We GOT ER DUN with the staining - a marvelous Sunday in Wisconsin

Ohhhh we woke up to all blue skies and no clouds... and the humidity dropped too!   After a quick cup of coffee, a banana and some raisins, we were off to work on the rest of the house by 7a.m.

We whipped out staining the side around the fireplace and then down the east wall to the corner... wow! that went fast!

Even my fragile clematis flowers were carefully worked around
as Steve held the trellis away while I stained the wall behind it.

 The west wall took a bit more to finish as the ground slopes away on the far end....

Not only did we finish up the house, but we also got the garage completed too!  We hopped in the shower and said that was enough...   We are planning on putting the house on the market next year, so it's good to get this done now.    Anyone wanna buy a house?

I am thinking later this week I will pick up the darker brown stain for the decks... we have decks on three sides of the house that all need a quick rolling, the railings are looking okay, just the flat portions need a touch up.   That is easy for me with a roller on a long handle and I have done those in the matter of an hour in the past.   And I still have a bucket of hunter green to touch up the shutters and doors...

Whew... maintaining a home is not fun, and we are sure looking forward to the days when it will only be the motorhome to maintain.

Now to enjoy the evening out on the deck, raise a glass of wine in celebration, and eyeball the finished house as the fruits of our labors.


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Git Er Dun - Restaining the logs on our home

Okay... on my last blog I showed where I started re-staining the east wall and some of the south wall during the week.  Just as high as I could go without the tall ladder here on the south side of the house.

I was waiting for Steveio to be home on the weekend so I could go up the ladder to work on the rest.  Best to have someone at home when going up on a ladder to call the ambulance.  Right?

I enjoy staining, Steveio does not.  All I asked him to do was stain the very tippy top above the second story windows once I got up that far.....  So these first pics below are what I got done during the week:

I had already gotten a lot of the west and east walls done too....

Now it's Saturday morning and Mr. Steveio Slavedriver decided at 7a.m. that we should attack the south wall and "git er dun"   and he would go up the ladder and do a bunch of the area I was going to do!   He said let's get to it before it got too hot....

7 a.m.

8 a.m.  

Whew... we were done with the south side, and he said we were done for the day......   so we came in and I changed outta my staining clothes and got comfy in my regular clothes... and uploaded the pic to facebook.   

He sips his coffee and says:  "Hey, lets 'git er dun' on the north wall before it gets too hot"   Back into my staining clothes and around to the front of the house we go:

9 a.m.

10 a.m. 

I said enough was enough... snapped a few pics,  and I trimmed back the burgundy colored bush in front and tossed the branches down in the woods while he finished up.  

While he is sitting here in the house and thinking out loud:  "Maybe we can 'git er dun' on the rest of the east wall this afternoon when it's in the shade?"   I put my foot down and said NO!   Enough for the day!  The heat was in the 90's and the humidity was still up.  It was time for a cool shower and a nap! 

What does that nut do?  He fires up the riding lawnmower and takes off down in our woods to cut the weeds that have gotten too high.  Round and round all the trees, weaving his way up and down, back and forth.   

 Then he fired up the chainsaw and took out some of the gangley weed trees 

that seemed to have sprouted outta nowhere. I brought him refreshments! 

Later I got him to go for a ride in the Tracker, with the top down. 

Cranked the tunes on the stereo, we had Fleetwood Mac playing as we cruised along. 

We went for an ice cream cone, 

then drove out to The Breakwater city park and marina...

 then on to North Bayshore County Park to see all the people camping.  

Whaaaa I wanna be camping too!   The place looked pretty quiet, but all the sites were filled.

Then we drove past daughter Erin and Mark's to get a drive-by hugging with the little Chelsea bug! 

She was very busy playing on her slide with her daddy.  

This is the cool outdoor firepit we got Erin for her birthday... 

 they are going to put it to use tonight.  

Steve also brought her a load of firewood to break it in! 

And back home we went...   

Gosh, the house looked nice when we pulled in, 

at least the front did. 

Bet ya dollars to do-nuts in the morning we will be out there 

finishing up the rest of the east and west sides!

Time to get back to some Motorhome Modifications

Many of my blog readers are RVers ... so today I will post about some RV items, after a gluttony of weaving and train posts the last week or so.  LOL ...

If you remember back a few weeks ago, Steveio just HAD to have a new super duper water pump for our motorhome, along with a big accumulator tank.

(our original pump has been working just fine for 16 years--

but you know Guys: "Bigger is Better")   

Our pressure has been just fine, but he said this pump will have more pressure and be able to handle an accumulator tank.  This is a heavy Jabsco marine water pump that is belt driven with a bigger electric motor.  I got the accumulator tank for him brand new at a rummage sale for $5 --- score!

The new tank is rated for the right pressure for our lines, so we are okay there too. 

After brainstorming his installation ideas, and measuring and figuring and gathering fittings, hoses and pieces, he was ready.  He finally had time this week to get it installed.   He put the tank in a cut-down 5 gallon bucket with the fittings coming out some holes he cut into it.  

If you look close, there really isn't any area to mount the tank to on the frame unless he drilled holes through the steel beam behind it.  So the bucket is a great idea.  He did strap it down by the handle to something behind.  Plus, he can remove the bucket, and screw the two fittings together on a pipe nipple to winterize the rig, and store the tank in our house where it won't freeze.  He has a shroud guard to put by the moving belt part of the pump.    

After he had it all done, I got to go inside to test it out.  Works wonderfully!!!   Using an accumulator tank allows the pump to run less often, and when you use a faucet, the pump doesn't need to kick on each time until you run a large amount of water.  So filling up a pot for coffee or grabbing a glass of water does not need the pump to operate.   Steve said it will save on battery power.  LOL ... yah right.  Me thinks it's just more "justification" to his "Bigger is Better" obsession. 

Now...  I mentioned the old pump, which was manufactured date of 1995, it works just fine.  So he added two fittings to each side that can accommodate a simple garden hose.  He will use this as an auxiliary pump to add water to our tank when we are long term boondocking if we don't wanna move the rig to refill.   We can haul water in a bladder or buckets from a well pump to fill our tank.  Or have it on board if something ever happens to the other new pump?   (perish the thought after all of Steveio's installation and brainstorming!) 

In our water compartment, this area is called a "manifold".  It has various levers and knobs to control the flow of water to various parts of the motorhome.  Also levers to pull to empty the black and grey holding tanks.  Steve added a household water filter unit to the fill area, so all water is run through it before going into our tank.   He added a 12 volt outlet to power either that auxiliary pump or our portable mascerator (poop pumper)    There is also a faucet for an outdoor shower to screw onto, or a hose for washing the rig.  GREAT for washing dirty muddy doggers------  

 Soooo that is it for the motorhome modifications.

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We opted to NOT go camping this weekend.  Holidays seem to bring out the weekend warriors in full mode, with noise, fireworks, music and partying.  Being a long weekend, many folks who don't normally camp or aren't familiar with campground etiquette are rude, noisy and make it uncomfortable for the rest of us.

On top of that, the weather is going to be awfully humid and hot in the mid 90's (if you believe the weathermen)   so that would mean running the AC a lot.

So if we were in a rustic campground, we would be the offenders running our generator mid-day to cool the rig for my lungs and breathing problems.  Not nice.  Even though our propane powered generator is very quiet and built into our rig, I still don't like ever bothering anyone else with generator noise.

Also, some clueless weekend warriors who don't camp too often will haul along a big contractor generator or a cheapie one that the decibels are ear-shattering and ground-shaking.

Or if we went to a park with electric hook-ups, the daisy chained electric posts are notorious for blowing out or browning out due to the heavy power usage by everyone trying to run their multiple AC units all at once.  BTDT

And there is always someone shooting off noisy fireworks which send our doggers to cowering, shaking, drooling nervous wrecks for hours afterwards of each erratic display of noise---   most parks ban the fireworks but there are always a few who have to break the rules.....   argghhhh

Soooo I think we will just stay home!   

It's Erin's 28th birthday today 

(HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ERIN!) 

and it was our anniversary on Tuesday, 

so we will celebrate with the kids and stay at home.   

Speaking of home, I started giving our logs a new coat of stain.  Two years ago we painstakingly ground off the old finish to bare wood and added a new coat of Rymar.  It needed a second coat by this year to seal up all the dried out areas and knots.  Now it will be good for about 8-10 years.

(I  took the cover off the gazebo so it wouldn't get any splatters) 

I started all the lower portions around the first floor myself (wearing a mask)  and Steve will set up the ladder for the higher portions for me in the evenings.  I won't go up the ladder until he is home and nearby.

I work a little bit at a time, and then take a break.  I love the way the wood drinks in the oily stain sealer product called Rymar, and is instantly transformed into beautiful wood again!  The very top areas above the 2nd story windows Steve will do for me, because I am a chicken!   No matter how much I try to convince myself that I am only one step higher on the ladder rungs, my legs start to shake and I can not handle it.   I try... I try... but that is where Steveio can take over the task.  (he hates painting)

(And on one quick weaving note, I was shipped a big shaggy rug to tear apart and reweave for a customer, pics to come in future blogs)


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