House 2: finishing up outside ; Prep for next trip
(posted from home)
(This post covers 13 – 30 June, 2011)
-----------------------
Thursday, 30 June -
This morning I started digging my way back into my office. I needed to find some old paperwork for our house-rehab project and that gave me a kick-start. I didn't find the right paperwork (yet!!) but did manage to make lot of headway getting things in order in the office.
That afternoon I tried doing a simple financial transfer and that soon got complicated-- well, more like time consuming. I had an old-format number on file and it took a few hours to work through why that had happened and why it hadn't been noticed earlier. No biggie but, again, a time-waster. Thank goodness I'm retired and have time to work on this stuff!
That evening we watched two episodes of 'Shaka Zulu', the Eighties mini-series.
------------------------
Wednesday, 29 June -
Today Labashi had an appointment to go for tea with two of her friends. She and her friends go to a different tea house three or four times a year and today was one of the long-awaited days.
Since today's event was in Reading, I checked the tires and fluid levels on her car and ran it through the car wash first thing this morning, then turned my attention to the web.
That afternoon I wanted a ride so decided I'd track down Doubleshots. My local Starbucks had told me they can no longer get the little Doubleshot Light drinks I like so I called around for remaining stocks at other Starbucks. I rode down to Shrewsbury where they had an entire case. And there I learned there's no problem ordering them! There must have been some mixup about it.
I then rode to Nixon County Park for a walk. Nixon abuts Kain County Park to make a very nice (though hilly) and uncrowded place for walking. I climbed to the top of the hill via the Hardwood Trail and then followed Trail 4 for an hour to the Lake Redman spillway and back. Along the way I saw a small blacksnake just a foot or so off the trail and a tree-climbing groundhog. I had no idea groundhogs climb trees but as I passed within a few feet of a tree I saw it shake a bit, then the back end of a descending groundhog diving for cover in the long grasses at the base of the tree. At first I was stunned. I expected to see squirrel parts as I glanced over to the tree and instead I saw the big black foot-pads, claws, short-tail, and brown/black/yellow fur of the back end of a groundhog.... at eye level (and descending fast).
That evening we watched several episodes of 'Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip'.
--------------------
Tuesday, 28 June -
We were supposed to continue working paperwork today but Maypo's plans to only go into work for a few hours fell apart and he didn't get home until noon. Labashi painted until noon and I cleaned up the basement for an hour, then got started on the paperwork. After lunch we all worked on the paperwork until 1600 when we called it complete. Labashi and I then drove home.
-----------------------
Monday, 27 June -
Today Labashi and I worked with Maypo on paperwork on the houses. With multiple parties and accounts involved in purchases and returns we have to be careful to keep good records and annotate well.
We worked until 1700 then went back to Mocha Joe and watched 'Cry Freedom' with Kevin Kline.
----------------------
Sunday, 26 June -
This morning Maypo and I modified the carport light and its mount so the light would fit properly against the aluminum siding's profile and yet sit level. I then went back to work on the bathroom floor, removing the old vanity top and vanity and cutting off the water pipes feeding the sink and toilet (to remove the old and unsightly chromed fittings). I then took out the remainder of the subfloor, pulled nails, cleaned up, and leveled the sub-subfloor for two layers of subfloor-- one for strength (OSB) and one for a smooth surface under the vinyl (lauan).
That evening Labashi and I drove out to Norlo Park to check it out. This is a relatively new park right along US30 which we've watched grow (i.e., improve) as we've driven by over the last few years.
We parked in the largest parking lot and enjoyed watching kids playing on the swings and playground equipment. For some reason, there are many Mennonite families here and the kids' traditional clothing makes them all the more endearing.
We read a bit and then as darkness neared, we headed home the back way. A few miles away Interstate 81 northbound was closed temporarily because of an accident so traffic on US30 was very heavy and slow. But since I had worked on a farm near Norlo Park when I was a teenager, I knew the back roads and wanted to see how things had changed (in 45 years!). Remarkably, there was little change here. The land is all taken up by large farms and looks very much as it did in the mid-Sixties.
Back 'home', we watched the last episode of 'Ladies Number One Detective Agency' and the extras.
-------------------------
Saturday, 25 June-
I installed the shop lights in the basement this morning, learning along the way that the manufacturer recommends a 48-72 hour 'seasoning' period for the ballasts. In other words, leave the lights on continuously for a few days. I've never heard of that before.
I then found Maypo out front starting the front porch project. We spent the rest of the day building the block-wall foundation upon which we'll build forms and pour a concrete porch slab.
Labashi continued her painting projects, this time at the front and side doors.
That evening we went to dinner at Norland Pub with Maypo. Excellent cheese-steaks! Labashi and I then watched 'Ladies' Number 1 Detective Agency' episodes.
------------------------
Friday, 24 June -
We drove back to Chambersburg today, stopping along the way at Home Depot to buy a vanity and at Wal-mart for food supplies. At the house, I set up the new dehumidifier I bought to get the basement humidity level down to something reasonable for painting while Labashi sanded and primed the second clothesline pole outside.
We then drove to St. Thomas and bought two sections of vinyl flooring and adhesive for the bath and kitchen. Back at the house I began prep for the front-porch foundation by cutting some of the concrete blocks in half (to fit the space). That evening we went to Lowes and compared storm doors to what we had seen at Home Depot and I bought four low-temp shop lights. We'll use the lights in the basement then take them home to replace four shop lights in our basement that don't have the low-temp feature and don't operate well in winter.
--------------------------
Thursday, 23 June -
I went online to select our airline seats for our upcoming trip this morning only to learn I can't do that. The ticket confirmations (from a third party) said we could but this particular airline only allows online seat selection if you bought your tickets from them directly. That seemed like a problem but when I called in via the 800-number I was connected to a very helpful and competent agent very quickly. I also learned this airline has no baggage charges so all in all I'm okay with them at this point.
I spent the rest of the day buzzing around to department stores looking for passport wallets and other travel accessories. Now that was disappointing. I went to Wal-mart, Boscov's, Bon-Ton, Sears, and Target and didn't find anything I liked. Maybe I'm over-thinking it.
I also ordered five books today and was put off by Amazon's coy way of telling me how long it would take to get each book. I do not consider it helpful to be told a book will be sent out sometime within a three-week period and shipping may take up to another three weeks. In fact I cancelled one order which said the book may not even be shipped out for almost a month. No, thank you.
--------------------------
Wednesday, 22 June -
Today's main project was once again mowing the lawn (lucky me!). Sometimes I think I should get a riding mower . But it would be silly to have a riding mower in order to more quickly ride the motorcycle down to Rocky Ridge Park to take a walk. I also wouldn't want to store the big thing in our storage barn.
That evening we watched the first disk of 'Breaking Bad'- Season Three. I really liked this series early-on but the plotline is getting old.
------------------------
Tuesday, 21 June -
This morning I took care of some financial details in setting up our reservations for our upcoming trip. I then hopped on the motorcycle and rode in to Harbor Freight to pick up some supplies for our house rehab project. It seems Lowe's and Home Depot no longer carry sandpaper for Labashi's favorite multi-x tool but there's an adapter available that allows us to put a Harbor Freight sanding pad on it and use HF's sandpaper triangles. This actually works out pretty well in that these sandpaper triangles are a lot cheaper than the original ones and the parts for this conversion are cheap--- so long as I don't count the time it took to chase down the solution!
--------------------
Monday, 20 June-
Labashi and I mounted shutters today until 1100. Things went well for the first couple of hours but then the rain started again and I spent a miserable hour drilling and mounting with water running down my neck. We had a good stopping point by noon so headed home. On the way home we shopped at Home Depot in Carlisle for a vanity and found one we liked. We made it home by 1400 and took another hour to settle in.
-------------------
Sunday, 19 June-
Today Maypo joined us and he and I dug out the porch foundation, built forms and then poured footers. The project went pretty well until it rained hard just after we finished pouring the first footer. We covered things up and took a break, thinking we'd have a muddy mess after the rain but it really wasn't bad. Our biggest problem of the day was cutting the re-bar for the footers.
---------------------
Saturday, 18 June-
Today I continued floor cleanup in the bathroom, then we went to Lowe's and bought OSB and floor patch. We looked at vanities with the thought that we should replace the existing one but didn't find anything we liked.
That afternoon I cut and fit OSB in panels to accommodate the odd floor shape, toilet pipe, and water-pipes. Labashi painted her el-cheapo shutters. She had found still-in-the-box shutters at a salvage store in York a few weeks ago for $2 a pair (though we did have to buy mounting screws and paint them). She also sanded and painted one of the two clothesline posts.
-----------------------
Friday, 17 June -
This morning I cleaned and removed the toilet from the House 2 bathroom and tore out the subfloor. The subfloor gave me lots of problems and seemed to take forever.
That evening we went out to dinner at the VFW with friends.
---------------------
Thursday, 16 June -
Today we finished painting the final coat on the carport beams of the Chambersburg house. We also did some prep work (cleaning, sanding, and painting) for the storm pane over the living room's large window.
That evening we did yet another Lowe's trip then watched the last part of the Entourage Season Six DVD.
----------------------
Wednesday, 15 June-
This morning I had yet another dentist appointment, this one to insert a cap and do the prep work for another. But when I went to pay the bill I had a shock-- my credit card was rejected. That turned out to me a most-of-the day slog. My account had been put on a security hold because of my purchase of tickets for our trip. And though I had contacted my bank to confirm it, the system happened to have technical problems and they couldn't take the security hold off. The card processor did offer and alternative which enabled me to get my bills paid today but it cost us a couple of hours dealing with the snafu.
Late in the afternoon we drove to Chambersburg and visited with Maypo that evening, then watched two 'Justified' episodes on DVD.
-------------------------
Tuesday, 14 June -
The main task today was getting the lawn mowed before we get back to work in Chambersburg for a few days. I thought it was going to be a bit of a struggle in the heat today but we had a nice breeze so it wasn't bad at all.
------------------------
Monday, 13 June -
I spent a good portion of the morning watching YouTube videos about southern Africa, particularly looking for overland travel and camping footage. I'm amazed to see some of the water-crossing footage.
I also sent in our reservations for our trip today!
That afternoon I walked for two hours at Rocky Ridge Park.
************ END OF POST ************
(posted from home)
(This post covers 13 – 30 June, 2011)
-----------------------
Thursday, 30 June -
This morning I started digging my way back into my office. I needed to find some old paperwork for our house-rehab project and that gave me a kick-start. I didn't find the right paperwork (yet!!) but did manage to make lot of headway getting things in order in the office.
That afternoon I tried doing a simple financial transfer and that soon got complicated-- well, more like time consuming. I had an old-format number on file and it took a few hours to work through why that had happened and why it hadn't been noticed earlier. No biggie but, again, a time-waster. Thank goodness I'm retired and have time to work on this stuff!
That evening we watched two episodes of 'Shaka Zulu', the Eighties mini-series.
------------------------
Wednesday, 29 June -
Today Labashi had an appointment to go for tea with two of her friends. She and her friends go to a different tea house three or four times a year and today was one of the long-awaited days.
Since today's event was in Reading, I checked the tires and fluid levels on her car and ran it through the car wash first thing this morning, then turned my attention to the web.
That afternoon I wanted a ride so decided I'd track down Doubleshots. My local Starbucks had told me they can no longer get the little Doubleshot Light drinks I like so I called around for remaining stocks at other Starbucks. I rode down to Shrewsbury where they had an entire case. And there I learned there's no problem ordering them! There must have been some mixup about it.
I then rode to Nixon County Park for a walk. Nixon abuts Kain County Park to make a very nice (though hilly) and uncrowded place for walking. I climbed to the top of the hill via the Hardwood Trail and then followed Trail 4 for an hour to the Lake Redman spillway and back. Along the way I saw a small blacksnake just a foot or so off the trail and a tree-climbing groundhog. I had no idea groundhogs climb trees but as I passed within a few feet of a tree I saw it shake a bit, then the back end of a descending groundhog diving for cover in the long grasses at the base of the tree. At first I was stunned. I expected to see squirrel parts as I glanced over to the tree and instead I saw the big black foot-pads, claws, short-tail, and brown/black/yellow fur of the back end of a groundhog.... at eye level (and descending fast).
That evening we watched several episodes of 'Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip'.
--------------------
Tuesday, 28 June -
We were supposed to continue working paperwork today but Maypo's plans to only go into work for a few hours fell apart and he didn't get home until noon. Labashi painted until noon and I cleaned up the basement for an hour, then got started on the paperwork. After lunch we all worked on the paperwork until 1600 when we called it complete. Labashi and I then drove home.
-----------------------
Monday, 27 June -
Today Labashi and I worked with Maypo on paperwork on the houses. With multiple parties and accounts involved in purchases and returns we have to be careful to keep good records and annotate well.
We worked until 1700 then went back to Mocha Joe and watched 'Cry Freedom' with Kevin Kline.
----------------------
Sunday, 26 June -
This morning Maypo and I modified the carport light and its mount so the light would fit properly against the aluminum siding's profile and yet sit level. I then went back to work on the bathroom floor, removing the old vanity top and vanity and cutting off the water pipes feeding the sink and toilet (to remove the old and unsightly chromed fittings). I then took out the remainder of the subfloor, pulled nails, cleaned up, and leveled the sub-subfloor for two layers of subfloor-- one for strength (OSB) and one for a smooth surface under the vinyl (lauan).
That evening Labashi and I drove out to Norlo Park to check it out. This is a relatively new park right along US30 which we've watched grow (i.e., improve) as we've driven by over the last few years.
We parked in the largest parking lot and enjoyed watching kids playing on the swings and playground equipment. For some reason, there are many Mennonite families here and the kids' traditional clothing makes them all the more endearing.
We read a bit and then as darkness neared, we headed home the back way. A few miles away Interstate 81 northbound was closed temporarily because of an accident so traffic on US30 was very heavy and slow. But since I had worked on a farm near Norlo Park when I was a teenager, I knew the back roads and wanted to see how things had changed (in 45 years!). Remarkably, there was little change here. The land is all taken up by large farms and looks very much as it did in the mid-Sixties.
Back 'home', we watched the last episode of 'Ladies Number One Detective Agency' and the extras.
-------------------------
Saturday, 25 June-
I installed the shop lights in the basement this morning, learning along the way that the manufacturer recommends a 48-72 hour 'seasoning' period for the ballasts. In other words, leave the lights on continuously for a few days. I've never heard of that before.
I then found Maypo out front starting the front porch project. We spent the rest of the day building the block-wall foundation upon which we'll build forms and pour a concrete porch slab.
Labashi continued her painting projects, this time at the front and side doors.
That evening we went to dinner at Norland Pub with Maypo. Excellent cheese-steaks! Labashi and I then watched 'Ladies' Number 1 Detective Agency' episodes.
------------------------
Friday, 24 June -
We drove back to Chambersburg today, stopping along the way at Home Depot to buy a vanity and at Wal-mart for food supplies. At the house, I set up the new dehumidifier I bought to get the basement humidity level down to something reasonable for painting while Labashi sanded and primed the second clothesline pole outside.
We then drove to St. Thomas and bought two sections of vinyl flooring and adhesive for the bath and kitchen. Back at the house I began prep for the front-porch foundation by cutting some of the concrete blocks in half (to fit the space). That evening we went to Lowes and compared storm doors to what we had seen at Home Depot and I bought four low-temp shop lights. We'll use the lights in the basement then take them home to replace four shop lights in our basement that don't have the low-temp feature and don't operate well in winter.
--------------------------
Thursday, 23 June -
I went online to select our airline seats for our upcoming trip this morning only to learn I can't do that. The ticket confirmations (from a third party) said we could but this particular airline only allows online seat selection if you bought your tickets from them directly. That seemed like a problem but when I called in via the 800-number I was connected to a very helpful and competent agent very quickly. I also learned this airline has no baggage charges so all in all I'm okay with them at this point.
I spent the rest of the day buzzing around to department stores looking for passport wallets and other travel accessories. Now that was disappointing. I went to Wal-mart, Boscov's, Bon-Ton, Sears, and Target and didn't find anything I liked. Maybe I'm over-thinking it.
I also ordered five books today and was put off by Amazon's coy way of telling me how long it would take to get each book. I do not consider it helpful to be told a book will be sent out sometime within a three-week period and shipping may take up to another three weeks. In fact I cancelled one order which said the book may not even be shipped out for almost a month. No, thank you.
--------------------------
Wednesday, 22 June -
Today's main project was once again mowing the lawn (lucky me!). Sometimes I think I should get a riding mower . But it would be silly to have a riding mower in order to more quickly ride the motorcycle down to Rocky Ridge Park to take a walk. I also wouldn't want to store the big thing in our storage barn.
That evening we watched the first disk of 'Breaking Bad'- Season Three. I really liked this series early-on but the plotline is getting old.
------------------------
Tuesday, 21 June -
This morning I took care of some financial details in setting up our reservations for our upcoming trip. I then hopped on the motorcycle and rode in to Harbor Freight to pick up some supplies for our house rehab project. It seems Lowe's and Home Depot no longer carry sandpaper for Labashi's favorite multi-x tool but there's an adapter available that allows us to put a Harbor Freight sanding pad on it and use HF's sandpaper triangles. This actually works out pretty well in that these sandpaper triangles are a lot cheaper than the original ones and the parts for this conversion are cheap--- so long as I don't count the time it took to chase down the solution!
--------------------
Monday, 20 June-
Labashi and I mounted shutters today until 1100. Things went well for the first couple of hours but then the rain started again and I spent a miserable hour drilling and mounting with water running down my neck. We had a good stopping point by noon so headed home. On the way home we shopped at Home Depot in Carlisle for a vanity and found one we liked. We made it home by 1400 and took another hour to settle in.
-------------------
Sunday, 19 June-
Today Maypo joined us and he and I dug out the porch foundation, built forms and then poured footers. The project went pretty well until it rained hard just after we finished pouring the first footer. We covered things up and took a break, thinking we'd have a muddy mess after the rain but it really wasn't bad. Our biggest problem of the day was cutting the re-bar for the footers.
---------------------
Saturday, 18 June-
Today I continued floor cleanup in the bathroom, then we went to Lowe's and bought OSB and floor patch. We looked at vanities with the thought that we should replace the existing one but didn't find anything we liked.
That afternoon I cut and fit OSB in panels to accommodate the odd floor shape, toilet pipe, and water-pipes. Labashi painted her el-cheapo shutters. She had found still-in-the-box shutters at a salvage store in York a few weeks ago for $2 a pair (though we did have to buy mounting screws and paint them). She also sanded and painted one of the two clothesline posts.
-----------------------
Friday, 17 June -
This morning I cleaned and removed the toilet from the House 2 bathroom and tore out the subfloor. The subfloor gave me lots of problems and seemed to take forever.
That evening we went out to dinner at the VFW with friends.
---------------------
Thursday, 16 June -
Today we finished painting the final coat on the carport beams of the Chambersburg house. We also did some prep work (cleaning, sanding, and painting) for the storm pane over the living room's large window.
That evening we did yet another Lowe's trip then watched the last part of the Entourage Season Six DVD.
----------------------
Wednesday, 15 June-
This morning I had yet another dentist appointment, this one to insert a cap and do the prep work for another. But when I went to pay the bill I had a shock-- my credit card was rejected. That turned out to me a most-of-the day slog. My account had been put on a security hold because of my purchase of tickets for our trip. And though I had contacted my bank to confirm it, the system happened to have technical problems and they couldn't take the security hold off. The card processor did offer and alternative which enabled me to get my bills paid today but it cost us a couple of hours dealing with the snafu.
Late in the afternoon we drove to Chambersburg and visited with Maypo that evening, then watched two 'Justified' episodes on DVD.
-------------------------
Tuesday, 14 June -
The main task today was getting the lawn mowed before we get back to work in Chambersburg for a few days. I thought it was going to be a bit of a struggle in the heat today but we had a nice breeze so it wasn't bad at all.
------------------------
Monday, 13 June -
I spent a good portion of the morning watching YouTube videos about southern Africa, particularly looking for overland travel and camping footage. I'm amazed to see some of the water-crossing footage.
I also sent in our reservations for our trip today!
That afternoon I walked for two hours at Rocky Ridge Park.
************ END OF POST ************
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 23:59
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