May Trip

My nephew Matt got married on May 10th, so mom and I went back to the wedding.  We flew to STL, visited with Katie, met up with Shari and Mark and then drove to Kentucky.  While we were in STL we went to the Basilica and toured the mosaics.  Some were just beautiful.  It's nice to see them outside of Europe.

On the way we stopped at a couple of distilleries, here are some pics I took at Makers Mark.  Boy does it smell good in there, just like fresh bread dough.

And then of course, we went to the wedding.  It was very beautiful but my camera was NOT cooperating.  I only got a few pictures that turned out, and they weren't very good.

Murphy Bed Room Redecoration

When I was Christmas Shopping I ran across these wall stickers and thought they were cute. I finally got around to putting them up.  And I moved the Sunflower Duvet to the Murphy Bed room.  

I  think it's a fun combo, but I may have to move some the bird stickers, that's something to play with this spring.

I still need a real night stand, but I'll eventually find something.

Concrete Floor Update

When I was planning my house, I decided to let the floors crack naturally, instead of having stress relief lines cut into them.  And crack they did, but nothing too bad.  After a couple of years (it's been almost 5) I finally got around to getting the cracks filled in.  I want to fill them mostly to keep them clean.  I don't like dust and other 'stuff' getting down inside.

I also had a spot that needed to be repaired.  The wheels on my office chair tore up the concrete surface, where I sit in front of my computer (and I sit there a lot :-).  

So after some discussion, we decided to use a marine epoxy to fill in the cracks.  It has a bit of give to it, which is useful when you live in earthquake country.

For the most part, I'm pretty happy.  The cracks are all well sealed.  We colored the epoxy black, so the filled areas do stand out against the rest of the floor, a bit more than I'd like.  But this epoxy isn't going to peel for a long while, and when I keep the floors waxed, they look pretty nice :-).

At least that's one project I've been putting off, done for now.  With some luck I won't have to worry about it for a very long time.

Starting to add the epoxy into the first long crack.

Rob filling in the space by the french doors,
This was poured to have a little extra space.

Under office chair repair area, it does look much darker in this picture
I think that's from the camera flash.

Same area after a little sanding.  I was hoping that sanding the
epoxy surface would help blend in the repaired area, but once
it's washed, and waxed it doesn't make any difference.

Living room crack before the floor was waxed.

Kitchen crack repairs before the floor was waxed.

Kitchen area after floor was waxed.  In these pics it doesn't
look too different, but I'm blaming that on the flash too :-)

Closing up 2013

I've spent a good portion of today, cleaning up 'stuff' from 2013.  One my tasks was to clean all the photos off my camera and put them in the appropriate photo albums.
  
It's always fun to look at photos for the 2nd time, and a couple of these I just had to share.  Sometimes the beauty of the view out my front windows, takes my breath away.  I hope I never take it for granted.

Nov View from home.  No snow, sun is setting.

And here is one out my office window.  The winter light in the Arctic is amazing, even if the sun doesn't really rise for 54 days....and I do count those days.

Deadhorse sunrise/set

Last but not least are a couple of Christmas photos.  I didn't do much decorating this year, since I wasn't going to be home.  But I did need to make a new wreath that would accent my new door.  The giant red bow I've used the past few years just wasn't going to work since I had the front door painted.

And here are my snowman stickers.  I really think they're cute.  I peeled them off the wall today and stuck them to some waxed paper.  Hopefully I can use them again next year.

Key West - El Siboney

Sometime back, probably 15 to 20 years ago, Penny & I took a trip to Key West.  We had a great time.  We did a lot of walking, and one day we got really lost.  I remember it being early afternoon, and getting very hot.  We stumbled upon a little restaurant off the beaten track and stopped in for lunch.  It had great Cuban food and wonderful Sangria.  We've talked about it off and on all these years.

So when we went back to Key West last week, we decided to try and find it.  We described it to a waitress in a local bar, and she knew exactly which one we were looking for, El Siboney.  So we took all our traveling companions over there for lunch.  I knew it was the right place as soon as we walked it, it smelled soooo good!

Anyway, lunch was great, and I'm glad we found it again.  It's very unusual in a tourist area like Key West, to have a restaurant stay around a long time.  But this one must be patronized mostly by locals.  If you get down to Key West, definitely stop in for lunch or dinner.

Pulled pork with onions, casava & tamale.  Notice the sangria with lime :-)

New Bed Frame & Duvet Cover

I've been meaning to buy a new bed frame with an upholstered headboard, and finally found one I liked.  Ordered it from CB2 a few weeks ago.  It's been sitting here in pieces, today I finally got around to putting it together.

It's very sturdy but I wasn't thrilled with the dark gray color on the headboard.  So I stopped in at the local fabric shop today and picked up a couple of yards of yellow cotton cloth.  Ironed it and stapled over the existing cloth so it will be easy to change out if I decide I don't like it, or just want a change sometime in the future.

Gray Headboard Insert

Padded Insert added to frame

Assembled Frame

The pieces of this frame actually went together pretty easily, but it was a 2 person job.  I'm really glad Valda came up and gave me a hand with it.

Finished

It's a big change from the yellow sunflowers.

Next I need to get a couple of real night stands...

Glider Rocker

Virginia is here visiting for a couple of days.  Yesterday she had to sit around watching paint dry...

So this afternoon I put her to work helping me put together the glider/rocker that I bought back in June and left in my exercise room in it's box.  Lots of little pieces but it went together pretty easily, and seems work work just fine.

Exterior Doors Painted

I moved into my house almost 4 years ago, in fact next week will be my 4th anniversary.  I have no idea how the past 4 years went by in a blink, but they really did.

So it's high time I finally got my exterior doors painted.  I couldn't decide on a color, so Paul just installed them the way they were shipped.  They are fiberglass doors, in primer white.  Which actually looked great with my gray siding, so they didn't move up the priority list until last year.  And then it was so wet all summer that I didn't get around to getting them painted.

Anyway, Becca came out this summer and repainted the inside of my house.  I went with a bit whiter color, and I really like it.  And Sunday she came back with her boss and his portable spray booth.

Here is the spray booth being set up in my driveway.  Sunday was such a beautiful day, but it's definitely fall.  Look how the fireweed on the hill above me is all bloomed out.

They took all 9 doors down (yes, I know 9 exterior doors seems excessive, but that's how many I have...lol), sprayed them, and put them back up.  I really like how they look.  I'm still not really sure what kind of paint they used, but it dried to the gentle touch in about 15 min, and could be re-hung after about a 1/2 hour.

The doors now have a glossy surface, which nicely covers up all the dings and cement, and scrapes, etc. left over from the building process.  And the color matches the new interior paint color.

Except for the outside of the front door, which is a hot pink/fuchsia color.  It's bright and I really like how it looks against the gray siding.

Coffee Table - Part 1

This is a project I've been thinking about for at least a year.  I'm finally moving forward with it, and part one has come together nicely.

I need a coffee table in my living room.  Something sturdy that I can put my feet on.  Besides it's time for the surf board rug to go back to the hallway where it belongs.

I had a set of these metal legs left over from building the kitchen island/dining table.  So I thought I should incorporate them into my coffee table design.  That way the 2 tables would sort o f  match.  I did have to take them down to the Gear Shed and have about 8 inches cut off each leg, but the whole table should now stand 20" high.  That part went really quickly.  The tube stoppers I bought to act as leg glides were just a tiny bit too small.  So today I added a bit of silicone caulk.  Once it drys they should stay in place without any trouble.

I wanted the metal part of the table top to coordinate with my kitchen island top.  I talked Ralfy into building the raw top for me.  I really wish I'd stopped to take a picture of it before I had it clear coated.  It was really rusty and gnarly looking, exactly what I wanted.  Here is what it looks like with the clear coat added.  It has such wonderful colors and patterns.

Once I got the metal top done, I needed to build the wood base.  I bought the material at SBS and had the guys in the yard cut it for me, since I don't own a saw.  There were a few small issues, but it all worked out great.  I know they did a lot more than then needed to, because they aren't supposed to make precision cuts, but I really appreciate their help.

Here it is with the frame all screwed together.  I really need to take a woodworking class and learn how to really use some of these tools.  Maybe then I'd even buy my own wood saw instead of using my chain saw inappropriately.

The legs will bolt onto the bottom like this, but I won't attach them until I'm ready to finish it all up.  
Part 2 is a concrete box with an ecosmart bioethanol burner.  I'll need to make the concrete mold and pour that part when I'm home on my next R&R.

Stay tuned for part two :-)

Painting Roof Support Beams

Wow, it's really been a long time since I posted on my blog.  But then it's been a while since I did anything new around the house.

This week I tackled what I thought would be a small project.  Though I've been putting it off, and it turned into a 2 day ordeal.  I've been wanting to paint the roof support beams the same gray as my siding.  Originally they were painted with a clear urethane coating, but while I liked seeing the wood grain on the glulam beam, I didn't care for it on the posts. The last couple of winters have seriously abused these wooden posts.  Snow builds up and water has leached up from the bottoms, so the urethane turned white and was peeling off in long strips.  That was easy enough to peel off for a foot or so, but the rest had to be sanded.  And my hand sander died, so I spent a good 4 hours yesterday, sanding both of these beams.  And the ends of the glulam beam have really weathered, so I sanded both ends too.

So here is the glulam beam freshly coated with a exterior urethane coating.  The whole beam got a fresh coat, and both sanded ends got 3 coats over the course of the day.

The worst part of the whole project were the mosquitos.  I had to wear long sleeves, gloves and a bug net.  UGH.

Sanded Posts

Posts painted with primer

Posts with 2 coats of paint

Finished project

But the other wildlife was fun.  A small bull moose, maybe a 3 year old at the most, ran through the yard at one point.  Glad I was up on my ladder and he was in a hurry.  And as I'm writing this a pair of Sandhill Cranes just walked up my driveway.  They must have come up through my back yard.  I'm guessing I'll see then head back down the driveway, in an hour or 2.

So the next project is interior painting.  I finally admitted to myself I was never going to do that, and hired a painter.  She's doing a great job.  I'm hoping she gets to all my exterior doors soon.  The front door pictured above will be a bright fuchsia.  But that will be the subject of another post.

Kona Vacation

We've been here on Kona a week now.  What a great trip.  It's been a bit hazy, but nice and warm.  Yesterday we went up to Hapuna Bay, I even got in the water and floated around for awhile.  And then we had a few AK friends over for dinner and Mai Tai's. The house we rented is great.  Plenty of room for all 10th of us.  We've been having coffee at the pool in the AM and dinner at home most nights.  Lakohouse.com There are lots of whales around.  We can see them breaching from our house.  We also did the morning Captain Zodiak whale watch a few days ago.  It was great fun.  Thanks to Capt Colin n First Mate Budda. We've also booked a tour up Mauna Kea to see the sunset and do some star gazing.  I'm really looking forward to it. Here are a few pictires. Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

Potatoes

I hate taking old tires to the landfill, so I decided to try to find another use for the set I had to replace this spring.  I settled on trying to grow potatoes in a tire tower.

So this spring I set 2 tires up and filled them full of soil and planted some potatoes.  After a couple of weeks, the plants were looking really nice so I added a 2nd tire and filled it full of straw.  And a few weeks later I added a 3rd tire and more straw.

The potatoes are supposed to grow in the straw and be easy to harvest.

So today, I took the towers apart.  There were no potatoes growing the straw, though I had a few growing in the dirt.

I'm not sure what went wrong.  Though I think the lack of sunshine and all the torrential rain we had this summer was partly to blame.  I'm also not sure if I packed the straw in tight enough.  I know the potatoes need to develop in the dark, no sunshine allowed.  And the dirt was really wet.  I have a lot of clay in my soil here.  So even though I mixed in a lot of potting soil, I think next year I need to add some sand.

Anyway, the few potatoes I got were pretty good.  I cooked most of them with a roast chicken tonight for dinner :-).

My potato plants are looking pretty ragged after all the rain the past 2 weeks.

2 tires and the straw removed.

A few nice looking potatoes.