Mila-Peeps from OSHA showed up to make sure we had enough beer...

No time to write as much as I'd like, so here's a giant photo dump!!!
A picture's worth a thousand words anyway, so I guess I'm in the clear.

We've basically spent our summer bustin' ass in the kitchen. Sistered floor joists, tore up ALL the subfloor and found a giant stash of 1980's Playboy magazines, dug 2 footers (4-80# bags of concrete with rebar in EACH), built a beam, rerouted plumbing - H20 & DWV & HVAC, finished framing around the fridge and chimney, installed 2 new windows (or is it windae?), finished wiring with much help from Kelly's dad, installed a new door with much, MUCH help from our good friend MO, drywalled the damn thing, and ordered cabinets...

Yes, that's right -- CABINETS.

Can you believe it?

Oh....
We've been busy...

Just a few photos of my latest furniture project -- A scaled down coffee table version of an L&JG Stickley library table. I scribbled it out on graph paper, and then tweaked it in Sketchup -- which is an amazing program BTW. It's really too bad it costs 5 gazillion dollars.

Top pic is the bottom shelf after varnishing. It really doesn't look that "reddish" in person.

Middle 2 are before and after glazing (but before varnish & wax). I used a water-based aniline dye, then a coat of Linseed oil, then a 1# cut coat of amber shellac, then glaze, then dewaxed super blonde shellac, then varnish --whew... I have yet to rub out the varnish with 0000 steel wool and black wax. Can't wait to see that...

And lastly, the top being glued up. It's a full one inch thick Q-sawn white oak.

I'll post more after she's all done.

Oh yeah, we're moving forward with firring out the kitchen ceiling for insulative purposes. Slowly but surely!

Clean up is still under way...

Here's a pic of the newly painted house taken Saturday10/7 (1 week before the storm pictures I posted)

I have yet to attach the new house numbers -- Maybe this weekend...

The painters used Dulux paint, which we were somewhat apprehensive about, having never used it before. That stuff is THICK! Very impressive. The colors were matched from SW's Arts & Crafts palette. Body color is Roycroft Suede, trim is Rcroft Brass, and accent is Rcroft Polished Mahogany.


Copper window boxes and landscaping to come in the spring...

We like it.

(click on any pic to enlarge)

Absolute mayhem.

This is the weekend of Friday, October 13th in lovely Buffalo, NY. The pictures really don't do any justice the the damage incurred to all the trees.

Over 2 feet of snow fell in less than 24 hours.

We were very lucky in that no damage was done to the house, and there was only a minor ding to the garage.

Here it is. My version of the Cheap & Easy Brewery.
First run with my new kettle, and first run of a 10 gallon batch... Everything went smooth, except that I came up 1 1/2 gallons short in volume -- grain absorbed more than I accounted for.
24 pounds of grain and 7.5 gallons of water is just about the max that a 48qt cooler can hold! Time for a new mash tun...
Did I mention that I like hoppy beers? The Bazooka T screen performed flawlessly in straining well over a pound of hops from the wort. Flowed like the mighty Niagara...

HOP HARVEST!!!

I ended up with about pound or so of some beautiful Cascades this season. Can't wait to get 'em into some IPA!!!

I'll get some pics of the brewery up after I get the 10 gallon system up and running, next weekend, I'm hoping.

As far as the house goes...

...Well, let's just say that most of the outside stuff is done. Not "all", but most. Let's also just say that our neighbors 2 houses down have had a GIGANTIC 3 car garage that's almost the size of our house built from the ground up in the time that our wonderful, talented contractors have been milking our job for.