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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Christmas Poem

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photo Archive

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

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

Pam’s Penny

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

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

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

Happy Trails – someday.

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

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

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

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

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

A couple other outside decorations were put up.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photo Archive

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

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

Pam’s Penny

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

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

Happy Trails.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Speaking of throwing things away…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photo Archive

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

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

Pam’s Penny

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

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

Happy Trails.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photo Archive

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

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

Pam’s Penny

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

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

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

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

Happy Trails.

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

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

Kitchen

Front Parlor Bedroom

Jerry’s Bedroom

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

Stairwell

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

Parlor Doors

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

House Exterior

Sidewalks

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

Porches

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

Catio

Garage

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

New Garage Walkway

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

Porch Repairs

Quite a bit of rotten wood was removed and replaced.

Porch Rails and Spindles

Other Work

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

Pam painted storm and entry doors

The front door, inside, received a stained glass overlay

Yard

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

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

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

Photo Archive

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

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

Pam’s Penny

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

Happy Trails.

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.