Three walls completed and one to go

A couple of days ago I finished the third wall in the living room.  I also removed the paint from the fireplace mantle.

****If you are wondering about the pink in the fireplace opening, it's just 1 inch thick rigid foam insulation.  We have three fireplaces and all three need work done on the dampeners.  This helps keep the warm air in the house until they are updated.

I knew my heat gun was slowing down.  It wasn't getting as hot and it rattled loudly.  Just as I started removing  the paint from the front of the mantle...it went poof, threw a couple of sparks, and died.  Why does that always happen when you are soooo close to finishing a project or part of a project?

Lucky for me I had a heat gun stashed that only had the low setting.  This actually worked better for removing the paint from the pine mantle.  So I continued on and finished removing the remaining paint.

We'll need to purchase several more heat guns before we start the last wall in the living room. Removing the paint from the plaster requires a HOT heat gun.  I know the last wall is going to go slooooowly.  There is a lot of drywall compound that has been applied to peeling paint to try and hide the peeling paint.  There is also the two heat duct repaired areas and another repaired area which lines up with the downspout on the back of the house.  More than likely there was water damage from a clogged downspout or leaf filled eave trough. So I am estimating one month to finish the living room wall paint removal project.

In between paint removal, we have been continuing our bead board panel installation in the kitchen.  I did a quick measure and I think we will need to buy two more pieces.  That will be far easier to handle than the 9 pieces we already purchased......that was quite a workout.

Ice Storm Damage

What a big mess.

We have broken branches everywhere.

Where do you start?  For now we are clearing just the driveway.

When do you start? You have to wait until the ice melts off the branches. If you try and trim the trees before the ice melts, it will just break more branches.

But here's the worst part.  These pines are ruined.  The first photo is of a tree that was comprised of three trunks with a raised canopy.  Two of the trunks are broke and the third is severely bent.

The second photo shows a upright juniper that hid our gas meter.  It's laying on it's side and hiding part of the driveway.

The next to last photo shows the three trunked pine that is destroyed.

This was a perfectly straight and perfectly shaped pin oak.

Edited.......A transformer in the neighbors yard caught on fire last night and now we are w/o power.

Snow blower woes

We knew that the snow was coming.  I guess you don't need to be an Einstein to know that snow is going to fall in Michigan in the winter.  Two days ago R made sure the snow blower was prepped and ready to go.  The snow blower started right up...no problem.....let it snow.

Well it snowed.  R bundled up and went into the garage to start the snow blower and it wouldn't start.  Yup that's right.  Two days ago ran like a top.  Today nothing.  R pulled the plug because with these two stroke engines, the plug can easily get fouled.  He said it looked like a cobweb across the electrode.  He blew it off and reinstalled it.   He wasn't expecting much but what the heck.

Our blower has an electric start.  It uses a heavy duty extension cord rather than a battery to start the blower.  This is actually great because batteries go dead and in extreme cold they don't turn over a cold engine very well.  R hit the start button and it started right up.  Whew...dodged a bullet there.

So after thawing out, we got another late start.  R worked on the ceiling and I worked on the paint scraping.  My paint scraping is moving along fairly fast.  This area isn't uncovering anything unexpected.  Of course I found another switch box and where there was once a sconce.  But the paint is coming off without much trouble.

And the scraping continues...

I forgot to take a photo of today's work but here is a photo of the completed side.  I've moved on to the other side of the fireplace wall since finishing this side two days ago.  The current area should go fairly fast because this is a smaller area because of the door.

Today's paint removal included removing paint from the top of the mantel and the side.  This leaves the just the front of the mantel to remove paint.  The paint comes off fairly easy but the front has a lot of fluting that slows down the progress.

While I scrape, R has been busy installing bead board panels on the ceiling in the kitchen.  Half of the ceiling rafters go north and south and half go east and west due to the way the house was framed.  Add to that the three light fixtures and the layout becomes tricky.  We are also finding out that the room is not exactly square.  We were not surprised but again it slows down progress.

We are trimming out the ceiling with 1 X 4's, both on the ceiling and the walls so it will give a simple version of crown molding.  Then we will run a 1 X 4 across the ceiling to hide the seams between the panels.

The short daylight hours are a bummer.  R prefers to work in natural light.  His eyesight is vastly improved after having his lens surgery last year.  Besides developing cataracts the surgeon said his eyeballs looked like they had been sandblasted.  The doctor and R determined that was from the years of motorcycle racing.  But when it comes to low light situations his vision is not perfect. He sees flashes of light when we add bright lights to help light the area.  The surgeon told him this is common with artificial lens but R finds it unnerving when running power tools.  So for now we stop work at 5PM every day.

What do we have here?

I'll admit that paint removal can be pretty boring.  Sometimes you just get in the zone and before you know it you've scraped a fairly big area.

You sometimes don't noticed the clues when you are as close to the wall as I am.  The other day I did notice the outline of the edge of something just above the fireplace mantel.  But since I couldn't figure out what it was until I removed more paint...I just put that on the back burner.

I really made a lot of progress today.  I needed to take a break and R wanted my help holding something in place while he did his thing.  It hit me like a ton of bricks when I walked back into the living room.  This is not the original mantle.  It's making sense now.  This fireplace was probably like the one in our bedroom.....a large stucco fireplace with a decorative tile surround and hearth.

Upon close inspection the center portion above the mantel is most certainly new because it is made of drywall and wood. You can see the outline of the top of the old mantle just above the current mantle on the left side.   See that large area that I haven't removed yet?  Well that is really deep. Probably where the stucco had to be broken out for the new mantle.

But there is more.  See that circle area off toward the top and the small rectangle below it?  There was a sconce and possibly a light switch.  The sconce hole still has the wire sticking out of it.  It's not active but again rather than remove it, they just left it and moved on.

My plan is to finish this wall before Christmas.  I do not have to remove paint from the center portion because there is very little paint to remove.

Well...that didn't work out .....

Bummer.

I found a glass shade on eBay for the mud room ceiling light and it was for the shade only, no fixture. This was cool because I already have a cast iron ceiling fixture that I wanted to use.  So I purchased the shade and it arrived 5 days later.  I loooooooooooovvvvvvvveeeee the shade.  It is in perfect condition and is perfect for the look I am trying to achieve.

But.........I have no idea how I let this slip by.  It is the wrong fitter size.  It's close, but as the saying goes....close but no cigar.  I was bummed because not only do I love the shade but I had already restored the fixture.  When I first bought the fixture it had a bazillion coats of paint on it....no really I counted every zillion.  You couldn't even see the egg and dart detail.  I was so pleasantly surprised after I sand blasted the fixture.  The three original brass tightening screws were present and in great condition.  I quickly primed the fixture.  You have to do this with cast iron or the item will develop surface rust right before your eyes.  I had that happen with the side rails on a brass bed that I restored (as a matter of fact...I am laying in that bed right now as I type this).  I sand blasted the rails and then realized that I did not have any primer left in the can.  I drove to the hardware store and when I returned there was the beginning of surface rust.  I'll admit....it was a humid day.

So now I am on the hunt for a new cast iron ceiling fixture with a 4 inch fitter.  There are more pressed metal fixtures available than cast iron so it might take me a month or so.  The first fixture won't go to waste.  I think I'll use it in my entry way broom closet.

The second bummer is that three days ago we went to Lowe's to buy bead board plywood paneling.  I wanted the plywood variety in pine and paint grade.  All I could find was birch in stain grade.  So we drove across the street to Home Depot.  They didn't have it, either.  We were walking away intent on going back to Lowe's to buy the birch bead board when a sales associate approached us.  We explained what we wanted and somehow he talked us into primed Masonite bead board paneling.  We loaded the truck with the 9 sheets and drove home.

We arrived home and unloaded.  By the time we had loaded the nine sheets into the truck and unloaded the 9 sheets we were already unsure.  The next day (yesterday) we spoke briefly about our doubts. Today when I woke up I knew that they were not what I wanted.  I told R that I felt we would not be happy with the results and it just wasn't what I had envisioned.  He said he was glad because he wasn't happy with them at all.  So we loaded the 9 sheets back into the truck and drove back to Home Depot. Then we unloaded the 9 sheets again and returned them.

We drove back to Lowe's to buy the birch bead board paneling.  As we walked down the aisle, I walked by the pine bead board plywood paneling and saw what I had been looking for the first time we were there.  I think what happened was someone pulled a sheet off another pile and hid what I was looking for.

So we loaded up another 9 sheets and headed to the cashier.  Then we loaded the 9 sheets into the truck and drove home.  Then we unloaded the 9 sheets and brought them into the house.  To say I am tired of loading and unloading is an understatement.  But we are both happier with these plywood panels.

The coat hooks have arrived....

all the way from the U.K.

I priced a lot of coat hooks before buying.  Of course we wanted something vintage or vintage looking and we needed 4 hooks.  Originally I thought 5, but when we measured the space they were too close.

Whenever I'm looking for vintage, I of course, go to eBay and Etsy.  Since I have a shop on Etsy, I went there first.  I faved a few but nothing grabbed me so I headed to eBay.  The selection on eBay was huge.  I immediately ruled out the fancy Victorian hooks.  As pretty as they are, they are not correct for our style or age of home.  I needed something simple but not like the coat hooks that can still be bought today.

I finally spotted a hook that I loved but I thought "too bad it has that raised initial cast into it."  I looked around some more but nothing caught my eye like the hooks with the raised letter. So I went back and looked at them again.  It was at that time, that I noticed the seller offered hooks with other initials. I couldn't believe it when I realized that he had our first initials....J and R.

The seller is in the U.K. so I thought it would take between 4 and 6 weeks before they arrived. Imagine my surprise when they were delivered in less than 2 weeks.  The seller included the correct slotted wood screws and there was even an extra screw.

R had to do a lawnmower/snow blower swap today.  Unfortunately, here in the north, you are only prepared for winter if your snow blower is parked in your garage ready to go OR your lawn tractor has the snow blade and chains on the tires.  Pity the northerner who enters into the month of December not prepared for snow.  That person is just tempting the snow gods to dump 10 inches of snow on his driveway during the night when he has to be at work at 8AM.

So we really didn't have time to get a lot done today.  It's those days that we do little jobs like install the hooks AND install the shop bell on the kitchen door.  I purchased the shop bell several years ago on eBay for $24.99 plus $5.00 for shipping.  It was bent but the bell was in good condition and the clapper was still intact.  I straightened the bracket portion but the hard part was finding two round headed small slotted screws to use.  We've accumulated 1,000's of screws. It must have taken me an hour to go through the screws and find two that matched and were the correct size and type.

We really like the look of the hooks and our shop bell and we think once the mud room is painted bright white they will look even better.

Today's cost

4 coat hooks purchased on eBay $25.15

1 shop bell purchased on eBay $29.99

Total spent $55.14

Mud room done...

...for now.

The bench seat is finished and all the small trim has been installed.  We are very pleased with how it looks, even though we know it will look better when the entire room is painted white.

R installed cross bracing for added support but I failed to capture that exciting moment with a photo.

The wood used to build the bench came entirely from our wood pile except for the small trim pieces that I have already accounted for in a previous post.

We still need to sand, prime, and paint but that will have to wait until spring when we can open the windows for ventilation.  The floors have had a preliminary sanding and will need another sanding and staining.  This, too, will happen in the spring.

I have ordered 4 vintage coat hooks from a seller in the UK and I have also purchased a vintage handpainted glass shade to use with a vintage cast iron ceiling fixture that I already own.

R installed the vintage wood door stop that I purchased for $8.00 on eBay.  It looks perfect in the mud room and will keep the heavy oak door from hitting the window sill.

It might just be me but that door stop reminds me of a......never mind.

We already purchased a black metal shop bell for the kitchen door.  R might install that tomorrow if we have time and can find two appropriate screws.  I think the sound of it ringing when the door is opened will be charming or maybe annoying.....I'll get back with you in a year or so about it charmness.

I was only able to scrape an area of 2 ft by 2 ft in the living room.  The paint scraping will be slow during the month of December.  Tomorrow (if it doesn't rain) we head to the Lowe's to buy bead board paneling for the ceiling in the kitchen.  Installation will be a two person job so I will have my heat gun toting hand busy with bead board paneling.

Money spent today

Vintage wood door stop     $8.00

Rounding the corner

Yeeessss....I finally rounded the corner in the living room paint scraping.  I know that I still have over 1/2 of the living room to scrape but it was nice to have an entire wall completed.  I'm also looking forward to standing on the floor and not on a ladder to scrape paint.

We also did a little rounding of the corner in the mud room project.  All the edges in the kitchen in mud room are rounded, so we needed to round over the edges of the seat supports that we cut out.

All the parts are ready to be installed on Monday including the small cove molding and small square molding that goes into the corners.

Finally!!!!

I was beginning to think I was never going to finish the paint scraping above the window.  It was so rewarding to sweep up those paint chips. Excuse the blurry photo.

If you are wondering about those white stripes, they are where they (whoever installed the original forced air heat) cut out the original plaster and inserted the heat ducts.  The patch job is horrendous.  It doesn't match the texture and is a very soft material like plaster of Paris or drywall compound.  I'm leaving it for the plaster guy because I'm sure he has a tool to remove that material faster than I can do it.

You may also notice that some of the base board is white.  Well, that is where they (see above for who they are) removed the original base board and replaced with pine boards (with knots) that doesn't match the original fir nor is it the same profile.  The original base board has a rounded radius on the top and the pine board just has the sharp 90 degree edge.


We have two options.  The first is to try and find more of the vintage base board but that might be difficult because we need to replace all the dining room base board, too.  The second option is to replace with new poplar boards and put the correct radius on the top.  Poplar paints nicely and all of our trim will be white.  Before anyone freaks out.  I know for a fact that the dining room was always painted.  I prefer my trim to be the same throughout the house and the dining room and living room share a large doorway.  I think painting one side and staining the other side would look iffy. My floors are going to be dark along with my doors so I think a little white is needed.

We worked on the leg supports for the seat in the mud room.  A little more sanding is needed and we will be ready to install the center support.  Each end will also have a support but that support will be half the width of the center support.

On the agenda for tomorrow (Sunday) is to try and scrape the paint all the way to the corner.  In the mud room, we hope to get the center support installed and the end supports built and sanded.

Money spent today.

Zero $0.00

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving.

May your turkey be tasty and your pumpkin pie yummy.

Scraping and mud room progress

Sometimes, I think small rooms take just as much time to trim as a large room.  We were also surprised to see how unsquare and unlevel the ceiling and walls were once we started installing the trim around the ceiling perimeter.

The trim accentuated the fact that the ceiling and door jambs were askew.  If we followed the ceiling, the door trim and window trim will look crooked.  Finally we found a happy medium by not using a level and just installing so that the trim and the doors and windows look level.

I once saw an episode of of This Old House where Tom Silva addressed this very matter.  His advise was to install the trim so that it looked good whether that was unlevel or level.  So we took Tom's advice and that is exactly how we installed the trim.

We installed the 11/16th X 11/16th square trim in the corners, followed by the cove molding between the square trim on the shelf portion.  I found a 5 foot section of the cove molding in our wood pile but we will need at least 10 ft more to finish the trimming the shelf and the seat.

The leg supports for the seat are next on the list.  This is more a design roadblock than anything else. I am trying to draw up a design that would have been original to the house or at least to that era. I have an idea and Friday we will try and implement that idea.

I worked on scraping in between helping R with the trim.  The scraping is going slow.  I'm finding areas where I can hardly remove the paint, while other areas peel easily.  The only remaining paint above the windows is the paint over the center window.  Unfortunately the center window is a wider window because it is an 8 over 8 rather than a 6 over 6 double hung window.  I am guessing that I have two more days of scraping.

It looks like it is time to buy another putty knife.  My current putty knife is fairly worn and I no longer have a nice corner edge on each side of the blade to help get into little divets and grooves.  This would be the third putty knife that I have worn out since starting this painting scraping escapade.

On a happy note.  I was able to purchase 4 vintage coat hooks from a seller on eBay.  I could have purchased new ones for less money but it's the little details that can make or break project.

Mud room update

We had errands to run today that took longer than we thought, so we didn't get as much accomplish as we had wanted.  But that is nothing new...right?

Our last stop on the list of errands was a trip to Home Depot.  We forgot to return one leaf guard when we returned the seven pieces the other day.  So first we needed to go through the return line.

After returning the leaf guard we wandered over to the lumber section to buy wood for the mud room. Unfortunately we did not have a board in our wood pile that would work for the front of the seat.  We needed a 1X4 in clear pine or nearly clear and all we had was very very knotted pine boards.

We looked at clear pine boards and compared the price to a common pine board.  It was a no brainer. The clear pine board was almost 7 bucks compared to $2.12 for the common pine board.  We found a common pine board that was fairly clear and added that to our cart.

I knew that we would remove that inappropriate trim at the ceiling but I was unsure of what I wanted.  I knew it had to be simple.  Simple and cheap would be great so when I ran across some 1X4's that had the same knotty pine finish as our tongue and groove paneling, I had to take a second look.  We decided to buy enough to run a 1X4 all the way around the perimeter of the ceiling.

We also purchased a couple of pieces of 11/16thX11/16th square pine to fill in the corners where there is a gap between the paneling.  Hard to explain but sometimes you see 1/4 round used but since it would butt up against the square edge of the 1X4 at the ceiling we felt that this would look better.

Once we were home, we installed the front board for the seat.  We still need to install some legs and cross supports before we can permanently attach the seat.

Next on the list was removing the current ceiling trim.

Ceiling trim before removal

Ceiling minus the trim

I scraped paint in the living room in between working on the mud room.  I hate to say this but...I doubt if I am going to meet my self imposed 3 day deadline.  Maybe I can make better progress tomorrow while R is installing the ceiling trim.

Today's cost

Return of the leaf guard +$8.10
Purchase of wood for the mud room -$29.88

Total after refund $21.78 paid with gift card from previous returns.

Mud Room Shelf

Saturday was a day of scraping.  I worked on the arch above one of the recessed areas in the living room.  My shoulder has been taking a beating and sometimes I think I spend as much time with my arm resting in a down position as I do with it above my head scraping.

I almost finished the area above the arch but my shoulder started screaming and rather than injuring it again...I just stopped.  But I did finish it on Sunday.

I wish I could find a before photo.  I know I must have one somewhere.  Before I started this project, the recessed area had wood shelves.  There is a pair of these recessed areas but the shelves were different in each one plus the shelves were not evenly spaced.  It looked bad and was not in keeping with a formal living room.

The shelves were removed and I made new shelf supports out of brick molding that I cut a return cut on each end to continue the profile to the front.  The cabinets will be painted white to match the trim. I will order glass shelves once the painting is complete because storing the glass is just asking for heartbreak. Eventually, this will display my vintage ceramic pottery collection.

At one time the back wall of the shelf area was painted a different color than the wall paint.  I'm leaning towards just having it the same color as the rest of the walls because the pottery is colorful and I don't want it to look too busy.  But who knows....the only detail that I am sure of is that the trim will be white with the doors stained dark like the floors.  Other than that, my color choices change monthly. I'm leaning towards a light sage green for the entire lower level except for the kitchen and mud room which will be white.  The green is a color that is original to the house and era but I have to find the right shade.  Not too dark, not too light, not blue, and not too muted and greyish.  I'll change my accent color in each room, so it has to be a shade that will work with those colors.

I'll move my ladder over to the area above the front living room window.  My goal is three days to finish the area above the window.  Then I will be back to the corner next to the fireplace where the paint is difficult to remove.

On Saturday we were able to cut the shelf supports in the mud room. We used wood we already had in our wood pile.  On Sunday we installed the shelf which was originally the top of the cabinet that we removed.  Before we installed it, R sanded it to remove the grime and even out the surface.

That window is all wrong and not original.  It will be replaced with a 6 over 6 double hung.  This is another of those Andersen windows that are falling apart.  I mean literally falling apart at every seam.

R was having a difficult time visualizing my plan.  This happens.....A LOT!  But after we installed the shelf, he understands what I have in mind.

***This area is very difficult to photograph.

There's a new project starting...

......and it's exciting.

Our exterior kitchen door enters into a small room.  To actually enter into the interior of the house you need to walk through another door.  I guess you could call this a mudroom or a side entry but to keep things simple, I decree that from this day forth, this room will be called a mud room unless we come up with a snazzier name.

Several weeks ago during a rain delay, we removed the cabinets that lined the west wall.  Since that time, we have been busy trying to wrap up the shed project.  But since snow is forecasted for the weekend, it's time to break up with the shed and move on.

The floor in the mud room is made of 4 inch wide pine planks and covered in many many layers of battleship grey enamel.  Now is the time to remove that paint so we can, in the future, stain the floor to match the rest of the house.

R hauled out his belt sander and started sanding.  This isn't the final sanding but just enough to get through the paint.  The sanding took 4 hours.  He still needs to use a little sander to get close to the baseboard to remove that final little strip of paint around the perimeter of the room.  But after that we will move on to the fun stuff.

Oh my goodness...look at all that dust!

Our goal is to again, use as much of the previously used wood as possible.  The walls are covered in wide tongue and groove paneling just like the kitchen.  We will leave the paneling and eventually paint it bright white.

We need to make some adjustments to the paneling and trim.  Several knots have fallen out and left holes in it's place.  These will need to be filled with filler.  The trim around the ceiling is wrong wrong wrong.  It looks like the same picture molding that we found under the crown molding in the entry.  We have a couple of ideas up our sleeve but haven't set anything in stone.

The corners of the room have gaps between the panels.  This was probably caused by shrinkage or settling or both.  We will probably use some sort of cove molding to bridge those gaps.

I've been eyeing a really cool ceiling light online for the mud room.  But I haven't pulled the trigger just yet.

Today I was busy with more paint removal in the living room.  I'm working that last two feet up by the ceiling.  It's rough on the shoulders and is slow going due to frequent breaks to rest the old shoulders. I also think my heat gun is just about ready to give up.  I use the cheap $9.99 with coupon heat guns from Harbor Freight.  I do this for several reasons.  I also own two expensive heat paint removers and they are just too heavy.  The Milwaukee is a powerful heat gun but must weigh almost 5 pounds and it's huge.  The other is the Silent Paint Remover.  Let's talk......I really don't see the big deal with this gadget.  I really should just sell it.  I barely used it because I found that I can move faster with a lightweight heat gun and a putty knife.

To make my paint removal more bearable, I have been breaking up the wall into sections and only removing the paint from that area.  Kind of like the saying....how do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.  That's my philosophy when it comes to removing all the wall paint.

Tomorrow (Saturday) R is helping someone install an air handler in the morning so I do not know if we will work on the mud room but I know what I will be doing......putty knife in hand and removing paint.

Put a fork in it?

ahhhhhh....don't pick that fork up just yet.

We are just about ready to call it quits on the shed until spring.  We came close today but ran out of daylight due to a late start.  Let me explain.

The other day we purchased a new washer and dryer for the Torrey Rd house.  Our house has Bosch front loaders but we needed to replace the washer and dryer set before selling Torrey Rd.  I noticed a sale price in the newspaper and we scored a set of Amana brand for slightly more than $500.00.

That left us with needing to make a scrap run to dispose of the old set.  R got up early and headed off to the scrap yard.  He added a small dorm size fridge to his haul that he found out to the curb on his way out of town. The night before he also added several small pieces that he's been waiting to scrap.

He arrived at the scrap yard and as he was unloading the washer and dryer he mentioned to the yard guy that they still worked.  There was someone who was already unloading who heard him tell the yard guy that they worked.  He came over and gave R the phone number of someone who buys old appliances that still work for 20 bucks each.  R called the person right then and there.  10 minutes later he met the guy in the parking lot.  Bing bang boom....$40 richer plus the scrap money of $26=$66.00

In the meantime, I am home getting ready to drop some stuff off at Goodwill when the doorbell rings. It's a man asking about the old elementary school desk that was sitting next to my SUV.  He wanted to know if it was for sale.  I said 'sure'.  He asked if '10 will do it' and I say 'sure'.  I then asked him what he was going to do with it.  He said his grandson had just started preschool and he was helping him with his homework. HOMEWORK!!!!  in preschool?  Sheesh

Well anyways....not too shabby of a day.  10 bucks for a school desk that was found in the trash and 66 bucks for scrap.  Annette once said that it was great to have fiscal neutral projects BUT I have to say I love these money makers too.

So by the time R returned home and we stopped off at Home Depot to return 56 bucks worth of leaf guards, it was mid afternoon and already starting to get dark.

The first thing we did when we got home was to rip some door stop off of an old fir 2X4 from our stash. Halfway  through ripping I notice that the plug on the heavy duty extension cord is starting to smoke.  I begin to yell at R, but he is hard of hearing from his racing days and instead of stopping he continues and just gives me the evil eye for interrupting him.  It then bursts into flames about 3 inches high.  I can't get to it because I am blocked in behind the saw because I was guiding the long pieces as they came off the table saw.  Once I saw the flames I had to get him to stop before the saw dust caught on fire.  Basically, I had to go ape @#$% to get him to look up.  I then made the universal symbol for stop or shut off by waving my hand back and forth in front of my neck.  He then shuts off the saw and said "what is your problem?"  I was freaking out.  I said "fire...fire...the extension cord!!!"  Again, remember he is hard of hearing so he says "what?"  I'm losing it by this time, so I just start knocking stuff over so I can get to it.

The flames have finally stopped but there is enough smoke to catch his attention.  We have no idea why it caught on fire but it was our newest extension cord.   Sheesh.  No pun intended but once the smoke cleared we finished ripping and then proceeded outside to the shed.

We installed the sliding bolt at the top and bottom of the stationary door.  That went off without a hitch. 

Then we measured for the door stops and installed those pieces. 

We finished up the day by installing the astragal, which we ripped off when we ripped the door stop pieces.

By this time....it's starting to get dark so we were unable to finish the door locking mechanism install.

Run down on yesterday and today's costs.

Door handle (reused from a removed door in the house)  $0.00

Door stops and astragal  $0.00

Sliding bolts (2 types) -$9.57

Sale of desk +$10.00

Scrap yard money +$26.00

Sale of appliances +$40.00

Return of leaf guards to HD +$56.00

Total for the two days +$122.43

Oh wait, I forgot that yesterday I made a hardware run for 6 screws @.06 for a total of 38 cents including tax.

Revised total for the two days +$122.05

Not too shabby.