Creeker's Past Week's Accomplishments

[Dennis Peacock]

14 Aug 2023

Greetings,
I realize that I missed last week. My apologies. I've been putting in a lot of hours at the day job due to system upgrades and such. Now, as of yesterday, my air conditioning at home went out and this morning I'll be calling my HVAC service company to come look at it. Everybody seems to be swamped with work due to the storms and high heat levels. I guess we'll see how this goes today. No real woodworking for me but it is getting closer to late September when I can get back in my shop again. Last I checked, my shop was around 118* F with a peak of just over 120* F. Due to a mild heat stroke a few years ago, I can't take the heat any longer and I've already burned up 6 a/c units trying to cool my shop space. Now, I just want my house to be cool again.

That's it for me and it's off to the doctor for a checkup. So what did YOU do this past week?

Best of weeks to you all.

[Jim Becker]

It's good to stay cool, Dennis...I hope that you can get your HVAC system back up and running quickly.

This past week was a typical eclectic bunch of things including "finally" completing my "closet" in the master bedroom which is an open arrangement. A previous owner, for whatever their own reasons, put in an extra closet in the room, despite there being a large, walk-in closet. That made the room smaller (can't use a king bed because of it) and because the closet walls were put right on top of old carpet and then hardwood floor got laid, I can't just remove it. But I did get rid of the big sliding doors two years ago in favor of a cube system. This last work put in a small amount of hanging space for the few shirts I actually hang (most clothing is rolled) and a little shelf unit on the opposite side to balance the effort visually. Lastly, hung up a few pictures of chickens. This work was all in white melamine; some from a full sheet of 5/8 I bought a few years ago and some from shelving stock I bought at the orange 'borg. I also "deep cleaned" my sanders and sent my Rotex 150 in for service...it was not engaging rotary mode for some reason. They have repaired it and it should be back in my hands soon. I don't use it much, but when it's the right tool, it's the right tool. Otherwise, I tackled some landscaping cleanup on days when the humidity wasn't too high. I'm still trying to decide what to do next for project(s)...lots of choices from "the list".

[George Yetka]

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Almost done with my boxes. 2 more to go then on to end panels and face frames.

[Andrew More]

Made my wife a monitor stand out of scraps. Quick project that will be heavily used for a long time, and helps to releave her neck pain. She also won't let me make anything fancier for her.

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[Paul F Franklin]

Very little in-shop time for me the last many weeks. A lot of time consumed getting ready for an upcoming trip, including replacing a couple of sump pumps. They were still working but have been in service a long time and I didn't want a failure while we're gone. I swapped 4 motion sensing floodlights for camera/floodlight units and added a couple inside cameras to allow keeping an eye on the place remotely. We will have a house sitter but will feel better if I can keep an eye on the place. Also changed all the smoke detector and co detector batteries, and those for the door locks.

My sister-in-law asked if I could remove the raised portion of her kitchen island so she can have the countertop replaced with a new one extending into her family room a little. That involved moving several receptacles and switches and them shortening the framing and sheetrock down to the cabinet top height. Still have a little more work to do on that and then some sheetrock patching.

And last week a good buddy of mine called and asked for a hand with his kitchen project. He and his wife hated the sink they had (a 1/3-2/3 double bowl with a curve in the back portion) and he wanted to replace it with a larger, stainless single bowl. The catch? Quartz countertop. Normally, I am game for almost anything, but I told him to call a pro countertop place. He said, oh come on, how hard can it be to cut it in place. I told him: It might crack. It'll make a huge mess. etc, etc. He wasn't having it. So I spent Saturday in full protective gear, under a plastic tent, using a diamond hole saw, diamond blade in a circ saw, and a diamond blade in an angle grinder. It took a good part of the day, but despite my misgivings, it came out fine. It took him most of Sunday to clean up and do the plumbing work, but he sent me a pic and it looks great.

Final non-workworking task last week was replacing the badly cracked screen on Mary's Ipad. A fussy job, but it went well. Had to wear my flip down magnifier to even see the tiny screws that had to be dealt with. But now it's as good as new.

Finally, I've been going to PT twice a week. I've been getting pain in the back of my thighs when I sit for long periods and am trying to improve that before I spent a few weeks in the car! Fortunately PT seems to be helping. And the good news is they told me that playing pickleball was actually a good thing for it.

[Bruce Page]

Paul, I need some work done on my patio. Can you come by?

[Derek Meyer]

We dug the holes for our deck footings this weekend. We rented a walk-behind excavator with a 12" auger for the drilling, which worked great. That is, until the last hole, when we carefully drilled down and hit the main water line for the sprinkler system and control cable. The sprinkler company marked the location, but apparently the line swept outward from the house in a curve to go around our dining room bunp-out. Oh well, the sprinkler company came out this morning and repaired the damage, and also found a buried head in the side yard, which they corrected. They put an offset in the main line so that we can put our footing in without an issue. My neighbor, who is helping us (and is 15 years younter than me) is going to finish the hole while we are gone over the next three days. Then we can call for inspection. The material packaging is due to be delivered on Friday, including 63 bags of concrete (60 lbs each), that will have to be moved to the back of the house. Then we get pouring. I'm estimating that we will be done with the deck sometime in mid-September.

I also had a meeting with an architect this morning, who is going to draw up plans for a kitchen remodel/expansion. We want to enclose the 6' x 15' concrete porch off the back of our house as part of the new kitchen. This porch is covered by the roof of the house, though there will be some re-engineering of the rafters required, in addtion to a support beam to carry the load over the existing exterior wall, which will be removed. The architect said it should all be doable without too much of an issue. He is going to digitize the blueprint and create a 3D model in Sketchup that we can use to fine-tune the design. My wife is ecstatic that this project is getting started - she's wanted a new kitchen ever since we got married (almost 5 years now).

[Jim Becker]

Paul, I need some work done on my patio. Can you come by?

I have that need, too, so "dibs" on being second in line!!

[Paul F Franklin]

Will work for gas money and beer!

[Bruce Wrenn]

Tilled up in town garden. Fixed food, and went to Senior Center pot luck lunch on Thursday. Our "Tag Along" group had our last Wednesday night meal of the summer, as Wednesday night meals at church start back this week. Normally these meals don't start till the Wednesday after Labor Day. Finally cleaned up enough of the shop to start cutting out Toys for Tots car bodies. Was pleasantly surprised when I found out that I had emptied DC bin from cutting TFT cars last year. Finished up sheet rock ceiling repair in den ( used to be girls bedroom.) I took out the recessed light and replaced it with a ceiling fan box. Sprayed texture on repair area. Now I get to paint, not just the ceiling, but whole room. Found out that the members at church next door had let pump, which I furnished about seven years ago, run dry. Well that a thousand bucks shot to -----! Went to worship services on Sunday. Cut out 200 car bodies Sunday afternoon. I have 800 more to do before end of August. I cut them out, and others sand them, and at workshop in early December, local WW group assembles them. Cooked a Boston Butt in Crockpot Saturday night. Sprayed back yard for weeds and Crabgrass.