Floor Finish Coat One

I got the first layer of finish down on the floor this week. Photos are a little hard, they tend to make the finish look more colored than it is. When it dries, it is actually clear.

I like to use a product from Germany called OSMO hardwax oil.

 

Mouse Merry-Go-Round in our Furnace

And here: here is household repair chore #2 for the week. Last week, we came home to the sound of our washing machine, a front-loader which sounds like a 747 engine when it’s on the spin cycle. Only, the washing machine wasn’t on. It was the furnace in the crawlspace. Going crazy with vibration. We had a good clue what might have caused this fan imbalance, because the night before, Maggie had declared, I removed the floor grate on the furnace air intake duct with my pawz, cuz I diagnose, der is a mowse in der!

 

Our MicroFAST Septic is a MacroPAIN

Amongst all the other things I’d like to have been doing in my free time, this last week I had two unavoidable household repair chores. The first was the septic tank. We have a Bio-Microbics MicroFAST system. It is kind of a fancy septic tank design, owing to the fact that our drain field is in the flood plain. And as far as septic tanks go, you might equate fancy to finicky, because it is!

 

Recycling Vintage Flooring

I’ve been pretty neglectful at working on interior  house restoration projects in the last year, favoring doing farm work outside. But, I was glad to get a nagging project crossed off the list in the last month!

I think it was winter-before-last when I first tackled the huge pile of reclaimed vintage fir flooring sitting in our upstairs. It had been salvaged from another to-be-demolished house in downtown Snohomish. I had even installed some of it, starting in our upstairs bathroom. But a large and unruly pile of the wood remained. It was not neatly stackable, because it still had all the nails in it. So, the first thing was to get the rest of it cleaned up and stacked.

 

Never Despise Meager Beginnings

A favorite quote from the Janette Oke book-series-turned-screenplay “Love Comes Softly.” A slightly corny Christian-values story about a homesteading family, not unlike Little House on the Prairie. But, as Kirk can attest, I love those stories, mostly because they are about homesteading. But they also contain a lot of universal themes that resonate with almost everybody- hardship, perseverance, resourcefulness, kindness even in the face of hostility, and hope and faith.

Given this time of year is one where we often think of the future and reflect on the past, I’ve been thinking of our meager beginnings and where they are headed.