Cabinetry & Tables

The next time I build a kitchen where there will be cabinets hung on the wall (which pretty much describes every kitchen), I'm going to make a meticulous plan showing exactly how the cabinets are going to be supported by the framing, with extra studs in the walls to facilitate an equal distribution of the load across the wall.

There is a conspicuous misalignment between the placement of the studs in the wall and the edges of the cabinets. I had naively assumed that the cabinets would line up with 16-on-center wall framing, but when the cabinets range from thirty inch to eighteen inch widths, it turns out that they don't.

So some of the cabinets have a single vertical line of screws attaching them to the walls, and others have two. Or three. Depending on width and match-up to the wall studs.

The one I was most worried about was the microwave shelf, which will probably carry the most weight. It has two lines of screws, plus I anchored it to the adjoining cabinets for extra support.

Now that the cabinet-hanging is all done, Cheryl has started filling the cabinets with cups and mugs and glasses and plates and cookware and utensils and all the things one would need in a kitchen.

I'm moving on to other things, like securing the ledge boards and finishing the window frames and the door frames and the thresholds between rooms and - oh, yes, there's still some ceiling panels to finish up. 

 

Meanwhile, I realized that the picture of the new chairs I put up the other day didn't show how well they match with the actual color of the dining room table (because we had a white table cloth on it at the time), so here is what it really looks like:

Christmas Holiday Fun

being a compendium of activities for the Christmas Holiday in the Year of Our Lord 2016

Manhattan Clam Chowder

It's the first time we've done anything with "live" clams in our house. Most of the time, we buy the canned stuff and make our clam spaghetti, or buy the prepared Ivar's Chowder from Costco.

But today, we decided to make our own Manhatten clam chowder. Which starts with real, live clams. From Costco (of course).

So they were on ice for I don't know how long, until I bought them and dragged them home. Then they were weighed out into appropriate portions and plunked down into steaming pans of boiling water and poured out into bowls and checked for viability then gently scraped out until nothing was left but the soft, squishy parts.

Half of them went into the chowder, and the rest were set aside for simply eating with crackers. Yum!

We also had Crab Louie and Salmon with a lovely béarnaise sauce, but I failed to get pictures of those ... because I was too busy eating!

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The Table

This is the way it has been for years and years, with the antique dining room table surrounded by six white chairs borrowed from the breakfast set. It's been that way for a long time because Grandma Green never had a set of chairs to go with her lovely dining room table, and when the table became part of our set of household goods, we didn't have the money to go out and purchase any.

But the breakfast set worked fine.

This last couple of years, while the dining room and music room were crammed full of boxes from the basement (because the basement was being finished), we were unable to use our lovely dining room table, and it languished in the darkness.

With the advent of our basement completion, we were finally able to clear out the clutter and use the fancy dining room table again.

And it was a lovely table.

But it just looked ... wrong. 

Until Cheryl went online and found a set of lovely chairs at a consignment shop that perfectly!  Yay!

So on her birthday, we went to the consignment shop and bought the chairs and brought them home and set them up, and we all lived happily ever after.

Except the cat.

Who has to sit in her own chair.

And is not permitted to eat at the table.

(Although we're not above giving her a bit of salmon now and then on her own plate...)

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Cabinets

The cabinets for the kitchenette are in the process of being installed.

Now that the den has a nice table with chairs and a couch and a refrigerator and a hot plate and a teapot and the plumbing is hooked up, it just seemed like the thing to do. So that anyone staying downstairs can have plates and cups and forks and spoons and hot tea and sandwiches and snacks and cold beverages and actually have a place to put it all.

The hardest part is finding the studs in order to drill the support holes correctly. You would've thought that I might've put together some kind of plan when I first put up the frames so I would already know where the studs were, but, no, that would have been too logical.

So I'm doing what everyone else does - using the stud finder to try and locate the studs, then drilling the holes in the back of the cabinets, the hoping when I put the cabinet screws in that they actually find purchase in something solid.

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Candy-Making

Mary decided to make some caramel candies for handing out to our friends.

On Christmas Eve - and again on Christmas Day - she passed out bags of caramels to people at church. Especially to those with kids. So the kids would get all hyperactive and cause havoc when they went back home.

Doesn't that sound like fun?

Note: We did save some to have around the house. But not too many. Because they're addictive!

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The Star

Tabea and James sent us a lighted star to hang in the living room next to the tree.

Which looks very lovely when all the other lights are off. Unfortunately, I can't take a picture of it because the camera's auto-focus doesn't work in dim light.

Not sure why.

But trust me. It's very pretty.

Thanks, Tabea and James!

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Cheryl's Birthday

On Cheryl's birthday, we went to Meijer Gardens to see all the pretty Christmas trees.

My Lovely Lady

We even stopped at the gift shop! And found a book of Fun Places to Go in Michigan! Which is kind of odd, considering we've been here for twelve years and should have gone to all those places already.

My Lovely Lady in the Gift Shop

But there's a difficulty in going to all the fun places when there is so very little time due to things like school, work, house repair, car repair, etc..

Maybe one of these days, someone will drop a a huge bucket of Time on our doorstep and we'll finally be able to go to all those wonderful places.

And after Michigan - what next?

Three Pretty Ladies Waiting for the Train

Reflections on Camera

Not so sure if I really want a Moth on my Tree

Happy the Christmas Elf

Panoramic View of the Pond at Meijer Gardens

Baby, It's Cold Outside (And Winter Just Started)

Yeah, it's cold outside, but it's not really cold yet. In fact, this is practically a heat wave in comparison to some of the winters we've had out here in MichiLand.

It's gonna warm up soon. Tomorrow it'll even be above freezing.

But this is only December. Real winter doesn't start around here until January. And then things will get very serious.

The wind will blow. The snow will fall. The Lake will send moisture up into the air where it will crystallize and expand and float like dust for miles and miles until it reaches our house, then it will be drawn to the ground like iron to a magnet, and our yard will become covered by a beautiful blanket of white.

The same fate will befall the driveway, but not so much as before; because with the influx of cars in the stable, there really isn't any room for it. In fact, at this point, there is only one car's length of blank concrete left uncovered.

I knew there was an advantage to having all these cars!

Today the snow was slow and blowing and inconsequential.  There were a few slippery spots on the way home, but nothing to worry about. Tomorrow (Saturday) it is going to more of the same, nothing but Lake-effect, kind of the like the constant drizzle we endured in Washington state. We just get used to it up here. Always bundle up. Two pairs of socks. Emergency supplies in the car. Keep a bucket of kitty litter in the trunk. Blankets.

Oh, and don't keep jugs of water in the car if you're parked outside. They're useless for drinking when they freeze solid. (Also, as I have learned the hard way, don't keep cases of Coke in the car either. Same problem with more tragic results.)

Sunday, though, is supposed to be the big Snow Day. Storm coming in from the West. Supposed to dump all day long. Which will make church attendance ... interesting. Definitely driving the Subarus to church.

Speaking of cars, that reminds me: I need to get new tires for Deb's Camry. The current ones don't have the tread for dealing with snow. And when she gets home for Winter Break next week, she's going to want to drive it.

Which means I'll go back to driving my Subaru again. Which I've not been doing, owing to the fact that it needs brake work. And a tune-up. And another tweak to the exhaust system.

But first, a little plumbing is in order for the basement. We have a guest coming tomorrow and I'd like to get the kitchenette sink working.

So ... toodle-oo! Have fun in the relatively-warm, not-snowing part of the country you live in! (Except those of you who ARE enjoying a real winter, in which case I sympathize with you, and urge you to stay inside by a warm fire with a good book, a lap cat, and a cup of tea or hot chocolate.)

Snow, Reprise

Cheryl settles down to a bit of laptop work whilst watching the telly.

 We were boring this weekend and did nothing particularly stressful.

On Friday night, Cheryl and Mary and I saw The Philadelphia Story at Calvin. On Saturday, I worked on the basement while Cheryl and Mary prepared the Christmas tree (and a few other household things). On Sunday, after church, Mary and I saw Noises Off at Sparta High School (about twelve miles north of Grand Rapids).

While we were enjoying the play, a winter storm waltzed in and left us with five inches of snow.  Good thing we were driving a Subaru!

The Monday morning should be quite interesting.

A winter storm stops by for a quick visit.

Thanksgiving, Gone.

First Snow of Winter 2016-2017

The first snow came and went. It was very pretty, but not much to write home about. There was very little accumulation on the grass, and nothing on the road. Kind of like the little whisper before the shouting starts: "Here it comes ... !"

It's going to be a while longer before the real snow shows up. The average temperature needs to drop a bit, and then hang steady for a few days or weeks, and then the ground will finally be cold enough to put on the snow like a blanket and begin the long winter nap.

And I'm not ready yet. We just got the leaves raked up today, but there's still lots of yard work that needs to be done before we call it a season and shut the door and huddle on the couch with the blankets on our laps and cups of hot chocolate in our hands and a blazing fire warming our toes.

I did manage to pull all the scrap wood out of the garage loft and stack it underneath the deck so that we could rearrange all our "keeper" junk up there instead. Now instead of cluttering up the main floor in the house, all that junk is cluttering up my garage. So I have no room to work anymore.

The biggest accomplishment, though, was getting my two "non-functional" Subarus into the garage. It took quite a bit of effort to rearrange all the things which had been in the second and third bays (and a couple of weeks) up in the loft or attic to make room, but now they're in winter storage.

My plan is to start pulling parts off the red Suburu ("Ruby") to replace failing parts on the other cars. Like the differentials for Mary's car ("Sapphire"), the exhaust system and fuel pump for my car ("Serenity"), and the rest of the pieces as spares.

Wish I had a big barn to store all this stuff in.

Some day.

::

Deb Finds Something Amusing on the Internet

Thanksgiving is a very strange holiday, in that it appears on the calendar too soon after Halloween and too close to Christmas. And there isn't a lot of commercial tradition associated with it, other than the purchase of food products.

Halloween has costumes, decorations, and candy. Christmas has trees and presents and food.  Thanksgiving has ... food.

That explains why the retailers ignore Thanksgiving and go right to Christmas after Halloween is over. Did you notice that this year? I didn't see anything related to Thanksgiving -- no turkey costumes, Pilgrim platters, native American treats. Nope, they went right from jack o'lanterns to Jack Frost nippin' at your nose. 

Very sad.

Well, at least I got a couple days off. A day to hang out with the family, eat a fancy dinner with some fantastic friends, get totally stuffed -- and then another day to avoid shopping while trying to reset my stomach after throwing it off completely.

Cheryl and Carolyn put on a great spread.

Our Thanksgiving Table

The rest of us (including Eric, Carolyn's wonderful husband, and their amazing children) selected from a smorgasbord of delights including (you guessed it) turkey and cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes and green beans and brussel sprouts and haroset(h) and smoked salmon spread and various assorted cheeses and all kinds of crackers and dinner rolls; and then there was apple pie and pecan pie and cookies and ice cream.

It was a wonderful evening of just hanging out and eating and talking and then being very tired and almost getting to bed on time.

Movember

It's Movember again, that magical month when members of the male species forget how to shave.

I actually started two weeks ago. Because my "beard" never really amounts to much. After all that time, as you can see, it looks pathetic.

So does my "resting face". I'm really not upset. I'm just ... tense.

It's been a long two years now, working on that basement. And trying to get stable, enjoyable employment. And seeing the kids start to move on with their lives. And realizing that, physically, it's all downhill from here.

Compared with a lot of humanity, of course, there is nothing worthwhile to complain about. The house is still standing. The cars (mostly) run. The paycheck comes in every couple of weeks. The checks don't bounce. The kids, although we don't always see eye-to-eye, are still a wonderful blessing.  Cheryl is still the most amazing woman ever. (After all, she still puts up with me ... mostly.)

But it is in my nature to complain. Because it is also in my nature to see the imperfect side of things, the things that need to change. It's probably the worst combination of tendencies: perfectionism and pessimism. I know what needs to change, but I doubt it ever will.

Especially in myself.

Were anyone brave enough (or long-suffering enough) to walk beside me as I go about my business during the day, they would quickly come to the conclusion that I am extremely slow when it comes to making decisions or coming up with solutions to problems. They might even conclude that my brain functions a bit on the sloooow side of things. Especially when contemplating tasks that need to be accomplished around the house, like fixing the cars or repairing walls or finishing basements. I can sit and stare at a wall for a long time, trying to figure out the perfect way to hang a ceiling panel; many a weekend has passed by with nary a thing to show for it but an idea or a sketch that is almost what I'm looking for, but not quite ... and it may take me another couple of weekends before the idea actually makes its way into reality.

I really don't like to be rushed.

And neither does my beard.

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All Hallow's Eve 2016

Trick or Treat

The neighborhood trick or treating had barely been completed for a full minute before the candy, which had been sitting quietly in a silver salad bowl by the door not hurting nobody, was whisked away to the kitchen table, its contents poured across the cloth, and sorted.

That's what we do in this house. We sort things. Right before we eat them.

Mary enjoyed her assigned post of attending to the door, opening it when the doorbell rang, laughing, ooh-ing and ah-ing over the absolutely adorable costumes worn by the little children who now infest our neighborhood (including the one dressed as the snowman from Frozen who attempted to actually come into our house; apparently he does not yet understand that trick or treating is performed on the front porch of a stranger's house and not in their living room). 

Although we enjoyed the spectacle of costumes, we were quite pleased when the time had come to close the door and turn out the light and retire to the back of the house where we could hide in obscurity and devour the remnants of our offering. 

We went simple this year. Tootsie Rolls of numerous flavors, always a crowd-pleaser, and a few Tootsie Pops. Minimum of fuss, no controversy. Just a simple candy that rots their teeth and then enough stickiness to rip them out of their mouths.  A real dentist's fantasy.

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Defeated

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This is the look of Defeat.

Serenity has been sitting in the driveway for the past year or so patiently waiting for me to find the time to fix her. But, alas, there was no time this year for such things, what with all the basement work going on. So she simply sat. And (literally) gathered moss. And rusted.

Finally, with the thought of the approaching winter heavily on my mind, it was time to put her away again, back into the third bay where she spent so many unproductive months last year, being ignored. Because of the basement. And other things.

So I pulled out my rope and my pulleys and hooked her up and pulled her non-working carcass back into the third bay (after emptying it of everything in the way).

And shut the door to the Man Cave.

And felt incredibly sad.

Because another year has gone by.

And she gets older.

And I get older.

And neither one of us is getting into shape.

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Junk

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There was a lot of junk sitting in the third bay that had to get out of the way before I could move Serenity into her winter quarters ("dry-dock").

There was no place else to put it except the second bay.

So now the second bay is all jammed up with junk. Some of it I'll need to keep. But much of it is just junk that needs to go.

I have a hard time getting rid of the scrap lumber. There's lots of really good lumber in there. Two-by-fours, two-by-threes, two-by-twos, one-by-twos. Scraps of plywood, drywall. Even a door-sized mirror.

I just don't have any room for it. It all has to go.

I'll try to get rid of some of it down at the Habitat for Humanity drop-off. But they are getting pretty picky about what they take. I tried to take the mirrored door there, but they won't take it if there's any defects (and there's a small crack at the bottom). And they won't take used drywall (obviously). They might take some of the two-by-fours, but only the eight footers.

The thought of just taking it to the dump galls me. But that may be the only solution at this point. No one else wants a bunch of slightly used construction scrap.

I even thought about sitting out on the back deck and just burning it in our outdoor oven. But what a waste that would be.

If I was living out in the country, I'd put it in my pole barn or my shed or something, and next time I got an idea for a little wood project, I wouldn't have to head to the hardware store or the lumber yard. Because I'd (probably) have everything I need.

But for now there's just no room.

And that makes me feel incredibly sad.

Passing the Time on a Saturday Afternoon

Today was a boring day with nothing to do. Except fix the cars, finish the ceiling in the basement, paint the shelves in Adam's room, finish up some spreadsheets for work, clean out the front landscape areas, and be all nice and cleaned up in time for "The Importance of Being Earnest" at Cornerstone at 7:30 p.m.

No problem.

First order of business is fixing Deb's Camry, because it's been my "backup" car since she went off to college. And since my "primary" car needs some brake / exhaust / tune-up work, I need to make sure my backup car is working before I tear apart my primary car. Especially since the backup car only needs a new radiator, which is a relatively simple job.

Should only take a couple hours.

So ... step 1: remove those pesky cooling fans from behind the radiator so I can actually get to the radiator. Then, find the nice little drain plug at the bottom of the radiator. Turn it til it starts leaking fluid all over the garage floor.  No, that's not right! First, create a kind of funnel underneath the drain plug to direct the flow so that the fluid doesn't pour all over the metal framework. Put the funnel thing underneath the drain plug, then

With the drain funnel in place, the fluid flows cleanly away from the frame...

put a pan or something underneath the car to catch all that lovely fluid.

Then disconnect all the hoses, including the transmission fluid cooling lines, so that I can pull out the radiator. I grab some rubber stoppers for both sides of the transmission cooling lines because otherwise transmission fluid will end up all over the framework. Oh, and put some shop towels underneath the transmission lines as they are being disconnected because they will drip a lot faster than it is possible to plug them.

The old, leaky radiator. Gotta pull off some hoses before it gets recycled.

The engine compartment looks kind of lonely without the radiator in it. And those hoses are just dangling, unused, with no purpose. They look very sad.

(Personally, I get very excited just looking at an engine compartment. Especially when I know what all those parts are supposed to be doing!)

Look at all that stuff! Just makes me giddy to look at it.

Once the radiator is out, put it on an old towel or a piece of cardboard so I can stop and just stare at it as though I know what I'm doing. Which I don't. No, no! I mean, so I can pull all the hoses and things off of it. Because I'll need those to attach to the new radiator. Because I don't have the time or inclination to go out and buy new ones. Because the radiator was quite enough, danke.

Oh, and those clamps...

Close-up of what Michigan weather does to metal.

This is what happens in Michigan to metal in the winter. The winter absolutely destroys metal around here, especially little things like clamps that sit near the bottom of the car and get snow and salt sprayed all over them, all winter long. When the owner is too cheap to get a car wash every week.

Now I go back and take a look at the empty spot where the radiator used to be. And feel the emptiness. Observe the rust. Check my savings account to see if it's possible to forget this whole adventure and just go get a new car.

Then sigh, and get back to work.

The radiator is gone! (The grille-looking thing at the bottom is the air-conditioning evaporator.)

Because Joy is Mine! I went down to http://www.napaonline.com and purchased a brand-new radiator for a bargain-basement price (~$100) and I've opened the box and laid it down on the ground and -- it looks so pretty with the orange and yellow stickers, with the yellow plastic caps over the inlets and outlets. And it's so shiny!

The brand-new radiator, right out of the box.

And in less time than it takes to mention it, I've popped that new radiator in place, plugged all the hoses in place (using the new clamps I happened to have in ,y personal auto-shop inventory), filled that puppy with new coolant, and I am 

All put back together, clamps on, fluid-filled, ready to go.

heading down the road to give it a test!

NOTE: No, nothing else of consequence was accomplished today.

Remember, Remember, the 5th of September

Once upon a time, in the distant past of Youth Gone By, there were two little girls who loved to play with Barbie dolls.

And then they grew up, and moved on to other kinds of entertainments, and the Barbie dolls lay for a long time, patiently waiting for a chance to see the light of day again.

And the girls, on one particularly homework-free weekend, pulled the box of Barbie dolls out of long-term storage and began to sort through them.

Thinking to themselves, "One day, our children will want to play with these."

And as they took out each doll, they called it by name, and remembered the stories they had acted out with the dolls, and all the adventures they'd imagined, and all the clothes they'd worn.

And it was a pleasant afternoon.

For all of us.

Weird Weekend

Storm Rolling In

The sky was beautiful. The clouds were puffy and white with shadows of pink and gray, framed by the thickening black of the thunderstorms which rolled in from the west.

Mary Installs Tires

Mary, eager to get her new-used car into shape, eagerly took instruction in the removal and replacement of tires, exchanging the old ones which came with Sapphire for the new ones we purchased last fall for Ruby. She learned several new techniques, including the use of breaker bar extensions and proper jacking for unibody cars. She also got some first-hand experience in the proper application of leverage!

Rob Works on Brakes

Serenity II, also known as "Emerald", needed some attention in the brake department because one of the pistons on the right front caliper was stuck, causing an imbalance in the application of braking force; so I took the opportunity to demonstrate to Mary the proper method for removing and replacing brakes as well. We took a good set from Ruby (practically brand-new!) and swapped them for the bad ones in Sapphire. Then Mary helped me bleed the brakes.

Tools for the Cars

Due to the rusted nature of the brake components, we had to use a variety of tools to carefully apply torque. (Not shown: a can of PB Blaster, which is extremely critical to the goal of removing rusted bolts without destroying them.)  It took a lot of patience!

Basement Lights

After all the car fun was done, it was back to the main task of getting the basement ceiling done. Here's the "before" picture of the special panels I've constructed for the lights: a 2x2 sheet of 1/8-inch plywood which sits atop the ceiling panel to provide support for the lighting box.

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Did I mention we got to see Weird Al at the DeVos Performing Arts Center on Friday night?  It was a father-daughter date, just me and Mary.  We both really enjoyed the show.  Al has mastered the method of inserting extremely entertaining videos in-between the costume changes so that, from the audience perspective, there's never a dull moment!

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Cheryl, I hope you're having fun in Moline!  We miss you lots!!  And love you more than we can say! Come home soon!

Cheryl at Work in Fields of the Lord

Cheryl and Mary playing on the swings at the park near Interlochen

Cheryl and Deborah in the dorm room at GVSU