I've Got Cabin Fever - So Let's Paint Something

So about January over the past several years I really start to get cabin fever.  I don't have my garden to work in and while there are plenty of things to do around the house I just start missing the outside.  In fact I've spent more time than I should admit to - looking through garden seed catalogs plotting my layout or sketching the patio extension and built in grill that I want to build.   Clearly I need to start skiing again.

So about 3 weeks ago I was telling Christie I was ready to continue our painting project from last winter. Last year we painted our bedroom and family room.   Now I'm ready to continue that paint.   She suggested that before I get too excited about painting walls, we were going to need to do something about our light fixtures.   Spending money to replace light fixtures just wasn't going to happen.   I can be cheap but Christie can be a first class tight-wad.   It's really one of her endearing qualities.  Neither of us wanted to spend money on new lights.  So she showed a DIY blog post about painting brass light fixtures.   We had a couple of spares from when we built the house so we really didn't have anything to lose.

I setup a make shift paint both in the basement to try and keep things mostly contained.   So here is what we had.  Mostly brass domes (8) and one hanging light.   Once I got started I realized I was likely also doing the kitchen ceiling fan because you can't find light kits that support four - 60W bulbs anymore and we wanted the bright light in the kitchen.   Because I'm a total "right brain" man - I really don't care but I guess they were getting pretty dated - but they still worked.

So the magic in a can is this.   We did buy some sanding sponges and scuff them up pretty good to give the paint some bite but generally the paint worked great.

So the process wasn't without incident.  During all this we were also trying out some new light bulbs.  With the new LED bulbs we wanted to at least give them a try.   When we found a 40W replacement that was too bright for our hallway we thought we would put it over our kitchen sink, in the newly painted fixture.

The dome had glued/painted itself to the fixture.  The paint is dry in 60 minutes but needs several days to "cure" which I figured it could do just fine while mounted to the ceiling.   I had to 2 hand the dome and it broke while I removed it.   Most the glass fell into the dome.   So we had to buy a $15 fixture just for the glass.

So here are some of the shots of the tear down and prep for paint.   The hanging paint booth was a happy accident after a Costco trip (free box).   Worked well for the hanging arms and the chain pulls for the ceiling fan.

The ceiling fan had to come completely apart to spray the blade arms and protect the motor from getting paint in it.   It was only about 1,000 screws to paint as well.   There is still 2 little spots that need touch up after the re-install from the ceiling cover knocking into the hanging rod.  I plan to spray the leftover paint into a paper cup and dab the touch up with a tiny brush.

On the day I re-installed the ceiling fan I noticed the lower motor cover had this tiny edge that wasn't painted.  I had already re-glued the felt covering back in place.  You can see that in the picture below.  This edge was going to be showing.  Now it was only a couple paper thicknesses worth of brass that would be showing; so some quality control with a black sharpie and you can't even tell.

Here is how the ceiling fan came out once it was finished.   Pretty good for a $6 can of paint on a fixture we bought in 1998.   We are still searching for a great LED bulb for the fan.  The ones we have tried all have a dark spot on them that is pretty annoying if the bulb is visible.  Not a big deal in our other fixtures.

***If you want the PG-13 description of the bulb please call Christie.***

The other fixtures came out just as good too.   One thing I noticed is that our electrician from 1998 didn't bother to connect the ground from ANY of the lights.  I fixed that when I re-installed.  Probably doesn't matter much but it made me feel better.  Also the lazy electricians couldn't be bothered to install the locking nuts on the threaded tube that extends to down through the glass dome for the medallion that holds the glass up.   So over the years we have had a couple of them come unscrewed while trying to replace dead bulbs.   I had planned to buy some Locktite for the threads.  It wasn't until I pulled out the 2 unopened spares that I realized there were locking washers and just how lazy they had been.  So I bought a couple spare parts from Lowes and all are now locked in place and I'm happy about that.   

Here is the finished look of the lights now.   We are still thinking about replacing the hanging light with something else but for now this will work.   The glass was previously clear but Christie etched the inside to give it a look more like the other lights.

Now time to paint some walls!!  I've was also informed that the kitchen cabinets and door knobs are next.   Can't wait for spring.

Rough Totals.
4 cans of spray paint = $25 - your mileage will vary
2 sanding sponges = $4
Frog Tape = free, I already had it.  About $8/roll but worth the extra money.  So good.
2 spare parts kits = $4-ish
Glass dome replacement = $15
Glass etching liquid = $8
Locktite spray glue = $7 - this was for foil underlayments inside the lights and the felt covering in the fan

Christie come home..... the house is lonely without you!!!

So here I am .... home alone with the 3 crumb crunchers while the girls in the family are off doing heaven knows what.  So what is a tech savvy guy to do??  That's right, find totally random pictures of his wife and post them for no apparent real reason.  And maybe some other random thoughts too.

I tried to explain to her that when our refrigerator broke down the day before the girls' weekend that it was a sign to not go.  She didn't listen.  So I begged a little..... nothing.  I tried to bargain with her.....  nothing.  Aw crap, fine.   Thought about breaking the car, but that was too over the top for me.  So please come home soon.

More of her self portraits

Lately G-man finds his way into plenty of Mom shots

Especially watch out for Mama Bear

Nothing to say here.

Taming the Jackalope

Gman with his waxing poetic look.  Don't look too closely or his steely blues will suck you in

Growth spurts are tough

So far in 2011 we have really learned that growth spurts are tough.  With the oldest one using sore legs to try and get out of chores or cleaning her room or growing molars as an excuse to skip brushing her teeth to amazing amount of food that Big D can consume about every other day.  But our little G-Man is by far the funniest.  He works strictly from the "Play hard, Rest easy" way of life.  We have started to notice that we have a bunch of pictures of him falling asleep in strange places.  He also has an AWESOME snore that I think must be an inherited thing.  He has also mastered the ability to sneak into bed with his siblings.  He knows better than to try that with me, he'll end up on the floor.  So here is a collage of G-man and all the recent photos of him sleeping or literally losing it while doing something else.  Enjoy!

This is about a year ago because he still has the high chair but this is typical of his sleep eating routine

What was funny about the car sleeping was he went from talking to us to full snoring in like 60 seconds.  Classic.

One afternoon I went in the back yard to gather G-man and pick up his toys.  I sent him inside to get in the bathtub.  A few minutes later when I can in this is where he was about 5 feet from the back door.

When you can't make it from the bathtub to your bedroom for some PJs you are a REALLY tired little boy.

One night he was missing from his bed..... we found him in Meg's bed.  He likes to get against the wall so they don't push him out.

Now D & G share a room but this is still funny how Big D slid over so G Man could climb on board.

I'm not totally immune.   In my defense he was snuggling with me when he fell asleep and then I was done in.

More sleep eating

Holding what is left of his hamburger.......  to tired to put it down.

Top of the stairs..... almost like he was headed for his bed and just couldn't quite make it that far.

Play Hard - Rest Easy

2011 Garden Success

So 2011 has been a weird year for our garden.  The overly wet spring really slowed down the start of getting some plants like tomatoes to get going.  However we have had lots of green and yellow zucchini, a surprising number of green peppers and our corn loved the wet spring.  How wet you ask???  Well......  one morning after an all night rain storm I went outside to this.

 

Let's just say the tomatoes didn't think that was very nice and I was worried my corn seeds would float away.

Meg had 2 cabbage plants from school that she wanted to grow and we decided we would try to grow a HUGE one for the County Fair.   We actually let them both get huge and we picked one a few days before the fair after deciding which one to take to the fair.  Here is Meg with the one that didn't go to the fair.

 

So how big was the Fair worthy cabbage.  Look and see.

For the Fair you have to leave the outer leaves on.

Filled up a whole laundry basket

Christie got permission to take it into Winegars to weigh it before they took it to the Fair.  Just over 12LBS!!!

Meg's cabbage took 2nd place.  The winner was only a few ounces bigger than Meg's

Davis took a couple of Ichiban Eggplants to the Fair and won first prize.  Not bad considering someone else did most the work..... wonder who that was......... hmmmmmm.

BTW - Christie's quilt also won 2nd place.  Not bad for 5 years of quilt school.   ;)

 Now for the fun stuff.  Once our tomatoes finally got going we began to scramble to get a GREAT salsa recipe.  After bottling tomatoes for days and days last year we wanted something more "ready to eat" and since our salsa supply from the church wet pack was about gone we wanted to try our hand at this.  Earlier in the year one of our neighbors had shared some of his homemade salsa during a Fathers and Sons campout.  We decided to give it a go since it was really delicious.  We needed 26lbs of tomatoes (roma's) and we were able to get just over 30lbs picked.  Then cutting everything up took a couple hours and then 3 hours of simmering on the CampChef. 

We are hoping for at least one more round of salsa before the freeze starts.  2 if we are really lucky.  So delicious we want to horde it.

Those who show up at our house with a bag of chips will possibly be rewarded with home made salsa.

 We have since found some pretty cheap stainless steel pots for processing the next batch in.  If anyone has some excess tomatoes (preferably Romas) we will gladly make them into salsa and share with you.   The true test of the salsa will be in about a month once all the peppers have fully developed in the jars.  Then we will know how hot it will be.  This has been so much fun that we are thinking of getting one of the city's free food plots for next year to grow more Peppers, Jalapenos, Seranos and more Roma's. 

PS.  Recipe available after you show up with that bag of chips!!!  Scoops preferred!