The office is finished

Scan back to the first post of the "Office" and you will see what this corner used to look like.  All the same junk is still there, it's just hidden in the cabinets!

Here's pretty much how it looks.  I thought Diane would use all that counter top space for Young Women's projects, but she was released as Young Women's President.  She now teaches the 9-year-olds in Primary so I guess she'll be preparing Primary lessons instead.  She also is in charge of some sort of group of girls at summer girls camp, so she'll by busy with that till camp's over.  Anyway, there's plenty of room here for her to work at something!

Here are the work stations with the first drawers I ever built.  They weren't too tough after all.  I still have to get a file cabinet that will look good under the window.  The beat up one in the closet wouldn't look so hot.  So, once I get that in I will have room in my closet for my shoes and they won't have to stay on the back porch.

Finally, more of The Office

Well, I took pictures all along the way, but never had time to put them on. Between Church, Scouts, job, vacation, holidays & this project, I go to bed pretty late and staying up to download pictures (this blog thing is annoyingly slow) became low priority.

So, just about everything is done but making and installing the cabinet doors and drawer fronts. I put up the window treatments Monday night.

You can see why I left a strip of white on the walls when I painted them... too cheap to put a back on the cabinets!

Above shows our work stations with the oak desk top and under-cabinet lights. Tonight I put shelves between the cabinets. Di wanted some shelves to decorate.

Hummm... a little blurry, but here is the board and batten. The trim on the desktop extends all the way around the room. The cabinet doors will match the board and batten. I'm anxious to see how it looks with the doors installed.

So, there you have it. I guess the next pics will be when it's done.

Green!

I'm not sure if this looks the same in the photo as in real life. I'm, uh, not good with colors. But Di picked green and she says she likes it so that's what matters.

No need to paint where the cabinets or wainscot go.

The Office (not the TV show)

Well, it's about time for another project. This room is a mess. No place to put Scout stuff and Young Women stuff except on the floor. It's hard to get around Grandpa Boylin's bookcase.

Di and I spend a lot of time here but all I see of her is her back.

So, it was spend a lot of money on furniture or build cabinets. I asked Di which she preferred and after I made a sketch of cabinets, she decided they would be OK.

My dad's desk and Di's dad's bookcase will go up in the guest room with dad's dresser.

This is hard to see... I did a sketch in pencil to see what cabinets would fit. This is the south wall where Di's computer was. We'll have counter top (work space for YW projects) and lots of storage. The large cabinet on the bottom left will be under the desktop, L shaped with the counter on this wall.

The east wall, where my computer was, will be desk space for both of us. We'll have storage cabinets above our desks with some open shelves between, and each will have a bank of drawers on our left. We'll put lighting under the top cabinets to light our work space. Cabinets will not go under the window on this wall, so there will be room to put a file cabinet there (it's now in my closet).

So here is my sad workshop. The one car garage is so stuffed with junk that I set up that folding table for a workbench and set up and use one tool at a time. But hey, since there is no snow, I can also use the driveway! Working evenings and most of Saturday, I have the cabinet boxes done and painted (Diane chose brown for the cabinets and green for the walls of the office. I decided to make the inside of the cabinets white). Next: paint the office, make face frames for the cabinets, then make the doors. And I'll need to tackel making my first drawers. We decided to also do board and batten on the remaining walls.

Behind the for rent sign you can see the 3/4 oak plywood for the desk/counter top.

Chicken Stories

(an email sent to my siblings)

Dearest Sibs,
As you can see below I have been chastised into participating in these marvelous emails. I really do enjoy them. I was just reading them when Diane came in and woke me up so I could finish. Not that the emails put me to sleep, it's just been a long day (Ward Youth Conference) and my computer is right by the heater vent and we just had dinner and I stayed up late last night and you know how it is... sometimes I just go to sleep!

So, I beat you all to the punch with this chicken thing... I think I sent you all this link (click here) about my favorite chicken recipe but you may not remember. Kind of like Crystal finding my blog (that she has read and even commented on several times in the past!!). What's up with that?!?!?

So, my memories of the ranch... I didn't like it. Well, actually, I didn't mind it most of the time, but I didn't like that I couldn't play football or wrestle because Dad said I had chores to get home to do. I mostly played on the ranch in Highland. I think the only chore I had there was keeping the water full in the turkey pen. And I think Dad did it too, Maybe it was just he would let me do it once in awhile. Or maybe I just wanted to play with the water and I remember it as if it was a chore! So, that and I had to pick up the rocks off the lawn before Dad would mow. But I am the one who put the rocks there so it was really just picking up after myself.

I do remember the Indian tribe in Highland that the girls invented. I think we did rain dances and I seem to remember we even had a language for them. They must have been strange Indians to live on a chicken ranch. I hope they enjoyed the eggs we rolled out to them in the grass because it sure made Dad excited when he found them!

In Yucaipa I did a little more work. Wasn't too fond of scraping the poop off the boards but it was honest work and kept me from being broke. If I recall, I started out at 25 cents an hour. And was I lucky to earn that! My boss had to work on his Dad's ranch for room and board!!! Ah, things were good when I was a kid.

I remember having to spread the feed in the evening and there was one chicken that would peck at my hand every time I went by. It got to where it made me really mad and one time when it got me good I stopped and grabbed her by the neck and slapped her up side the head. Now, I don't know how he did it, but every time I did something like that I'd look up and there would be Dad. Anyway, I explained that that hen always pecked at me and he said "what do you expect, you've got your hand in her supper"! And then he followed with something like "don't hit my chickens or I'll something, something you..." I don't remember the exact words, but you get the drift.

Once at the beach I found a rock that looked kind of like an egg and I brought it home an put it out with the eggs for Dad to find when he gathered eggs. He thought that was pretty funny. He had it sitting in the egg house for a long time.

I learned a lot about responsibility working on that ranch. When I moved my family back to Yucaipa in 1982 I built a little coop and put in about 6 hens and told the kids to keep them fed and watered or they would die. I wanted to teach them the same responsibility I had learned. You have to take care of animals or they will die! They don't just get mad at you, or pout, or go to their friend's house to eat, they DIE. I was sure my kids would be good chicken ranchers. After all, it was in their blood! Well it went pretty well for a couple of weeks. And then they started dieing. So I gathered up what remained of the flock and put them in the cab of my truck and drove up the street and threw them over the fence of some yard that had chickens. I talked to that guy a few years later and told him what I had done and said I thought he had probably been pretty surprised to find more chickens in his yard. Hahahaha... but he said "not really... it happened all the time. Even got a goat once that way". Guess I wasn't the only one trying to teach responsibility.

So, there is my entry for tonight. Thank you, Crystal, for getting me off my duff. It was a thrill to think of chicken stories. Now I have to go clean my office. My wife thinks I need to pick up after myself. But first I think I will sing a little to the clutter and maybe even do a little rain dance.

Love to all,
Jer

The Legacy Assured

Scout Camp!

This was cool. I got to go to 11-year-old Scout Camp with Michael. We did a 6 mile hike and passed off a bunch of requirements in his scout book. We spent Friday night in a tent and Michael got to blow the horn a bunch of times that signaled time to move to the next workshop. I was especially proud when he carried the American flag in the flag raising ceremony.
(And no, I don't know what that red thing is under the picture)

The best job ever!

Grandparents Day

Last Wednesday was Grandparents Day at Taylor's school. She goes to a great school and once a year they have a day when Grandparents can go see a little program and then visit their grandchild's classroom. So Diane took the day off and I took a long lunch and off we went to see Taylor.

Now, let me say, I have had a lot of jobs in my life. I've worked as a janitor, copier repair man, a salesman, a grunt, a manager, and in construction. I could probably not even list all the different jobs I have had. There were many years in my life that I had two jobs and sometimes even three!

You could even count 4 at a time if you counted the job of daddy. And until a few years ago, I thought the job of daddy was the best. It was really annoying when the other jobs got in the way of the daddy job. But I had to pay the bills so the other jobs got done. Well, I'm finding that the older I get, the more annoyed I get at the interruptions in my life from this bothersome thing called a job. I'm thankful for the money and free car and benefits and paid vacation days, but wanting me to come in to work every day is just getting out of hand! Oh well, retirement is, unfortunately, not around the corner. So I will continue to go to work.

But that will not stop me from enjoying the best job ever:

Grandpa.

When I think about it, I did have a little training on how to be a grandparent. I used to watch my dad as his eyes sparkled around the grand kids. He was not as rambunctious as I am. He would not have jumped on the trampoline or gone to Scout Camp with the grandkids. But he did ride them around the ranch in the electric egg cart. He liked to take Pug for a walk and have a grand kid along with him. He liked to watch TV with them, especially if it included a nap! He took the grand kids fishing and made sure they got a big orange from his tree when they came to visit. My mom used to cook and sew and do crafts with them. This grandparent thing can take up a lot of time. And though it's not time yet, I am ready for just one job. I want to be a full-time grandpa!

The Legacy Assured