Don's Early Light

June & July Happenings

2011-08-01T07:41:00.000-07:00

I'm chairman of our church's Pastor Search Committee & that took up much of our time for the past two months, but, praise God, the committee made good progress & we still managed some progress on the house. I built a garden shed with left over materials I had accumulated & a window from the "Re-Store". I made some more saw horses, cutting some of the the joints with my radial arm saw & some with a hand saw.

I was ready to begin the baseboard install, so I laid about half of them out in my shop & put the Danish oil finish on. Lynna asked me to put trimming out the bedroom french doors at the top of my list so I suspended work on the baseboards and got that done. I put our vegetable garden in late because it was cold & wet for so long, but its beginning to take off now & we had our first Zuchini & Summer Squash of the season a few days ago.

In late June, we took Lynna's mom up to an alzheimers hospital in Beaverton for a few days of tests to adjust her medication. Others had seen big improvements from this & we hoped it would result in slowing the progress of her dementia and sundowning/exit seeking. A few days later the hospital called to let us know she was stabilized but needed 24 hour care if she was to continue living with us. We weren't expecting this change so soon, but a few months ago, had checked out several memory care facilities in the area & found they all had waiting lists. Now, a couple of them had openings & we were able to settle her at the Clare Bridge home in South Salem. She made a good adjustment to the change & seems happier there. She doesn't remember back more than a day or so now but tells us she likes being there & feels safer with the friendly staff always available. She hasn't shown any sundowning since the move.

I found some $ .25/foot Cherry crown molding at the Habitat for Humanity "Re-Store" & also snagged a No 246 Stanley mitre box complete with the original Disston back saw. It will clean up nicely & I plan to repaint it too. I've been watching for a good buy on a 3 h.p. router & was happy to find this Swiss made Elu on Craigs list.

8/6/11: I added some pictures of the mitre box after clean up. I replaced the sacrificial board, added some new paint, adjusted & lubed the saw setting device, cleaned & polished the saw plate and refinished the handle. It still holds accurate settings & makes a very clean cut. I will be using it any time I'm not comfortable cutting a small piece on the Bosch.

Saw Till

2011-06-29T16:48:00.000-07:00

I recently replaced the table on my 1958 Delta radial arm saw. The original table was made up with 3 beautiful pieces of 1" clear Fir, but they were deeply grooved on both sides after 53 years of use. I couldn't bear to toss them into the burn box, so I decided to make a saw till to hold all my hand saws. The deep grooves resulted in some unexpected breakage during construction, but with a few glued repairs, I ended up with some useful storage and the price was right! For the classic saw shape, I drew around my Disston Acme 120.

Workbench

2011-06-25T17:36:00.000-07:00

Some 20 years ago, we had just built a home in Kingston, Washington and I needed a workbench. I had planned on building one but the local Ernst Hardware store got in a batch of European style benches. They were a knockoff of the Hoffman & Hammer compact bench, but also had 3 drawers & a storage cabinet. The vise & drawer hardware wasn't bad & they were made with Mai Pradoo (Burma Padauk) which is a nice looking, medium hardwood.

Ernst offered them at $400 but there were few takers. I kept researching bench designs and pricing wood. Meanwhile, Ernst cut their price several times. When it got down to $169, I bought. It was easy to assemble & made a good light duty bench. I put it together without glue so it would be easy to dis-assemble & move.

Life went on & I was quite happy with my new bench until one day I heard a crash from the garage. Shortly, my dear wife entered the house and told me I needed to go buy another bench! Our killer Audi hit the bench pretty hard, smashing the drawers, cabinet door and face frame. So off I went to Ernst.

There were 2 benches left & they were marked down to $99! I put the new bench together, then, after a few weeks, started to take apart the old bench, thinking to use the wood for other projects. I found the main structure was mostly undamaged, so I rebuilt it. It wasn't as pretty as the new one now & had a bit of racking, still it was useful.

The problem with such inexpensive benches was, I tended to disrespect them. In addition to woodwork, I used them for car & tractor repair, even dis-assembling & overhauling 2 tractor & 3 Mercedes engines on them. They got pretty beat up as a result.

I hadn't glued my benches during assembly & they developed racking problems as bolts loosened, requiring re-tightening every few months.

We moved twice since I got the benches and both times they weren't dis-assembled, just moved in one piece. So I decided to re-assemble them with glued joints this time.

Our new home in Stayton required some big, Fir beams and I saved all the large cut-offs along with some 4X4 & 4X6 pieces. Since I was going to tear down anyway, why not improve the bench while I was at it? One of the beams approximated the size of my bench top. Also, I had been admiring a vise I'd seen. It used a hand crank to quickly move the jaws. Only the astronomical price held me back. I found a crank on e-Bay & so I began to re-build the bench into a Hermaphrodite Roubo.

I'm quite happy with the results. I got rid of the annoying tool tray, raised the benchtop height to match my Delta radial arm saw & added the beam to the back of the bench with two 4X4 legs dovetailed in for support. The bench top has twice the area now (24" X 55") & I incorporated a reversable planeing stop down the middle. I put the hand crank on the front vise. The extra mass, glued joints and 2 additional legs make the bench extremely rigid and solid.

I liked the results so well, I decided to make the remaining beams into a larger bench. The result so far is a massive 24" X 84" Roubo style bench with 4" X 6" legs dovetailed into the top. I tied the two beams together with 2" X 4" scraps. I didn't bother fitting either cross piece with dovetails or through mortises, just bolted & glued it into place. My son was disappointed with me for taking this short cut. I don't agree. Its crude, but effective and doesn't detract much from the overall appearance. The bench is also the same height as my Delta RAS, & has a reversible plane stop down the middle. I'm going to have a local artisan make 2 hold fasts & I will drill the bench top for them. I had intended to tie the legs together with stringers and through mortise joints, but the bench is so stable already, they may not be needed. I will use the bench with hold fasts for a while but may add a good vise later.

Old WoodWorking Machinery

2011-06-02T07:26:00.000-07:00

Old woodworking machines offer a great deal of utility for not much money. Over the years I acquired several:

The 1958 Delta 900 Radial Arm Saw(3rd & 4th from top) is my best buy so far. Picked up from Craigs list $35 to use as a dedicated dado machine when I had to fabricate door jams to hang our fir doors.

Despite noisy bearings, it handled that job & several others well, but eventually the blade began to wobble & the bearings developed a grinding noise. I dis-assembled the motor, installed new bearings ($20) & repainted the saw with some Benjamin Moore Industrial Machinery paint ($5 at the Habitat Re-Store), so now it is a $60 saw. When I replace the table, I will still have less than $100 in this Articulated Turret Saw.

The top 2 pics show my 1948 12" Red Star Radial Arm Saw. At $250 it is my most expensive used machine but it was newly cleaned, rewired & repainted, so almost a new saw.

Red Star produced their line of Radial arm saws until 1948 when Delta bought the company. Their Multiplex saws were more versatile than any other RAS, but had some features that were expensive to manufacture and a name like "RED STAR" was a handicap when the cold war began.

Delta continued to produce the Multiplex line unchanged except for adding a Delta decal. Later Delta redesigned their RAS, changing to a fixed turret mount and adopted a different bearing system for the saw head. They soon dropped the 9" & 10" saws, but the 12" & bigger models are still available today. They are often found in commercial shops but rare in home shops.

The bottom picture shows my 80's era General 6" jointer. I own a General 10" Table saw that is impressive in its quality, accuracy & durability, so I was quick to buy this machine when I found it for $150 on Craigs list. It has a new motor, is usable as is but needs a tear down for cleaning & repainting.

Back in the 80's I picked up a Sears 12" Bandsaw and a Shopsmith Model 10ER, for $150 each. I will add some pics of them later.

Mickey

2011-06-01T07:58:00.000-07:00

Lynna's mom, Mickey, will be 92 this August. She was widowed years ago & lived a very independent and active life for many years. She had a cottage at Lakeside Assisted Living nearby, but came to live with us in January when she was unable to continue living on her own.

To accomplish this, I needed to quickly finish the West Bedroom & Bathroom trim & hang the closet doors.

Everything got done in good time and that part of the house is much improved.

Mickey is much doing better but there have been a few setbacks along the way. Her doctor continues to search for a more effective medication to slow & moderate the progress of her dementia. A caretaker comes daily to take some of the load off Lynna.

Sometimes Mickey has "Sundowning" episodes but I secured all our gates & she is always back to normal the next morning. We have visited all the memory care facilities in our area and found a few that are acceptable, but for now, the present arrangement is still her best option. Mickey is able to attend church with us on Sundays & still enjoys lunch out afterwards.

Projects with Life Changes

2011-05-31T07:27:00.000-07:00

I have been posting some of the housebuilding progress and life changes during the time I wasn't updating the blog. Hopefully I can stay more current through the rest of 2011.

We wanted a breakfast bar on the pony wall between the Kitchen and Nook, so I started with a cardboard mock up and Lynna approved. We worked with Dieter's cabinet shop to find a good piece of Cherry, which was cut into 3 pieces, then edge glued into a nice bar. I mounted it the same way I had done all our previous bars.(I used 1/4" angle iron that could handle some dunderhead trying to sit on it!) . Once the bar was up, I was able to install the appliance garage cabinet Lynna wanted.

One of life's great inequities is the short lifespan of our canine companions. Our jolly old dog Sunny was a character. A Border Collie/Pointer mix, & a dog genius, always examining the world around him, learning as he went. He could open doors & unscrew bottle caps. Like many herding dogs, he would bare his front teeth in a smile. Last Summer, Sunny was nearly 15 y.o. & well stricken by age. He could no longer race about but still enjoyed walking with Lynna & would poke around the yard while she gardened. He spent evenings sleeping at my feet in the study. We were unprepared when he passed away June 15th, 2010. We both missed him greatly & our other dog, Peaches was lost without her buddy. She got very clingy & refused to go out in the yard unless I came along. She would lean on me while we walked the yard. Within a week we were at the Humane Society Pound & rescued a 4 y.o. male German Shorthaired Pointer.

This friendly bundle of energy had been spoiled by two successive families who gave him little training or exercise, let him free feed into a typical obese pet, then dumped him at the pound when he became "to rambunctious". A female Shorthair was part of our family back in the 60's & 70's. This guy was amiable & seemed trainable, so we added daily work sessions, walks & obedience class to our busy lives.

Nearly a year later, Gunther (we call him Gunny) has made great strides, with diet & exercise his weight came down from 80 to 55 pounds, his behaviour is much improved with only a few things chewed along the way. He sticks to me closer than a shadow, likes to hang out in my workshop(where he eats sawdust & chews scraps at every opportunity), Peaches is back to her old self again, & the cat has accepted Gunny into the pack.

More Catching Up ++

2011-04-22T15:10:00.000-07:00

(More of what happened since June 2009)

The heating system was finished quickly & the fillup/first run was uneventful with no leaks or problems. Lynna worked constantly getting in the landscaping and only called on me for occaisional muscle or tractor work. Our naturalistic landscape is filling in nicely and we got a lot of vegetables from my 20'X30' garden.

I got a big pile of Cedar decking from John's brother but when I built our deck, we ran out of wood & had to go back for more. Unfortunately, I neglected to note the thickness of the original stock & the new boards were about 1/8" thicker. I laid out the planks to cover the holes & eventually borrowed Jeremy's planer one hot day. Lynna caught while I fed the 12' & 14' boards. Then I completed the deck and built some stairs for Lynna, next we went through the color selection process. Once we had agreement, everything was stained and the railing painted, it looked pretty nice.

The Summer heat bothered us enough that we mounted an air conditioner in a dining nook window. It comes out in the Fall & is stored downstairs in my shop over the Winter.

We had lots of time with our grand kids and took in the sheepdog trials in Scio. Those are some smart dogs! One of the best dogs sat near us & intently studied the other dogs performance while he waited his turn.

After I got all the doors hung, I wrapped the windows with Fir then (as time allowed) re-sawed & ripped the door & window trim down from my big stash. Everytime I produced a big pile, out came the tarps & I would put on the Danish oil finish. When it dried, I would put up trim door by door & window by window until I ran out of finished wood. Then repeat the process. I expect to finish the last of the trim tomorrow. I saved the 3 arched windows for last due to their large size, the difficulty resulting from the arches and the fact that I have reached an age where working 12' up on a step ladder is out of my comfort zone. I'm quite pleased with how the dining room and Entry windows turned out. The Den, not so much and I may re-do its arch at some point. For now, I'll live with it.

Our Master Bath called for an oversize shower and we had trouble finding someone to install the glass surround. I offered the job to several contractors but was surprised when they begged off as I knew they needed the work. Eventually, I took it on myself. After all, how hard could it be?........Pretty difficult actually but relying on my "pig headed" gene, I soldiered on & got er done!

In September of 2009, we moved Lynna's mom down here from Whidby Island, WA. Originally, she was going to live with us but she really wanted her own place, so she settled for one of the cottages at the Lakeside Assisted Living center just down the hill from us. getting her moved & settled took about a month and I decided to leave the West bedrooms & bathroom unfinished until the house was more complete. (This was to change later)

2011-04-21T23:15:00.000-07:00

Catching Up

2011-04-21T19:44:00.000-07:00

It has been a very long time since my last post. I let the "Tyranny of the Urgent" take over and just went from one day to the next. With the passage of time, much progress has been made & I am going to try to briefly bring the Blog up to date.

My June 2009 post shows the installation of our built in vacuum system. I had installed the outlets during framing but still had to hang the vacuum in the garage then get under the house to assemble the piping manifold system & connect up the low voltage wiring.

The next project was to install & plumb the baseboard radiators for our hot water heating system. We passed our final inspection with only the Jotul & Vermont Castings gas stoves for heat & only had the boiler operating for the indirect hot water heater. I had designed a good main system & wanted everything in & operating before Fall.

I cleared some space in my basement workshop & setup an assembly line to prep for installation through the flooring. After all the radiators were in place, I went back under the house & soldered up the copper pipe. My system design included separate zones for the Main Living space, Master Bedroom, West Bedrooms & Upstairs Bonus Room.

For some reason, the "add photo" option isn't operating, so I'll add photos later

2009-06-16T22:54:00.000-07:00

More Landscaping Pictures

2009-06-16T22:46:00.000-07:00

2009-06-16T08:11:00.000-07:00

The first bath went well, but I may need to add some kind of back splash. This dog bath was a half price bargain. It had some flaws showing on the outside but our dogs don't seem to care. It is intended to be portable for outside use with a hose but we did a permanent installation in the garage.

2009-06-16T08:06:00.000-07:00

Monthly Update

2009-06-16T07:31:00.000-07:00

We made a big effort to get as many plants into the ground as possible prior to the onset of the Summer heat. There were a few very hot days late in May but we have had great weather for planting in June. Most days start with cool, overcast skies in the morning and any heat has come late in the day. Lynna had me use the tractor to till some beds. First I broke up the clay, then tilled in compost & finally a 3rd tilling to mix in coarse sand. The pure compost pile is gone now and only a small amount of sand and 50/50 compost & soil remains. I still haven't tilled my garden plot, but managed to find places for lots of vegetables in the beds I made for Lynna.

I cut, finished & installed the wood wrap on our Family Room & Master Bedroom windows then hung the blinds Lynna Lynna picked out. The blinds really help to keep the house cool on hot days & look much better than the cardboard we had been using!

When we framed the house, I had installed the ports for Lynna's built in vacuum. Recently, I spent a few days to complete the installation. I hung the new vacuum motor unit in the garage, then crawled around under the house hooking up all the piping to each port & brought the pipe out into the garage. Everything went smoothly & I managed to bring the pipe out into the garage perfectly in line with the Bonus Room pipe and Motor outlet.

Lynna wanted a dog bathing station in the garage. We found a unit that would work but Sonny is getting old & she thought a ramp would help, so I built one for her from scrap wood. I beveled the frame ends to fit & anchored the ramp to the tub with a pin. We tried the ramp out with both dogs & Sonny caught on right away. He was soon trotting up & down, showing a big smile & lots of tail wagging, but Peaches was wary & didn't trust the ramp. She preferred to just jump up over the side into the tub to get a treat. Only after much training was I able to get her to jump up from the end & put 1 foot down on the top of the ramp as she flew past. Oh well!

2009-05-14T18:03:00.000-07:00

I found this little goldfinch lying on the deck just outside our Family Room French doors. He wasn't moving at all except for blinking his eyes. I gentlly scooped him up, then carried him out to the feeder tree. After a few minutes, he began to stir & turn his head around, so I held him against the suet cake holder until he grabbed it. He sat there for about 5 minutes, then flew off to join his buddies. Mission accomplished!

2009-05-14T17:56:00.000-07:00

2009-05-14T17:44:00.000-07:00

The doors are all hung now & I moved on to the wood wrap on the windows. Lynna wanted me to cut everything to fit, then do the finishing down in my workshop before installation. That way there won't be a lot of fumes.

We've been busy with landscaping, placing some more of the plants we brought from Olympia & those we purchased recently, but a lot are still sitting in the "Plant Pile" down by my workshop.

I got all my tomatoes & squash planted this week, peas have been in about 3 weeks but I still have to find a place for my Rhubarb start.

Our grand daughter just had her 16th birthday party. We attended & sampled some of their food. Yummy! We also went to one of her track meets and saw her take second place in the high hurdles.

Lynna's little Chrysler has been suffering from neglect. She drove it less than 600 miles the past year. The battery went dead many times, followed by a re-charge. This killed a new battery in less than a year. The driver's seat is 6 way adjustable with a lumbar support but not the passenger side & her degenerative disk disease keeps her from driving more than 15 minutes or so. We couldn't even drive it to Salem because that's too far as a driver or passenger. So, I decided to replace it. This involved replacing the battery under warranty, then 3 trips to Portland. I found several nice cars & my favorite was a diesel, but it's seats failed to pass the comfort test. She thought a couple others were ok, but really liked my # 2 choice, so I haggled for the best price & came home with this MBZ. Its really plush and Lynna's color also, kind of an aqua-marine.

2009-05-14T16:34:00.000-07:00

We've been busy with landscaping, placing some more of the plants we brought from Olympia & those we purchased recently, but a lot are still sitting in the "Plant Pile" down by my workshop.
We attended our grand daughter's 16th birthday party & sampled some of their food. Yummy! We also went to one of her track meets to see her take second place in the high hurdles.

Lynna's little Chrysler has been suffering from neglect. She drove it less than 600 miles the past year and it suffered numerous dead batteries followed by charger time. This killed a new battery in less than a year. The driver's seat is 6 way adjustable with a lumbar support but not the passenger side & her degenerative disk disease keeps her from driving more than 15 minutes or so. We can't even drive it to Salem because that's too far as a driver or passenger, so I decided to replace it. This involved 3 trips to Portland. I found several nice cars, including a Benz diesel but it's seats failed to pass the comfort test. She thought a couple others were ok, but really liked my # 2 choice, a low mileage S Class, so I haggled for the best price & brought it home. Its really plush and Lynna's color also, kind of an aqua-marine.

I've always been able to maintain and repair our cars and there were always a few people who dumped low mileage luxury cars as soon as they were out of warranty. This allowed us to drive some very nice cars over the years. At some point I will not be able to keep doing this and I will have to quit buying German cars.

2009-04-25T08:53:00.000-07:00

Friday I finished up hanging the vintage glass door & Tim returned to create a switchback path up from the tractor path to the new sidewalk. Lynna had him add a branch to give access to the middle area of the rockery. This afternoon we are scheduled to attend a "Sweet Sixteen" birthday party for our grand daughter Rosemary, so I will have a short workday for yardwork & starting to hang the double doors on the closet in our den.

2009-04-23T19:50:00.000-07:00

The weather has been sunny & I was able to have a couple of bike rides & a haircut. Monday I returned the left over fence parts for credit then hung the closet door in our small bath & tidied up my workshop. I spent a day pulling a lot of big weeds from the North yard, then sprayed all the remaining weeds in our yard. Tim came today & put an acid wash, then sealer on our new sidewalk and the West & South porches. The Fumes are still pretty heavy but it sure looks good.

Back when I purchased our Maple flooring, the seller gave me an old glass door complete with some neat, vintage brass handles & super heavy, 5" hinges. We had framed a 2nd door opening for it from the front entry into our den. This lets us access the closet for guest's coats. But the County made us frame that wall with 2x6 studs, leaving a wall too thick to use the 1x6 fir so I bought some 1x8 from Frere's Lumber today, made the door jambs & got the hinge side up.

2009-04-18T10:40:00.000-07:00

2009-04-18T10:21:00.000-07:00

2009-04-18T09:55:00.000-07:00

This past week the North side fill & sidewalk was completed. Our fill & topsoil was delivered by a high tech, 40,000 lb. truck with an articulated boom & conveyor belt. The driver was able to control everything from a console that looks just like those used for RC models. Very impressive to see that huge truck backed into place with no driver in the cab. Lynna supervised everything while she was planting our new landscape. All I had to do was write the checks! The dogs soon got used to all the strangers working around our property & watched from a safe distance.

The four doors we purchased most recently were unfinished & Lynna wanted two of them hung ASAP. It was difficult to find room in my workshop & took most of the week for me to apply the multiple coats needed, but all four are done. During the periods they were drying, I got the grass mowed, helped my neighbor John tow his work truck to downtown Stayton for repairs & hung two more doors.

2009-04-07T19:14:00.000-07:00

Last week we drove up to Garden World near Woodburn & picked out some plants. They were delivered Thursday & Lynna has been working at getting them in place while I continued to hang doors. Tim came back Friday & all the rocks are placed now. We just need to pour the sidewalk to finish that project. Home Depot called to let us know our custom shower enclosure had arrived & we picked it up Sunday. I will probably install it when I finish hanging the doors.

We have been having some beautiful, warm weather & the dogs are enjoying the sunshine.

2009-03-31T22:37:00.001-07:00

Tim called Monday to let us know he & his "Rock Man" would start our job Tuesday. They arrived early & made good progress until early afternoon when we had a hailstorm with thunder & lightning. The heavy rain that followed brought everything to a halt but they will be back Thursday or Friday.

2009-03-29T23:02:00.000-07:00

Stones were delivered Thursday but nobody showed up on Friday. Maybe Monday will see them placed & fill delivered for our front sidewalk project. I ordered our baseboard moldings & they are here but probably won't be delivered until our final set of gates arrive. I've been cleaning up the mess on the tractor side of our garage, almost done & then I can pull up the roofing felt I put down to protect the new concrete.

2009-03-26T19:52:00.000-07:00

Lynna has been working with Tim Lowery to finish the remaining back fill & final cement work for our front walk. We had to suspend last Fall when things got wet. There should be a delivery of large rock soon & then Tim will get to work.

We couldn't find two varieties of the Apple trees (Criterion & Wealthy)we wanted at any of the local nurseries & they claimed there was no way to order them. This was surprising as the Wealthy is well known with an interesting history and the Criterion continues to win taste tests although its not popular with commercial growers because they bruise easily.

Lynna joined a couple of orchardist web forums and through their help, we found a nursery in New York that sold them. Their web site indicated orders placed after March 1st would be filled the following Spring, since the bare root plants are shipped while dormant. But, New York had record breaking cold weather and a late Spring this year (so much for global warming) and we were notified of shipment last week. Tuesday evening we came home to find my fruit trees on the West porch. This meant I had to prepare the planting sites for 3 bare root trees plus the 3 potted trees we bought last Fall. I finished planting today. I'm nursing a sore back & doubt we will see any fruit this year but the Italian prune plum appears to have blossoms budding out so we might get lucky. Lynna got some pictures while I worked, then she burned some scrap.

2009-03-22T07:39:00.000-07:00

John & Ron finished up the fence on Friday. We changed the size on one of the double gates to give more clearance for our tractor, but the replacement hasn't arrived yet. We still have some fill to do on the North West corner of the property and around the North entrance, so that part of the fence will have to wait. The standard ornamental iron gate was only 33 inches wide, anything wider was considered "custom" and very expensive, so we took our standard gate to a fellow here in town who does ornamental iron work and had him enlarge it. He did a great job at a fair price.

While the fence was under construction, I only had to be involved with problems & decisions on placement & techniques, so I made door jams & hung doors whenever things went smoothly. I routed the hinge mortises freehand with good success on the first two doors. There was less setup time too, but I soon grew overconfident & botched one. Now I use a template & take my time. Some of the doors I got were hinged to open opposite from what we needed, so I did a bit of chisel work & moved the strip of edge wood over to the other side of the hinge mortise to make a RH door into a LH.

Lynna had 4 cabinet doors that open upward & needed handles. She taped them on to get just the right placement, then made a template so I could drill & fasten them.

I used some scraps of Fir to mock up a window trim style Lynna saw in a local restaurant & we like it, but I'm going to do another sample with wider trim & a larger corner block.

2009-03-12T07:57:00.000-07:00

2009-03-12T07:24:00.000-07:00

We've been busy getting set for our fencing project. Our neighbor John has been hurting for work. He's not totally idle, but had several projects cancelled and hasn't had any large, custom framing jobs for some time. We had two fencing bids that were pretty high, so asked John if he & Ron would be interested in a few days work. They agreed & we ordered the materials & powdercoating. We had some freakish cold weather with large amounts of hail & short snow flurries but Tuesday the weather improved & work began.

I was also thinking of how I would fabricate my door jams & wishing I hadn't left my old Dewalt radial arm saw behind when we moved from Olympia. It had a frozen motor & was always shakey at holding settings, but perfect for the rabbet cuts I needed at the top of each door jam. I had been watching our local Craigs list but found nothing but large industrial models, DeWalts like I had before & large numbers of Craftsman copies of the Dewalt that were even lower quality. Tuesday while the guys were drilling post holes, I checked out a 9" Delta RAS that sounded pretty good. Although 50-60 years old, it was a quality tool, only lightly used & it still had most of the original wooden table top. Some of its paint was beginning to fail, & a bit of superficial rust showed through but all the machined parts were clean, everything moved smoothly & he was only asking $45! It was much sturdier than my old Dewalt & had a really solid steel base so I grabbed it. Later in the day, I bought some antique Stanley levels from a retired teacher here in Stayton. The levels are brass & mahogany, dated 1896 & 1910. He had refinished them but decided they were to big for the bookshelf he was displaying them on. Two 28" & one 12" for $20, such a deal.

2009-03-06T21:48:00.000-08:00

2009-03-06T20:15:00.000-08:00

Early Sunday morning on March 1, I took the dogs out & saw our mail box had been involved in a hit & run. The heavy duty box performed well, sustaining only a dent & some scraped paint. We let it lay there while we attended church & I gathered everything up when we returned. Monday morning, I called the local police & they sent an officer out. He was a polite young man & is going to request surveillance around our house for a while. Later, I disassembled everything, hammered the steel base & top back close to their original shape & managed to smooth out the dent. I re-assembled everything & had the box back up before our mail came.

I met our next door neighbor & shared the details of our upcoming fence project. She is OK with us trimming back her trees along the property line to give the crew room to work.

Wednesday, we drove up to Sherwood (a SW Portland Suburb) to a place called "Building Material Recycle". Its a large warehouse & yard full of used , new & returned building supplies. He also has used tools & machinery at bargain prices but they sell very quickly. The place is similar to the Habitat for Humanity recycle store here in Salem but had much more variety and better quality goods. We found a few Fir raised panel doors for our closets but left them for pick up later as a heavy rain shower kept me from using our trailer & we had the dogs in the back of our Pacifica. He had some wood trim at good prices but not much in the quantity we needed. He showed us some 1x6 Fir that Lynna liked, but the good stuff was mixed with flawed pieces & had to be picked through, which would take a while for the quantity I need.

Friday was a clear day, so I took our trailer North to pick up our doors & we decided I would buy enough 1x6 to do all the window sills, possibly more if I could get a good price. He had offered the Fir at .90/ft for slight blems or 1.50/ft for tight grain cvg. I had been paying 1.90/ft for 1x6 Hemlock, so this was a good price & we needed 110 feet. After some back breaking work, I managed to sort out 13 good 8 footers, still needed to find another one & I could see a new, unopened load of 1x6 nearby. According to the shipping label, it contained 2456 lineal ft of random cuts 6', 8' & 10' 1x6. I opened the package & saw very tight grain on the ends. It appeared to be better quality than the pile I was working from. The owner was very busy with phone calls & customers, so it looked like haggle time. After a bit of back & forth, I offered $1200 for the entire bundle & he accepted. (.49/ft) Since I was now such a good customer, I asked how much he would take for the 13 boards I had sorted from the other pile? He said $40(.38/ft) & made another sale. I will have to rip some down to smaller dimension, but there should be enough wood to trim & wrap all our windows plus the remaining door jams & trim. We also found some baseboard Lynna likes at our local lumber yard for .98/ft.

I drove the fully loaded trailer home very carefully, then spent a couple hours unloading & stacking everything in my basement shop. The wood is pretty nice looking & there were evenly balanced lots of 6', 8' & 10' with a few broken ended 7s & 9s . There is some clear but most have a few blems: knots, splits, checks or sap pockets. It has a consistent tight grain & is a good match to the Fir doors we already have. Only 4 boards were split end to end & 3 of those should glue back perfectly.

2009-02-22T07:21:00.000-08:00

Just so everyone knows we're still alive, thought I'd update the blog now & add pictures later:

We were pretty busy preparing for our February 10th moving day. The move went smoothly and we had three good workers from Bekins Cross Town movers. The foreman was a Ukrainian emmigrant, a very nice fellow who made sure everything was done very carefully so that we had no damage & no one got hurt. Since moving day, we have been slowly unpacking boxes, placing furniture, arranging our ISP and TV supplier.

Lynna had arranged ahead of time with Willamette Broadband (WAVE)cable for a one day transition to shut-off service to our rental & begin at the new house. She arranged & confirmed a site evaluation several weeks ahead of time, then called to check progress & was told the site review took place & the hook-up day could proceed with no problems. Unfortunately, when the tech showed up last Friday, he quickly discovered the cable to our house had not been threaded through the buried conduit, sprayed some white paint arrows on the ground & told us he would turn in paperwork to schedule further work. I got to tell Lynna it would be another few weeks before we had TV or Internet. She made a few calls to cancel everything with Wave and scheduled an internet hookup through the local phone co. for last Monday(basically 24 hour service), with a satellite dish installation for this coming Tuesday. The internet hookup went as scheduled, with two good techs who quickly tapped into our prewired outlets and our dish & receiver arrived Wednesday.

I did manage to install the cedar closet lining in one walk in closet and put up a new mailbox out front. Our mail lady came by ahead of time & picked out the exact spot for her most convenient drop off.

I hooked up Lynna's washing machine and was nearly done with her dryer when I remembered it was set up for Propane and we have Natural Gas now. That's what happens when you don't use something for over a year. Sears had the conversion kit for only $28 but it would take a few weeks for the parts to arrive. Lynna didn't want to do without laundry for that long and the old set was 12 years old, so we bought her a new Maytag washer/dryer and I added the old set to things I need to sell.

I put an ad on Craigslist Wednesday. Sold the Cabinet saw and Maytag washer/dryer set the next day & met two local fellows in the process. A Sublimity City Commissioner bought my saw & a Xerox tech was really pleased with the washer/dryer as their washer had just died. I got $600 for my saw & $350 for the washer/dryer set. Since I only paid $750 for the saw 15 years ago. So, aside from blades, my cost was only $10 per year of use. I had some responses but there were no takers for the old air compressor and my Bosch Mitre saw so far.....
A few days after our move, while we were driving to Salem, the car suddenly began making a lot of noise. We were going uphill at the time & it sounded like a manifold or exhaust gasket failure. I dropped the car off at Stayton Tire & Auto for Corey to check it out. Nothing as inexpensive as a gasket though, they found part of the EGR valve had blown out. The new part was $84, but the dealer had it in stock. Apparently this is something that can fail after 50,000 miles & the manual calls for replacement at that service. We just turned over 49,000 miles last week, so it was just a bit ahead of schedule......
I ran out of Cedar decking and had covered the remaining open framing with scraps of lumber. This was bugging me so John & I drove out to his brother's place in Scotts Mills to pick up 8 more 12 foot 2X6 boards. Tom wasn't there, so one of his crew helped us & ran the boards through their Powermatic 30" planer. Its a very impressive piece of equipment and made short work of my few boards. The helper said Tom had to attend a meeting at the local mill where they were announcing everyone was laid off. Tom had worked there since he was 19 years old. He still has his farm and sawmill operation but surely needed that regular pay check.

2009-02-05T07:21:00.000-08:00

We have been very busy during the run up to our moving day on February 10th. Lynna has moved some utensils & pans into her new kitchen and we are transporting boxes up every day. Saturday we made a trip into Salem for shelving supplies and I picked up my saws from Western Tool. While I was unstrapping everything, John, my framer & next door neighbor, walked up to see if I needed help. I was using my tractor to unload everything but John is a former Collegiate wrestler & his strength made everything go smoothly. Soon the 500 pound saw was sitting in the shop. I had to make up a power cord, then re-installed/aligned the fence & extension table to get it operational & cut the shelving.

There was some 4.5 % mortgage money available, so we decided to recover a portion of the $$ we poured into our new home and did a 50 day lock. This has meant spending phone time with the County and our bank as Oregon enacted a standardized occupancy permit effective 4/1/2008. The Washington bank wants us to provide an OP but our permit was issued 1/3/2008 and the new law requires the County to use the prior process where they only provide a copy of the inspection record showing sign off on the final inspection. I worked through the bureaucracy and obtained statements explaining the intricacies of Oregon law and a "Certificate of Final Approval" which should satisfy the financial gnomes.

The Daly's finish coat dried to a semi-matte finish that Lynna likes so we didn't need any burnishing. I moved on to installing shelving in the pantry & linen closet. The pantry shelves are joined with a rabetted joint and I had to make a template for the odd shape of our Master Bath linen closet. The angled cuts on both ends match pretty well. Some of the other bedroom closets also have angled side walls that will require the same approach.

2009-01-28T16:33:00.000-08:00

Monday Blaine, the Marion County inspector, came by to check our final inspection corrections and everything passed. He signed off & we are approved to move in. Lynna had two moving companies out for estimates & it won't be very expensive since it's a local move with no milage charges.

We decided to put another finish coat on our floors as neither of us liked the matte finish. I vacuumed, mopped & went over everything with a tack rag to get them as clean as possible, then put on a light coat of Daly's oil floor finish. It looks pretty good but may have too much gloss, so we might rent a floor polisher to buff it some and (hopefully) end up with a semi-gloss finish.

We picked up Lynna's cabinet doors from the shop that installed the glass and I hung them this morning before I put the finish coat on the Kitchen, Nook & Family Room.

My Bosch mitre saw has been showing its age. The motor takes about 10 seconds to get up to speed and if I cut to soon, the blade will stop. Also, the shut-off brake doesn't stop the blade very well any more. It can be overhauled, but doesn't have the laser cutting guide like the new models, so we made another trip to Western Tool. They just closed some stores & are selling excess inventory at fire sale prices. I found a brand new Hitachi 12" mitre saw for less than I paid for the Bosch 15 years ago. I had also been watching a General cabinet saw that was a marked down display model from another store. It had been in the clearance room since before Christmas & the price was down another $500 since our last visit. At $1,000 off their regular price, it was just to good a buy to pass up. I bought both & asked if they could hold them until I have time to pick everything up. Now I have to clean up my old saws & sell them along with the Stanley floor stapler and the old Emglo air compressor.

2009-01-23T19:54:00.000-08:00

Today I did a test of Daly's floor finish on the pantry floor. It was the tung oil product we used on our oak floors in Olympia and we liked the easy upkeep. Traffic wear & scratches can be touched up without removing the old finish & the touched up area blends with the old finish, so it doesn't show. We liked the Pal Oil finish on our Maple floors but it is a bit to flat & has no shine. I called Daly's about using it for a finish coat. They thought it would apply right over the Pal Oil with no problems but suggested I test in small area. It doesn't show well in the picture but we like the look. It applied with no problems and was easy to get even coverage. It deepens the tone that the Pal Oil gave to the maple & it appears there will be a semi-gloss finish when it is fully dried.

Next I put down some laminate flooring on the landing at the top of the Bonus Room stairway.

Lynna found & collected all the shelves for her cupboard and only a few had their oil finish, so I started to put finish on the rest. I completed all the kitchen shelving & will do the Laundry Room and bathroom vanity shelves tomorrow. If we pick up the glass cupboard doors tomorrow, I can hang them in the afternoon. The counter top cabinet doors swing upwards & lynna decided to put handles on them. They are taped into place for a trial fit & when she gives the go ahead, I'll make a template to drill & mount them.

Mike, our electrician came by around 6 PM and dropped off the replacement air switch for the jetted tub, so I can work on that tomorrow also.

Final Part II

2009-01-22T20:33:00.000-08:00

I finished closing off the stairway this morning and moved on to the jetted tub. There were two problems to fix: We needed a service hatch that was easily removable and the air switch didn't activate the pump.

I had lightly nailed a small piece of hardiboard on the end of the tub surround where the manual recommended a hatch, but then we tiled over it for a clean look. I used a linoleum knife to score through the grout line and popped the board off without breaking any tiles. I plan to use a magnetic latch to hold it closed this time.

The tub had been tested after wiring & everything worked fine, so why wasn't it working now? The inspector had been tripping all the GFI circuits, perhaps one was still off. I went through the house & found a circuit in the basement that was tripped, but the tub pump was still inactive. I soon discovered the hose from the air switch to the relay box was disconnected at the switch end. The switch is located in the center of the tub on the side against the wall. Insulation was stuffed around everything & that was probably how the hose came loose. The switch was held in place with a nut on the back side, to far to reach from the hatch. I could remove the switch & re-attach the hose, then fish tape it back to the pump but it would be difficult, and the switch would need to be glued in place. I decided to get a new switch & relocate it near the pump for easy service in the future. No place in town could get a new switch without several days wait but Mike, our electrician is bringing one by tomorrow.

While I was working on the tub, two fellows from BC Plumbing came & reversed the shower valves. They noticed our toilet base hadn't been caulked, so they did all four before leaving.

I scheduled a re-inspection for Monday. (Paul, the last picture is for you :)

FINAL INSPECTION

2009-01-22T06:32:00.000-08:00

The County inspector came yesterday afternoon and did the final inspection. It went better than we expected, but there are three corrections needed before we can move in. He found two of the rotary shower controls plumbed hot for cold/cold for hot, I have to close off the open risers on our stairway, and the tub surround needs a removable panel for servicing. I called the plumber to come fix the controls & started working on the stairs. I was halfway done when we quit for the day. We couldn't reach our tile setter so I will begin that project when the stairs are finished.

2009-01-20T21:01:00.000-08:00

My surgeon was pleased with my recovery so far and says I can keep working on the house with no restrictions but it will be another month or two before I am fully healed, so "take it easy". Whatever that means.(I chose not to ask & avoided a list of proscribed activities)

We picked up 3 gallons of floor finish & dropped off our cabinet doors to have the glass installed. They'll be ready Thursday, but we won't be back in Salem for a week or so.

This afternoon I managed to put down a few more boards on our deck & a state boiler inspector dropped by. He checked out our installation & it passed. He liked everything & only suggested I label the sub-panel & circuit breaker "Emergency Boiler shut-off" which I'll do tomorrow.

2009-01-20T07:02:00.000-08:00

I got the window arch tops insulated & nailed a piece of Cedar bender board up to help keep everything in place until I do the wood wrap & trim.

Lynna noticed a few small damage spots where someone dropped a tool on the small bathroom shower floor, so we had a repairman out to fix it. Steve did a great job & chatting with him afterwards, I discovered he lives in Salem, 3 houses from our son Jeremy. His daughter is best friends with our grandaughter Madeline. The next day, Lynna was cleaning the Master Bath shower pan & found another spot which could easily have been repaired had we known.

Dogs at the work site: While I was finding & cutting Cedar boards in the garage, our new "puppie" Peaches took a few nibbles from the insulation roll. I wasn't there to scold her so things escalated quickly, bite by bite. She always carries forbidden things to her favorite spot in the Family Room & that's where I found her.

Bad weather & my surgery kept us from church for a month, so it was nice to return Sunday.

Monday I felt pretty good & spent most of the day screwing down a few more deck boards. It was a bright, sunny day, 24F in the shade down at our rental, but the covered porch was much warmer and morning sun reflecting from our low "e" windows forced me to take off my wool layers right away.

I found a spot on the edge of our tray ceiling paint that needs a touch up. Its only visible from the far corner of the Dining Room but bugs me enough that I have to fix it.

Today I have a post-op appointment in the morning which we will combine with shopping in Salem, then a State boiler inspector is coming in the afternoon to check our installation.

2009-01-16T06:58:00.000-08:00

Spent all day yesterday touching up all the spots I spackled Wednesday & even got the cooktop vent pipe painted. I finished every room except the Library but I won't put up pictures of paint drying! Today I'm going to foam insulate some holes in my daylight basement wall where drain lines pass through and I also need to insulate a few spots I noticed at the top of our arched windows.

2009-01-14T21:28:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I finished up the boiler plumbing. Soldered the other zone valve in place and then put caps on the supply and return lines for the house. We're just using the boiler with an indirect water heater for now with our Jotul & Vermont Castings gas stoves suppying heat for the house until I plumb in all the baseboard units later this year. I finally finished hanging a light by my band saw before I quit for the day.

Today I went through the house & patched up all the dings & dents accumulated during the laying & refinishing of our Maple flooring. Tomorrow will be a paint day & perhaps the HVAC tech will show up to do the last wiring on the boiler so I can call a State boiler inspector out. I will need his certificate when I call for the County Final.

2009-01-12T20:35:00.000-08:00

We had to pick up our dog Peaches from the kennel this afternoon so I had a short work day. It started by ferrying some of my bicycles from our rental up to the new house. The new faucett in our laundry room leaked around the lever and our plumbers were unable to adjust it, so we had exchanged it last week. I installed the new one today & it works perfectly. I put some house numbers up and met with the HVAC tech who will wire in the zone valves and the low water/high temp cutoff devices on my boiler. We should be able to call for a final inspection soon.

2009-01-09T19:24:00.000-08:00

Today I wired a thermostat to each of our gas stoves. The County inspector agreed the stoves satisfy the heat requirement if they have a thermostat so I just hung an old stat in each room & ran the wire along the floor edge to the stove . In the afternoon I mounted a hand rail for our stairs.

2009-01-08T19:22:00.000-08:00

I'm making a quick recovery from my surgery but not allowed to do any heavy lifting for the next two weeks, so this morning I worked at getting our boiler operational. First I installed & wired the spill switch and the circulator pump, then connected the hot water maker thermostat to the boiler control module. Next I filled & bled the boiler, opened the gas valve & turned on the power. When I turned up the thermostat, the boiler ran through its start program, then shut down without lighting. There were several blinking red lights on the control module. This was because the air in the gas line hadn't completely purged out. I turned the breaker off, waited a minute then powered up again and the boiler lit right off and began making hot water.

In the afternoon, Lynna drove me to Freres Lumber and I bought some hardware and a hand rail for the stairway to our bonus room.

2009-01-06T07:26:00.000-08:00

The plumber worked on our boiler all day yesterday. He had only done light repair work on a boiler about 6 years ago, but with my knowledge from earlier installations and his plumbing ability, we got all the new safety devices installed along with all the normal boiler fittings that the supply house sold me with the boiler. He only needs a few more fittings to complete the job.

I worked on the deck yesterday but didn't get finished. I had surgery scheduled for 9 AM today so when I cleaned up, I laid decking & scraps of plywood on the open areas of the deck framing so we have a safe surface until I can work again. I will post pictures later.

(5PM) The surgery went well and afterwards they gave me a local anesthetic plus pills, so I feel no pain & life is good. We checked Peaches in to a kennel for a week of boarding plus daily training & Lynna is taking Sunny out until I can manage again.

When we got home we found our landlord's father had come with a helper & cleared away the downed tree. They hauled off all of the brush, cut the main trunk into rounds for firewood & somehow raised the stump & remaining trunk back upright again. (later found out the tree righted itself when Wendell had cut about half the trunk into rounds. Wendell came back a day later & cut the rest of the trunk into rounds)

2009-01-03T23:40:00.000-08:00

I took these last pictures after cleaning up for the day. If you look closeley, you can see Lynna & Sunny heading down to our rental home.(its the center house mostly hidden in the trees)

2009-01-03T23:02:00.001-08:00

In the early hours of January 2, roaring wind noise and the sound of flying branches hitting the walls & roof of our home woke us about 2:30 AM. Then we heard branches popping & breaking followed by a tremendous thud that shook the house. We turned on the radio but the power soon went out. After 10 or 15 minutes, the wind eased a bit & we went back to sleep. In the morning, we found a large Fir tree had fallen from North to South across our back yard. I took some pictures today. Not much damage but a big mess for the owner of our rental to clean up.

It was 33F when I started work on our deck this morning but I was comfortable with a jacket over two wool shirts and a wool cap. After about an hour, the sun came out. It was only 35F out but the covered porch was so warm, I had to remove my jacket & outer wool shirt. We had sun all day & I was quite comfortable while I cut & fit the decking.

I found our framer had placed one of the deck joist ends and some L flashing a bit high which was making the deck board sit high at that point. Rather than reframe that part of the deck, I did some quick chisel work to make the decking line up.

2009-01-01T20:46:00.000-08:00

I worked on the deck yesterday but soon had to stop & re-stack the lumber onto the completed section. It was really nasty out today, with lots of wind driven rain. At first, the wind direction changed several times & our covererd porch gave good shelter from the North East & North West which made for comfortable working conditions, but then the main storm arrived, & it settled in to a South West soaker which hosed half the porch. I tried to use the wood that was already wet in the area exposed to the rain and saved the dry stack for the remaining sheltered area. The wet & heavy boards slowed me down some, but I made progress & the finished area is looking good. These cedar boards were milled to a full 2"X6" and it takes almost a 9" cut to get a 45* angle, which is the limit on my 12" mitre saw. Lynna worked inside cleaning bathrooms & vacuuming the floor. Both dogs kept watch from the french doors.

2008-12-30T17:08:00.000-08:00

My son Jeremy & grand daughter Madeline came by today and helped me cut, fit & screw down a few cedar boards on our deck. Lynna took some pictures while we worked.

2008-12-25T14:38:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone!

We exchanged gifts this morning, then Lynna cooked a nice breakfast.

Today's job was to replace our temporary stairs with the new treads I have been finishing. The temporary treads were just 2X6's that didn't give very safe footing, especially for the grandchildren.

First I had to bring the new treads downstairs.(Sunny thought the canvas I spread was his new bed) Next I removed the old treads, then cleaned out all the debris under the stairway, and screwed down the new treads. Eventually I will add a piece of laminate flooring to each riser for a cleaner look but that can wait until after we pass final inspection.

2008-12-25T08:25:00.000-08:00

Finished up hanging & fastening cabinets yesterday & all the doors are back on & adjusted. The cabinet on the extreme right goes on our breakfast bar. It will remain on the floor until I build the bar.

2008-12-24T06:13:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we woke to a beautiful snowscape. Three neighbor boys converted the slope by our front walk into a toboggan run. Seems kids & dogs are the only ones enjoying the snow. Lynna continued her room by room battle with sanding dust left from finishing the floors. I completed installation of the hood vent over the cook top and connected its wiring. Just need a few feet of venting to finish. I put another coat of Danish oil on several cabinets and re-hung the doors on the upper kitchen cabinets that were installed over the week-end. The new floors don't photograph in their true color, they aren't so yellow & look almost like unfinished wood. Must be something in the penetrating oil product we used or perhaps its reflection from the yellow walls. I haven't found a way to compensate so far. I will put up my best attempt at color adjustment along with the unbalanced shots but its still not right. The floor has shades from a warm white to a rich brown on the most figured wood, very pretty but impossible to show in an image.

The city has been plowing our arterials so I took Lynna to Safeway & Roth's to shop for groceries. This required shoveling the driveway which had snow on top of ice on top of snow. It took a while! Our first stop was Safeway which is always crowded. We got everything on our list then stood in line for 1/2 hour to reach the checkstand. Roth's was much better with no lines at all. We also stopped at Ace Hardware & bought a flourescent tube for the hood vent. We have installed this same Braun vent in our two previous homes and it always came with a tube. Looks like the bean counters decided to boost profits a bit.

2008-12-23T07:03:00.000-08:00

We received our first good dose of snow yesterday. We had been in the rain/snow transition area of the previous storms passing through our area and only recieved light dustings of snow which would be washed away by rain. Over the weekend we got some freezing rain but the ground was above freezing and the outside air temperature of 31F-32F wasn't low enough to freeze the warmer rain. The day started cloudy with a light drizzle that changed to heavy snow about 9AM. The heavy snowfall let up after an hour & I took these pictures. Soon the snow resumed & by day's end we had received about 4" of snow and it was 27F.

Lynna worked on cleaning up the dust left behind by the floor finishing. The sanding crew had vacuumed the wood floors but all the hanging lights and every other horizontal surface had a coat of fine sanding dust.

I made two 18" boxes to support our large cabinet while I fastened it to the wall with long screws and cabinet washers. When I had it hung, I test fit & hung the cabinets on either side. Then my neighbor, John, came up to see how things were going & offered help. He held the hood vent up while I fastened it into place.

Our finished floors look great but the Pall oil finish is closer to satin than the semi-gloss Lynna wanted. We could add an additional coat of another product to get more gloss but decided to see if we like this finish with more time.

2008-12-20T14:25:00.000-08:00

The flooring crew arrived at 8AM & I shut down, then removed our two gas stoves so they could sand & refinish the corners where they stood. The 4 workers spent about a couple hours removing all their equipment and vacuuming everything. I took a few pictures that show the family room and nook all ready for the oil finish, and some of the Master Bedroom during the first coat. They started in the master bedroom and worked through to the West Wing & finished with the big hallway. I think it will look great when they are all done.

2008-12-19T19:53:00.000-08:00

We had about an inch of snow overnight and perhaps another inch during the morning but it warmed up by mid-day & tonight there isn't much snow left. Our plumbers were a no show. Today the crew sanded the whole floor with 100 grit and then went over it with a rotary floor polisher. They are coming back tomorrow to vacuum & buff in the first coat of finish, so we continue to run the heat day & night to keep everything stabilized and dry. They want me to shut down both stoves at 8:00 AM Saturday morning & move them outside while they sand & buff the floor where they stood, then bring them back inside, hook everything up & get them going again.

I put another coat of spar varnish on the stair treads, cut & installed a cover for the crawl space entry, then de-greased and assembled my tenoning jig. Western Tool had marked these jigs down as some were returned for being to tight a fit in the saw table slot, so they might not fit all saws without filing. I had several sliding miter attachments that fit my saw & could swap a bar from one if necessary. I found the jig bar was designed for a T slot, but after I removed the roller guides from the bottom of the bar, it was a near perfect fit to my slots.

2008-12-18T20:48:00.000-08:00

The crew finished up the coarse sanding today & troweled the filler in to dry overnight. Tomorrow they will do the 100 grit sanding & buff in the first coat of oil finish to cure over the weekend. I did the fine sanding of our stair treads & brushed on a coat of finish. I came down for a break & Lynna was cooking up some split pea soup, sure smelled good.

I took the dogs out for a walk after lunch and saw a BC Plumbing truck parked in our drive. Found a plumber wandering around in the house, tracking muddy footprints on the floor. I led him to the garage to finish plumbing the dog bath and water filter system, then apologized to the sanders. Turns out it didn't hurt anything as the fine sanding will clean up his tracks. Later another BC tech came to help me plumb the indirect hot water heater & boiler. I spent the afternoon with him going over all the safety devices required by Marion County. There is a low water cut-off, a high temperature cut-off, a second high temperature release valve, a spill switch for the vent, a temperature/pressure dial and a large air capture device that looks like it belongs on a submarine. (Most of these parts weren't required on the boilers I installed in previous homes or they were installed at the factory) there will be 4 heating zones in the house plus a zone for the hot water heater and I'm adding isolation valves and purge valves for each zone. (This is a trick I learned from Mr. Harwood, the old fellow I bought my previous 2 boilers from) Using these valves allows for quick purging of air from the system, balancing the heat between the living or sleeping areas and only requires two zone valves and one circulating pump.

The plumber last worked on a boiler about 6 years ago & was enthusiastic as he dry assembled & sketched out the layout for everything. He is returning tomorrow with a few more fittings. When everything is together I will probably pay an electrician to do the wiring just to make sure it passes inspection.

2008-12-17T18:22:00.000-08:00

The sanding crew left around 4 PM so I locked up and took some pictures. The crew has almost finished the coarse sanding, with just the wide Hallway, a couple spots in the Family Room and some edge sanding to go. They were running two of the big sanders for most of the afternoon.

When we went for our dental appointment yesterday, we made a stop at Western Tool and bought a sawdust collector for my workshop. Lynna spotted a tenoning jig on the clearance table for only $20. I had found they just marked $20 off the sale price of the tool I came for, so doesn't that mean I could get it for free? They had a scratch & dent sale in the warehouse out back with great prices on some large stationary tools but I couldn't justify anything except a nice little router table.

While the sanders worked upstairs, I spent a couple hours in the basement shop unpacking & assembling the dust collector. The router table was an assembled floor model & ready to use, so I opened the tenoning jig packaging only to find it is in pieces, covered in heavy grease and wrapped in plastic. My hands are beat up from the flooring and I have "trigger finger" on several digits, so the cleanup was put off & I spent the afternoon in our bonus room sanding the stair treads. After I get a few coats of finish on, I can install them next week.

2008-12-17T10:18:00.000-08:00

After the first hour, I went up to take some pictures of how things were progressing. One man is running the big sander at a 45degree angle to the boards. The second is working around the perimeter of every room with an edge sander. They are emptying the sanding dust into a large bag outside & its already nearly full.

2008-12-17T09:29:00.000-08:00

I called our plumbing contractor & let him know Tuesday was the last open day to finish up in the house before the floor finishing begins Wednesday & that resulted in two plumbers showing up at lunch time. They spent about an hour & finished the drain plumbing for our two kitchen sinks and hooked up the dishwasher & garbage disposer. They still have to do the water filter & dog bath station in the garage. Also the indirect hot water heater in the basement needs plumbed but all that can be done while the finishing proceeds.

The floor finishing crew arrived at 7:30 AM today & so far the expected snow & freezing rain hasn't reached us. They masked off the closets that were full of all the stuff from our now cleared floors & also taped off our oven cabinet. Their foreman had to leave after an hour to deal with the frozen well pump at his house, so not sure if he will be back today. He & one of his helpers were kind enough to lift our largest uppper cabinet into place & set its base on either side of the cooktop. It is very heavy & I had put sliders underneath so it could slide from the Family room to the kitchen, but they just picked it up & carried it in. Peaches doesn't like the extreme cold we've been having so we got her a coat. Its a litlle big but does the job. Last evening she was frisking around so much, I had trouble getting a good picture.

2008-12-13T08:49:00.000-08:00

2008-12-13T08:21:00.000-08:00

Its been a full week. I finished the flooring in our "West Wing" and moved on to the Laundry room which I finished Friday. There are still two or three partial strips needed in doorways and at the transition from tile to wood in our big hall.

Thursday was a busy day as our electrician came early to finish the basement lights & hooked up the generator box by the West covered porch. He used a clever approach that involves an outside box to plug the generator into with a breaker on our main panel. there is a sliding metal lock on the main panel that only allows the generator breaker to be turned on when the main breaker is turned off. Wiring this way meets code & only costs around $150-$200. Other electricians bid an isolation device at around $1700-$2000. Our electrician's solution is elegant & fail safe.

When the electrician left, two plumbers arrived & they spent most of the day installing the remainder of our bathroom fixtures upstairs & in the small bathroom. They finished moving the pot filler to its new location and started the hookup of our "dog bath station" in the garage but were waiting for a few parts still & are scheduled to return Monday. The faucett for our jetted tub was a floor model and came mounted on a wooden display shelf. I mounted the shelf for a faucet base at our dog bath station. The bath was intended to be portable & used outside but we are plumbing it into a permanent location. Late in the day, I repaired sheetrock around the pot filler & did the first two layers of mud to cover the repair.

2008-12-06T19:33:00.000-08:00

Still have a cold. Still laying Maple flooring in the West bedroom.

2008-12-05T21:54:00.000-08:00

I've been slowed by a cold for the last few days, but I'm about 1/2 done with the final West bedroom. As I worked in other rooms, I set aside boards that were covered with black paint. There were quite a few, all good straight wood so I'm using them in this room. Hope to have a few estimates for sanding and finishing our floors soon.

2008-12-04T06:55:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I finished up the West hallway then spent quite a while removing all the flooring "culls" I had piled in the remaining bedroom. These were pieces of Maple that were defective in some way, like being 2" wide instead of 2 1/4" or they were damaged during removal from the gym floor, heavily warped, had irregular holes with plugs showing etc. There were about 75 sq ft of them & they didn't take up so much room once neatly stacked in the garage.

I vacuumed the floor, chalked a line, then got a few rows down before quitting early to attend a Christmas program at my grand daughter's middle school. She played the violin & sang. It was quite a good production.

I needed only a few thousand staples to finish but had to buy 10,000 as that was the smallest lot they had. When I opened the box, I found 3 packs of 3,330 so the left overs should be easy to sell on e-Bay when I sell the stapler.

Our siding crew used these 5" x 8" steel inserts for joint flashing behind the beveled siding butted end joints. Supposed to be better than caulking the gaps.(it will take a lot of years to find out) I found a big stack during the clean up but I have already done the leftover siding return for credit. They make great wood scrapers for finishing, so I gave most of them to Jeremy but kept these for myself.

2008-12-02T16:49:00.000-08:00

I finished one of the West bedrooms yesterday, then moved to the Kitchen where I cut some more sheetrock out & put in the blocking so the plumber can move the pot filler when he returns. We quit early in order to take Peaches by the vet for a rabies shot, then dropped her off at the kennel for a week of boarding & training while I recover from my surgery.

Spaced out when I got up this morning: I was fasting for my surgery but thought water would be O.K. (I wasn't given a pre-surgery instruction sheet, surgeon just rattled off something about fasting after 8 PM evening before surgery) I drank a couple cups of water from 5:30 AM until we left for Kaiser at 8 AM, so I failed the O.R. Nurse's questioning. She called in the anesthesiologist & my surgeon to decide what to do. At first it sounded as if I would just need my surgery done at 10:00 AM instead of 9:30 AM but they decided it would be safer to reschedule for January 6, 2009. We headed home but stopped at Western Tool where I bought another 10,000 flooring staples, then we picked up Peaches at the kennel. I was starving, so we got some breakfast at Karls Jr.

2008-11-29T19:20:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving morning I began laying flooring in one of the West bedrooms. We brought up a table & some chairs for the nook then I cleaned up my workshop refrigerator and set it up in the kitchen right where the big fridge will go when we move in. Jeremy had a big programming job over the holiday so he & June came late in the day Thursday with the grandkids & we had our first Thanksgiving meal in the new house. Friday and Saturday I made some progress on the West Wing and hope to at least finish the bedroom & possibly the West hallway before my Surgery on Tuesday. That only leaves the laundry room and the other West bedroom to finish when I feel up to working again.

2008-11-27T09:39:00.000-08:00

Monday the electricians returned and installed all the rest of the light fixtures. The Plumber also came about 9:00 AM and although he still lacked the parts needed for his work in our kitchen, he plumbed two more bath rooms and the laundry room. We decided the pot filler needed to be moved 9" left from its current location and I had removed some of the wall board to allow this. The plumber removed & plugged the pot filler line before he left. I had a pre-op Dr. appointment Monday afternoon spent most of the morning interacting with the subs, so not much flooring was laid in the big hall, but I finished the job on Tuesday and Wednesday. Today we are having Thanksgiving dinner in the evening as Jeremy started a programming project at the university last night and won't be done until late afternoon.

2008-11-22T17:04:00.000-08:00

I didn't put in many hours on the flooring Friday, but did fit in a bike ride. I rode downtown, got a haircut, then we went to Salem for shopping in the afternoon. I started my day Saturday by turning the water back on (since the plumber never returned) & going all around checking for leaks. There were no leaks, so I installed the Cherry toilet seat in the Master Bath, then I put in a full day on the Library flooring. I got it finished with time left to move some wood & tools to the wide hall where I will be working on Monday. The Electricians were to be finished working on a custom home on Mt. Hood Friday and return Monday to finish up their work here.

I talked to the plumber's boss Thursday & they were "possibly" going to return but didn't commit to a day since they are working a big job in Portland. These local contractors are all so busy, there must be quite a few custom homes being built around NW Oregon.

2008-11-20T16:45:00.000-08:00

Neither the electricians or the plumber returned yesterday, so I spent most of the morning cleaning up after them. Next I removed all of the wood scraps from the Den/Library and vacuumed the floor so I could begin laying Maple. There was some cutting and fitting required around the hall doorway and the closet, so it was slow going. Today I made good progress and hope to finish tomorrow morning. Its really nice to have so many of the light fixtures in as it gets dark every afternoon before I am ready to quit.

Lynna has been checking the DEQ number daily and today they finally had a small burning window from 10:00 AM to 2:30 PM, so she was able to burn all the boxes from our light & plumbing fixtures.

When the electricians uncrated our oven, we found a small dent down low on the left side. Lynna called Kelly's and, co-incidentally, the Bosch rep was there. They were willing to refund us a few hundred $$ but we opted for a new door instead. It should arrive in a week or so. The small microwave above the oven was removed from our travel trailer. When we move in, it will be replaced with the larger microwave we are using in the rental.

2008-11-18T23:42:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I sanded & oiled the flooring around the toilets before the plumber arrived. He came from 10:30 AM to about 2:00 PM and was able to set two toilets and hookup some of the sinks plus the shower in our master bath. The electricians were here all day Monday and part of today. They hung most of our fixtures & activated all 5 of our outside outlet boxes. Unfortunately they didn't get to my basement workshop so I will continue with just one 220 and one 110 plug. We had to run into Salem a couple of times to purchase parts and some light bulbs for the workers but I was able to do some flooring in the bathroom that opens onto the deck and finished it this afternoon.

2008-11-13T21:00:00.001-08:00

Finished the Dining Room today.

2008-11-12T06:59:00.000-08:00

Monday we made a run to the dump & then went to Salem for some shopping. Lynna planted the last of the street trees when we returned & I did some tractor work on our perimeter path to smooth out & put some rock back on the areas damaged by the concrete contractor & the cement truck.

Tuesday I was able to put down some more Maple flooring. I reached the entry tile & made a good transition from the tile to the wood, then moved into the dining room.

Today we have to do another Salem trip so I can get some lab tests & an EKG at Kaiser then we both have a dental appointment so there won't be much work done on the new house.

2008-11-08T16:29:00.000-08:00

Tim's helper returned this morning & did the wash off to reveal the aggregate surface on our porches. They look great.

2008-11-07T17:18:00.000-08:00

I left 2 messages for our plumber to schedule installation of fixtures & plumbing the sinks but he hasn't gotten back to me. Also left a message with one of the floor refinishers but same story there. Appears the contractors down here haven't experienced any slow down yet.

2008-11-07T17:09:00.000-08:00

The rain let up for today & Tim was here first thing to do the pour. They got everything done front & back and I put down some more Maple flooring and Lynna planted the last Vine Maple and Japanese Maple.

2008-11-05T16:42:00.000-08:00

Tim & his helper worked all day in the rain and got the forms done at the front & back of the house. Now we just need a day with 3 or 4 hours of no rain. We are doing an exposed aggregate finish which isn't as susceptible to damage from rain.

I worked on flooring again & almost have the Central Hallway finished. Tomorrow I will begin my day moving all the Maple that is stacked in the Dining Room, then I can continue right into that room when I finish the hall.

2008-11-04T21:28:00.000-08:00

John McCain just conceded: If you say hope and change three times, then click your heels we’ll be back in the Carter years before you know it.

Meanwhile back at the building site:

Monday the cement contractor, Tim Lowrey, started on the porches. Turns out we needed a bit more rock fill on the area between the front door and the East wall, but the rains have been coming down and our clay has transformed from solid ground into brown goop. We can't get a truckload of rock down there until next year during the dry season. Tim thinks it will be OK & he can leave the forms on that side if needed. John & Ron framed up some extensions for two of our back porch footings so we can pour them when we have the concrete truck here.

I put some Danish oil on the front door sidelights, then spent quite a while measuring & cutting the openings for our hood vent in the cabinet. It was very tedious work but when I finished, everything fit perfectly and I was able to get back to laying more Maple flooring.

Eric from Stayton Heating came for a few hours & hooked up the gas lines for our boiler and cooktop. As soon as I get the upper cabinet hung & install the hood vent, he will hook up the final section of vent pipe.

We sold the travel trailer Sunday but there is a delay while the buyers await approval for a space rental.

2008-10-30T16:21:00.000-07:00

Lynna had noticed some large Blackberry vines growing under the deck, so after lunch I crawled underneath & cut them off, then put a few drops of concentrated weed killer on each stub. Since I was all setup to deal with blackberries, I then went around the house & gave all the larger new growth the same treatment.

I fired up the tractor again & hauled some more rock to make a path up from the rental house to connect with the path we put into our new landscape. Rain is forecast for tonight & the next few days so now we can get back & forth without tracking mud inside.

I had about 15 minutes before quitting time, so I pulled some trim board cut-offs from the scrap pile, marked them up for size & cut all the pieces to make a couple of saw horses.

Tractor Work

2008-10-30T13:22:00.000-07:00

I moved and spread crushed rock this morning and finished the remaining part of the circular drive. Lynna worked at house cleaning in the rental but came out and took some pictures for our blog.

2008-10-29T18:53:00.001-07:00

This morning I used the tractor to move the remaining large trees up from the rental so Lynna could heal them into the compost/dirt pile for the Winter. I finished the Living Room floor today, next up is the connecting hallway, then the small Bathroom, the Dining Room & the Den. Tomorrow is the last nice day before some forecast rain, so I plan on doing some exterior painting & tractor work.

2008-10-28T18:32:00.000-07:00

Sunday after church we ran some errands and stopped by Color Tile to pick up some grout sealer. I was chatting with the sales manager and mentioned I was looking for a good buy on some laminate flooring for our bonus room since we only have enough of the 1" Maple for most of the main floor. He showed me some closeout "Prairie Maple" that goes well with our flooring & offered it for $1.09 a square foot with underlayment at $ .15 a sq ft. We bought all he had (620 sq ft), & it is enough for the Bonus Room with its bathroom plus at least one of the West Bedrooms. Late Sunday afternoon, I did a few hours of tractor work moving fill dirt to make a berm along the West side of our property, then Lynna raked it smooth & started digging holes for our street trees. It was hard work for both of us.

Yesterday & today I worked at laying the Living Room floor & spent my break times loading our large, potted "Street Trees" into the tractor's bucket, tying them down, then hauling them up from the rental's back yard & unloading them by the holes Lynna dug. Some were root bound & stuck in their pots so I was called to pry them out & lift them up into their holes for Lynna to plant. We have four of the five required trees planted now and I get to do the last one after the cement work by the deck is complete. Before dinner, I got out the white paint & painted the galvanized handles on the bottom of our garage doors so they would blend in. This was bugging me for some time & they look much better now.

2008-10-25T08:23:00.000-07:00

Finished the Master Bath & the Pantry floor. Devoted some time to cleaning up after the tile work & storing leftover tiles & materials, then started raising the sub floor in the closets so I can put in Cedar closet lining.

Reached a milestone when I emptied the staple box. 7,720 slams of the flooring hammer and I'm only a bit more than 1/2 done. I got this full box of Bostitch staples off e-Bay for only $50: they were left over from someone's project & I couldn't come close to that price again, so paid $62 for 5,000 no name staples from Freres Lumber. Maybe it will be enough to complete the flooring.

2008-10-21T16:36:00.000-07:00

Before I could begin laying flooring, I had to spend about an hour cleaning up after the tile setters. I had it all tidied up when Lynna came up to check the tile work. We like how it turned out except for 1 of the trim pieces. We will have them re-do that one piece tonight.

I was able to put down some more flooring today & hope to finish up the bathroom tomorrow.

Lynna worked on landscaping and then I moved plants from our rental yard up the hill & found a good place for them until she gets them in the ground.

Master Bath

2008-10-20T17:46:00.000-07:00

I made good progress today, I took pictures in the early afternoon and again when I quit for the day. We were expecting the tile setters to finish up tonight but so far they are a "no show".

2008-10-19T19:00:00.000-07:00

I worked outside & did some tractor work this weekend moving crushed rock & then moved the larger vine maples up for Lynna to plant. Lynna dug holes, moved sand & mulch & planted some of the Japanese Maples and Vine Maples we brought from Olympia.

I started the Maple flooring in the Master Bath and got to a point where I am past the difficult fitting and set to have a big day Monday. The tile setters worked Thursday & Friday evening cutting and fitting the Hardy board. They came back Saturday & Sunday afternoon and finished laying & grouting the entry tiles, then made a good start on the tub & shower area.

2008-10-16T17:49:00.000-07:00

Finished the Master Bedroom floor today. Next up: Master Bathroom.

2008-10-16T07:31:00.000-07:00

2008-10-16T07:01:00.000-07:00

Nothing much happened this week. I'm still laying flooring in the Master Bedroom. I took a few pictures as I made progress.

We went in to Salem over the weekend to shop for tile to put in the entry and Master Bath shower. Lynna found some she liked, so we bought it. Our neighbor John referred a tile setter he knows and Lynna likes his estimate for the work. I was glad to find someone so reasonable.

Tuesday I had scheduled an inspection to get a paper confirmation that we satisfied the fire hydrant requirement. We were working all day, me inside and Lynna outside. It appeared no one showed up. I called Wednesday and spoke with one of their inspectors who told me the computer showed the hydrant was approved, so I arranged to have a copy of the inspection form mailed out.(we are required to keep a container on site with the permit, approved plans and copies of all signed inspections sheets. the inspectors always put our copies inside if we aren't around when they come) Later, when we were leaving for the day, Lynna noticed a piece of yellow paper stuck into the door handle of our travel trailer. Yes, it was the missing inspection form. This was important because each inspection automatically extends our permit expiration date by 6 months and we hadn't had an inspection since early July. Now we are good through April 14, 2009.

Yesterday I broke for a few hours and put down the sub-floor for the tiled entries. The contractor stopped by late to let me know they will stop by tonight to begin the project. I will have to stop by Freres Lumber & pickup the supplies he needs.

2008-10-10T18:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the forecast rain didn't happen and in the revised version it was supposed to come in the early afternoon. This was likely one of my last opportunities to drive down to my workshop with the trailer before heavy rains turn the clay into slippery mud. I got busy and hooked up my trailer then set about loading the Shopsmith, 2 workbenches and the new generator. It took a while to get everything loaded and strapped down. It had clouded up and was starting to sprinkle by the time I had everything unloaded and placed in the basement and garage. I broke for lunch and was able to lay some more flooring in the afternoon.

Today, I spent most of the day laying flooring in the Master Bedroom with a short break in the afternoon to dig some holes, then I moved two Japanese Maples up the hill for Lynna to plant.

2008-10-08T17:48:00.000-07:00

Counter Tops Completed

2008-10-08T00:16:00.000-07:00

The counter top crew began the morning by installing the island countertop they had set in place last night and then moved on to all the undermount sinks and the gas cooktop. I spent the morning paying bills then rode my bike downtown to the Post Office, Freres Lumber and City Hall. While I was downtown, I got a haircut. After Lunch, I was able to lay some more flooring in our bedroom. Lynna got some more landscape prep work done.

Counter Tops

2008-10-07T23:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I finished laying the Kitchen flooring and spent the afternoon moving bundles of wood plus all my tools into the Master Bedroom .

The men from Custom Countertops were coming today and I wanted to stay out of their way, so I started by measuring & cutting the stair tread to replace the 2x6 temporary stairs up to the room over the garage. The stair tread was #2 Fir and came in 16' blanks.

The counter top workers came about 10:00 and worked all day. Lynna was working on landscaping and I spent some time measuring and putting down the chalk lines, then started laying our bedroom floor. It was slow going at the corner stove where I had to cut and fit around the gas line.

The new countertops look great but the workers only got one sink installed and will be back tomorrow at 7:00 AM to finish the Kitchen island and install the other undermount sinks.

Maple Flooring

2008-10-02T14:12:00.000-07:00

Lynna has been working on the landscaping & Yesterday she got the first plants in. Meanwhile, I have moved into the kitchen. The flooring goes down slower in the kitchen due to the tight quarters and having to cut & fit some pieces, but I will soon move out into the hall and then comes the Master Bedroom and Bathroom.

Maple Flooring

2008-09-25T20:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I did some clean up in the house, then began laying out the wood for the day. I had planned to only work in the morning then load up the trailer and go to the dump. I had reached the point where the Bostitch flooring stapler couldn't be used due to interference from the wall and I had to switch to using a finish nailer.

My Campbell Hausfeld nailer is 18 years old, and I had used it to lay the entire floor in both our Kingston and Olympia homes. I had also used it for all the trim work on both houses plus numerous projects over the years. It still worked well and I recently replaced the rubber tip. I had just started nailing when I stopped to add a strip of nails. The spring coil that keeps tension on the nail supply broke and while I tried (without success) to rig up a quick fix, I notice the plastic feed gate was also broken & ready to fall off. Doh! I gave up, took a break and researched nail guns on the net while Lynna fixed lunch. I found parts for my gun were available but expensive and wasn't sure I should spend the $$ on such an old gun. After lunch the UPS man dropped off the hip waders I was expecting. I had previously bought two vintage bamboo fly rods and an Orvis vest, so once I tie up some leaders and find my flies & reel, I can do some fishing when we get settled in the house.

Later I fired up the tractor and placed some crushed rock in front of the doors to my shop and then made a parking stall for the tractor over by the retaining wall. After that, I hooked up the utility trailer to our Pacifica. Before I could load it up, I had to air up the tires. It had begun to rain but eventually we got it loaded up, covered with a tarp and drove to the transfer station.

We went to Home Depot to shop nail guns. They didn't have much selection and the prices seemed average. I had recently found a good buy on a new air compressor at Western Tool Supply, so we headed there next and arrived about 15 minutes before closing. I was able to check out several guns and got a nice Hitachi for $20.00 under the lowest price I had found in my search.

Today I used my new nail gun to finish out the Family Room and Nook area. I just have one partial strip left to piece in front of the Pony Wall. The new gun is smooth and has adjustments to control the depth of nail from flush to counter sunk. It has a switch to go from single to tap nailing where my old one would do either without a switch. This is a safety feature and I soon got used to it.

Mehai, our sider had called at lunch time to let me know he would come by in the afternoon to replace the siding and cornerboards that the roofers had removed from the North Gable end when they installed the cricket & fixed the roof flashing. He brought a couple of his crew along and they worked about 2.5 hours. When we talked price, he only asked for $50.00 but I held out for $75.00 since they are good, hard working boys and I had expected to pay more.

Maple Flooring

2008-09-23T07:37:00.000-07:00

I spent yesterday laying more flooring and it looks like another day's work will finish the dining nook and family room.

Our Bosch oven and Braun hood vent arrived and we made a trip in to Salem to pick them up on Saturday but the oven was to big to fit in our Pacifica. I will make another run in to Salem today with our trailer and pick up the oven. The rest of my day will be spent adding ledger boards for our countertops as the laundry room counter is ready for installation Friday. I also have to prep a parking space near the basement for my tractor as Lynna is having some rock delivered for the walk ways & tractor path.

Maple Flooring

2008-09-19T06:47:00.000-07:00

I did some tractor work for Lynna early, then managed to lay some more flooring while she worked at moving dirt near the West entrance. Yesterday, I dropped our car off to have it serviced and 4 new tires installed then rode my Bianchi bicycle home. This afternoon, I rode another Italian bicycle back downtown and picked up the car. I took a picture this morning when I had laid out the wood and had everything ready to start, then I took a few more when I quit for lunch.

Family Room Flooring

2008-09-17T21:05:00.000-07:00

After a slow start the first few days, I gained speed at laying the Maple flooring. I am still slowed some by having to carry the bundles in, then lay out the wood in the pattern it will be nailed. This is necessary to get correct joint spacing and also to get a random mix of dark & light wood pieces. The colored patches from the basketball court stripes produce a cheery mosaic that will be sanded off when we resurface the floor. Most of the wood is pretty straight and the stapler is usually able to force the rare warped piece into a snug fit. There were a few crooked pieces that required using wedges to snug them up. Yesterday, I had enough wood down to move the gas stove back & I hooked up its vent pipe.

Once I got a fairly wide strip down, the dogs decided it was their preferred place to lay. This should help cut down the time I spend every day brushing plaster dust off them before we head down to the rental house.

Lynna picked a contractor to do the North porch and today she met with John, our framer, to plan the pad he needs for the stairs from our covered deck. When we do the cement work we will add extensions to a couple of the porch footings to satisfy a request by our inspector.

2008-09-12T20:00:00.000-07:00

2008-09-12T18:07:00.000-07:00

I finally got the corner cabinets set correctly in the kitchen, then moved on to the four bathrooms and the laundry room. When I finished those tasks, I came back to the kitchen where I installed the dishwasher and fit the trim pieces around it.

Sunday we took both dogs & the cat in to a clinic in Salem for their annual vaccinations. Had to stand in line a long time but they did me proud & were the best behaved dogs there. Peaches was happy to have all the socializing with people and animals, Sunny found some kids to give him lots of petting and the cat just watched all the little toy dogs that were his size.

Monday morning our electrician called to let me know they had a day available & did we want them to do some finish work on our house? Yes! They showed up about 9 AM, worked until early evening and managed to install all the plugs & switches (except for my basement workshop where I still only have two lights & two outlets). They made an enormous mess throughout the house and left a huge pile of empty boxes, food containers, etc. in the corner of our garage. We spent the most of Tuesday cleaning it all up.

Wednesday Phil from Custom Counters spent all day making templates for the Corian counter tops. He also noticed a couple places where our expensive kitchen sink had manufacturing defects. The brushed aluminum finish was flawed on the lower left and on the center divider. We had to make a trip to Salem to return the sink & the dealer is trying to get another one, if they can't find one quickly enough, we may be shopping again. I had arranged for Jorge to come Saturday & clean up the travel trailer so we could put it up for sale but he showed up Thursday morning saying he had no work that day & asking if could he do the job early? This was fine by me, except it meant I had to run down to the hardware store to get supplies for him then stop by the bank to get cash for his pay.

I have been spending Saturdays working on the landscaping, mostly tractor work so far and sometimes mowing the lawn of our rental.

I started laying flooring in the West bathroom and then moved to the family room. Things went slowly at first as I had to get the first course down really straight and also unhook the vent pipe and move the heavy gas heater aside. I made good progress and managed to find time to ride my bike downtown and get a haircut.

I had my last appointment with the doctor and he was pleased with the new bone growth in my left arm and the strength I had regained. The months of physical therapy helped restore most of the range of movement I had before the break as far as reaching out to the side & upwards, but I am still doing therapy on reaching behind, as I can only just touch my left hip pocket. I still have some shoulder pain & difficulty sleeping the whole night.