Weekend's Work

11-13-05_2110.jpg, originally uploaded by DictionaryMan.

Shamelessly large. It can fit the biggest screen. Our TV, used and huge, has got to be the heaviest set I've ever had to heft. Its perch, currently recycled plywood, but soon to be 3/4" birch plywood, is 40 inches off the floor. The Tannoy monitors fit in there with room to grow if need be (I won't need it!) The rack spaces are not all taken. For the party on Friday, the top will be done, the cable holes will be cut and the trim installed. We'll also replace the tv with our turntable, a wood/metal german affair. Cheap thrill.

Lawn vs Leaf

There's no escaping the fact that I think raking prior to every tree being bare is just plain wasted effort. Result? Our lawn, once dirt pools with young newly hatched grass seed islands, is now hopelessly choked with leaves. But the leaves are pretty. Northeast lovely. They even crunch underfoot superbly, much better than I remember as a child. They beg to have a tackle football game played upon them. With cleats. Aerate the soil, or some such. And there's still that fall nip in the air, a few leaves still clinging to the branches of our maples, and there's even one tree in the neighborhood that's still green. When its leaves finally fall. I'll get out the grain shovel, move some snow around and then rake.

Who got beans?

Pantry

One night it came to me. I got my mind around a project that hadn't previously been on my radar. I'd turn our old cluttered back hallway into a pantry.

Voila! Halfway done. It cost about 150 for the lumber used so far and took about two days. (All weekend.) Simple dado cutting on the radial arm saw, as before, but in pine this time. I shellac'd half of it, but will shellac it all before too long.

The previous weekend I spent refinishing the wood floors in there, after pulling up a tired flat carpet left over from the 1950s or earlier. Twas the same carpet pad I recognized from redoing the floors on the first and second floors.

Work continues...my health is stable in these somewhat stormy fall skies.

Kitchen Next

See that old 1970s flooring? See those cheapo kitchen cabinets? This kitchen is the next thing to get worked on...and it's gonna be sweet. Nice action photo, eh?

Note to self: I have no idea how long this will take me. A couple of months. Six, or seven weekends? My marriage probably needs less wood cut and more finished kitchen...very soon. Very soon. And then onto the next pj.