Taking it easier with the work.........

At Rick's suggestion, I decided that all this work around here was becoming a bit much, so early in the morning, I decided to take Salt the motor scooter out for a little ride..  As I left the house it was only 96 outside, almost cool for the desert in July...

I went over to McDonalds for a biscuit and sausage...  Remember we still have no fridge and only very limited groceries...  Then it was on to Home Depot for my first run of the day in things to continue the move in.....  Bolts and nuts for specific projects and a vise for the new bench...  And peg board pegs to use in hanging all those tools..

After I wrote last night's blog, I went back out and finished the long brace on the back of the bench, declaring it finished...  It is now in its place along the back wall of the garage...

But while I was in Home Depot, the sun did its desertly thing and heated the air up over 100...  As I was packing the stuff I bought under the seat, it seemed like a blast furnace, so I rode directly home...  Enough, as it was 104 on the dash thermometer of the bike..  I can't help wondering how these folks can ride around down here, with nothing but a dew rag on in the desert sun....  They are a lot tougher than I am....

But in the mid afternoon, I cracked and went back over to HD again, purchasing the remaining cabinet pulls for the rest of the bathrooms....  That kept me busy for a couple of hours...  And we did have some drawers that didn't line up with the pre drilled holes in the template......  So I drilled the correct holes for my application in the template..

I only had to measure it once on the template and from there on, the template marked the holes on the drawers exactly every time......  In total I mounted 42 pulls in the entire house....  I'm a tad tired of drilling doors and drawers....  But still I have the $600 that they wanted for the job...  The actual pulls cost around $75.

Oh, in the big news for today, the furniture store actually brought out some chairs for the kitchen table....  We can eat a meal sitting down now.......!!

And in even bigger news, the delivery company called late in the afternoon and will deliver the fridge and washer dryer between 9AM and 1PM tomorrow...  Fingers crossed that it all works when it gets here..........

Retired Rod

Let's answer Phil's question about the times things were written and posted...  I write the blogs late into the day the night before they are posted...  So if I write at 10PM its the night before you read it.  When I post it, its always for the next day, usually with a delayed posting at one second after midnight but it has tomorrow's date on it and time.  That way when Bob looks at it at 8AM over in Europe, its only about 1 AM here.

But the blog time zone is registered as Central time, so that causes some trouble, sometimes posting the blogs early, because it is midnight in Kansas....  But what you are reading was usually written the night before you see it....

The last fan and Cabinet pulls....

Just a one fan day!! But that fan mounted way up into the gable end of the master bedroom on the back of the house..  Its about eleven and a half feet to the fan box, and the eight foot step ladder left me standing on one of the upper rungs...

But like most things, once you get used to the fact that your up there, its time to get on with the work..  The fan was mostly together from my work last night, so it was a matter or wiring it and then all those phillips fan blade screws..

But in a couple of hours it was all over and spinning merrily...

So that was my trigger to head back over to Home Depot..  To buy more stuff for the ongoing projects around here....

The builder wanted $600 to put cabinet pulls on the cabinets through out the house.....No way!  So today I bought the first bunches of pulls...  Bunches or boxes of 10, I bought 30..  And the hardware man asked if I wanted the template.....  What template?  He handed me a little plastic square like gizmo with a lot of holes in it...  "$8 and worth every penny", he said.

Once back home and working with the template, I soon learned that you picked the correct holes and it lined up the drilling exactly so the pulls were on the same every time.  A couple of starter holes with a small bit and then drill it out with the bigger one...

I would have never guessed that I would be able to install all 30 pulls in about 4 hours, but I did with that template gizmo..  And worth every penny, like he said.  The kitchen is done and one of the bathrooms too.  But I still need to go buy another couple of boxes of the darned things for the rest of the cabinets....

I also piled the truck full of dimension lumber to make myself a work bench like I have at the other places..  I've built the same thing over and over as we have moved around over the years...  It is too heavy to take with you so it just stays with the house when we go..

The bench will be 30" by 6 feet on its top with a height of 3 feet from the floor.  I extend the back up high enough to put a 4 foot tall piece of peg board on it for the entire 6 feet wide.  I like to hang tools and handy man stuff up there so you can see it at a glance..

But we reached 108 degrees this afternoon, so I wasn't man enough to go out and work on the bench until late tonight.....  Once the sun went over the hill to the West, but even then I was raining perspiration and my glasses wouldn't stay on my nose...

The bench is mostly done now that it is 9 PM, but it needs a brace cut to go across the back of it yet.  Those tools hanging on the peg board will end up weighing a bunch so the big brace in a must....

And yes I should have built the bench first thing before doing all the inside stuff, but Loyce wanted blinds in the windows for some reason, so they were priority......

I just looked, and it is still 97 outside at 10 PM... No wonder my shirt is such a disaster....

Retired Rod

Robertson Screws?? What's That??

My loyal friends from Canada are heading me out to go buy Robertson screws.....  And if I were in Canada, that would be a simple thing to do, but down here,  the hardware man would look at me kinda funny and say What's that?

And yes I do own several Robertson screw drivers, but, other than the RV industry, we just never see such a thing anywhere around the US..  And of course the only reason that I have the screw drivers in the first place is to work on those RV's..  Ya, I know, they never strip out....

Now if Mr Robertson had just licensed Henry Ford to use the screws in the US way back when, we would all be using them today.....  Funny how some things turn out like they do...

Again today, this was another of those great put together and hang it up kind of days....  But I was even less productive, as it was only 4 blinds and 2 ceiling fans..  But the one fan was on a long down pole and hangs in the middle of the living room.  Needed the 8 foot step ladder for that fellow...

And just as I was about to finish the bugger off, suddenly the lights went out!!  Not just the breaker for the fan circuits, but the entire house.....AC and all.  Dead silence!! No lights in the entire place..  Of course you wonder if your wiring you just completed is bad, but that would only blow just its own breaker, not the master....

But a quick check of the outside box proved that our service was still in tact.  The workers next door were using a big contractor genny, and said they lost everything too....  We were out for over an hour and the house did fairly well at not loosing its cool...  But it wouldn't have made it much longer without becoming rather hot...

I finished installing the fan and went without testing it... just assuming it was fine...  After I was done, and sitting on the couch, all of a sudden the lights were back on and the fan began to spin..

Later, after the second fan was installed in the front guest bedroom, I tackled all the rest of those pesky faux wood blinds..  And their phillips head screws..  I thought about going after hex head replacements, but reasoned that I would have the job done before I got back from the hardware store.

I have one more fan to install tomorrow, and I have saved the dusey for last....  Again it is on a long pole, and hangs in the master bedroom from a vaulted ceiling...  I think it is over 11 feet up there, and will be a stretch even on the 8 foot ladder....

I sat here tonight putting all the blades of the fan together and assembling the down rod with its wires and covers..  But its putting on those blades over your head with those testy phillips screws.  Made in China phillips screws.....  I go slow and really don't give a darn when I get done, so perhaps that attitude will carry the day....

We did find a area rug to put on the tile floor this morning over at Home Depot, and it took both of us to get it out to the truck, and into the house....  Its now under the sofa and love seat, and I think Loyce is pleased....

But we still don't have any dining room chairs for the table, and the furniture store can't tell us when they might come in..........    grrrrrrr.....

Retired Rod

Putting Stuff Together!

I was awakened this morning by Biscuit as she had crawled under the bed to my side and was licking my mouth and nose.  Nothing like a big slurpy dog kiss at 5:30 AM.  Her internal clock is still back in Kansas along with the rest of us....

About three times last night in the post I mentioned that we didn't have any blinds.  And that East sun coming into the bedroom without blinds is what is awakening Biscuit..  So after some breakfast and some clean clothes, it was off to Home Depot again!

This place is beginning to have all our money.... and today was no exception as I needed another of those fans that I pictured yesterday...  and some blinds..

I was armed with my list where I went around and measured all the windows.... and found the blind lady that is specialized in cutting these buggers on her big specialized saw grinder thingy...  She kept asking me what the next one was on my list, and what color it should be...

When we got done, I had nine faux wood blinds in my basket.  So when I got back home I had nine blinds and a fan...  I set to work on the fan, since I had done one yesterday and they were just alike.  Still a million little screws and rubber grommets on the blades and wiring and all over my head....

I don't know where the time goes, but this took a couple of hours again...  Then I worked on the blinds in the den and Loyce's sewing room... They were just ordinary 2 inch white blinds, but I had to mount the brackets on the ends and find wood studs for the screws.. More screws but I have a drill gun so it twists things for me..  Until the Philips heads strip out anyway..

Eventually our realtor lady stopped by to make sure everything was together like needed with the sale and all its papers..   She was gone over the holiday, so we had to finish the paper work without her guiding the way..  I think she was concerned that we would need her, and followed up to see what else might be required...

But after she left, I started on the blinds in the living room.  They are 2 1/2 inch premium faux wood, but still made from plastic....  They are dark colored like the cabinets and matched fairly well.  The brackets were much larger as the blinds are heavier, and they went in slower too.

So all I have to show for today is one fan on the ceiling and five blinds in windows.... Oh, and late tonight, Loyce sprung a box of table lamps on me to put together...  There were three of them in a single package...  I almost refused.... I'm tired of putting stuff together.... but, I still have two more larger fans and four more window blinds...........

It was back to weather as usual here in the desert today, as the temps zoomed back up over 100 degrees..  I didn't have time to watch it today though as I had too much stuff to put together...

Retired Rod