Dad's watch

The inscription reads: From Doris to Floyd 10-10-62. That was my Dad's 46th birthday. On that day he was 13 years younger than I am today. I was 11 and just that June we had moved to the ranch in Yucaipa. I remember sitting next to Dad in the little church on 1st Street watching the little second hand go around and looking at his hands. His hands were large and rough. The hands of a life-long farmer and rancher. Hands that worked hard and were proud of what they did. They were tanned from working outside and there were some age spots beginning to show. His hair was dark and there were callouses on his palms. He used to look at my hands and tell me I should be proud of having callouses, they were the sign of a real man. I used to tease my friends because they didn't have callouses. Dad and I worked together on the ranch and when he talked (he was usually pretty quiet) he would try to teach me what it took to be a man. Mostly, he said, it takes a lot of work. He taught me to be proud of my work, to sit back and admire it when the job was completed. "Don't rush off, take a look at what you have done". Even to this day, when I get done with a project, I sit back and enjoy what I've done. Sometimes I will just pull up a chair and look for awhile. That is actually one reason I like to put on this blog the projects that I am working on.

Today is Christmas eve. We don't have any family here today. It's kind of quiet and lonely. But we get to spend Christmas morning with Tyler and his amazing family and that will be great. I have worked on a little project for his girls. The paint is drying in the workshop. I will post pics when I get it put together. So I have been reading my kid's blogs and taking a look at what my family has done. I'm pretty proud of them all and hope they all have happiness thru the Holidays and forever. Life's not easy. It takes a lot of work. But they are all working hard at making a good life for my grandkids.

I think now I will put on my Dad's watch, his golden ring, and go enjoy Christmas eve with my beautiful wife. She just brought home a rib eye roast, so it looks like we'll have a good Christmas eve dinner! But before that, maybe I'll go out to the yard and see if I can work up some callouses. Because that's what a real man does.

October 3, 2010... click here to see when this adventure began. Remember that room?

Our back porch/laundry room serves as a main entrance to our home. Since we park toward the back of the house, and since we use our back yard so much, we use the back entrance the most. So it should look decent, right. Well it is 99% done, just some touch-up to do.

It's hard to get a picture of it all, but here are several views.

Here's the washer/dryer Tyler got for us out of a house he was selling. We'll leave our old white set over in the Little Red House.

So, these aren't as cute as our kid's blogs with pictures of our grand kids, but hey, you blog what you got.

One more day!

I took a day off work to try to get this finished before Sunday when Di's family is coming.

Here is the new entry door to the kitchen. It's kind of a ribbed glass thingie. It's all in and painted... just need to touch up the paint. This is a custom order door and they actually cut it a little too narrow... I had to take off the trim and shim out the case so it would fit. Nothing is ever easy in an old house, but it doesn't help when they don't make the new part right either!

From the kitchen side.
Putting a shelf above the washer/dryer.
Kind of dark, but this is the new floor from outside looking in.

Putting in the floor... I think my pictures went in upside down.

Cabinets installed and painted.

Stopped while painting to get a pic. See the ceiling above the cabinet? Nothing level, plumb, or square in this old house. There is no way to make this look good, it will get trimmed as is.

1 coat primer, two coats paint. Easy when the room is empty.

I don't remember what I was doing when Di took this pic. But see all those spots? That's dust on the flash. I must have been stirring something up!

This is doing the plumbing... under the floor and up the walls. It was easier to cut access thru the floor than work in the 2 foot crawl space. That's the new sub-floor leaning on the wall behind me. After I was done with the plumbing, I put the patches back in and covered it all up with another layer of sub-floor. There were already 3... now there are 4.

So, tomorrow is Saturday and after I take the Scouts down to sell mistletoe for their fund-raiser, I'll be back to install the baseboard, move the Coke machine and washer/dryer in and be DONE!

Didn't make it by Thanksgiving...

I was supposed to have this done before Amy got here with her family for Thanksgiving. Maybe it will be done by Dec 12 when Diane's family is here for Christmas!

Cabinets are built and ready to install and paint.

Plumbing is done (moved inside the wall, it was outside) Had to move the gas line, hot and cold water, and drain. I also installed two additional outlets for the vending machine and the dryer. Installed new sub-floor & insulation (I'm trying to figure out how to get a heater vent in here.)


Actually as of Nov. 23. 2010, the sheet rock is also installed, but I don't have a picture yet.

So, just need to paint, install & paint cabinets, install floor, base & case, and new door to kitchen.

By Dec 12? Piece of cake!

At the park in Wrightwood

On with the remodel (and the rest of life)

When I first started this blog it was just to record a few things from our life that I thought would be fun for our kids to read on the web. Since I got such a hoot out of reading theirs, I figured I would do one too! Diane quickly took over and became the more frequent blogger, but she has now moved on to Facebook and doesn't come here any more. So, I am pretty much back at the helm. The previous post, The Front Porch Floor, promised updates on the continuing remodel of our "vintage" 1932 Wrightwood cabin between vacations, scouts and other distractions of life. So, on we go... I need to get this back porch remodeled to match the now "relatively new" kitchen.

This back door serves as the most frequent entrance for us and most visitors... not very attractive.

But first I had to take the Scouts to Camp Whitsett and a few other trips.

Like the West Rim Trail in Zion National Park

And a little trip up Mt. Baden-Powell, and a couple others you can see on the Scout Blog

And we had to do a Family Reunion at my sister's beach house in Capitola

It was cool weather and cold water (yeah, spoiled by Hawaii), but an awesome time!

And a beautiful house to gather great kids and grand kids for crafts and fun

Di and I took a little weekend trip to Sedona, one of our favorite places

Had breakfast at our favorite breakfast spot

This is Di's self-portrait at the information center, I guess they were warning us to beware of the local wildlife!

We went up to Lake Powell and took a river raft "float" down the Colorado. A "float" means there is no white water and it's not a very exciting ride. Beautiful scenery, and nice to be on the water, though. And I have always wanted to see this stretch of the river.

And last weekend we went up to TeriLe's birthday party in Washington.

Here are all the Washington grand kids!

And we got to spend some time with Tyler's family here in SoCal. Here are the boys at the lake.

And we went to Grandparents day at Taylor's school.

Here we are waiting in line for pictures. But, what the heck, we had a camera too!

And just this weekend we got to have the twins up for a sleep-over. That was super-fun.

We went to the park

And took more pictures

But now, it's time to get to work. This is almost a before picture... I have already moved the water heater down to the basement and forgot to get a picture first. But the water heater used to be in that corner behind the Coke machine.

It's new home is in the basement. I tried to move the existing one to save some money, but it didn't move well. So we now have a new one all snug and secure in it's blanket under the house. It was nice that a flue, gas line, and water lines were all conveniently located.

Next project, the door.

Now, remember, nothing in this old house is level, plumb, square, or standard size. The original entry door was only 28" so I needed to open it up for a 32" 9-lite entry door. To do that, I needed to move the light switches and the porch light over 4" as well.

Here is the new door.

It makes the house look crooked (which it is) because the new door is now level and plumb.
And on we go. Next, move the plumbing to move the washer to the other side of the dryer under the window so we can put cabinets between the washer/dryer and the Coke machine. Then repair all the drywall, put in a new sub-floor, build and install the cabinets and install the new flooring to match the kitchen and front porch. All before Thanksgiving? Well, maybe. We'll see. Di has said I can move the washer/dryer to the Little Red House so I don't have to work around them. She also said I should take some vacation days to get this done. I think she wants it done quicker than the kitchen!

So, long post, but I figure I'm the only one who reads it anyway!!!

The Front Porch Floor

When started to remodel the kitchen over two years ago we bought enough flooring to do the front porch and the back porch when we remodeled it. Since it's been awhile, I figured I'd better get busy. So before I tackle the major job in back, I figured I'd better put in the front porch floor... it's been sitting in packages at the end of the porch since November 2008.

Tyler says, "after 15 years, NO AstroTurf"! It was really an indoor-outdoor carpet. But it did look like AstroTurf!

I just moved the furniture back and forth as I worked across the floor.



And a couple of shots of the finished project.

Now to put screens on the windows and a shade on the west end to block the hot sun and we'll have our new "sun porch". I think I'll refinish Grandma Brack's table, too. It's pretty old and weary, but it seats 8 so it's nice to have.

Next to come in the back porch... move the water heater downstairs, build cabinets to match the kitchen, scoot the washer & dryer over under the window (move plumbing), new doors, paint, & new floor. Sounds like a fun summer in between vacations and Scout outings... and work.