It’s been a slow couple of weeks.  We couldn’t go last weekend because of a birthday party on Saturday night.  We arrived this weekend on Friday night.  There was almost no traffic on 128.  We sailed through Woburn and Peabody where normally at 4:30pm there would have been huge traffic jams.

Michael finished installing the hardwood floor on the 2nd floor.  He also fixed parts of the wall that had sagged and cracked.  We can paint the walls again next weekend.  We also started to install shelves and coat rod in the entrance way closet.  We also went to the Building Center to find out how much for the framing materials for the 2nd floor.  It’s going to cost over $700 for the window and door framing and baseboards.  They will deliver for free which is good.  We’ll order that in the coming weeks.

I’m working from home for the next couple of weeks due to the coronavirus.  My company is considered essential since it’s makes medical equipment but I don’t have to be in the office to test.

The pics show the floor where it meets the roof and bedroom closet.

 

It’s Leap day.

We went out on Saturday morning.  We had too much going on Friday night to try and make it here.  I hate driving at night.

Michael continued working on the 2nd floor.  By the end of the he has 1/2 of his room done and figures another day and he’ll be done.

The first 2 pics show the finished floor and closet.  The 3rd pic is 3 drawings that were made showing the show the land is split up and the position of the house.  I framed those and will put them on the wall when he finishes the floor installation.  The 4th pic is a view of Ipswich Bay taken from the deck.  The kitchen has a better view but the screen is in the way.  If you look past the yellow house you can see the bay.

 

 

Another beautiful weekend in Gloucester.  Still not warm enough to open windows but soon.  Michael spent all of Saturday installing the hardwood floor.  The entire morning was spent adding about 4″ of flooring on the west side where the dormer meets the floor.   He had to use a combination of brad nails and glue to fit it in.  Now he’s working on his room.  Maybe another 3-4 days and it should be done.  Then he can order his bed.  He’s been sleeping on an Aero bed.  One of them developed a leak and he woke up one night flat on the floor.

In the mean team, I set about to install a TV in the kitchen.  Originally the peninsula was an island.  It wasn’t until we were laying out the cabinets that we realized an island would restrict the flow in the kitchen for multiple cooks.  So, we pushed it into it’s current position before we ordered the granite tops.  Also, at this time, I realized that the cable for the TV was in the corner near the deck.  Having a TV there meant I could see it from the kitchen.  After we had it there for a couple of days, we decided it would be better in the corner in front of the stairs.  Unfortunately, there was not cable there and Comcast wouldn’t run one, so I did.  Behind that wall is the return for the furnace.  A big 12-14″ diameter duct that comes up from the basement and into the hallway wall.  Well, a pipe that big doesn’t have a perfectly sized hole.  So, looking at it from the basement, I could see spacing open.  So, I routed a cable through the ceiling and up through the hole into the crawl space behind the TV.  Then we ran the cable under the door before we decided to cut a hole in the wall.  Around the same time, I had gotten a new computer and hooked it up to the wi-fi.  In my testing, I was getting around 30mb/sec download speed.  Not great even with a wi-fii extender.  So, I ordered a 50’s flat ethernet cable and ran it in the hallway directly to the router that sits next to the TV.  Download speed increased to over 300mb/sec.  I couldn’t keep that cable in place forever, so last Saturday we cut a hole in the wall under the stairs, installed a low voltage box and redirected the cable for the TV.  At the same time, we cut another hole in the closet in my room and ran a short ethernet cable from that box to the box behind the TV.  I then ran a smaller, flat ethernet cable in my closet to the hub in my room.  All nice and neat.

So, back to the kitchen.  With the TV under the stairs, I can’t see it while in the kitchen.  Originally I was going to mount one on hallway wall but I’m trying not to put unnecessary holes in the wall.  A wall mounted TV would need the bracket, a hole for power and the cable.  That closet is completely finished so that would make a big mess.  So, the next place was the peninsula.  The walls have insulation blown into them so running a cable up from the basement through the wall wouldn’t work.  It would mean boring a hole in the floor.  Again, another hole.  So, Michael kept suggesting wireless TV.  I did some research and there isn’t anything called wireless TV.  What there is is wireless HDMI, the connector that runs from the set top box to the TV.  So, I ordered am HDMI splitter from Amazon.  Then I looked at wireless HDMI and TV’s.  I’m reluctant to buy a TV from Amazon (which could be stolen from the house), so I looked up Best Buy.  They had the wireless HDMI and a 24″ TV.  So, I ordered it from them and picked it up that night on the way home.  Once everything was in Gloucester, I hooked up the splitter and the transmitter for the wireless HDMI and hooked them all together.  I unpacked the TV, put on the legs and hooked up the receiver the wireless HDMI and hooked everything up.  I powered up the TV and VIOLA!  a picture.  The remote for the cable box even works across the link so I can access the channel guide and DVR functions.  I ordered another Comcast remote from Amazon so I can keep it in the kitchen.  The attached pic shows the placement of the TV.  I’m going to order a taller stand for the TV so it doesn’t sit directly on the counter and will make it easier to see the TV with stuff on the island.  Technology, what a wonderful thing!

 

Back again after 2 weeks.  Last week just wasn’t possible.  Michael didn’t get into Boston until after 9pm.  I had a church meeting on Saturday that lasted 3 hours.  Then on Sunday we had our church’s annual meeting, so that left little time to go to Gloucester and do any work.

Instead this past weekend was President’s Day.  So, after another 3 hour church meeting on Saturday, I went back to Nashua to get Michael and load up the car.  We brought our 2 5-shelve storage units.  Incredibly heavy.  I tried to put one together but it required a rubber mallet that I didn’t have so it’ll wait until next weekend.

Michael continued with the flooring installation.  As you can see, he’s almost finished the upper living room.  The hallway is done as is a small part of his bedroom.  He went to church on Sunday, I stayed home.  I took a ride up through Rockport and then stopped at the Market Basket in Gloucester.  We’ll be going back on Friday night and staying until Sunday morning.

Michael has been in Taiwan for almost 3 weeks.  During that time, I spent 2 weekends in Gloucester.  During that time, I painted the frames of the window, closet and front door.  One weekend I painted most of the surface with semigloss paint.  Last weekend I painted a second coat of hi-gloss paint.  I had a movie playing on the TV in my room.  The only problem I ran into was the hi-gloss paint on the front door.  It sagged in a few places.  I think it might be related to the temperature of the door.  Since it’s really cold outside, the surface might not have been warm enough to hold the paint.  I’ll sand it the next time I’m there and then wait until spring before I touch up the paint on that door.  That means I’m not touching the door leading to the deck.  The same thing might happen and I don’t want that.

Last weekend I had to make 8 banana bread loaves.  It was communion Sunday and I didn’t want to have to go up 3 flights of stairs multiple times when I got to church.  So I made 1 trip and that was it.

Next weekend is President’s Day weekend.  Unfortunately, I have a church meeting on Saturday so we’ll go out after that.  There’s no Sunday school, so we can stay until Monday afternoon.

The pics show the entrance hall in progress.  I still need to finish the paint on the walls.  I don’t know why the painter stopped about 3′ from the floor.  At least we don’t have to try to paint a ceiling that’s 14′ high.

 

We set out for Gloucester on a Friday night from Westford, MA.  We were visiting a friend like we always do every week and thought we’d get a start on the weekend.  We checked the various websites for traffic and only noticed a little backup on 128 near the 93 interchange.  So, we got off on 93 at 129 in Wilmington and headed east.  129 connects to 128 a couple of miles after the 93/128 interchange.  It was a little slow but not too bad.  It was now dark and I hate driving in the dark.  We got to where 95 and 128 split and came to sudden halt.  For a couple of miles, we staggered along until we got past Peabody and then it opened up.  We got to the house around 6pm.

Michael continued to work upstairs, laying down the underlayment for the next day’s work.  We got up early and I think he started around 7am.  From outside, the nailgun sounds like a gun off in the distance.  We had planned to go to Market Basket for sandwiches for lunch.  In late morning, our friends M & R called and said they were going out for a drive and might stop by around lunchtime.  They arrived around 11:45 and we discussed what to do for lunch.  They had suggested we go with our original plan to go to MB for sandwiches.  I told them I had brought up Raclette for dinner and we could have that instead.  They had never had Raclette before.  Raclette is a soft Swiss pungent cheese that you shred.  We have a Raclette grill.  It has 6 square pans that slide under a heating element.  You put some cheese in the pan and put it under the heating element until it melts.  Then you pour the melted cheese over boiled potatoes.  It’s served with a cornichon (a small tart pickle).  I don’t like them so I used a sweeter gherkin.  You keep doing this until you’re satisfied.  When I first had it in Switzerland, you would order a plate of it, and then keep ordering plates until you were done, each plate had an incremental cost.  I think I bought this grill in Montreal decades ago.  It’s great for really cold night.  Next up is going to be fondue!

Michael took them out for a short drive through Lanesville and Hallibut Point.  The pics are of Lanesville Cove, about a mile from our place.

They left around 3pm and Michael continued with the floor installation.  As you can see, he’s gotten a lot more done.  About 1/2 of the upstairs living has been completed as have most of the hallway into his bedroom.  He leaves on Friday for 3 weeks in Taiwan so no work will be done on it until he comes home on Feb 7th.

First post of the new year and the new decade.

We came to Gloucester on Friday night, something we hadn’t done before.  Traffic wasn’t too bad but it could be because of the holidays.  I’ll see what it’s like in a couple of weeks when Michael goes back to Taiwan for a visit with his parents and brother.

He spent sometime on Friday evening and again on Saturday morning continuing to put down the hardwood floor.  As you can by the pics, he has almost 1/2 of the upstairs living are done and has started on the hallway.  We need to cut the bottoms of the door frame to make the installation look neater.  The saw, a Jamb Saw, is hard to find and expensive.  He needs to make about 6 cuts and that’s it.  I found a saw through Google and ordered it.  It was 93.99 with shipping.  What concerned me was after I had provided my credit card info to PayPay, I get a notice that it’s being sent to a person in a domain of .ru (Russia).  So I printed the confirmation and didn’t think any more of it.  Since I made the purchase on Saturday, I figured I’d get a confirmation on Monday (most would have sent it immediately).  When Monday arrived, nothing.  So I go to the website to contact customer service.  Turns out customer service is in China.  I called my bank and they said I could dispute the charge once it hits my account (which it did today and I disputed it).

We went out for lunch at The Causeway.  Yum!  Then we drove around Gloucester since the traffic was light.  We found the Building Center, the local equivalent to Home Depot or Lowes and looked for the saw, not there.

Anyway, in looking in the garage at home, we found a small saw, a Dremel, that might do the trick.  We’ll see this weekend.

We’ll be back again on Saturday morning.

I was lax last week.  We went out to Gloucester on Sunday after church.  Michael went to work on Monday but I had Mon-Wed off, so I just did little things during that time.  I finished painting my closet doors and put the hardware back on.  I unpacked the rest of the counter top appliances, the food processor, mixer and slow cooker.  Got all the pieces washed and dried and rearranged the cabinets to store everything out of sight.

Michael came back out on Tuesday afternoon but then we left around 5 to head to Lowell for the Christmas Eve service.  That started at 7pm and we finally got out to the car at 9pm.  Then we went to an open house some church friends were having.  We finally left for Gloucester at 10pm arriving there at 11pm (my bedtime is normally around 7pm).  So, the next day I was exhausted.  We stopped at a friends house for breakfast, then stopped to see another church member and finally got home at 1pm.

This week we left Nashua early and got to Gloucester at 8:30am.  Michael wanted to start the hardwood floor installation.  So, he spent the morning cleaning up the upstairs.  His former co-worker and family came out at 11:30 and we all went to lunch at the Seaport Grille.  I went back to the house while Michael took them on a tour of Gloucester and Rockport.  They missed a massive event at Good Harbor Beach.  It was the final plunge for Pete Frates who died 3 weeks ago.  The news said more than 1000 people attended.

When he got back, Michael started the floor again.  He had to bring up the saw, nailer and compressor and started the floor.  With all the noise, I watched TV with my headphones on.

Of the pictures posted: 1) a gift from our pastor from Bethlehem, 2 & 3) the living room with a rug we got from FaceBook Marketplace, 4) the underlayment and the beginnings of the floor installation, 5) the 37 boxes of flooring, 6 & 7) the floor installation as we left today.  Michael’s done about 60 sq feet so far, only about 640 sq ft to go.

We got to Gloucester by late morning.  We stopped at Costco in Danvers to do a return.  The Nashua store wouldn’t refund the sales tax on the item so we took it back to where we bought it.

While I continued to set up the new computer, Michael was busy in the kitchen grouting the newly installed backsplash.  By the time I went to bed, the grouting was finished.  After that, Michael put the range hood back up and set up the kitchen.  We moved the microwave oven from the island to the counter next to the stove.  On the island, it was difficult to use and you had to move things to get the door open.  The mixer and food processor will go on the island.

That was it for the weekend.  We left in the morning for church and then lunch with Gail and Debbie and a surprise, Tricia and Rich were there.  We had a good time.

More snow is expected on Monday night.  We have a snow blower for this house but the one in Nashua is broken so the new one stays there for now.  We have that can plow this driveway so I’m not worried. The snow we got a couple of weeks ago is all gone.

 

Another trip to Gloucester but it was late in the day.  We had a meeting at church for the day.  Michael and I got there at 7am to start the coffee and setup the tables and chairs. We set out the breakfast items and were supposed to leave by 9:30.  Because of other things, we didn’t get out of there until after 2pm.

We got to Gloucester and Michael continued with the kitchen backsplash.  While he worked the kitchen, I ran a new cable for the TV.  We want the TV in the corner under the stairway.  I ran my fish up through the floor where the furnace return vent is.  I could see the closet light so it was fairly simple.  I moved the TV stand to the new position and hooked up the new cable and viola’ it worked.  The chairs are now near the corner where the deck is.  I didn’t take pictures of it, maybe next week.