Pain of Painting

We went to Emerald Lake last Tuesday morning.  The goal was to paint the bathroom and deliver Thanksgiving day Lions tickets to Shane--he and some friends will join us for the game and dinner afterward.  We did not get much done Tuesday afternoon and evening except for heating up the house.  Fifty-five degrees in the early afternoon so fired up the propane heater and the word burning stove.  Split and hauled some wood.   By late night we had the temperature comfortable but there were still some cold spots.  Not until the next morning did the temperature even out throughout.  All the while Canadian Geese came and went and kept up honking, even as we slept.

Wednesday Kathy began priming the walls and ceiling.  It turned out to be a one-person job since the size and shape of the bathroom prohibited another ladder or person to be in helping.  In addition ladders could not be placed conveniently and so Kathy was contorting her body to reach remote places that needed painting.  Fortunately she could break for the afternoon and went into town to get her hair cut.  In the meantime I finished some routine maintenance on the Ranger and John Deere.  When we finally close for the season I still have to put them in winter storage.  Canadian Geese were still around--not sure if they were different from Tuesday's.

Kathy finished priming on Thursday while I did some writing, kept the wood burner going, split wood, and helped move and hold ladders for fear of falling.  But by nightfall she had the bathroom primed.  Angie stopped by with her kids for a visit.  Preston is growing like a weed, Logan and Kamber played with the toys and read books, and we talked with Angie.  Geese are still honking.

Friday Kathy spent all day putting on the finish coat--skill, stamina, success!  She was tired and sore when she made her last brush stroke.  That leaves us with just the workshop.  Still geese honking.

  

Saturday morning we put everything back into the bathroom, cleaned the wood burner, dusted and vacuumed, packed and closed up to return to Romeo--don't want to miss the Lions on Sunday.  Seems geese have left, but now the caw of black crows.

Mom's car

can now be parked in the garage.

I hardly recognize the place

With painting all done, we installed the pegboard and assembled the workbench and three rolling cabinets for the workshop.

Then three tall cabinets in the garage area finished the Gladiator work. Now to organize and fill up the those storage pieces!!!

Getting closer.

The Garage

1. The new drywall is up, taped, and compound applied -- all in just over a year!!!2. The workshop side needs pegboard on the left wall but that will be after we paint.

3. The back wall was never finished so that was finally done. You can see it beyond the stuff piled in the center of the garage floor. New cabinets are still in boxes.

4. We are hoping to prime the walls in the next couple days. Then paint after that.
I'm glad I did my first drywall job on the garage. Not many people will see my mistakes. I learned much, made many mistakes, and finally finished it.

An Empty Nest Again

Mother raccoon and her tribe have finally left. They lived in our fireplace chimney for about six weeks. We first noticed them because of the little ones' "barking" that must have been shortly after birth. Leo volunteered to help us get rid of them, but with the babies it was more difficult. We did not want to do anything to endanger them.

Kathy kept climbing up on the roof at night when mother goes out to feed and with flashlight in hand peered down the flue to see how the little ones were doing. "They're still there and growing." She would also check by rattling the fireplace screen and would get a noisy response and that also clued us they were still around.

Yesterday Kathy rattled the screen again to get their response and there was none. Up on the roof to check. This time no baby raccoons.

Kathy capped the fireplace flue and cleaned up the mess in the fireplace that fell through the damper.

Now for the state bird of Michigan. A couple robins are trying to build nests on beams extending over the outside decks. But we keep knocking down the nesting material because we do not want to deal with any more little ones.