One Project Down

Once again, I wish to thank Mrs. Blandings for posting the photo of her new stair runner. I shamelessly stole a photo of her beautiful home and used it as the inspiration for my sales pitch for our holiday project. Mrs. B you are my hero.



With the help of our buddy Chuck, who has made a career of saving me from myself, together we tackled the design and build of our copy cat version of wainscoting. If you ever are in need of a bit of holiday mirth, sit two adult men down and watch them design a house project.

I designed, Chuck revised, I redesigned. We fought like sisters. So certain was I that I had communicated my plan than I didn't look at the panels until late the night before installation. They were awful.

Chuck showed up in the morning, saw that I may have been sorta right, gathered up his material and left. He returned in several hours with truly astonishing great pieces.











When did you last use a protractor? I haven't since high school Geometry. In our discussions we had to figure out which angle to use when cutting the end caps at the top of the stairs. Chuck begins with the " I think its a...."



Stupidly, sometimes I've just got to be right. Not often, but occasionally the mood hits. So I pulled our trusty protractor out of the desk to suggest the angle may be... but I couldn't read the numbers. We both fell down the stairs in hysterics.



As you can see our house is small, the stairway and corridors are narrow and dark, but I think the paneling and white paint help make it seem brighter.










Most importantly, my bride likes the finished product, completed on time and under budget. Let the holidays begin.


Toad

Chuck

Sing like this. (In a slow dirgeful manner) Or hum if you must.
Nobody, knows the troubles I see...
Continue dirging, you know the rest of the words, forgetting not the chorus.

Mrs. T has been presented a fait accomplis, in the form of an early Christmas present announcement. My bride is soon to become the mother of...


I'm unsure of its species. Ferret, weasel? The mind rebels. Mrs. T suggests it's a dog, but that seems unlikely.

Whatever, her name is Charlie, like that yucky cologne. Chuck to you and me. She's upwards of 5 weeks old and soon to leave her mother and sibs, to be watched over by Mindy, until Mindy brings her home for the holidays.

I'm told I'll be allowed to take her out if its dark, cold or inclement, that is until Mrs. T housebreaks her. If the Farmers Almanac is correct I'll not be posting much this winter, as I'll be out of doors.

Toad

Monday's Project

Of the two people who make living at The Park possible, the most important is Chuck.

Long ago I came to an understanding about myself. I knew at the core of my being I could do a house project just well enough to say it was done, but poor enough that I would curse my handiwork every time I looked at it.

In my heart of hearts I knew I could work just a little bit harder and hire the craftsman who would do the job right, and in the end cost only a little bit more than if I did it, then hired someone to undo my mess and do it right. That's how we met Chuck.

Chuck is our Doer. For the past ten years, whenever we needed something done right, we have called Chuck. He generally shows up within a day or two of our calling, stays until the job is complete, and presents a bill that doesn't buckle our knees. Over the years he has become family, only like one of the successful family members everyone fawns over.

Today it was another crown molding project. The last room on our first floor without molding is this little powder room. Never heard of molding in a powder room? Most of our home has very wavy cement walls and ceilings which make the joins very uneven. Crown molding dresses it up quite well.

As Mrs. T says, he is our Chuck, you can't have him.

Toad