remodel

Auction day

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I got called into work on Friday night and managed to get out before midnight. As I was sitting in my car contemplating driving home I decided to read the paper and spotted a college farm surplus auction the next day at the local community college. I convinced Annmarie we should go in the morning, I think she really just wanted to go back to sleep. My argument was that by the time I paid someone to help me build a bull corral we could have just bought most of the panels at the auction for cheap. My only real fail in this thought process was that other people would think the same thing. We transferred money over into the checking account and drove the pickup and trailer into the auction on the off chance we would score lots of stuff. Unfortunately a lot of people came for the same thing we did. This made the bidding for some of the gates and panels steep. We had to bail on several gates and panels as they just sold for too much. We did score on the metal T fence posts and ended up getting over a 100 at only $1/each. I usually pay $2/each at the junk yard. We ended up with 244 lineal feet of panels, three corner horse feeders, 100 + T posts and a heavy duty welding table and vice. I wanted to get the welding table repaired from the machine shop but for $25 I got a much heavier table and another vice, which is way cheaper than I would have paid to repair the old. Annmarie got me signed up for the evening welding class this fall at BMCC , two nights a week. I am really looking forward to it as I am going to build our custom metal railings and back yard fence. I will just buy the material and weld it together myself.

The only real trouble with this is we stood around on the hot pavement in the sun for over five hours then loaded heavy panels onto the trailer and realized that this would not be a one trip show. When we got home I had muscles help me unload and then we went to get the second load. It filled the trailer and the pickup again. This time when we got home we unloaded and built a section of fence for the bull corral out of panels. We built it over the rock bluff portion of the enclosure. This is going to work out very nice. I will still need to build several rock cribs but it will be much faster than trying to dig into the rock. I have 2000 lf of 2×6 tamarack to pick up from the wood mill and 800 bf of 1×12″x16′ for the barn siding. I plan on doin this on Friday.

Mr Experience kept on working on floor trim while we did the outside work. I had a coworker come out and borrow my disc set. It went onto my trailer with some difficulty but it got easier after Annmarie made me remove the 400# of iron weights from on top of the discs!

Annmarie and I had to go get our bull from the neighbors place. He keeps sneaking over there to say high to the heifers. Unbeknownst to us he has had already been over visiting three times before we found out. The neighbor had been pushing him back through the culvert to our side of the road.

He was at the top of the hill and would not budge for Annmarie. We were going to push him down to the road then across it and over through a gate and into our property. He had other plans, first of which was not moving for any human being. He was a despondent rejected bull and he was not going any where. I had to drive back and use both dogs to get him moving. He ran right for the panel that was covering the culvert from the opposite side. I ended up wading into the creek and lifting the panel. Annmarie swore he would not go by with me standing so close to the opening. Once he figured out I was opening the gate he went right around me. I had brought some tools and extra 1/4 inch cable to install across our side of the culvert and then weave it into the panel in an attempt to keep the bull on our side of the fence. This whole process took about an hour to get completed. The best part of this was when we held the barb wire apart and told Zeke to jump and he popped between the wires but Mouse did the same thing with some encouragement. This was a first for him and he loaded up into the back of the pickup by himself and stayed in the back of the pickup! All of these are great accomplishments for a working dog.

If you look closely you can see the wall for the bull enclosure going up. I will need to set at least 3 rock cribs in place to hold the fence in place.

I am going to keep having Mr Experience and muscles come out and work on trim. Muscles stacked some loose wood in the barn and greased the tractor and fixed my truck exhaust also. I took him up on his offer to fix things. I even ordered new blades for the mower and as soon as they arrive I will have him install them also.

Just a little trim…

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I was trying to get everything ready for my help that was coming on Thursday afternoon early in the week. I had done the trim on the air return and figured I better stain it ASAP. Unfortunately, I waited until the last minute and had to stain it Tuesday morning before work. Since Annmarie is gone there are fewer rules so as I am staining the return in my underwear, it was morning. I had made a slight spill around the top of the stain gallon can and went to hammer the lid on, oh my, the stain splattered everywhere! I got it all off of the floor and missed some on the wall which is going to cause some touch up to happen. This splash was noticed after the stain had already dried. My second attempt to close the lid on the stain involved dropping a cloth over it to catch the splashes and still pounding the lid on. It had more mess to offer but i refused to accept it.

I finished it but had to leave it in the house due to the weather. It was supposed to rain. I left the front and back doors open in the hope that a breeze would remove the smell. My cross breeze idea seemed to work wonders as the smell was almost gone by the time I got home. Annmarie did not care as she was sleeping off her Washington DC flight and time change.

The air return turned out very nice! Most people will hardly notice it now. I do believe this or its just a justification for putting in many long hours creating a custom piece to hide an ugly air return in our main living space.

Thursday, Mr Experience came out to help me with the trim. He brought a helper that is going to help him this summer with roofing two houses. I will now and forever call him Muscles. Since I was late getting home, Mr Experience had Muscles mow the lawn! Best thing that could of happened this month. They even had to reassemble the gas line and get it going. I let it air dry out after the diesel fiasco. He finished the lawn then started weed eating, this is so nice! Eventually, he let me know that he had a mind and liked to tinker with stuff.

Mr Experience and I worked on floor trim on Thursday. We decided on a 45 degree angle on the quarter round as I did not want to catch my pinky toe on the edge of the trim. Annmarie thinks its for cosmetic reasons.

Window trim mania

Steve Hardin1 Comment

One of the first things to do is get stuff ready. I spent part of Friday and Saturday getting all the tools ready for work. I added wings onto my radial arm saw so that I could cut the L shaped cutouts on the sill plates. Then I had to add a support arm past my table saw so as I ripped boards down they would be able to rest on something. I just clamped a piece of scrap from our furniture project across the end of the porch. I had to clamp my featherboard onto the table saw also. I wish I had some 2×8 board glued to the underside of my table to make clamping to the table easier. I may have to do something like that soon.

I managed to get one window done. I need to level the sill front to back a little better on the other windows. I am installing the sill, then but both inside upright pieces and the top inside piece. This lets me rest the top piece on the sides while I then set the reveal on both sides and staple them in. I use cedar shims always around doors and windows. I run a small bead of caulk on the end of each board so it sticks to the window. I know this makes window replacement very hard, but it really seals the building from stray breezes and bugs. The BUGS are the important reason to do it! I am then taking 100% silicone and sealing the backside of each board to the window frame. This is taking way more caulk than I anticipated. I am making sure to get a nice seal but in some places I am filling a 1″ gap. Yes I know I should have gotten some of that foam core rope to fill the area first but I didn’t do that. I also am hesitant to use that spray in foam insulation, even the low expanding stuff. It puts a lot of pressure on the window and I have screwed up door frames with the stuff and don’t want to mess up the window.

The pattern we used for the window frames is the original one from the house. It was still in place upstairs and we have duplicated it throughout the house. The only place we are deviating from it is the window at the bottom of the stairs and above it. I don’t want to fall down the stairs and hit my head on the corner of the window sill plate. So we are doing a flush mount with square pieces in all four corners. That way when I fall down the stairs it will be the landing that gets me not the fall. Annmarie was super happy that the trim is going in. I will be doing a bug audit to see if it helps cut down on the inside critters.

Really?!

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I am working on getting that color on the walls. No color goes on in one coat. I haven’t found any paint that goes on in one coat. Painting is the worst! Its kinda like bamboo torture without the blood. Its just as painful. I am down to one wall in the living room and the hallway. I just need to plow forward and get it done. Unfortunately I keep getting distracted by other things.

We have been trying to get the sheep to eat down the ram pasture and they are getting out onto the back hillside. The only cure for this is to drop the panels down into the creek bed. This cannot happen as we may eventually have some kind of Spring runoff from the mountains and the fence cannot be in the water at that time. Very bad for my fence. This has led to the dogs getting to work the sheep. Both border collies are very happy with this arrangement. The sheep are starting to get used to the dogs pushing them around again. It helps when both parties know what is expected of them.

I have removed the wooden roof from the stock racks and all the wire and extra bolts from it. It is ready to go over to Hermiston and get sandblasted and powder coated. It really isn’t that expensive. For $325 we can get it looking good as new and won’t have to worry about it rusting in our lifetime. I need to find the time to get it over there.

I did get the color on the walls in the living room. It took a few days for us to get used to it. Once I get the curtains hung and the window trim installed this will look very nice. We almost have a finished house! Doing the paint and all the window and floor trim just leaves two bathrooms and a floor to finish in the spare room. Not bad for a total tear down and gutting of the structure. I am sure that after I boasted it would only be 2 years when we started and it has been 10 that Annmarie might not agree with me 100%.

Painting again

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Saturday was paint day again. I am now frantically trying to get the downstairs repainted so that we can install all the downstairs trim when it arrives. This sounds like a good plan but every evening after work I am usually too tired to work for a few more hours.

Our new wooden louvers for the air return vent came on Friday so I had to install it. This took priority over painting as I had been waiting for weeks to see if it would really make a difference. Of course it was slightly larger than our metal white one so I had to cut out the wooden cover and trim the metal opening. I managed to get everything lined up and fitted without too much trouble. It looks great! I need to install the oak trim on the edges of the plywood before I attach this to the wall. I need to be able to use a clamp to hold it in place. Once the trim is on I can screw it in place to permanently attach it to the wall. I am going to stain it the same color as the stairs. I painted the kitchen and one wall in the living room but it was still wet and then it got dark outside. We decided that it needed to be light so we could decide if a second coat was essential. I did not want to take down the blue tape too early. It takes longer to put up the tape than it does to paint the walls.

Today it was decided that yes indeed I do need to do a second coat of paint. I grumbled but Annmarie said it was a small price to pay for only having to paint once every ten years.