Scattered Thoughts . . .

The other day, I finally started on our outdoor kitchen/grill project.  I already had all the lumber on hand that is seen in these photos...  two 4x4 posts and a bunch of 2x4's...  and it was long past time to get started on this project.   Actually...  since this structure ties in with the playhouse roof, the playhouse is getting a nice upgrade rebuild and renovation so this is really a two part project. Our dryer broke so that is now slowing me down a bit but I have made a significant amount of headway on this project....  hmmm...  headway...   that reminds me...  I also whacked my head twice during this project already! On our previous big project, I also whacked my head hard enough to see stars, gray-out and buckle me at the knees.  That resulted in about a month of nothingness as my mild traumatic brain injury healed a bit.   I had a couple of temporary supports holding things in place on that project....

After raking and playing in all the leaves out in the backyard, we headed indoors with a collection of colorful autumn leaves that Lukey and Kenzie had collected. Gee pulled out some wax paper... some crayons... some newspaper... and then Gee, Lukey and Kenzie put together two pieces of colorful art by diving into an autumn leaf art project. This art is being shipped to Uncle Adam who recently commented that he was missing some of Vermont's autumn color. Although he is missing some of Vermont's autumn color, Adam is fortunate enough to be enjoying an authentic Octoberfest in Germany (which definitely interests me far more than some funky-colored trees) .  The kids had a lot of fun putting together this little art project with Gee... After cleaning up the kitchen, the kids then made some delicious chocolate chip cookies, from scratch, with Gee's help. Then Kenzie picked up the telephone and called Nan and Pop to brag about making cho...

It took much longer than I planned because of more lousy health slowing me down to a crawl but I finally finished a small woodworking project I started about three weeks ago. Up until yesterday, the grandkids were using an old, small, plastic stepstool to reach the sink in the bathroom. I never liked that plastic stool... it is sort of cartoonish with rounded edges making it pretty damn ugly... the hard plastic rounded edges make it rather slippery on hard floors... and, it is so lightweight that it is easy to slide it across the floor unintentionally. I wanted to find a nice, old-fashioned wood stool but we couldn't find one anywhere... so I designed and built not just one, but two! (One for each bathroom.) I also designed and built a small stand for Lukey to use with his trains. This stand holds whichever power supply controller is necessary for whichever trains he is running at the time (unfortunately, different trains require different controllers) .  After assembling al...

After overdoing it yesterday on home renovations, I only worked on the house a short while today. We have the grandkids here today so I'll spend the rest of the day playing with them. Yesterday, when I was digging the foundation for the little three window alcove, I realized that the septic tank is in the way by a few inches. So, last night, I came up with some new plans with new dimensions. Now I can cantilever this small alcove out beyond the two pilings holding up this alcove.  After digging the foundation deep enough, I dropped in some pre-made footings... then glued the concrete pilings on top of these footings once the depth and dimensions were correct.  I'll wait a day or two before backfilling.  This bedroom renovation project is coming along nicely but slowly. As long as I accomplish something almost every day, I should be okay.  

Today was a relatively productive day for a nice change!  I'm a little more optimistic that I can finish this fireplace project before the end of the weekend.  That will leave us a day or two to decorate for Christmas and wrap presents...  hmmm...  presents...  I might need to buy some of those soon... The new aspen and maple paneling in the living room is now stained and I have applied three coats of a satin polyurethane.  Ideally, it could really use another two or three coats of poly but the wood grain is filled in enough and sealed enough to make it through the next month or so. Besides, I just might add a coat or two while I am applying poly to the fireplace and shelving unit. That would finish the walls completely. In the meantime, it is looking great tonight! The house is a mess with construction materials all over the place but those new walls look nice! Tomorrow I plan to start cutting the latest batch of finish lumber for the fireplace, mantle...

Laying out the tile and some dimensional lumber for the fireplace... A week or two ago I wrote about a new home renovation project... designing, building and installing a little fireplace. This fireplace will be a relatively simple gel-fuel fireplace which does not require any flue whatsoever. This project entails upgrading an entire wall of our living room so, as usual, this project is a bit more than my health would like to tackle... but I'm hoping to be successful with this project which entails getting it finished before Christmas. First, I started working on our primed steel front entry door.  It is a 15-lite door so calling it a 'steel' door can be misleading.  It is a nice door but isn't so nice looking with its factory gray primer.  I've been saying for a few years since I installed this door that I would like to finish it to appear as though it is stained wood.  Since this front entry door is part of this wall sharing the fireplace, I decided to tac...