June 11th - 14th, 2023 - Finished the Chest - Working on the Dollhouse Remodel for the Granddaughters

Last fall Kelly bought our friend Stephanie's old cedar chest for me "fix up". We decided I would remake it into a chest for grandson, Freedom, who is turning two years old on Friday. I made a chest for his brother, Kellen, years ago when he was two years old. Here are pictures of the chest upon arrival.

As you can see the top had lots of stains and abuse over the years and most of the finish was worn off. 

There were several boards on the front and back which had cracked and needed to be aligned and glued. After straightening and gluing the cracked boards I sanded all the finish off the entire chest. 

Cedar is not a nicely grained nor colored wood. It is used for cedar chests because the smell of the cedar wards off moths. Cedar is often used to make bulky, cabin-type furniture with a clear finish on it. For this remodel I decided to stain the cedar as dark as I could and add lightly stained white oak trim pieces. Since this will be a boy's toy chest, or treasure box, I took off the two small hinges and replaced them with a piano hinge. Since Free is small and will be in and out of the box, I bought special torsion rods that hold the lid up in various positions. I had a little plaque made to hide the hole where the lock had been. I also made square legs to replace the "mid-century modern" tapered round legs. Here are the "after" pictures. It came out nice. Now I have to get it to California!

Next project - Doll House repairs:

Daughter Alexa bought a homemade dollhouse at a yard sale last year for the granddaughters, Violet and Wren, ages six and three. She brought it to our house for me to make some repairs and for family members to work on making room decorations for it. It is 1" equals 12" scale so it is pretty good size. The first things I saw that needed repairing was the front door and the missing roof shingles. 

THE FRONT DOOR:

The front door apparently came off at some point and the hinges were then nailed and glued on with Guerilla Glue. Unfortunately, the nails went into the trim rather than into the wall itself so they came through and split the molding. Here is what it looked like. In the first picture you can see the nails sticking out and the glue slopped all over.

Here is another picture of the glue slopped on the inside of the door frame. The door itself is in rough condition as well.

I carefully pried the door off in order to make repairs. Big chunks of wood in the door trim are missing due to the nails splitting the wood.

The door needs to be screwed on rather than nailed on to be able to withstand the abuse by young girls pulling it open and closed. Also, there is no way to use a hammer in the three-inch-wide doorway to properly nail the hinges back on where they need to be in the framework. I looked all over town for small screws that would let the hinges close properly. I couldn't find any small enough. I bought the smallest ones I could find and used my small Worx power screwdriver to mount the hinges, in the correct place on the frame and on the door. I then removed all the screws and ground their heads down so that the hinges could close properly. I had to be careful not to grind the heads too much or there would not be enough head to allow me to reinstall them. This operation was a success. I removed the door and made some adjustments to it so it would fit properly in the opening. I still have to decide how to keep the door "latched".  I used wood putty to fix the broken-out spots of trim caused by the use of nails for the hinges. The framework is ready to paint.

The door had a "entry door" design marked on it with a Magic Marker. Alexa didn't like that. You can't paint over Magic Marker, it will bleed through.

I sanded all the marks off and then used the woodburning kit, which I got from daughter Erin for my birthday, to burn in the pattern that is on the front door of our house. I learned quickly that it is really hard to burn a straight line due to the grain of the wood. It will do. I think we should paint the door yellow for a little flair. Alexa will make that decision.

ROOF SHINGLE REPAIRS:

The other repair I noticed right away was a number of shake shingles missing.

I got online and found that these shingles are sold in strips to roof an entire doll house. The cheapest ones I found were $40.00 for a whole bag of shingle strips. Since I just need some replacement pieces, I decided to make my own by chiseling off pieces of wood and cutting them to fit where needed. I think they worked out pretty well.

The roof hinges up in the back to access the attic. Because of use over the years the entire lowest level of shingles were loose. I replaced all the broken ones and then glued all the loose ones in place.

 

I painted the new shingles flat black to blend in with the rest of the roof, which will get re-stained soon.

The granddaughters will be here visiting from California in July so they can play with the dollhouse then. Their mom ordered some appropriately sized dolls to be shipped here that can inhabit the dollhouse and hopefully provide hours of entertainment. This too will have to find its way to California at some point like the chest.

June 1st - June 2nd, 2023 - We Bought a Truck

On the internet the other day Kelly found a 2006 Toyota Tundra in St. Louis at Volvo of West County. It appeared to be a nice truck in the year and price range we have been looking. We went up yesterday and after driving it and dickering a little, we bought it. It is the nicest seventeen-year-old truck I have ever seen. It spent most of its life in California so there is no rust. Even though it is only two-wheel drive, Kelly needs the running boards to get in.  I must admit I like them as well. It has a DYI spray in bedliner, which is fine.

The interior is every bit as nice as the exterior.

It has all the bells and whistles I want. It has an older aftermarket Pioneer Stereo system. I say it is older because it has a CD player in it. This radio changes colors and it is quite complicated to operate. It does work with the steering wheel controls, which is nice. I downloaded the Owner's Manual and it is 88 pages long. 

I can't find anything that doesn't work on the truck except I can't get the garage door openers to communicate with the truck remotes. I emailed the company about the issue. Hopefully they will have a fix.

While the interior was spotless the running board runners were faded and in need of attention. I worked on them today. This is a before picture:

I used a product that I bought many years ago and had a partial bottle left in my automotive cleaning products box. I can't remember the last time I used this stuff, or even on what vehicle. It brings black rubber and plastic parts back to its original dark color. I don't know how long the running board runners will hold up but they look good today. This is the "after" picture.

Now I'm in business to hook up the trailer, load up the riding mower, and head to the lake to cut the grass. With the lack of rain around here I don't think I will have to be in a hurry to get out there. Instead I need to study the 88-page stereo Owner's Manual!

 

May 29th - June 1st, 2023 - Fishing, Winery Visit, and Truck Hunting

We haven't gone fishing for a long time. John told me the fish were biting on worms in his pond so on Sunday, after I cut the grass, we went out and tried our luck. At Walmart I bought good Canadian night crawlers. We weren't fishing long when they started to bite. After Kelly landed her first Bluegill, she caught a logger head turtle which bit on her bait just laying off the side of the dock. Its head was as big as my fist. I had nothing to kill it with, so I just cut the line. Unfortunately, I neglected to take a picture. We ended up catching fourteen nice size Bluegill. A couple were the largest I had ever seen. Here is one.

A nice mess of fish in a little over two hours. I wish I would have brought my wire fishing basket because I had to put two to three fish on each hook on the stringer. 

Once home I had the job of cleaning the fish. I don't mind cleaning them as much as descaling them. The little buggers are hard to hold on to. While I was doing that Kelly was busy finding a good recipe for coating them to be pan fried. The recipe she found was great. Here are some cooked for supper.

 I mostly ate with my fingers, picking the meat off the many bones. While Bluegill have a lot of bones to contend with, they are the best tasting fish to me. I ate four and Kelly ate one. LOL  

Monday I was notified of a possible fraudulent charge on my Chase credit card. I didn't recognize the item so they cancelled the card and will be sending me a new one. Sunday, before going fishing, I bought worms at Walmart using my Discover card. Tuesday morning I got a message from Discover saying they were sorry my card was "lost or stolen" and they will be issuing a new one. What? I immediately looked in my wallet and there was no Discover card. Apparently on Sunday I had left my card in the self-checkout machine at Walmart. Walmart found the card and contacted the police. The police officer recognized my name and called Discover to report the card lost to stop any use by anyone else. He then brought the card to the house. Very nice of him to look after me like that. I guess I'm getting old and careless. That is the first time I ever left a credit card somewhere. Also on Tuesday I received a message from American Family Insurance that my insurance bill was not paid with the Discover card autopay. They couldn't find the account because it is closed. I went by the office and gave them a check for the insurance premium. I have several recurring items I have charged to the Discover card so I will have to change all of those when I get a new card. Stupid me!

Yesterday, Kelly, Mary, and I went to Charleville Winery in Ste. Genevieve for lunch and to check it out because it is under new management. Their new building is first class all the way and the view of the countryside is beautiful. The building had to cost at least two million dollars. The only visible help was the bartender. You order food by taking a picture of the QR Code on the table, perusing the menu, entering your food order, and entering your credit card information. We didn't have a credit card so Mary paid. (She was going to pay anyway because we drove.) The place has lots of craft beers and Kelly went up to the bar to order one. The bartender told her that the cash register at the bar was not synced with the QR Code on the tables so drinks could not be added to the food tab. She would have to give him a credit card to get a beer. Crazy. As explained above, she didn't have a credit card. She didn't want Mary to pay for her beer, so she just got a glass of water. In my opinion this bar computer and table computers "not being synced" needs to be corrected. Who would want to run two tabs - one for drinks, and one for food. I must say that the food was excellent and the portions were generous. Interestingly, upon paying the bill I noted a 2.6% charge for using a credit card and it popped up automatically for a 20% tip. I thought 20% was a lot since you ordered your own food and once the food was delivered to the table the "wait staff" disappeared never to be seen again. It is a nice place but I don't think we will go back.

We are still hunting for a decent, older truck. We have been to Florissant, Barnhart, Fruitland, Jackson, Perryville, and Cape Girardeau, Missouri, in our search. We have seen and driven lots of trucks. Most are in pretty rough condition and most have 200,000+ miles on them. We saw several fairly nice-looking trucks but each had mechanical issues I don't want to deal with. We are going to St. Louis this afternoon to look at a Toyota advertised at a Volvo dealer. It's a good thing I'm not desperate to get a truck. I hate shopping for vehicles. I hate shopping for vehicles. Did I say "I hate shopping for vehicles"?