[Gathnet] MO Gathmans -pt1

[E G]

Hello All,

Greetings from St. Lois

Yes, Jon's been keeping me busy.  The weather here is VERY sticky. . . 100% 
humidity!  Yeesh.  I grew up in this kind of weather, but  the dryness of 
San Diego  definitely has some advantages.  Last week while sanding the door 
for some touch-up plastering in cracks, we found some dry rot at the bottom 
of the door frame.  Jon want's the house to be really nice in all respects 
(as a value-added factor so the buyer can just move in and not need to think 
about having to fix up or repair anything), so we dug it out and put in 
epoxy.  (Besides being too impatient and trying to put it in while it was 
still too runny so we spent a lot of time spooning it back into the cavity), 
we got it all fixed up and today I sat on the back porch and basically 
carved the epoxy to match the moulding.  After a mere 5 min outside - just 
sitting!-  sweat is dripping off my nose while I'm carving and my shirt is 
soaked.

Anyway, he's had me refinishing his kitchen cabinets which had a lot of 
spots where the finish was gone down to the wood - just from water spashes 
from the sink and stuff (can't have been the greatest finish they had on to 
start with).   Now Jon is embarrassed because I normally DON'T do finishes.  
:)  And now I remember why!  Man the stuff never dries.  In all fairness, I 
have to say that I remember sticking to pews (which had been finished for 
years and years) in church many times, so it seems that humidity simply has 
that kind of effect on finishes sometimes.  At any rate, sanding between 
coats is very delicate as the surface is still quite tacky  Glad that's over 
and that they look very nice now.

We've also been up on the hot tar roof  pulling off a facia board Jon has 
discovered some dry rot in.  (I've generally been on ladder duty - two 
stories up)  We matched the cuts on new wood and I'm finishing up the color 
coats tonight.  We'll put them on tomorrow before the POD arrives, which is 
a small container you rent like a trash container, but it's for moving.  
They leave it at your place and you fill it, they they take it to the new 
place for your where you empty it.  The rest of the week will be spent 
filling the pod I expect.

They had new carpet put in just after I came so we spent some days moving 
everything out of half of the house, then everything to the other half of 
the house the next day, then putting stuff back in show-mode for marketing 
picture taking.

In all his spare time, Jon went off one evening to conduct an orchestra - 
for a production I think.  I may get to go next time.  The next night he had 
a wedding rehersal, and the wedding to play for on Saturday.   (The couple  
wanted all cello for the service, rather unsusual.  But I understand that 
was the goal as they did knighting with a sword or some such thing).

<break>

So, to continue,
Jon and Jaquie both play in the church orchestra.  Orchestra?  Yep.  They 
have a Pianist (2 if you count the worship leader who uses a keyboard during 
the service to lead), percusionist (percussionist mind you -  there is a 
drum set, but more interestinly, there is a set of timpani, wood blocks, 
xylephone, chimes, those tinkly rods on a pole, and other stuff), one cello, 
2 violins, 1 viola, 2 trumpets, 1 trombone, 1 tuba, 1 saxaphone, 1 clarinet, 
1 flute, 1 French horn, 1 bass guitar and 1 guitar.  Last Sunday they were 
trying to record (for the first time).

They had a youth ensemble sing during the service who did a great job.   It 
was called "Days of Elijah" and was evidently origionally sung by the 
Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir.  Starts out slow, but then turns into kind of 
calipso.

Sunday we went out to see the new place.  Wow.  10 acres in the woods, and 
you really have to wind around to get there off the highway.  At the same 
time, it's amazingly close to useful stores like grocery, homedepot etc. 
(maybe 7 min?).

There is a large grassy back yard/pasture, a large pond, and a LOT of woods. 
  We didn't see much farther than imediately around the house (and the pond 
of course).  Inside, they have another room upstairs (compared to their 
curent house) which will be for the piano (and recording).  Otherwise, there 
are the same number of rooms roughly, all much larger.  Oh, but  there's a 
mud-room/laundry UPSTAIRS (which tickles Jacqui to no end).  Also a pantry 
UPSTAIRS.  Then there's the basement.  IF they ever need more room, there is 
LOTS of space where they can finish a couple rooms and still leave room for 
garage/workshop kind of thing.   The current owner has a hobby of 
motorcycles and there are maybe a dozen cycles from old harleys on up parked 
in rows down there.

I tried to ifnish the color coat on the facia boards last night, but the 
finish wouldn't cooperate.  IT DOESNT DRY!  In fact when we went out to look 
this morning, we discovered that some squirrel had been dancing on the 
boards last night.  Somewhere, there's a squirrel with blue feet :)
We dedided to put them up today anyway without a final coat + paint later, 
so we did.  Poor Jon was raining on the roof even though it was only 9:00.  
Raining?  Sweating great drops that dripped off, and hit the roof (and 
splashed onto me :)  ).

The PODs came this morning. (Portable On Demand Storage).   Quite clever.  
First, while you can store it as long as you need to in their warehouse 
(like renting normal storage),  you don't have to make multiple trips to 
town with this system  They drop it off where you want it and you fill it at 
your leisure.  When you're done, they pick it up and store it till you want 
it delivered to whereever.  No extra moving of stuff.    It comes on a 
flatbed with a unique hydralique walker.  On arrival, the walker is 
manipulated to lift the pod, then the flatbed drives off.  next the walker 
is maneuvered to wherever you want the pod where it sets the pod down.  The 
walker is walked back to the truck, the truck drives under, the walker sits 
down on it, and off they go. Pretty neat.

I'll sign off for now.  Jon wants to go looking for boxes.

Beth

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