New info on WWII

This one of two articles on a little known piece of information on WWII.  A fellow professor brought these articles to my attention.  This first reveals the hub of transportation in NY that the Nazis tried to take out.

Full Story at Sploid

This next story I found very scary.  Apparently Hitler sent men and 27 subs to the Texas Gulf Coast where they sank at least 50 of our ships, and Americans never knew, because the government didn't want them to know.  I'm off to learn more about this.  I love it when I learn something new.
Full story at Sploid

Current state of crazy here

Feeling a little melancholy

Click on the song title.  Enjoy.

Only Time

One of my latest projects

I've been absent a lot lately because I've been doing too much as usual.  It would have been nice to tackle one thing at a time, but timing is everything.  So the painters finished painting the house, but other than the outside framing, they didn't paint the porch.  They also didn't put up new screens.  So M and I put up new screens.  I will trim them out at the end of summer, it's just too hot and humid to be on a ladder doing manual labor.  That said, I did have a few days of decent weather, during which I sanded and painted the porch.  It didn't make sense to put all the furniture and do-dads back on, only to pull them back off to paint it.  

One of the issues I've had with the porch is keeping it clean of dust, pollen, and food (we eat out there quite a bit).  In particular, the rug we had under the table would catch everything in it's weave.  It was also impossible to slide chairs in and away from the table without snagging the rug.  It would be so much easier if there was just one surface and I could hose it down when needed.  So I decided to paint a rug on the porch.  Here are the steps:  

1.  Scrap and sand the floor to prep it for primer.

2.  Then I painted the whole floor white.  White is not a good color for a porch, you will see all the dirt, but any others color would be hot underfoot because we cut down the trees along the side of the house so now our porch gets lots of sun in morning and evening.  Also if you paint the floor, besides dirt, chairs will scrape the paint off.  I decided to polyurethane the floor when I was done to give it a hard finish that could be hosed off.  

3.  Next I had to measure and tape off the size rug that I wanted.  I had to decide whether the rug would be centered on the floor or centered with the screened wall.  I centered it on the floor.  

4.  I had to think about what would be painted white and what would be the yellowish green once I removed the tape.  

5.  Now for the paint.  I put on three coats.  The paint looks yellow in the sunlight and lime green at night.  

6.  Next I removed the tape and thought about what sort of pattern I wanted.  After much thought and research, I decided on the quickest route to completion, stencils.  

7.  I chose a simple border at each end and a larger center medallion.  The quickest way to find the center of a rectangle is string.

8.  I had to create the center medallion by combining three different stencils.

9.  I also painted a runner rug from the screen door to the front door with a smaller center medallion.

10.  Everything was going so well, just as planned . . . Yeah, that couldn't last.  I chose a clear polyurethane that was supposed to dry clear.

It didn't.  It looks like I dumped weak coffee water all over the floor.  The only way to fix that would be to sand the whole floor and start all over.  I don't have time for that.  M says it looks like I antiqued the floor and that it won't be so noticeable once all the furniture is on the porch.  Oh well, no time for regrets, have to move on to the next project.

Smith Island Cake

Happy birthday to me!

Slow process

Work continues on the house.  We've put new screens back up on the front porch.  We're waiting for estimates on the trim moulding for the porch.  We're also waiting on an estimate to take down another tree and grind a half dozen stumps.  Once we know how much we're in for with the tree guy, then we will know when we can afford to have another guy install new windows in the basement.  

In the mean time I've been looking at metal artwork to go on the front of the house on the second floor between the two windows.  We really like it when we have the wreath up there during the Christmas holiday season and decided we wanted something there the rest of the year as well.  After looking at hundreds of pieces and trying to agree on the same thing, we decided to put a compass rose up there.  Here's the one we plan to use.  It will be black and almost as large as the wreath.

I've also been looking at black window flower boxes for the side of the house because it's all blue with white trim and there are no shutters on that side.  While at a yard sale last Saturday I stumbled upon 3 tiny flower boxes that will fit perfectly on the tiny window on the side of the chimney, and it's twin on the other side of the house.  Here are the boxes I have so far.

Because I can't have any down time (I'm incapable of sitting still) I'm also cleaning out my son's room to make it habitable for family visiting next week.  I've picked 15 pounds of blueberries and frozen them, and now I'm in the process of painting rugs on the front porch.  I will do a separate post on that, here are pictures to give you an idea of what painted rugs look like.  

Before and After

C'est la finis!

Contemplation

This was tonight's sky when I took the dog out for an evening stroll.  I was in a contemplative mood.  I haven't had much time to reflect on, and process things lately, so thoughts have been stewing on the back burner of my mind, just on simmer, waiting for me to find time to process them.  Tonight was finally the night to figure out what to do.  It is my mother's 79th birthday today.  I have not spoken to her since March 22nd, the day my niece was born.  Everyone said I should be the bigger person and speak to her, after all, it's not like she's not going to change.  That reasoning didn't make sense to me.  

Nobody, at any level, in any place in my life, behaves the way my mother does.  I do not tolerate meanness, bullying, jealousy, manipulation, or lying in any of the people I associate with, yet because this woman is related to me, I'm supposed to allow her venom in my life and allow her to hurt people I care about.  I've been doing that for years, but when I went back to Ohio for the birth of my niece, I couldn't do it anymore.  

My sister asked me to run interference with our mother, keep her out of the delivery room as much as I could, because my sister had to focus on her very difficult pregnancy, and delivering a large baby at the age of 47.  It was the very least I could do for her.  The whole week I was there, waiting for the baby to arrive, my sister was very weak, tired, in pain.  I was seriously concerned the baby would kill her, but she was so determined to have this baby, and have a natural childbirth.  Since the baby wasn't coming and my sister was getting weaker, the doctor decided to induce.  We knew the day before that the doctor would induce labor at six o'clock the next morning.  

So the night before induction, my sister, K, who was the mommy-to-be, my mother, my sister, D, who flew in from Massachusetts, and myself, are sitting in K's livingroom talking about the impending birth.  My mother is getting all wiggly in her seat, you can see she's excited about something, she's smiling with this nasty grin on her face.  She says to K, "I can't wait to be in the delivery room to hear you scream.  You're finally going to know how it feels.  That baby is gonna rip you end to end."

I responded immediately, shocked, offended, protective of my sister.  I said, "what is wrong with you?  Who says stuff like that?  You're not going to hear her scream because you're not going to be in the delivery room.  Her husband will be there, not you.  And who tells a pregnant woman the night before she's induced that her baby will rip her end to end?  Women have large babies every day and do just fine.  What is wrong with you!"  My mother just sat there glaring at me.  I purposely repeated every word back to her when I said all that so she couldn't deny what she said, or twist things into something else.  She's an excellent manipulator of facts, people, and emotions.  

Of course there is a long history of abuse in our family, generations long.  I have made excuses for my mother for years, "she did the best she could, considering her horrible childhood."  That was always enough for me to ignore her meanness over the years.  Something was different this time.  I remember thinking.  I would never say something like that to my daughter.  Where are my mother's maternal instincts?  I thought to myself, I had a horrible childhood too, abusive, physically, mentally, and emotionally, and I don't behave like that.  Why does my mother behave this way?

I know my mother knows better.  She has had decades of seeing good parenting by her own children. She can control this behavior, and does when others are around.  I just couldn't accept it any longer.  If I could grow up in the hellish home she provided for us, and not abuse my own children, why couldn't she do the same?   My sister, K, says, she's too old to change, you know how she is.  Then I wonder, if we had all put our foot down years earlier and refused to accept this behavior, would she be different now?  

There was more that happened the next day.  My mother was itching for a fight.  She wanted to create a scene, drama, make herself out the victim.  Within minutes of my niece's birth, my mother verbally attacked me in the hospital corridor.  Yelling at me, trying to play a helpless, old woman, who's rude daughter was not showing her the respect she deserved, swearing at me.  

I tried to calm her down.  I tried to reason with her.  She would not be satisfied until there was a scene.  I wouldn't allow her to do that.  I wouldn't allow her to upset my sister at the moment when she should be happy.  So after realizing reasoning with my mother wasn't accomplishing anything, the only way I could diffuse the drama was to leave.  She yelled at me to "get the hell out of here."  I looked her in the eye and said, "Really?"  Then smiled, the most gentle smile I could, because I didn't want to be sarcastic, I didn't want to give her anything to complain about, I said, "have a nice day," and left the hospital.  

I didn't care if I ever saw her or spoke to her again.  The odd thing was, I wasn't mad at her, I wasn't even hurt.  I was just tired.  I was just done.  It was like there was nothing left in me to continue playing these games with her.  M and my friends all thought I was right to stand up to my mother, but they also worried that if she died, I would feel bad about not speaking to her again.  I assured them I wouldn't, but they convinced me to reach out to her.  So I sent her a birthday card, she never called to say she received it, like she normally would have done.  I also called her, she was home but didn't take my call, so I left a message wishing her a happy birthday.  I spoke to my sister, K, after that call, to let her know I reached out, I wasn't doing any more.  

K said our mother told her I was bullying her and that's why she hasn't been speaking to me.  Well if that's the story she wants to believe, let her.  So now that I've gotten all that off my mind, maybe I can find my way forward to more pleasant topics.  

Baby steps

So we began this project at the end of April.  Totally ripping off the entire roof and putting a new one back on took two days.  It was amazing.  The house shook like someone was ripping it apart, which they were, but, bam, it was done.  It looked great.  So we expected the same thing from the painters.  After 25 days, we still haven't gotten the first coat of color on the whole house.  Here's where the process began to take shape, when the tinted primer went up.  Everyone loved the blue, but it was so bright!  I wasn't sure that was the color we chose, but they assured us it was.

It was nice to see something besides the peeling or now scraped wood siding.  

Once they got more and more of the primer up, we could finally see the architectural details of the house that disappeared with the old pale yellow siding and white trim.

Here you can finally see the dramatic change taking place.  So eventually they got the primer up on everything except the attic dormer and the side of the house that needed repairs.

This is what needed to be fixed.  The previous owner remodeled the kitchen himself.  He pulled out the windows that were there so he would have more wall space for upper cabinets.  Then he stuck a smaller window in and filled the hole in with whatever wood he had on hand.  Then he planted trees in front of this mess so it couldn't be seen.  M said we should just plant trees like the previous owner did.  I said we were spending so much money to make this house look good, it would be silly not to do it right.  I offered up my summer pay to cover the repair costs because it meant so much to me to have it done right.  So we also had to wait weeks for this repair to get done.  Back in the day when this house was originally built, the width of the wood siding was wider than siding we use today.  So there was no wood siding available to repair it with.  We have no saw mills anywhere around where they could mill the correct width for us.  So our contractor had to search for siding in the right width.  The only thing he could find that would work was concrete siding.  He ordered it, then we had to wait for it to come in.

Here the carpenter begins ripping off the old siding.  Replacing wooden siding apparently is like repairing a wood floor.  You can't just cut out what you want and slap new pieces in because you will see the straight lines where you replaced the wood.  Instead you need to feather in the pieces so none of the seams are directly over each other.  Here's where everything gets more interesting.  The master carpenter who had to do this showed me the cut nails in the original siding.  He said, "did you know your house was about 100 years old?"  I told him my research showed that this was a mail order kit house that was sold from 1914-1938.  I assumed it was built late 20s or early 30s.  He said no, the nails were hand cut (whatever that means) and they stopped using those about 100 years ago, so he estimates our house was one of the earliest kits, around 1915.  Cool.

What we discovered next was not cool.  I went to to run errands when they started the demolition, by the time I got back, there were holes in our house and you could all our glasses sitting inside at the top of the window.

So apparently the former homeowner when he pulled out the old windows, he never framed in the new one, it wasn't even nailed in there, the siding was holding it in place, but wait, it gets better.  On the inside, where he had gaps around the window, he filled it in with concrete.  When they pulled the wood siding, the window sagged and the concrete crumbled.  So we had to pay extra for the carpenters to properly frame the window and put wood inside to cover the holes.  I will have to patch and skim coat them to cover the damage.  One more thing on my summer to-do list.

So the framing and repairs were done properly.

Tyvek liner and concrete siding went up next.

The painters finally returned, primed over the repaired spot, and FINALLY began putting the first coat of the colored paint up.  They did the front of the house and half of this side and then left for the holiday weekend.  Argh.  This has been the routine of the painters, they show up late morning and leave early afternoon, maybe two or three days a week.  The house might be finished by the Fall.  I am just so ready for this all to be done and for all the messes to be cleaned up.

So much change

So we moved into our house in February, 2005, and since that time, as you've all witnessed, we have done one home improvement project after another.  We've done the majority of the work ourselves, but other than painting our porch, the front of the house and plantings around the property, the outside has been sorely neglected.  We needed a new roof, new gutters, and the whole house needed to be scraped clean of it's peeling paint and get re-painted.  This was something we couldn't do ourselves and we certainly didn't have the fortune it would cost to get it done.  So everything waited, and decayed, and began looking more and more shabby. 

We thought we were going to take care of everything two years ago, but then decided to wait.  Well, this year it could no longer wait.  We knew the roof could probably last another couple of years, but the gutters had to be replaced because they were rusted out and leaking all over.  We began talking to people about doing the gutters, but then kept seeing more and more of the paint peeling off in big strips.  So then we started talking to people about whether to paint the house or wrap it in aluminum siding.  Everyone said the painting should be last, do the roof and gutters first, otherwise any paint job we did would get scratched up.  

So then we began getting estimates and sticker shock, prices had doubled in the two years since we first started looking at the costs of all these repairs.  Still, it had to be done, so we also began thinking about colors, and looking at other American Foursquares (which is the type of house we have) to see what choices other people made for their houses to get an idea of what we liked.  At first we were thinking of elegant taupe, with black shutters and white trim.  Then we though of yellow, black and white, but nearly every house for miles around was white, yellow, taupe, or gray.  How boring.  We would see the occasional blue or green house, we even have a purple house on our street, but none of them were to our taste.

Still, we had to come up with a color pallette because the work would have to be done soon.

The old girl was in desperate need of a new hat and dress.  We finally found a house in the neighborhood that we liked, it's blue with black shutters and white trim.  We asked the owners about their paint color, but they didn't keep a record of it.  So I began getting paint samples and bringing them to that house, but I could never match the color.  So we began getting paint samples and painting stripes on the side of our house, trying to find a blue we could love.

This is kind of the type of blue we decided we liked, but we couldn't find the right blue at our paint store, they were all too bright and circus-like.  Just when we were about to give up, I found a teal blue that looked awesome when we painted it on our house.

The color we picked is on the bottom of this picture.  It was interesting, people in our neighborhood were coming by as we painted different blue stripes on the house and weighing in on which blues they liked.  Ninety-nine percent of the neighbors liked the teal as well.  So now we had a paint color, now for all the work to begin.  First the roof had to be replaced.  The original roof was still on the house, covered in multiple layers of asphal shingles.  Everything had to be removed down to the rafters.

Above is a shot of the roof being removed.  Below is what the attic looked like from the inside.  I really wanted to add big dormers to the attic to get more headroom and light, but we just couldn't afford it.

The roof was ripped off and a completely new one put on in two days.  We went with a charcoal gray architectural style shingle for the roof.  

It's hard to see the ridges and texture on the roof, but trust me, it's a great improvement and looks so much better.  Here's a picture of another house that has them and you can see the detail better.

So once the roof was done, the weeks long process of scraping and re-caulking the house began.  It was a messy, tedious process and it made the house look like hell, but it had to be done.  We were chomping at the bit waiting for the actual painting to begin, but the painters were slow when they showed up, plus the weather kept turning to rain delaying matters further.  Also, can you see that window down there on the far right and bottom? There used to be two large double-hung windows there with a previous homeowner, but that homeowner removed them and never framed the new window properly.  Also to the right of that little window is a dark silver (metal) vent cover that is disconnected and walled over in the kitchen.  That needed to be removed and then re-side that part of the house.  M suggest we just plant trees in front of it to hide it like the previous owner did, um, no.  Next up, finally a little color with the primer, and the repairs.  You will not believe what happened with the repairs.