8.26.2018

This morning, Jim wanted to cross off a few agenda items up in the apartment.  First was to put the doors on the hutch that he had taken off in the move.  He also switched out hinges on one of the doors - when we originally bought this piece of furniture, a door was damaged and they had to repair it.  When we got it back, they had put brass hinges on instead of oil rubbed bronze, so they gave us the replacements.  That never boiled up to be a priority because you can barely see them, but Jim wanted to put the right ones on.  That prolonged this job plus Jim made sure everything was square and level with the cabinet.

Sure looks nice now!

We are trying to get things hung up on the walls slowly too - besides getting them out of boxes, it makes everything feel more homey!  After we bought this property, Kyle and Julia bought us this amazing 1899 surveyor map of the area, including our property.

Our entryway looks extra nice now!

  

And of course our Enter in Peace sign outside the entry door.  This was a piece we bought from Don Drumm Studios in Akron, OH - he's a famous sculptor/metalworker. 

Then it was time to work!  Jim went back to doing all the mill work on the door jamb for the master bedroom.

Jim basically has all the jamb pieces done and ready to go.  He is all set up to cut out the hinge areas.  A door will be in our near future!

Off to church!

High 77/Low 61 - beautiful!

8.25.2018

Jim spent a little time this morning cleaning up all the wires for the TV.  It's wonderful that he planned all this out so we can hide everything.  He just has to do the HDMI cable and the cable for the BluRay player - both of those will go through the opening at the bottom of the wall behind the cabinet and out the opening behind the mount.

Looking good!

The rest of the morning, Jim spent working on the dryer.  Our kit to switch where the vent comes out came yesterday.  Figuring out how things work before starting...

He had to knock out the hole on the side of the dryer to bring the vent out there...

Checking to see how the vent will fit...

A lot of this work had to be done inside the dryer - Jim had to tape connections without being able to see what he was doing!

The expensive kit we had to buy for this came with a cover for the original vent hole - guess that made it worth it - ha!

It would have been much easier for Jim to cut the pipe in the shop but he wasn't exactly sure where it would end up when he moved the dryer back and it had to be put through from the back.  So he had to resort to doing it the old-fashioned way and used a saw.

All done - at least for now.  Jim wasn't real happy with the selection of hose that Lowe's had for the steam function of the dryer and found one he liked better at Supply House, so he'll order that and will make final modifications later.  But they worked so nice - and I put them to a good test today because our laundry was pretty well backed up!

Jim spent a little more time rearranging all of our box area and was able to get his desk credenza out of the main pathway.

To help with that, Jim is continuing work on the second set of steel shelves for the metal shop - cutting a stud...

He has the vertical frames all made and just has to make the horizontal pieces.

 I went through the first carload of books that we brought back from the book storage unit.  I'm trying hard to weed through them so I have two big boxes to take to the library.  As I sorted them, Jim started stacking them on the shelves.

After all the apartment duties today, he finally got to do some woodworking.  He's getting wood ready to make our bedroom door frame.

It's funny - both Jim and I have said that the carriage house has taken on a different personality when we look at it now.  Instead of being the place that we come to work, it's our home! 

High 79/Low 55 - beautiful!

8.24.2018

Jim continued working on the bookshelves today.  This is all the cuts he has to make on the studs to in order for them to fit around the frame.

 Jim went up to our plywood pile that has been covered and was able to find nice sheets to use as more shelving.

All loaded up on the Bobcat...

More plywood on the shelves...

 Yikes - good thing Jim built these shelves so strong!  Fastening the top shelf...

All done!  Jim is going to get some more steel from the boneyard and make the last shelf raised from the floor a few inches.

Starting the next set of shelves - these will go in the metal shop for extra storage to help clear up some of our floor area.

We knocked off a little early and headed into Saratoga.  First stop was the book storage unit - yikes, you kind of forget just how many books and miscellaneous we have stored here!

We loaded up a cart and put them in the 4Runner.  We would like to be able to get the unit cleared out as soon as possible so we don't have to continue paying rent.

Then we headed over to Lowe's for yet more dryer parts before heading home to Angel!

High 80/Low 56 - beautiful!

8.23.2018

Jim did some rearranging in the metal shop today - he put the protective pads on the dining room table and then stacked the chairs on top.  We'll be able to store boxes on top and underneath to make things a bit more accessible.

Then he started working on our bookshelves at the bottom of the stairwell.  He made wood blocking to go behind the steel so that he can fasten them together - no tipping bookshelves!

Starting to assemble the shelf structure...

Putting more steel up...

Putting spars across the shelves...

Both sides are done.  This way, Jim can cut the plywood down so that he can get more shelves out of a piece of plywood and everything will be fastened together so they will be really strong for all those books!



Putting the plywood shelves on...

Fastening them down...

End of the day - looking great!

We got our first mail delivery today!  However, it would have been much more exciting if it wouldn't have been a Spectrum bill!  They sure don't waste any time.

Can you spot the first red leaf of the season? 

 

High 74/Low 53 - gorgeous!

8.22.2018

Things didn't go real smoothly today but Jim still got more apartment improvements done.  He put in two shelves in the cabinet we got from the dentist office so I have more storage room. 

 

 He has plans to make another one too but this is already a big help.

We discovered there was a small leak in the bathroom sink.  This sink has given Jim a lot of grief because there is no easy access to the plumbing.  Today, he ended up taking the plumbing all apart.

Look at how he came up with a way to tighten some of the connections - he had to put a mirror on the floor angled up so that he could see, the flashlight at just the right spot, and then he tried a whole slew of wrenches before finally having to use one of his oil filter wrenches to tighten it - crazy!  But it appears to have worked and no more leaks!

I was in the kitchen this afternoon when I heard someone pull up the driveway - our first UPS delivery!  It was our dryer parts that were missing when they delivered the machine.  That was on the agenda this afternoon too - Jim's checking out the parts below.

He hooked up the washer first.  That all went smoothly and we decided to wash a load of towels.  As soon as the water started filling up, it started leaking out the bottom front!  Thank goodness Jim was there or I would have been in full panic mode!  Once we got the machine turned off and the water shut off, Jim discovered that there is a pump filter on the front that wasn't locked into place!  It is not something you would ever think to check and obviously wasn't closed right when we got it.  Jim locked the filter and we started up the washer again - this time with no issues.  However, in just that short time, water leaked downstairs onto the ceiling of the stairwell. 
 

The dryer has a steam option so the parts that came allow you to make a connection from the washer water supply to the dryer.  However, we wanted the dryer closer to the wall and were planning on putting a storage shelf between the two machines and the hose wasn't long enough.  Jim also discovered that there is a kit you can buy that allows you to vent the hose out the side of the machine, which would work perfectly with the arrangement in the room.  Jim already has the kit ordered.   Since the dryer wasn't functional yet, I just hung up the towels on a drying rack in the wood shop.

So lots of unexpected jobs that took unexpected turns today!

For his final job, he put up another hook I ordered for next to the shower stall in the bathroom...

 Looks nice!

 

High 75/Low 53 - beautiful!