Scattered Thoughts . . .

A fter five or six half days of cutting, sanding and painting shelves, on Saturday morning, I got started right away on installing these new shelves.   I  started installing at the top shelf and worked my way down the wall installing one shelf at a time.  I had to refine the shape of a couple of the shelves with the belt sander so they fit the wonky wall perfectly but, other than that, this job went relatively quickly.  The only casualty is a long drill bit that ended up bent at sharp angles in two places.  (Hmmm...  I'm not sure I ordered a new set of long drill bits yet...)   Now, when you enter this room, there are display shelves on both sides of the door.  These new shelves can be hidden safely behind the open door to the room.  I might even add a latch to keep that door secured to the shelves when I don't want curious little fingers and hands near my fragile trains.  The new shelves can be seen in the photo below.   After completing these shelves, I spent an entire aftern

S ometime back about seven or eight years ago, I installed a new hardwood floor in one of our bedrooms to be used "temporarily" as a multi-purpose room until we get further along in our renovations.  This room is slated to be the "train room" when we eventually finish playing musical chairs with bedrooms and renovations.  It actually is more like playing that numbered tiles game where you slide the numbered tiles to get them in numerical order.  In order to renovate one room, we need to move a few tiles out of place to make room for the appropriate tile.  Our numbers are still quite scrambled here for a variety of reasons though so this room is still a multi-purpose room.   So about seven years ago, I built a walk-in closet, repaired the walls and ceiling, painted the room, installed a hardwood floor and baseboard trim.  After I installed the hardwood floor over the subfloor, I built some display shelves right next to the door to the room.  My plan was to neatly sto

Most people simply buy manufactured train tracks to run their model trains. Some people will painstakingly build their model track just like building the real thing... railroad ties, rail, tie plates and spikes... and drive every single spike themselves. This option looks the best but it is a lot of tedious work. Some of us find some middle ground for various reasons. I'd prefer to be getting some work accomplished on the house outdoors but it is damp, wet and waterlogged out there so nothing is getting accomplished outdoors. Besides, since we are at the hospital every afternoon for Sheila's radiation treatment, there really is little time for any home renovations. By the time I set up all the tools, saw horses and materials, I would need to start cleaning up so we could eat lunch and then head to the hospital. Needless to say, I've been indoors for the past few months. Every fourth tie removed using a Dremel tool. I am currently indoors working on building a 12 fo

Our original plan for Christmas was what we do every year... we invite all of Sheila's immediate family including her parents to the house on Christmas morning for presents and a big breakfast. Then, we entertain friends later in the day and into Christmas night. This is something we have been doing since before the grandchildren were born but it has become more of a family tradition since their birth. Now Sheila has her own family of three generations so we tend to do the "family celebrating" here, at our home, for her family... which is pretty typical for most families. A few days ago, an opportunity arose for us to head significantly south to much warmer climates (yes, although hard to believe, much warmer than our wet, balmy temperatures in the 50s) to celebrate Christmas with our Air Force family... I came up with a plan before I even mentioned this opportunity to Sheila... then presented it to Sheila as a surprise... and she enthusiastically jumped on it immedi

While my health is recovering today, I'm taking it easy. I get easily bored whenever I am in recovery mode so I pulled out my camera in an attempt to shoot a few more photos of Lukey's model railroad.  I suspect this little model railroad will take a beating once Lukey starts playing with it... the same holds true for Kenzie's dollhouse. Needless to say, I'd like to have as many photos of these two gifts in their 'new - never been used' state.   Yesterday, I added a bit more shrubbery and weeds to the model railroad. I do believe it is detailed enough to hand over to Lukey now.  In the meantime, here are a few more photos... Train station on one side of the layout right in front of the jacks to connect power. I added some weeds and shrubbery to the foreground here.  Uphill, to the right above the concrete retaining wall, we will eventually build a small country town... The small combination freight depot/train station located on the opposite side o