Category: Fun Stuff

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Minor Victories — I’ll Take ’em Whenever I Can

So, three lil rough spots in the living room, dining room, kitchen, and hallway re-flooring project. Just conquered one of ’em–a transition from the living room to the dining room. I had attempted to match up a couple of partial pieces to link up well with the flooring coming down the hallway, and though they seemed to fit nicely, glued to the laminate planks coming out of the living room, once the hallway pieces moved into the dining room, a wee crack opened up due to a less than 1/32-inch difference in floor height. I tried ameliorating that and ended up exacerbating the problem to slightly over 1/32-inch, so backed off that.

Filled it and stained the fill. Hoped for the best, but was never satisfied. When my Wonder Woman asked if there were a transition piece I could put in that was similar to what I used transitioning between the laminate and some tiling in the kitchen, but with a lower profile, I was stumped. . . until I began digging around in a storage area under the laundry room where I had various pieces of scrap molding and found a 3/4-inch wide, very low profile piece of oak molding. “Hmmm,, I bethought meself, “if I stained this juuust right. . .”

And yeh, some nice, dark walnut stain, nicely wiped to yield a lighter walnut appearance then “varnished” with a satin polyurethane, applied to the eensy-weensy crack with a (transparent and stainable when dried) “30-year” caulk/sealer, and my, that looks nice!

On to the other minor “Oopsies,” now, then baseboards and other trim (particularly doors) changed out, new paint all around (yes, I do have drop cloths and painter’s tape, TYVM ? ), and a few other detail touches (NOW can I install the crown molding? Hmmm? *heh*), and this part of our live-in renos will be finished. Mostly. . . ‘cos the bedrooms haven’t been “re-floored” yet (though that will entail mostly just cleanup after removing the carpeting, since the oak flooring underneath it–as much as I have been able to see so far, at least–seems to be in excellent condition).

Having some real fun, now. ?

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Amateur Flooring Project. . .

. . .is proceeding at a snail’s pace.

But, overall, that’s a Good Thing. For example, lifting two layers of vinyl flooring in the kitchen, at the garage door entrance, uncovered. . . rotting particle board. Particle board?!? Yep. And it seems to be original to the house, which is around 45 years old. Fortunately, as I began removing it, I discovered that the rot

a.) only extended about one foot into the kitchen from the garage
b.) did NOT include rot of the sill plate on the structural wall
c.) did not extend to the one inch (nominal; really ~3/4-inch) wooden boards that were the subfloor.

Well, as everyone knows, particle board is crap, and unsuitable for virtually ALL construction, but I wasn’t about to begin tearing up all the entire kitchen floor, once I got back to still solid particle board.

So, what to do? It looked like all the rot had been confined to directly un front of the door entering the kitchen from the garage, so, in fitting with my original thoughts for that entry, I

1. Cleaned a 2’x4′ area in front of that door, all the way down to the solid, unaffected (real) wood subfloor;
2. Caulked all cracks with “40-year” paintable caulk;
3. Painted the subfloor with Drylock™ where it had once been covered with tar paper (likely what prevented the rot from proceeding to the subfloor);
4. Put down “hardy board” backer board;
5. Laid and grouted ceramic tile, bringing the level back up to juuuuust barely over the level of the current floor+2 layers of vinyl.

That will, I think, adequately protect the subfloor from any insult, and provide very little transition downward for the laminate I am finishing up installing in the kitchen. BTW, the laminate is very water and moisture-resistant, but I am gluing the joints with a waterproof glue designed for laminate flooring, as an added precaution. A 2’x7′ area in front of the kitchen sink and dishwasher will not be getting laminate flooring but a fairly thick adhesive vinyl tile that is designed to be grouted. (I’ve already used the same vinyl tile for the front entry, and it has performed like a champ there, with heavy traffic for several months.) Same treatment in front of the French door exit/entry from dining area to deck.

After this flooring is down, since the bedrooms on this floor will only need carpet and staples removed, and some cleanup, minor restoration, I’ll then be able to start on replacing all the trim. Oh, yeh, I think I mentioned a month or two ago that the bedrooms have some nice oak flooring under the carpet. *smh* Means we have more laminate that we need for this floor. Hmmm, the laundry/pantry is begging for a reno (could be a half bath/cleaning supplies pantry), and the garage needs to be emptied for a conversion to laundry room/pantry/workshop. Laminate flooring used those places?

*huh* Will STILL be some left over. Probably enough to do the deck, once it is fully enclosed, eh? 🙂

Oh, and methinks my Wonder Woman wants new cabinets in the kitchen, too. And the master bath needs an update, and. . . 🙂

I’ll never have time to die. Especially since my amateur “handyman” approach is slow, largely from excessive creativity (or so I tell myself *heh*).

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Costume Party Idea

I don’t generally like costume parties. The last one I went to, about 42 years ago, was a Halloween costume party. I went as a nearly penniless grad student. *pa-dump-bump*

But, if I were to go to costume parties nowadays, in this age of SJWs berating folks for racism (and all other kinds of pseudo-“isms”and -“phobias”), methinks I might dress up as my favorite characters from books read as a young lad or from even earlier childhood: Little Black Sambo (eschewing the blackface makeup, just cos I don’t wear makeup well, at all, at all ?), Mowgli (now there’s a sight: Mowgli as some Olde Pharte in his seventh decade. Pass the mind bleach, please. *heh*), Uncle Tom (again, no makeup — it’s not you; it’s me 😉 ), etc.

Why? I dunno. Just to provoke some lame brained (or brain-dirtied) idiot into mockable behaviors. Because.

Now you know why I no longer get invited to parties. Works for me. Too many people give me a rash.

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Moderate Tightwaddery

So, my design for lil kitchen project (transforming a moveable island with a 19”x 36”–with a dropleaf extension adding to that–top to a 44” x 50” top, with 1/2 as a dropleaf with folding legs) needed a buncha nominal 1” x 2” (3/4” x 1-1/2”) bits framing the top, and some nominal 2” x 2” bits for legs.

Buying that stuff precut is more than I wanted to do, so I sacrificed a 1/16” kerf 2 ways and ended up making “good enough” approximations by ripping a couple of nominal 2” x 4”.

LOADS cheaper. When I consider the fact that I’m using a piece of “scrap” furniture grade plywood for the rst of the top, the top isn’t costing me a heck of a lot to make/install. Oh, I did buy a couple of really nice Rockler locking hinges for the fold-down legs, and shelled out for a good piano hinge to run the full length of the drop leaf, as well as some nice plugs matching the finish wood on the plywood (‘cos I’m just gonna screw the top down to the frame, and I want the screws inset and covered), but out of pocket for the top ~$25, instead of buying something pre-made for well over $100 (saw something as nice as what I intend this to come out as for ~$340. Urm, no.).

2-piece top now cut to size. Assembly is next, and there I will get to use the nice DeWalt power miter saw Estimable Son-in-Law gave me for Xmas. Some gluing, clamping, screwing, and then staining and finishing, and that lil project will be off my list. (Oh, there are a few lil additions to make: a couple of boxes on wheels to add to each end of the island; one for a kitchen trash can and another for table linens; new drawer glides for the island’s drawer, as well as a strengthening of the drawer itself–little things)

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Tightwaddery2

Ab out a year ago, I found a belt exactly like the one pictured here ($16) for a buck at a local “fell off the back of the truck store (closeouts, returns, salvage, etc.). I liked the fact that it was extremely adjustable, and since I needed a belt at the time (intentional weight loss, pants falling down, broken buckle on old black belt I had used for years–had LOTS of additional holes punched in the leather, anyway), I purchased it.

After a few months, the part indicated with the arrow broke. Unlike the rest of the belt buckle, it was just cheap pot metal. #gagamaggot

Today, I finally decided to either fix the thing or toss it. So, I used a twist tie to emulate the functionality of the part that broke–a part which worked together with a spring-operated tongue on the buckle to grip notches in the belt.

It works, but that’s about all I can say for it. Still, “it works” is enough for me to once again wear the thing with a pair of pants I bought “too small” which now fall down if I do not wear either a belt of suspenders (or both *heh*)

So, Tightwaddery2, ;cos cheap buy of an item I needed and cheap fix of same item, broken.

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Me and My. . . Messes

So, this is what our kitchen once looked like, more or less (at least the western portion):

I’ve cut off the 3′ portion of counter top that has the marble rolling pin on it (never fear; I have a use for it *heh*) and removed the support elements, so that between the mobile island (the wooden top immediately to the left of the counter top in the pic that I removed) and the remaining countertop, that 3′ of free space provides better flow for the kitchen.

But I’ve not exactly lost the very nearly nine square feet of counter top, not entirely, just made it possible to have that space be more useful, buy adding a 2’x4′ piece of plain faux butcher block (real wood but not real butcher block) that very nearly matches the existing island’s top to that island with a piano hinge and two folding legs, for occasional use.

Oh, and the counter top I cut off? I plan to later attach it to the end of the counter I cut it off of to extend that counter straight, in a modification of the current “coffee shrine,” which is a 1’x2′ extension off that counter, now. I’ll trim that 3’x3′ piece of countertop down to 2’x2′ to attach it, giving me back the net loss of ~ one square foot, plus a bit, just in a different configuration.

THe counters and cabinets in our kitchen were all carpenter-built, and so are not compliant with normal cabinetry standards, so these modifications have unearthed some. . . unique, let’s say, solutions to what was initially planned, since a simple demo was just not in the cards.

You can imagine how that 2’x2′ extension/modification of the “coffee shrine” will look (complete with expanded storage underneath) by glancing at how it looks now:

Plan slowly coming together. I did need to get the demo done before I could complete installing the new flooring in the kitchen, though. Still, I’ve made another huge mess getting as far as I have. *shrugs*

Oh, the dishes displayed above/next to the “coffee shrine” have been replaced (the ones seen above donated) with some plain white Corelle® dishes, the storage underneath the coffee paraphernalia is now full of cookbooks, and the stools have been displaced by some comfy stepstool stools with nice supportive backs, but apart from those things, it’s more or less as you see it in the pic. *heh*

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The Difference Between “Uffda” and “Feeda”

Uffda and feeda are two words commonly used by folks of Norwegian extraction, and while they have some similarities in meaning, the differences were graphically illustrated for me in the summer of 1978, when I visited my Wonder Woman’s family in Minnesota for the first time. One afternoon, while there, my Wonder Woman’s sibs took us to see “Grease” at a local movie theater. The movie was OK, but the highlight of the day came as we exited the theater and made our way toward the car. A couple of guys were walking in front of us, and one of them pointed at some gum on the ground and said, “Uffda!” The other guy didn’t see it in time, stepped in it, lifted his foot and looked at the gum on his shoe and disgustedly said, “Feeda!”

So there you have it. If one merely _sees_ something unpleasant, the proper expression is “Uffda!” But if one _steps_ in it. . .

YW. 🙂

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A Teensy-Tiny Piece of History

Back in 1959, in observance of Alaska’s new statehood (1958), the Southern Baptist Convention sponsored an evangelistic effort, partnering with existing SBC churches in Alaska. My dad obtained sponsorship from the baptist church in Seward, Alaska, along with its partnering churches in the lower 48, and spent a month as part of evangelistic meetings, clinics on church music and church education, and in personal evangelism.

I have copies of letters between him and the sponsoring church, copies of various agendas for meetings, and a very special “cookbook” compiled by students of Shishmaref Day School, Shishmaref, Alaska.It’s a little ~4”x5” typewritten booklet with a hand lettered cover that includes such “recipes” (descriptions of preparation, no amounts given; kinda like my “Not a recipe” recipes I post here now and then *heh* like

Eskimo Ice Cream

  • grate reindeer tallow into small pieces
  • Add seal oil slowly while beating with hand
  • After some seal oil has been used, then add a little water while whipping
  • Continue adding seal oil and water until white and fluffy
  • Some berries can be added to it

It might be difficult to come by reindeer tallow and seal oil, here in America’s Third World County™, but it’d certainly be “keto friendly.” 🙂