I'm Back: May, 2015 (and it's snowing)

Finally! Internet issues kept me from posting earlier.

About the house...This year will start with basement windows (installed), finishing the painting (five gallons applied so far, another four, or so, to go.), water proofing, and finishing any stucco that is patiently waiting to be done. Time and funds permitting, I will also install windows in the first and second floors, and then some of the doors in the house. Hopefully, I will also be able to do some work in the garage, starting with framing out the big garage door and the three upstairs windows.

Tomorrow, I will stop by ReStore to see if I can pick up an entry door or anything else I might need. ReStore is Habitat for Humanity's Goodwill of construction materials, new and used. It is absolutely a good place to check out for anyone doing anything in their house. I recently purchased stair risers for $7.00 each in Baltimore--these run around $35.00 if bought in a flooring or big-box store. There are at least four ReStore locations around Baltimore. (I stopped at ReStore in Moorhead and picked up a solid wood door with oak veneer and solid oak frame for $15.00.)

The door with its frame and threshold. Notice the basement windows.

Actually, I have been in the state for over a week (Nearly a month by now.). During this time, I had the privilege of helping one of my sisters install a new laminate floor, another with un-carpeting and woodifying (Yes, it's a word--I just used it, so it must be!) her stairs (actually I just helped cut new risers, she and her son did the rest), and then gave minimal advice, well support, to a third sister about a plumbing issue. (As it turned out, my advice was incorrect—it was the fresh-water line that had cracked.) With the help of other siblings, I delivered and set up mobility devices for a brother--a stair lift and a motorized wheel chair, and, again with sibling support, I delivered my travel trailer and my sister's motor home to the construction site. The trailer is ready for occupancy, and I will be in it, getting to work starting tomorrow.

I will be at my brother's tomorrow morning while a service man finishes installing and maintaining the stair lift--a seven-year-old Bruno. The technician said that it looks to be in very good shape. Tomorrow, he will bolt it in place, then clean, lubricate, and adjust it as necessary. These things (stair lifts) are expensive, but I came across this one on Craig's list. I think that the seller was emptying out a house and needed to get it sold fast. (Completed, as expected.)

At the same time as I was finding that, one of my sisters found a motorized wheel chair for my brother. The chair is an older Hoveround that a gentleman had used while recovering from back surgery. He no longer needed it, so he sold it to my sister for an extremely good price. Sometimes things just work out.

I will try to post some pictures of these machines later.

Winter on the Farm

Not much snow, yet, but the white building just seems to disappear in what is there. The gray, cloudy sky adds to the vanishing-dome act. You can see the parts that are not yet painted. The current plan is for the trim around the door and window
openings to be the same color as the trim on the machine shed. That will stand out nicely in the winter.

From a different angle, slightly to the west, you look across the driveway. From here, the garage, without its unpainted area showing, is not so visible behind the trees.

Here we can see what the blue trim does for a white building in a snow-covered farmstead on a cold winter's day.









I guess I'd better put some coffee on, and a pot of cocoa or hot apple cider, too. Maybe stir the chili and whip up a batch of good crusty French rolls.

Humans!

They can't make up their minds!
He gives us a great place to store our winter larder, then he takes it away. Did he think we stored them there for him?

He brings home twobyes in his pickedup and stacks them. He says they are twobyes, eight of them, but he can't count. He put them two by two in stacks next to each other in the grach next to his pickedup. Five in each stack with one on top in the middle--that's eleven, not eight. The space between the stacks with a twobye on top makes a great place to store our food. What a great store house-- out of the weather and where no one else will ever think of looking.

We lined up the acorns like gumballs in a gumball chute. One at a time they will come out as we need them.

But what does he do? He builds a wall between the grach and his big nest. Really, though, it's between the grach and a place he calls a link. Who ever heard of part of a home called a link? Link is what we do on the computer! It's actually a tunnel from the grach to the big nest. What does he do? He builds what he calls a floor and uses the twobyes. How can it be a floor? We walk on floors, but to see his "floor" we need to look up. He says it's the second-story floor. Boy, is he telling us a story! Look up to see the floor-huh!

So, here are our acorns, all lined up for our winter meals after he took away the top twobye.

Then he took another twobye, and another. We could tell something was amiss. Was he planning on taking them for himself? So, we had to take action. Guess what he found when he came back for the next twobye.

Yup! Nothing but twobyes stacked two by two.

To really show that this guy doesn't know what he's doing, come into the tunnel, oops, link.

Now, look at the floor.

Ah-ha! Just as I thought, you looked down to see the floor.

Now look up and see what he calls the floor.

I think I understand. His first story is telling us that the floor is up there; his second story is that you humans will walk on it. We can, easily, but it's so funny when bipeds try. They look like they're trying to fly.

Humans!

Go Minnesota Golden Gophers!

Notice, the Vikings aren't doing so well, but the Gophers are!

Another View (A Swan's Perspective)

These are a pair of what I believe are trumpeter swans calmly swimming around the beaver pond to the north of the house.












As they take off to the south, this is their first view of the domes.

Painting and House Wrap

Again, you have seen pictures of the outside showing the dormers and entryways. This is what it looks like now:

Primed, well in the process. N is working on the garage cupola. It's been awhile since I worked up that high so the process is rather slow.

Since I received instructions from spouse, neighbors, and sisters to not work up there when I'm here alone, I began on the house using a ladder and reaching as far as I could.

That is just the primer. I'm using Sherwin Williams Loxon concrete and masonry primer. Very thick, only get about 200 square feet per gallon. However, from what I've seen so far, it does a remarkable job of sealing hairline cracks in the concrete.

So far, I only painted/primed down to the top of the riser panels. I can reach that without a ladder, and besides, I need to focus on getting the upper areas covered and sealed before winter sets in. Water will have a difficult time getting through the riser panels.

I have a one-person lift coming this week that I will use to get the house cupola primed and painted. I should also be able to paint the garage cupola and reach down on both domes far enough that I can finish the rest from ladders.

The lift will also make it easier to inspect the domes for cracks or other defects that might provide water a route through the shell.

I'm Home. Close the door!

Walls! and More Walls

I believe I posted this picture, or one like it, earlier. This is the link, taken from the kitchen, after all supporting framework had been removed.

And standing in the same spot, facing the stairs:

Now the link looks like this:

(The picture facing the other way will be posted later, so check back.)
The room is currently housing rolls of fiberglass insulation--a picture would make one itch all over just thinking about sleeping on it, or even sleeping in a room filled with it.

I need to seal up the house for the winter. To do that, I need a wall between the link and the garage. Fortunately, A stopped by for a visit and helped layout and build the first-floor wall. Later, N stopped by and helped finish it.

Now, I need to build the second-floor wall. To do that, I first need the support cables tightened, clamped and fastened to the joists for the second floor over the link; to do that, I need all the joists in place;  to do that I need all the walls for the link built as well as the edge beams for the second-floor of the house; to do that, I need the room-divider wall built in the house...etc., etc., etc.

I took a break. I needed to organize and store my supplies, or at least have one place to put everything. So, I gathered up some lumber and started putting it together. It turns out that everything was the proper length to build this shelf unit:

All I needed to cut were the four corner braces and the four short 2X4s that run front to back to support the shelves and hold everything together.

However, this interior work needs to be put on hold so I can get the outside sealed up for the winter, too.  I can still work inside when the temperatures outside get too cold to paint. The next post will show pictures of the painting process and the covered entry ways and dormers.

Hummingbird Rest Area...

...or endless computer loop.

The birds are headed south. There seems to be a steady honking of the geese as they fly by, some overnighting in the local ponds and lakes, including our beaver ponds. One wayward hummingbird decided to check out the new structure in its path. It entered the house and headed for the cupola.

Now, the cupola has five sides with new windows in each side. New windows, as in the labels are still stuck on, except one red label on one window that has half fallen off. The hummingbird entered the cupola and immediately found a red perch to rest on and promptly forgot how it got in. When it was time to leave, it flew around the cupola, looking out each of the five windows until it came to a red perch, where it sat for a few seconds and repeated the search for an escape, always ending at the red perch.

Not knowing how to help the bird find its way, I left and sent out a call for help. I had hoped that without me there, it would come lower and leave via a door. It did. However, while I was sending out my SOS, a hummingbird flew up to the window in my camper and stayed there for a few moments before leaving, presumably getting back on the international highway to its warm wintering getaway.

Was it the hummingbird? Did it stop to comment on the structure, maybe saying something about needing a door in the cupola? Maybe suggesting signs warning of the endless loop ahead? Or was it hungry and asking for the nearest flower garden or hummingbird feeder?