The Dirschell's are Traveling Again

Friday, February 19, 2016

Feb 19th = More Progress

We finish painted the ceiling and walls today and trimmed the ceiling. We still need to trim the walls. I'm sure I missed some areas on the ceiling. It was late in the afternoon when I finished and getting dark enough that it was difficult to see how well I was getting the primer covered.

The trim painter.

The future bedroom is currently my "shop".

I need to get a storage building built so I have a place to move all my stuff. Another good day.

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Feb 18th - Walls Primed

It was nice here today. Sunny with a high in the mid 50's. I only managed to get the wall primed today. The finish coat on the ceiling will have to wait until tomorrow. Kathy and I went into town. I bought a scraper to scrap the junk off the floor and she bought some groceries. We had a nice lunch a the Chinese buffet.

Looking towards the road at the kitchen, bath and door into the bedroom.

Looking at the Living Room. (I borrowed the stainless steel sink from Tom & Mary Lou's campground a few months ago so that I could have a functional temporary kitchen.)

I was asked what the "cabin" floor plan looked like. The image below is old and doesn't show the most of the windows nor the 2nd door.

Below is a Google satellite image with our property lines superimposed in red. The cabin is to small to see. it is tucked in the top left corner, at the beginning of the curve in Allen Burgess Road. The long property line is a little over 4000 feet. You may be able to make out Tom & Mary Lou's lake along the left side of the image. Their home is on the shore of their lake.

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Feb 17th - Ceiling Primed!

No rain today. Nor ice. Hooray. Monday morning we had some ice. This is our little (at least 6' tall now) volunteer white pine in the front yard. It survived the big ice storm last year. We didn't have nearly as much ice this time but it sure did stress this little pine.

Kathy arrived last night. The most important thing she brought with her was a Valentine Lydia made for me.

Tim did the final sanding this morning. The outfit has a rotary sanding head in a vacuum pickup to minimize dust. It worked well. He dumped the dust from the vacuum into a cardboard box. There was quite a bit of it. I told him I would burn the cardboard boxes so that he didn't have to haul them home. Later, when I picked up the box with the dust, I picked it up by the tab on it. The tab tore and I dropped the box. It didn't tip over but I sure had a lot of drywall dust on me and the floor.

Kathy sat with Merv this morning so that Tom & Mary Lou could get a break. After finished cleaning up the drywall dust I spilled I took down the "dust curtain". In the afternoon we primed the ceiling.

The plan for tomorrow is to prime the wall and maybe finish paint the ceiling. It will depend on how my neck and shoulders handled todays painting.

In case you don't see photos Kelsey posts on Facebook. Nolan is getting ready to head across the floor, but maybe not for a few more days.

After sending Lydia the photo of me with her Valentine she gave me a thumbs up. She had been working with a red marker.

God is good.

Saturday, February 13, 2016

Feb 13 - Still in TN

Two drywall guys came Friday and made another pass mudding. Tim said he will do another 2 passes mudding and then do the sanding to ensure the surface is ready for a "slick" finish, which is paint. Hopefully by Wednesday I can start prime painting the drywall.

Todays tasks consisted of doing a load of laundry and then clearing some brush. I ran a tank of gas through my brush cutting weed eater and a tank of gas through the chain saw. My goal is to get a view of the hills south of us.

As you can see in the photos our recent 4.5-5" of snow has almost all melted, or evaporated. The highest temperature I saw today was 28. In the woods wasn't bad but standing out at the end of the driveway, in the wind, and visiting with Delmar Burgess, a neighbor, was quite brisk.

I took the photos looking through our picture window. It is difficult to even see any difference in the photos.

This is the before photo. You can see the hills in the background, the dark area. I'm not sure how far away they are. I need to get out a topographic map and check.

The photo below was taken about 5 PM. You can see some color from the sun going down, even though the photo is taken looking southwest. Note the arrow pointing down. The "aisle" I'm clearing is between these 2 trees. Sadly I ran out of gas when I think cutting down about 5 more trees would have made a world of difference. (All I'm cutting down is scrub. I think the largest non-pine tree that I cut down was maybe 2.5" in diameter. I did cut down some Virginia Pine that was larger. The Area Forester told me I needed to cut all of it down because it is a nuisance.) I was tired enough, and it was late enough, that walking back to the cabin, filling the saw with gas, then walking back and cutting the remaining trees wasn't going to happen. Depending on the weather I may get back down there tomorrow afternoon.

In the future I may also widen the aisle for a better view, but that won't happen for awhile.

It was a great day in the neighborhood. PTL.

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Feb 10th Progress Photos

I put up "dust curtains this morning to minimize the amount of dust getting into the bedroom areas once the sanding starts.

Tim Barnes, the guy who is taping the drywall for us, came this afternoon. He mudded all the seams and corners. He is coming back tomorrow evening to make the 2nd pass. Not sure if he will be back Friday to make the 3rd pass.

The total snowfall was 4-5" at our place. Overnight low was 15. The highest temp I saw today was 18, WeatherBug app says the high was 20..

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Feb 9th - Brrh!! Cold in TN

I'm back in TN. Drove back Sunday. Kathy and I had been here for several days last week, drove here Mon, Feb 1st and back to MO on Fri, Feb 5th.

Our TN "cabinet", as Lydia, our great-granddaughter calls it.

Our view. Our property line is nearly 4,000' from the window. I plan on thinning out some of the trees so that we can see the "mountains" in the distance.

Things are a little more of a mess, and certainly more disorganized than usual. In preparation for having a guy tape the drywall in the kitchen and living room I've moved most stuff into the bedroom areas. I unhooked the temporary sink, just moved it away from the wall. I also left the refrigerator in the kitchen, just moved it away from the wall. Both the walls and ceiling are to be taped. I will put plastic up, over the door opening to the bedroom, before he starts sanding.

I will also put plastic up across the opening to the future bedroom. No need to "wall it off" before he is ready to start sanding.

Once the taping is finished I will put a coat of primer on the drywall and maybe a finish coat of paint behind the area where the kitchen cabinets will go. Probably should put a finish coat on all of it before moving stuff back. After things are moved back I can proceed with putting up the remaining drywall, as I feel like it, and eventually get the guy back to tape the remainder. I'm considering building/buying a storage building (12'x16'?) so that I can move some tools & materials into it before installing the remaining drywall. It would be nice not to have to work around a push lawn mower, weed eater, gas can, 2 cycle gas can, shovel, rakes, extra plumbing fixtures, extra electrical supplies, left over shingles, left over siding, etc. I'm getting tired of moving them from one area to another as I work.

It started snowing about 4:30 yesterday afternoon. The snowfall is light and sporadic but we probably have 2.5" this morning. Forecast is to have another inch or two by tomorrow morning.

It is 20 degrees here now with the high forecast to be 26 today and 21 tomorrow. Overnight low is supposed to be 13 tonight and 11 tomorrow night. That is COLD for TN.

Even with the disorganization, furniture moving and snow I'm not "roughing it." Breakfast yesterday was eggs, side pork, hash browns, "hootch" ( homemade V8, but MUCH better), toast & coffee.