Little Man wonders when he’ll get put in a box.

Posted on by David Maxwell

It was a pretty intense day of packing and hauling boxes to the storage unit. Actually I only hauled one load in my car, but it was jammed full. Tomorrow I will return with a trailer and really move a lot of stuff. Luke is taking all the action in stride. I would imagine that he knows something is up. Lily the cat is handling the transition less gracefully. She is even more amped up and annoying than usual. I went to Home Depot for more boxes this morning and also to Southeastern Salvage, but they didn’t have the grout I needed. I caught up on my accounting from last week as well. All in all it was a pretty good day. Tonight isn’t cold yet, but it will be in a couple of nights. Low twenties.

Not a good day.

Posted on by David Maxwell

It rained a bit last night, and the leak issues that I thought we had overcome at the back doors reared up again. I found one more place to caulk, and I really hope that takes care of things. We spent much of the morning moving stuff around and organizing. I went to Lowe’s for some nice plastic boxes that were on sale, but the store was sold out. I did manage to rent us a storage unit though. It isn’t the closest one, but it’s a nice 10×20 space, is still relatively convenient, and the price was decent. We took a lot of stuff from the house to there. I will also take everything from the condo to there. That will really simplify things.

Once the weather warmed up and the sun came out we started to paint. Or attempted to. I was going to move the man lift into position with the tractor, but I seemed to have lost the key. I looked everywhere for it, and think it fell out of a hole in my jacket pocket. I even went back to the storage unit in case it fell out there. And being Saturday afternoon the tractor dealer in Murfreesboro was already closed. My dad started spraying from the ladder while I continued to search. Finally I got an idea and moved the lift a little by pulling it with my car and a chain. Then I was able to hook it to my car and tow it into position. I couldn’t position it as well as I would have liked, but we still got some painted.  Not near enough though. I return the lift on Monday, and am a bit disappointed with how little we got done. Oh well, such is life. Starting Monday I will really focus on the interior. I will pick up flooring and start putting it down. That should be pretty fun and should go quickly. Once that is in place doors and base trim are next. Hopefully the last of my cabinets and vanities are coming soon. No pictures today as it was dark by the time we finished work.

Trim continues to make things better.

Posted on by David Maxwell

Today was a little cooler so we worked inside. We focused on trim and I have to say it looks pretty good. We mostly worked in the kitchen/living room. My dad also did some more tile work in the bathrooms. After dark we went up to Spring Hill and both bought a couple of things on Black Friday specials at Home Depot. Then we had a tasty dinner at Panera Bread.

Little Man’s first Thanksgiving.

Posted on by David Maxwell

Today felt like a bit of a bust. I started out by trying to acquire a new tank of propane. I paid for one at the close Dollar General, but it turned out that none of their cylinders had gas in them. So on to the next DG. I checked before going in and they did have some full ones. Unfortunately the woman working there couldn’t find the key. After a little wait and a call to the store manager she realized that it was on her key chain after all. I exchanged my tank and bought a second one in order to avoid future issues.

Back at the farm I started messing with the man lift. I could get it started but then it would shut down when I tried to do anything. Confused, I took the drastic step of reading the manual. Empowered with my new knowledge I was able to get it operational. My maiden voyage up was not pleasant. I was hoping that it would be better for me than a ladder. It was not. I could barely function. I moved it around to the front of the house so that my dad could do some work, but it wouldn’t rotate the way I needed it to, so I moved it again to the back. By then it was getting pretty close to time for our Thanksgiving dinner. My mother and Lauren arrived first and we set up chairs and a folding table out back in the sun. There was a lot of food to put out. We ate and talked. Luke seemed a little bored.

After lunch I put paint samples on the French doors. Liz chose a light green. Everybody toured the house then left. I set up scaffolding in the kitchen so we can work on some trim tomorrow then went into town. Aldi was closed today and Kroger closed just as I arrived. I sat in their parking lot for a long time doing a lot of research on my phone. That was actually pretty productive.

Now I’m back at the farm. Not feeling too good. Tomorrow is supposed to be colder so we probably won’t paint. Yesterday’s painting looks like garbage. Very thin in spots, and discolored because of the freeze. Saturday is supposed to be warmer.

Casa (half) Blanca.

Posted on by David Maxwell

It was pretty dang cold when I woke up this morning, but very pretty. I started with some more organizing around the house and yard. My dad came and he worked on tile while we waited for it to warm up some. I went up to Franklin to get the man lift. It was actually cheaper than the website said, which was a pleasant surprise. It towed pretty easily back to the farm. Last night at TSC I bought a couple of things for my tractor that I thought would enable me to pull the lift around the house, but they didn’t. So I returned to TSC and bought something better. That helped me move it around to the side. The painting finally started around two. We actually didn’t use the lift, but instead focused on the lower portions using the shorter ladders. We started on the far end since it is the least visible and I wanted to practice. I wasn’t at all happy with how the gun was spraying, so I swapped tips. That didn’t help at all, so I adjusted my technique a bit, which did lead to some improvement. We sprayed nearly ten gallons. I am a little nervous because we painted until nearly dark an once the sun set it started to cool down pretty quickly. I hope that the paint will dry okay. After cleaning up, which was horrible, my dad left and I drove into town. Unfortunately Lowe’s didn’t have the paint I needed so I went up to Spring Hill. I bought 15 more gallons then went to Home Depot for drip edge. Back at the house I got in bed! Hopefully tomorrow will be a productive day. Everybody is coming here for a Thanksgiving picnic, which will take a chunk of prime work time. It is supposed to be sunny and even warmer tomorrow. I will try to get up on the lift.