Getting plastered again and a nasty storm

The problem.

 I finally began the last major plaster repair job in the house. When we purchased the house, the second floor had some damaged ceilings from a roof leak. The roof was replaced by the previous owner, but the water damage was not fixed. This will be my third plaster repair and I am getting better at it. First step is to remove the loose plaster. This is a messy job that results in a lot of dust, and pieces of plaster everywhere. Then, you must secure the old plaster around the edge by drilling holes, squirting in a prep solution, squirting in glue, then securing the plaster to the lathe with wood screws

and large washers. This is even

messier as the prep solution drips

on the floor, and the glue squirts of the

holes as you drill in the screws.

The solution

After allowing the glue to dry for 24 hours, you apply the first coat of plaster. Plastering is simple. Doing it well is a learned skill. I am getting better at it. Many DIY home improvement projects are a blend of both but this is more skill than anything. Slapping plaster on a wall is easy, making it look nice is tough.

Luckily, the third step hides any amateur mistakes you may have made. After a couple of applications of the patching plaster, you put down a couple coats of joint compound, which is really easy to apply. It smooths out your mistakes, especially after you wet sand the surface.

The final result.

Finally, I primed the the repair area with a spray primer. This should prep it nicely for the ceiling paint, and what ever color we choose for the wall. I do have one more small repair area to repair in the other corner, and some other touch up on the walls (thank you Frat brothers).

Choosing the wall paint will be difficult. I am using the room as an office, and will continue to do so. But we may set it up with a couch or futon for a second guest room. We have kind of exhausted the available colors in the rest of our home, and hate to repeat. We may go a bit strong or rich, maybe a deep green. We will see.

On the weather front (pun intended), it has been a rather cold and nasty winter since Christmas. For four weeks in a row, my home weather station has a least one day of below zero temperatures. The spell culminated with a rough storm that dumped a couple inches of ice underneath a few inches of snow. The entire mess froze into a glacier on sidewalks and driveways that we are just now escaping. The longer days and higher sun angle of mid February are greatly appreciated.

Snow Day

 We had a snow storm last night. Not a record storm, not even close. It started in the evening, and began to snow heavily in the late night. One of those storms that when you woke up during the night, you pulled back the curtains and checked the progress. Magical. Then, in the morning, there was a new, fresh, deep blanket that covered the old dirty snow, and all the foot prints. A clean slate.

A fresh snow. At dusk.

When I went out to shovel, the snow was still falling. Silent and straight down. No wind, and only the occasional muffled sound in the distance. Very peaceful. Later in the day, the wind would increase and colder air would blow in, typical in New York snow storms. Plows would push the snow, and traffic would increase. But for now, it was quiet and beautiful.

For some reason, this storm caused a wave of nostalgia to hit me. It reminded me of snowfalls that hit when I was a youth. We seemed to have many of them, and we always took advantage of the fun and adventure that they provided, We sometimes would go hiking though the nearby forests and glens in deep snow, but more often, we would go sledding.

Our neighborhood was perched on the side of a hill. Lousy for bike riding, but excellent for sledding. Sometimes, an impromptu block party would break out and we would all just sled down the street. In later years, a long sledding trail was built. I do not know who did so, but it was there. It started in a backyard at the top of the hill, went down what was almost a ski jump, and directly into a pine forest. After that, it wound in an out of fields and forests, finally ending in a broad field in the valley. Parts were ridiculously steep, there were some difficult sliding turns, and sections of gentle slope that took skill to keep your speed up. I remember researching the trail on topographic maps and the total drop was around 400 feet. It took something like 45 minutes to pull your sled back to the top. Most of those short winter days there was only a couple of runs before it got dark.

Katia prefers to stay in by the fire.

I often think of one particular day. I was alone on the trail. I trudged to the beginning with my Flexible Flyer (my parents house was near the top end), put down my sled, and took off. We always sledded on our stomach. The trail was too fast for sitting up. It was snowing, not enough to slow me down, but enough to help me steer. I never timed myself but this felt like a record run. I leaned into turns, dug the toes of my boots in to help me steer and slow down. I flew down the final slope and drifted across the flat field at the bottom letting my speed bleed off as a slid to a stop. I rolled over, and looked up into the snowflakes silent drifting down on to my face. Silence. Peace. 

I finally got up and looked around. Dusk had hit, and it was snowing harder. Street lights were on in the distance. Cars moved silently on the highway pushing pools of light ahead. Countless beautiful snowflakes drifted by, surrounding me. I had a long, cold climb home. I didn't care. In fact, I loved it.

Happy New Year!

Cheers!

Yes, late, I know, but better than never. Same as this blog I suppose. The last entry was back in August. As usual, plenty has happened, and projects completed, but I just haven't taken the time to sit down and write. My writing has become more spotty since retirement, which is exactly the opposite of what I expected. I think it's due to the complete lack of structure in my life now as there are no looming work shifts on my horizon. Retirement has afforded me a "What shall I do today?" daily outlook, and somehow blogging really never comes up. I continue to photographically document our travels and projects, and I use those almost as a daily diary to see where we have been, and see where I left off.

Custom cabinet door. 
Note the stripped 
floor.

On the home improvement front, I finished the pantry, with the help of Cindy. All of the chocolate brown paint has been stripped off the walls revealing the beautiful bead board. Then I put on a polyurethane sealing coat so they can be easily cleaned.  I repaired the holes in the walls enclosing the half bath, stained and sealed the door frame, and built a nice access door to the bathroom plumbing. Finally, I unassembled, stripped, stained and sealed then reassembled the pantry shelves.  Finally, I painted

Cabinet.

the door we installed over 3 years ago. I did strip a small section of the floor, but it was just too much work. We will either have it professionally done, or repaint it. I'm really pleased with how it all turned out.

Traveling continues to be limited due to the pandemic. We did attend a beautiful wedding in the Chicago suburbs. I was lucky enough to be the best man for my brother and his lovely bride. We wish them all the best. The wedding allowed us to have a day in Chicago. We hadn't been there in quite some time and it was kind of sad to see how the pandemic had decimated the downtown business district. The Miracle Mile is not what it used to be. We also had a pleasant trip to Wildwood and Cape May. Out third of the year. Our general plan of attack is to monitor the weather, an when a nice stretch seems to be expected at the shore, we pack up the car and take off. The benefits of retirement.

Finally, we took another quick trip up to Saratoga Springs, for a bit of Christmas shopping, eating and drinking. Saratoga is a place that everyone should try to visit during the holiday season. The main shopping district is a throwback to the old days of small, shops, friendly service, and beautiful decorations. There are numerous restaurants and taverns, many cozy with working fireplaces and relaxed atmospheres. Our favorite, The Olde Bryan Inn, was built in the 1700s. That place alone is worth the trip. Pro tip: Avoid the area during racing season. Standard hotel rooms can go for $800 a night and everyplace is packed. 

Our favorite seats at the Olde Bryan Inn. Yes, I am a mug club member. 

Heat, Stripping Paint, and Neighbors

A warm July day.

It's been hot this summer, or at least I think so. The records at the Binghamton NWS office don't really agree with me. According to their records, June was warm, but May and July were slightly below average. August is running near average. So why do I think it has been hot? I believe it is because this is my first summer in nearly 40 years that I have not been in an air conditioned office most of the day. This not something I had considered when I dreamed of retirement. It does have us considering having whole house air conditioning installed in our home.

The beautiful wood beneath the paint.

Another part of my perception of the heat is my increased activity. Almost every day we are working on projects around the house, and that of course makes the heat more noticeable. Our current project, for example, is a hot one. Again my big mouth got me in trouble. I mentioned to Cindy that I thought the paint in the pantry could be stripped off the bead board revealing the stained wood beneath. I found a stripper that removed the paint but not the varnish and it worked perfectly. That's not to say it was easy at all. The two of us are wedged in this tiny room, the fumes are awful, and the paint tends to gum up and stick in the crevice along the bead. It is coming along nicely so we decided to strip the shelves in the back of the pantry as well. I haven't decided what to do about the floor. I might sand it, paint it, or even cover it with tile.

The night I began to call it the spooky house.

The spooky house next door continues to be a story. The owner has spent a lot of money on questionable workers to restore the place. I haven't been inside recently but if the repairs to the outside are any indication, I don't have a lot of confidence that a quality restoration is underway. The workers left a god awful mess of construction debris and general garbage which they just now cleaned up. The home has many issues, not the least of which is the yard. The house is shoe horned into a pizza slice shaped property leaving it with virtually no backyard. The driveway is accessed through city property, and cannot be built on since I have a right of way to access my second driveway. The owner does not believe my assessment of our property line, insisting that he had more land than he does despite never bothering to look it up. So I decided to pay a surveyor to properly find the pins and mark the line. I still don't think he believes where the line is so I will be installing a fence when the price of materials drops. Until then, I will be putting up a temporary plastic construction fence to keep the workers and debris out of my yard.

Plaster, trees, and Cape May

Obligatory home photo.

 Well hello. It has been the longest break ever from the blog. There are a few reasons, and more excuses, but certainly not a lack of material. Repairs and renovations have been made, trips have been taken, and we have generally emerged from the pandemic. One solid reason for the break is my broken "d" key here on my Lenovo laptop. Spell checker catches most of the dropped "d's", but if I miss one, I'm sure you'll forgive me. 

Before

The biggest completed task was the repair and painting of the walls an ceiling in our enclosed second floor porch. I ordered a kit from Plaster Magic specially designed for D.Y.I.ers repairing plaster walls and ceilings. It worked quite well and was relatively easy. The repair involves repairing and securing the loose plaster and then fixing the hole. The only additional item I had to buy was joint compound to skim coat the repair area. Then it was a matter of sanding, priming, and painting. I'm still working on the windows, repairing and glazing. That job needs to be done for every window in the house. 

After

Next big job kind of fell in my lap. The owner of the spooky house next door had hired a guy to take down some huge trees in "his" back yard. In conversation with him I realized he had no idea where the property line was and was about to have a large tree cut down in my yard. I wanted the tree down so I ended up paying for that tree, while the neighbor paid for his trees. Problem is all the branches and logs from all the trees ended up in my yard and it literally took me weeks to clean up the mess. Luckily, a farmer driving by wanted the massive logs to burn and he took those heavy things away.

We took a week off, finally, to go to Cape May and Wildwood Crest In the middle of June. The week pretty much consisted of us sitting in lounge chairs drinking cold stuff and reading novels. For me, it was my friend Dan Padavona and his creepy procedurals. ,We ate out at a few of our favorite restaurants, but also often dined in our room, that had a kitchenette. It was our first true vacation since retiring back in August. 

My position for most of vacation.

We have some plans for travel after Labor Day, but until then we are content to work on the house, and take a few day trips. The beauty of retirement life is traveling to the hot spots after everyone goes back to work and school.

I promise to update the blog more often, and maybe fix my keyboard. But just remember that I'm retired now, and deadlines and commitments are foreign to me. Upcoming blogs may include an on going practical joke, window repair and glazing and maybe a video blog.  

Emerging from the funk

It's snowed a bit back in December. 
That's not a drift.

 It's been almost 2 months since my last blog. It's not as though nothing has happened since then, and I have a backlog of DIY home improvement updates, it's really more about a complete lack of inspiration. I think this is at least partially due to the overall malaise of a long winter and continued covid-19 restrictions. Well, the sun is out today, and despite a near zero morning low, I'm feeling like spring is in the air, and it's time to get going on this.

Before

An ongoing project this winter has been the repair of the basement floor. The main issue is where the concrete and chipped and cracked away from the cast iron sewer pipe. I've never worked with concrete before and like so many other home repair projects, it's more of an art than a technical skill. Anyone can throw concrete patch into a hole, making it look good is where the tough part is. I've used three different types of patch so far, and have found that the type of patch material use makes a big difference in the difficulty of making it look right. 

After

Even after careful application and smoothing with the trowel, I found that I needed to use a rub brick to help smooth and taper the work. That is difficult  and tiring, but helps make the finished product look better. As I have improved my technique, I have gone on the fill other cracks and holes around the basement floor. I've been using a premixed compound so whenever I have some extra time, I can work on it.

Another project I have taken on is rewiring the attic lights. This is a good job to do now before it becomes unbearably hot up there. When we bought the house, the attic lights consisted of old time cloth extension cords with bare bulbs swinging from nails pounded into the rafters. My only improvement so far has been to replace the hot incandescent bulbs with LED's. Now I am completely rewiring from the switch adding outlets and properly mounting 4 LED fixtures. It will be much safer and ridiculously bright. Three of the fixtures will have pull chains on them so we wont need to light the place up like an operating room if we don't want to.

The spooky house on Halloween.

In neighborhood news, the owner of the spooky house next door is making another run at remodeling. He's got a dumpster in the driveway, and a trio of "carpenters" from New Jersey gutting the place and apparently putting in new drywall. He asked me to keep an eye on the place since it is filed with new materials. We do and will continue to do so. I really hope he completes the place, but I've seen this all before and am definitely in wait and see mode. A project this summer may be to build a fence between our houses. This will keep people from cutting the corner from Grand Boulevard, but more importantly, clearly demarking the irregular property line and driveway ownership to anyone that rents the place, assuming it ever becomes livable. 

 

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.