On the Swings.

I took Finn across the street to try out her bike with the training wheels (can you believe she’s big enough already?) and we worked on it for about 10 minutes and one rest period. She hasn’t gotten the concept of moving her legs in revolutions yet; she tends to stomp down equally on either side, hitting the coaster brake and stopping herself as soon as she gets some momentum going. We abandoned the bike and walked over to the playground, where she asked me to push her on the swings for a total of 45 minutes or so.

We made it through the hurricane really well, and escaped my greatest fear—that of losing the roof, or at the very least, a leak. The backyard looked like a Civil War battlefield when it was finished. Our trees held firm but dropped piles of twigs, sticks, and dead branches everywhere. The neighbors lost an older oak tree across their driveway, and friends in Paradise lost their entire porch. We contented ourselves by watching Toy Story 3 in the living room while the wind howled outside. Our power actually stayed on until 5:30 or so Sunday morning before it finally got cut off, and we’re still without it Monday.

In better news, I’ve finally got the cash to call a roofing company. We’ve been coasting along under a slate roof that’s about ten years past its sell-by date, and I’ve given up on my dream of replacing it with the same material. We’re going to go with a 30-year asphalt shingle and have them replace the gutter on the back roof, as well as add a ton of snow guards to keep the gutter from getting flattened again. It’s been a long time coming, but I’ll be happy to have it done for the winter.

We’re most concerned about our vacation in Hatteras, which was scheduled to begin this Saturday. The word from our realty office is that there’s mostly wind damage and lack of power, but the houses in general are in good shape. Rt. 12 north of Rodanthe is breached and there are several other spots where the road is washed out, so we’ll have to wait and see if there’s a way to get onto the island that doesn’t involve a ferry (but I doubt it).

New rug!

Now, With a Little More Extract.

I cracked open the first bottle of hefeweizen this weekend and sampled the brew; the verdict is that it’s pretty heavy. The recipe I had didn’t come with the extract kit, so the taste comes off like the extract was in the pot and cooking for about 15 minutes too long. It’s heavy up front and finishes off pretty light but there’s a definite extract tang in the taste that’s going to take some getting used to. Tonight I’m going to pour some in a clear glass to look at the color, but I suspect it’s going to be dark and muddy.

Meanwhile, we hit the IKEA on Saturday to look for some furniture for Finn’s room. The bookshelf we wanted was out of stock. The bench we bought for the new bathroom was too wide and too long. But the lamp we bought for her room was just right… oh, well. Later in the day we met up with Jen’s family to get fitted for seersucker suits at Jos. A Bank in Columbia; All went swimmingly until we learned that their tan seersucker suits don’t come without pleated pants—no matter what size they are.

We chose some hardware for the new bathroom on Sunday and I spent some time installing a towel bar, TP holder, and toilet pull, which makes the room look better. We’re waiting on a special-order sink faucet which should arrive sometime this week.

Tired Robot.

I had a long list of stuff I wanted to get done written up on Friday evening. Somehow, I was able to cross a lot of stuff off that list, accomplish a bunch of other stuff, but I’m laying here feeling like I didn’t make any progress.

The floor in the den got hand-sanded one last time to remove any of the residual paint spatter, and this afternoon got a final coat of polyurethane down on the whole thing. We tried a light blue on the ceiling but decided against it after noticing that it lowered the top of the room, so I touched up a bunch of areas and knocked out the final punchlist.

Beyond that, the normal household stuff got accomplished—lawn mowed, weeds edged, floors vacuumed, etc. I tried to make some headway in cleaning out the basement and garage, but the dust kicked up as I moved around the basement aggravated my already sore throat to the point where I had to stop. Back inside, I cleaned up the front porch, and dragged a refrigerator box inside to carve out a castle for Finn.

The Fourth of July is bearing down on us quickly, and I still feel like there’s a ton of stuff left to do.

Just About Done.

The thought is that we’re going to paint the ceiling a light sky blue, to bring the whole thing back to its original roots as an outdoor porch.

Here’s a comparison, for old time’s sake:

Recapping the Weekend.

The Lockardugans had a busy, busy Memorial Day weekend. First up on our dance card was Aunt Christi’s graduation and celebration dinner. I could not make the ceremony but caught up with everyone later at Sascha’s for the celebration dinner. As we were eating, we recognized the girl in charge of our wedding, who came over to say hi right about the same time I was going to get up to say hello to her.

After the main course, I took the restless girl out for a walk to the Washington Monument, where we made friends with a kennel’s worth of dogs and ran around the empty fountains while couples strolled and chatted in the evening breeze.

Saturday we worked to clean the house up for more guests; my old college pal Chris and his family stopped over for a crab feast at the dining room table, and we shared parenting tips and home renovation stories. Who would have thought that twenty years ago, wandering back buzzed from the jazz clubs downtown at two in the morning, that we’d one day be comparing families and kids and jobs?

We had a bunch of crabs left over on Sunday, so Mama and I made short work of them after a long day in the den and chasing after the girl. Note to the Internets: To reheat crabs, throw them in a covered roasting pan and cook it at 350° for about 15 minutes. Delicious!

Meanwhile, the den is ever so much closer to being finished. All of the small molding is in place, the fireplace is surrounded with clean quarter-round, and the threshold over the bathroom door is in place. Mama rolled the first coat of wall paint over the primer, and I followed behind cutting in with a brush.

We also put a coat of yellow paint on the bathroom wall to see how it looks. At first we were a bit dubious, but I think it’s growing on us. We have some minor stuff to do in order to finish up:

• Putting a second coat of eggshell on the walls, and cutting it in
• Fixing the tape and spackle behind the radiator
• Cutting the toe molding around the back door threshold
• Fixing imperfections in the polyurethane on the floor
• Touch-up on the trim paint
• Replacing the switchplates and covers, and adding a timer to the porch light

My Bones are Aching.

Yes, another post where I complain about how tired/sore/achy I am. I’ll go through the highlights:

• Bought, installed and cleaned up all of the beadboard, baseboard, trim, and chair rail in the bathroom.
• Reinstalled the toilet for the final time.
• Mowed the entire lawn, trimmed it, fixed the trimmer. Broke the wheel on the mower.
• Trimmed the hedges up front. Trimmed the holly tree.
• Cut 3/4 of the dead cherry tree in the backyard down, using nothing but a hand saw. Smushed my foot under one of the larger branches. Hauled the debris to the driveway.
• Hosted friends for some hot dogs and baked beans in the backyard.
• Took my bride out for an anniversary dinner.

It really doesn’t sound like much, but my body is telling a different story. The bathroom is very, very close; there’s a lot of finish sanding to do, and then a final coat of gloss white paint on the trimwork will finish off the carpentry. The sink can go back in when that’s done, and we have paint candidates picked out for the walls. The den needs carpentry around the chimney and toe molding around the kickplates, but I’ve been having problems sourcing the toe molding this year. Then I think I’m going to move all the crap from my side of the front office into the den and re-apply polyurethane to the floor on that side in order to match up the old and new sides.

After the den is finished, I’m moving outside to tackle a bunch of exterior projects, the first of which will be the windows on the south and west sides of the house. The putty holding the panes is falling out in chunks and the planking needs desperately to be scraped and painted. So it’ll be lots of ladderwork for me this summer.

I’m Tiled This Morning.

On Saturday morning, Mr. Scout and I ventured down to beautiful Jessup to buy some metal. We’re going to make bumpers for our Scouts, and we needed raw materials to get started. Based on measurements taken from a plan I built in Illustrator, some nice bluehaired ladies in a dark bar-enclosed shed sold us lengths of box steel and plate, and we loaded up the truck with our booty. This place was a picture straight out of 1960, from ancient brick and wood paneling to the yellowing xeroxed cartoons taped to the walls. There were no computers in sight; our order was transcribed into a three-ring notebook and estimated with a calculator. Mr. Scout told me he’d priced out the materials online and what we got was dirt-cheap, which makes me feel good. Now to find the time to get over to Chestertown to start building it all.

Later that day, I bought some underlayment for the bathroom and began the tiling process. Sadly, this meant the sink and toilet had to be removed, at a crucial time for our household: Finn is on a potty-training program which means we have to get her upstairs every 45 minutes or so before she leaves a puddle somewhere on the floor. She’s doing really well, though; there were only a few accidents and she woke from both weekend naps completely dry. She’s also sleeping in her big-girl bed, which is a huge step for all of us. Saturday and Sunday morning she peeked in our room before dawn and woke me quietly, and both times she was dry—this after about 8 hours of sleep. Then I’d hoist her into our bed and she’d thrash around between us until I took her downstairs; clearly I need to get to sleep much earlier if this is how the pattern is going to change.

The underlayment went down quickly and with minimal fuss.

Waiting for the adhesive to cure, I finished off the kickplate, top trim, and other bits of carpentry and slapped a first coat of gloss white on as much as I could see clearly at 11:30PM. Mr. Scout brought a 1/4″ router bit with him, and we quickly milled a piece of wood for the space between the two right-hand windows. He also pointed out that I’d been using the wrong gauge nails in my pneumatic gun, which is information I could really have used about two months ago. (Thanks, Mr. Scout!)

Sunday morning Finn and I let Mama sleep in as long as she wanted, and we all spent the morning together before I got started tiling. It went in pretty easily. Mama suggested laying it with the points facing inward, so the hexagon shape stands out in the pattern, and I think it was the right move. We have a bit more trim work to do, and I need to cut about twenty pieces in half for the threshold, but we’re almost ready for grout.

Second coat.

It’s somewhere in the high 60′s/low 70′s today, and so last night I hand-sanded the entire floor with 00 steel wool to knock the bumps off. This morning at 7 the second coat went down, and it looks more even already. I’m using a satin finish so the gloss won’t be too bright, but the goal is to have one solid, even look across the whole thing. If we can get one more warm day in the next week, I can put the final coat down and be done. Compare and contrast with the shot below (and I realize the lighting on the first day was not as bright, but wow)

And just for kicks:

Morning Light.

I almost forgot to post this one: I finally took the plastic off the windows after two and a half years. It completely changes the vibe in the living room.