Great weather, working on table, getting organized

Weather this week has been pretty perfect, warm, sunny, low humidity. A cold front went through a little while ago and they are talking a high tomorrow of 63. Remember that electric fireplace I bought at my own garage sale, well we might get a chance to see how it works in the next day or so.

I worked on my table this week. OMG I’d forgotten how much work it was to get something like this ready to paint with stripping, sanding then putting a primer on it. Not ready to share pictures yet but once I have it painted and “if” it turns out I will share a couple of pictures. Took me two days just to do all the legs so hopefully tomorrow I can get back in the garage and start on the three leaves and table top.

I do have some pictures to share tho. The first one is a drawing my great niece Quinn in Albq. did This is just awesome for a 12 year old, or awesome at any age.

Our grandson Darrius had his picture in the local On-line paper this week. We went to the last track met on Wednesday and the place was packed. I think it was because it was the last one. We finally left at 9pm after he ran the 100m, just couldn’t take standing on that concrete side lines waiting for the 200m that could be another hour. Anyway here’s the picture of him doing the long jump.

The last picture shows you what you might see in small town America. Our Police Dept was busy one day trying to capture and arrest these bad guys.

I think all they wanted was a cup of coffee at Tim Hortons.

Larry’s been working in the basement getting his shop area as organized as much as you can with a lot of equipment that use to fill a 600 sq ft shop into a whole lot smaller one. But it’s looking better and he’s gotten some work benches set up and drawers made for them. He also got some peg boards this week and framed those to hang. I even got a couple of them for the garage, which he’s also been working on cleaning and organizing.

So that’s about it from this end. Till next time………………………………………………..

The Porch is DONE (almost)

OK, I promise this will be the last time I bring the porch up. Larry finished cutting the design in the boards that were going up on the posts and the paint finally dried so we could install them. He needed to cut three more finishing boards for the tops of the posts and those are drying now so he’ll put them up tomorrow. But I really wanted to share a picture with you.

First I want to show you the before picture

And the After

Here’s a better shot of Larry’s handy work

As you can guess we spend a lot of time out there and now that I have my newest garage sale find I’m really enjoying it. Did you notice my chairs. If not here’s a close up.

 

I talked Larry into walking down the street yesterday to a garage sale just to see what they had. Well there sat the two chairs and table that I wanted so bad for the front porch. I’ve looked at these and they have been well over $100 each and just couldn’t justify spending that much for two chairs to sit outside. So when I saw the price of $20 for everything I couldn’t get a twenty dollar bill out fast enough. After we got them home I gave them a good scrub and they look almost brand new. If I don’t find one more thing at a garage sale for the rest of the year I’ll be happy (& so will Larry).

There’s one other picture I’d like to share and it has nothing to do with the house. This was in the local paper. It shows what can happen when crossing the Mackinaw Bridge during high winds. They say the gust was 70mph and the truck was only going 20mph.  Scary ha.

 

Our high temps and humidity finally broke Friday night. All week we were hitting heat index’s of 100+ which when you don’t have air conditioning and there isn’t a bit on wind (will never complain about the TX wind) it just wasn’t fun. But we are now enjoying temps around 80*, a nice breeze and low humidity.

So that’s it for this week. Till next time……….

 

Not much happening

I totally forgot to do my weekend blog. Old age is setting in I guess. Actually it’s getting harder each week to find something to write about. How many times do my friends and family want to hear about the porch or our trips to Menards. I’m actually thinking about putting a hold on the blog until after we get back down in Texas.

So what’s happening here? Last Saturday I went with my sister Nadene out to Michigan State Univ. I’ve mentioned that she owns a Wholesale Distributing Business for agriculture equipment called Farmco. Each year MSU hosts Ag-Expo where you can go to find any type of farm equipment you ever thought of. Anyway we went out to put table cloths on the tables that are inside the tent. They started moving items in a week ago. With the (expensive) permits that the State and County requires it takes that long. They have to tell them what the equipment is, license number of vehicle pulling it, name of driver and what time frame they will be towing it. Toss that all in with all the road construction that always seems to be going on and it’s a very stressful event. Nadene’s words.

Here’s a couple of pictures of just a few of the equipment that they take out there

Larry went over to Johnson’s Lumber and picked up a 100 board feet of wood to finish the porch posts with. We’ve been sanding and priming for the last couple of days. I finished the sanding today but we need to put primer on some and then start the painting. Once that's done and put up I’ll post a picture.

Another project I’ve started on was a maple table I found at a garage sale for $15.00. I’ve decided we need more seating in the kitchen when we have company. Larry just loves it when I decide to do something as it normally means work for him, which in this case it will. I want to have a banquette seating area and this table (which has 3 leaves) will be perfect. But first I need to strip it, sand it, prime it, then paint it. Oh and Larry has to make the banquette.

OK, so that’s about it for the week. I know we did lots of other things but as usual can’t think of them when I’m typing this.

So until next time………………………………

Trip to Ohio

A belated Happy 4^th of July to everyone out there in my blog land and I hope you all had a good time where ever you are.

Our week was a busy one which lately seems to be the norm in our life. Larry worked down in the basement putting a new panel box up to get things ready to change things over to 200amp.

Of course this meant pulling the plug on the power to the house for several hours. Luckily I have a good battery in my computer and could at least do some cleaning up on my system that I’ve wanted to do.

Then on Thursday we picked up my sister and headed for Renee’ and Brian’s in Avon Lake Ohio. That afternoon we went over to Brian’s folks and had a nice picnic with his family. Lots of food and such fun watching the kids (including Brian & his brothers) having squirt gun fights. Luckily we declared the gazebo as a safe area and no water squirting allowed.

Friday morning included a trip to Lowes and Home Depot as the kids needed a new front door once dad decided the old one was not fixable. And Renee’ thought as long as they had the tools out and a mess in the entrance way they might just as well install the screen door she’s wanted.

Here’s Brian and Larry putting the new screen door on

Once the doors were purchased and we had them back to the house we girls decided the best thing we could do to help the guys was to get out of their way. So we did this by going out and purchasing a couple of aerial rugs for the kitchen & living room. Then we stopped at the local Nursery to wander around there. This is Nadene and my favorite thing to do and as it turned out my daughter has the same desire. What a neat huge place with so many gorgeous flowers and the inside was full of garden items. And when we returned to the house (several hours later) the doors were installed and looking really good.

That night Renee’ and Brian took us out to this Mexican restaurant for dinner. The food was good and the margarita was really good. Saturday morning were up early and headed for home.

Yesterday (Sunday) we had to run into Lowes and while there I went out to the garden center. They had these really nice Dogwood Bushes on sale for $3.00. Just couldn’t pass those up so we purchased 7 of them and that afternoon we planted them along the fence. This will help with a little privacy when we’re in the back yard. Pictures next week.

We have had a heat wave the last few days. Temp’s haven’t been that bad but the humidly has been around 85%. Needless to say we don’t do a lot outside. Course not much inside either since we don’t have air conditioning.

Last night we had happy hour with neighbors, which usually ends up being dinner since we both load up on snacks. We’ve decided to have a neighborhood picnic next month. We’ve (Pat & I) have talked with several neighbors and mentioned it and they all said what a wonderful idea since they don’t know their neighbors. Some of these folks have lived near each other for 20 years, can you believe it. I guess that’s one of the advantages of living in a RV Park, your not shy on walking up to a new person and introducing yourself. Anyway this should be fun and more on it when it gets closer.

Guess that’s it for now. Till next time……………