We rented a random orbit sander from Home Depot on Sunday to sand the floors in the master bedroom. For the most part we just needed to take down the layer of sealer, but there were a few paint, animal, and water stains that needed a little extra attention.

To protect the rest of the house, we stretched a piece of plastic over the doorway and put a fan in the window to create a vacuum and hopefully encourage any dust to blow out the window. To protect ourselves, we wore hearing protection as well as dust masks.

Because we have never finished a floor before, we watched a few instructional videos online, including on from the manufacturer of the sander.

The next step is to try to lighten the water stains that we couldn't sand out and fill in a few cracks with some homemade putty. After we clean up a bit we can seal the wood and start putting down the 2-3 coats of polyurethane.

Rug Removal

The cat woke us up at 6:30 Sunday morning, so we got an early start on the last coat of paint. After the painting supplies were clean up...correction...while Andrew was cleaning up the painting supplies, I started ripping out the rug. After wrestling the rug into manageable sections, it was in the dumpster at our town's transfer station by 2:00.

From the picture it just looks like there's debris on the floor, but it's actually paint from a previous owner. We've also got a large water stain in the far corner to deal with. Other than that, the floor is in great shape and just needs some TLC from the random orbit sander we'll rent from Home Depot.

After work tonight, I pulled all of the staples out of the hardwood floor. Now we just have to remove the tack strips from the rug, move a couple pieces of furniture and we're ready to sand and Polyurethane!

Isabella

Click on the picture of Isabella to see the rest of the album.

Taking Care of Number One and Number Two

It all started when I insisted that we have our septic tank pumped. As it turns out we were overdue for a cleaning, but the bigger problem was our completely deteriorated baffle pipe. The baffle pipe is what prevents the solid wastes from getting out of the tank and clogging up your fields, while still allowing the liquid waste to trickle out into the fields, so that the proper level of liquid remains in the tank.

When our septic technician attempted to install a new baffle pipe, he discovered that the pipe that exists the tank and runs out to the fields was shatter. He was able to pull a section of this broken pipe out, and collected on it was what appeared to be a plastic wrapper, pieces of rubber tubing, as well as some of the other solid wastes you would expect to find in a septic tank. The scary part is that the baffle pipe has been disintegrated for many years, so we're fortunate that we haven't had field problems due to the solid wastes leaving the tank.

To put it in perspective, replacing the baffle pipe and a few feet of the exit pipe cost us about $40. If we hadn't discovered this issue until there was a major problem, then we'd be adding a couple of zeros to that total.

The septic technician talked us through how to find the broken pipe, what supplies to purchase, and how to retrofit the new to the old. After he left, we started digging, but it was not looking, so we called in for reinforcements.

Enter mini excavator...

To make sure that we did not break any more pipe than was already destroyed, Andrew hand dug the rest of way around the pipe.

Once we found where the undamaged pipe started again, Andrew cut off the split section of pipe.

After a few more minutes of prepping, Andrew attached the new section of pipe using a flexible coupler. This was the recommended method from the septic technician.

There's a gap in the photo time line at this point because the photographer, who is also the assistant septic repair girl, had to put her camera down and help glue the new baffle pipe together and then install it inside the tank.

So now we jump ahead to the completed repair and filling the big hole in our driveway.

The moral to this story is that you should have your septic tank pumped and inspected on a regular basis so that you can tackle any issues before they become major problems.

Replacement Windows

We were able to cross one more big project off of our list today: Replacement windows. I wish you could hear the difference between a poorly sealing window and a really well sealed window. We used to be able to hear the fan motor for our Radon system and the cars passing by, but not anymore. What a difference!

When these guys showed up, they wasted no time getting started. I had to run to get one last shot of the house "before", because as you can see the removal of the old windows had already started.

Our new windows!

The old three-panel kitchen window, "before".

One of the last pictures I took of the old windows. (Sniff)

There was a bit of a mess in the front yard while they two installers removed all of the previous windows. As you can see Andrew was the chief supervisor today.

The bay window went in very quickly. I will have to take more pictures of the final product later this week when the lighting is better.

As you can see we went for as minimal a projection as possible with the bay window as not to take too much away from the deck space.

Deck Update

A butterfly on the butterfly bush.

We were able to put some new furniture on the deck now that we're done staining.

Trouble wasted no time in testing the new lounge chair.

There's nothing like a sprig of catnip at the end of a long day.

A few more shots of the deck and furniture...

We're finally done staining!

Oma Visits New York

I had the pleasure of hosting my grandmother, who I call Oma, for two weeks at the end of June. After giving here a day or two to recover from traveling from Phoenix to NY, my mission was to make sure that I got as many cooking lessons out of her as possible, while in return showing her as much of the Hudson Valley as we could squeeze in. Conclusion: mission complete.

Relaxing on the deck and making friends with the cats.

Cooking 101
At this point we had already made a roast, and then somehow got to talking about blintzes and how to avoid making inferior pancakes (or crepes). There was also a German potato salad lesson, a one night potato pancake factory, and a brief demonstration on making Matzo-Ball-Soup-Minus-the-Matzo.

Olana State Historic Site, Hudson, NY

It's a bird! It's a plane! No none of those, but there are gold tiles on the roof.



After lunch at Aroi Thai Restaurant where we enjoyed pad thai and red curry, we grabbed some "sinful" (Oma's adjective of choice) desserts from Calico bakery in Rhinebeck, NY.

Mills Mansion in Staatsburgh, NY

One of the many mansions I own... yeah right!

The Home and Presidential Library of FDR, Hyde Park, NY

FDR's home.

The rose garden where FDR is buried.

The first Presidential LibraryFrom left to right: Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Oma

Sprout Creek Farm in Poughkeepsie, NY

Oma's purchase from the farm store.

Walkway Over The Hudson
We started on the Highland, NY side this time, because you don't have to walk as far in order to get out over the Hudson.

Your trip the Poughkeepsie area is not complete unless you've walked the bridge.