Garage Roof and Fence

Last week, a bunch of family and friends helped me to put a new roof on my garage.  We really lucked out with weather.

This past weekend Dad helped me paint the fences surround my yard.

But we got rained out on Sunday.

WHAT I HAVE BEEN UP TO

This guy is getting a paint job.

 The spice drawer got organized, mostly so I could procrastinate on other things.

 The trim that goes around the windows is ready for stain.

 And I got a single quart fermenter, so this is my first batch of kaurt, it should be done soon.

this winter I have been working on trim boards which doesn't make for a lot of good pictures.  'Oh I took the paint off another board, and then it was sanded and stained and finished', repeat, repeat, repeat! over and over and over!

Much to my excitement I re installed the first trim pieces on Sunday.

New Tool: Silent Remover

I would like to share my positive experience with the Silent Remover spot heater.  I forgot to take a picture of the actual tool, so that will help keep it mysterious.  

It is a spot heat with a handle....  You let it warm up for a minute or two then hold it over the board that is covered with the offending paint.  20 to 30 seconds later (depending on the amount of paint) you scrap:

Sometimes you get it all in one swipe, other times to heat for another 5 to 10 seconds and get the rest.

Dad has come down to help out a couple times and two people working on it makes it go very smoothly. Thanks dad! 

I know that you were all thinking that I am crazy to want to refinish all of the trim boards. I am not saying that you are wrong.  But I am making progress.

Tag-a-Long bathroom shelf

Before I was using a half round table that was donated to me when I first got the house:

I could make the shelf level but I could not make the walls square: 

So I added a border around it.

Now, if only the trim work was done.

Garage Part Three

And this is how the garage will be for the winter

The brown door doesn't make a lot of sense now...

Garage Part 2

Yes, I know there is no part one.

A big thanks to all those who helped this weekend.  There is still, what feels like a lot, of work to still be done.  But it looks really awesome so far! 

If anyone is available to help this coming Sunday (10/12) we will be working again.

Tomatoes and a Trip to the Restore

On Tuesday I canned some tomatoes. I am already planning what I can make with them, lasagna, chili, this eggplant dish.... I might need more tomatoes.

Then last night I went to the Restore to try to find some lumber to build concrete forms out of.  I saw a sign that said '4x8 ply wood $4.00, anything smaller $2.00' So with my 4 boards I was thinking 8ft.

I dragged my cart up to the check out, waited quite a while... and the lady looks at me very seriously, 'you know we are going to have to stand these up to measure'  I respond, aren't thy just $2, and she said- no, these are better they are sold in board feet. Well ok...

Then she realizes she has a tape measure and in the process of measuring the boards she nearly ran over my bad toe with the cart.  Which would be ironic because the last time I was in this place a very large man step on my toe right after the initial injury.  It was traumatic.

So I have 34' of lumber, 18 ft of 1x8, 8ft of 2x8 and 8ft of 2x10, so the lady goes to the price list and points to the line that says 'everything over 4x4', and I was like well actually this is a 1x8 so that price is right here, 25 cents a foot, and this is a 2x8 and that is ...25 cents a foot, and this is a 2x10 which is 25 cents a foot....

So it was $8.50 for the lumber, which is pretty close to $2 a board, but I whole lot more figuring it out.