Week... I Have No Idea...

Me: So, when are you planning on doing that stuff you keep saying you'll do it while I'm on vacation?

Him: At some point.

Me: Because you're running out of days. 

Him: I know.  Best. Vacation. ever. 

In truth, it's been quite the week.  So, while he may not have trimmed the trees and done all the yardwork he planned and promised, he's been focused on other things, apparently making it the best vacation ever. 

Sunday, Oldest graduated with his Batchelor's in Site Civil Engineering. He's all moved home and we've successfully integrated for the third time in a month most of his things into the house. Kitchen stuff has all been washed up and stored in totes, while household products have been stuffed away for household use. There is no toilet paper shortage here folks, I can assure you, at least for the foreseeable future.

Monday, we planned his cookout to celebrate.  We kept it small because in May, if all goes to plan, he will be graduating again with his Masters. So, most of the day was spent cleaning, shopping and cooking.  Thankfully the humidity took a backseat, and we were able to host it outside and thanks to the citronella candles from his High School graduation, the mosquitos didn't bother us too much either. My sister had brought over Bonus Son's old dorm fridge that she had borrowed for my niece her freshman year, so we'd have somewhere to put Oldest's food, as he's training for an amateur body building competition in October and meal preps everything.

Tuesday the plumber came to see what needed to be done downstairs. The Hubs tried his best with him, but since it is my project, he could only relay a few things.  The biggest of issues would be permitting, as the ceilings are far too low down there.  An issue I already knew; I just wasn't sure of the work around. So, while I waited to hear back, I managed to find the mini fridge a home amongst the storage bins, and Oldest was able to clean it, making it ready for his food storage, so that was a win.

Wednesday quite literally nothing got done.  Hubs and Oldest sat in front of the TV and binged watched a series, and when I pulled in the drive from work, I heard "Quick, go unload the dishwasher so she'll think we did something today." We did take the dog to the vet for a follow up on her meds.  Her bloodwork came back perfect and provided there's no new issues, we don't have to bring her back for 6 months.

Thursday nothing got done either. Youngest came home from work to let me know he got a $1 raise at one of his jobs, which is great, and around 5pm I got a phone call that the plumber would be here at 8am to start the work. Wait, what?

So, Friday comes, and I plan to be late for work. By 830 he's still not here so I head off, only to find out we're in mini count, a process that determines our pay for the next 6 months. Great. Hubs leaves around 930, still no plumber, to help my niece with a puzzle she'd been working on all summer.  Her plan was to frame it and hang it in her dorm when she went back, until she got to the end and realized the dog had eaten multiple pieces.  My mother bought a new puzzle, and being the puzzle guru that he is, headed over to see if they could just fill in what was missing. Which was great until they realized it was a completely different cut than the other puzzle. Frustrated, they took the old one apart and started on the new, they got about a third of it done before Hubs returned home. At 1030 Oldest calls to say that the plumber arrived, the faucet won't work with our set up, and that the doorknob to the basement door is broken. Yay. I finally get through the day, get home and find the plumbers are packing up because the water line has a metric fitting on it and I need to get a specialized part as per the instructions, so they can continue. Not reading the instructions, I agree, they pack up and leave.  When I finally dry out enough to function, did I mention it POURED rain all day? I read the instructions myself, where it says if the metric fitting is attached, simply cut it off, and use a 3/8" compression fitting, an item that is stock on any plumbing truck. *sigh* Setting that aside, we head out to meet Bonus Son for dinner to celebrate his 29th birthday. Dinner was good, quiet, and quick. And of course, he drops a bit of a bombshell when he says he's thinking about changing jobs/careers. Which is great that he's thinking of forward movement, but a bit of a shock since he's all about not rocking the boat, maintaining status quo, and flying under the radar.  We'll see, but it would be so incredibly sad if we're sitting at dinner with him next year and he's in the same place, the time for change is now, before he's in his 30's.

Saturday was less rainy and an easier day at work. The Hubs went back to my niece's to help with the puzzle for a few hours, returning about the same time I got out of work. We had planned to go downtown for a food crawl for our anniversary, twelve years! Crazy. Unfortunately, the entire town was also downtown for the waterfront festival, and while it was nice to enjoy that too, we had to park a literal mile away and walk. Three hours and five miles of walking later we get a text from my niece, there's only 20 pieces left! Can you help me flip it tonight? That girl had worked on it nonstop, how can you say no to that? After dropping him at home to take care of the dog's meds and such, I headed back over to flip it. They had only a few pieces left when I got there, and as my sister readied the camera for the final piece, it was missing.

Seriously.

Now the frame that my sister got wasn't going to work, and we headed back to the store, grabbed the right sized frame, parted ways and I went quickly into Walmart to grab a few things we were out of, which of course turned into a crap ton as everyone started texting me requests. I think it was 8pm by the time I took my shoes off.

Which brings me to today, where Hubs and I went grocery shopping again, he fixed the doorknob, and I've taken three naps. 

Tune in next week for far less excitement.

Week 33...

 Me (May 2023) : I will not buy anything big at Brimfield this year.  I'm definitely not buying another bank of PO boxes.  I don't need another project. 

Also Me: 

And so, the bank of PO boxes came home with me, as mentioned in my previous post in May. (Brimfield for those who don't know, is a massive flea market/antique show held three times a year in central Massachusetts) It sat in the garage for a while, until I scored a bunch of free mahogany off  Buy Nothing. Two weeks ago, I dragged it out from under a pile of stuff in the garage, removed the locks we didn't have keys for, cut the latches off and reinstalled them, then gave it a good coat of spray paint. 

Then I used some scrap plywood and encased the bank in a solid box.  The Hubs busted out the power washer over the weekend and washed all the wood down since it had been stored outside. Once it was dry, I added the planks of mahogany.  They are 1" thick, which I wouldn't normally do, but free is free...

Then the trim...

I remembered to save all the saw dust this time! (Pro tip: If you save the sawdust, mix it with some glue, you can use it like wood filler, plugging all the holes with a perfect match. 

After filling all the holes and sanding it forever, I gave it a good coating of linseed oil to bring out the natural colors and grains of the wood, then two coats of poly. That's when I realized that my original plan of hair pin legs wasn't going to fly.  This sucker weighs about 80 pounds. So, I turned my sights towards cast iron. I checked websites, Esty, Amazon. They all wanted WAY too much money, plus the size was odd, too narrow it becomes a tipping hazard, to wide, it will look weird. After searching I realized that an antique sewing machine base was the exact size I needed. And as it happened, someone was selling this one on Marketplace for cheap money. A quick coat of paint is all it needed...

In case you can't make it out, this is no old Singer base.  It reads, "Jordan Marsh, Boston Mass".  As in the iconic Jordan Marsh Department store that survived downtown for over 100 years.  The same one my Mom shopped for Easter dresses in as a little girl, and that I shopped in in college. The wheel still spins too. Any hoo...  four screws later and here we are....

It's serving as our mail center for now.  Each person has a mailbox, and one overflow box for stuff that needs to be filed. Later it will be a fantastic storage unit for my Cricut vinyl in the craft room, but for now it's found a home. The spare keys are glued into the broken locks and act as a handle for the door.  I don't like the white hang tags, so the hunt is on for some tin embossable ones that I can add our names/box numbers into. 

Perhaps, I will find the perfect key tags at the next Brimfield in September.

Week 32...

 Youngest took off to Jersey for a few days. I don't ask many questions anymore.  I find when I do, I get shut down. When I don't, I get more details after the fact, which is better for both of us, because at that point I can't worry about it. I knew 6 Flaggs was planned, as well as Atlantic City and longboarding the boardwalks. So, when he returned home, the back window of his car meticulously hand painted with hot pink letting of  Girl's Trip! Buy Us A Drink! Venmo *****, I was curious.

Me: So, did you go with a girl, or did you meet up with some down there?

Him: Nope.  Just the boys.  We had wigs. Mine was purple. We made six bucks!

I haven't laughed that hard in three years. Because despite the fact that they could have made more than $6 had any of them shaved their full beards, this is the youngest I remember.  Always funny, always out of the box, always using the line like a jump rope.

This, in addition to his selling something this week that was a big part of his life for the last two years, at far less than what he wanted, makes me feel like while there is still a long way to go, that part of his learning curve is over. While I waited in the parking lot for the meet up to finalize the sale, this guy was popping around across the street.  

While they are prevalent here, I rarely see foxes, let alone long enough or close enough to get a picture. 

~~~~~~~

Oldest had his senior showcase at the college this week.  An entire year of research, planning, and execution all on exhibit for two hours. Being Civil/Site engineers, he and his team theoretically built a prep high school dormitory and education building for UMass Amherst. The projects across the board were super interesting.  The Biomedical engineers had wearable sensors that alert parents if a child is at risk of drowning at the beach or pool, wearable sleeves that stop the tremors of Parkinsons, and glasses that collect data for the visually impaired and deliver it to them via speech controls.  It even had facial recognition that could identify a known person coming into the room or approaching them.  Another project was an app that monitored labor contractions to determine if labor was progressing at a normal rate, or if they were at risk for preterm labor, and when/if to seek emergency services. The mechanical engineers had everything from automated trailer hitchers, to self-loading/unloading refrigerated pallets for shipping, to robotic assisting dogs for the elderly.  Seriously interesting stuff. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After being a minimal summer weekend warrior for the last 17 years, my neighbor has finally moved in full time next door.  To say that we are all concerned is an understatement.  She seems to have good and bad days, the bad days involve multiple car accidents. Currently her bumper's held up with duct tape and she has no side view mirrors. After talking with some of the other neighbors, she's struggling with letting go of things (her house is packed with her parents and grandparents' furniture), as well as struggling with basic tasks. So, her trash isn't going out, and the lawn's not getting mowed.  Thankfully while other neighbors have, we haven't seen an influx of mice, but the wildlife is definitely moving in.  

Chippy here has clearly taken residence under the flower beds (there is a den sized mound on our side of the fence) along the driveway. Since there's no exit hole on our side, I can only deduct that he burrowed in from her jungle of a back yard. He's cute, but he needs to stay away from the car hoods and electrical systems. Then it's game on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our favorite garden shop had a sale for tax free weekend. I grabbed some sweet potato vines to spruce up the window boxes. I've already seen hummingbirds hovering for their tiny purple flowers. Fingers crossed they will give some color through October. I hate spending money on annuals because they die off in just a few short months. We found a gorgeous hibiscus for $25, not realizing that it needs to come inside for the winter unlike our others. 

So, while Hubs went golfing, I returned to the store and got a new pot for it, an even larger pot for the rain lilies, a rain chain of tiny umbrellas, and some bulbs that I've secretly planted and will give Hubs the tags for Christmas so he can anticipate the new lilies that will come up next spring. I really shouldn't be left unsupervised when there's a 50% and more off sale.  Just sayin'.

I also bought the $1100 toilet for the basement bathroom. It should be here on Wednesday. And so as not to leave y'all with that sickening feeling that I feel every time I think about spending $1100 on a toilet, I'll leave you with the colors of August from our yard.

Our Hibiscus that does winter over.

Our Rose Of Sharon (which apparently is also a hardy hibiscus variety)

The last of the new lilies

The phlox is still going strong, this one's a late bloomer

Our only Tiger Lily, it's 4 feet high

Alstroemeria.

And one gratuitous picture of the girl's newest hiding space. I guess she though when I went through all the to be filed mail that we keep in that basket, it was for her. 

Weeks 30 & 31...

I'm elbow deep in projects here, literally, as the latest one landed me flat on my butt and bleeding in the hydrangea. 

But enough about that.

A while back I found a trunk for Youngest to restore that would eventually house all his keepsakes from childhood. After a bit of searching, I came across the deals of deals on Marketplace and for $20 came home with this beauty...

It was in remarkable shape.  Unlike the trunks I usually grab, this had the original key with working lock, a copy of the Boston Herald from New Year's Eve 1939 in the bottom, and the last transfer tag from when it was shipped, with a portage cost of a whopping $1.50.

Wanting to be able to save as much as I could, I happened to find that the case for the screen protectors at the dollar store was just the right size.  The trunk sat for quite a while, as I've had quite a bit of things come up, and not enough money honestly. As I picked away at it, Youngest got more and more interested, choosing stain colors, insisting on cedar lining the inside, and deciding to line the lid with the old newspaper. Truthfully it killed me to have to strip off the near perfect paper lining that was already inside the trunk but that is the only way to get rid of the mildew smell, so it had to go. I'll spare you the progress photos, mainly because my computer isn't cooperating and I can't find them at the moment, but here's the gist....

After painstakingly removing the oil cloth, we went with dark honey on the bands and light honey stain on the plywood box. Then I taped off all the metal work and sprayed it all a hammered black texture. Youngest decided it needed something special, so I went back and gold leafed the lock and clasps, as well as the end caps for the new handles.  The secret to replacing the handles by the way, is to use a belt.  This black/brown reversible one was donated from The Hubs collection, and Youngest decided that brown was the way to go. I also got a black chain to secure the key to the trunk as that's just not a thing you can get at the hardware store if it gets lost.

We also did some gold leaf in the deep cracks and crevices because that's where the good memories are. We hung the transfer tag from the handle in it's protective case with some craft twine, and I also found some old trinket dog tags we made at the amusement park when he was little with his name and address, so we hung that too. He insisted that it be lined with cedar, and since the lid gets too heavy when wood lined, we opted to line the top with the 1939 newspaper. Fun Fact: The Boston Herald is still in existence, someone left one in the Post Office today, a daily paper costs $4.50 today. We selected some of the more fun articles to highlight, stocks of course since Youngest has an extensive stock portfolio, the "drug of the year" article, a rental advertisement for Becon Hill Apts. starting at $35 and up (currently $3,200 and up), and an obituary for Abe Lincoln's cousin, she was 84.

Youngest insisted we not cover the staining on the paper, as it's part of the history.  I should mention we also added casters to the bottom for convivence of moving it around.  We went with antique brass in keeping with the theme. The one thing that was missing from the trunk was the tray and as luck would have it, I scored some free mahogany from my Buy Nothing group here in town.

I took the smaller, wider pieces, and after a lot of sanding, some pressure washing, and a bit of stain, I crafted a tray to display all of his awards and metals...

The tray is quite dark, but Youngest doesn't seem to mind. There's still room to add metals as getting back into Spartan Races is something he wants to do.  I added a clear piece of plexi to the tray and filled it to the brim with personalized scrapbooks, Scout stuff, karate belts, wrestling gear, Championship sweatshirts, Trophies, his cap and gown, awards, diploma, stuff from his father, you name it it's in there. Truthfully, there's still more, but I'm hoping to reconfigure some things and get it all in there.

Twenty-One years of life in one portable, albeit insanely heavy, container. 

It sits next to his bed.  

He loves it.

I love that he embraced my crafty craziness, and we made it as unique and amazing as he is. 

Ed Note: As per his request, I sent the seller the finished pictures so he could show his grandmother.  She was thrilled, and said it looked just as she remembered from her childhood, as it was her father's.  We're estimating the trunk is 90-100 years old, and worth every second of my time to give it a new life.