This seems to be the mode now. Lots of tasks going on at the same time, so nothing actually appears to be happening. Brian came back for more trim work, of which there is lots. Lets figure this out. He and Nancy are working on the vertical grain (VG) fir, which trims out most of the doors and windows downstairs. I count 13 doors and jambs. Nancy finished the windows (mostly) in the winter, so we won't deal with those. Each door has 6 pieces of trim: 2 headers and 4 side pieces. That means there are 78 pieces of vg fir to sand (three times) and apply polyurethane (3 times). So then you have 468 actions (sand and paint). Add the doors and jambs (26 total). Its about a weeks work for Brian, which is good for him but bad for the pocketbook. But who said progress is cheap (was a liar).So what the heck did I do while the worker bees were making honey. On Monday I trimmed out the ladder opening for the man cave and prepped the windows in the cave for painting. On Tuesday I did some landscaping with Tim, planning and excavating for a rock wall in the front of the house. In the afternoon I was off to Sequim to pick up some more tile (sauna), paint, and 1200 pounds of greenstone boulders (hey, a geeeologist just can't have enough rocks on his property). On Wednesday, Nancy and I went to the Seattle Home Show to check out new stuff, but mainly to find metal hand rails for the two porches in the front of the house. Needed to find someone who was willing to paint them to match the house window trim, and we did. So this summer we'll get them ordered and installed. Its not a code issue because the porches are only 24" high (30" is the code requirement for railings). We also went to IKEA, which is the Costco of home furnishing and house decorating. Scored two sinks that were very reasonably priced, for a change.
Thursday was a complete writeoff in terms of the house. Had a Finance Committee meeting for Kala Point and got appointed (with my approval) to be the new CFO of our homeowners association. Not a big job now, but in July there are budgets to prepare. You know what they say: if you want to get something done, ask a busy person (BINGO). After a much needed lunch with the COOKS Group, wine and beer included, I was in the appropriate mindset to meet with the Port Townsend Pacific Marine Science Center, which I'm active in— in terms of Geology. I'm organizing a wine lecture and tasting in May as a fundraiser for them, so there are all sorts of decisions to make in terms of venue, budget, wines to be tasted, and publicity. I've tagged my old buddy Scott Burns of Portland to do the lecture--what a guy, and he is free. Looking for 200-250 winos for the lecture; send any you know that have $25 my way.
By Friday, I was anxious to get back on house jobs. I unboxed the IKEA farm sink that Nancy bought for the pantry. No problem says the instructions, just drop it into their specially configured sink base, which we don't have (and didn't want). Ok, just a few modifications to make. Like, cut the front and back of the cabinet away, build some new supports for the now butchered cabinet, and recut the face panels to wrap around the farm sink. I think I spent about 6 hours on this little chore, which (if I'd had paid to have done) would cost more than the sink. Enough bitching. It turned out great and its ready to place, as soon as Bill McCutcheon finishes the wood counter tops.
Saturday was back on tile. Someday last week I cut and placed the remaining tile in the sauna, so all I need was some time with my lovely spouse to do the grouting. Saturday it was. We were speaking to each other when we started the grouting, and even when we finished. Small miracle. Mission accomplished in 4 hours, but on Sunday we'll wet mop all the tile, hand clean it with rags, and apply the grout sealer. At this point we'll have about 60% of the floor tile finished in the house. Left to do are the master bath and upstairs bath floors (about 200 sq ft) and three shower stalls. They will be the killers, but we only need one shower operable in order to move in.
