Construction Journal Entry Week of 3/28/21

3/29-4/2/21 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 5 days: Monday through Friday.

On the way I picked up our tax return and then preceded over the mountains. There was fresh new snow from Skykomish on, but the road was pretty clear. There was a considerable amount of slush on the road but mostly there were clear tracks for the tires. I arrived at about 12:30 and had no trouble parking even though there was about 3 inches of new snow. The temperature was fairly warm so there was no snow on the concrete stairs.

I brought my gear up in two trips, hoisted the flag, and had my lunch and nap. When I got up, I went down to the truck and carried the last of the 1x4s up to the front porch in two trips. That lumber is enough to finish the casing job including the bedroom closet. After that, I built a fire in the stove to take off the chill.

On Tuesday morning after practicing the piano, I installed the mirror closet doors. After lunch and a nap, I walked to the school bus turn around in order to send a message to Ellen, Dave, and Bill, with a picture of the newly installed closet doors. I spent the rest of the afternoon writing.

On Wednesday after practicing the piano, I leveled the closet doors so that they matched the door frame. Then I did some visualization and decided on what I wanted for header overhangs on the casings, and then I measured to determine the lengths of the 13 headers and closet legs.

Next, I cut all the headers and legs to length. Then I sanded all of them so they were ready for varnish.

After lunch and a nap, I applied the first coat of varnish to all the headers and the four legs.

In the evening, just as I was going to bed, John called, and we had a delightful two and a half hour conversation.

On Thursday after practicing the piano, I applied the second coat of varnish to all the headers and legs. After lunch and a nap, I went outside with a shovel and threw a bunch of snow up on the bank above Paul, the giant sequoia tree, I figured as long as that snow was going to melt it might as well water the tree. Then I walked over and dug out the little cedar tree, on the Sequoia trail. It was covered with about 10 inches of dense snow that probably wouldn't melt for another few weeks, so I gave the little guy a head start on this year's growing season.

When I got back to the cabin, I called Earl to see how he was doing, and he asked me if I could take him to his cabin again before the water gets too high. I told him that I could, and we agreed on next Tuesday.

Then I did a considerable amount of dusting. I replaced a bulb in the dining room light fixture, and the plan has been to dust that fixture each time a bulb is replaced. Once I was in the mood, I dusted a bunch of other surfaces in the loft.

On Friday after practicing the piano, I installed the front closet legs, headers, and baseboards in the bedroom. I took a picture of the result. I left for home at 12:45 very happy with the results of the week's work.



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