Small project

I looked out the kitchen window and remembered that it needed a little help. I went and got my window stuff and pulled the window out. I removed the old glazing and the window pane. The glass wasn't broken so I only had to re glaze. I couldn't use my heat gun to make getting the old glazing compound out because the electricity went out when someone hit a few of the poles.
It is back in how and will last for a while. It is really just a temp repair because I still need to do the top sash and it all needs scraped and painted. It was fun to have a job that I could see from start to finish in a couple hours.

New project

I started cleaning up the basement. This is a shot of the tool shelves. I just put the two up that are to the right in the picture. I have just been putting stuff on the shelves for now and will organize it later.
This corner of the basement is filled with all the trim from throughout the house. I guess it could be considered Kerry's work area because she is the one that is in charge of all the trim.
This corner is where all my scaffolding, drywall lift, and ladders are. All that stuff is going to stay in that corner. Boxes need to be emptied and large tools have to be moved around.
This corner is the one that still needs to be sorted out. We had water get up to 3 inches down here and ruined some of the stuff we had stored. We still have to go through it and see what we can keep.
This is what I have pulled out of the basement so far. Mostly empty boxes. We had some old carpet down there and some pads that we got while we lived in Germany. Most of the stuff still smells damp from being in the water.

We rented a small dumpster that they will empty once a week. I am going to start filling it up as soon as it gets here on Tuesday.

Boat

We bought a boat. Kerry and I were talking about it and we never thought that we would ever own a boat but... we do now. I started talking about it so we could go scuba diving in some of the local lakes without trying to find a place near the shore that we could drag all of our stuff to. I was looking for any kind of boat that was cheap and could get us to the middle of the lake with our scuba stuff.

I found a boat on Ebay that was a 1971 Rinkerbuilt Runabout with a 1983 115 horsepower Johnson outboard. I won the auction and borrowed Burt's van to go pick it up in Jeffersonville, IN which is about 60 miles away. On the way home we went by the lake to see if it would run. Alas, the power trim wouldn't work so we couldn't get the engine in the water to start it. It turned out to be a relay for 15 bucks that I picked up at the local NAPA auto parts store. Tuesday we took it out to the lake and ran it around for a couple hours. It ran just fine.

Since it was a ski boat we decided that it would be a waste not to have skis. We went out and bought skis and a ski rope. We also had to get a tow rope for the tube that they threw in with the boat. It had a hole in it and they lost the plug for the inflation valve but I was able to fix that. Then we took our kids and Burt's kids out to water ski and tube.

After skiing and tubing we figured out that we needed a boarding ladder. We went to the marina in Lexington and picked up a boarding ladder and some smaller skis for the small kids. I also picked up new tail lights at Walmart for the trailer. On Saturday we were planning to make a longer trip to Dale Hollow lake that is two and a half hours away.

Saturday we went to Dale Hollow and did some scuba diving and water skiing. I also was able to use my metal detector under water for the first time. It was pretty muddy on the bottom when we were scuba diving but we snorkeled later and I was able to find 3 pennies and quite a few pull tabs from old cans.

We have had a lot of fun and we used our tax rebate check to pump up the economy. We did our part. It was nice to do something fun this summer since we spent most of it working on the third floor. I tried to upload pictures but they wouldn't take. Maybe I will try to upload again later.

I have to go to work tomorrow. I get to fly on United to London, England. Yee haw, 8 hours in a coach seat!

Shower tiled

I spent the day in the bathroom today. It took forever to tile around the corners and the slanted wall. On the slanted wall I think I was able to put up two tiles that I didn't have to cut. It was my first time tiling a wall. It isn't too hard when it was the normal walls though. I still have to up the grout on. I have to wait 24 hours before grouting.
We put up the mirror and towel holder today. I think this is the first shot of the vanity. The bathroom has been pretty full of stuff for a while. I had to raise it up two inches but you can't really tell.
I stained the closet door with red mahogany. It matches the rest of the stained doors in the house. I put in the filler on the slanted part of the door. It turned out pretty good.

Tomorrow is Sunday and we are having the Kentucky families over for lunch. We are excited to show off our newly remodeled part of the house. There is still some trim work to do around the windows. I also have to figure out how to fix all the windows up here.

Power is on

We now have all the power up on the third floor. We went around playing with all the light switches and ceiling fans just because we could.



We took some after pictures. I am going to put the before pictures up and then the after pictures.













I also did some odds and ends. I put up the mini blinds, hung the bedroom door, fixed the outside door so it would latch, and other stuff. I got the side wall tiled on the shower. I also got the bottom two rows done on the ends. I would have done more but I ran out of tile adhesive. We have pictures of the tile and the door but I figured there were enough pictures for one blog.

After a run to Lowes in the morning I will finish up the tile in the shower. I still need to put a filler strip on the angled part of the hollow door for the closet. We decided to stain that door instead of painting it. I hope it looks good.

Carpet is in!

It only took the carpet guys a little over two hours to install the carpet. We got the thick pad so it covers the defects in the floor. Kerry was pleased with the color. She said she was a little worried about her color choice last night before it was installed. It has been over a month since she chose it.
After the carpet was in we made a trip to Lowes. We picked up some mini blinds and some outlets and switches. I spent the rest of the afternoon putting up the other two light fixtures and installing all the outlets and light switches.
Kerry wanted to stop by Walmart and pick up a curtain for the door. She found this nice one that ties up. It is installed with a magnetic curtain rod that sticks to the door. We have carpet remnants placed at strategic places to keep the carpet new. It is funny how we used to protect the rest of the house from the third floor with remnants and now we are protecting the third floor from the outside and the rest of the house. What a knee slapper!!!

Tomorrow, Lord willing, I will put up some tile in the bathroom shower. First I am going to do the work in the circuit breaker panel to get power to the third floor. Everything is wired up there I just need to send the power to it.

Ready for carpet!

We are now anxiously awaiting carpet! It is midnight as I blog this and the carpet guys will be here about 9 am. You can see all the trim that Kerry and Erin painted today. Kerry painted the top of the base moulding close to the wall and Erin would come behind her painting the rest of it. They had a pretty good rate going by time they got the second coat done. After church services tonight Kerry and I cleaned the floor and vacuumed all the cracks out. This floor is now cleaner than it has been in... who knows how many years.
While Kerry and Erin were painting trim I was going around putting up lights and the other ceiling fan. I also got all the wiring ready so I could just put the outlets in and screw the wires to them.
The light for the closet is an interesting one. It is a fluorescent light that looks like a flying saucer. It doesn't mount flush with the wall so it looks kind of weird. Kerry liked it though so we kept it. I wanted a thin light so it didn't get too close to the closet shelf.

I put in the vanity and got all the water running in the bathroom. I had to raise the vanity two inches in order for the P trap to be high enough to drain. It looks okay with the base trim around the bottom. If you didn't know any better you would think that it was supposed to be that way. The toilet flushes really fast. I bought one with a bigger flapper valve and when it opens... it opens!

Tomorrow we are getting the carpet in and I will put in some outlets and hopefully put up the last two lights. If I feel really energetic I will start on the tile for the shower.