If You Give a Tinkerer Some Scrap Wood

Have you ever read, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie"? If not, then you are probably single and/or don't have children or nieces and nephews. I think that the point of the story is to get kids to empathise with their parents and to stop procrastinating when their parents ask them to do something. It tells the story of a mouse wanting a glass of milk with the cookie that is just given to him. This "reminds him" that he needs to brush his teeth, which reminds him of something else and so on and so forth until the story gets back to him wanting a cookie. Judging by the way my daughter acts, most kids don't get the point of the story at all. Then again, maybe it's my own example that's causing her "procrastination". I am starting to think that most of my projects around the house are exactly like this story. For some reason or another, they seem to go on and on.

If you give a tinkerer some scrap wood, he is likely to want to build something. Looking around the yard, he thinks a trellis is a good idea. He builds the trellis and upon remembering that he has a symmetrical house, he decides to build another trellis to match it.

Thinking that the bare wood doesn't looks so great and trying to find a way to cover his shitty craftsmenship, he decides to paint the trellises.So, he runs to the hardware store and buys some paint to match the trim color of his storm windows. He eventually runs out of paint and has to go back to the hardware store for more. Thinking he's done a pretty good job, he props them up against the front columns to see how they look. While looking at it, he realizes what a nice day it is so he decides to move some plants around (he can't help but continually move plants around because he's just wired that way). He moves some hollyhocks from the back yard to the front. Upon closer inspection, he realizes that the right trellis covers up his house number.So, he starts planning on making a new house number plaque for the Tiny Bungalow that will hang above the trellis.

Oh, by the way, the trellises have yet to be permanently installed.

Trellis is almost done

Today there was no good reason to be outside, The snow returned, hopefully for the last time this season. It is already almost gone and the sun is out right now. Since it was so bad earlier, I spent a little time finishing up the trellis project I started yesterday. I asked my wife to choose the final design and this is the one we went with. I think it came out nice and once it has a couple coats of paint on it and the vines start growing, I bet it will look good. Maybe I'll paint it a nice white? ha ha ha.
Sadly, my list of spring projects is starting to pile up. Hopefully I can make a dent on or finish the following next week: staining my ladder book case, paint and install the trellis, strip more of the closet door, finish cleaning up the yard and if the weather is nice, continue transplanting, painting my Cubs/Sox cornhole boards, and start working on my stereo cabinet made from recycled wood. For now, I'll rest.

Trellis project: even the simple stuff can turn into a time-waster

Last year, I planted some morning glories in front of a column to my porch. I liked how they ended up by the end of the season but I quickly grew tired of my make-shift "Blair Witch" trellis.I thought that a new trellis was warranted and would be a simple enough job to do in a couple days. I threw a sketch in my book and was ready to go.As is typical these days, I decided to use some existing material around the house for the trellis. The packing platform for the storm windows that came last summer seemed perfect. I spent a little time dismantling it and started cutting up the recycled material to the sizes I wanted for the trellis. This is where it got tricky. Now that I had the kit of parts, what was stopping me from assembling them in any configuration I desired? I went on to blow about an hour "playing with Lincoln Logs". At least, that's what it felt like. I rearranged the sticks into a series of patterns. Now I don't have the energy to put the thing together. I think I'll sleep on it and tackle this project tomorrow. I hear snow is on the way so I won't be able to install it tomorrow anyway.

Is there such a thing as a caulk fetish?

I think that everyone I know that reads this blog has asked me, "how is the bedroom going". 'Slowly", is my only response. I turned a corner, so to speak, this weekend and I now have a majority of the baseboard stripped. I have also been hunting around stores for some window stops so that I can begin stripping the window casing.

I need these because (hard core restoration folks, avert your eyes) I am seriously thinking of throwing away the ones currently on the windows. They are painted and would need stripping but worse, they are cracked and chipped all to hell. I intend on restoring the old windows but stripping all of these stops is just a bit much. I may not have a choice though - I have yet to find anything the right size - gotta love old homes.

This morning I pealed one stop off, to take with me to the hardware store. I made what is becoming my typical discovery in this house when I remove something - caulk. The previous owners must have had a caulk fetish - it is everywhere. When I took down the molding/rail at the ceiling, it was there, they had it at the toe molding too, I can't believe I didn't find it holding down the wall to wall carpeting I tore up last year. It is everywhere!!! Were they afraid of something getting in - were they getting infested, was there a draft??? I can't believe this stuff really helped. I have convinced myself that this was the only thing that the PO could do well so they did it a lot! I have images of this couple, their array of caulking guns, spending the weekends filling every crevice of this home with that wonderful white goo.

Enough with the caulk rant. I have finished the first three coats of plaster on the south wall of the bedroom and will begin working around the remaining walls. It will kill my mother in law, who is visiting in a couple weeks (and who reads this blog) to know that she will not be sleeping in a finished bedroom. Mom, you can now go scream.

It has been beautiful here the last couple of days so we decided to take advantage of it and "HGTV" (verb) our backyard. I gave myself a strict budget and a time limit and came up with something to dress up our garage. I believe we have the ugliest garage in the OP. It seems like almost everyone's garage looks like a cute garden cottage - even the small homes in my neighborhood have them. Unfortunately, ours is a mess. As part of our dress up, we spray painted our trellises and put them up against the garage wall. We planted clematis beneath them and put hanging baskets on the walls above them. If everything starts to grow it might look nice - for now, I am just glad it looks better than it did.

Everything is primed for my mother in law's visit. We have tons of empty containers, planting bed space, and a huge sink in the backyard waiting for plants. This will be nice - we didn't start planting flowers until July last year - maybe we will actually have things looking nice before the summer is over this year.