Three simultaneous projects
Dec. 21st, 2025 06:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unicorndukeI don't think the upstairs bathroom will be done before christmas but I have accepted this, these things happen. I've got some momentum going with it, which is perfect, that will keep me working on it until it is done, my guess mid-jan. There just isn't enough time to get it all done with everything else that needs doing in the next three days.
But! I have laid the second layer of plywood, which was a fight, stapled it down and have started working on the flooring. The area that needs flooring is an L shape around the shower, with two pipes at the end of the wall for plumbing and the one wall is the uneven plaster and lathe. I cut it exact to the dimensions needed and couldn't get it fit into the spot because I forgot about the one pipe that is the not-hooked-up heating pipe. The plywood was 3/4 inch, it was 47x80 inches and heavy as fuck. So getting it picked back up was an absolute nightmare. It only worked because I was able to brace one foot against the wall above the plywood and pry up with a prybar until I could slide a chunk of wood between it and the wall. Then I tried fitting it in the other direction and ran into issues with destroying the drywall that stuck out slightly too far on the other side. Finally, I just cut the plywood in half and slide both pieces into place in two minutes. The whole process sucked! The third piece that went in was comparatively easy even if it needed three notches.
I got them stapled down quickly, it took as much time to get the compressor pressure correct as it did to actually staple everything in. I caulked it this afternoon although the caulk was old and I think there is something wrong with it since it has been at least three hours and it is still wet. Might need to run to town for more. (steps still to go: drywall on two walls, toilet in place, sink in place, their plumbing to be hooked up). I will lay vinyl flooring soon.
Yesterday, dad and I ran over to a nearby preschool, who come out to our farm with their group and they had offered us their old wooden playground train which they are planning to replace. We saw it back in November and spent some time scheming about how it would work. Dad picked up a winch, which he mounted on the wood of the flat trailer. It's a 20 ft trailer with ramps and the winch worked so well! The trains weren't so heavy that we couldn't shove them around by hand, so getting them aligned was easy enough. We had to use pipes as rollers for two of the train sections since they were heavier, but we were in and out in two hours or so which was solid. Half of the trouble we had was getting the 4 ft snowbank between the parking lot and the playground shoveled out so we could back the truck and trailer close enough.
My crafting room is going extremely well. I got the floor sanded and finished quickly, turns out it needs three coats, 2-3 hours apart with 24 hours curing after the final coat, so I got it done Friday after I ran for supplies. This morning, dad and I moved the big shelf over to its permanent corner and I could get started on the last corner that needs work. I removed the carpet, sanded coarse and fine, cleaned the wall and floor, patched the wall and then did all three finish layers. I will be sanding the patches and painting the wall tomorrow and it will be ready! This picture is after one coat of finish on the close left corner. You can see it isn't painted there.
Tonight, I also cleaned out my desk area and packed that away. I was using a table of my parents which needs to go to their new house plus I just had desk detritus all around. Cleaned it all up, put office supplies, extra monitor and such with in my office room in a big heap and all my winter supplies, coats, etc to my bedroom. I should have more room up there soon as I start bringing things downstairs to go in the crafting room on the shelf. My mom is displeased with the office stuff heap but I told her tough shit. There is literally nowhere to put it unless she gives me some of her precious boxes that she's hoarding. I can't start setting up shelves in my office room until many things are out of there. It gets used as a catch all room, so right now it contains: toilet and sink for upstairs bathroom, my chest freezer, office supplies, their glass front cabinet, drywall for upstairs bathroom, etc. I think I'm going to ask my sister to help move the toilet and sink upstairs when she arrives on Wed because they are quite heavy and I want to spare my dad's back. They'll get stored in the laundry room until they get installed.
It hasn't all been work! This morning, my mom and I went on a little adventure to the grocery store, hardware store, a makers market and an indian buffet. All around success and I think she realized I was tired of talking because she only tried to engage me in conversation once tonight.
I was feeling maudlin thursday night, my lack of socializing outside of my parents has been dismal and it caught up to me. So I looked up art classes and I think I'm going to sign up for some wheel pottery classes for a couple of weeks starting in January, just so I talk to another human at some point. I did get to virtually hang with Jade last night while we played video games, so that was good and uplifting.
One of the things that helps with the maudlins is listening to music. I recently switched away from spotify to 1. buying music mostly on bandcamp and sticking it on my phone and 2. trialing qobuz. I don't know if I'll make the switch since I wasn't paying for spotify anyway (I was on Jade's family plan) but so far it has been a good interface on mobile and desktop and it pays artists a lot more than spotify.
I will bake (lemon bars, two types of cookies, pita bread, something savory to snack on) either tomorrow morning or tuesday morning, with the other day being wood splitting since we are starting to get low on wood for the outdoor burner. Not super low, but we won't have enough to get through the weekend with everyone visiting, so I need to get a move on. Since we don't have any nice straight logs on the ground, I won't use the bobcat processor but we have some huge chunks of pin oak that's been sitting in a heap for a while that I'll cut with the chainsaw and split with the tractor hydraulic splitter if I can roll them on. Some are so big I might not be able to even with the splitter sitting on the ground. Plus I can grab the extras of log ends down at west. Cleaning. Lots of cleaning.
But! I have laid the second layer of plywood, which was a fight, stapled it down and have started working on the flooring. The area that needs flooring is an L shape around the shower, with two pipes at the end of the wall for plumbing and the one wall is the uneven plaster and lathe. I cut it exact to the dimensions needed and couldn't get it fit into the spot because I forgot about the one pipe that is the not-hooked-up heating pipe. The plywood was 3/4 inch, it was 47x80 inches and heavy as fuck. So getting it picked back up was an absolute nightmare. It only worked because I was able to brace one foot against the wall above the plywood and pry up with a prybar until I could slide a chunk of wood between it and the wall. Then I tried fitting it in the other direction and ran into issues with destroying the drywall that stuck out slightly too far on the other side. Finally, I just cut the plywood in half and slide both pieces into place in two minutes. The whole process sucked! The third piece that went in was comparatively easy even if it needed three notches.
I got them stapled down quickly, it took as much time to get the compressor pressure correct as it did to actually staple everything in. I caulked it this afternoon although the caulk was old and I think there is something wrong with it since it has been at least three hours and it is still wet. Might need to run to town for more. (steps still to go: drywall on two walls, toilet in place, sink in place, their plumbing to be hooked up). I will lay vinyl flooring soon.
Yesterday, dad and I ran over to a nearby preschool, who come out to our farm with their group and they had offered us their old wooden playground train which they are planning to replace. We saw it back in November and spent some time scheming about how it would work. Dad picked up a winch, which he mounted on the wood of the flat trailer. It's a 20 ft trailer with ramps and the winch worked so well! The trains weren't so heavy that we couldn't shove them around by hand, so getting them aligned was easy enough. We had to use pipes as rollers for two of the train sections since they were heavier, but we were in and out in two hours or so which was solid. Half of the trouble we had was getting the 4 ft snowbank between the parking lot and the playground shoveled out so we could back the truck and trailer close enough.
My crafting room is going extremely well. I got the floor sanded and finished quickly, turns out it needs three coats, 2-3 hours apart with 24 hours curing after the final coat, so I got it done Friday after I ran for supplies. This morning, dad and I moved the big shelf over to its permanent corner and I could get started on the last corner that needs work. I removed the carpet, sanded coarse and fine, cleaned the wall and floor, patched the wall and then did all three finish layers. I will be sanding the patches and painting the wall tomorrow and it will be ready! This picture is after one coat of finish on the close left corner. You can see it isn't painted there.
Tonight, I also cleaned out my desk area and packed that away. I was using a table of my parents which needs to go to their new house plus I just had desk detritus all around. Cleaned it all up, put office supplies, extra monitor and such with in my office room in a big heap and all my winter supplies, coats, etc to my bedroom. I should have more room up there soon as I start bringing things downstairs to go in the crafting room on the shelf. My mom is displeased with the office stuff heap but I told her tough shit. There is literally nowhere to put it unless she gives me some of her precious boxes that she's hoarding. I can't start setting up shelves in my office room until many things are out of there. It gets used as a catch all room, so right now it contains: toilet and sink for upstairs bathroom, my chest freezer, office supplies, their glass front cabinet, drywall for upstairs bathroom, etc. I think I'm going to ask my sister to help move the toilet and sink upstairs when she arrives on Wed because they are quite heavy and I want to spare my dad's back. They'll get stored in the laundry room until they get installed.
It hasn't all been work! This morning, my mom and I went on a little adventure to the grocery store, hardware store, a makers market and an indian buffet. All around success and I think she realized I was tired of talking because she only tried to engage me in conversation once tonight.
I was feeling maudlin thursday night, my lack of socializing outside of my parents has been dismal and it caught up to me. So I looked up art classes and I think I'm going to sign up for some wheel pottery classes for a couple of weeks starting in January, just so I talk to another human at some point. I did get to virtually hang with Jade last night while we played video games, so that was good and uplifting.
One of the things that helps with the maudlins is listening to music. I recently switched away from spotify to 1. buying music mostly on bandcamp and sticking it on my phone and 2. trialing qobuz. I don't know if I'll make the switch since I wasn't paying for spotify anyway (I was on Jade's family plan) but so far it has been a good interface on mobile and desktop and it pays artists a lot more than spotify.
I will bake (lemon bars, two types of cookies, pita bread, something savory to snack on) either tomorrow morning or tuesday morning, with the other day being wood splitting since we are starting to get low on wood for the outdoor burner. Not super low, but we won't have enough to get through the weekend with everyone visiting, so I need to get a move on. Since we don't have any nice straight logs on the ground, I won't use the bobcat processor but we have some huge chunks of pin oak that's been sitting in a heap for a while that I'll cut with the chainsaw and split with the tractor hydraulic splitter if I can roll them on. Some are so big I might not be able to even with the splitter sitting on the ground. Plus I can grab the extras of log ends down at west. Cleaning. Lots of cleaning.
no subject
Date: 2025-12-22 04:00 am (UTC)We don't have Pin Oak on this side of the continent. Lots of other oaks, but not Pin. Does it burn well?
no subject
Date: 2025-12-24 12:17 am (UTC)Pin oak is not super common around here but I think this was in front of someone's house and they took it down and didn't want the wood, so dropped it off here. Unsure. It burns decently like any good oak but it takes an eternity to dry, this stuff has been on the ground for a year and a half already and it's still decently wet. I think online folks have said minimum 2 years dry time. Splits decently
no subject
Date: 2025-12-24 01:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-01 04:22 pm (UTC)The ash, we just dump on the burn pile that we've got, I've thought about putting it in the compost heap but I don't know that we want any compost to be super alkaline. I might try spreading it in our fertilizer spreader at some point but it's tricky to figure out application rate.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-01 09:35 pm (UTC)The application rate is really hard. Not only the alkalinity, but, as I understand it, the nutrients in the ash vary depending on the varietie(s) of wood you burn and how hot it burns. We spread our ash on the pastures in a relatively thin layer which works here because a lot of our soils are either neutral or acidic and most of the oak leaves are quite acidic.
Ah well, the ash issue is a problem that you don't have to solve right now, like so many things!
Hope the new year treats you well.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-02 02:00 am (UTC)In terms of total wood, we need 10 cords for maple syrup, 5 cords for fall firewood, probably 3-5 cords for indoor wood stove and probably 10-15 cords for outdoor burner.
New year has been relaxing so far, hope it treats you good as well!