Old Roof

The corrugated tin patio roof got ripped off yesterday. Just the beams left. A new roof with insulation and some can lights goes in today.

Weekend Dog

Seven finds his light

Normal

So much of the house renovations have been just to make it normal. Get rid of the horrible homemade crap and put in regular door jambs and floors and windows and ...... gutters.
They came on saturday morn and ripped down the old leaking caulk smeared gutters and replaced them with gleaming seamless ones. Not much of a cosmetic change but now we can put away the boards and buckets when it rains.

Seven Split

The dog lounges outside with the compressor for new mini split duct system we installed for the bedroom. WL says it's even quieter than the one in the living room. We are now ready to face cold and heat. No more space heaters and a SEER of 20 to save some dough.

Gaffer63: Mini Split

Final

Been in the air jetting around but before I left, I got a coat of white gloss on the trim/ jamb. The exterior of the door is now done.... we just have to stain the inside now.

50 to get 35

Augustine was over today to do a bunch of jobs including removing the old gas/oil heater from the middle of the house. It took awhile but we managed to pull it out while his nephew cut pipes and pushed from below. We were thinking of keeping the hole as an alternate route out of the house, making a wine cellar or giving Seven his own entrance to the living room. Instead we opted for it to be framed out and to drywall patch the walls. WL's skills as a floor installer will be put to the test again.
The old boiler did not seem very efficient, it stated that for every 50,000 btu's put in, 35,000 came out.
PS.... It took all of 30 minutes before one of the local scrap metal guys drove by and picked up the junk for us. Great neighborhood.

New Door Day 2

Louie was back early this morning to finish off the door job. A lot of cosmetic work and the placement of the huge center door knob. It all looks great and is awaiting some modest caulking and painting.

New Door Day 1

Louis got here early and ripped apart the old door frame. Good riddance! The sill had a lot of water damage/ dry rot/ termite tunnels. The previous owners love of caulk was on display and Louis pulled out a great big chunks. We were glad to see it go. The old, dented metal door served as a fitting work table for the new safety yellow, mahogany door. A new jamb and sill installed, the door planed to size and a British style night latch lock added. Tomorrow, he attaches the center door pull and finishes up the esthetics.

Lion Yellow

Finished painting the new front door. We put the door pull in position and really liked it. Below are some of our British inspirations from Flickr.

Garden Standoff

Praying Mantis foreground..... Grasshopper background.


The Mystic Spires Salvia is the hot bed of activity these days. This morning a mantis and grasshopper poised themselves on opposite stalks. Since grasshoppers are largely herbivores, we thought the worst of the praying mantis. When we came back from breakfast, the mantis was still perched while there was no sign of the hopper. Hopefully he realized there were safer breakfasts' nearby.

Hummingbird Breakfast

I was out taking a few shots of the early morning rainbow when I spotted our hummingbird grabbing some breakfast from the Mystic Spires Salvia. I love his coloring of brown, orange and green. He's very territorial and sometimes dive bombs us when we're gardening.