Saturday - prepping the dining room for trim and door
painting. Sanding and taping off about the windows and doors, doing some filling of holes and dents. I'd painted
the room saffron yellow some months ago, but, as I said, never quite got around
to the trim. There is just so much of it for such a small room (Dad was
very old school in his layout).
I also bought some LARGE landscape blocks, 50 pounds each. I only
bought eight, since that's about what my back can handle. I am thinking of
using these for the lower tier of retaining wall in the back yard -
it's only 2 feet high and is failing fast. But I'll need 40 or 50 of
these. Fortunately they are only about $3 each.
Book #78 was Dear Enemy, by
Jean Webster. This is a sequel, of sorts, to Daddy Longlegs (#22,2008). In this
book Sally MacBride is lured to spend a few weeks as superintendent of
the orphanage that her friend Judy, protagonist of that first book, came from. It
is told in the same fashion, of a series of letters from Sally to
different people. Of course she falls in love with the job, and after
many trials and tribulations makes it her career. Well done.
This was a free Kindle eBook, and the formatting was definitely superior to the Google Books thing.
I finally got word on the laptop polarity, but there is a massive lightning
storm raging, so the laptop and power supply are unplugged. No
internet, no video, no teevee. Thank god for the Kindle.
Lots of rain, but the bedroom ceiling remains dry. Yay.
I suppose it seems like a lot of reading this week, but without a
teevee, without video, and without a computer to work on there isn't
much else to do in the evening. You can only paint and clean so much,
then the fumes get to you...
Friday 19 November
2010
Friday
- I was thinking of painting the trim in the dining room. Generally
I've avoided "finish" painting - just doing primer until construction and repairs are done. But the dining room
is such a nice room that it's often pleasant to sit there and work, so I
painted it a while ago. The trim though, is in abysmal shape, and my
sister painted the back door brown, which was a mistake. And it would be nice to have a room "done".
I had to kneel to tape off the baseboard, and the stench of dog pee was
just too much for me. I tore out the old carpet and pad, and rinsed the
horribly stained plywood with carpet cleaner (the best cleanser I had).
It reeked a lot less. Peg had been a lot busier than I realized - I
thought she had only used the spot before the door, but not so...
Did I mention that the storm has started? Some rain, anyway. No leaks in the den yet.
Book #77 was The Crooked
Letter, by Sean Williams. I've read a couple of Sean William's books before,
and liked them, but this left me pretty indifferent.
Phoebe playing with my boot strings.
Thursday 18 November 2010
Thursday
- This was generally a pick up and clean day, lots of small forgettable items that take up a lot of time.
One errand I ran was over to Fry's, to pick up a cheap universal
charger. When I got home I discovered that I didn't know the polarity
or voltage - it wasn't on the back of the HP laptop. I've never had a
laptop where that wasn't prominently displayed. So I called friends in
Lancaster and asked them to look at the OEM unit, probably laying on my
desk, and to let me know.
And yes, I did spend hours surfing the HP web site and internet looking
for the info. I learned that it was 18.5VDC, but just couldn't get the
polarity. Very annoying.
Wednesday 17
November 2010
Wednesday
- this was mostly a yard work day. I finished trenching, and setting
the landscape blocks, and backfilling. Indeed, I used up ALL the
blocks. I need more - I want to keep earth away from the house, and
right now it is piled rather high against the stucco.
I had several compliments from the neighbors, which is encouraging.
What isn't encouraging is that I think the retaining walls may need to be redone at
some point. They "angle" slightly. I tried my best, but nothing in the
front yard is really square and compared to the walk and bricks in the
neighbor's yard there is a two or three degree differential. There is so much to do that I'm always in a bit of a rush.
Tuesday 16 November
2010
Tuesday
- B stopped by and helped me
unload the trailer of all the landscape blocks. I think he was
unpleasantly surprised by the amount of effort it took to get them up
into the yard.
In the afternoon I finished up putting Henry's on the flashing, and
taping off some of the gaps on the other jacks. There is a big storm
predicted for the weekend, it all needs to be sealed. I removed all the various tools and debris
that accumulate, but left the sandbags - in case the roof does leak and
we need a tarp up there in a hurry!
I also started digging and leveling for another terrace in the front
yard, and off towards the western side yard. I almost immediately found
the sewer line, it's cleanout, and the water line. None were buried as
deeply as I would have thought. Indeed, they are shallow enough to
force the location of the terrace.
Since I found the cleanout I went ahead and had Ernie's Plumbing and
Sewer come out and snake the line.
My father used to work for Ernie Paisley, and we bought this house from Ernie
back in the 1970's. Ernie himself is long gone, passing away at least a decade ago.
Book #76 was When Patty went to College,
by Jean Webster. This is a sequel to Just Patty. I suspect that they
were originally serialized in MacLean's or something. I don't have good
internet, so it's hard to say. Anyway, a fun read.
Again, a Google Book (free). The Google Book formatting is rather
hit-n-miss, and in particular the first line of a story was often
missing. Annoying, but I guess you get what you (don't) pay for!
My co-worker Tim sent me data, and I ran reports for the client and
send them back to him. But I discovered that I had left my power cord
and transformer in Lancaster, and doing this sucked my battery dry!
Monday
15
November
2010
Monday
- My brother B and I finished
the ridge cap. It went pretty well, only taking four or five hours to
put the last few rows of shingles and ridge cap on. It looks prreetttttyyyy good. I need to
caulk the roof jacks and such, but the roof is pretty much done.
Like me B was horrified by the leak in the den. After looking at it,
and directing a fan towards the damaged area it is already drying out.
Since I had painted the ceiling (twice) with waterproof Bin Zinnser,
the dampness might have been present for weeks before softening the
paste coating the old lath and plaster enough to cause the layers of
old paint and plaster to fall.
It looks much worse than it really is.
Book #75 was Just Patty, by
Jean Webster. This was a series of short stories about Patty Wyatt, a
rebel in a girls school, circa 1900. Entertaining in a sentimental way.
Webster wrote Daddy Longlegs, which was a previous Book #. I found this version for
free at Google Books.
Sunday 14 November_2010
Sunday
- Warm, about 85F, even warmer on the roof. I started taking the roof
ridge shingles off, and cleaning up the peak of the roof before
applying any new shingles. We're almost done up there.
There was a leak in one of the bedrooms - I didn't know about it and it
was a dreadful shock to walk in and see the damage Saturday night.
Apparently the temporary patch failed, or the fact that there was no
tarp covering the west side of the roof let some water in at some
point.
Well, that's what I am hoping. If the new roof is leaking we're really
screwed.
Book #74 was Dave Weber's A Mighty Fortress. The is the fourth
or fifth book in his Safehold
series, and is much like the others. Actually, as the reviews point
out, it had almost no "action", save at the end. Weber specializes in
apocalyptic battle scenes, and the finale here was typical.
Picture of
the Week
Photo
Notes: Cayucos
beach with marine layer, 2010.
