Its a lot of work owning a house

(Sunday) We’ve been spoiled for a long time.  And in fairness to the house a lot of what we’re doing is more in the nature of “moving in” than “home ownership”.  Still, its a lot of work owning a house.

I wrote earlier that we moved the mattress from the bus into the house and put it on a bedframe that I built.  When I built the frame the priority was getting a place to sleep so I didn’t bother building the headboard.  But I really dislike sleeping with nothing behind my head and we can’t just push the frame up against the wall because I extended the rails to support the headboard.  So the past couple of days I’ve been finishing up the headboard.  Its pretty well ready for paint now. 

While I was gone to the US Marilyn got the satellite TV working.  It sounds like she got a nitwit for an installer because he was here half a day but he did eventually get everything working.  “Everything” being two receivers – a PVR in the bedroom and a regular receiver in the living room.  We’ve never had more than one receiver anywhere, let alone one with a PVR.  So far the TV in the bedroom is the former side scan sonar TV from Gray Hawk sitting on top of a cardboard box but that will soon change.  I’ve got a custom bracket built & stained with one coat of varnish hanging in the shop.  It should be ready to hang on the wall tomorrow night.  Once that’s done we’ll move the widescreen TV from the bus into the bedroom.

I’m very much enjoying having a shop again.  Its not much of a shop mind you – its a pretty small space – but its more than I’ve had for a long time.  And I’ve got big plans for the garage but they will have to wait for warmer weather.  For the time being the garage is not much more than a shelter to park the car under.  I’m formulating a plan to extend one wall and raise the roof but that will definitely be a next summer plan.  Its starting to look too much like winter here which means it is time to make plans to get back to the boat. 

(Monday) The small object hanging to the right of the photo is now stuck to the wall in the bedroom with the TV hanging on the front of it.  I’ve definitely inherited my father’s predisposition to carpentry as opposed to cabinetry.  From 100 yards in the daylight and probably 10 feet in the dark my little TV box looks more or less fine.  Hidden behind the widescreen TV it will hardly be noticed and it is in fact a vast improvement over the cardboard box that formerly held the TV.  Everything is relative. 

The new headboard for the bed is also visible in the photo.  It will be painted which should cover many of my carpentry sins.  I found a margarine tub sized container of wood filler that has been really useful for covering up some of my “measure once, cut twice” situations.

This morning we had a brief moment of insanity where we thought we should go to the fall supper in Theodore.  Once I made a trip to the bus in –22 degree weather we quickly rethought our plans to travel an hour on icy roads just to have supper.  Instead we’re staying inside and watching war movies – its Remembrance Day after all.