HFM

Spent this weekend studying and working at the new bench. First, a couple additions to the workspace. The workbench needed some additional light. This bike-wheel-turned-light-fixture that I got from a friend moving to Hawaii is perfect: The space also needed a place to sit down. This fine pleather chair happened to be out on the sidewalk for free: Pickles isn't sure pleather is quite the right aesthetic. She is wrong. After getting all that organized, I could get back to that planter I started last week. Here is the finished product: From further back: After we get some soil, we are going to transplant some of the fast-growing lillies from the front of the house into it. Lastly, I took some of the 4x4's that had been supporting  the kitchen in the house's former life, and edged the garden with them: When I have time to plant a garden again, this will help keep the water on the garden soil instead of it running off into the mulch. I'm going to plant some flowers there in...

I caught a free week between the end of one class and the beginning of a new one, so I was able to make some progress on clearing space in the garage for the kitchen fix-up (now only a month away!). I spent the week cleaning things up, throwing things out, moving things around, and using up materials I've been saving for projects. Project 1: Bedside Shelves Our bed (the rolled up futon on the tatami mat in the picture) is in this little nook in the new room.  It fits great there, but there is no room for bedside tables, so I finally put up these little shelves: Did I use recycled materials from another project, you ask? Yes, yes I did. These are cut from a plank left over from the Great Fence Replacement of 2012, & finished with rub-on polyurethane left over from The Monster Project of 2014-2016. Project 2: Workbench There was a 7-foot piece of structural beam left over from The Monster Project of 2014-2016 that I liked the look of. It's basically a 3 1/2"-thick lengt...

We just brought this 6'x6'x2' beauty home from the Salvation Army for the kitchen project: The china cabinet, not the MMA dummy. No, the MMA dummy didn't come with it. Yes, I'm disappointed.

Last weekend, we had a house guest: the one and only StarrhillGirl, who AJ has known for 30 years, and who is a follower and frequent commenter on this blog. Pickles, as usual, did her best to be a good host. For example, after the bed was made, she immediately swooped in to perform turndown service: Thanks, Pickles! We spent the weekend relaxing and enjoying the warm weather. While StarrhillGirl and AJ read and napped on Sunday, I got some work done on the mural: Meanwhile, Pickles made sure that her spot on the deck didn't get neglected: It was a great visit, but so short! We can't wait until she returns for more fun! This week, it's going to rain all weekend, so there will be no work on the mural. That's just as well -- I have a paper due on Tuesday, so I really should be focusing on that anyway. I think another couple of weekends of work and the mural should finally be done, though -- can't wait to get back to it!

We had some warm weather this past week, so we got to go outside for some long overdue projects. AJ took some pots and pans and baking sheets down to the antique stove, to make a final decision about whether she wants to cook on it. If the decision is yes, we will seriously look into restoring it; if the decision is no, then will just use it as a piece of furniture, as originally planned. The decision is yes! We'll start making some phone calls and get a restorer out to take a look at it. On a related note, in the course of researching the stove, we found out that this thing isn't for burning wood, it's a trash burner: We also found out that the stove is likely from the 20's, based on the shape of the legs. The front yard also got some much needed attention. I took care of the weeding, and The Mars Estate Head Gardener moved some plants that were getting too big: Some of them made their way upstairs, into these planters: Others were moved to the back yard. Here is the e...

In addition to getting the paperwork completed this week, we also were able to squeeze into Mr. Bunkport's schedule and get some final gutter work done in between rain storms. Here is Mr. Bunkport, on the new neighbor's (the one who gave us the orchids) roof, fixing some downed vinyl siding and putting up a new gutter: A thing of beauty! And here he is, putting up a gutter outside of AJ's office: Another thing of beauty! And another task for my to-do list: removing a piece of the washing machine vent to make room for the gutter left a little white strip above the window that I need to touch up with the blue at some point. Of course, it's unusual (and ill advised) to run a gutter and downspout toward the house instead of away from it, but I asked him to do it so that I could put together a small rain catchment system. I put it together on Sunday, using copper fittings (to match the copper water line below the window, and the copper downspout on the back of the house) and...

Today, 104 weeks from when we started the big renovation project (almost exactly two years -- the first construction post on this blog was on March 16, 2014), we finally can call the project totally and completely done: the last of the nightmare of city paperwork is now officially complete. We are DONE!