Scattered Thoughts . . .

W hen we traveled to Manhattan from Vermont, we were supposed to arrive in Penn Station on Amtrak and the kids (mostly Lukey) were really looking forward to pulling into this station and riding the escalator up to the new main train hall.  Unfortunately, our Amtrak train was cancelled altogether due to flooding in Vermont so we had to drive down to Manhattan instead which meant that the kids missed out on their train ride on Amtrak as well as seeing Penn Station, especially the new train hall at Penn Station. On our second day in Manhattan, we found that even the Manhattan subway system was trying to recover from flooding.  This caused some transportation issues for us. We had a reservation for a visit at a specific time at the Museum of Natural History but we couldn't get there in time due to these subway problems.  On our way up to the museum, we only got as far as Columbus Circle (59th Street) but we had only minutes left to get to our reservation at the museum (81st Street).  N

I 've really fallen very far behind in writing blog entries and sharing photos lately due to really lousy health for much of this year.  Well, actually, I've fallen behind due to lousy health through much of the pandemic!  I've honestly lost track of how many times I've had the virus at this point.   Frustratingly inaccurate COVID tests have also clouded my memory of how many times I've actually been very sick.  You need to test about six times before you get a positive result which pretty much renders the tests useless.  While people are testing negative (IF they even have enough of a moral compass to test at all), they are going to work and socializing and spreading the virus even more.  This pandemic has become a bit of a blur of illness, death and nothingness so I honestly can no longer remember how and when I've been sick.  This period from January 2020 to today has been a blur of nothingness.  What I do know for sure is that I've been down far more mon

New sink and faucet installed in our old cabinets. Our renovation plans include a garden window in place of the window in this photo. We're planning to completely gut and renovate the kitchen as soon as we have time and some cooperative health (for both of us!) . In the meantime, we're storing away new building supplies for this project.  We've had a new kitchen sink and faucet sitting here for a few months while the old sink and faucet continued to drive us crazy everyday. The old sink was too small... the faucet was a poor quality one with very little clearance between the sink and the spout... the sink was dented and old... and the sprayer hasn't worked correctly in years. This stuff needed to be replaced years ago. Since the sink and faucet were just sitting there on the floor, I decided to do something about it the other day. I've replaced sinks and faucets in the past and, typically , this is a quick and easy project requiring no more than one to two

It hasn't been what I would call a "terrible" week but, what the heck? As you probably already have heard, we had planned some extensive home renovations for the end of summer and early autumn but Sheila developed cancer again so we put all the renovations on hold until sometime after Sheila's recovery. We're now stuck in a cluttered house full of building supplies.  Over the past week or two, Sheila and I have been discussing what to do with all this clutter. I quickly decided to start finding a long term temporary home for each of the building supplies taking up our living space.  The kitchen and living room renovation is the biggest part of this project which is now on indefinite hold. We have Birch flooring, a lot of lighting fixtures, electrical supplies, windows, a range hood, a new faucet, a new kitchen sink, lumber, etc, all cluttering our home.  Yesterday, I decided to just go ahead and complete a little project... install that new kitchen sink an

About a year and a half ago, I refinished our pine wood flooring in the kitchen. I had painted it a gloss white. At the same time, I replaced the carpet in the living room and adjoining front room with a Berber carpet. We just wanted to clean up the look with a cheap temporary fix until we were ready to replace all the flooring through the kitchen, living room and our front room (which is currently our temporary bedroom but will be a study/piano room when we finally renovate our master bedroom suite). Well... we're about ready to replace all this flooring... finally! We decided upon an antique birch wood flooring.  I bought a box of this flooring to bring home and test it out in our living room. Even though it is just lying on top of the carpet in these photos, it really looks great and is exactly what we were hoping to find! I ordered 23 cases of this flooring and it should be delivered in the next couple of weeks. We're collecting a lot of building supplies at this poi

Even though I had great difficulty breathing again today (it is my 'new normal', I suspect) , I managed to start working on a new project this morning. I didn't get a whole lot done but it was nice to have a fairly productive morning, for a nice change of pace. Our old bedroom has been relegated as a temporary storage facility rather than a nice bedroom since we moved into our new bedroom just before Christmas. This morning, I started moving things out of this room so we could begin renovating.  I needed to take a lot of breaks to catch my breath... used my inhaler about three times... got a little dizzy a few times... but, slowly, I managed to make a slightly noticeable dent in clearing this room of clutter.  After lunch, I went outside and started excavating for a small foundation for a small three window alcove we plan to add to this bedroom.  The good news is I did not encounter any buried utilities. I started this digging by hand with a plastic shovel just in

Yesterday was a very hectic and painful day but we managed to get the bedroom finished enough to move into that bedroom and sleep there last night! Being able to lie down in that room last night was very nice. I say it was a "very hectic" day because we were on the move all day long... clearing out the room of building materials... laying underlayment... laying carpet... installing baseboard trim... moving in bedroom furniture (which involved moving it all out the back door and in the front door... in the snow... finally, some snow!) ... moving my office/computer stuff to the new desk... cleaning and installing the mini-blinds... installing curtains... and probably a few other things I can't remember right now. It truly was a hectic day because we wanted to get into that bedroom before the Thanksgiving weekend was behind us! I say this room is "finished enough" to move into it because we still need to hang photos and art on the walls and there are a few o

Those of you who follow this blog know that I've been excited about getting our outdoor kitchen grilling area completed. Unfortunately, this project has been put on a back burner. About two weeks ago, I found that the roofing material I need/want for this grilling area is out of stock. This is what happens when the building season is extremely short and places to buy supplies are even shorter. So, I need to wait until this product is back in stock. Who knows how long that will take?  In the meantime, I decided to do a "quick" project in Adam's old bedroom.... While he was home on leave... for a whole month... he was supposed to pack up all his stuff, toss out whatever he does not want anymore, and clean up his room a bit. Everything he owned fit into this tiny bedroom so this was by no means an overwhelming task for him nor was it an unreasonable task. Sheila reminded him a few times that he needed to get started on his packing... he chose to just sit in front

My plan for today was to rip lumber to use as crown molding and baseboard molding as well as build two hollow 'L' shaped beams to cover exposed rough plumbing... I started with measuring for the 'L' shaped beam in the new half bath.  I measured again to make sure I had the correct measurements and then I went outside to the tablesaw to start cutting. I even made a little diagram to go with all my measurements. I reviewed the measurements again before cutting. Before fastening the pieces together to form the 'L' shaped cedar beam, I thought that maybe I should test my measurements by doing a dry fit of each piece... The moment I tried placing these two pieces up on the ceiling where the plumbing is located, I immediately noticed that I somehow screwed up. It turns out that my measurements were fine but I screwed up on what those measurements were truly measuring. What I thought I wrote down were outside, total measurements but, in reality, the measurement

Plumbing for the washing machine and pedestal sink... Overall, things have been very quiet in the house for the past month as my health recovers from a painful dip which, at this point, has sapped most of my energy. I'm getting a bit bored and antsy laying around doing nothing but my energy level is still so low that it is impossible to accomplish a thing. On top of that, I spent a good portion of last night in the bathroom, sick, rather than sleeping... those are always fun times! (sarcasm) There have, however, been a few mornings during the past month when I felt that I had enough energy for an hour or so of work. On these few days I did manage to get a little bit accomplished on our bathroom project.   I needed to get a bit creative with all the plumbing to make it fit in this small space. In this first photo, at right, you can see some odd 45 degree angles to help make things fit. There was absolutely no room for sweeping elbows!  The waste line running up on the ri

The back corner of our home, which lately has been bright and filled with the clutter, sounds and smells of construction, is dark and quiet today. I suspect things will remain this way for the rest of the week and through the weekend as I try to recover from yet another bout of poor health. I awoke feeling like I had been hit by a train. My bones hurt... "hurt"... that word doesn't even come close to accurately describing how my bones feel. My joints also hurt to the same level as my bone pain. My spine is inflamed and I can feel every injury my spine has ever endured... and, believe me, these injuries were many, severe and extensive leaving me with two herniated disks, four bulging disks, six compressed disks, two areas with spinal stenosis, osteophytosis, and a broken up disk and vertebra in my cervical spine. These injuries have left me almost two inches shorter and in pain every day. Now, add in all my bone and joint pain and this is what I felt as I awoke this morn

As some of you have already seen in my Facebook posts, I managed to get the fireplace project finished just in time for Christmas.  Actually, I don't think it was finished until 4:30pm on Christmas Eve!  Then, after cleaning the house of all the construction debris and sawdust, we carefully carried an ice-covered Christmas tree into the house and decorated it.  Between wrapping presents, putting together toys for the grandchildren and decorating, I don't think we made it to bed until 1:30am on Christmas morning.   Since we started renovating the house about five years ago, we have seen various parts of the house in multiple stages of construction.  So the purpose of this post is to show some photos of the progression of the living room project over the course of a few years.  There is no doubt that the living room is a much more comfortable and 'warmer' room today than ever before. Of course we still have a lot to do... ceilings, floors, another wall which is shared