Another day, another dozen projects done

No pictures today, just an update.

Cleaning up tile, walls, etc. after a tile installation takes time. Len started working on the new base boards for the kitchen and pantry. He had done the laundry room and guest bathroom baseboards on Tuesday. The guest bathroom boards were "drying" from the stain and topcoat, and he installed the laundry room baseboards Tuesday night, after which we brought the dryer and washer back into the room and I started the first batch of much needed clean clothes at 10 p.m.

Wednesday morning I did a run to the grocery store to stock up on supplies, continued to do laundry, and cleaning and organizing more things in the kitchen. Len cut the base boards for the pantry and installed it in the small "space", after which I caulked the top and floor line with white caulk to prevent water from getting to the boards. Len cut the boards for the floor in the kitchen.

I need to explain Len's "cutting the baseboards". He doesn't do a simple miter cut and attach it to the wall. He measures, writes it on a slip of paper, measures again, then cuts the board a little longer, takes the board into the house and measures again. He bevels the tops and bottoms of the board to snug into the different levels of the tile, knotches around face plates, using a coping saw to notch the top piece to join at the corner. He sands and planes until the joint or the corner is perfect. One 12 foot piece of base board had a tiny crack in it, which we hadn't seen when we purchased it, but he found a way to get wood glue into the crack, clamped it for about 30 minutes, and then sanded it. When it was my turn to do a fine sanding and staining on the piece, I could not find the crack, and I knew right where it was! Len installs the baseboards by pre-drilling each hole with a small bit, then tapping the thinnest nail into the hole until 1/16th of an inch is still showing, never hitting the wood. Then he uses a nail set to sink the nail, and wood putting to file the holes. His work is art!

Steve drove from Sherman for the evening, arriving just as dinner was ready. We ate our dinner, prepared in my wonderful kitchen, and ate it sitting at the kitchen table in the family room. (After the baseboards are in, we will move the table back to the kitchen.) Then Steve and Len removed the doors from the fridge, I removed all the food into boxes, and they moved the fridge from the gameroom back into the kitchen, attached the new water filter to the water line, put the doors back on the fridge (no easy task with double doors with water hook ups in the door), and I loaded the food in.

My advice: have a plan of action, write it down, and cross the items off the list as they are completed. Our list was long of things that needed to be done. The list grows shorter.