Farmhouse Projects - Windows Fail, Matchsticks and our TV

Now what would these three things have to do with each other?

Nothing.

It's just three separate things I want to write about today.

Windows Fail:
Yesterday Steve was perusing the Facebook Marketplace ads as he is wont to do. Because we are always looking for building materials to improve our house. Being on a fixed retirement budget, every penny we can save is worthwhile.

We know that sometime soon we should be replacing windows on the house. He found a contractor with four used windows that were the right sizes for our home! They appeared to be very nice replacement windows with the multi-pane mullion grids sandwiched between the thermopane glass.  At the bargain price of $40 each, it was worth it to take a 60-mile jaunt one way to get them.

We set up a time to go there this morning. As soon as we gulped down our coffee, we hooked up our little trailer behind the Tracker, gathered a bunch of extra padded wool blanket pieces and strapping, and headed on out. Stopped at the ATM to pull out enough cash and then we hit the highway, anxious for a new acquisition to continue the improvements on our National Folk Farmhouse.

Upon our arrival, we were very dismayed to find out the windows were TAN! The photo very erroneously let them appear to be white. We didn't even think to consider to ask what the color of the windows were... and in all fairness, he didn't state any color in the description of his ad. They just looked white in the photos.

But when we got there,
they were definately tan/beige
and NOT white.

We turned away empty-handed. 

Dangnabbit.

But we made lemonade out of our lemons. We took a jaunt over to Sherwood and stocked up on a bunch of the good quality locally grown meats at Dick's Family Foods. We always shopped there when we lived in Chilton so it was convenient to hop on by and load up --- with a lot of good sale prices! More bang for the buck.

From there, we swung by Fleet Farm on our way home. Pops Pfundtner had given us a gift card for Christmas.  We were able to pick up some of our favorite Magnum Blue Mountain whole bean coffee from Jamaica. It's the only kind of coffee I like, and they are the only local place that carries it. We also grabbed a big bag of birdseed and Steve stocked up on some of his favorite Christmas chocolate sponge candy that was discounted after the holidays.

On our way back north up the highway, we swung into a new little shop that carries the Dobbers Pasties from Escanaba and Iron Mountain, Michigan. Being a transplanted Yooper,  these are in my opinion, some of the best pasties made in the U.P. of Michigan. They are beef, potatoes, rutabaga and onions wrapped up in a crust in the old Cornish England tradition.  We stocked up on six of those to bring home and put in freezer as well.

here is a link to their shop
on Hwy 41 and Lineville exit: 

http://oldeworldpastriesplus.com/

~~~~~~~~

The next thing I want to write about are matches. Long long ago when Steve was a lad, his family had this little cast iron matchstick holder by their fireplace in various homes as they moved around the state. A few years ago, as Steve's dad was preparing to move from Waupaca up to Sister Bay, and we were cleaning out the garage. Steve ran across this little matchstick holder laying out on a shelf in the cold garage. It was a little rusty but otherwise not really too worse for the wear. He asked if we could take it home with us. He cleaned off the rust, wire brushed it well, and I gave it two coats of flat black paint. I looked up the figurines on it and it said it's Venus and Cherubs.

I figured it was time to get it mounted in our new home, since we are now focusing on fixing up around the fireplace and hearth.

I took out a special blue tapcon screw which is designed to go into concrete. First, using a permanent black marker, I covered the blue head so it would appear black once it was screwed into the brick surface.

We figured out the best place for it and mounted it by the fireplace. It's really a decorative item because we are not going to light any wood burning fires in this fireplace in the near future. The chimney is questionable. We are going to convert it over later to a gas log fireplace. Steve got out his big hammer drill that is able to drill into cement, mortar, brick, etc.

I put some matches in the little compartment under the flip door, just for decoration. It's good to have a few real matches on hand to light candles in case of a power outage. Did you know that they no longer make "strike anywhere" matches anymore?   I actually have to hide a little piece of the graphite strike material from the box to be able to light a match.

The little top trough is made for the used matches until they cool off. How cute is that?

Bit by bit the livingroom is coming together. Maybe tomorrow Steve will finish the grout and trim on the fireplace hearth.  We set the leaded glass screen back in front of the fireplace doors now that the hearth tile mortar is dry.

~~~~~~~~

The third little household improvement we made today's was that we mounted our TV in the living room on a bracket on the wall. It used to set on a side table which was kind of in the way as we walked from the master bedroom out into the living room. Since I changed my mind on having my big brown ottoman down in the she shed, I wanted the ottoman back up in the living room for additional seating space.

I figured the ottoman would go nicely right where the side table had been. All we needed to do was mount the TV up on the wall on a bracket.

Using a level, and some drills and big lag screws, we soon had the bracket in place and mounted the TV.  This makes a lot more space when coming from the bedroom, and extra seating in the livingroom for grandkids etc.

I bought this piece of plastic housing to hide the cords between the TV leading down to the wall outlet and the cable inlet. Seems a waste to spend $10 on this 6 ft long plastic piece when I only needed about a two-foot length of it. I might figure out something else, or get Steve to make a little wooden cover piece that I can paint to match the wall. It can hide the power and cable wires. Then I will return this other long thing and get my money back. Every penny counts, you know.

 Now we can watch it comfortably from our chairs, or swivel it over towards the couch if we want to.  Once we cover the wires, it will be safer for the grandkids to sit on the ottoman.

Oh, after our grocery shopping today, I popped a big beef roast in the pressure cooker tonight. Steve peeled up taters and carrots that I added during the last 15 minutes. The house smells so good! There's enough left over to make a pot of stew tomorrow by adding some gravy and chopping up the potatoes carrots and leftover meat.

~~~~~~~~

Well --- Steve is watching the playoff games this evening on football, and I was working on a quilt. He likes hanging out in the she shed while I am doing my thing.  So do the dogs!

It's so comfortable to sew in the she shed and have all of my tools and materials right at hand.  I think what I especially enjoy the most is that I don't have to pack things up from the dining room table and put them away each evening to make room for the next day's meals... or make space for other activities. This room is all mine and I can leave things set up mid-way through a project.

This one is ready to be loaded on the quilting frame....

I also wanted to say we had a very nice visit yesterday was Steve's older brother Mark and his wife Ann. They were headed through on their way to pick up some logs from the U.P. of Michigan, and stopped to see our house. From there we went out for lunch together at Mickey Lu's BBQ in Marinette. What a treat!

MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS - *T* is Television Articulating Arms and Motorhome Exercise Day

I am going to start off the new year with posting some of our motorhome modifications, a few at a time. I will post repairs, modifications, or neato things we have found for RVing.  I have lots of pics in my files so I will do them in alphabetical order.

Underneath that stuff, I will post my regular daily stuff..... kinda sorta fun, eh?

So here it goes, we are up to the letter T now!

MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS 

STARTING WITH THE LETTER T

Television Articulating Arm (front tv):

In 2012, we removed the big old heavy CRT tube type tv from the cabinet in our motorhome.  It was located in a "headbanger cabinet" over the driver's seat. We took out the tv and shortened up the overhead cabinet to save Steve's noggin.

We had bought a nice lightweight LCD flat screen tv to watch instead.  Not only is it a nicer, bigger screen, but moving it over to the passenger side of the rig is easier to watch from our reclining loveseat on the driver's side. No more twisting to watch it up over the dash. 

For the first few months, we set the new tv on a small table and plugged it in each time that we would stop.  When we moved, we would put it laying flat on the bed in back.  That worked okay for weekend trips.

When we were on a long trip, it soon became a hassle to move that tv back and forth each time we stopped.  Steve said "there has to be a better way..."

Our rig has a lot of windows and very little wall space, which suits us just fine. But where to put this tv was a challenge. We didn't want it on a table anymore. This tv was small enough to suspend from a bracket.

We were stopped at a Walmart in Texas to stock up on a few things. Over at Lowe's a block away they had some very nice heavy duty articulating arm brackets on clearance down to $14.00.  Done. 

Steve figured out how to rig it up to hang down from the upper hardwood cabinets in an area between two windows. We decided to sacrifice a bit of the windows to put up this very lightweight tv on the arm hanging down from the cabinets.

He held it up while I marked the holes to be pre-drilled into the hardwood cabinets.  Then I held it up while he screwed it into place. Teamwork!   It really came out kinda nice, and doesn't block too much of the windows.

(love love love Andy Griffith and Mayberry) 

I tucked the wires behind the lambrequin (side pieces of fabric covered window treatment) and I will hide them even better later along the edge of the window to the power outlet and antenna jack below by the table.  

See? It didn't block much of our view out of the windows afterall, and the tv doesn't rattle or move while we drive down the road.

It does overlap the windows on each side some, but we are thinking it's a nice trade-off for opening up floor space. Not to mention NOT having to move the tv back and forth between the bed and the table while travelling and stopping!

Television Articulating Arm (rear tv):

Our motorhome also has a cabinet in the bedroom that housed another CRT type television.  We ousted that energy hogging tv, and bought a much more sensible LED tv that uses a lot less power.  Important when you are a boondocker (camping without electrical hookups).

The cabinet has a large space that could be used for extra storage, so Steve got to thinking of how to best use it. 

Here is the bedroom cabinet with the old tv taken out: 

The type of arm we used on the front tv would not work for this type of application.  The ceiling is not firm enough to screw into and it would flex or bounce.  The outer walls are thin wallpapered wood as well (remember, the front tv arm was screwed into solid wood cabinetry). We needed something that we could screw into the side panels of this solid wood cabinet and swing out and away.

We had been looking at different articulating tv arms that would allow us to move the tv out to reach the storage behind, or to tilt to have better viewing from the bed. Walmart's mounts were $129.00!!  Ouch!  But then we went to Menards, a chain of midwestern home improvement stores like Lowes or Home Depot, and found one for $35.00  It was made for a bigger tv than ours, but Steve assured me that we could make it work.  Somehow.  He always does, doesn't he? 

We wanted one that would swivel, turn and tilt.

We took it out and laid it out on the bed... 

hmmmmmmm 

ACK! The holes don't match up, 

and the back base plate doesn't line up with our tv!

Steveio took care of solving that problem!  He lined it up and figured where the base plate needed to be cut off the edge that would otherwise be protruding up over the top edge of the tv.  He marked where new holes needed to be drilled in the base plate to work with our particular brand of tv.

There... that was much better!  He cut it off with his jigsaw blade for metal.  Oh oh... the bolts that came with this kit were also too long!   That was easily solved by Steveio using a special section on his electrical pliers that lets you snip off the threaded ends of bolts without ruining the threads.  What a guy!

 In no time he was screwing the back base plate onto the tv. 

It was a perfect fit now!

Next we had to mark where the arm needed to be mounted inside of the cabinet for the best position.  I wanted it up as far as it could go along the ceiling, so we could still keep a DVD player in the space below the tv and could use the remote control on it.   It took two of us to hold everything to line up the tv, the bracket, the arm, and mark the spots where to drill inside of the cabinet. 

There... all mounted in place!  We ran the 2 inch heavy lag screws into the side wood that goes into the next cabinet. The wood of each cabinet is almost an inch thick, so the screws will hold well in the solid alder wood cabinets in our Safari. I coiled up the cords, coax and DVD connector cables. I used a plastic zip tie to keep them in order.

We pushed it back into place and it fit perfectly! 

For now, the arm is very stiff and firm, so I don't think we need to use any safety strapping during travel.  We will see.  We can always add a strap later if needed.  

Once it was all done and into place, we turned on the inverter 

and turned on the tv, just to test it out.  Voila! 

This is now about six years later and the arm remains firm and does not move around during travel. No strap needed. Yay! 

Motorhome Exercise Day:

On Wednesday, the weather was nice and we decided to fill the diesel fuel tank up in preparation for for a short vacation later this month.  The price of diesel is going up, and we had a discount coupon deal at the local Kwik Trip station of 10 cents off a gallon!  It only covers for the first 30 gallons, but hey, I will take $3.00 off a fill up since it's only about 6 blocks away from our house. 

We tossed the dogs in the rig before we left the yard.  Otherwise they have a hissy fit inside of the house if they see the motorhome leave without them on board! LOL ! 

After topping off the fuel tank, and adding some Lucas fuel treatment, we already had some algaecide treatment in the tank from the last fillup in the fall.  We put that in to keep down on anything growing in the filters and lines as well as the tank.  Steve said let's get the fuel moving around in the system.  We decided to shake out the winter cobwebs and open it up driving at highway speeds to the next town.  

We pulled into the local Piggly Wiggly store there, and bought a rotisserie chicken, some potato wedges and a few other groceries.  Not the most nutritious dinner, but hey, we were on an adventure!   Howard and Linda from RV Dreams often celebrate the first night of any road trip with a rotisserie chicken and call it Pickin Chickin Dinner! 

We drove the motorhome around to the back of the store. There is a nice road behind it lined with planted trees of different types and signs put up by the city depicting each one.  Across the road is a large plowed field and a woods behind that.  It has very little traffic, so we pulled to the side and parked to have our little dinner. 

Set up our dinner

and had a view out the window as well.

Things have not greened up yet in Wisconsin

but the fields are ready to be planted.

Steve carved up our little bird, and served our meal on paper plates.  We do not have fresh water yet in the tank nor have we de-winterized the lines.  Paper plates worked just fine for our meal, and we turned on some nice dinner music while we ate.  Only thing missing was a bottle of wine  Oh well, he would be driving home later, so we didn't need the wine after all. 

We also fired up the generator and kicked on both AC units to run it under load to exercise the generator as well. It's a 6500 watt one and can easily handle both roof air conditioners running at the same time.  We exercise it monthly so it gets used and lubed and not rusting up.  We learned that the hard way, and had to have the rotor rebuilt in it about 8 or 9 years ago.  With our 500 watts of solar on the roof, and four 6volt battery bank, we don't often need the generator.  So exercising it monthly is a good habit to get into.  

Besides, it was HOT out. The temps were close to 80 degrees and humid. Very strange for May 2nd in Wisconsin, because just 2 weeks before we were in the middle of a huge record setting blizzard with 12 inches of snow and ice and winds.  Go figger. 

The dogs watched us eat our dinner from the couch. 

They are not allowed to "beg" 

but we did give them each a little piece once we were done.

While we were sitting there, I made up lists of things I needed to replenish in the motorhome before our trip next weekend.  I keep a fully stocked cabinet for meds, and cooking dry goods and spices etc.  We keep clothing and cleaning supplies on board too.  I even carry an extra sewing machine, yarn and needles as well. All we need to do it toss in cold foods, the dogs, and us, and we are ready to roll. We are going to hit the road for about 10 days and wander around western Wisconsin and maybe southern Minnesota.

We sat back and watched some tv, and enjoyed being in our motorhome again.  We didn't go anywhere over the winter, so the last time we used the motorhome was in October with the kids and grandkids for camping at High Cliff. It felt good to be out and about in our rig.

Ahhh all too soon, we had to fire it up and head on back... 

HOME AGAIN 

HOME AGAIN 

JIGGETY JIGG

The dogs were disappointed to hop out the door, only to find themselves back home in our own yard. They really thought we were going somewhere with new things to sniff and places to see. 

MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS *C* and Three Dog Night

I am going to start off the new year with posting three of our motorhome modifications at a time. I will post repairs, modifications, or neato things we have found for RVing.  I have lots of pics in my files so I will do them in alphabetical order.

Underneath that stuff, I will post my regular daily stuff..... kinda sorta fun, eh?

So here it goes, we are up to the letter C now!

MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS 

STARTING WITH THE LETTER C

Compass:

Compasses seem to have gone the way of the past, since GPS has come into our lives.  Older RVs do not have a GPS built in. A lot of people rely on the GPS on their cell phone. What if your cell phone battery goes dead, or your GPS unit in your rig keeps saying Rerouting... rerouting.... ???

Both Steve and I navigate and keep track better if we have a compass to glance at. In our car, one is built into the rear view mirror and I use it a lot to keep my bearings when I drive.  Same with Steve in our motorhome.  I found him this one years ago... and we keep it velcroed to the dash.

It is a digital one that runs on a few AAA batteries,

 and has a light to illuminate at night. 

I think I found it at an auto parts store. 

Containers:

When dealing with the smaller cabinets and lighter payloads in an RV, we try to find things that stack compactly and take up less space.  Instead of the full paper bag packages, I only take along partial amounts of flour, sugar, brown sugar etc. I put them into containers to seal out any critters when we travel in the south.  I used to have these round ones, but they took up a lot of room and wasted space with their cylindrical shapes.

Instead, I found these containers from our local Shopko chain of stores.  Here is a link and they are on sale right now.  Gourmet-Living-8-Piece-Square-Rectangle-Air-Tight-Canister-Set   You could google the brand Gourmet Living to find some online I am sure.  They are thick plastic and have a lever of top that vacuum seals the lids down tight.

The rectangular shapes help to stack them tight, 

and keep things from sliding around. 

Cover on Console Shifting Pad:

Our Cat Engine on our motorhome has an Allison Transmission with a push button keypad on the left side of the drivers seat for shifting.  With a simple push of the button, you can put our rig into gear!  Just imagine the horror of us being outside hooking up the Tracker Toad and having someone push a button... or a dog jump up on the seat to look out the window and push a paw onto the keypad?  Yes, we always try to pull the emergency brake when stopped... but things can happen.  I was always nervous about something or some pet pressing a key when we were doing the hookups.

Steve eased my fears by making this heavy plexiglass cover for our shifting pad.  We flip it up out of the way to lean against the wall when we are driving, and we always flip it down flat over the keypad anytime we leave the drivers seat.  Even if it's just for a minute at a wayside to grab a drink from the fridge, or pulled over to do a potty break. Better safe than sorry!

~~~~~~~~

I am sorry that I missed a couple days of blogging here.  Things have been a little up in the air.  Steve's dad, our wonderful Pa Pfundtner, leader of the clan, decided to have knee replacement surgery.  At 84 he is going strong, out and about and doing things, but his knee has been giving him grief.  So he scheduled a knee replacement for Friday.  He made arrangements to stay overnight at the hospital guest house the night before, because he was scheduled for the first surgery in the morning  and had to be there at 5:30 am.  We met up with him and big brother Mark on Thursday night for the great handoff of precious Millie... Dad's dog!  

She is his pride and joy and constant companion.  He adopted her from a rescue group and gave her a new lease on life. (and spoils her profoundly!) He has trained her for doing therapy dog visits to nursing homes and hospitals.  She is so well behaved and sweet.  Those eyes just melt into you....awwwwwwww

We took her back to our house, driving through horrible fog and rain that we have been having for days on end in Wisconsin.  Our snow is crusty and hard and melting fast....  It took us twice as long to get home as the fog was as thick as Sea Poop!  (pea soup?)

We got her to our house about 11 pm and although she has been here before she was so confused about not having her Daddy around.  She gets along well with Finney and Binney, and we made a little bed for her alongside of our bed on the floor.

We turned out the light.

ooooh 

the moans! 

the groans! 

the whines! 

the wimpers! 

She missed Paul so much.... and was miserable. 

After 20 minutes of listening to her little heart breaking, 

we let her up in our bed!   

Laying on top of my legs and sprawling out across the king sized bed suited her just fine. She konked out and slept peacefully for the rest of the night.  Each time we tried to move, she was a lump of doggie fur and not easy to roll over.

 Oh well, I guess it is a Three Dog Night! 

In the morning we popped up our two stinkers onto the bed. They had been sleeping nicely on their doggie beds on the floor.  I suppose for poor Millie who misses Paul so much, we can give her a bit of comfort for the time she is here.  Steve brought up coffee and we had a Three Dog Morning! 

We ran back to visit on Friday, and then again today to see how Pa is doing.  Therapy has started and they have him up and walking around multiple times a day. We will keep Millie with us until he is ready to go home and resume his spoiling of her. hahahha


Today Steve decided to teach these dogs about doing household tasks and projects.  As you can tell, they are not too impressed?   Since we put the new tv up on a wall bracket (see last blog)  I wanted to hide the coax antenna and the power cord in a trim strip.  Better than having those ugly wires hanging down loosely on the wall.

I painted the special metal trim strip the other day with the same color as the walls.  Then Steve measured for the brackets and spacing to put it on the wall alongside of the tv. We had to take the tv off the wall to re-route the two wires behind it, so they would come out on the far right side:

We tucked the coax and power cord into the trim strip and slid it down into place. A few taps of the hammer did the job.  It was just the right height to come out next to the tv and run down the wall to the baseboard.

As the dogs dozed on the bed, we worked around them, as they lost interest in our project.  The walls are a soft blue color. But on a dreary day, the colors do not show up so well.

And there it is.... 

all encased in the trim strip and I think it looks a lot better! 

Steve went downstairs to put away the tools and he shouted up for those three lazy dogs to get up and go outside.  ZOOOM they left the bed in a rush!

I was left alone to test out the tv and make sure it worked 

and that our connections did not come loose. 

Hmmmm I thought about taking a nap....

On a rainy icky afternoon,

 it seemed like just the thing to do. 

So I did.