7.31.2021

Today was all about doors!  Jim took off the temporary bathroom door - it served us well for all this time!

He had to take off the cleats he had put on the top and bottom of the new door...

Putting on the hinges...

Carrying this door up the stairs is quite the challenge - this door is incredibly heavy and Jim has to be super careful around all the slanted ceilings in the stairwell...

Carrying it into the house...

Attaching the hinges together...

How amazing does the bathroom look now with this gorgeous door?

Jim had made our bedroom door out of pine and because he makes things so precise, when the weather gets warm, the door swells a bit and then doesn't close as well.  So he decided to tweak it a bit.  Off comes the door...

On goes the original temporary door...

He just shaved a tiny bit off the top side of the door, using the jointer...

You can see he just took a sliver off...

Doing a little sanding...

Then he primed the cut edge.  He's going to repaint the front of the door with our new paint.

Jim was going to trim outside for the remainder of his time but he just got started and it was out of twine.  So he used the time to clean it up and put new twine in - it will be all ready for next time.

We are heading off to church - we were told that we need to wear masks again regardless of vaccination status.  It was nice while it lasted to go mask free!

High 69/Low 51

7.30.2021

Jim assembled the window today, caulking the cladding on over the moulding he had made...

He fastened the moulding on in the corner by the door...

These mouldings sure make the hallway look good!

Jim did the first moulding in a room - he did the piece between the door and the heating register in the bathroom...

Jim spent the rest of his day doing some repair work on the driveway caused by the heavy rain we had yesterday evening.  Once that was done, he cut the grass - with all the rain, it's certainly been growing!

High 68/Low 49 - gorgeous!

7.29.2021

 Jim started this morning by heading to the dentist to get his permanent crown.  All of that went really well and we are so grateful that they were able to save the tooth - we were thinking the worst.  We really can't say enough good things about our dentists here - we have both had the best experiences of any dentist we have been to.

Once he got home, he made the moulding pieces to finish off attaching the glass into the bathroom window...

He got them all glued in and lots of clamps holding everything in place to dry!

In the afternoon, we headed to Whitehall which is close to the Vermont border where they have huge stone quarries along the sides of the road.  We stopped at Adirondack Natural Stone to get a piece of stone for the top of our meter pedestal.  One of these pieces of bluestone has our name on it - they are cutting it to size and putting a thermal edge on the cut sides.  It should be ready in a couple days.

On the way home, we stopped at Lowe's for more plaster and a few other things, then went into Glens Falls and ate at a local brew pub.  It was a great evening!  However, it really rained hard for quite awhile - there were some scary flooded areas on the roads on the way home.  Jim will have some driveway repair work to do on the steep part of the hill but thank goodness we are up high!  We don't typically get rain like that and it's finally moving out of the area now.

High 70/Low 61 - rain in PM

7.28.2021

 Jim started making moulding for the bathroom window repair...

He also continued some moulding work in the hallway...

In the afternoon, he headed outside and worked on greasing the Bobcat - it's going to be doing a lot of work coming up so it needs to be ready!

Then Jim took the Bobcat up the hill and did a little flattening of the driveway area to make working on it easier...

Then he used the excavator thumb to fill the bucket with some of the rocks he had previously dug out...

He dumped a bucketfull of rocks down in the lean to area...

 

The thumb works amazingly well - sure saves time and Jim's body!

This is the rock wall that we are going to work on extending - Jim dumped rocks in that area as well...

More rock clean up...

High 71/Low 55 - gorgeous!

7.27.2021

Jim caulked the glass into the window frame today...

Then he sanded and turned over the edges of more baseboard moulding pieces.  This is about it - we'll have to make another trip to the lumberyard soon!

Priming the moulding pieces...

He put the cleats on the top and bottom of the door and turned it over.  Then he did final sanding...

Then started painting...

Looks gorgeous!  He had some issues with his gun, so he spent a lot of time taking it apart and cleaning it.  He still thinks there is possibly a clog somewhere so he has his manual set aside to look over tonight.  

After he got everything cleaned up, he headed back to the pole barn and worked up in the attic, finishing off the wiring.  Let there be light!  He now has a light in the main pole barn as well as two in the attic.  Sure will be helpful!

High 78/Low 60

7.26.2021

Jim did more moulding work in the hallway this morning - this was the first outside corner he's done... 

Figuring out the cap moulding...

Looking gorgeous!

Before lunch, Jim went into Saratoga and picked up the piece of tempered glass for the bathroom window.  He'll have to redo the process and make moulding pieces to hold it in place but he knows he was able to do it!

In the afternoon, he headed out to the pole barn and finished up the wiring; two circuits - one for the receptacle and one for lights.

He still has to finish the lighting wiring in the attic but the receptacle works so there is officially power in the pole barn!

Jim has a good start to getting rocks out of the way for building the lean to, so the next step will be to bring dirt down.  

So he took the excavator up the upper driveway (such a gorgeous view!)

This is our dirt pile - now grown up with weeds, but that's okay - it's nice soil!

Jim turned over the pile and removed the bigger rocks - a job made much easier with the thumb!  We have plans to use some of these rocks to extend one of the main original rock walls on this upper hill; it will also provide a nice separation to the house area if we build up here.

I was kind of wandering a bit - nature is so cool!  Check out these beautiful orange mushrooms!

We love these fir trees (we call them fuzzy pines) and the back side of the property is full of them.  Even their pine cones are delicate!

High 81/Low 60 - nice!