We have a really small kitchen, as most were/are in a 1928 home. My sweet wife wanted a kitchen Island, but we just didn’t have the room. I put on my thunkin’ cap and figured out that a butcher block in the center of the room would give us some additional counter space and prep area. A plan for a custom gift started forming in my narrow monkey brain. I got super stoked about it, designed it up, and went wood shopping.

‘My local hardwood dealer did not have the grade of maple that I wanted at a price that I was willing to pay, but that was a blessing in disguise. While still thinking and grumbling about just paying the steep price for the wood a week later, I found a company that sold semi-custom cutting board countertops and free standing blocks. Their second to the smallest one was exactly the dimension (24” X 18”) that I had planned to build for my wife and their cost, delivered to my dock at work, was about the same as just my material would be. That settled it. I bought the block and waited the 4 weeks for delivery.

I don’t feel one bit bad that I did not build the whole thing. I surprised my wife with it and she asked that I paint the legs red to match the kitchen walls. I bought a can of pre-mixed Holiday Red General Finish Milk Paint from Woodcraft (I REALLY like using Milk Paint!) and put two coats on the legs. After the paint fully cured, I put two coats of satin marine spar varnish on. The top was finished with 4 coats of tung oil, drying 24 hours in-between coats, and I will redcoat every couple of months.

The island looks GREAT in our kitchen and has given us both more space when making dinner. My wife is very happy with the addition and that is worth more than gold. The links the block company and my supplies are below:

Bailey Block: https://www.butcherblock.com/product/…

Holiday Red Milk Paint: https://www.woodcraft.com/products/ge…

Spar Varnish: https://www.amazon.com/MCCLOSKEY-6505…

Watco Tung Oil:

I am a little blown away bu this one. I do have a love of fountain pens, making stuff and upcycling, but this is next level: The PauperPen is a fountain pen that is made/folded in just over 10 minutes from a soda can using origami techniques. Blown.Away.

My only son and youngest child graduated from High-school with honors this week. I could not be more proud of him, his achievement, his success, and the man he is growing into.

Really sad. I have prayed in the nave of, attended masses, listened to the bells and organ, lit candles in the side chapels, attended a wedding , and cried in Notre Dame. I have taken my wife and my son there and have sent a books worth of postcards and letters form visits there. It is the heart of Paris for me. Below are some pictures I have taken in and of the church in the last 20 years. Just so sad. 

We got 5-6″ of snow at the house and roads are nasty. Snow Day! Working from home and staying off the roads. I don’t worry about me/us as we have a Jeep and a Subaru, both with AT tires and chains. I worry about the other drivers out there with little snow driving experience and their shield of invulnerability, also know as an SUV…

Lighting a fire, making coffee, logging into a web meeting, and will be spending at least 1/2 of my lunch hour in the hot tub.

Came home from regular work and started working in the attic and basement. Ran last bit of new wire, ran 5-65′ Cat5 cable runs for ethernet and our POE cameras. Cleaned up tools, hung electrical boxes in the basement, hauled trash bags down from attic, moved 15 boxes of subway tile, vacuumed basement, shot a little video, sent some email, ordered a new bathroom mirror, and plotted to take over the world with Pinky -like we do every night.

Ahem…

Ascends Soapbox:

I am having a crisis on conscience about vehicles of late: I REALLY want a new Subaru WRX to replace my 2008 blue beauty and I have been salivating over the coming 2019 Jeep Scrambler with a diesel engine FOR YEARS. I have loved all my Scoobys, but there have been some issues with the unavailability of the 5 door WRX and with the CVT transmission & 2.5-liter engine oil consumption recall issues, I am super gun-shy about buying a new Subaru. As for Trucks, I have always been a Nissan/Toyota guy because of a long run of really great vehicles, but that feeling has changed after my experience with my last truck and the dealer I bought it from.

Dad was a Ford man his whole life and mom had a green 1998 4X2 ranger step-side for 14-ish years that was an amazing little truck. That means something to me. I want to buy American owned/made vehicles at this point in my life and I have been looking really hard at Ford. The re-issue of the 2019 Ranger compact/mid-sized truck with a 3.2L, 31+ MPG, diesel looks really good! That coupled with the politics of Ford not taking direct bailout funds (money under AIFP) and Ford (along with Honda), recently urgeing the EPA to maintain the current requirements for the 2025 fuel emission standards, really has my attention.

I still am excited about the Toledo, Ohio-made Scrambler (since my ’86 CJ needs a playmate), but the Jeep brand is currently owned by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, an Italian/American-ish automobile company that is registered in the Netherlands with its headquarters in London, all for tax purposes. Chrysler also took a crap ton of bail out money, with $1.3 billion that was written off and will never be recovered. This is also a company that looked hard at selling the Jeep brand to a Chinese Automaker in 2017. Seriously, look it up…

With all that said and with months of discussion and deliberation, I am feeling pulled to both the Ford Ranger truck for our next vehicle purchase and the Fiesta ST (when it comes out in AWD) for my wife when her forester runs close to the end of its bumper to bumper warranty period.

…Dismounts Soapbox…

 

So, I got off work tonight and drove almost two hours in the rain and traffic to look at a lathe I am interested in – an 1890s F.H. Clement pattern lathe. 

The lathe was fine – wished that it would have had more of the original accessories, but it was serviceable. The sad part was not the machine, but where it sat: huge shop, full of machines, sawdust, 1/2 finished projects, jigs, parts, and junk.  A lifetime’s collection that is now being dolled out one bit at a time. Sad that this man’s children couldn’t or didn’t want to use a space that he spent so much time, money, effort, and love on. I pray the my shop and my tools don’t suffer the same fate. I don’t want strangers picking over the carcus of my shop, looking for a deal, hoping to score a few molding planes, low-balling my wife on my carving chisels or bench to save a few pennies.

When it gets to be that time, I hope that I have the forethought and ability to pass it all on intact to my children or grandchildren or even someone outside the family who will love and create in a way that my tools and machines deserve.

1. PayPal: Customer Service wasteland.  Just.Take.My.Money!
2. Easy Jet’s baggage policy
3. Running out of Milk for my coffee on Sunday when all the stores are closed in France
4. SFR:  my French cell company – sometime I have data, sometimes I don’t…
5. Still hate Facebook.  WAY too much Data mining!

This is what La Maison du Talley looked like in 1957.  It was bright and sunny, there was no Compton-grade chain link fence, hedges or trees.  You can see just the top of our now huge vine maple growing in the back yard. The neighbors’ homes looked neat, well cared for, and the houses share a cute little white picket fence.  Our cute little home is almost 83 years old and has changed little in that time – porch made into a mudroom, new windows, siding, some paint…  The original owners would have no issue at all in recognizing their home all these any years later.  God only knows how many children they raised in our 2-bedroom 1-bath Seattle box.  By today’s suburban standards it is a starter home that is meant for a young couple with perhaps their first child.  To be sold to the same as the infant grows into preteen or before the birth of their second bundle of joy. Our home was built in an era when an entire wardrobe would fit in a suitcase, a double bed was just right for two people to sleep in, and a middle class family had one car – maybe.  A time before mass consumerism and container ships made closet rooms, 5-car families, walls of shoes, man caves, and massive Barbie collections possible and attainable for a working family.

While I am grumpy with at least one of my neighbors, my current heating costs, the basement stairs, and some of responsibilities that accompany home ownership, I do have a genuine love for our house and yard.  What I love most about my house and all old houses are the stories that have been told, written, and lived under their roofs.  I love being a part of something greater than myself, adding to it lovingly, and having the knowledge that it will eventually pass on to another who will also add to the tale of a little old house.

We plan to live in our home for a very long time, raise some vegetables, have a couple of kids, live there, work there, relax in the yard, etc…  With that in mind we are planning a few upgrades and changes that won’t change the look and feel of the place at all – they will, in fact, enhance its appeal, sense of time and place, and functionality.

Current planned projects:
Rebuild of Basement Stairs
New heat pump installation
Garage/Mother-in-law build
Egress window in basement bedroom
Master suite in the attic
Rebuild of back stairs
Three fruit trees in the back
Half bath and kitchenette in the basement
Rewire of kitchen and main floor bathroom
Extension of front yard to sidewalk
Removal of chain-link and addition of wrought iron fence
New interior paint
Misc. cabinet and trim installation

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