Thank you Droopy, I'm a bit nervous about it being that it's my eye but I know that they do a lot of them, but I'm a bit younger than the other people that were there.
Today I started on the new cupboard my wife wants to go next to this one in our small kitchen.. Originally there was a "one man breakfast bar" next to it. But "stuff" always got put on it, due to lack of space. The tall chair's still there, we just hang hand towels on the back of it. The kitchen company that installed the units have long ceased trading, (well, we've had the kitchen fourteen years) and as a job, no firm would want one this small. So I'm doing it myself. Just a case of finding a door manufacturer who could make a door and two door fronts, the latter I would make into a door of false drawer fronts like this one. They match a deeper unit with drawers on the other side of the kitchen. Lots of samples of laminate required before I found a firm that had it and could make a door with the correct profile. Plus find another firm which could supply a length of the right style and finish pelmet. The hardest task. The cabinet I made out of bog standard 18" melamine which matches the original, it's pretty common. Just a case of getting a woodyard to cut it to size. Some fetlling above it needed as part of the original pelmet will have to be replaced and the top boxed in. I've some spare wallpaper. The shelves are adjustable, well they will be.. if I drill some more holes for the shelf supports. I've three spare shelves. I've also got three spare handles. Just waiting for the doors and pelmet. Then that's it for projects this year..I think!
today we started on our backyard patio. never have we had a decent level spot back there. we live on a huge slope. all I can say is we never have standing water. we bought 4 pallets of "L" shaped stones and Kevin and Adrian dug out enough to level the yard put in a retainer wall and filled it with stone so we can make a patio. we used up one pallet so far. I think we need 4 more to actually do what we plan to do. this only filled a 7x16 area.. we have a lot to go. we are planning on a 20 x 40 patio wrapping around the deck. I hope I can hold up long enough to get it all laid....
and apart from gardening.. I am cleaning out my inlaws house. another huge job. they lived there for 50+ years. they weren't hoarders but they kept everything. I found an old enameled bed pan in a flannel bag. square aqua vintage canning jars. a whole case of them. 15 doz quart canning jars. clothes. oh my the clothes. coats... lots of coats. and books. an entire set of worlbook encyclopedias, child craft and another set of something... it was never offered to us while I was homeschooling and the annuals were published all the way to 2002 before she quit buying them. never were they cracked open even. I GAVE them away today. 4 sets of dishes. Pfalzgraff, arcoroc, cheap stoneware and another one... she NEVER used them. I sold one set for 20.00 yesterday. the pfalzgraff still has tape on the coffee cups. service for 9. the arcoroc was service for 12. 4 coffee pots stored on the shelves in the basement. filthy ones too. one was never even opened yet. thats an easy one. one I tried to clean up and then tossed it in the trash because the buttons were worn so badly the plastic was cracked. 20 puzzles. ugly old puzzles. and the old hand embroidered linens. drawer fulls. cookbooks... two shelves in the kitchen and then they were hither and yan on the family room book shelf. bibles. bibles from their parents, I think all the bibles they ever got and some that had their childrens names in or on them even a Gideon bible. where would they have gotten that? an organ. no one played the organ there. records and a record player. I never ever hear it played. all the lenses my father in law ever had replaced in his glasses I found in a drawer. the Lions club will get those.... I cannot believe how much stuff there is to cart out and donate.
we drove 5 hours to pick up our son and take him to buy a car in the next state over. 2 tanks of gas and I am home for the day. we left at 7pm Sunday evening to start. I drove until midnight...then back up and another hour to there and waited until his transaction was done and he got his car and left for a 41/2 hour drive home. I am tired.
One load of stuff to donate to the Mennonite Missions store. lots of sewing stuff, linens and just stuff. none of which I wanted. and one load of pristine coffee table and end tables circa 1960's to my sons house. picked up ribbon for Christmas wreaths and a handful of very expensive CAT parts to fix 3 different machines. and then I blew all the leaves off the lawn..... again for about the third time
Hey, @carolyn Please take care of yourself amidst all your chores. Cleaning out a house full of lived life is hard on your mind as well as your body. I believe you already know that. I just want to remind you. I have done some serious shopping. I had one pair of decent-looking trousers and two tops I could wear amongst people. It was high time. I also bought a small chargeable lamp to put on top of a shelf section. My husband liked it so much I'm off to buy one more tomorrow. Those shelves are dark wood with no light fixtures. Inherited, so good quality furniture. I dislike shopping! Unless it's soil, bark chips, plants, you know. Life essentials. Since I loathe crowds I have to get the last items on my shopping list tomorrow, because next week's gonna be mayhem at the mall. After next week it's Cyber Week (yes, in the physical shops, only you order online and pick it up in the shop), then there's a thing called Pre-Christmas Sales and then I don't know but I'm not going shopping again until February.
Cleared the leaves yesterday, filled the green bin. There's as many to do again already,. so I'll leave it until Wednesday once the bin has been emptied. Cleaned the car this morning and my golf clubs. Might be a busy day tomorrow. Golf in the morning and the doors for the new cupboard are expected. So if they arrive I'll put them on, not a big job. I also need to sort out the repair to my vintage 1970s Leak tuner/amp. It's started, "motorboating." For the less technical this is where you get the sound of a motorboat when you turn it on. It still functions. As you turn up the volume, whatever is on, the radio, turntable, cassette or my iPods, the sound masks the motorboating sound, it isn't increased by the volume control. But it's not right. It may need re-capping, but I'm prepared to pay for it to be done. There's a workshop in Salford that specialises in vintage equipment. I'll give them a ring. There's a lot of these little firms around. There's one on the main road that specialises in repairing car radios. Nothing unusual in that, but they only repair those that have valves (tubes). There must be enough people with classic cars that have the original radios, they want to keep going.
As most of you know, I dearly love to cook and bake. Since it was too windy to do much outside, I checked my pantry for needed ingredients, made a list of cookies and breads to bake for the holidays, put the chicken to thaw for Thanksgiving dinner, and made sure I had enough freezer bags, etc. for wrapping to give the aforesaid cookies and breads to friends. A decorative red ribbon dresses up a freezer bag something wonderful!
I took some time and freshened up the outdoor oven for a little hickory smoked turkey action. I like to think smoked turkey is why Benjamin Franklin favored the bird instead of the eagle. The dark meat and giblet gravy made with hickory smoked drippings are just not on the tables I will visit this week but it should be! Btw thats oregano, thyme and fennel, stuffed with apples and onions and garlic cloves.
Hmm.. the doors arrived this morning, so I got at them this afternoon. Took longer than I thought, but it's done now. Just waiting for the pelmet that should be here next week. Need to practice doing a few mitre joints, not done any for decades.
