Month: September 2010

by

Angle Issues

Good news: the easy part of the trim is done. Well, it’s cut. I haven’t done any fastening yet since some of the walls aren’t perfectly smooth and I have a bit of chiseling to do where I didn’t get all of the old flooring. It looks fine, but I want to get a bit closer to perfect.

Bad news: I’m no closer to getting the hard part done than I was several months ago.

This is one of four cuts I need to make that are not at forty-five degrees. I’m at a loss as to how to make them.

It’s at times like these that I really miss my dad. While he only had a grade four education, he was a skilled carpenter and a whiz at math. Most importantly, he understood how my brain worked and could put math into terms that made sense to me. I’ve been reading up on using protractors and doing calculations, etc., but none of it makes sense. Dad would have presented the solution to me in a way that would have made me go AH HA!

What I think I will end up doing is making a paste that I will press against the wall and let dry, then use it as a model for cutting the trim. Whatever works…

by

Simple Solutions

One of the reasons I was procrastinating on the library trim is that I did not have the strength to deal with the corner that was damaged in the great leak of ’10.

I figured I’d have to remove the whole piece of paneling from that wall and then put new trim. Today, I decided that enough was enough and admitted to myself that I have no intention of rebuilding that whole wall. I looked at my scraps and found a solution. Not an ideal one, of course, but that corner is going to be hidden by my lounge chair, so it just needs to look polished.

The biggest challenge is that there are two exterior screws sticking out of the wall. The builders simply put a thicker piece of trim there and then screwed into that trim from the outside, then sealed the screws.

I decided to imitate that with what I had on hand by making holes into the back of a thick piece of wood so that I could get it to lie flush against the wall.

Thing is, the wall isn’t exactly plumb and square and I couldn’t get the board to fit perfectly. So, I had to pad it at the top with a bit of door trim. I faced the whole thing with shoe moulding and ta-dah:

While I was down there, I put in a threshold between the library flooring and the cab carpet:

As a side note, I keep moving the litter box around, but I think it’s going to live in the cab when I’m stopped.

by

Procrastination Burnout

In April, I hit renovation burnout. Five months later, tired of tripping over trim, paint cans, tools, and bits and bobs that’ll probably end up in the trash, but which I want to hang on to till the end of the renos, I’ve hit procrastination burnout.

So, this afternoon I went outside, got the handsaw and mitre box, and did this:

half of the library floor, in desperate need of trim

half of the library floor, in desperate need of trim

trim!

trim!

a handsaw's not a bad tool!

a handsaw’s not a bad tool!

I actually found it much easier to do the trim with the handsaw than I did with the mitre saw, and it did a much nicer job.

Now, I’m moving on to the other half of  the room!

by

Domestic Bliss

It’s amazing how long the days are when you don’t have to waste time at a job. Even after I’ve done as many billable hours as I can, worked some leads, and caught up on my bookkeeping, there’s still time to clean the rig, take walks, go swimming, and be silly with the cats. At the rate I’m going, I might actually finish the toilet room and get the dressing room done! I also have a library project I’m itching to get to, in addition to desperately needing new window coverings for the study.

The weather today wasn’t as nice as the last few; very windy and overcast, and it only went into the high teens (*cough, cough*), but still nice enough to throw open windows and roof hatches. I even had the front door open all day, something I didn’t do once this summer, and which delighted Neelix who loves to lie on the landing and stare through the screen door.

I just love being home; there’s no better place to be!

by

Matters of Income

Oh, I was born to be retired! 😀

It’s been such a lovely couple of days, what with the good weather and lack of schedule. I’m slowly catching up on things at home and have reorganized the study into a place where I might actually be able to be productive. One thing that amuses me is that after a year and a half on an evening and late-night schedule, I’ve been an early bird for over a week! I know it won’t last, these phases never do, but I’m feeling a tad turned around!

Income-wise, I’ve applied for a few contracts, was accepted as an article writer for suite101.com, and visited the Osoyoos employment office. The setup is exactly as it was two years ago in Oliver, advertising jobs that I can find online, in addition to picking positions that are not going to be worth my while. I’m fairly convinced that I’ll be wasting my time looking for a job at a physical location and am focusing on online contracts. I’m only committed to being here two to four months and will be taking a week off in November, so that makes me look even less desirable to potential employers. I will look for a cashier-type job when the holidays come around, if I’m still in Osoyoos then.

Also, this time around I don’t have RV park management expecting 60+ hours a week in exchange for a site (*cough, cough*) so I am expanding the search radius to Pentiction for professional-type jobs that would be worth the commuting time and expense.

One of the things I’ve learned about earning income on the road is that I’m better off having a bunch of small contracts than a single full-time job. This gives me more security in that if one contract falls through I still have some income and it allows me to pretty much set my own schedule. This latter part is especially important since it means that if I find a short-term lucrative project, I can take it on by shuffling my other commitments without worrying about the full-time job that’s eating up all my time.

There are still three weeks left before I hit desperate status, so I’m just going to chill, work my contacts, and enjoy pretending that I don’t have a care in the world. 😀