Well…up at 4:30 again but was able to get back to sleep until a little after 6 so that is the new pattern and I don’t mind it a bit….I am really sore today after working on the cabinets yesterday and I have new pains I haven’t had before so I think there will be ibuprofen before I get going on them again today….I’m sure it’s going to take a good month to finish the kitchen if I do everything including painting the walls but that can’t happen until I do the ugly patch they did on one of the walls and re plaster it and sand it…all they did was slap plaster on it and then paint it without sanding…another instance where the repairs were done half assed around here…it’s never going to be smooth like a professional plasterer would have done but it will be better and I have to remember this is an 82 year old house and it’s not going to be perfect…and I don’t want to spend the rest of my life working on it….other than all the work, it was a good day yesterday and I feel marginally better after my 15th day of being good and I am starting to entertain the idea that I could make no cocktails permanent but I’m not sure if I am ready for that yet…I do like the idea of saving all the cash I used to spend….a hundred bucks a month is not a little money living on SS and if I keep it up, I will have saved enough by spring to buy a kayak and that is pretty cool….not much to do today…just going to get on the bike here in a few minutes and then get back to working on the cabinets…need to put in at least 4 hours a day to make the progress I need to make and I want to get everything ready to paint so I can do all the white in one setup and only use one roller to do both coats…hoping for next week for that and doing the grey interiors…then I’ll get on the doors…work, work, work….more later…
Tag Archives: life
Rethinking the range hood…
Well…since the first time I saw the ugly white range hood in the kitchen when I bought this house, I had planned to buy a stainless steel one since I like the way they look…but the prices of them have ballooned to the point that the cheapest 30 inch stainless one is almost 100 bucks and that is a bit much…and, my range is black and the rest of the door hardware is going to be black to go with the grey doors…so, I thought about it today and think I’m going to buy a black one to go with the rest of the kitchen…and a black one is only 62 bucks so that will save me almost 40 bucks and I think it will go better than a stainless one…so now it looks like I have everything figured out and just need to get at it and get the kitchen done…
Found my hardware…
Well…after finishing up working on the cabinets for the day, I thought I’d look for the hardware I need to modernize them to see what it’s going to cost…so, I looked on Amazon for the hinges and the problem with them is you have to buy either 10 pairs or 20 or more and I only need 11 of them…and the door pulls came in sets of 15 or more when I only need 13…so, I decided to look online at depot and they had nothing in stock for me to actually go out and look at…so, I tried Menards and they have the hinges and pulls in stock so I can go out and look at them to see if they are what I want…and I can buy exactly what I need since the hinges come in packs of two for 2.26 and the pulls are only 1.36 each….and I can buy one of them to fit it up and see it I like it and if it will fit the holes that are in the doors…saving me from having to re-drill all the holes for both the pulls and hinges….so, a little bit of good news for a change and it makes me want to work on the cabinets all day tomorrow….and I just might so I can get to the doors and maybe have them put back together in two weeks…but then I need to get at all of the plaster work done along with the trim and painting the kitchen…and I should order the new range hood…I can get an open package one for 40 bucks off at Amazon so I think I’ll order it tomorrow…
Found a good car wash..
Well…damn, have been busy since 7 this morning when I got on the bike…and one of the cool things that happened was that I found a good car wash to keep the salt off the car…lots of pressure and soap but it is 2 bucks per run so it costs me 4 bucks to do a wash…and it was not busy at all with three open stalls…and they had dollar changers that worked….and it was clean and well lit so that was cool…after I got back here, I got started on the kitchen cabinets and got one set sanded and filled and then gave up since my thumb is really hurting after all of the sanding…and they were in such poor shape that I used a half a tub of filler so I’ll need to get more on the grocery run wed to finish up the kitchen…I probably won’t be ready to do the final sanding until next week since it is taking me longer than I thought…so I won’t get to painting, either, and I still haven’t even started on doors and I think that will take 10 days or so to do them…and I still need to find hardware for them since I want to use black hinges and pulls but I want to see them in person…not buy them online but depot and Menards doesn’t stock any of them…what a pain…
January 17th
Well…up at 3:04 this morning for the first time but I was able to go back to sleep…fitfully….until a little before 6 and had the apocalypse dreams again where there was some reason that everything was going to hell but that part of it was never revealed…but I know it was depressing when the water and electricity quit…last night was 14 days of being good and one thing I noticed yesterday was my eyes were really blurry most of the day and I can’t figure out why that would be…other than that, I feel quite a bit better than I have in a while but I’m still pretty damn tired from not sleeping well…oh, well…I really like taking Sundays off and just doing what I want with no schedule or guilt from not working on this place…although I did start to repair the floor of one of the kitchen cabinets that looks like it had water damage from leaky drain pipes that have been replaced with pvc and that would have been cast iron when the house was built…but, I’m not going to replace it since the repair looks okay and new paint will make it look good enough for me…as I said, I’m not going to make this place perfect for the next owner….I do have to get out to wash the car this morning and then hit depot for drop cloths to cover the stove and make a little airlock to keep the dust in the kitchen before I get started sanding today…I’ll have to remember to take some allergy stuff before I get started or I’ll be miserable all day…not much to do today….I do have to hit the dollar store by depot to get some rollers since depot charges 4 bucks each for them and that is a bit much when I can get them for 1.25….but that means I can’t get started until after 8 since it doesn’t open until 9…so, I have time to read some news before I get on the bike…I did get over 100 miles on the downstairs bike Saturday and it looks like I won’t get anywhere near 500 miles before the trails clear up in the spring…..but I started at zero in the spring last year and still made it to almost 5K miles….more later…
Going to get a lot of house stuff for the next couple of months..
Well…as you can see, I have been writing a lot about the process of rebuilding this house over the past month or so and the reason for it is that it is taking up my whole life right now and I am amazed at how half assed the repairs to it have been..just yesterday, I took apart one of the three drawers that I needed to repair as part of the kitchen rehab and that left me shaking my head…it wasn’t enough that they just nailed the drawer head on with big nails when it came loose at some point in the past…but when I removed it to see how to repair it, there was another set of nails under the head that they just pounded over and into the drawer sides so they could nail the head back on…they didn’t remove them…nope, just pounded them over so they could take the easy way out and do a half assed fix…and that fix split the drawer sides that I guess was okay with them…and since the surface the head mated to wasn’t even, when they nailed it they warped the head all out of shape…so, I removed the bent over nails and took my angle grinder with a 60 grit flap disc and smoothed the mating surfaces and the head so I could do it right and glue the head back on with wood glue and then glue and clamp the sides back together where they had been split by nails…and then I put my heavy tool box on top of it to hold it while it dried overnight and now I have a nice drawer that can be sanded and painted how it should be…I still marvel how everywhere in this house, they not once did a repair right…always taking the easy way out instead of the right way…and that makes so much more work for me….
Got the kitchen gutted…
Well…not sure why but I started working on the rest of the kitchen stripping this morning and I am done at only 9:13…got the final 4 doors taken down and cleared out the food storage cabinets and now I’m ready to get sanding tomorrow morning after I wash the car and hit depot to get the two new drop cloths I need to cover the stove and make an airlock….I am a little surprised at how easy it was to get the old hardware screws out since they were in there for at least 40 years and were covered in so much paint you couldn’t tell where the screw heads were…but a hammer and my tough screw driver worked well to chip off the paint and clear the screw heads…I think it will take at least two weeks to do the cabinets since they are in such poor condition and are going to need lots of sanding and filling…and I think some of the doors may need to be replaced since they are so chipped and worn but I’ll think about that after I clean them up and paint them…not going to do anything until I get them done and re-hung and see how they look…can probably live with the wear since I don’t want to make this place perfect for the next owners…it will be enough just to have them cleaned and painted….but now, I’m taking the rest of the day off to just veg and enjoy the day….
january 16th
Well…darn, that was cold…went out to get the paper and it’s only 6 degrees out there and I forgot to take some gloves so my hands are still cold a half hour later…even had to use the two key method to leave my car running at the party store to get the windows to defog…just got my gas bill and it’s the biggest one I’ve gotten out here so far at 92 bucks but it’s been really cold over the past month so I guess that’s not bad…and gas prices are up by almost 50% from last year so I can live with it…slept okay last night and feel okay this morning with being good for 13 days now and I really think I’m going to do the entire month of January with the good effects so far…the swelling in my right foot is down to almost normal and the big sagging under my chin is almost gone…my face looks quite a bit thinner and I may even get through the first winter with not gaining any weight…I normally gain about 12 pounds over the winter and it would be really nice to start the spring at the end of summer weight…I did get the kitchen almost torn apart yesterday and will finish that today…have 4 more doors to remove and the upper storage to empty and then I’ll be ready to start on the sanding and filling…I do need to get a couple more drop cloths to cover the stove and make an airlock to keep the dust in the kitchen since there is so much sanding to do…I think I may have figured out the squealing in the combustion blower on the furnace yesterday…just sprayed wd all over the back side of it trying to get to the back bearing and it seems to have helped but we’ll see when I start working down there in a couple of weeks…I did take the range hood down yesterday, too and am going to have to bite the bullet and spend a hundred bucks on a new one….but I planned on that but I think I’ll need to curtail the spending for a month or so…want to plan a vacation for the summer to get to see the area and try some new beaches…and put the bike on the back of the car and see some new trails…not much to do today…taking the day off the bike and going to ease into the day…cripes it’s only 7:23….need to g out and read some news for topics….more later….one last thing…Tom, tried your chili yesterday and it was damn good…just the right amount of heat and it does have lots of meat in it…very yummy….
Got the kitchen stripped..
Well…have been working hard all morning to get the kitchen stripped so I can get started taking the doors off and filling and sanding….moved the shelf holding the coffee maker and microwave into the dining room along with all of the food and dishes and that filled two big totes…and I removed the ugly range hood and put that in the trash since it was so filthy that I wasn’t going to attempt to reuse it…but I just checked on a stainless steel one and the cheapest 30 inch is almost 80 bucks and it was only 55 last year…sure don’t want to spend that amount of money but I guess I’ll have to to complete the look I’m going for….and I decided to go with black hinges and pulls since they will go better with the colors I’m going to use…so that adds another hundred bucks or so to the total since I can’t use any of the ones I have downstairs…but I want it to look nice and bronze hinges and pulls just won’t go with grey….so tomorrow looks like door removal and then I’ll dive into sanding and filling Monday after I take the car out and wash it…need to get the salt off it to try to keep it from rusting more but I think that is hopeless….oh,well….
Justified is coming back…
Well…just read a short article the announced that Justified is coming back as a limited series…which will mean one year of about 8 episodes but that is still cool…and it will be set in Detroit and based on another of Elmore Leonard’s short stories as the first series was…there wasn’t a lot of detail in the article but Timothy Olyphant is coming back as Raylan…who will have a 14 year old daughter to deal with…but no mention if Walton Goggins is going to come back as Boyd Crowder and I think the series would be less without him…I would expect it will take a couple of years until it’s complete and I hope I live to see it…would be cool…