O.K., now it's mid-August.......

.

Here is the weather vane on the garage cupula, bright sun behind it.  It looked better early that morning, or maybe I just wasn't fully awake yet.....

We started taking out the fireplace, in anticipation of the building of the masonry heater.  Here we were trying to get the heat exchanger out of the hood before we tryed lowering the hood.

Heat exchanger out, I put up some flashing around the chimney to try to contain the sparks from the plasma cutter that I borrowed from work.  It works on the same principle as a welder, creating an electric arc that heats and melts the metal, but this thing also has compressed air at the tip.  That blast of air blows the molten metal away, leaving a nice clean cut through the steel. 

I cut out a strip all the way around the chimney so that we could lower it down at some point.

Somewhere in the last month, we had a visit from Hailee, always an interesting and enjoyable experience.  She certainly is growing up fast!!

The counter top folks came to install the tops.  The Corian type stuff gets epoxied together so there are no joints in the finished product.  These gizmos are vacuum clamps that hold the joint tight together while the epoxy sets up.

I was a little nervous when the guy started grinding the ridge of epoxy along the joint, but when he was done, you could not tell where the bonded joint was.

This was the most interesting spot. On the far side of that beam, the counter top ended right up tight to the beam.  The piece leaning against the counter had been notched to slide in around the angled beam.

Then they made sure it all fit together and applied the epoxy and clamps.

Out came the grinder and they ground and buffed the joint until it was all smooth.

Again, you cannot see the joint when they get done.  It looks like that beam was set down in through a square hole in the top!!

A view of the north, taken from the stairway.

And a view of the south end, again from the stairway.  So, the tops are in and secure.  I have a lot of finishing work to do, but a few larger projects are getting priority right now.  Actually, the fireplace stuff at the top of this post started immediately after the tops were finished.

So that's it for now, maybe I can get caught up with this blog in the near future.  Any of you Mattson types that may be reading this, I'll see you this weekend at the 'chicken shindig' in Phillips.

Laters, Carlo


.

July happenings.

.



This is getting ridiculous!!  Last post was early July, for crying out loud.....  I'll give a brief update on the past weeks, then I hope to get back on track and be a little more frequent with this blogging stuff.

On the weekend of the 4th, we got a visit from cousin Sue and Gary.  It was good to catch up and they got a grand tour of the mess, projects, plans and such.  Visitors are always welcome and prior notice is not necessary.

Later that day, we were joined by Dawn, Russ and Peggy's mom, Donna. I grilled some steaks and Peggy made a bunch of other goodies for dinner.  The first official dinner guests in the new kitchen!

It was a good test of counter space (just plywood at the time), sink and stove areas, etc.  It was a busy time and a good dinner.

Peg and Donna seemed to enjoy the day, and Russ and I provided a little music on button accordian and guitar. 

The day after those guests, Bryn stopped in for a brief visit on her way back to Milwaukee.  What would a Bryn visit be without tree climbing???

Or maybe visiting the peak of the A-frame roof?  It was good to see her and the visits are always too short to suite Peg and I.

The next week we got a visitor from McDermott Top Shop, a provider of Corian countertop.  He had an interesting set-up for measuring the kitchen.  A laser device on a tri-pod that fed information to his computer.  That in turn generated a cad drawing that would be used to manufacture the necessary pieces.

This device works really well, as will be evidenced by the photos of the new counter tops that they eventually installed.  Photos to follow......

I've also busied myself with a few other projects, including Peg's wheeler.  I got new tires and put them on, fixed all the breaks so they're working well, and rebuilt the carburator.  Also put in a new battery so the starter actually works now.



We worked on getting a garage sale set up and that went O.K. (meaning not much cash).  The remainder of the items went to St. Vinny's.  I'm sure that there will be a couple more sales in the future.

Between customers, Peg and Donna had the time to get in a couple of games of Scrabble. 

Rose and AJ also stopped in one weekend, but I don't have any photos!  I'm slipping, I guess.  They showed up Saturday and went home Sunday afternoon.  We got in a little wheeler riding, AJ's first time, and the grin never left his face......

Well, that's all I have time for tonight, more later.

I gotta go, Carlo


.

Nearly the 4th of July already!!!

.

Lots going on, I'll give a brief synopsis.....

After looking through my pix, I realize that I did not take a photo of the pulp pile before it was sawed into firewood lengths.  Oh well, here we are after splitting one 32' long pile. 

This trailer that I've talked about is really a handy item.  We decided that where the first pile is located, the wind and sun will have a somewhat limited effect.  So we decided to stack it in a more open location.  So we split until the trailer was heaped full, then transported it to the north side of the property.

I fired up the mower and gave the old field a butch cut.  We piled all the remaining wood out here in the open.

I'm a lucky guy.... part way through the process my dear Peggy delivered a plate of soft boiled eggs on toast for lunch.  That hit the spot!

At last we finished up the splitting process.  We have a good supply, probably way more than we will need next winter.  But I'm not complaining, mind you.

Anyway, I'm still battling the bats.  After plugging up all the holes on the east wall of the garage, we discovered evidence of continued habitation.  Last weekend I cut brush and mowed all the way around the garage, then started in with screening, caulk, great stuff foam, etc, and started filling in any hole that looked like a bat might fit through.  Next evening we left the overhead door open at dusk and watched a bunch of bats fly out.  We closed the door and hoped for the best.  Next night we watched a bunch fly out of a gap that I had not noticed on the south front corner.  Tonight I filled that hole and a few other spots that looked unlikely, but I'm not taking any chances.  Then I watched them fly out the big door again, and after about 20 minutes of no more exits, I closed the door.   We'll see.......

And here's hoping that we'll have a new masonry heater in the house this fall!  This is one of my favorites, but probably not quite what we will end up with.

In my spare time I'm finishing the kitchen items.  Tonight I got the rest of the temporary counter tops fit and put in place.  We ordered the new tops through Home Depot, and decided to go with the Corian tops.  These use less square footage because of the joining method, and there are no seams in the finished top.  The parts are put together with an epoxy that makes the joints into one piece!  Next week a guy is coming to do the final measure up, then they make the parts and some guys come and install the stuff.  I was not to keen on this until we found out that it would not be too much extra cost, and (most importantly) I won't have to deal with the install job.  That can be a real pain........  These guys will install it complete, including cutting the hole for the sink.

Well, that's it for now.....

I gotta go, Carlo

.