Picassco I'm Not (Day 687)

September has been the month of visitors, not because of the weather here though. Its been overcast, rainy, cool, with very occasional sun breaks. Nancy's parents were here for a week breaking in the place; we must have passed as a home designed for old folks. They slept, ate, visited, and no one got hurt, fell down, or maimed. Bill did complain about the echo chamber nature of the great room, but then again he's on highly amplified hearing aids. June (Bill's wife), a self affirmed cat hater, fell in love with Maggie the cat and threatened to take her home in her luggage. We had to check before we went to the airport.

Then our sailing friends (Scott and Lynda) came up from Vegas to see what green trees look like (they need a dose of reality every few months) and sail their gorgeous 1954 Concorida yawl—Sumatra. They were here on and off for a long weekend—easy guests who are breaking in the upstairs bedroom.

While the visitors were here, I mostly primed, sanded and painted trim. Finished off the man cave windows, the guest bath room and master bath (trim), and got started on the upstairs bedroom. There are five bare wood windows and two primed doors & trim to do upstairs, so that is probably a week of painting (sand, prime, resand, and two finish coats). I should have shot this stuff with a gun, but with all the other painting finished I don't want to deal with the overspray. So every day I do a coat on a couple of windows, then I'll do the doors and trim. By then, the oak flooring will be acclimated and we'll be ready to lay it and the tile floors in the bathroom.

Not much else to report. Looks like the salt water season is over. Crabs have gone to sleep and the water/wx is getting too cool for boating, so its back to bowling for dollars and bingo. Just kidding, we're saving those adventure sports for our Golden Years (2015+).

Crab season closes (Day 675)

Crab season closes on Monday, but we pulled our pots today. Its been the typical season. Lots of males early and lots of females later. For example, today (Sat.) I got skunked. 6 females in one pot and 5 females and a undersized male in the second pot. So even though there are 2 days left, I pulled the traps and will some R&R for the next season. For those of you that care (probably only me), I netted 42 male Dungeness and 3 male Rock crabs in two months. That is a total of about 60 pounds of crab or 7.5 pounds a week.

My total investment for two seasons is about $320 now plus two licenses at $26 total. So for simple math, we'll call it $350 invested. 16 crabs in 2009 (one trap) and 45 in 2010 for a total of 61 crabs (ca. 90 pounds of crab). So, for Ken and Colleen, my crab-crazy financial friends, that works out to $3.88 a pound, tax free. Market price is $6.50 (with tax) right now, so I figure I've made enough to pay for my gout medicine. It all works out in the end, no matter what.

I'm melting the butter right now. Cheers.

P.S. The crabby ole guy in the photo is my father-in-law who is up here to help me crab and consume. He didn't catch any, but ate some—mission accomplished.

Quarter Sawn White Oak Flooring (Day 674)

Nancy and I finally settled on flooring material for the upstairs bedroom. We'd thought of bamboo for upstairs for a long time, but decided it was too 2005. You know how building material fads come and go and decided this one had gone. Still nice material, but not as wear resistant as advertised and it only comes prefinished, with the little dust catching grooves. Could have saved some money doing bamboo, but we decided on white oak. I had laid some of this in our dining room in Denver and we liked it, so we went there again. This time I ordered quarter-sawn white oak because this cut is much more stable than regular cut oak. That's important for a floor on radiant heating.

Mills Interiors will lay the floor this fall, but I wanted to get the flooring upstairs and acclimated. The heat will go on later this month, so the timing was good for delivery. Emerson Hardwood Floors in Woodinville (NE of Seattle) was the supplier to Mills, so the flooring came by truck and ferry to our garage floor. They dropped it off when we were in Seattle shopping for bathroom tile, so I didn't want the guys carrying it through the house and up the staircase. Didn't seem like a big deal to move the wood, until I'd done a bit of it.

We have a little over 500 sq. ft of floor upstairs, so Mike Mills ordered 560 ft of flooring (3/4 x 4 SEL/BTR WO R/Q). This description decodes as 3/4" by 4" tongue and groove, select or better, white oak, rift quarter sawn. There were 34 bundles; 29 at 16 sq. ft and 5 at 20 sq. ft plus some bullnose for the stairs. Each bundle averaged 50 pounds, so how hard could that be to move. I moved a dozen to the back door, then carried each upstairs avoiding the painted walls and finished window. Careful no to make more work for myself. Then I stickered the bundles on the floor upstairs, where the radiant heat will dry the wood. The aim is to lay the wood at 6-8% moisture, then let it sit for a month before sanding and finishing it with tung oil. We really like the matt finish and ease of maintenance/repair with the tung oil.

So all the flooring is drying out and we'll have it laid toward the end of September. Then the sanding and finishing can happen a month later. We'll do the tung oil application this time to save some time and bucks. Its an easy process to mop on with a lambswool applicator, with one light sanding between the 2nd and 3rd coats. By then I should have the floor tile laid in the upstairs bath room and be starting the shower/tub tiling. I suspect I have a 4-6 weeks of full-time work upstairs before we're ready to hang cabinets, which we haven't even thought about seriously