Update on life

 In a word, busy. It's fascinating to me to find out that I seem to have less time to myself than I did when I was working. I think a big part of it is that my lovely bride Cindy retired about the same time as I, so when I (we) are home, I'm less likely to sit in my den and write a blog. We just do other things. 

The colors are more attractive than this
 photo shows.

I have been very busy around the house, but much of it has turned into upkeep and maintenance. I have still not finished this den. We again are stalled at choosing a paint color. The ceiling is finished, and it looks great, so we are down to wall and trim work. Hopefully I can get to that after the holidays.

Outside maintenance has taken a lot of time. Besides the annual battle of the leaves, I cut down two large trees along the fence line, then have delt with the massive clean up. Surprisingly, the city took all eight bundles of sticks and 3 garbage cans full of leaves and twigs in one day. I still have several large logs to cut and store for curing. I will mostly burn those in the solo stove, and save the better hardwood for the fireplace.

New refrigerator being installed. Note
the missing door and frame.

We lost our "new" refrigerator over the summer. Apparently, 7 years is around the expected life span for them now. I have learned that the effort to employ more environmentally friendly refrigerants has significantly shortened the lifespan of compressors and coils. Also of note is the substantial increase in price of home appliances, and the scarcity of them. We were very lucky to get one we liked in the smudge resistant finish to match the range. I measured several times to see if the unit would fit through the door. I knew it would be very close. I ended up having to take off two doors and parts of two door frames to get the damn thing in the house. Hope it lasts for more than 7 years.

We have already done much of our holiday baking. We did our two batches of both cinnamon buns and bread, It occurs to me that I should do a blog on that, or maybe another blog on that. I need to go back and look to see if I previously wrote one. Cookie baking is on Cindy and her sister-in-law and aunt. 

Trapped and without power thanks to
 hurricane Ian.

We traveled to New Jersey twice, and also had a long and wonderful trip that included a Yankee game with my nephew and brother, the Jersey shore, Virginia Beach, and Myrtle Beach. That trip ended with quite an adventure as we were hit by the same hurricane twice. Pro Tip: Make sure you have a working flashlight when traveling to the south in hurricane season. That should be a blog as well.

We are preparing for the holidays now. The Christmas tree is up, the outside lights are up and working, and the house is decorated. I have a bit of shopping to do, and we have a couple of trips planned. A day trip to Skaneateles to experience the Dickens characters, and a few days in Saratoga to enjoy some food and drink, and to enjoy one of the most beautiful Christmas towns in the country.

A busy time of the year.

 Despite the pandemic, we've been so busy, that I haven't taken time to write in my blog. It's always busy, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but this year seems even more so as I work on the kitchen in between decorating, baking, and family.

Post installation.

One project was the installation of my weather station. Cindy gave me my Christmas present early so I could get it installed before the ground froze and the snow fell. That turned out to be a good plan (more on that later). First I had to install a post to mount the station. I got my self a pressure treated 4x4 and went about digging a 36" deep hole. It was actually not a tough as I thought it would be. I located the station well away from the trees to keep them from interfering with the operation of the weather station, so roots were not a problem. The soil was loose, with just some small, round rocks so the digging was easy. To secure the post, I used liquid fence post mix that turns to a foam, then hardens.  Within 24 hours, I was able to mount the station and after a simple set up with the WiFi, the station is working well. Despite a very low sun angle, and endless clouds, it stays charged enough top operate 24/7. Very nice.

Obligatory evidence of actual work being done.

Since we couldn't decide how to move forward with the kitchen, Cindy and I decided to put lipstick on a pig and go ahead and just fix it up as is. Since I had already done the ceiling, this fix up was mainly to scrape and repair the walls, paint, new fixtures, switch plates, and curtains. Once the walls were ready for paint I was actually shocked how badly yellowed they were. Despite using a high quality "one coat coverage" paint, it took three coats to make the walls look right. I also scraped and repainted all the trim. As always, time began to fly by so I had to really rush to get the room done before Christmas. 

It was a struggle to get to the garage.
That's a yardstick.

Then, it snowed. About 3 feet here in the valley, almost 4 feet in the nearby hills. Luckily, there was very little wind so no drifting but it still took me almost 6 hours to clear the driveway. There was still no place to go since the road had not yet been plowed. By amount, this was the biggest snowstorm I've ever seen. By impact, it's in the top 5 for sure. The blizzard of '93 had then biggest impact storm with 2 to 3 feet of snow and winds over 50 mph, followed by below zero temperatures. It was a paralyzing storm, mitigated only by the fact that it was in March, and the longer day and sun helped modify the effect. 

Me and my bright ideas. (What a summer it was...part 2)

The main bath in our house has always been an issue. It really needs a complete redo, like down to the bare wall studs and floor joists. The problem is that such a job would leave us without a tub and shower for a time, and I'm just not inclined to deal with that. Plus, I am not equipped to design and build a new bathroom, so we'd have to go down the road with contractors and such. No fun. In any case, the bathroom has been serviceable as it is. After several tries I finally managed to fix all the leaking problems, and have become marginally good at caulking, which is more of an art that skill.

I could paint this. With a roller and gallon of Glidden. 

Sidebar: Anybody can caulk, just like anybody can paint. I can paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, just not like da Vinci. Of course, this is not to say that caulking a tub is like painting the Sistine Chapel, but the comparison fits I think. You can put enough caulk around a tub to make it stop leaking, but some art keeps it from looking like blown in insulation. The same applies to the bathroom, in general. I didn't want to just throw in new fixtures and be done with it. I wanted it to look nice too and was afraid that my skills ( or lack thereof ), didn't match my aspirations.

Then one recent day as I was shaving and becoming annoyed again by the worst sink on the planet, I made my decision. My next decision was even crazier that the first. I decided to march downstairs and announce my plans to Cindy. Before I knew what I was doing I told Cindy that the sink and toilet had to go, and I was replacing them both.

New toilet is in. Annoying sink is gone.

You would think after 30+ years of marriage, I would have learned my lesson by now. Once I announce any plans to Cindy, formal or informal, it's a go. There is no turning back. It's a good thing, in some ways, since I am a bit of a procrastinator, but it's bad in that I haven't always thought  things completely through before announcing them. Then the night sweats start until I can think of an escape route. By that I mean a way to get expert help, or at least some other layman that can say something like "no, turn it to the left!". More on that in an upcoming blog.

It actually started with the toilet. It always had a tendency to clog, and recently seemed like there was some sewer gas leaking out. This meant that there was likely a gap in the wax seal, or some other more serious fault. If you are going to remove the toilet to replace the seal, and the thing doesn't work all that great anyway, you might as well get a new one. Then there's that ridiculous sink. They really spared every expense when they bought it. It was a small, single sink with no room to put anything down. So if you set down your razor or toothbrush, it would invariably slide into the bottom of the sink.

Replacing a toilet is actually pretty easy. There's the wax seal, a couple of bolts that secure it to the floor, then a water hookup. Selecting a toilet is a different matter. I've never really looked at them before and was amazed at the selection. Do we really need this many choices in toilets? Anyway, we ended up with an American Standard toilet that claims you can flush a bucket of golf balls. That should do.

Oops. 

SO toilet installation almost always starts with toilet removal, which is neither pleasant nor easy. All the bolts on the old toilet were rusted. Normally, you remove the tank then remove the bowl, but with the rusted bolts, they were locked in an ugly embrace. The floor bolts were rusted too, but I managed to break them off. Then Cindy and I had the wonderful job of carrying the icky assembly down the stairs and to the curb, without gouging a wall or making a mess. We did it without arguing. Amazing.

Finshed! Halloween decorations by Cindy. 

The new installation was easy. New bracket, seal, and hook up the water. A couple test flushes and no leaks! A rare accomplishment for this very amateur plumber.

Next came the vanity. After MUCH deliberation, we ended up with a 36" vanity with a manufactured marble top. The manufactured marble has an integrated back splash. I loved the real marble but didn't want to deal with gluing the back splash to the wall. Anyhow, the main difficulty was that we needed to "off-center" the vanity to have reasonable clearance from the toilet, which meant there would need to be some creative plumbing.

So other than the offset, the vanity installation was pretty straightforward. The wall and floor were not square, of course, so I attached quarter inch shims to the front of the vanity, then attached it to the wall with two inch wood screws. Then I caulked the top and sides of the back splash and it was done. Miraculously, no leaks once again.

We really love our new bathroom and it turned out to be one of my nicest improvements to date. We still have the old pink tub, but I did fix the enclosure, add a new rainfall shower head and update the faucets so it's not all that bad. It's behind a shower curtain anyway so you really don't even see it.

Well that's it for Part 2. Next blog will continue the summer projects including a problematic half bath update, finally painting a door, and the final work done on our chimney.