Ryan McFarland

Maybe get a blister on your thumb

Originally uploaded by zieak

Two days of painting gave me a blister on my thumb. We still need to do the yellow dugouts tomorrow. This afternoon Earl helped me hang the last bit of art at the pool (after he helped paint).

Cena, Lynsey, Earl and I took second place at trivia tonight by one point. We got hats as prizes. Third place was a point behind us. It was a close ending but we were dead last for quite a while.

Caught red handed

Originally uploaded by zieak

I’ve been working my tail off. My hand is red from paint splattering off the roller while painting two of the ball field dugouts today. Earl helped. Yesterday I finished up installing metal roofing on two of the dugouts. I also cleaned up a full car load of scrap wood from around the new concessions building.

Monday (Memorial Day) I worked on things at the house. I painted the horseshoe pit covers, pressure washed and tidied our side porch, sanded and stained a stool, and did as much as possible out in the sun.

Sunday we had a BBQ. Ryan, Sarah, Mitch, Lynsey, Seth, Coconut, Josh, Katie, CJ, Will, and Earl were all over and played horseshoes, drank beer, grilled, and sat around a fire in the evening.

Saturday I had Earl help me finish putting railings on bleachers and start putting metal roofing on one dugout. Then I whipped up some new window displays for Lux and we went to a wedding that evening.

Friday Earl helped me work on bleacher assembly until I had to go to help one of the artists for the pool project hang her work over the bleachers. We had a quiet(ish) finger food Friday.

On Sunday afternoon we started painting the kitchen. We decided that the money i make writing for DIYlife can be used to make minor home improvements and that wouldn’t interfere with our debt elimination plans. We chose a very deep red and it took four coats to give us a satisfactory color. The first two coats looked quite pink. Here’s what the kitchen looked like in December of 2006 right after we put the new oven in.

And after painting four coats of red paint…

You might have noticed that we also have a range hood in over the oven and that the light is on. I’ve had it in place for months now but on Saturday took a few hours to get it wired. I wanted to just cut through the sheet rock behind the stove, drop wire from the hood through the wall and then run over to the nearest outlet. Unfortunately there was a stud on each side of where the hood wiring was. Also, behind the drywall was plywood. I love that there is plywood there improving the house’s structure and making hanging things easier but it makes cutting holes in the wall messy and difficult to patch. So i decided to tear off a piece of the siding on the other side of the wall. I ended up destroying a good part of the 4×8 sheet in the process of removing it. I also discovered that there once was a door where the stove is. The replacement siding piece cost $45. That means i need to do a few more posts on the Do It Yourself site. I still need to cut the piece and put it up but my saw and sawhorses are at Seth’s still. Once it warms enough to paint then we’ll paint it to match the house — well, paint it to match the slightly different color that i have been painting the house.

You also might see that there is no bread on the counter in the after picture. We decided to allocate a shelf of one cupboard for bread, muffins and bagels. we also changed the position of the microwave, toaster and toaster oven. We’ll see how we like that. we also decided to try and keep the top of the microwave, the windowsill, and the top of the fridge free of clutter.

Now we just need to stretch and frame the painting on the fridge that Seth gave Cena for her birthday and move some magnets to make even the front of our fridge free of clutter.

On Sunday i cut out some letters to stamp Lux Boutique t-shirts. I used most of my $50 Michaels gift card to buy 12 blank t-shirts of different colors while in Anchorage.  I used the t-shirt printing press method Kevin Dean and i worked on to make them and the enamel paint we tested.  Using the EVA foam is quite easy and very forgiving in making the letters.  You just need to keep in mind that everything will be backwards so it is important to make sure the smooth side will be taking the paint (although the texture might look cool for something).  The shirt definitely has some irregularity to it — both on the edges of the text and in the actual paint.  I really like the uniqueness.  No two will look the same.  I plan on hand painting the word “boutique” below.  All of the shirts are men’s styling though so i really need to get Zoom Bikes shirt designed.