4.6.2021

 Jim did a test fit of my small door frame this morning...

Starting to make the back cuts on all the door panels...

Stack of panels in the millwork process...

Jim had to rearrange the internet equipment again - he made a little shelf and routed everything through the wall so it's out of the way when he's plastering...

Then it was time to start dismantling - he has to move the medicine cabinet and sink so that he can tape and plaster in this area...

Sink's gone...

 

Jim painted the other side of the slats for the upper stairwell railing...

Starting to put a coat of polyurethane on the newly-stained stairs...

They look really nice...

It was a very nice day so we decided to do some cleanup work outside.  One big goal area is behind the pole barn so we started working there...

Just spending a little bit of time makes things look so much better!

High 60/Low 34

4.5.2021

 

Happy Birthday to my amazing husband who definitely proves the adage that age is just a number!  We had a lot of fun last night - his family did a Group FaceTime to surprise him.  They all had printed out Star Trek faces to hold up and they asked Jim Star Trek trivia questions.  Everyone had the right color shirts and badges - too fun!  A screenshot...

Jim is also now the proud owner of a Star Trek face mask!  Thanks to everyone who sent him well wishes on his birthday!

Of course, Jim worked on his birthday.  He did the millwork on the smaller kitchen cabinet door...

Then glued that up...

The problem with painting your house fifty shades of gray is that sometimes you get the grays mixed up.  Once the paint on the railing mounting board dried, it was clear that it wasn't the right paint - it was the workshop color.  So Jim had to do some repainting today!

He also painted the slats for the upper railing area - they look really pretty...

He did knock off a bit early - he had a craigslist sale and we met the guy in Home Depot's parking lot.  When the transaction was done, we went into Home Depot for a couple things.

We did end the day's celebrations with some cake and ice cream!

High 56/Low 32

4.4.2021

Hope everyone had a very blessed Easter today!  

This morning, Jim primed the other side of the upper slats for the stairwell railings...

There's one more door on the existing cabinets that Jim has to make so he cut and sized all the pieces for that one today...

In the afternoon, Jim started working on the alternate steps on this run - first sanding...

Then starting to stain...

All stained - they look beautiful!

Painting the upper railing mount section...  

Newly-painted newel post and cap mounted...

High 53/Low 36

 

4.3.2021

Jim brought up a door frame today - we were thinking about making these with glass panels but I voted to have them like the other doors.

With that decision made, Jim cut panels and glued up the other two frames...

He also had to make a couple new slats for the stairwell railing...

Using the router to turn over the edges of the slats...

Giving them a coat of primer...

Jim also put a coat of primer on the railing mount on the wall...

It was a nice day so we decided to do a little more woods clean up...

During one of our big wind events, we lost a huge branch off one of the pines along the edge of the driveway.  The branch had lots of visible woodpecker damage.  Thankfully, it fell perfectly and only hit a couple of the ugly little trees that we are cleaning up anyway.  But this will take some work later on to chop up and move out of the way.

Because it really is always something, when we came in from outside, I noticed that the lights on our beverage cooler weren't on.  We did all the obvious checks but it's pretty much dead.  Thankfully it's under warranty but we bought it online so we'll see how all that goes.

High 47/Low 25

Jim continued working on the new kitchen cabinet doors this morning - two of them are now in the gluing process...

Jim took down the top railing pieces from the stairwell and started getting the pieces ready to finish.  Cleaning them...

The top newel post is painted...

As well as the frame...

After that, it was a coat of polyurethane on the newly-stained stair treads...

Jim finished out the work day doing more plastering in the wood shop bathroom.

High 32/Low 19

4.1.2021

 

It kind of looked like an April Fool's Day joke when we got up this morning - it was snowing quite heavily for most of the morning!  But even though we had flurries on/off all day, we didn't end up with more than a coating.

It was definitely a good inside day though.  Jim continued making pieces for the doors and doing the millwork...

Looking good!

He started staining the next stair run...

Don't forget to walk on the blue!

After he was done staining, he went back to plastering in the wood shop bathroom.  No pictures because I didn't want to go up and down the stairs right after they were stained.

High 37/Low 19 - little snowy!