Improvements for Baby

Now that the baby is crawling and getting into stuff, we've had to make a few improvements to our living situation. First things first... a baby gate to keep the baby away from the mess and tools in the entryway.

I also had to notch the door catch in the jam so the door would actually latch (it never has).

The next thing to do was put down some adhesive times where the baby crawls and plays. The kitchen has some disgusting areas. The two main problem areas are the floor in the doorway and the floor under the microwave.

Shelf Trim

I finally got the trim up around the built-in shelf. Looks pretty good. I made the cuts in the kitchen. I've got a few more nails I want to put in, but it's really fine the way it is. I used primed MDF (cheaper and easier to paint). The brother-in-law will probably give me a hard time about using the MDF since he had to prime and paint the Hemlock we used for the windows.

All that's left is to fill the holes and paint the frame. I'll probably do the nook window the same way. And maybe sooner than later.

When Baby's Away

My spouse and baby were in MT last weekend for a funeral. I didn't go. To fill my time I worked on the house and other various projects.

Thursday night I put the second coat of polyurethane on the shelf. On Friday night, I sanded the whole thing one more time and put the third and final coat on. I used Safecoat's Polyureseal which has a volatile organic compound (VOC) rating of 111. Pretty low. Plus it's water based. I'm pretty happy with the results.

One of the other things I did was burnish the walls that have the heaters in them so I could put on the heater covers. Since baby is crawling around and putting his hands in interesting places, this was a priority.

One more priority... fill the gap. With baby crawling, the transition between the new floor and the kitchen (old floor) is missing. It catches a bunch of rug fuzz and dust so baby gets really dirty when he gets near it (or in it). I cut a few extra pieces of flooring to size, counter sunk the screw holes, and screwed them in place. Not a great solution but a respectable interim measure.

Readers may remember that my brother was in town last October and helped me with some tree trimming. Well, those piles of branches have been just sitting. While baby was away, I moved the piles of branches so that my nice neighbor can help me get rid of them (he's got a big truck and has offered).

I also weed-whacked and mowed the lawn, but those pictures are boring so I didn't post them.

I got a lot done, but I missed my spouse and baby. They're back and we're all happy again.

Let There Be Cable!

Grandma D. is visiting so in order to give her a better room experience, we've jumped ahead and installed the cable (and phone) connection in the den. This allows us to move the modem, router, and network hard drive into the den. This also allows us to plug the printer back in (to the network drive).

The installation involved cutting a hole in the wall (in the correct spot), running the coax and phone cables from that location to their respective points outside the house, and then putting the respective cable ends on them.

Here are some photos.

We'll be moving the TV into the second bedroom today to increase its livability for our guest.