When doing a DIY building project, there’s the big stuff and the small stuff. The big stuff is rather fun. It’s the small stuff, like finding the right screws, that can drive you nuts.
So I’ve given up, for now, on finding the tiny screws to attach the new knobs to my vanity. The knobs came with two sizes. Neither worked. I bought three other sizes, a smidgen smaller or larger. Nope. Well, screw it! For now, anyway.
As with humans, small stuff left unattended becomes big stuff. Frustrating stuff. But there is also a time to leave it alone. take a break.
Meanwhile, we are energized by installation of the wood ceiling, which began today. More photos on that to come but meanwhile, see the latest below.
Editor’s note: You will occasionally find grammar mistakes on this blog. This embarrasses me and I ask your indulgence. Please remember that I’m writing in suboptimal conditions. I usually go back and fix them later, but subscribers receive the unedited version. My apologies!
I realized too late that my vanity options would be limited in this bathroom unless I had one custom-built. (It’s a small room with odd corners. In a small house, compromises must be made.) I decided on oil-rubbed-bronze fixtures a long time ago, but ended up with silver ones on this vanity. So I bought new knobs. No big deal, right? Ha! The latest “nope” screws await yet another replacement while the knobs continue to wobble. We’ll figure it out, but it’s been an education in all the small stuff that goes into creating a home.
More pleasant, this latest of the “big stuff” … installation of the wood ceiling. (I’m paying laborers for this job. Jeff is struggling with vertigo, which may or may not be related to his Type-1 diabetes but certainly doesn’t help. In any case, he’s doing enough already.) As soon as I saw this in the loft, I knew what to do with the windows. I added a 2nd coat of stain – English Chestnut this time – to accentuate the knots in the knotty-pine ceiling. The ceiling is stained in Early American, so that’s what I put on the windows for the 1st coat. Sometimes you have to see a thing before you know what to do.
Before the ceiling installation began, I had to stain these. You can see why I left them for last. I didn’t feel very secure on that narrow piece of metal which wobbled when I moved. (And I used to sky-dive! This scared me more, for some reason. Maybe the lack of a parachute and the cement floor underneath?) But I went back up a 2nd day to give it another coat. Glad I did, because it needed it–and I don’t want to go back up there again for a long time.
You might be tired of hearing about staining. Me, too! But DIY-ers and stainers may like to see before-and-after photos. This is a closet door–one coat in the foreground, two coats in the background (before it was wiped down, exactly 10 minutes after application).
And, after two coats. I applied a layer of polyurethane, too, as recommended by Jeff and by my research.
Outdoors, winter has returned just in time for the official arrival of spring (a few days away)…
…and adds welcome beauty to the environment. The wind has created bi-colored tree trunks.
Jeff’s off-the-grid one-room cabin, where we are both living during construction, is prettier in the snow too. That’s mostly my stuff on the porch…unused ski gear, luggage, etc. There isn’t much storage room here, and I can’t move into the house yet, so have to make do somehow.
Roscoe uses his doghouse when it’s warm but prefers the snow when it’s cold. He spends the whole night like this. Funny. Well, he is a Siberian husky!
What’s this, you ask? A porcupine house! I came across it several days ago–before the snow returned–and walked Roscoe briskly past. The porcupine isn’t home here, but he was a few days earlier. Like a fool, I had peered in to see what was causing the pile of poop. There it was, curled up in that hole. Roscoe backed up, pulling at his leash. He knew better than me, having tangled with them in the past. Nothing like getting stung to teach you to avoid danger! I suppose that goes for a lot of things in life, doesn’t it? The trick is to learn what really is dangerous and what just seems so. (For a dog meeting a porcupine, definitely the first.)
For Many Moons 