February 15, 2017

Yesteryear
One year ago today: February 15, 2016, stealth radio transmitter.
Five years ago today: February 15, 2012, I like silver.
Nine years ago today: February 15, 2008, a generic post-heart attack Friday?
Random years ago today: February 15, 2011, Tom Clancy character bloat . . .

MORNING
           This is your standard “before” picture. It is the window with the missing sill. Can I restore this puppy? I took some of the paint of the top piece, shown here. The book calls it the “head jamb”. The paint missing elsewhere was either flaked off by age, or I hit it with the heat gun. I’m going to have a stab at refurbishing this window, and you know why? Because I like that word, “refurbish”. It kind of rolls off the tongue and sounds much better than restore or rebuild. If there was an even fancier European word, I’d use that. Joking aside, this is slow and labor intensive, so I may only peel the worst parts. Time to start learning.

           As with the termites and rest of the building, I caught it in time so most of the parts are intact. This other picture shows the plate that fits under the window, I suppose it would be called the sill plate. The layers of paint and glue will be removed, you can see here that the wood itself is intact. The pieces still fit like a jigsaw. And I feel like I’ve really accomplished something doing this work, though I’m rarely satisfied with the results. Pssst, that’s why I started at the back of the house.

           I’ve got several reference books to help me with ideas, I think I should give the best credit to the Reader’s Digest Complete Do-It-Yourself manual. Easy to follow, with great illustrations of what you need. It seems to have a section for any part of the house I’m working on. It says I can repair any rotted wood in place with epoxy, though so far none of the wood has been that bad. There are some suspiciously soft parts, but work with me and we’ll get through this soon enough.
           Be advised that most of this work would not be economical unless you do it yourself. And be prepared to let the rest of your house get messy while you are busy with it. The last thing I feel like doing at the end of a stretch is to start dusting or sweeping the hallways. Let the sink pile up, too. Another topic I’m getting no help on is the foundation on sand. They all tell me to dig down to solid ground, but no instructions on if that isn’t feasible. Or the click bait where you get there and it all it says is don’t build on sand. Great help there, Bozo.

           I may try an experiment soon, which I’ll describe here so you can judge my failure if it comes to that. You know those waxed cardboard tubes they say to pour concrete into for your pylons? The videos all show some smiling chump placing the tube down a hole of the right size and depth. We have no such opportunity. My idea is this. Why not get the largest diameter tube and a slightly smaller spade. Then force the tube slowly down into the ground, digging the sand out from the inside?
           If there was an industrial grade vacuum cleaner, that would be worth a try as well. Are we clear on that? I dig the hole as deep as I can before the sides cave, then place the cardboard tube upright and try digging from the inside out. The tubes are cheap enough to try. And what if I discover something? Right now, I have no idea how deep I should go, but looking at a few of the houses west of Harden, I’d say the deeper the better.

           For now, help me focus on the windows. That should be done before I work on the floor. I wish JZ was here for the drywall because I know I’m going to really make a lot of extra work of it. Other than that, I wish you a good morning. The sun is up and I’m going out to work on the windows for a while. If you want some early versions of this blog, I am still publishing the pages from December 1981. They have an “old blog” Internet feel to the posts, which I cannot explain because the Internet was still ten years into the future. Or at least browsers that opened the Internet to the public were unheard of, so where I got some of the context in 1981 is beyond me.
           It was not until a few years later that I even heard of the Internet—and hey, I worked for a communications company. But nobody knew what was the next big thing, and lordy knows how many scams had come along, for all the man on the street knew, it was just the next sucker punch. Then, when free disks started arriving from AOL, everybody knew it was a scam. I

Picture of the day.
Motorcycle paradise.
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NOON
           Don’t we all love that British twit who says winning the lottery at 17 “ruined” her life. First of all, how the hell would she know. She attributes the ordinary bouts of teenage loneliness and insecurity to money, how typically shallow-brained. She’s trying to get the minimum age raised to 18, like that’s going to do a bloody bit of good. Bloody in the English sense of the word. Okay, she found out money isn’t everything for people with her education and aptitude. The rest of us would still like the option to learn the lesson ourselves, Toots.

           Be prepared for some doldrums as I launch into the parts of the renovations that were planned for two workers. It takes four times longer to do it myself, those of you will know what I mean if you’ve ever tried to lift both ends of the lumber alone. I have to plan each day around letting the paint dry. So you won’t be getting any dramatic episodes. Not unless you find it interesting to watch an amateur like me tackle a house renovation himself. There’s still a chance JZ will show up one day, but no waiting around for it. The hot weather is on the way.

           Here’s a close-up of a glazing point in the stripped window frame. I’m only taking it down to the wood where it is peeling. The rest gets sanded smooth and primed. Once I got the grungy layer off, you can see the wood is in fairly good shape. Always remember to prime the wood before you get to the putty. The last guy didn’t and the linseed oil soaked into the wood. Then your putty doesn’t stick well. What a mess chipping the old stuff out.

           I dropped into the Thrift and found something of a gem. I don’t know how to use it, but it is heavy metal and stamped “Made In USA”. That makes it worth ten bucks to me. It’s a Stanley, so let’s see if it goes well toward changing their poor performance on that pry bar that doesn’t pry. Hang on, I’m going to pour myself a coffee. Okay, I back. Ah, dat’s good coffee. Here’s my new Stanley plane.

           I’ve tried using planes before without much success. Always clogs up or splits the wood, because I don’t know the right way to plane. Now I’ll be forced to learn or waste the ten bucks. This one has three or four adjustment levers and knobs. I hope it is one of those that produces those curly wood shavings. I always wanted to make curly those to say I could. Man, that’s good coffee.
           Return, probably tomorrow, for the inside on this plane. It is hefty, high quality, and I will look it up to see what I have. I would say from the looks, the last guy bought it, hit a nail, and gave up.

One-Liner of the Day:
Worst pickup line—“Who’s your friend?”
NIGHT
           Now that the floor is back in place, though not finished, I can work inside in comfort. That made it a long day. Here’s the yellow glue I used to redo all the window trim. Is this picture a repeat? Anyway, this gets the job done and is not affected by moisture as much while drying. I had some pieces get caught in a flash rain and they still held. The white glue is fine for working indoors and it dries clear. This glue does not, so I had to prime the frames again. That’s me, a firm believer in prime coats and pilot holes. The alert reader should understand there is always a strong likelihood I am the cause of most errors with tools and construction products. (Unless is the tool is an electric bass, then I never make mistakes. Ha!)

           Now able to continue after dark, I cleared the area for the windows on the east wall. I drove around a few times to find other places that had these two side-by-side windows rather than the more common double window. I found quite a few and they don’t look bad. I was concerned after all the work it would look funny, or that there was some unknown reason you don’t see them all that often. Nope, I think it will be fine.

           I measured very carefully. The windows are set into openings 34” wide and 59” high. The gap between the windows is 4-1/2”, or a pillar made of three studs. As long as I can get the casements or whatever they are called into the openings, I’ll worry about the trim pieces later. I’ve learned plenty fixing the old wood, and I didn’t have to use any epoxy yet. Just a small cup of hard-as-nails. That’s a misnomer, it isn’t hard at all. It even sands easy.
           But I’m taking some heavy sandpaper to the window frames. That’s the wood that’s been goop-painted too many times. I’ll pick up some 50 grit and use the old Texas sandpaper trick. What? You don’t know how to make the sandpaper so tough it lasts until the grains wear right down to paper? Easy, just put duct tape over the backing.

           Did you see that ass-clown Geraldo try to take on Ann Coulter again? The guy is an uneducated racist, he hates white America. Who remembers when he claimed the illegals were making a “gift” of $100 billion to the nation by working under fake Social Insurance numbers and paying premiums they would never collect. Ha, it’s probably the only time they obey the law. He claims that illegal immigrant crime is lower than white crime because, get this, he’s been in the neighborhoods. While Anne was working from a computer screen. Yeah, Geraldo, that’s a real scientific method you got there.
           He claims there was no crime. Like, how does he know? While he was there, did he ask people if they were criminals? But he’s a jerk. Because the very fact they are here makes them criminals. What part of illegal doesn’t he understand. I will laugh when one day he speaks out of turn to the wrong person. Ann isn’t going to reach over and punch him in his stupid head. Do you suppose that’s why he keeps his distance?
           Wasn’t that the time he called her a “polemist” hoping that his audience wouldn’t know what it means. It’s a person who writes against something. But it’s underhanded crap like that, as if we don’t know he just found that word in a dictionary day before yesterday. What a schmuck. Ann should have pointed out that his wife has thespian fanatasies.


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