PR: East Wall Shingles

Time for a progress report!  Since we began this project on July 3, 2012, I thought it was about time to provide some photographic evidence that work was actually proceeding.  Read more.

Finally On the Same Page

Thus far on 7MR Restoration, I have chronicled a few ideas about what I would like to see on the inside of our house, some interesting products that I have encountered along the way while looking for remodeling ideas, and some qualities of my house that I admire/enjoy.  Well, the other day while King Richard and I were in our Toyota Tundra, talking on the way to a destination so memorable it slipped my mind, I finally realized that he WILL NOT help decorate or improve the inside of our abode unless and until the outside is finished.  Hmmm.  He swears he has been saying this for years (really?).  Apparently, it only took twenty years for me to hear him. His logic for refusing assistance is sound:  it makes no sense to decorate the inside when the outside isn't sealed against the elements.  How can I argue that point?  The result of this watershed conversation is that the home improvement projects (at least for the time being and at least for this summer) will be focused on upgrading the exterior of our home.  Read more.

Busy Days Ahead

Summer is finally upon us here in Connecticut and, boy, do we have our work cut out for us!

Normally, my daughter has a pretty relaxing summer with only a little bit of schoolwork. Being homeschooled, she sometimes takes time off during the “academic year” and makes it up later. This year, however, we are fully involved with school clear through July (at least). You see, she has the opportunity for an internship with the Salt Marsh Opera Company in Stonington, Connecticut. In preparation for this job (because it is a paid position), she will be taking dance lessons, etiquette classes, and instruction in how to apply makeup. The latter is necessary for two reasons: one, my daughter is a “naturalist” who doesn’t wear makeup and needs to know how to wear it; and two, she needs to determine if she is allergic to anything that may be used on her face before the opera performances in October. The former classes are to improve her ease with people since she is rather shy around folks she doesn’t know, and to gain experience with “stage presence,” if you will.

We will also be taking to the road for a week or so to attend the first wedding of my daughter’s homeschool friends, a young man who lived in Connecticut for awhile before his family moved to the Washington, D.C. area. Katherine the Great was pals with his younger brother, but they all used to hang together playing computer games in their elementary years. The last time our families got together was several years ago; we met up one morning at a Krispy Kreme donut shop in near their home, while we were returning to our home for Thanksgiving. My husband was working a job in the Tidewater area at the time, and my daughter and I had gone down to visit while checking out the latest exhibits at Colonial Williamsburg.

Third on our list for the summer is planning for winter. The last time the Midwest had major flooding (see The Great USA Flood of 1993), Connecticut followed up with more than a half-dozen snowstorms from January-March 1994. My husband was enduring thyroid cancer at the time and Katherine the Great was only three years old (yikes!). I already locked in my heating oil at $3.799/gallon. Now, I would like to replace our family room windows and make certain we are well outfitted with insulating window treatments, not to mention winter clothes, before the snow flies. Lacking the cash flow to pay a contractor, my husband and I may end up doing the work ourselves (ugh!). Hey, we put a roof on our house, so a few windows shouldn’t be too much of a challenge, right? :-)

So, are you relaxing this summer or are your days as busy as mine?

Karbon by Kohler

A few days ago, my husband and I began discussing a bathroom remodeling project. As part of the planning process, I surfed the Internet for the latest in bathroom faucets. What I found was this, the latest in kitchen faucets. If anyone out there has one of these, please let me know what you think of it. I would love some first-hand feedback.

A Guy Thing

Today, at the bottom of the accumulated mail and catalogs on my kitchen island counter, I found the March 2008 issue of Fine Homebuilding magazine. Technically, this periodical belongs to King Richard, but I enjoy reading a column entitled “Great Moments in Building History.” These are usually pretty hilarious and pertinent to my life (or to some event in the history of my marriage). This month’s article, “My $14,000 Lamp,” was no exception.

A short account of men and the tools they require to make household repairs, the author had me at this paragraph:

After an intensive month-long search for a replacement part turned up nothing, my husband said, “You know, I could make that part. I just have to buy one tool.”

How many times have I heard that mantra?! I have a hydraulic jack, jack stands, and various small auto-repair-related tools in my garage that were purchased under the auspices of “I just need one more tool.” Fortunately, none of them set me quite as far back financially as this poor woman:

The next thing I knew, a 2-ton, $12,000 lathe was being delivered to my husband’s workshop.

And, not surprisingly, once this awesomely necessary tool was delivered, the much anticipated replacement part did not materialize. Why? What woman hasn’t heard these words in answer to that question?

“You don’t understand,” my husband said. “This is just the basic lathe. Now I need accessories.”

Oh, ho! I should have guessed that was coming...along with the tale of delivery trucks that dropped all those boxes of “accessories” on the author’s doorstep. I can so relate to this scenario. I just spent the last three weeks waiting for various and sundry parts to arrive so that King Richard can improve my hot water system.

But the best part of the entire article, the part that made even my husband howl with laughter, was this:

I felt trapped in a male version of the children’s classic If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. If you give a man a lathe, then he’s going to want a collet. If you give a man a collet, then he’s going to want a chuck. If you give a man a chuck, then he’s going to want a reamer...

Of course, my husband says that this holds true of women as well. If you give your wife a new refrigerator, then she’s going to want a new microwave. If you give your wife a new microwave, then she’s going to want a new kitchen. I don’t see the similarity in these arguments at all. Nope. I think it’s a guy thing.

Size Perspective

A while back, I purchased a subscription to The Journal of Light Construction for my husband. When the monthly volume arrives, I rarely even page through it, with the exception of yesterday, of course, when I found this little tidbit of information:

Over the three-plus decades that the U.S. Census Bureau has been collecting data on the size of new houses, median square footage has increased fairly steadily, from 1525 square-feet in 1973 to 2248 square feet in 2006.

But the bureau’s most recent numbers show that between the first and second quarters of 2007, the median size of a single-family home unexpectedly declined --- by 73 square feet, or the equivalent of a big walk-in closet.

The last sentence is the part that amazed me: the average house shrank by 73 square feet, a size equivalent to a large walk-in closet…OR a size equivalent to the work area of my kitchen! I knew my house was small, but I didn’t think it was that small. After arriving at this realization, I looked at my kitchen and tried to imagine it as a closet filled with clothes, shoes, and the like. I don’t think my daughter and I together own enough clothes to fill such a space. How many clothes do people own anyway?

Books. I could definitely fill 70 square feet with books.

Assembly Pep Talk

For a few years now, I have been using one of my kitchen chairs as a desk chair. Inconvenient, yes, but not terribly annoying, considering the fact that I was looking for a certain style of desk chair to replace the temporary one and I was willing to wait for what I wanted. Well, on Saturday, while shopping at Target, I found the perfect chair --- the desired style at the right price --- a Parsons chair for $24.98. I can hardly believe I found such a bargain. I rarely, if ever, find a bargain. I am just not one of those bargain-savvy shoppers, despite the fact that I have a degree in Economics. Sad, but true.

Do you know what else is sad, but true? The opening paragraph of the instructions I had to follow to assemble my new chair. Being the wife of a husband who often tackles do-it-yourself projects, I am no stranger to assembly instructions. They begin with a list of hardware/parts and continue with steps that, if followed correctly, take you to your destination, be it a repaired automobile or, as in this case, a finished piece of furniture. They get right down to business. They certainly don’t come with a “pep talk” like this:

CONGRATULATIONS --- you’ve purchased a fine furniture item from Target.

We have designed our furniture with you, the Target guest in mind. Our clear, easy to follow step by step instructions will guide you through the project from start to finish. Feel confident that this will be a fun and rewarding project. The final product will be a quality piece of furniture that will go together smoothly and give years of enjoyment.

Since I copied the above statement directly from the actual assembly instructions that arrived with my chair, I can only surmise that such directions now come with “encouraging words” for those who need them. I guess I am not one of those people; hence, my bewilderment.

To Target’s credit, the instructions were clear and easy to follow. However, I am not sure that a $24.98 chair qualifies as “fine furniture” that will “give years of enjoyment.” I am also not sure whether sitting on my kitchen floor and installing a few bolts are activities that come up to the definition of “fun and rewarding.” Productive, maybe.

Have enough of us really lost (or simply not acquired) the basic skills necessary to assemble something as simple as a chair without it becoming an issue of fun or self-esteem? Please tell me we aren’t that far gone.

Note: I also don't like the idea of Target referring to me as a “guest.” When I shop in their store, I don’t feel like a guest; I feel like a consumer, which is what I am.

Christmas Day 2

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me … two turtledoves.

What exactly is a turtle dove? In this case, it isn’t an animal. It is a thing. Actually, it is two things: the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. As I mentioned yesterday, the Twelve Days of Christmas was written as a “catechism song” to help young Catholics learn the tenets of their faith at a time when Catholicism was outlawed in England. In case I didn’t mention it yesterday, the partridge in the pear tree refers to He who should be our one true love --- God.

Historically, the day after Christmas is known as “Boxing Day.” Some of the theories as to how this term came about, all from Wikipedia:

- It was the day when people would give a present or Christmas “box” to those who have worked for them throughout the year. This is still done in Britain for postmen and paper-boys, though now the “box” is usually given before Christmas, no after.

- In feudal times, Christmas was a reason for gathering of extended families. All the serfs would gather their families in the manor of their lord, which made it easier for the lord of the estate to hand out annual stipends to the serfs. After all the Christmas parties on 26 December, the lord of the estate would give practical goods such as cloth, grains, and tools to the serfs who lived on his land. Each family would get a box full of such goods the day after Christmas. Under this explanation, there was nothing voluntary about this transaction; the lord of the manor was obliged to supply these goods. Because of the boxes being given out, the day was called Boxing Day.

- In England many years ago, it was common practice for the servants to carry boxes to their employers when they arrived for their day’s work on the day after Christmas. Their employers would then put coins in the boxes as special end-of-year gifts. This can be compared with the modern day concept of Christmas bonuses. The servants carried boxes for the coins, hence the name Boxing Day!

- In churches, it was traditional to open the church’s donation box on Christmas Day, and the money in the donation box was to be distributed to the poorer or lower class citizens on the next day. In this case, the “box” in “Boxing Day” comes from that lockbox in which the donations were left.

Wikipedia also gives this information in reference to December 26th being recognized as “St. Stephen’s Day:”

- As in most of the rest of the UK and Ireland, the day after Christmas Day was always most significant in the day-to-day events of Wales. Some activities that took place on this day seem peculiarly Welsh, including that of “holly beating” or “holming.” In this, it was customary for young men and boys to slash the unprotected arms of female domestic servants with holly branches until they bled. In some areas it was the legs that were beaten. In other, it was the custom for the last person to get out of bed in the morning to be beaten with sprigs of holly and made to carry out all the commands of the family. On many farms, horses and other animals were bled in a custom that was thought to be good for the animals’ health, evening increasing their stamina. These customs died out before the end of the 19th century.

So, what did I do on the second day of Christmas? Well, I CERTAINLY didn’t beat my child with a sprig of holly until she bled. Nor did I donate goods to the poor (like I probably should have). No, I shopped. It is a tradition in our family to go out early on the day after Christmas to acquire much needed supplies for next year: gift wrap, bows, ribbon, dinnerware, ornaments, storage boxes, etc. Sometimes I shop for these items online as well. I actually did that a few days ago, picking up some dishes, a new Christmas stocking for my husband, and two sealing wax stamps to use on greeting cards.

More important than all this after-Christmas shopping, though, was the shopping I did at Home Depot. After some discussion, some diagramming, and some measuring, my husband and I ordered a cabinet to install in our master bedroom closet, a step toward household organization that is a long time in coming. The drawer unit is scheduled to arrive at the end of January so, between now and then, I have some serious sorting to accomplish. It is a big job but one that, I know, will contribute positively to the atmosphere of my home. Stay tuned for updates.

Photo of Two Turtle Doves Christmas ornament by artist P. Buckley Moss was taken from the website of the Finn Gallery in St. Petersburg, FL.