front door:

We are working on the old AC cover that Pam wants converted to a cat shelter to be placed outside the catio. I have to cut an access hatch in the cover so Pam can get food and water into it. That work will be one of my projects for this upcoming week.

There is no doubt the cold weather and my trip to Tulsa cut down on the number of projects we were able to work on. During this cold spell we’ll work on smaller indoor projects. With the Honda gone I will be reorganizing the garage, for example. I stopped in Waterloo on my way back from Tulsa (I had picked up and returned the car transporter in Waterloo) and picked up some insulation and more gutter parts. I will be installing the insulation and putting up gutters this week. The cold weather won’t stop project work but will drive most of the focus to inside jobs.

Changing the topic a bit, here are a few miscellaneous photos from my recent trip to Colorado. The first is a chunk of wood where ants have hollowed out passageways.

The ants had done this to almost 6 feet of the base of a tree trunk. Industrious little critters.

I have made another addition to my “Family” web page; I obtained a copy of my father’s obituary from December of 2010 and added a link to it at the bottom of the page. The page’s address is: https://www.appleattic.net/Galleries/Family/family.html

Or you can go directly to the obituary page: https://www.appleattic.net/Galleries/Dad/Dad.html

Photo Archive

Felicity and Toby, late ’80’s, ready for winter.

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

Pam’s Penny

Indoor painting with Elmo in residence is always “special.” The older cats pretty much ignore me, but not Elmo. I usually resort to caging him to avoid painted cat footprints all over the place.

Shout out for continued recovery to my brother Larry, who had a surgical procedure done this week. 2020 just keeps on giving, doesn’t it?

Happy Trails.

This past week found me getting into a regular routine after my extended road trip. There were no major house projects undertaken but the week was filled with working on smaller tasks.

Primary task was tackling the falling leaves. While I was gone Pam had done some raking and cutting back dead flowers. This material was placed in the trailer. I continued to mulch leaves and made a total of 3 trips to the dump with the truck and another huge load with the truck and trailer. Although the bulk of the leaves have been disposed of, there are trees that have not dropped any leaves at all so the process will continue until the snow flies.

Painting continued with work begun on the east porch. There was a lot of detail work to do which Pam undertook. The south end porch gable had some of the worst white paint on the house – old, cracked, and peeling off so I scraped it and gave it a new coat of white paint. We think the paint job turned out well, but we still need to paint the decking. Arrival of cold weather has put a damper on completion of this project but we hope to get a couple warmer days yet this fall and be able to take care of this final task.

Another task was getting the fencing done for Pam’s garden area. I added 8 “T” posts and strung up the fencing we had saved for this project. A few weeks ago I had put in the gate so now this area is good to go when Pam begins planting next spring.

To follow up on a project mentioned in a previous post, the area where I had leveled a large pile of dirt, then seeded it with grass, has greened up nicely.

Many smaller projects took up time this week. We ran an extension cord to the catio and Pam set up the heated cat beds and water dish. Jake the Electrician will be here (soon, hopefully) to permanently wire the catio, but for this cold spell we set up temporary power.

The catio also received gutters for the first time in its life. This was my “first attempt” at putting up gutters here in Elma and I found I need a couple pieces to finish the job correctly. It will be back to Home Depot to get the parts, but that means a trip to Waterloo (70 mile round trip) so it may be a while before I get them.

Pam completed what catio painting is going to be done this year. Additionally, she is converting the old window AC cover into a sleeping spot for Melly (the feral inside cat who escaped outside but does not want to share the catio with the other outside cats).

Pam hopes to have this project done in a day or two. Some parts of the cover need a second coat of paint before it goes outside for use. Painting had to be moved indoors to the new garage due to cold temps and wind chill.

In the category of “just living,” small jobs included:

1. Putting new wiper blades on the truck (an oil and filter change is on the agenda for later today).
2. Pam baked a delicious apple-cranberry pie with fresh fall apples.
3. The lawn was mowed for the first time in three weeks.
4. New registration decals were put on the RAV4’s rear license plate. (Due to the plate surround the plate has to be removed for this task.)
5. One of my two computer monitors died and needs to be replaced.
6. The window AC unit in my bedroom was removed and the storm window put back in place (required getting out on the roof, not a popular move with me).
7. The Grandpa Ott morning glory vines suffered in the overnight cold and the vines were removed.

With the cold weather arriving our emphasis will necessarily shift more toward indoor projects, such as building inside storm windows out of wood and plastic. This winter there will be time to remove the carpet in two downstairs rooms and see what lies beneath, then cover or refinish – whichever course of action seems more appropriate. I hope to scan many more slides and turn them into digital photos. Pam is planning to paint more rooms on the first floor before Spring.

If we’re lucky there will be some “warmer weather” (say, high fifty degree range?) before winter really sets in. This would allow us to paint the east and front porch decks and get a final leaf clean-up underway. Since Elma has already experienced falling snow pellets, the odds may not be in our favor.

Photo Archive

Featured this week are photos of Pam and myself.

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

Pam’s Penny

It was with sadness I bid adieu to the Grandpa Ott morning glories by the back porch. I think their beautiful purple/dark blue color is my new favorite in the morning glory line. Soon the colorful petunias in the Mary Lynn Memorial Garden will be frozen; that splash of color will be missed. I pulled the pots containing geraniums out of the ground (those pots by the wrap-around porch), and proceeded with a plan to overwinter geraniums in the basement – we’ll see how that goes.

One Fall bulb shipment I ordered six weeks ago has not yet shipped. Another bulb shipment from a different supplier contained a partial order; with COVID, not everything will be available this Fall planting season.

I think the mole must have found a place to hibernate somewhere in the north flower bed or under the house. We could easily trace the mole’s entry into the yard and around the garden beds, but not away from the property.

The house looks so much better each time we take on an exterior painting project. I just wish there had been more comfortably cool and non-windy weather this Fall to work on exterior painting tasks. Maybe an Indian Summer is just around the corner…

Happy Trails.

I have been on the road for nearly three weeks so have a lot of ground to cover, including house painting updates and a trip to Colorado and Oregon. There will be quite a few photos this time!

I will begin with house painting update. The back porch steps have been cleaned up and repainted.

We think the porch looks quite good. If you look at the right side of the photo you will notice the blue trim board just above the first red board. This trim will be repeated around the house. The porch serves as an inspiration as to how the entire house will look when we finish painting it.

Also around the house, the hydrangea flowers have now turned a dark red from their initial white showing.

Due to a freeze, many other flowers have died and been cut back. However, the mums seems to have survived OK and add a touch of color around the house.

The “big event” of the last couple weeks was my trip to our Colorado lot and, from there, moving on to the Pacific NW.

In Colorado, I winterized The Box by draining all the holding tanks, packing items that would be damaged by freezing, and getting RV antifreeze in all the water lines. Before doing all that I was able to do some work on The Lot, cutting some wood, stacking some brush, riding my ATV, and getting some paint on the storage shed.

It was “color season” in Colorado and the aspen and other trees were turning colors. Here are a few photos of that portion of my trip.

By the time I arrived in Colorado, the last week in September, the peak of the color season had passed at The Lot. Many trees had already dropped their leaves, although some trees were still green. The weather was gorgeous my entire stay. It was cool some mornings, with one freeze, but mostly clear and bright.

I did get some paint on the storage shed. With not quite enough paint to do the entire building I did the two long sides and used the last of the paint on the front trim.

Other work done at the lot included cutting some wood and stacking some brush.

All was not work, however. I did get in some ATV rides during my visit.

On the way back I took a side trip to Hall Valley.

All too soon it was time to shut down The Box and head out for the next part of my trip, a visit to the Pacific NW.

Daughter Felicity recently moved from the Portland, Oregon area to Tulsa, Oklahoma, but had left behind a number of items in a storage facility in Vancouver, WA. My job was to pick up a U-Haul trailer, empty the storage unit, and transport the goods to Tulsa.

I stayed with my niece Stefanie and her husband Eric who live in Scappoose, Oregon, about 30 minutes away from Felicity’s storage unit. Coming through the Columbia Gorge brought back a lot of memories from the time we lived in Oregon.

This part of the journey was uneventful, just a lot of miles. I had the ATV in the back of the truck and the U-Haul on behind; people must have assumed I was moving!

Traveling to Tulsa was not difficult, although I encountered a lot of road construction along the way. I found Felicity’s (and boyfriend Peter’s) new place in Tulsa without incident. (Tulsa is greener than I expected.) With three of us the unloading the trailer took very little time and we had a long chat before I headed out for NE Iowa.

I departed NE Iowa September 22nd and arrived home on October 9th. Total miles came in at just under 5,600. I was able to be in Colorado for the fall color, visited my niece Stefanie in her new home, met Felicity’s boyfriend Peter for the first time and caught up with Felicity and her life. The shed painting project resulted in the shed being mostly painted (after being in primer since it was built several years ago), and some work was done on The Lot clean up. I worked in a few ATV rides. The truck gave me no problems. Although I arrived home somewhat road-weary, I would have to say it was a successful trip!

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

Pam’s Penny

While Himself vacationed and traveled, the home front was a mixed bag.

Two pets needed emergency runs to the vet – one resulted in a semi-feral cat (Sunny Sunset) being euthanized due to a cancerous growth, the other was a dog paw sting/allergic reaction issue (Auburn Jo). A cold spell knocked out a bunch of plants, they needed to be cut back as a result. Leaves needed to be raked off the lawn (how else to find the dog poop?) and piled into the trailer. Iris plants were transplanted from the property, as well as newly-purchased iris bulbs to join them in their new location. So, yard work.

The catio painting project took more time and required more detail painting than I had originally thought. The cold weather reduced the amount of time I could paint outside; several days were in the high 40-degree range and windy, not ideal for paint to stick.

Elmo (the Elma stray cat) is now about 6-7 months old, a holy terror in the house. He climbs, he destroys, he jumps the dogs. He broke the curtain rod over the bay window in the parlor bedroom (Tarzan time). He is driving me nuts. At this rate, I’m not sure holiday decorations make any sense at all on the main level.

And now, we have an industrious mole tunneling it’s merry way from west to east, around the house foundation and through my flower beds.

Who needs a vacation?

Happy Trails.

Last week’s rain and cold was replaced with warmer and drier air, marking the return to working on our outside projects. The week turned out to have quite a bit more activity than anticipated!

At one point we had Bob the Builder, Marv the cement guy, and Pam and I working on projects all at the same time. Painting, [overhead] garage door installation, sidewalk work, and a new door in the catio rounded out the major work done this week. I am going to jump about a bit and describe each project as if they happened in isolation.

Painting was the first and foremost activity. I began painting part of the house and managed to get large areas of the garage and garage addition painted. Pam continues to detail paint the back porch.

Photo above is the south wall next to the back porch. We were anxious to see how the house would look in Barn Red. Other parts of the house exterior need repair work before painting can begin but at least this is a start.

Part of the house painting included a cleaning of the old gutters and washing the walls. Note the gutter below; the left side has been cleaned and the right side has not. Just cleaning the gutters and porch walls made a huge visual difference! (Growth on the plastic gutters appears to be some type of lichen.) I am also pleased that I will not have to remove the gutters to re-paint them. That would have been a major job.

Most of the week’s painting was of the garage and garage addition. The north wall of the old garage received paint, as did the garage addition east wall and alley wall.

Here is the painted north wall of the garage:

The photo below shows the nearly completed east wall, alley side wall, and the garage door being installed.

I must say that having the overhead garage door installed makes the garage feel like a garage instead of an open shed. However, we had gotten used to looking out the kitchen window and seeing the alley through the back door of the garage; now we will have to get used to a different view.

Note the small tree in the lower right hand corner of the photo above. This Black Hills Spruce was one of two trees planted this past week. The other was a small oak placed near the west side property line. These two brought the total number of trees, shrubs and arborvitae planted this year to 23.

Flowers were relocated as well; the phlox that used to be near the garage addition is now out near the 7th street sidewalk and has been joined by another phlox Pam ordered from a greenhouse.

Four potted mums were purchased from a local greenhouse and Pam put them in the ground today. Shasta daisies joined them. Other plantings will continue to happen over the next couple weeks as more of Pam’s fall planting materials arrive.

I am going to skip ahead a bit and mention another project that was completed: Adding a door to the catio.

This was something Pam had wanted and planned for since we bought the house. The current door is on the south side of the catio and faces the garage. In winter, or rainy days, the low area between the catio and garage floods and/or freezes, making access hazardous at best.

I had picked up a door at Home Depot but had not installed it. When Bob the Builder showed up to install the overhead garage door I asked if he might also install the catio door and he agreed to do the work. Here is a photo of the completed installation:

The major story of the week, though, was not even on our horizon when the week started. Monday afternoon Marv, the cement guy (he poured the foundation slab for the garage addition) stopped by with a quote covering the replacement of the broken sidewalk running between the back porch and the garage. After we accepted the quote, Marv indicated he could begin the work later this week. Huzzah!

Note: I have raw video clips of the sidewalk work and will try to have a finished video by my next post. Until then I will include numerous still shots of the work in progress.

The new walk includes paths to the catio and to the garage addition. The step-out from the original garage was made into a gentle ramp. A last-minute change was made to add a curved segment to join the old walk to the new one near the house. This eliminated a 90-degree joint that looked a bit out of place considering the number of curves in the new layout.

Marv’s crew arrived Wednesday morning and promptly began tearing out the old walk of broken cement pieces, placed forms for the new cement, and cut/placed the reinforcing rebar rods in the appropriate places.

All the prep work was done Wednesday. Thursday was the “pour” as the new cement arrived. Of course, one of the outside cats walked right across the cement while the crew was working it with trowels. We decided to put up some cat barriers after the crew was done and the cement was drying.

Once poured and worked the cement had to ‘set up’ before the next steps: removal of the forms and cutting expansion slots in the surface. Marv and his crew arrived Friday afternoon to take care of those tasks.

And here is the finished walk:

We are delighted with the new walk. It is solid, level, and makes getting to and from the garage doors much easier. We had not realized how much care we had to take when walking on the old, broken, and uneven walkway. The new walk looks better as well!

Pam “customized” the new walk with heart imprints.

Walkway replacement was a project we had planned to do this year but had not heard from Marv since he was out to discuss the work several weeks ago. We were beginning to think it would not get done before cold weather set in. To have it completed is a great boost for us – Pam defined it as a health and safety issue due to her difficulties on that walkway in the snow and ice last winter.

On yet another front, Jake the electrician, who had done the repair and rewiring of the house earlier this year, stopped by to give us a quote on wiring the garage addition. (We also plan to wire the catio, equipping it with an overhead light and outlets for heated water dishes and heated cat beds.) At this point Jake’s schedule is running about 3 weeks out so it may be mid-to-late October before he can make it to us.

On the agenda? More painting for sure (mainly the porches), but the major projects for this year have been completed or, like the garage electrical work and a window replacement on the west wall of the house, are scheduled. A bit more fall planting is on the docket but that will not be a major task. Winterizing the house will be undertaken beginning in October.

Wow. What a week. Overhead and catio doors installed, new sidewalks, major walls of garage painted, house painting begun.

Photo Archive

Over time I looked for unusual situations that I could photograph. Here are a few of my “artsy” photos.

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

Pam’s Two Cents

This week marked one year since closing on Heart House. Taking inventory of the finances as well as the projects, we’ve blown through tens of thousands of dollars to repair 702 Main and build the garage addition. That money had been primarily saved over the four years prior to the move, with the addition of the (somewhat disappointing) amount we received at closing on the property in DeBeque.

Money still remains for house painting next year and there’s a small cushion in the savings account, in case y’all thought we would bankrupt ourselves. The monetary improvements already put into Heart House have moved it from a resale value in the $60,000 range to a resale value in the $100,000+ range. That’s about all the local real estate market can bear, so additional improvements will be on our dime. (Plumbing, I feel, will be one of those “improvements” sooner rather than later.)

Himself received his first Social Security check this month; up to this point, we’ve been living on savings and pensions, as well as financing the projects from savings. I plan to begin my Social Security activity in January 2021, but due to potential COVID staffing issues, I thought it best to contact the local Waterloo SSA office this month to see if I need to begin paperwork early. After I explained this concept to the woman on the other end of the phone, she paused briefly and then replied, “Honey, I know you’re in a hurry to be retired – waited all your life – but you’re just a little ahead of the curve for us. Wait until Halloween or November before you start the paperwork.” Alrighty, then.

Happy Trails.

As anyone living in the mid-west can tell you, the last week was rainy and cold. Daytime temperatures were 25+ degrees lower than average for this time of year! These conditions impacted what Pam and I could get done on our various projects, painting in particular. Still, we moved ahead. Here is a recap of the past week.

Weather on Labor Day itself was still decent and we did some painting. Pam worked on the detail over two garage windows and two doors. Painting this detail is time consuming and took about an hour for each location.

I painted some of the garage addition west wall and under-eve trim on the back porch. The under-eve spot was bare wood, as the previous owner(s) never completed the paint job there.

Part of the job included cleaning the gutter which had a layer of lichen (?) on the outside.

By Tuesday, though, rain had set in and temps were colder, not conditions conducive to painting so we turned to other, and smaller, tasks.

Pam finished painting the light fixture trim ring she had purchased for the parlor bedroom and we installed it.

Other tasks included painting and installing a trim molding on the shelf above the washer and dryer, moving the last items out of the rented storage area, and putting up a few more shelves and unpacking some items in the garage.

I’m going to elaborate a bit on the emptying of the storage area. I moved the original ’48 Ford 8N engine into the garage addition but still had to deal with the non-running Yamaha XJ motorcycle. The storage area is about 11 blocks from the house and I did not want to push the bike that far so a plan of action had to be made.

Eventually I decided to put the bike on the trailer, but this required the help of Pam and the ATV winch. (I wish I had taken a photo of this but did not.) I parked the ATV at an angle to the trailer which was backed up to the storage unit door. I routed the winch cable through a clevis hook, attached to the truck through a strap, down to the front of the bike. Pam operated the winch controls while I walked the bike up the ramp and into the trailer. Piece of cake.

Other projects were completed. We both applied for absentee ballots. I sorted though a bunch of digital photos and put them in appropriate folders. Several new scans were made of old slides. Furnace filter was changed. Garage was measured for gutters. More summer flowers were cut back and the refuse taken to the dump. Dogs were taken to the groomer.

There is not much else to tell. I will note that the bare dirt area I mentioned in my last post is starting to turn a very light green as the grass seed starts to grow.

Hopefully the grass will “green up” in the next couple of weeks and I see ground cover before the winter sets in.

There are two anniversaries we are noting this week. First, we bought the Colorado property, aka The Lot, on September 12, 2012. The 8 years since then has gone by fast. The second anniversary is September 16, the day we closed on the Heart House at 702 Main in Elma. Much has happened this past year!

Photo Archive

These slides were given to me by my parents. The year was 1967 and I was 15 and had my first car, a 1959 Austin-Healy Sprite. I have good memories of that car!

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

Pam’s Two Cents

(Looking at photos of Himself at 15, I can see where son Toby gets his curly mop top.)

Himself was a bit at loose ends during the recent five day stretch of rain. I told him I could assemble a list of indoor projects upon which he could begin, but he refused my generous offer. I additionally noted it would be best if Himself developed a list of indoor projects for the January-March period. Here in NE Iowa, other than snow removal, not much to do outside during that stretch.

Bits and pieces of my fall plant order will start to arrive this next week. We should see iris and phlox, which will result in relocation/consolidation of the few iris and one phlox already on the property. I also have a coupon from the large nursery in Hawkeye, IA where we purchased the honey locust and arbor vitae earlier in the year. The nursery is in their final reduction of stock for the season. We may be in the market for an evergreen for the back yard, to be placed near the garden enclosure/adjacent to the newly-planted grassy area. Field trip!

Just by accident I learned the massive plant we allowed to grow in the actual bed frame in the back yard was an American Pokeberry aka Poke Weed. It is a poisonous and invasive plant. I never liked the way it took over the space where it came up, much like the day lillies do in their various spots. “Our” Pokeberry was cut back, but, with root systems reaching many feet underground, it will be years before it is eradicated. Live and learn. I believe there is one shrub plus two trees still unidentified on the property.

Happy Trails.

While every week is busy, this past week was almost intense in the number and variety of projects undertaken. The cooler weather helped and we were able to start on long-held painting projects. However, painting is not all we did.

A number of repair projects were undertaken. I purchased a “multi-functional oscillating tool” recommended by Bob the Builder. Equipped with a wood cutting blade, I removed three sections of rotted wood, two on the east porch corner and the third on the east side of the house.

As with any new tool, there is a bit of a learning curve and subsequent repairs went better and took less time than the first job.

More work was done to the spindles and railings. The east steps received new rails and spindles on the right side; the right and left sides have now both been replaced. The south end railing was repaired with new spindles and bottom rail.

The right-hand railing of the front porch steps also needed the replacement of the bottom rail. However, this repair took on a life of its own after I discovered the end post needed substantial rot repair work. I was able to carve out a cavity in the post and fill it with 2x4s. This allowed me to salvage the post, which would have been difficult to replace. I just can’t run down to the lumber yard and find a matching replacement! Anyway, the repair turned out OK.

A (very) sharp eye may notice that the right-hand spindles are a bit shorter than the left. I salvaged the original spindles by cutting an inch off each end. This was enough to get rid of the rot and allowed me to re-use the spindles. At some point I will need to cut the left hand spindles to match, but that is a job for another day.

Moldings were cut and added to the front and east side steps. The steps were painted or repainted, and with the moldings and new railings, are looking pretty good.

As you can see, painting the porch decks still has to be done, but a lot of work has gone into these steps. Note the 3/4 inch trim moldings on each step, the hand-cut tread pads, and, of course, the painting and repair of the rails. Everything is a challenge, including the cutting of the trim pieces found at the bottom of the east porch posts. Because of the condition of the post, each piece had to be individually cut. This took more time than it should have but the end result looks good.

Speaking of painting, I have to include this photo Pam took of me while I was painting the new step rails for the east porch. The end of the board you can’t see is under the front porch railing, holding it down.

Another project was knocking down and spreading the large pile of dirt created when excavation for the garage addition cement slab was done.

The bottom photo, above, shows the pile leveled out. It has been raked and seeded, thus the sprinkler. I hope to have grass growing here in the next 7 to 10 days.

The leveling was done partly by hand and partly with the snow blade attached to the front of the John Deere LX 176 garden tractor. The blade allowed me to move some dirt around and create a more level surface than shoveling by hand.

And, finally, painting. I’ve already mention the painting of the steps, but we were also able to get started on painting the garage and back porch of the house. Here are a few photos of this work-in-progress.

In between cutting, painting, and leveling Pam decided it was time to clean the catio. Some repairs and alterations were required as I plan to put a door in the east end of the shed, which required interior insulation to be removed and relocated. I replaced the [north side] cat entrance with the original 4-pane window after removing one of the panes. This addition allows more light into the shed and will be a bit more weatherproof than the temporary insert we had been using since last fall.

Pam had to clean all the cat bedding and items used in the shed.

We also started to set up Pam’s permanent garden enclosure:

The hinge-side post (right) is set in cement. This project was part of a larger project of emptying the rented storage unit, as we have to have it empty and be out of it by the end of September. Rather than store the fencing, posts, and gate, Pam suggested I set it up now.

Other material was moved as well. The only two things left in storage are the engine for the Ford 8N tractor and my old – and non-running – Yamaha motorcycle. I will move those this coming week, when the trailer is empty after a run to the dump.

And that trailer is quite full, as another project involved cutting back the day lilies and other growth from around the house and from flower beds under the oak trees. Today Pam is cleaning around the giant sunflowers, as a wind storm last night knocked several of them down. (Ten of the 24 sunflowers that bloomed this year are still standing. The photo of the garden area shows the complete sunflower array prior to the storm.)

Watermelons were harvested and the old melon vines, as well as the pumpkin vines (which did not produce this year) were pulled out, put in the trailer, and the garden area mowed to make it look nice and neat. Even some non-blooming morning glories were removed, making way for the garden fencing.

A bit of time was spent scrubbing the green mold off the lower north side of the garage. Pam already had the hose near the garage for the catio cleaning so it was an opportune time to take on this task. Completion made the garage look much better!

Most weeks are busy here at 702 Main, but this past week seemed to have us in an extra gear. Much was accomplished, mostly due to the better weather/working conditions, but also because of the realization that we have only a few weeks left to get projects done this year.

I hope to get to Colorado for an extended visit later this month, then it will be off to Vancouver, Washington to pick up items from Felicity’s storage unit and deliver them to her new place in Tulsa, Oklahoma. When I get home it will be early October and winter will be fast approaching. Pam has ordered a number of items for fall planting, a task that will occupy several hours of work this fall. Time for project work is getting short.

One project that did not move ahead this week – the overhead garage door did not arrive. The supplier now says it may come in sometime between September 14th to the 18th. We hope.

Photo Archive

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

Pam’s Penny

I do love the selected barn red paint color. It was a delight to finally be at a point to start painting the actual house – but – there is an insane amount of detailing to be done, around doors/windows and white trim. That color red is not as forgiving of mistakes as was the previous pastel shade.

My ceiling medallion arrived for the parlor bedroom, something which also requires an insane amount of paint detailing. Yippee. It’s a work in progress; stay tuned.

Happy Trails.

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.