Back from the Wilderness

Life took control and I had to go with the flow since this spring.  I spent most of my time this spring weeding and preparing garden beds before I left to help my Dad.  My Dad lives in Anchorage AK.  I promise him I would go up and help him clean his basement apartment and move him into a first floor apartment.  I was planning to do this over the month of July and return to work by August 1^st.  The Wednesday, June 27^th, before I left for Alaska my Dad called me to let me know he was being admitted to the hospital due to a painful infection in his right foot.  The following day he had surgery to remove his toes up to the ball of his foot.  I left for Alaska on Sunday, July 1^st.  My Dad said everything was going fine and to take my time driving up to Alaska.  I planned on visiting Banff and Jasper National Parks in Canada then drive the Yellowhead Highway (Hwy 16) to Stewart-Cassiar Highway (Hwy 37) to the Alaska Hwy and finally ending in Anchorage.  I took 11 days to reach Anchorage and on July 11 my Father was moved into a rehabitation center since he lost a lot of muscle strength because of not being able to exercise for nine months due to the infection in his foot.

I spent July 11 to August 13 in slaying at my father’s basement apartment in Anchorage.  I spent most of my time cleaning the apartment or being with my father in the rehabilitation center.  My father’s apartment was a mess.  It took just 3 days just to go through and shredded over ten years of paperwork and that did not include organizing the reminder of it.  I threw out dozens of extra large garbage bag that included food, 4 feet of catalogs, newspapers, cardboard boxes and just plain garbage.  What was left needed to be sorted and determined if Dad still used it.  The items he not longer used were sent to relatives or donated to Salvation Army.

I found an old bag of rice which must had been the source of the springtail bugs (no bed bugs thank god) that was infesting the apartment.  The bugs were everywhere; I first found them in bed sheets on the bedroom floor which I threw on the bed not knowing that they were in them.  I started to wash all the laundry and put them away thinking they would be ok in drawers under the bed.  Later I would find more bud in the drawers and sheets I cleaned.  I decided the only way to get control of the bug was to rewash everything again and seal them in plastic bags.  I also asked the landlord to call for an exterminator after I finished cleaning the place.

When not cleaning the apartment I was visiting my Dad or running errands for him.  The first week in Anchorage Dad seemed to be recovering from the operation just fine but hospital released my father before they should due to Medicare rules.  This caused a blockage in my father’s GI tract and the rehab center seemed to have problems giving enemas.  On Wednesday, July 19, I demanded they transport Dad to the hospital since the center could not help my father.  The hospital fixed the problem by giving him a proper enema that clears out his colon.  At the same time his urinary track started to shut down too.  An enema may clear out the colon but all that matter in the large and small intestines still need to move down into the colon so he was in pain for a few weeks.   My father’s GI system is just starting behave normally now.

That same week Dad was having a reaction with the pain and sleeping pills causing him to hallucinate.  On Thursday night he fell from his bed believing his room was on fire in the middle of the night.  The center sent him to the hospital again and he was release that night.  The next morning the hospital found a small bleed out in the lining of his brain.  He had another one on Saturday, July 21, and stayed two nights in the hospital before being released.  His health is slowly improving now but he is still in the rehab center.  I left Anchorage on August 13 after having lunch with Dad.

The trip back was fun I followed the Alaska Highway all the way to Dawson Creek.  I took so many pictures along the highway; it took four days to reach Fort Nelson.  I drove from Fort Nelson starting at 6 AM on Friday and arrived home at 10 PM on Sunday.  Those last three days were long but it was nice to walk into a clean home.  Now that I got this out of my system I hope to post some pictures of the trip.  Sometime soon I will try to update you on my garden and house projects.

Upholstery Class

I have not written about what I have been doing in classes lately, so here is the update. In March I was working on the Tab Curtains for the living room.  I did finish the pair of curtains for the single window but ran out of the matching thread for the double windows on the living room’s south side.  I ran all over town and still could not find a match then I tried the internet.  There were problems with back orders and it took a month before I found the thread at my front door.

During that time I was glad to have the 1930’s chair to work on.  As I have said before the fabric is removed in the reverse order as it is put on.  The first thing to remove is the dust cover on the bottom of the chair but it was already gone.  So I first marked all the pieces with a marker.  Once that was finished I started pulling all the tacks attaching the back fabric to the chair’s bottom and around the outside arms to the top of the back gentle pulling the loose fabric from the frame.  Because of the curved back all the back pieces (fabric and batting) came off as one piece.  I will leave it as one piece until I cut the new pieces; there will be less a chance the piece will be pulled out of shape.  The chair was lined with a white fabric to keep the batting and fabric strength and support, that also needed to be replace.  By the time I finished, there were tacks everywhere.  I try to keep them from getting on the floor but there still a lot to pickup.  When I take a chair apart I always need to check the bottom of my shoes for tacks in them and there are usually 1 to 3 tacks in either shoe.

The next class I started to work on the inside of the chair.  Again I started pulling tacks along the bottom of the chair to loosen the inside back, nosing and seat lining.  I did my best to keep the pieces together where I could.  The inside back and nosing with seat lining came off as two pieces.  The nosing and seat lining is the last piece off and the first piece on.  The seat batting was marked before pulling it off.  I have been taught to keep the batting and mark it so it can be used as a template for the new batting.  The edge roll was removed and should be replaced.  The roll is use to support the edge and keep the cushion in place.  The burlap covering the open space on the inside back was pulled too.  The only thing left that is not wood is the cardboard supports on the inside arms and inside back.

 

When I brought the chair I knew that I needed to do so bracing in the back and found what was causing the problem.  The left back leg was cracked and the chair’s base near the cracked leg also was crack.  Note: To determine what side of a chair is right or left, stand in front facing it and the chair’s left side is the same as your left hand and versus.  I talked to a guy at work about fixing it.  He suggested that since the crack is almost complete that I would be better break it off and gluing then trying to use a syringe to inject the glue.

 The chair is on hold since the thread came in.  I want to strip the chair's finish off first and then fix the leg.  I hope to complete the curtains for the living room double window by the end of May and I am look forward to working on the chair.  I cannot wait to see the finished chair.

Moving Forward

The cement basement walls are waterproofed and I started to celebrate until I looked at the wall dividing the sewing room from the unfinished basement.  While looking at that marked up wall I just started laughing at myself.   Oh well, painting dry wall is alot easier.

I still have a fourth of the basement floor to finish before I am completely done

Spring Blooms

A daffodil blooming on 3/18/2012

Southwest Wisconsin spring has arrived 5 to 4 weeks early.  It is unheard of to have 80F weather in mid-March.  So many plants have come into bloom way to early.  The fruit tree are now blooming and for the next several nights a hard freeze is forecast.  Wisconsin Orchards may lose their fruit crops this year.  Here are some photos of plants in my yard.

  

Violets blooming in the lawn on 3/21/2012

 

Hyacinth started opening on 3/18/2012

 

Tulip bloomed on 3/21/2012

 

Tulip bloomed on 3/25/2012

   


Crabapple Buds 4/3/2012



4/3/2012 Coral Bell Bud



Ground cover blooming 4/3/2012

Lilac buds 4/3/2012

      

100 Percent Converted

In March I completed the goal of converting three appliances over to gas.  The first was converting the oil furnace over to gas.  I have been planning on do this since I first moved in October 15, 2004.  That fall I had the gas company bring a line up to the house.  I waited until the spring of 2008 to replace my oil furnace with a new efficient gas furnace because I did not want to go in debit paying for it.  I informed the company installing the furnace that I would in the future install a gas stove and water heater, and to plan on that when installing the gas pipe.

I spent over a year looking for a gas stove on Craig’s List before finding a GE Profile gas stove in the fall of 2010.  Again I reminded the guy installing the gas line to the stove that there was still a hot water heater in my future.

Since the first day I moved into this house I have been arguing with myself about when to replace the electric hot water heater.  The reason why it took me so long was I could not decide to go tankless or not.  The installation and tankless heater was around $3000 in 2004 compared to a tank water heater, it was about 1.5 to 2 times more expense.  There were other reasons why I put it off, the water in southwest Wisconsin is heavy with lime and I questioned just how long the pumping would plug up.  Just look how close the limestone is to the surface; the picture shows an excavation for a nursing home expansion just north of my house.  If you lived here the water must be softened, the lime just builds up to quickly.  I discussed the tankless option with the pumper before deciding and he did not suggest tankless heater.  His reason was Wisconsin cold winters can cause a large different in temperatures with the water coming into the house and the tank ability to raise the temperature hot enough.  The frost does go deep into the ground, -20 is common here in January.  He also stated the tankless heater needs to be serviced twice a year.

The research I did before I talked to the plumber and I had been leaning toward the tank water heater.  I had them install a 40 gallon tank with power exhaust on March 21.  I do have a chimney but I never allowed the furnace or the water heater exhaust through it because I keep having a CO₂ monitor going off in the middle of the night with the oil furnace.  I also had many headaches in the winter and I believe there is a crack in the chimney.  When the roof needs to be done, the chimney is being pulled down.  I know it is part of the original design to my Sear’s house but it is unsafe and useless now.  I did mention the CO₂ monitor going off to my ex-furnace man but his remark was the monitors are just too sensitive what little I knew then.

Now I can check off converting over to gas. √

PS: On Saturday, I sealed the remaining wall with hydraulic cement.  This coming Saturday I can start painting the wall.

Newly Recovered Patio Umbrella

The picture to the right is the old cover.  A new umbrella cover was made and completed in November 2011.  The love the mum fabric.  The only thing I need the do this weekend is to spray on waterproofing and let it dry.  Below is the new cover.

I taped all the raw edges and seams with a dark brown fabric.  The inside is as beautiful as the outside at least to me.  I made a matching tie for the umbrella when it is closed.

Lastly Alaine (my upholstery teacher) and I designed a umbrella cover too.

Basement Update



The finished job of cleaning out the northwest corner



The mess was half cleaned up before I remembered
to take the picture.



The last three weeks have been busy in between fighting a sinus infection.  I did get the northwest corner cleaned up and moved to the new shelving I put up in the northeast corner.  Before I could set up the shelving I need to cut down a pipe with old wiring in it.  I believe this wiring may have been where the original fuse box was located.  The pipe was cut off about 6 inches above the floor when they removed the old pipe and wiring.  I first tried a hack saw and then moved to use a jig saw to cut the pipe and final used a hammer to nock the partly sawed pipe off.  Using the hammer loosen the cement around the pipe so I mixed up just enough cement to fill in the area around the pipe and let it set a week before I could touch up the floor paint.

The wires were not live.

A week later I finished touching up the floor and could start setting up the shelving.  That Saturday, I stop by the local lumber yard and brought a ¾” sheet of plywood for the flooring of each shelf since it was cheaper to cut the flooring to size than to buy it precut.  The unit I brought you can buy the end shelves and the number of railing need for how many shelves you need and I decided on four shelves.  It took a day to move all the stuff and arrange it on the shelves.   I also moved the table and pulled the washer and dryer out from the wall.  Now, I finally have access to the remaining wall section that needs to be fixed.

The finished cut pipe.

On Saturday I starting removing the loose section of concrete with a scraper and finished removing loose paint and concrete with a wire brush attached to my electric drill.  The wire brushing is necessary but the cloud of dust in the basement is bad.  Before I started I stuffed towels in the crack between the basement door and first floor and also the doorway to the finished sewing room in the basement.  A dust mask (not the white fiber mask) is a must along with ear muffles and a face mask.  I can only take about an hour before I need to take a break and let the dust settled before the next round.  It took about 6 hours with all the breaks before the wall was done.  I spent all Sunday vacuuming and cleaning the layer of dust that I created on Saturday.  The worst part is now over and the remaining work on water proofing the basement should be easy.