Been busy...but still kind of bored

Weeds gone. Mulch in place. Note the silly faucet
 sticking out of the near basement window. Far
window has the dryer vent.  You can see the wall
wash light between the window and chimney

Job allowed me to get the tractor and
 trailer out for the first time.

We did finish the sun room (furniture and window treatments still pending) but have remained quite busy over the past few weeks working on projects, doing upgrades and maintenance. One of the bigger projects was tackling the abysmal excuse for a garden we have on the north side of the house and around the corner to the driveway. The other three sides have been improved, but this was such a tangled mess I was dragging my feet on it. First Assistant Cindy did the hard part, weeding while I did the raking and lugging of mulch. I very optimistically bought 4 bags of mulch, It turned out we needed 12 more. I could say that I grossly miscalculated, but I didn't calculate at all and just guessed so my wild optimism and pitiful lack of gardening experience resulted in miserable failure. Overall though it was a good job and it went well. The flowers that were already poking through will continue to grow while we have hopefully suppressed the weeds. It greatly improved the appearance of the house.

I also added 4 more landscape lights. 2 wall wash lights and 2 path lights. You have to be careful when adding lighting. Once you install the system, adding additional lighting is easy, so unless you limit yourself the house will look like an airport.

Another job that has been in the cue is to fix the faucet at the basement window. I mentioned last month that I replaced the pipe and faucet but failed to figure out a good way to attach it to the house, then left extra pipe until I did. Well I found a bracket that actually would work and finally cut the pipe to fit and we now have a rather nice looking outdoor faucet that works.

The next window over has the dryer vent and it has been nothing but a pain in my ass since the day we hooked up the dryer. Without rehashing the entire story, I'll just say that I switched to the old school solid, non-flexible dryer vent pipe (which is safer yet harder to find and install) and replaced the vent cap. I was very proud of my work until I found that after a few days of running the dryer the cap would fall off leaving a convenient entrance into our basement for many types of bugs and other critters. I finally figured out that the seam of the pipe was slowly expanding with use allowing the vent cap to fall off. Some crimping and professional grade aluminum tape finally fixed the problem.

The old beast 4 years ago. Lawn was
nasty back then.

As I mentioned above I fired up the tractor for the first time and that went well, but it was a different story for the old push mower. Apparently storing them at an angle is a bad idea. When I went to get it from it's spot, I saw that oil had been leaking out of the muffler for some time, making quite a mess. After some online research, I found that this can indeed happen and the solution could be easy, or maybe not. I was pretty sure I was going to need a new mower but after cleaning up the mess, then pulling the fouled spark plug and cleaning it, the old beast fired on the third pull belching blue smoke and spitting oil out the exhaust. I went ahead and started mowing and the exhaust cleared itself. All is well. Can't seem to kill that thing.

So obviously I did cut the lawn for the first time, but not before putting down fertilizer and crab grass killer. The directions said to apply and then water the equivalent of a half inch of rain and Binghamton said "hold my beer". No need to get the sprinkler out around here this spring. I double checked the forecast and just managed to find a dry day between deluges. Perfect.

The lawn is looking far better than when we moved in and we are happy about that. It will stay greener in the summer, even if it stops raining (HA HA).

I miss seeing family, friends, and other places.

Happy Hour alone is lonely. 

One sure thing about our current situation is that I miss talking to people, in person. Proof of that is my sudden rapid fire blog posts, a poor substitute but it still allows a data dump now and then. I'm realizing that I enjoy just talking to people face to face. Especially, of course, those that know me. Random strangers are unlikely to want me babbling to them. Cindy patiently listens to my baloney, but I don't want to bore her too much. She's heard all my stories. Work now consists of a skeleton crew, and we are mainly conversing in chat rooms and daily phone/video conferences where my "humor" or "personality" does not always translate well.

It's becoming clear that most humans crave personal interaction and I'm finding that I have that urge strongly. I never really noticed it before. I always felt comfortable being alone, and often craved "me" time, but now that I have as much time alone as I want, I'm starting to realize how much I like being around people. Now certainly, if I was forced to be with friends 24/7, I'd go mad, but I sure could go for a crowded bar or restaurant about now.

Cape May at The Schooner in 2016. Can you spot Cindy?

We are rapidly coming up on what would have been spring break, and Cindy and I had tentative plans to go somewhere for a few days, perhaps the Jersey shore or Saratoga. That we can't go feels both depressing and angering. We are used to going where we want, when we want and being forced to stay home seems un-American no matter how sensible it is. By definition the people that populated this country were restless wanderers so maybe that's just built in for many of us.

For me though it may be more than that. I don't consider myself to be a chatty, talkative person, and sometimes more of a loner, but I'm definitely learning that I could never disappear into the woods on my own. I definitely feel like I would go crazy. I need that interaction and feedback. Since our current situation is open ended, there's not a specific release date that we can look forward to. That feels strange too since Cindy and I always have things on the calendar that we are planning and anticipating. Everything is in limbo now. I still plan on retiring in August. Hope we get to go somewhere in September. 

We have a big front porch that would allow a couple of visitors including a six foot interval so I'm thinking of having Social Distancing Happy Hour,  one or two people at a time. Any overflow will have to stand in the lawn.

Hope you are all well and safe.

It's an old house

Before picture of the grate
 from the "bar".  A cream color
 that yellowed to a light
 mustard.

Our house was built in 1915 and it shows it's age. This is both good and bad. It's good in that it's a well built home, heavily constructed. True 2 x 6 rafters, 16 inches on center, with a steep pitch and 1 x 6 sheeting. It would support a tank. There are one foot thick block construction that make up the exterior walls give us a strong and silent home, almost like sitting inside a bank vault. Beautiful hardwood floors throughout, solid plaster on lathe walls. But there is a downside as well, old windows that are beautiful, but now showing their age so a major project looms. Galvanized steel plumbing that has been haphazardly and partially updated with copper and PEX. The galvanized pipe that comes in from the street is no doubt corroded and limiting our flow and pressure. That would be an expensive fix. An old octopus heating system in the basement that has an updated burner, but takes up too much room and runs too much despite my miserly adjustment of the thermostat.  Of course we still love the place, and our work is really starting to make a difference.

Finished product. Photo by Cindy

Our peeling Easter Bunny got a fresh coat too. 

An example of the myriad of jobs are the heating grates throughout the house. They are just plain ugly. I did the bathroom grate when I redid that room, and just finished bar grates, both the heat and cold air return and they came our very nice. The process begins with cleaning, then removing the loose paint, I do this by using a wire brush attachment on my old electric drill. Then we pick a spray paint color and apply multiple coats. The trick with spray paints it not overdoing it, with multiple light coats much better than one heavy, dripping coat. Not a good job for an impatient person. The bathroom grate is a high gloss white, the half bath a gloss black, and we went with a copper color for the bar, which came out very nice.

Then there's the plumbing. Like I mentioned above, it's a mishmash of different types of pipe, which unfortunately included galvanized steel. Last summer I replaced a section that went to the spigot on the  north side of the house. The shut off on the line had been leaking since we moved in. I managed this by cutting off the connection to the copper and rerouting it with PEX pipe, which is a D.I.Y. plumbers best friend. PEX pipe uses solder-less connections to copper and other PEX, and is easy to work with.

The culprit. I added the white
 tape to show the plumber
 the leaky part. 

Then just yesterday there was a more serious problem. After my morning shower I took a load of wash down to the basement and saw water on the floor, then noticed water spurting out of a pipe near the water meter. Luckily it must have just happened. It looked like the galvanized pipe had split. I needed to get into the office so that provided me the perfect excuse to not mess with it. I shut off the water to the house, gave Cindy my regrets and good byes and abandoned the mess. From work, I called the plumber and they showed up before 11 am. Turned out to be a bad gasket in the fitting between the pipe and the water meter, and something I probably could have fixed, but I was happy to let a professional deal with it.

We love our house, our home, and completely understand what we have. It sure has given me fodder for the blog, and will for years ahead. For example, every single window needs to be removed, re-glazed, and repaired. Every single window sash cord needs to be replaced. I hope to begin to tackle that this year, starting in the bar. Don't worry, I'll keep you updated.

More Crown Molding and my worst disaster ever.

That corner is done. Trouble comes later.

The left wall is plaster on lathe. The right wall is block. 

I've been moving forward with the bar/sun room over the past couple weeks. We settled on a molding we liked, an unfinished pine with an interesting knurled design. After selecting and applying a walnut stain, I put three coats of a polyurethane coating. I did this in the basement and each time there was a rather strong odor from the fumes throughout the house. I would have preferred to finish the wood outside but the weather was just not cooperating and I really need to get this job done. Of course, the real fun began with the installation of the molding. As I have written before, crown molding installation is very difficult, mainly due to the compound angles involved. You have the corners of the room but it's the angle of the molding that makes it difficult as it doesn't sit flat on the wall. Add to this that almost no house is perfectly square, and in our home, the block walls, and well frankly it's a pain in the ass. When I installed it with John, he brought a air powered nail gun and experience. My experience is growing but I was not about to spend several hundred dollars on a compressor and nail gun just for this one job. I asked two different "experts" about installing crown molding on a block wall and got two dumb looks as answers. Not helpful.  Eventually, I decided to tack the molding on the block wall, holding it in place while the construction adhesive set. This was more difficult than it sounds simply because there is no good way to hold the molding tightly to the block wall short of using huge masonry nails that would damage the molding. Eventually I was able to get it tight enough by tacking it to the ceiling and holding it in place while adhesive dried.

After many struggles the crown molding is installed and overall I'm happy with the job. Some of the gaps, especially on the cinder block wall are not perfect, but that's what they make wood putty for. This is when I made the most spectacular mistake and disaster of my short DIY career. I went around the room setting the nails and putting the putty in the holes, and more importantly filling the seams and corners. The next step is to stain the putty so it matches the molding. As I was moving the ladder I forgot to remove the can of stain from the top step and down it came. Walnut stain splattered everywhere. Cindy heard the crash and came running and we spent the next three hours desperately cleaning stain from everywhere before it dried. The good news is that miraculously did not hit any of the painted walls, and it did not stick to our freshly refinished hardwood floors. It was all over me and my shoes. my tools, my ladder and my folding work bench. Sorry, but no pictures of the disaster exist as my sole focus was clean up and recovery. Believe it or not, thanks to Cindy's help, no trace of the disaster exists, other than my shoes.

I plan to climb back on that ladder soon and finish staining the putty. I then have some paint touch up and the room will be done. We have already purchased an area rug for the room, and have some tacky Tiki Bar art for one of the walls. We need to find a high table and chairs, and perhaps a bar for the corner and the room will be done. I do plan to rehab the windows but that needs to be done for the entire house and sounds like a good retirement job,

Moving ahead in the sunroom

And up goes the wainscoting. 

I've made some good progress in the our sunroom, or back porch, or breakfast nook, or bar...we're not quite sure what we want to call it. After finally selecting a paint color, I had no option but to move ahead. After painting the room it was time to begin the process of installing the wainscoting, on three of the walls. It's mainly held on with Liquid Nails, but is also tacked in place. The trickiest part was around the windows, where I mitered in molding to make a nicer transition to the wood framing already in place there. Across the top I put in a cap rail to transition to the wall.

Stained wainscoting showing the contrast between the
existing hardwood floor and window frames. Varathane
goes on next.  

After the everything was installed, it was time to stain the wainscoting and the molding. Once again, the challenge was to pick the right color. I didn't want to go as dark as the original woodwork in the room, but not as light as the hardwood floor. My compromise was a light walnut that ended up looking pretty good, but in a perfect world I would have preferred something slightly lighter. Finally, three coats of satin finish Varathane. I was originally going with the convenience of a water based Varathane but was advised that in damp situations, it can become sticky. So, I went old school with the oil based original version and three coats.

Finished. Came out better than I expected. 

Now that that the wainscoting is done, the "only" thing left is the crown molding. My first thought was to go with the same pre-finished white molding that I have in the dining and living room. But it occurs to me that with all of the stained woodwork in the room it may be better to go with a natural wood stained to the color of the wainscoting. There's a couple of difficulties there. First, I will need to stain and coat the molding before installing it. It's just too messy to stain it after installation. Second it's a two person job, which most likely means drafting Cindy into the job of carpenter's apprentice. She has ably helped me before and generally stays in good spirits despite my slow and methodical work pace.

Finally, I'd like to think that my increasing skill level and ability is a tribute to good genes and otherworldly supervision from my grandfather, a skilled master carpenter that built is own home. I used a square I that was passed down to me from him, and a hammer he bought for me when I was a teenager.
. 

Ahead with the renovations

The color was chosen to be both bright and warm, The
wainscoting will be a  bit darker after I stain it. 

I'm actually making some progress on the sun room/breakfast nook/bar off the dining room. The last time I even mentioned the room was back in May when we decided that it would be the next room we work on. At the time we were considering installing a fancy tiled ceiling, but in the end it was just too much work and too complicated. I ended up fixing the peeling paint problem by removing all the bad paint, applying an exterior grade paint as a primer, then finishing with a standard ceiling paint. Then Cindy and I began the expected paint color indecision process. After at least a dozen samples, including one accidentally purchased twice, we ended up a bright turquoise that will lighten the room. To tone it down, I'm installing wainscoting along the bottom third of the wall, which will be lightly stained then sealed with polyurethane.

Katia resting in the dining room after helping me paint. My
work buddy got a little paint on her just under her nose.

Meanwhile, I purchased an electric fireplace to replace the old one in our bedroom but accidentally ordered the wrong size. Upon realizing this I checked about returning it to Amazon, but then further realized that I had purchased the fireplace from a third party seller. This seller refuses to answer my inquiries so we're keeping the fireplace, bad news until I realized
it will be perfect in this new room. We plan to enjoy the room year round and this fireplace will fit in well and take the chill out. We also are looking for a high table with a couple chairs, and perhaps a small bar. I wouldn't mind also having a small upholstered chair for the room, but now I'm really getting ahead of myself. I need to finish the room first.

Otherwise things have been quiet on the renovations front. I had to replace the "flapper" valve on the downstairs toilet after it inexplicably started leaking. I found out that for some reason they tend to curl over time allowing water to leak out of the tank into the bowl. I have no idea why, but it was a cheap and quick fix. Thanks again go to the plumbing experts in the basement of Kovarick's Hardware. Had I gone elsewhere I might have replaced the entire guts of the tank rather than just the $5 valve.

So it's 2020...reflections on turning 60.

It's pretty easy to remember how old I am. I was born in 1960 so the math is simple. The thing is, I don't feel like I've been around for 60 years, but then I reflect back and I remember quite a bit of history. I was born only 15 years after the end of WWII, but we're already 18 years after the 9/11 attacks, which seem very recent. Young people graduating college this year will have only vague memories of that day, if at all. I remember when Binghamton still had passenger trains, and remember Walter Cronkite's vivid reports on the Vietnam War with the daily body count.

At a wedding a couple years ago. Advantage of being
bald is that it hides the gray hair. 

I remember when we lived in the "Valley of Opportunity", when Endicott Johnson was still chugging out shoes, and IBM employed thousands and thousands.  I went to see President Reagan speak at the Union Endicott football stadium to tout the area's economic stability.

My own career began in 1986 and was at the end of the era of teletype machines and facsimile maps. I was there when the first computer was delivered (an IBM PC with an 8088 processor) to the office and have worked into the era of full automation of products with the leverage of social media as a communication tool.

It's interesting to me how we do indeed tend to dwell more in the past as we age. I recall old timers always saying things like "back in my day..." and I fight the urge now to say that almost anytime any subject comes up. It's nice to fondly remember those days, and I suppose I'm lucky not to have a past contaminated with bad memories.

The present is good as well. We have our house, we have our health, and retirement is likely sooner rather than later. When I retire, I will miss the job, and especially my co-workers, but I will not miss the midnight shifts and the nasty trolls that understand nothing about weather but still feel qualified to criticize every forecast.

So what does the future hold? For starters, I am fully aware that the clock is ticking, and will take better care of my wife, myself, and my house, in that order, when the built in excuse of the drudgery of shift work is gone. I want to travel, and would like to show Cindy some of the amazing places I visited as an Incident Meteorologist.

Dad's passing was really a reality check for me. He retired shorty after Cindy and I got married, and had a solid two decades of decent health to enjoy life. He taught me one final lesson, and it's time to take that lesson to heart. It's time to go exploring.