Transition Week

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.

One package of bulbs contained daffodils

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

Pots of flowers over-wintering 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.

Locked icon in address bar

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.