Saturday I installed a few appliances for Anx, finishing up the dishwasher, and doing the washer because apparently the installer from Manny's was too much of a wimp to remove the old house. In the afternoon I went to a party. I also did a few chores. It was nice to not have to plan my chores around the weather (most notably I don't have to wait for nice weather to do laundry).
Sunday was a much nicer day. I experimented a bit on Sunday. I went and visited the country store that reopened. Their prices were quite high (even for a convenience store), but they had most things. They had a significant focus on local stuff which may not help their prices, but isn't necessarily an awful thing. Their half dozen eggs were almost 4 dollars, but were farm fresh eggs (though still 2 weeks old at this point).
I also grabbed a breakfast sandwich. It was homemade, but not on demand; they make some and put them in one of those heat ovens like you would find at Stewarts. It was excellent.
It was pretty nice out, albeit a touch warm for my tastes, but I went out and finally moved all those branches and stuff I have been mowing around all summer. There were a few piles. One of them came down, the others were remnants from when Barry cut some trees down for me. I have been lazy, that was a couple of months ago...
I also did a lot of experimentation on Sunday. I tried making some vanilla chai (like the stuff from Bolthouse farms that I like). There are still a few tweaks needed, but it came out good.
I also tried to make some banana bread. That experiment didn't go nearly as well. My oven isn't hooked up yet, and both loaf pans don't fit in the toaster oven, so I figured I would use the grill. I have baked on it before when I went to the Grand Canyon and in the Badlands.
I learned a few things about my grill. Normally I have problems with it not getting hot enough; it sometimes struggles to get the marks on steaks for example. But I didn't have any problems with heat yesterday. I couldn't keep the temperature low enough to bake effectively. Even propping the lid open a bit was insufficient, though it at least let it stabilize around 450-500 (banana bread is baked at 325 normally).
I rescued one of the loaf pans before things went south and finished it in the toaster oven. The other notsomuch. I am thinking I might generously trim the burn off and chunk what is left, and mix it in with some banana cream pudding.
While I was infusing/converting charcoal into the crust of my banana bread, I got the ziploc holder re-glued.
After that I went out and started doing some more yard work. I tried to fill in and smooth over the ruts from dragging the carport as best as I could without new material. I intend to get a load of dirt at some point.
I also went down to the tiny home, and measured some of the parts I might want to poach. It turns out that I have the perfect amount of hanging wall cabinets for the laundry room. The laundry room is 5'3" wide and I have 5' of cabinets there. So I might pull those off. I am thinking of painting them white, since the washer and dryer are white, and the walls are partially white, the furnace door is white, and so on. This way I don't have to try to match the kitchen cabinets with a stain.
I am also planning on taking out the medicine cabinet and shelf. The shelf is for the second bathroom (so it has a bath towel holder), the medicine cabinet for the master bath.
I also want to poach the outlet with USB ports in it. I think at least one outlet in every room should have them these days (except maybe the kitchen and laundry room), and will eventually get there. This one at least is free though.
I walked around for a bit, and found a few rocks which I cleaned and will be using as door stops. I have found that if the windows are all wide open and it is breezy, the doors will blow shut.
Off and on over the weekend I dabbled with the porch design, but got everything measured. Right now, despite the cost and effort required, I am leaning towards making a complete wraparound porch. I just don't know what I would do with the side otherwise, and separating it from the porch makes it feel useless, but as part of the porch, I could keep patio furniture and stuff over there. It does mean a lot more work and expense though.
I guess part of the ruts I filled in were in the driveway, but I don't plan to mark that in progress yet. I am planning on borrowing Barry's winch to finish up the carport. I was originally just going to wait until I rented the excavator, but last week it rained every day leading up to the weekend, and this weekend looks like it is going to rain all weekend, and I don't really want to wait. Still no word from any of the HVAC guys.
Current To-do:
- Before winter:
- Move carport
- Final grade - get gravel and drainage pipe.
- Buy a real bed and living room furniture.
- Get a gun cabinet/safe.
- Fix driveway.
- Install drainage in the backyard. Remove the backflush hose.
- Get heat pump installed.
- Get a snowblower for the tractor.
Build a platform for the steps.- Insulate the water lines
- Winter projects:
- All the cabinet upgrades (bathroom, pantry, and kitchen)
- Design deck
- Build armoire
- Build dresser
- Shelving upgrades in master closet.
- Access panel upgrades in master closet
- 2024 Projects:
- Deck
- Entertainment center
- Storm doors
We have house rocks for door stops too! I like yours. And a wrap around porch would be fabulous!
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