Fantastisch

Rockin' Robin, I mean Katie!

Nesting Behaviors of Birds

Nest building requires demanding activity of birds, as well it should be. Nest provide birds with support and insulation, concealment from predators, and shelter from rain. What could be more important?

Birds use as many materials to construct their nests as they find available in their environments. Birds commonly use twigs and grasses are common, with mud used to cement them. Some swallow nests use mud solely for nest building, but not us...  we used oak flooring, double-paned windows, a wool rug, about 2 months, and 5 coats of paint!

Aside from a few minor details, we finally finished the nursery tonight - thanks again Pat for your help!  I ended up with 5 coats of paint over the primer to get the color just right.  I tried a new technique where you roll the paint on, and brush finish.  The roller deposits a very even coat, but the brush finish looks so much nicer than the dabbled texture of a roller.  Plus, applying paint that way goes much quicker than strictly brush painting.  Sorry there's not any photos of the process in between - I've been extremely busy, and there wasn't much exciting to see.

Our friends and family have all been extremely generous with gifts for Tommy - thank you!!!  My friends at work even threw a shower dowtown at my new favorite pub the Beer Hive.

Mario is patiently waiting for Tommy's arrival.  Now all we need is a crib and dresser...

Will it fit?

Pat came over last night and tonight to help me install the nursery wainscotting.  I was really stressed-out that it wouldn't go together correctly - there's a LOT of work invested in this so far...

So far, so good!  Every piece requires a little fanagaling, but it seems to be going okay.  The doors will all need to be painted, and there's a top-rail to install yet when everything else is in.

I believe I'll have the wainscotting installed completely this weekend, holes patched and painted, and a couple shelves cut for a small closet...  I may apply a 4th coat of paint by brush, but we'll see.  We should be able to clean up and get ready for Tommy in the next week or two - I hope he doesn't come early!

Partaay!

Katie's Uncle and Aunt, Gary and Laurie Scheer, are on furlow from Rwanda Africa and visited last weekend.  Gary, Pat, and Brandon helped me finish the 2nd and 3rd coats of paint on the nursery trim - thanks guys!!!!

After we finished painting, we had a little party in the backyard.  It was great fun, and nice to see Gary and Laurie again.  They're full time missionaries in Rwanda Africa through World Venture - mainly engaged in the mentoring and training of local lay-pastors.  We visited them for a month in 2006 - I'll post some pictures sometime.  Let me know if' you're looking for a worthwhile Christian ministry to support - I'd love to share more information with you about Rwanda and Argentina.

Grandpa Pat "PaPa!" is Patrick's favorite play-buddy.

A Little Break?

It rained in Utah most of last week, and since I need about 1/2 an acre to jockey all my trim pieces around for painting, I had to prioritize another project until fair weather returned.  I don't have many pictures, but my Brother/Sister-in-law have acquired a "new" 1989 Oldsmobile 88 from a great guy in our church.  The car belonged to his recently-deceased wife, and they were the original owners.  The car needed some basic maintenance - new belts, hoses, plugs, wires, etc.  It took almost 3 evenings, but we got everything buttoned up tight before last weekend.

Brandon was a big help, and great company.

I was really impressed with how well the car was built, and with most of the parts.  The electrical connections weren't brittle, and the wiring still plyable.  There's no valve-train noise, and the car runs really well.  Of course, that probably has a lot to do with Fred's careful maintenance and upkeep of the car.  I'll have to post a picture of the happy couple with their new "steed" soon.  Of course, we're expecting to get a call any day now - Wiz is about ready to have Henry, their second child!

Gigantic jig-saw puzzle

There are currently 146 pieces of finish trim in my garage, waiting to be installed in the nursery: 13 pieces of baseboard, 47 rails (for wall panels), 48 wall panels, 13 pieces of top rail (to cap the panels), 15 pieces of door casing (for 5 closet, storage, and hall doors), 10 pieces of window casing (5 pieces per 2 windows). 

Every piece is cut and marked so I know where to install later.  I use a little plane to chamfer all the corners.

I had Home Depot tint the primer.  The guy tinted it with 25% of the same pigment as the paint color, which made it "man-cave" pink...  I'm guessing all my neighbors are thoroughly confused as to whether we're having a boy or girl now.  As it turns out the pink primer was way too light and shows through the first coat of paint quite well.  I should have had him tint the primer dark-grey...

Yes, Pat came over to help, but I was unsuccessful at ambushing him with the camera this time.

Pat and Brandon came over yesterday evening to help me put the first coat of paint on.  It's going to be much darker than what you see here, after 3 coats, ugh.  Even with their help it takes about 2 hours to paint all the pieces.

I know the most cultured among my readers are impressed with all my saw-horses.  Regrettably, I only own 7, and am borrowing 4 more from my neighbor.

Happy Mother's Day...

I used to work every single holiday major and minor.  Since moving into sales, I am required to work one holiday, and this year I worked Mother's Day brunch at my hotel.  We served over 2100 people in about 4 hours - it was fun for about 30 minutes.  The other 3.5 hours were filled with screaming kids, fighting siblings (young and old), crazy relatives, dirty plates of half-eaten food, and generally more people than I care to be around anymore.  While there are aspects I miss, I'm sure glad I don't work in operations anymore.

Sorry I couldn't be with you yesterday Mom and Mom-in-law - I sure love you both! 

Let's make some sawdust - installment #20

Besides getting clothes ready, my wife and mom suggested I finish the nursery before Tommy arrives.  I spent the week measuring and planning a material and cut-list for the nursery wainscotting.  I employed a spreadsheet to help with calculations - you want the stiles to end perfectly at all the corners.  There are 11 wall segments in his room.  The photo below is not our home, but is approximately what his room will look like.

The stiles started as 6 - 17 foot lengths of 1X6 MDF, which required 24 cross-cuts for the first step.

After 24 rip-cuts, I ended up with 48 blanks for the stiles.

96 cuts with my stacked-dado cutter to make the vertical rabbets.

96 more passes through the dado finished the tenons in the stiles.

I stopped to empty the dust-collector and filled this bin twice.  MDF is nice to work with, and cheap, but it makes crummy sawdust - really fine powder as compared to shavings from real wood.

I begged Pat to come over help me with the base and top rails.

The bases are 17 foot lengths of 1X8 MDF, and the top rails are 1X4's.  With care, and Pat's help they all received their own rabbets.

Hopefully you can see how the tenon will "clip" into the rabbet on the base.  The fields of the wainscotting will then "clip" into the all the rabbets in the base, stiles, and top rail.

Carefully measured dados give me really nice flush joints that should stay tight over the life of the house!

There's only 4 outside corners so I glued up 90 degree stiles - they're wet from wiping off excess glue with a wet sponge.  Yes, I used a special sponge, not the one I found in the sink...  You can see our lovely home-made kitchen cabinets from 1981.  Next time you see those they'll be bashed to pieces in a dumpster.  I managed to carefully sand everything today - next step is to cut the base/top rails to length and cut all the panels.  By next weekend we'll be priming and painting, and installing the week after that!

Mommmm, momee, momy, ma ma mamoee, meooo, maaam maaamm eeee

Apparently I'm the only one who enjoyed the horrifying robot mouth - I've received several complaints.  I found it highly amusing, and compelling.  Sorry to leave it up so long, life has been very busy. I've had several meetings at church sorting through details associated with our new pastor, changes to our worship service, etc. I've had some late nights catching up at work. My mom, sister, and niece came out for a great visit. And we've been trying to organize things for Tommy who is due in a few short weeks.

I assumed that what's pictured here were plenty of clothes.  I learned recently that this is, in fact, not enough.  I recall hearing something about barf, blow-outs, and frequent changes, but it didn't make a lot of sense to me...  I'm also confused about why most people chuckle menacingly at me when we talk about me being a dad...

Baby clothes are actually sized by months!  I figured you went to the "kids" clothing bin and grabbed shirts, pants, and socks.  I've been told that Tommy will grow out of several sets of clothes in the first year - wow.

Katie is performing a function known as "de-pilling"...  I'm also unsure what that means, but her friend gave her some used clothes that are "darn cute".

We were thrilled to see Tommy's bed quilt, made with so much love, and attention to detail by his Grandma Bakker!  Thanks Mom, we love you!