Author: Chuck

Another Completed Project

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Will trying his saw bench out for size - it is a little tall for him, but he will grow into it.

Over the past couple of years I have learned that I am not good at finishing projects. Looking back at my life, it is something that I have always suspected about myself. It isn’t something that is always easy to admit to oneself though.  I love the thrill of starting something new, but usually anything worth doing takes long enough to finish that it is no longer new and exciting.  Once a project is no longer new or exciting it is easy to put it aside to start a new and exciting project.

I have done that when renovating my house.  Ben’s room took years to finish, and that with help and encouragement from both my dad and Susanna.

I have done that in the workshop.  This past summer I added the last remnants of several unfinished projects to the fire pit.  They included a carcase from a storage shelf I started years ago before moving to Preston, pieces to a bed I was going to build for Will or Ben, and a section of maple butcher block I had glued up for a carving board.

I’m trying to limit the number of projects I have going on at one time.  This summer saw a few too many.  Two projects in the workshop (an island for the kitchen, and a saw bench for Will), a push to get the sailboat in the water before the water freezes, and painting the house trim.  Thankfully, Susanna has taken over the painting.  Unfortunately, I am still waiting for trailer parts to arrive in the mail – which makes it tempting to start a new project. But, I’m trying to focus on finishing projects.

The pieces from Will’s sawbench had been sitting around the workshop for a couple of months.  The boys were gone last week, and Susanna worked every night, so I had lots of evenings free.  I cut the last joinery out on the sawbench and prepared all the pieces for assembly.  I could have finished it last week, but since it was a project I started with Will, it seemed better to wait until he returned to finish it.

This morning we assembled the bench, and now I have one less uncompleted project hanging over my head.  Now to move on to finishing the other projects I have going on before I start any more.

 

Porch Update

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The porch trim painting in progress

It has been a crazy busy summer. One of the big family projects this summer has been to paint the front porch. Susanna has been doing most of the work on the painting. Her sisters (Sofia and Rebecka) and friend (Linda) helped kick off the project, but I think it turned out to be more work than any of them expected.

The porch trim had been painted white, with the floor and ceiling (and base of the house) painted green. We decided to paint the trim to highlight the Victorian details in the house trim. I picked colors from the Sherwin-Williams historic color collection. The trim color is Rookwood Dark Green, with the accent color being Rookwood Dark Brown. Our plans are to paint the exterior of the house Concord Buff next summer, so the parts of the porch that are going to match the house color are being painted as well. So, for a couple of months the porch will standout from the rest of the house.

We have been getting comments about how nice the new paint job is turning out. Several people have stopped while driving or walking by to tell us how much better the house is looking. I can’t wait to see how the house looks when we are finished with all the painting.

The porch trim painted. The ceiling on the porch still has to be painted Concord Buff

We still have some work to do on the porch. It has only been painted down to the railings. I had talked to Will and Ben, and offered them each money to paint the bottom of the porch. Ben readily agreed. Will didn’t really want to paint, but then he decided he didn’t want Ben to get all the money, and agreed to paint.

With all the detail work on the porch, I suspect that painting the porch itself is about 1/2 of the entire house painting effort. We will attempt to finish painting as much of the trim as possible this year, and start with the walls early next year.

We have a couple house renovation projects in the wings to be started this winter – with the biggest being renovating the mud room and laundry room (which requires removing a chimney). I have also been making (slow) progress on the sailboat and in the workshop – I’ll write about that later. We also have some big events (personal) planned for next summer, but more on that later as well.

Will taking a break from scraping the porch. The walls below the railing will be Concord Buff and the floor will be painted Rookwood Dark Green.
Ben working on scraping the peeling paint from the front porch. After scraping the loose paint off, we will wash the prepared area with TSP and let dry prior to painting.

Confluence and Ohiopyle Pennsylvania (Vacation Part 2)

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The boys waving to the train as it passes our house

We had a wonderful week in western PA.  I’m writing this from home – I forgot my adapter to download pictures from the camera – as well as a poor (sporadic) Internet connection prevented more posts from the trip.

The last two evenings after dark we played many rounds of “flashlight tag” with all the kids (both the young ones and the “grown up” ones).

The second day was just spent hanging around the house, playing in the water.  I took the boys and we put life-jackets on and floated down the river from the back of our house to the takeout above Ramcat Rapids.  It would have been fun to run the rapids, I’m just not sure we could have made it home from below the rapids easily.   We even saw two Northern Water Snakes while we were wading in the river.

I also headed into town to find some beer.  That was a challenge, the only package store in Confluence was several miles out of town, down a side road, attached to someone’s house.

The water playground above Ohiopyle Falls, PA

The third day was our big outing day.  We headed to Ohiopyle before lunch.  We spent an hour playing in the rapids above the falls.

Even Felix (the Rwandan graduate student that my dad and Barbara are sponsoring) swam the rapids.  He can’t swim, so he stayed in the shallows (there aren’t any lakes or big rivers near where he grew up in Rwanda).

We ate lunch at the Ohiopyle Bakery.  I would recommend the bakery for lunch to anyone visiting the town.  The prices were good, and the food was wonderful.  It was a short walk from where we had parked and played in the water.

After lunch most of the group wanted to go for a bike ride (Ben included).  Will, Felix and I stayed to play in the water.  We visited the natural waterslide  (and all went down the slide once – Will went more than once).  It was a bit rough, bouncing off the rocks on the way down, but fun.  I’m sure it would have been a lot faster if the water weren’t so low.   We even saw a huge snapping turtle in one of the natural pools in the stream.

After the slide, we went back to the rapids above the falls and spent the rest of the afternoon playing there until everyone else returned from the bike ride (Ben rode 6 miles).

The final night we walked over to the edge of the property to watch the bats fly out of the man-made bat houses on the property.  It was amazing to watch – I have never seen so many bats at once.  We stood about 20 feet from the bat house and watched them fly into the evening over our heads.

Yesterday we headed into Ohiopyle for breakfast and then drove home.

The natural water slide in Ohiopyle, PA
Will posing at the rapids above the falls in Ohiopyle, PA
Ben working his camera in Ohiopyle, PA

 

Trains, Trains, Trains (and a vacation from the busy summer)

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Paddler's Lane Main House (image from Paddler's Lane website)

Sunday the boys and I drove to western Pennsylvania to meet my my dad and my brother and his boys.  We are staying at Paddler’s Lane Retreat near Confluence, PA.

The drive was as uneventful as can be hoped with a 7 and 9 year old in the car. We hit no real traffic (okay, a little on the way through NYC, but that is expected). We arrived late in the afternoon, beating everyone else here by several hours (it is a little longer drive from St. Louis than from Connecticut).

Yesterday was left unstructured so the cousins could all just unwind from the drive an play together.  In the afternoon we walked down to the river and spent a couple of hours playing in the river.

There are train tracks right across the driveway from the house (maybe 70m from the house) – and it is a busy track with lots of coal trains (and a periodic Amtrak passenger train). The trains have been a huge hit with the boys.  Every 30 minutes to 60 minutes a train runs by, and the boys all run outside to watch it.  At least they did yesterday, Will is getting a little bored with it today. Yesterday morning on of the trains stopped alongside the property. The boys walked over to look at the train, and the engineer came out of the train and talked to them (and gave them each a bottle of water).  The engineer said that he was stopped while they did track work, but couldn’t take the boys up in the engine to look around.

The river was fun in the afternoon.  A group of kids learning to kayak came downstream while we were playing in the water.  One of the kids flipped his/her boat on the single hole they were playing around in on the rapids near where we were playing.  This would be a great place to bring life jackets for the adults and some rafts to float the rapids.

Internet has been sporadic here.  And there is no cell coverage at all (unless I walk 10 minutes to the end of the driveway and down the road a bit).  But it nice to take a break from always checking email and the phone.  I’ve been leaving the phone inside all day.

Of course we had to find some internet… so here I am writing on the blog.  Pictures will have to follow later, I didn’t bring the cable to download pictures from my camera.

No real plans today – just hang out for a bit and let the boys play.  Maybe head down to the river if the weather warms up.

Family visit and a visit to the park

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My mom visited for the weekend. She arrived in the middle of our crazy summer (Sorry, mom!). On Saturday we had the Bross family (my Uncle Jim, Rhonda and Mary Ann) over for dinner (we went fancy, with hamburgers, corn on the cob and salad).

So in addition to getting to show off all the changes to the house that we made over the past year and a half, we got a little assistance in the garden. Much appreciated help weeding the garden from my mom, Rhonda and Mary Ann. Thanks for all the help.

By Monday, the house was empty of guests. Susanna didn’t have to work. The sun came out (for the first time in a week). We headed to Devil’s Hopyard State Park. The boys enjoyed swimming in the river (a nice change from the beach). After a bit at the park, we headed home, stopping to get ice-cream on the way.

The summer has been a bit crazy. I’m hoping next year I can plan the summer to be a little more relaxing.

Will enjoying Devil's Hopyard State Park.

Taking a break (and playing in the rain)

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Will and Ben playing in the rain

We took my mom to the airport this morning after a nice (but short) visit with her.  For the next couple of days we have an empty house.  Rebecka flew back to Sweden on Friday; Linda and Sofia are visiting Niagara falls until Tuesday morning.

The summer doesn’t really slow down until after my trip with the boys next week, but a short break in the rush is welcome.

Random Posting… (a bunch of unconnected thoughts and teaching the dog Swedish)

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The girls heading to NYC - It would have been flatteringto hang out with a nice attractive group in the city - thecost would be visiting sites from "Sex and the City" -definitely not worth it.

It is sometimes nice to just let the ADHD take over….  so here is a bunch of random thoughts/updates.  So, if either of the two readers of this don’t want random, I suggest you skip this post (Susanna excepted – she gets to read all my posts, good or bad).

In addition to enjoying NYC, the girls have been helping out around the house.  This week they scrapped the trim on the front porch – the most complicated of section of exterior trim.

So… Project updates:

-Sailboat: The trailer is making progress – I need two more pieces of steel to finish repairs.  Still working on the topside repairs and making trim for the interior.

– Kitchen Island: On hold until after the summer projects.  The lumber is milled, hopefully it won’t get too warped before I get back to it.

– House Trim: Only progress on the porch mentioned above.

In addition, we are teaching Targa how to “shake” in Swedish.  The command is “Vacker Tass.”  He is doing pretty well.  We decided that Tucker is a little too slow to learn Swedish this week.

Now off to the casino to walk around a bit…

Random enough?

O’Day 22 – Rewiring the Electrical System Part 1 (Battery Storage)

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Measuringfor the placement of the structural support for the new battery

The original wiring on the boat was a mess.  I have ripped out most of the old wiring, and am in the process of replacing it all.  I also decided to replace the battery (I think it had one or two large batteries originally) with a small 35 Amp-Hour deep cycle AGM battery.  All the running lights and interior lights will be low-draw LEDs, so a large battery shouldn’t be needed.

The battery compartment and all the electrical switches are under the starboard settee.  I couldn’t figure out how the old batteries were originally restrained in the battery compartment.  There didn’t appear to be any place to connect a strap or any other restraining device.  So I am adding some support for the battery (with room for a second battery of the same size).  Yesterday I used epoxy and fiberglass tabs to connect three pieces of wood on the inboard side of where the batteries will sit.

Once all the epoxy has cured, I will run a 1×1 piece of wood across the inboard supports and one across the outboard supports.  The battery will sit between the supports, and I will use a strap to ensure the battery doesn’t move.

I am using fast-set hardener for the epoxy, so it should be ready for the next step this evening.

I am also working on constructing a new switch panel.  The old one had corroded to the point of not working. I have a hole cut for the panel and the piece of teak (I believe it is teak, but it doesn’t really matter) cut out.  This afternoon I will mark the cutout size on the back of the wood so I know exactly where all the hardware needs to fit.   I have the switches, fuse holders, and wire – so I should be able to finish the switch panel over the next couple of days.

I also worked on fiberglass repair on the starboard deck, alongside the cabin.  The wood decking core was wet when I bought the boat (years ago), and years ago I repaired the weak portion of the deck.  I had just never smoothed and painted the surface.  I’ll post pictures later today on that project.

Now for a quick dip in the (hopefully) not too cold pool.

Cutout under starboard settee for the electrical switch panel

Project Day

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The girls all headed to New York City this morning. I get the day to myself – a quiet day with the dogs. It is a perfect day to finish project that have been hanging out.

This morning I’ll do a little cleaning (the house and the workshop). I already did some fiberglass work on the boat (building a place for the battery) – I’ll post on that later. This afternoon I’ll mow the yard, and hopefully get some of the woodworking done on the boat. I’ve done most of the trailer work that I can do without getting more steel square tube.