Creeker's Past Week's Accomplishments

[Dennis Peacock]

8 Jun 2020

Greetings,
It's been a busy week with designing The LOML a new pantry for the kitchen, designing a new bench set for a dining room table for a customer of mine, and getting work done around the house. We are officially on state mandated quarantine because one of my sons returned home from the UK this past Sunday and we are required to be in strict quarantine with him until 14 June. I helped my son Joe install new front wheel hubs and bearings on his 2009 Pontiac G6. Just got that done just a short bit ago.
A/C unit went out in our house. So I am trying to find someone that can come get us fixed tomorrow.

That's it for me, so what did YOU do this past week?

Best of weeks to you all.

[Jim Becker]

Ah, Dennis...a quarantine vacation, eh? LOL Never a dull moment for sure.

This past week was "interesting". From a woodworking perspective, after getting quotes for four custom sized replacement windows for the 250yo stone portion of our home, I decided to build my own. Yes, they will not open, but then again, the existing first floor windows haven't been able to be opened for more than 50 years. What I'm building will incorporate a single dual-pane, low-e insulated glass panel wrapped with wood and made to look exactly like the single hung units they are replacing. The old windows are not salvagable at this point due to water damage, weathering and so forth and they are also single pane, individual lights that leak like a seive. Best of all, the material cost for all four units will be less than even one of the lowest priced, quality custom sized replacement windows. I also did some "lumberjacking" this weekend. I had one tree down from the storm (from the neighbor's side of the line) that clipped the edge of my shop roof, but there was only superficial damage and I'm intending on re-roofing the building real soon now. It's very brittle and dates back to sometime in the 1980s when the building was constructed. The other tree was partially down...it actually happened just after I passed by it on the driveway during the storm...so I took care of the rest of it. Sadly, I have about a dozen more dead ash trees that need dealt with on the property.

The other part of the week that was interesting and intense at the same time is that our older daughter decided she was finally ready to move into an apartment in town. She doesn't drive so this will make it easier for her to get to work and other places when she needs to, although honestly, there will still be a lot of transportation needs. She is somewhat of a special needs adult because of a mental health disability so this is a really big thing for her to move. But we've found ways to overcome the challenges; some of which were her own concerns about living by herself and some were financial. For any of you who have disabled family members, you know that benefits are a double edged sword...they are needed to live but the restrictions to receive them make it hard to live. Yes, that does make sense when you boil it down. At any rate, affordability to live independently is tough with the earing and savings restrictions placed on disability benefits, but the states created a way to solve that in about 2014 with the creation of ABLE accounts. These accounts allow for the disabled to not only save money for their future, but they also provide a way for family and others to actually provide support without torpedoing financial and healthcare benefits. There are other details at play here which don't need to be disclosed but we're very happy for her to take this major step forward and "grow her wings". Of course, the writing is also on the wall that in a year or three, Professor Dr. SWMBO and I will have to explore downsizing since having 4200 sq ft of house on 4 acres isn't really necessary when both daughters are out of the house (the younger graduates from PSU next spring). It's already getting hard to keep up with the landscaping...

[Ray Schafer]

Jim,
Congratulations and good luck to your daughter on her move. It sounds like a trying time as a parent, and I hope all goes well.

[Jim Becker]

Jim,
Congratulations and good luck to your daughter on her move. It sounds like a trying time as a parent, and I hope all goes well.

Thanks...in basically her own words, "I had no idea there was so much involved in moving out and having my own place..." It's making her head spin because she's a visual learner and this stuff isn't visual. I just created a flow chart in PowerPoint to help her begin to understand how paying for the place is going to work since I'm automating it to insure there are no, um...issues...with things like late rent or money disappearing that's needed for rent. I've been keeping a list of "little things" that need to be acquired that are not in the "kitchen boxes" I have for both daughters from stuff as I upgraded my own kitchen. She's like, "I would have never thought of those things..."

[Bruce Wrenn]

Don't know what kind of roof is on shop, but if it's shingles, and are you thinking about doing it yourself? If so, I recommend buying a "coil nailer." On a recent, as last couple weeks, job rebuilding shed across back of shop, I purchased a "Pierce" brand coil nailer from HF. I wish my Hitachi framing nailer worked as good as the Pierce nailer did. FYI. Lowes has METABO (used to be Hitachi) coil nails, box of 7000, for less than thirty bucks.

[Paul F Franklin]

Jim, wishing your daughter well as she takes this big step!

We've had a few days of perfect weather for spraying outside, mid 80's, very light breeze, low humidity. So today I completed spraying 4 out of 10 cabinets for the home office. I did the shellac coat on Saturday and the GF high performance top coats yesterday and today. I wish I could have done more cabinets, but that is all the room I have on my makeshift drying racks (I am spraying the panels flat before assembly). Considering I'm new to HVLP spraying, I'm very happy with the results. On the first few panels I put down a little too much shellac and also had a few areas of uneven color (using garnet shellac), but I sprayed what will be the outside surface of the cabinets first knowing they won't show at all, and after a few panels I got the gun and my technique dialed in a lot better.

Got a late start on Saturday because we had a 2 hour power outage that affected a fairly widespread area. Not sure the cause, but it was a beautiful day so I doubt lightning. I was just getting around to thinking about firing up the generator when the juice came back on. Either going out or coming back on it took out two of my Z-wave smart switches and a small led fixture in a stairway. I have a whole house surge protector but still had those failures. So I spent some time replacing that stuff. Could have been worse.

Taking the day off tomorrow as it our anniversary (41 years) so I have a few activities planned with DW. Then it will be back to work on the rest of the cabinets. We did settle on a paint color and I've picked the under/over cabinet lighting I will use, so I know what wiring I need to do and we can paint before I start installing the cabinets.

[Jim Becker]

Don't know what kind of roof is on shop, but if it's shingles, and are you thinking about doing it yourself?

Nope. I don't do roofing, although I did a few small repairs on the back side that I could reach from the ground. This is a 12 pitch roof. It will be contracted out.

[Mike Wilkins]

Good call on the roof Jim. I contemplated re-roofing my own home several years back. But my knees and back got together and had a conference call with my brain, and they decided that it is not a good idea.
Working on the kitchen with new paint on the walls, trim and ceiling. Next is the cabinets with paint and new hardware, which will require the construction of a jig to accurately place the new knobs. Going from single point knobs to bar pulls with 2 mounting holes. Wife keeps coming up with new projects all the time.

[Jim Becker]

Mike, I avoid getting on the roof for any reason that isn't essential at this point. I'm not comfortable with that...and I"m talking the house which has a much gentler pitch. My shop building with that 12 pitch isn't something I'm not equipped to do even minor repairs safely...I don't own a ladder that's long enough to reach far enough at the required angle, as a matter of fact. The minor repairs on the back side from tree damage were reachable from the ground and/or with the help of a step ladder against the gutter. Your kitchen project will be great...some things are always arderous, but the end result and the "customer's" satisfaction will be rewarding. Good call on the jig for placing the handles/knobs consistently!

[Bruce Wrenn]

Jim, you only need to reach the roof. Lift up a couple shingles, and nail on some roof ladder brackets, into which you hook a ladder. When (1994) I built the addition on our house, I shingled it down from top rather than up. Put roof brackets with walk board on roof where I could reach the ridge. Top nailed the bottom row of shingles, the shingled going up. After reaching ridge, moved roof brackets down and repeated. Because bottom row of shingles from first set up were top nailed, it was only a matter of lifting them up and nailing row from below, then nailing that row. Need to reroof older section of house now (4/12 pitch, two story.) As of this month, shingles have been on there 40 years. They are in good shape, but very little granules left on them. Within the last two years have had to replace two areas where plywood curled up. To me. hardest part of reroofing is striping old shingles and prepping decking. Having to pull out all the old nails that don't come off with shingles. You can now buy underlayment that replaces the felt paper that is good for six months without shingles. With a helper feeding me shingles, I can by hand nail a couple square per hour. With gun it's much quicker. But wife says she is willing to pay someone else to do them, so that's the way we will go. I'll prep two damaged areas and replace facia boards prior to them doing roofing

[Jim Becker]

Thanks for the description, Bruce, but again, I don't do this kind of work. The whole roof needs to be stripped off first, too. This is a job for professionals.