11.30.2020

It was kind of a disjointed day for Jim.  He started the day by taking the 4Runner to the local garage for its appointment to have it inspected.  It passed so that's always cause for celebration!

Once he got home, he got organized and started doing painting in the stairwell...

Then we heard the beep of a truck backing up - it was our gas supplier.  Jim has been waiting until we had used enough gas to get it topped off for the winter and just tried scheduling a delivery online for the first time last night.  Just like when you call in, they tell you they will deliver it sometime within the next 5 days.  But here they were!  They filled it up as far as they could so we will be good all winter and won't have to worry about it - definitely good news!

By the time Jim got finished with that and got paint stuff put away, it was time for lunch.  But he got started again right after he ate and continued painting.  Looks really good...

He worked his way down around the middle landing area...

High 48/Low 46 - rainy

11.29.2020

Jim started stacking my dish tubs on the steel shelves - how organized and cool looking is this?  I bought special sized labels and both sides are labeled to make things easier to find.  There will be more to come - I have to get a few more tubs for my Depression glass!  

Jim spent some time doing some car cleanup - he has an appointment to take the 4Runner in for its inspection tomorrow.  Then in the afternoon, we headed out to do some final work in our former rock pile area.  You can see there are lots of smaller rocks left here plus Jim wants to do some better grading.

So we loaded up the bucket with rocks...

And Jim took them back to our newly-restored rock wall at the side of the property, which looks fabulous too.

Then it was time to grade - I picked up any big rocks that came to the surface as Jim was grading.

Looking so good!

All done!  We'll let it settle over the winter and then throw some grass seed on it in the spring.

At the end of the work day, we decided to take the Mini out for probably its last spin of the year, which is sad.  But it was an enjoyable ride through Saratoga and some of the surrounding area.  On our way back up the driveway, there was a huge full moon on one side and the setting sun over the mountains on the other - gorgeous!

High 45/Low 26

11.28.2020

Jim started painting gray today in the stairwell! 

Working on that important top ceiling line - Jim is so good at this.  He did joke that he was glad he didn't have more coffee to cause jitters!

Doing the trim work...

Rolling on the paint...

This bottom section is all done and looks fabulous!  Jim wanted to use up the leftover paint first in this area just in case there is a color mismatch.

Jim prefers to work from the top down, so the next area was the top of the stairwell ceiling.  This was really difficult because of the slanted ceilings - Jim basically had to freehand the line because there was not a flat frame of reference.  But it came out great nonetheless.

Jim also brought my tubs of Christmas dishes upstairs...

Nativity up and Christmas dishes in the hutch!

High 44/Low 28

11.27.2020

 Jim painted the ceilings today - first doing all the trim work and then rolling it on.  He had to do both the lower ceiling...

And the ceiling in the main lobby area.  He also did the edges of the ceiling at the top of the stairwell where he had primed the walls.

In the afternoon, he turned his attention to some pre-winter chores.  He wanted to get the excavator covered and the battery out for winter.  But - ugh! - the rodents had a field day in the excavator engine.  You can see how they destroyed all this foam insulation...

Then deposited it all throughout the engine.  They even gnawed on the gas cap!

You can see there is foam all the way through to the bottom...

So Jim got the power washer hooked up again and gave it a really good cleaning.

He took the bucket off - he may try to sell it on craigslist and get a Bobcat bucket; this is an aftermarket one that came with the excavator.  Then he parked it next to the pole barn...

And wrapped it up tight for the winter...

Meanwhile, I was busy taking fall decorations down, which meant that Jim had to go into the pole barn attic and bring down my tubs.  After I put things away, he took them back up and brought down Christmas boxes.  But then I packed away all my fall dishes and got them organized into tubs - which Jim had to take down to the metal shop.  I'll have him bring up my Christmas ones tomorrow.  He got his workout before his workout going up and down the stairs just for me!

High 47/Low 33

11.26.2020

 

Even though most of our Thanksgiving celebrations didn't look anything like normal, there is still much to be grateful for.  We are so blessed that we are healthy as is our extended family.  Hope everyone had a wonderful celebration - whatever it looked like!

There was a heavy fog over Angel almost all day - it looked so peaceful and calm.

Since it was just Jim and I for dinner, we decided to eat in the evening, rather than our typical early afternoon.  So Jim was still able to get a good day's work in.  He first took a blade and knocked down any hanging plaster from the ceiling...

He then had to sand the edges...

And resand the places that he touched up...

Of course, all that made a lot of mess which Jim then vacuumed away!

Then priming all the edges...

Before rolling the primer on the ceiling...

Jim cleaned up his paint supplies and then did some investigating into his next steps in getting electricity to the pole barn - he took off another section of drywall to access the conduit.

Jim's ready to carve the turkey - ha!

From us to all of you - Happy Thanksgiving!

High 48/Low 38 - foggy!

11.25.2020

So...we decided we weren't 100% satisfied with the stairwell lobby area ceiling.  The lighting wasn't great when we did it and Jim feels like it was a combination of not enough plaster and stomping the pattern too close that just made it all seem a bit too flat.  Before we went any farther in painting, we decided to redo.  Jim mixed up a thicker plaster mixture and started putting a coat on the edges (another trick we had done on the other ceilings and forgot until we were about halfway through this ceiling the first time).

Rolling on the plaster...

Doing the edges...

All done and laying down the pattern...

Yay - it looks much better now and we are very happy!

Of course, while Jim had plaster out, he decided to touch up a couple of areas on the wall!

With our wonderful concrete driveway, it's easy now to roll the power washer outside, hook it up to the outside hydrant with the small section of hose, and do all the clean up work.

We bought two new gallons of the paint we are going to use for the stairwell, but Jim also found two additional partial gallons left over from the main living space.  We're a bit confused why there were two - Jim is meticulous about not wasting anything.  When he first opened the cans, the new one looked almost white and the other two weird shades of blue and black...

But a little mixing brought them all to the same color.  He even did a test color comparison on a piece of wood.  He mixed the two partial cans together to use up first.

Putting a coat of gray on our coat racks...

The first gray in the stairwell!  Jim wanted to do this first so that he can get the thermostat back up to put a little heat in the stairwell.

Jim started at the bottom of the stairwell doing the trim work...

And started up the stairs...

Using up the last of the paint to do this trim work...

High 41/Low 35