A sunny (finally!), but not very productive day.

Posted on by David Maxwell

I went to the house this morning with the idea of finishing the ceilings. I turned on the power at the poll, but realized that the lights didn’t come on. That is because one of the breakers wouldn’t flip, and when I forced it everything stopped working. So no ceilings today. So instead I hauled trash to the dump and organized things a bit. I also picked up the hose to vent the bathroom fans with, and installed that. I hauled off some wood scraps as well. I went to Dollar General and bought some rope, which I used to secure the tarp on my trailer that was full of wood scraps. After showering I went by the bank and Goat Market, then cleaned the cottage and did laundry. Finally before leaving town I stopped by to see Debbie. We chatted for an hour or so, mostly about politics. The drive home was uneventful. It was great to see Liz and Luke when I arrived. We had a nice dinner together and then played with blocks for a little while.

Weather cooling down, cedar wrapping up.

Posted on by David Maxwell

I didn’t fall asleep until after four this morning, woke up about six-thirty, and got out of bed around eight-thirty. I arrived at the house just before nine. It was a little chilly so I fired up the propane heater. This morning was actually as warm as it got – the temperature continued to drop throughout the day. I started by installing the ceiling in the “utility room” before moving to the second bedroom. Next came the “flex room”, but after just a few boards I went to the Goat Market for pizza. I actually ended up getting it to go, since there were more people there than expected at 3:30. I did chat with Eric for a few minutes while I waited. Back at the house I finished up the flex room ceiling and started on the small closet. One issue is that a lot of this cedar isn’t of great quality, so I’ve really had to pick through it and cut out a lot of waste. I will probably need to bring some from home in order to finish up the closets. Tomorrow I hope to do the bathroom ceilings, finish as much of the closets as the wood allows, finish the last run on each room, haul trash to the dump, and load up all of the scrap wood. It would be nice to get away fairly early in the afternoon.

Painting done, ceiling started, still raining.

Posted on by David Maxwell

It was another wet, foggy, and nasty morning. I got to the house about eight and started painting. That went pretty well and I am mostly pleased with the result. Clean up was unpleasant as usual. Next I carried all of the tongue and groove cedar into the house. That took a while but fortunately it wasn’t raining too hard at that point. I went to the cottage for a quick lunch and to drop off the flatbed trailer. Then I started to install the cedar ceilings. First up was the vaulted main room. That was slow going due to the height. Around four I went to the Goat Market for some water and a Lara bar. Upon returning I knocked out the ceiling in one of the bedrooms. It was pretty easy. Then I returned to the vaulted ceiling until nearly nine.

Spackling, papering, painting.

Posted on by David Maxwell

I didn’t get a super early start this morning, but made it to the house around 8:30. I started spackling, which was really tedious. I made it through though, the swept and cleaned, then taped up the last doors and openings. Finally about one o’clock I started painting. Some of it went on a bit thick at first, but I eventually got in the groove. Priming everything only took about an hour and a half. It is still rainy and very humid, so the paint is drying slowly, even with my propane heater running full blast. After painting I went and paid some bills around town then went to Piggly Wiggly before going to the cottage and cooking a late lunch. I went back to the house to swap propane tanks. I had wanted to apply the top coat this evening but it looks like I will have to wait until morning. Oh well. I should be able to do that pretty quickly then start installing the cedar ceilings.