Too much, too little

Here are some nice pottery that Maezie put together for the front porch. Some spiky stuff and some cabbage looking stuff. All in all the stuff looks pretty good. She even spray painted the pots. I don't want to take away from the hard work by saying stuff, she did a great job and it has been something that I thought about doing for some time. But when you have $50 to spend on building materials, or plants? Well enough said.

I have written about this a long time ago, but here I go again. There is a closet in the kitchen that was used as storage (duh) but was just kind of strange being there. I have postulated that it was originally built as an access to build stairs up to the second floor, if the home owner (a) could afford to have it constructed when the house was commissioned or (b) when the home owners family grew he could add the stairs at a later time. My neighbor told me when she moved into her place 40+ years ago she had the same setup with the exception that she actually had stairs already in place but they ended topside in the unfinished attic. Over the years she and her husband finished it off and made a large bedroom. Simple and nothing extravagant.

Having said all that, We took the time this weekend and set about "finishing" the closet and transitioning it into a full fledged butlers pantry. Don't get me wrong, the room is a closet. 4 ft deep and 3 ft wide, so there is nothing at all fancy or spacious about the tiny room. It will consist of two large bins to hold Sugars food, a shelf above that, then a microwave and coffee pot, then more shelves above that.
You also have to keep in mind that as picture two below shows (looking up), this is the only way to get into the attic. A nice and tight little hole eh?

The box like shelf below is really the only way I could hide the sloping wall beneath and still square the room out. Why does the bottom 2 1/2 ft slope in? Well on the backside of this wall there is the stairs that run down into the basement. On top is where the doggie bins will sit.

Originally, many moons ago, I had made a false panel on the front of the "box" that one could push in and the panel would pop out. why? I dunno, I thought instead of having a dead space underneath, although sloping I could store "stuff" in there. Maybe some liquefied potato's? (inside joke)

Me doing something and looking handy with my tape measure hanging on my pocket.

So having tried to kill myself the last two days to get this room going I am paying the price of ambition tonight. My body is killing me! I feel like I went 5 rounds with Mike Tyson (in his prime). Notice I didn't say 12 rounds? I would be dead, and Mike probably still could whoop some ass even with that crazy tattoo on his face.

Only 6 more weeks and I am leaving for 5 weeks. To little time, to much to do.

I did splurge and bought a HP mini netbook this past Friday. I am still on the fence as to if I really needed this thing or not. I mean, I could have bought a neat power tool or something for the same money. I still have a need for a large planer or sander and then there are those bills.......... But having said all that, it isn't to bad. See my laptop of 5 years is dieing slowly, the hinges on the lid are broke clean through and it is just slow as hell. You can't even watch midget porn on the thing without it chopping the video and heating up so badly one would thing it was going to spontaneous combust. I also thought while I was away on Army training this winter it would be a hell of alot easier to carry a netbook around that a 12 lbs laptop.

I don't know, we will see if I even have time to use it while I am away. http://www.notebooks.com/2009/05/26/hp-mini-110-netbook-introduced/ don't let the pics fool you, it is tiny! the screen is 10" diag and wieghs about 3 lbs? about the size of a notebook or a day planner that people use to carry around. I was going to do the Verizon wireless deal that they have but after I got looking at the numbers of a 2 yr contract? you really need to have a use for that type of service bad. Other than that? You are going to spend about $1200 for a $300 netbook in the long run. They have a 24 hour plan that will give you access for $15 a day as needed.

Still Slow

Have not done anything again this week. Did go camping this weekend and had a blast. The weather was fantastic! Had a great time with some great friends, great food, and a great amount of drinking. So the house projects stood idle this weekend.
I am running out of weekends pretty fast with the return to military training coming again at the end of October. I need to get some things sealed up for the winter before I go and then maybe when the weather gets colder I can decend back into the basement and get the striping and sanding going again on the huge pile of trim I have laying down there.

I got nothing

Just another pic of the sunflowers. That's about it.
I did finish putting the drawer pulls on yesterday, and did the final bit to get the stove fan installed, mowed the lawn and slept allot.
In between Z's I did manage to get the neighbors windows and screens painted and reinstalled this morning.
Like I said that's about it for any home improvement this weekend.

You might be a redneck if.......or the sunflowers and the caulk job

Here are a few pics of the sunflowers on the south side of the garage. I don't think they are going to make it before the first frost comes though. We have had some pretty crappy weather here the last few months. It has been 5 to 10 degrees below normal most of the summer. These bad boys are getting ripped out of their blooming cycle and I wont see any seeds from them.





My dusty ass up on a ladder painting the neighbors windows.

Just a shot of the roofers and the new roof.

Ok, this has to be one of the worst caulk jobs in that last 10 years of human history. So this falls under you might be a read neck if... your bathroom tub has one helluva professional seal job like this.

Here is my excuse; the old stuff had like a L channel that ran around the parameter of the tub, it was leaking and I could never get the black mold scrubbed off. So I picked up some caulk, (notice it is like brilliant white in color?) I really didn't think about the color at the time. I was just interested in the sealing capabilities of the product. Scored on the sealabilty! blew it on the color matching.

Then I get in there and start working the caulk trying to spread it out and make it look "purdy" Jezz, what a mess! this stuff was drying as quick as I could squezze the shit out of the tube. Honest I wasn't drinking! but the only thing missing from the photo to make it purely a redneck job, was a pile of emtpy beer cans and an old cooler in the corner.