Author: admin (Page 20 of 62)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photo Archive

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

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

Pam’s Penny

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

Happy Trails.

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

House Updates

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yard

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

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

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

Garage Addition

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photo Archive

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

Pam’s Two Cents

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

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

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

Happy Trails.

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

Garage Addition

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New Display Case

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

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

Elmo The Kitten

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

“Mystery” Flower Identified

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

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

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

Other Projects

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photo Archive

Pam’s Penny

It’s August already. Wow.

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

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

Happy Trails.

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

Garage Addition

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

Decking

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New Kitten

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

F-150 Truck

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

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

Other Projects

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

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

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

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

Photo Archive

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

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

Pam’s Two Cents

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

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

Happy Trails.

In my last post I showed a couple photos of the garage addition cement slab and indicated the builders would be here to start the next phase of construction. That is, indeed, the major story of this past week.

The contractor is Bob’s Building Service, located here in Elma:

The following photos show the various stages of the project to date:

The lumber yard is about 10 blocks away by road so they are delivering materials by driving the forklift from the yard, on the streets, to our place. Only in small towns like this will you see forklifts delivering materials to a job site using city streets.

Here is a link to a 9:51 minute video of some of the construction, including raising the rafters and putting up the roof sheeting:

Garage Addition

There is still much to do: installing doors, windows, siding, shingles, and other trim. Bob hopes to be pretty well done by the end of this upcoming week. As you can see, I took advantage of the construction to date to move the F-150 inside for the weekend. This is the first time the truck has been in a garage for a while!

While the garage addition has been the big news, it is not the only project underway at 702 Main. Pam finished painting the east porch screen door, exterior trim and stoop still need paint refreshed:

We purchased a work of stained glass and hung it in the front door:

The new glass adds color to the entryway and is a very good addition to the house. The stairwell benefits from having some color at the bottom of the steps:

Outside projects have taken up quite a bit of time. Pam has been trimming and cutting back some of the trees and shrubs while I mow the lawn. There was quite the [large] load of yard debris to take to the dump this week.

The time goes by quickly. Minor projects are tackled and finished. One project, a bit larger than some, involved my new toy: a used table saw.

I had been asking around about the availability of a used table saw, and had mentioned it at my recent motorcycle rally. One of the guys had an old Craftsman saw he was not using. He had inherited it from a friend who had relocated and didn’t want to take the saw with him. Would I want it?

I said yes and picked it up at his Aurora (suburb of Denver) home on my way back to Iowa. Last week I built a stand for it, complete with two casters on the rear legs so I can roll it around the garage as needed. Construction took a few hours but note the chrome handle on the stand:

While I have a compound miter saw, the table saw allows me to rip wider pieces of wood down to narrower sizes as well as make accurate square cuts. I used the table saw to cut the pieces for the stand. Pam helped lift the saw onto the stand once the stand was completed.

So, it was another busy week at 702 Main. The garage addition will be the most expensive task undertaken; I look forward to having my stuff under cover and a place to work, particularly when winter hits.

Other projects vie for attention as well. Pam is already planning garden projects and transplanting to be done this fall before winter sets in. This week we relocated a bleeding heart plant that had been alongside the current garage and needed to be moved to allow construction to start. A dog ramp is in the early stages of construction. I contacted a wood working shop who indicated they can make the top and bottom railings for the porch and steps, to replace the rotted railings currently in place. Next Tuesday the F-150 goes in to have a blown exhaust gasket fixed. The list goes on, just like life.

Photo Archive

This week’s photos are from all over and not dated.

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

Pam’s Two Cents

After the rush to complete stairwell projects while Himself was enjoying Colorado, I find myself slowing down in the intense heat and humidity of mid-summer. I did complete a patchwork-and-embroidery pillow cover I’ve been working on in the evenings. More painting needs to be done on various windows and doors, when I find the energy to do them.

At 11:00 p.m. last night, a five month old tricolor tabby female kitten was crying in our yard, near the dog pen. She had been encircled by the catio cats, who were acting mean (the jerks). I brought the kitten inside and penned it, as is my rescue habit. I’m not personally on the lookout for another house cat, and Elle (short for Elma) is too friendly to remain outside. Unknown where Elle will end up: 1) Is she a neighbor’s kitten and if so, why was she wandering around at night and not spayed? 2) Felicity is in the market for a feline in October. 3) Perhaps my sister Becky might be interested in saving her sister from yet another inside cat? The Universe will direct me, I’m sure.

I thought I was doing pretty well up to this point, not having any additional animals “show up” during the last ten months. Silly me.

Happy Trails.

I was on the road for 12 days, attending a motorcycle rally and working on our Colorado recreational property. I have a lot of ground to cover and many photos to share. Here, in more or less chronological order, is how I spent those 12 days.

Driving the F-150 and pulling the motorcycle behind on a trailer, I left on a Monday morning and arrived at The Lot Tuesday evening. On arrival, there were the usual “opening” chores: getting water, starting the refrigerator, making the bed, unpacking food and linens. And, this year, eradicating moths (living and dead).

I planned to work on The Lot for a day and a half, then move on to a motorcycle rally that was being held in Westcliffe, Colorado, over the weekend. A return to The Lot after the rally would give me a few more days to work before heading home.

The main goal for The Lot was to clean up the trees that did not survive the winter. Aspen are short-lived trees and there have always been some dead, or near-dead, trees that need to be removed from areas already cleaned. Usually these are smaller trees but some larger ones have also been known to die off.

Unfortunately, a walk-about revealed a large pine tree had been uprooted. We hate to loose any conifers on The Lot; the uprooting and other damage indicated a strong wind must have blown through this past winter or spring.

Wednesday was a day of various chores. I made a couple of “water runs,” where I take water containers to the community hand pump and fill them. Upon returning to The Box, I use a transfer pump to get the water into The Box’s storage tank. I had also brought along the string trimmer and used it to cut the grasses and fresh aspen that had grown in and along the driveway. A trip into town yielded fresh fruit, dairy products, lunch meat, and other supplies. To relax, I walked around The Lot and began identifying dead trees that would need to be removed. I kept busy!

Thursday morning I began cutting trees and stacking them up near the chipper. There was more work to be done than I had expected, but I made progress.

Thursday afternoon I headed for Westcliffe, about a 3-hour drive from The Lot, to meet with other members of the motorcycle club who were arriving that day. Our base of operations was a member’s vacation cabin near Westcliffe.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning featured group rides to various locations around SW Colorado. I won’t go into day-by-day details, but one section was of note: Cottonwood Pass is now paved on the west side for the first time ever. Pam and I have been over it, by car, so I was familiar with the area but had never ridden my motorcycle there.

The other comment I will make is that the evenings were cool, generally in the upper 40 degree range. I was glad to have my down sleeping bag!

Sunday night I returned to The Lot. Monday I began the clean up in earnest and continued through to Wednesday. During this time I was able to get the tractor and chipper started (I brought the batteries with me from Iowa). The tractor assisted in maneuvering the trailer to various piles of brush and salvage wood, then to move the wood closer to the chipper.

I chipped a pile of brush, then put covers on the tractor and chipper. Next was to get into the upper reaches of The Nook where the tractor could not go. I cut several small and large trees and made small piles of wood here and there. On my next CO trip later this summer, tasks will include hauling – by hand – all this stuff to the chipper location for processing.

Thursday morning I began the drive back to Iowa and arrived home Friday night. In my absence two major projects received attention: prep work for the garage addition was begun and Pam worked her magic in the stairwell.

Pam had painted the stairwell to wainscot height a few weeks ago. While I was gone, she purchased new tread pads, painted the front “noses” of the steps (step areas with the most damage), added wallpaper border, and adhered decals to the risers. The result is exceptional. I could not get everything in a single photo so here are a few that show the details.

Pam spent a lot of time on this project and the result is terrific. As she says, the stairwell was long overdue for a little love and attention.

The other project, the garage addition, was originally scheduled for later in the month but Bob the Builder finished another job early and moved up the schedule. Surprise! No need to worry about the details in my absence; Bob and the cement guy Marv worked off hand-drawn sketches made during an initial walkthrough of the project this past spring.

Preliminary to building, the cement pad needed to be poured. Forms were put in place, some fill sand was hauled in, and finally the concrete was poured.

Construction will hopefully commence tomorrow, Monday. More photos will follow in future posts.

I have a few miscellaneous photos as well. One of our “mystery” plants has been identified as phlox:

Here is a sunset over South Park from Pavilion Paint on the Colorado lot:

Bru, our youngest dog, has taken to sleeping on the bolster on the back of the dog couch:

Pam has a new rug in the parlor bedroom:

Photo Archive

From July 1991: Grandpa George with Felicity and Toby

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

Pam’s Two Cents

I worked fairly diligently to accomplish as much as possible in the stairwell during Himself’s absence. Trying to establish a work zone when egress is needed through the work area is truly frustrating; having the stairwell to myself (except for cat races) moved this project along. I almost accomplished the ambitious amount of work I had planned.

As with most of the projects here at Heart House, implementation of any “design” comes in layers. First the actual use of the space is established, then the painting, deciding on the borders, starting to add the decorative elements, addressing the floors. There are still decorative items to add in the two-story stairwell; sadly most require a very tall ladder and Flying Wallenda skills.

In between stairwell projects I undertook some limited lawn mowing. Iowa “enjoyed” about four severe storm warnings during Himself’s trip, and the resulting wet grass basically just clogged the mower. I tried out my new head bug netting during mowing — works great at keeping the skeeters and gnats away from my face and ears. Add some DEET to the ankles and arms, and I’m ready to go.

Happy Trails.

Work continues around the Heart House. Pam has been painting doors and I have been working at various other projects. Flowers around the yard are in bloom, including a new “mystery” flower. Let’s get to it!

Pam took it on herself to paint the back doors. I think they turned out very well! Here is the back inner or main door:

Then she painted the screen door and insert:

Pam is now working on the east side doors and I will have photos when they are completed.

Working on the doors is a time consuming task due to all the layers of old paint and lack of really straight lines. The addition of the hearts sets off the paint job which will compliment the house painting when we get to that project.

Pam baked our first rhubarb pie of the year. This one featured our own home-grown rhubarb, a goal Pam had in mind from the time we decided to buy the place. I hope this is the first of many pies!

My main project for the past week was working on the east (and a bit on the north) decks. Some of the boards needed to be replaced due to rot. The decks have a “spongy” feel in a few areas. This work will continue on for some time before completed. Also time consuming as the railings and downspouts have to be removed then reinstalled as part of the project.

The porch railings have been repaired to some extent; the bottom rails should be replaced due to rot in some spots. However, finding replacement wood and balusters has proven to be difficult. So, for the time being, I replaced 5 rotted balusters from some taken from the step railings. The porch balusters are 24 inches tall and the step balusters were 28 inches. I was able to cut off equal parts of the tops and bottoms of the 28 inchers, ends that were rotted, and use them as replacements for the porch balusters. As you can see, painting needs to be completed but at least the rotten wood is gone.

The front porch is not as bad, but someone in the past decided to save some money and not use full-length boards in some areas. This led to a lot of seams in the decking that I do not care for, both for aesthetic reasons and because rot has begun to take hold in these locations.

After talking it over, Pam and I decided we will replace more decking than originally planned and eliminate these problem areas. The removed decking will be re-used; I plan to use it on the back porch. (Currently the back porch decking is 2″ x 6″ planks.) Using the salvaged decking will result in a consistent look to all three porches.

The decking material, called car siding or box-car siding, is readily available in a number of different lengths. I bought the first of it from the in-town lumber yard. The wood uses a tongue-and-grove system to interlock each board to its neighbor. This is not a bad system but replacement of one board usually means replacing, or at least removing, boards on either side as well. The job just takes longer.

The largest amount of work is getting all the old securing screws out. Over the years the wood has swelled up and over the screw heads and paint has filled in the screwdriver slots. I have to locate, clean, and then remove each screw. This process that can takes several minutes for each one, so just getting that part of the removal done will take hours.

Another project completed was to move all my photo gear, including all my old slides and negatives, out of the garage attic and into the basement. The garage is not insulated and the attic gets very hot. (Same situation was present in De Beque.) The basement, now cleaned and with a dehumidifier running, seems like a good place to store old film.

The move took several trips up and down the garage attic ladder and up and down the basement steps, but I did get the stuff moved. During the process I opened every box, consolidated items, and was able to recycle several boxes and a lot of packing. In addition, I put a couple chairs and a storage bin in the basement; Pam wants to keep a few emergency supplies down there in the event we have a severe storm or tornado come through and we need to retreat to the basement for shelter.

I am planning a trip to Colorado next week. Two purposes: The first is to visit The Lot, the second is to attend a motorcycle rally.

Work at The Lot will be minimal, consisting of painting the storage shed and cleaning up after the winter. I don’t know how I will react to the 9,500 foot elevation after being gone from Colorado for months now, so work plans are fairly modest.

The motorcycle rally will be in Westcliffe, west of Pueblo. The organizer has asked us to wear masks and social distance. We will have to see if this works out! I am looking forward to seeing friends I have made over the years through these get-togethers. As a result of this planned road trip there will be a gap in blog posts. When I return I should have quite a few photos to share.

Around the yard, day lilies are in full bloom. Pumpkin plants have flowers on them, as does one very small hollyhock stem. Hostas are blooming. We also have another “mystery plant” blooming; does anyone recognize this one?

Photo Archive

This group reflects our kids, Felicity and Toby, taken over a few years in the early ’90s.

And then there is the large towel we owned for several years:

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

Pam’s Penny

I paint screen doors inside, in the AC. I see no point standing outside painting (in the freakin’ heat and humidity) when there is a perfectly comfortable inside area to paint. This requires Himself to take the doors off the hinges, one by one, and bring each indoors. A small inconvenience. The main security doors are super heavy to move around in this way, though. So-o-o-o, the red and white security door may be the only one painted this cycle.

“Away time” for Himself is certainly due, now he’s been retired four months. The initial retirement period – plus sheltering in place – resulted in a bit much togetherness.

Happy Trails.

As noted in previous posts, I had begun working on installing the permanent dog run to replace the temporary run set up last fall as we moved in. This week the new pen was completed, at least for now. Now all we have to do is open the back door and the dogs are in their run, no more escorting them in-and-out of the old gate!

We may add some decorative elements to the enclosure over time, probably decorative boards on the front of the wooden posts to hide the screw heads. We have seen solar-powered lights that are designed to fit on 4-inch square posts and may add a few of those to dress up the post tops.

Pam did all the painting, including the blue corner triangles in all 3 gates. The run consists of 12 wood posts set in cement, (8 bags of QuickCrete at 60 pounds per bag) along with 13 steel posts and 3 custom-built gates. The outside of the enclosure measures just under 142 feet and required 2 rolls of 1″ x 2″ x 48″ inch mesh fencing. (This fence design only comes in 100 foot rolls locally, so we have some left over.)

Sharp eyes may note the new tree shown in the North side and West side photos above. The local farm supply place, Theisen’s, had plant stock at 50 percent off so we picked up this Amur Maple. I hope it does well in its new home and lives up to its fall color reputation as shown in this internet image:

Now it is on to more projects. Next up will be the repair of the east porch, which needs some new flooring to replace a corner of deteriorating wood. After that, painting the repaired porch will be in order.

I am also planning a trip to Colorado in mid-July to visit The Lot and take part in a motorcycle rally. I’m looking forward to that.

Around the house, more flowers are in bloom. The day lilies, very common in this area, grow like weeds and have a bunch of blossoms. Other lilies, such as those shown below, add their color to the mix.

In other respects, the week was routine. Grocery shopping, lawn mowing, laundry, taking care of the cats and dogs, running out for paint and supplies. We did get out on Thursday for a driving trip to our favorite antique store located in Elkader, Iowa. Lunch was at an Irish pub in Elkader, followed by Dairy Queen cones on the way home. We wore our masks, as required in the antique store, and practiced social distancing at the pub. Even with COVID restrictions, it was a good outing.

Photo Archive

The Weiner Mobile came to town in the fall of 1990 (?) so we had to get a family photo with it!

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

Pam’s Penny

I’ll be subdividing hostas and adding them to the north [lawn] side of the dog run. The existing hosta plants at 702 are huge – some easily 4 feet across – and have grown too big in scale for the planting beds in which they reside. One hosta has already been transplanted next to the newly-installed north gate; you can spot it far to the left in the North side photo shown above .

Happy Trails.

First, a milestone of sorts: I applied for Social Security benefits this week. (I must be getting old.) I hope to begin getting income in August but it remains to be seen how quickly the SSA can put the system in gear. I’ve been told processing could take up to three months so now is the time to get started.

Saturday was the Summer Solstice. Summer is officially here. In some ways I don’t like to see this as it means the sun will now start setting earlier, cutting our work day a bit shorter — we do a lot in the evening hours as the days cool off.

This past week was relatively quiet. The main project was working on the dog run fence; I completed the north and west sides and started on the south side. Yet to do is the rest of the south side and east side.

I have a shopping list of parts that I will need to complete the job which includes a few more wood posts, lumber to build the two remaining gates, and a few other odds and ends. I hope to wrap up by the middle of next week.

All of the wood posts are set in concrete so they can handle the weight of the gates and stress of the corners where the fencing sides meet. Hauling and mixing the QuickCrete takes a bit of time for each post but it should be worth the effort in the long haul.

In spite of a couple rainy days, Pam has been trying out paint combinations on the east end of the catio shed. The appropriate combination will be the eventual house colors, but finding them takes a bit of time and experimentation. For example, she tried at least three different “barn red” paints before deciding on the Behr brand featured below.

While she was at it, Pam painted some other parts of the catio including the cat ramp and some supports. The rest will be painted at a future date.

Filling in the time are other projects. Indoors, Pam painted a wainscot-height wall section, from front entry up the staircase. She found this more than a bit frustrating due to the roughness of the old plaster. It’s extremely difficult to maintain a straight line, particularly where the plaster meets wood.

The dehumidifier arrived and I set it up in the basement. The first few days I emptied the built-in bucket to see how much water would be removed. (Turns out to be a little more than two gallons over a 12 hour period.) After that I installed the automatic drain system and let the dehumidifier run. So far the basement humidity level has dropped from over 90 percent to just under 70 percent. Target level is 50 percent so there is a ways to go.

Dirt removed from digging holes for the dog run posts has been used to fill a few low spots in the yard. New grass from seed is starting to populate these bare spots and eventually they will integrate into the rest of the lawn, making it look better and making mowing less of a jarring task.

I dug out my pole saw and cut a few dead branches, those I could reach from the ground, from our oak trees. Every windy day results in dead twigs, and some green leaves, falling on the lawn. Eventually I will need to get a ladder or lift of some sort and work my way higher into the trees. Not that there are a lot of them, but I would like to cut those branches that I can.

There was one major frustration having to do with ordering porch rail parts, to repair the east/side porch. I had taken a sample of the old rails and spindles to a lumber yard, picked out replacements (which had to be ordered) and had been waiting for them to come in. The yard called and said they could not supply the components in treated wood. I never mentioned wanting treated wood. I don’t know where that came from. This sets back that project by a couple weeks. Now I have to go in again and specify untreated wood.

We also looked at using vinyl components for railings but the cost is almost twice that of wood. Besides, at our age, wood railings will outlast us anyway.

And we are still waiting for our federal tax refund check. Having received our “stimulus check” several weeks ago we know the government has our correct address, but there has been no sign of the refund. We could use it.

All three dogs went to the vet for nail trims/anal expressions and JoJo additionally received a grooming. Pam and I waited in the car while a vet assistant came out and got the dogs one by one. At the final trip the assistant took the credit card, went in and ran a receipt, and brought the last dog, card, and receipt out to us. Thanks, COVID-19!

Photo Archive

This family photo was taken on a trip to Wisconsin in the summer of 1991. We were attending a family reunion, Pam’s side. Merrill, Wisconsin city park is the location, I believe.

The same trip and event yielded this photo of Pam getting a hug from her mother, Lorraine.

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

Pam’s Two Cents

So, house paint colors. You may recall I was monitoring two shades of green on the catio shed wall through the winter. Well, the house “told” me it did not want to be green again. We’ve found several renditions of green paint layers as we repair the exterior, from dark forest green to the minty blue-green currently on the place. No more green.

We had repainted the mobile in Colorado, during our dozen years there, with a really vibrant shade of red barn paint made by Behr. That red held up extremely well in the hot Colorado sun, and was cheerful to boot. I decided in the conservative Midwest, in a small town on Main Street, a patriotic combination of red, white and blue would probably be a good choice.

Finding the correct shades of each color has been the challenge. The “red” settled upon is more of a brick red barn paint (without the slightly-orange base tint I was finding in some of the barn paints). “White” is true white exterior paint; there is a lot of trim so there will be a lot of white. The “blue” was tricky. On the sample wall, I used a color called Storm’s End on the bottom and it’s sister color Cornflower above [Cornflower on either side of the gray-blue strip]. The gray-blue strip is actually a color left over from a previous owner (dated 2016 on the paint lid) and is planned for use around the base of the porch steps (if the local lumber store can still duplicate the mix). One additional color – medium gray porch and deck paint – is still to be ordered.

I settled on crisp/clean colors that hold their own weight, slightly updated from the traditional flag colors. Overall I guess the effect will be somewhat more traditional than I was originally thinking for a Victorian. However, with the amount of gingerbreading, trim and corbels here at 702 there will be quite a bit of detail to provide interest.

Exterior painting this year will likely be limited to porches and perhaps the first floor on the south and west sides of the house. So I’ll have some time to view the catio sample wall at different times of day and in varying light conditions. And, at that, large scale painting is more likely to occur in the fall rather than during hot, muggy summer days. Several days this week, with the rain and high humidity levels, I wasn’t even sure if the paint on the catio sample wall was going to stick and dry properly. Hopefully we can find a contractor to bid on the remainder of the house paint job next year, depending on if we can complete some needed siding repairs in the meantime.

Happy Trails.

We received word that our building permit has been approved. Turns out one is not needed for putting up fencing but one is needed for the garage addition.

Bob from Bob’s Building Service stopped by and gave us a formal quote on the garage addition, including cement work, and it came in just a bit less than we expected. The disappointing part is that construction won’t begin until late July or early August due to Bob’s building schedule. (The permit is good for a year so that is not an issue.) I just hope to have it done before fall chores begin to pop up.

We did start on a fencing project. Modified, we decided to go with a non-privacy fence due to lack of availability of the vinyl fencing we originally ordered, as well as the cost. For now we will use [mostly existing] wire fencing and a mix of 4×4 wood posts and steel fence posts.

I borrowed a post hole digger from the local lumber yard and started setting the wooden posts and building one of three gates that will be needed. Here is Pam staining some of the posts:

Building the fence will be a lengthy process and will get mention in my next few posts, I’m sure.

Other projects were completed. Pam had ordered some garden fencing to separate her garden area from the rest of the lawn. The fencing was installed the same day it arrived.

(I have begun to open some old paint cans and set them in the sun to dry up. That’s the only way we can dispose of them. Old paint is everywhere in this house – the basement, lined up along the basement stairwell, in some of the rooms.)

Pam planted some dark purple morning glories (Grandpa Ott variety) at the west end of the back porch. They should germinate in a couple weeks or sooner, and have been provided a wire grid to stretch their tendrils on. Hoping to see these by mid-summer.

So far the back yard garden has pumpkins, watermelons, morning glories, hollyhocks, rhubarb, and sunflowers growing in it. That will be it for this year; Pam wants to keep the garden area small and manageable.

Day lilies (and other flowers left by previous residents) have begun to bloom around the yard. This batch is in the bed surrounding two large trees just south of the house. It is nice to be able to look out the kitchen and upstairs bathroom windows and see this color.

And we have more examples of small-town living. As we were working on the fencing, a neighbor drove by, stopped, chatted, and offered us some fence posts and panels he was taking down. I told him I would stop by later this week and take a look at what he had. I will need some extra posts, at the least.

One day Pam told me to look out the window as I would see an unusual sight walking down Main Street in front of the house – two people in costume.

These may be the same people we saw walking the street last fall dressed in dinosaur costumes. No idea what this walk was all about! The two are headed in the direction of the assisted living center at the other end of Main Street.

Photo Archive

I have a couple of photos to post this week. The date of this first one is unknown and features my father, George, along with my Uncle Emil and another uncle in the background, Uncle Julius, I think.

This next guy is Pam’s Uncle Al (King). The image is probably from a family reunion held in the early 1990s.

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

Pam’s Penny

Multiple renovation projects, requiring simultaneous planning, make life complex. Indoor, outdoor, this month, this summer, this fall, next year — many scenarios and time frames are currently in play.

Summer Solstice will soon be upon us. When the daylight begins to diminish again, I will seriously miss the long, cool twilight. In last night’s twilight, I saw fireflies for the first time since…I can’t remember when.

Happy Trails.