Sunday Ride With Friends

I don't usually ride on weekends, but the weatherman promised a nice day yesterday, and it was the first in quite awhile, so Ross and Orv and I went for a little 180 mile or so road ride.  Still lots of snow in the mountains, so we had to pick a low elevation route, and Orv led us on one of our favorite winter loops north of Woodland.  This route runs through farm and timberland in a little known area of Washington with small towns with names like Castle Rock, Vader, Boistfort, Winlock, Pe Ell, and Toledo.  Unlike the big cities everywhere, these small towns don't seem to change at all, at least in the time I have lived here. 

Here's a pic of Ross and Orv as we were taking a lunch break in Toledo:

Ross (left) and Orv

Both these guys ride Triumphs, but not the old kind like I have in my living room

I started riding with Ross on dirt bikes shortly after I moved to Washington in 1995, when I joined the Jones Creek Trailriders Association motorcycle club.  The JCTRA "adopted" a local riding area and did a lot of trail maintenance for the ORV trails that were on state land.  In our Western Washington semi rain-forest, trail maintenance is intensive.  During the summer months, stuff grows so fast that it constantly has to be trimmed back from the trail to provide clear line of sight and prevent "face slappers".  Then during the winter water damage and tree blow-down has to be dealt with.  I had come from a desert riding background, where we NEVER did trail maintenance.  Ross retired about the same time I moved up here and we started riding and working on trails during the week.  Carolyn was still working every other week down in California, so it was not unusual for Ross and I to ride one day of the week and work another day.  We started expanding on the trail maintenance theme and began to search for old logging skid roads that we could convert to trails to connect with existing trails and expand the system.  It was the golden era of my dirt bike riding.  We got to where we could ride 60 miles on prime trail without running over the same section in the same direction.  Between the riding and the working, it was also great exercise. 

 Then it all started to go downhill, mostly due to intensive logging of the forest.  The trees were mature and ready for harvest, so one by one our trails were obliterated or converted into modern 50 ft wide rock logging roads.  It got to the point a couple of years ago where we could hardly get 25 miles of riding in, and that would take some laps around the same loop plus some fire roads to get from one tail to another.  But nothing stays the same, and I was getting ready to move on to dual-sport riding and exploring larger areas.    

I remember the first time Orv rode with Ross and I.  Orv had strayed from riding dirt bikes and had got into snowmobiles for awhile, but was wanting to get back into dirt bikes.  He bought a bike just like I had and Ross brought him out to ride with us one day.  After unloading the bikes, the first trail we got on was my favorite trail.  It was an old logging railroad grade that was fairly steep uphill, but with sweeping curves and a fairly wide tread, plus some water bars to jump.......perfect stuff for this old desert rider.  I knew every inch of that trail and the best line to pick at any moment.  I took off in the lead with Orv right behind me........and he stayed right behind me.  It didn't take too many times of him riding with us before I realized I had probably been holding him up.  Then I learned he had been the Oregon state enduro champion, not once, but twice, and that explained it.  Orv could ride. 

Orv also retired and started working on trails and riding with Ross and I.  The rest of the JCTRA members started calling us the ORG's, for Old Retired Guys, and we were presented the following plaque for our service:

RR Final Day

We wrapped it up today.  Still lots to do, but I believe they can move in and finish the rest when they get other help or Patrick recovers.

Here are some more exterior pictures of the house:

Remember the spice cabinets we were planning on installing yesterday?

Well, here is how it looks after working on it for half the day:

This picture was actually taken at the end of the day, and if I look a little tired.........I was. 

Tracey looks happy with it.  They haven't decided whether to include the drawers or just some of them, but I installed them all just in case. 

We did a lot of other little detail clean up, like door stops, hanging mirrors, painting and installing the stair rail, and a major clean-up and tool gathering and packing. 

Here is Carolyn putting another coat on the stair rail:

She spent a major part of the day measuring and marking for the installation of mirrors in the three bathrooms, and getting it exactly right.  Then together we mounted them and they were perfect.  Here is a pretty proud Carolyn with one of the finished products:

Final Mop-UP

Tomorrow we head home.  Looks like we haven't been missing any good weather while we were gone as I think it has rained every day at home and promises to continue on after we get back. 

Carolyn has planned meals for the week at Patrick and Tracey's house and with Tracey's help we have had great dinners every day after work.  Today we celebrated the completion of our stay with a couple of bottles of wine.  We have really enjoyed our stay and feel we have got to know and like the family more than ever. 

RR day 6

I remember doing this; get up, eat breakfast, go to work, come home, eat dinner, go to bed.  It's called work and it's good to be reminded of it now and then.

Here is a view from the front of the new house.  It's really out in farm land (or maybe it's called ranch land in Idaho):

This is looking east, and you can just see some snowy mountains in the distance.  There are several ski areas in those mountains, which I was unaware existed.

I lucked out today and weaseled out of  the crown molding job.  The cabinets were apparently not designed to have crown molding, because the face frame extends slightly beyond the side of the cabinet.  This would cause a gap between the crown and the side of the cabinet and would also screw-up the angle of the miter.  You can see this gap in this picture:

The solution would be to add a shim piece under the molding that is the thickness of the face frame overhang, but we didn't have any material for the shim that would match the cabinet color.  This problem will have to be solved by somebody else after we leave.  Whew!

Carolyn and I were not idle, though.  She finished up sanding and painting the baseboards and painted the railing on the stairs to the master bedroom, and I helped hang some cabinets.  Since it was a weekend day, Patrick got a young helper out who had done a lot of the work previously on the house.  His name is Frisco.

Planning the new cabinet install

We screw it in

We also put up another shelving unit in the garage and I cleaned up and reorganized my shop in preparation for the crown molding job that never happened.



The big job tomorrow is mounting some spice cubbies alongside the micro wave.  This has some tricky aspects and we spent a lot of time figuring out how to do it, but Patrick came up with a plan and we will give a go. 

 Things are coming together and we think that after tomorrow they will be able to begin moving in. Don't tell that to Tracey, though, she is already moving in.

Oh, one more thing I did;  I reversed the lock on the "suicide door" so that you need a key to get OUT the door.  Everybody thought that was a good idea. 



Rocky Road Day 4

Patrick showed up yesterday to check our progress and to drop off some cabinets that are going to replace some that don't quite fit.  Here he is in his little cart that you usually see used by the silver hairs at the grocery store. 

 Today he came early and worked all day caulking and sanding base board.  Since the job required crawling around on the floor, it was a perfect job for the handicapped. 

I had a bit of floor duty myself.  Here I am installing a heater vent in the kitchen island:

Finishing up nailing a few more base board pieces:

Carolyn was doing paint touch up and helping Tracey decide what color blinds to buy and where to hang mirrors, etc.



PATRICK!  DON'T STICK YOUR HEAD IN THE OVEN, IT'S GOING TO BE ALL RIGHT.

Actually, we were leveling the stove. 

We made pretty good progress today and finished up a lot of little details.  We still have one major job to do and that is hanging those new cabinets and installing crown molding around the kitchen cabinets.  The crown molding has me worried as I have never done it with a chop saw and it's a tricky job.  

Rocky Road Day 3

It's going to be a short post tonight......I left my camera out at the work site so I don't have any pictures to post.  I'll get to them tomorrow. 

We pretty much finished up installing the baseboards today, but still have to spackle the corners and caulk the top seams.  It has been a slow process. In addition to working with some unfamiliar tools (chop saw, table saw and compressor), the baseboard system is about as difficult as it gets.  Because the boards are tall, we have to nail using the studs, but the walls are wavy and this leaves gaps between the baseboard and wall that has to be caulked.  With lower baseboards, you can nail into the bottom plate and  force the base against the wall wherever the wall bends.  Then there are the rounded corners, which, because of the wall irregularities, have gaps in the joints between the three pieces making up the corner.  These gaps have to be filled with spackle, sanded and then painted. Oh well, it keeps the old folks down on hands and knees in our most humble position.

Patrick has his own blog if you want to see his side of the story.  It's
http://patrickbaumgart.wordpress.com/

Rocky Road Day 2

Patrick is a good guy.  There are lots of people helping him and his family besides us.  We met some of them last night when we were moving stuff to the new house.  There was a Boy Scout troop of high-school aged boys using the help as service hours and they were great kids.  Payback, maybe, for the many hours of participation in Scouts that Patrick has committed to.  Their church has also helped out and even Patrick's sister in Montana is having a fund raiser in her small community.  You see, Patrick is self-employed as a  builder refurbishing houses and selling them.  Obviously, since 2008 this has not been a lucrative business and Patrick has had to drop his health insurance, so his medical expenses are an added burden on top of his loss of income.  Other family members are helping with the medical expenses. 

I've know Patrick for several years and worked on a small project with him before, so I know he is a  "tool guy", which makes him one of my kind.  But here's the real reason why I'm over in Idaho helping him out:  When I was starting out on my "Grand Tour" last September and my bike was quitting on me and it was looking like I might be stranded somewhere, Patrick said he would come and get me with his truck if I was anywhere within a thousand miles of his house.  That's the kind of guy he is.

Here is a view of the doorway he fell out of:

Long way down

And now for some gruesome shots of his feet in their current state after surgery:

Here is the  whole family:

from left: Bailey, Tracey, Braden, Patrick, Brayley

Today Carolyn and I got started installing baseboard.  We worked as a pretty good team with Carolyn finding and marking studs and me nailing and trimming where needed.  Patrick had already cut and painted most of the baseboard before he got hurt so that made it go a lot faster.  We had to nail it to studs rather than the wall bottom plate because it was 5.5 inches wide and needed to be nailed up high to get it to fit close to the wall.  I'm used to working with narrower base with a molded shape and the plain flat boards had the one advantage of not having a  top and a bottom.  On the other hand, the house had rounded corners on the walls, so going around a corner required two extra pieces of base.

The walls  were also not very true and square, so we are going to have to do some fill-in with Spackle.

Here's Carolyn marking studs (she missed the one right in front of her with the camera):

One room done

My makeshift workshop





Lending a hand on the Rocky Road

Carolyn's nephew Patrick, who lives near Boise Idaho, is traveling a rocky road.  He was in the  process of completely renovating a house that he and his family were going to move into when he fell from a second story doorway (deck not yet installed) and shattered both ankles and heels.  He is out of action for many weeks and unable to complete the new house and assist in the move into it.  Carolyn and I volunteered to drive over and help where we could. 

So Tuesday, Feb 14, I loaded a bunch of my tools into the van and we drove over to Idaho. 

Tools in the Van

When we got to Patrick's house we fond him in this condition:

We are staying at a local motel, and today we woke to these conditions:

Our first day working on the new house was spent getting groceries so Carolyn can make dinners for the family, and then we went out to the house and installed drawer pulls and cabinet door handles on all the cabinets throughout the house.  Carolyn measured and marked while I drilled and installed. 

Makes me kind of nervous working on somebody else's house, but we got perfect alignment of the door handles and drawer pulls



In the evening after dinner we helped take a load of household goods and furniture over to the new house and were back to the motel by 9:30 pm.