Shelves for the Nook in the Bathroom

The nook had once been part of the closet in Bedroom Number three.  And now it is in need of shelves.  I bought pine boards and sanded them down.  

I went to test the stain and it was just a blob.  Bryna had mentioned that when staining pine I should use a wood conditioner so that was a trip to the hardware store plus some.  But I finally got it and water based stain, as recommended by American wood working or some such source.  I tested the water based stain with the wood conditioner but it was too light, so I tried a second coat and layering the darker oil based stain with it.  I really like the darker stain over it.  I finally made progress on the boards.

Here is a picture of the difference, on the left the boards only have water based stain, on the right they have the oil based over top of it.  I don’t think it would work the other way around…

And after a few coats of vanish I finally took a picture of the test piece.  The dark blob is the first test without the wood conditioner on it, not so pretty.

 I am very happy with how the board turned out. But then it was time to cut the boards and construct the shelves… Which I mostly just made up, except for the fronts, I did see that done before.

I connected the two boards together, and since the nook was not square each one got labeled so that they would fit.

Then came gluing the fronts on, there was a lot of clamping involved.

a whole lot.

So here is the nook as of yesterday morning:

I put the rails on for the top shelf and then fitted it in, it fit perfectly.  Unfortunately it was the only one that went in easy and the others were a bit more challenging...

So each shelf got rails... Except the bottom one that I will finish when I put trim in the bathroom.

As I was putting in the lower shelf in the front broke off.  So there was more clamping.

And finally I could store stuff there! Can wait for the last one to be dry!

Pumpkin for Baked Goods from an Actual Pumpkin

One time, at Thanksgiving, my Aunt Mary Jo made a pie from actually pumpkin.  I remember it being the most amazing pumpkin pie ever.  Since then I have made a few pumpkin treats from actual pumpkin, like muffins and pie that turned out amazing as well.  Actually Rachel made the pie, I just prepped the pumpkin.

I have had the best luck starting with a pie pumpkin, a friend once had me start from a different type but it really wasn't great.  They look like a basic carving pumpkin but are a bit smaller, and should be labeled as a pie pumpkin.  Preheat the oven to 350° and line a cookie sheet with tin foil to reduce clean up.

Cut the pumpkin in half and scoop out the guts, I usually save the seeds for roasting, as if this wasn't enough work already.  The pumpkin should be fairly well cleaned.  Bake it upside down for up to 2 1/2 hours.  This one baked for 1 hr 45min.  I could tell it was done because I could poke a fork in from the outside all the way in.

While cooling the skin will pull a way and then it can just be peel off.  So make sure you cook it long enough, otherwise you will be scooping it out from the inside, which is less fun.

Then you just mash the pumpkin. 

So that one pumpkin made 6 cups.  I will usually substitute 2 cups for one can of store bought pumpkin.  Also I will double the spices in the recipe, I assume that the store bought stuff comes with spice including so to get good flavor more has to be added.  It is important to sample the baked goods to make sure that you are putting enough in.

(those of you coming over for Thanksgiving should be excited because we are going to have 'real' pumpkin pie! and if my co workers are lucky then will get some muffins)

Escow national

This past weekend I was at E Scow Nationals in Lake Geneva.  E Scows can sail with 3 or 4 people and for this event they had to declare how many on the first day and stick to that number.  As the 4th person I do not like this rule, but it was a fun weekend anyways.  Here is part of the start line for the 80+ boats there. 

This morning I had quite the harvest from the garden:

There will be more canning this week.

Back Entry Door Day 2

The shims.  All doors are suppose to have a gap between the studs and rough frame, then you shim it to make it straight.  With shims close to the lock for added strength. (you can kind of see them in this picture.)

 

The screws are suppose to go in underneath the weather stripping.

and then spray foam insulation can be used to fill the gap. This might have been the most fun part but I over filled it.  When I go to frame it in I will carve off the extra with a putty knife. Being careful not to hit my hand with it unlike on Sunday. (ouch)

Then the capping and siding got sealed with a fresh bead of caulk, after getting as much of the old stuff off as I could.  (This is an appropriate place for caulk, unlike around toilets.)

And finally a handle. Dad let me do the honors.  Took me at least two tries.

The new door looks very nice, now to get the stickers off of it.

Read about the First Day

Back Entry Door Replacement

The back entry door wasn't great a year ago and it has gotten worse. The pieces that hold the window in were not sealed and literary falling off. 

So it was time for a new door.  I picked one with a window so that I can see who is at the door.  I measured the current rough frame, it was 34 inches and there was a bit of space between it and the stud.  I thought this meant I needed a 34x80 door. I was wrong, that is not how they get measured.  This resulted in a second trip to the hardware store. But now I am getting ahead of my self.

So Dad came down to help me, thank goodness, and we got the old door out, and found that we were going to have to modify the outside frame of the door, and the aluminum wrapping.

yep! it was looking pretty ugly at this point. 

But the 34 inch wide door was still to big.  So we covered the door up and headed back to the store.

At this point it was getting late and we really wanted the new door in before we went to bed. So there are no pictures of us modifing the aluminum pieces, or reattaching them, so you will have to imagine that.  Here is a picture of the shims on one side to make it straight.  That way when the door went it we felt confident that the one side would be straight and could be anchored right away. Which deviated from any instructions that I had read. But I trusted dad on this one and it turned out fine.

Here is the door with caulk on it, in hindsight, too much caulk.

We put the door in and a two screws then started up the grill for dinner.  As dinner was cooking we got the door screwed in on the other side.

Dinner was very tasty. Then it was caulk clean up, a few more screws, and a dead bolt.  Here is a view from the next morning:

As that was the end of day one that will be the end of the first half of the post.  There were just a few more details that will be discussed next time. Read On...

Another Exciting Summer Night

Tomato canning!