labor day weekend...
We missed another Peach Festival. I think we'll go to the 2011 one because it will be 80 years old by then and I'm sure they will have some amazing things at that one.
When we moved in to this house in 2005, our neighbor told us that Romeo is CRAZY during the Peach Festival - it will be hard to get out of your driveway, etc. Until this year, we haven't had an issue.
Before I get into that, let me do things in order. This Labor Day weekend we had a few things happening. We decided on the fly that we would be painting the rafters that are over the covered porch so that it would seem more airy since we would be keeping it open; as in no ceiling. In order to do this, we'd have to rent a sprayer from The Home Depot and spray it this weekend. We already had things planned for Saturday and Sunday, so the idea was to spray on Monday. We were hoping that the weather would cooperate.
Saturday, we were invited to a friends house for a BBQ. We met these friends through our MINI Cooper club. Prior to leaving the house, we needed desperately to clean the driveway area. One of the things the general contractor told us when bidding for this job was that they clean the area every evening. I'm not sure what he meant by "cleaning", but it's not the same as what we would call cleaning. So, as I went through the trash wood pile and other garbage; separating the plastic, paper, metal and returnables - Jerome was prepping the rafters by sweeping the dust and dirt off the wood.
The BBQ ended around 10:30pm which was good because we needed to get up really early (5am) to get our butts down to the Riverwalk area of Detroit for the "Bike the Bridge" day. "Bike the Bridge" was an effort by a lady cyclist who wanted to bike over the Ambassador Bridge into Windsor. She met with the Detroit people, the Windsor people, Homeland Security, etc. It was a big to-do. Apparently, over 30 years ago, they had a bike lane on the bridge, but no one has been allowed to cross without an automobile since the 70's.
We were invited to this by a guy from our MINI Cooper club; Chris. Jerome was geeked. I was a bit worried. As you may know from previous posts, I am out of shape. I've gained a bunch of weight. Another thing is that for nearly 4 years, I've been having heart palpitations; I call them flutters or a jumpy nerve. Anyway, 2 weeks before my last day of work, I found out that I have a leaky valve in my heart. The doctor said it's nothing to be concerned with, but since I've been laid off, it's been getting more frequent and shows up whenever I do any kind of "exercise", even stretching. I was thinking that the incline was going to bring my heart down for the count.
We got there and met up with Chris. He introduced us to his friends; Troy and Jim. OMG! I worked with Troy at Chrysler back in 1998, and I used to party with him every now and then back in the day. Small world.
There were around 60 cyclists.
So, we started out - my bike is not really a serious "cycling" bike - but everyone commented on how pretty it is.
Right out the gate, my chain popped. Jerome needed to stop and put it back. It popped again. UGH! I was getting worried because Jerome really wanted to do this and I didn't want to hold him back - and the group disappeared around a corner...
He figured it out, the rear fender's screws were making it so that I couldn't shift into the higher number lower gears. Since we got the fenders last weekend, I hadn't tried them out. So, the gears I could use were 1-4, and that's it. We took off and caught up with the other riders. Whew! From the moment we got there, my heart was going nuts. I was really getting worried.
Finally, we were flagged to go to the bridge and started our assent. I was determined not to walk the bike up the incline like I do when we ride around Romeo. As we were going, one cyclist started walking her bike up. I felt better because I was worried they weren't going to let us do that; Sue (the organizer) had said that there would be no stopping allowed on the bridge and we only had 30 minutes to cross. (Note in picture below: I'm in the middle, lady on my left is around my mother age and the lady on the right of me is walking.)
So, after seeing the lady walking her bike, I gained some confidence and not once felt like walking it. I made it to the top and the other side was a piece of cake. In fact, I think the incline was not even compared to the incline of our street. The great thing is that since I started up the bridge, the palpitations stopped and I have yet to have one like those that I was having for the two weeks that I've been laid off.
The rest of the day was spent in Windsor doing a little tour of Sandwich Town and having a little meal and then watching the bike races that were going on in Little Italy. (This mans alligator shoes matched my bike...ah, Little Itlay)
They then loaded all our bikes in a Ryder truck and us in a bus and took us back to Detroit. Unfortunately, my pretty bike ended up with a few scuffs on the truck ride back. Jerome says he'll buff them out.
Now the idea was to get home, drop off the bikes and head to The Home Depot to rent a paint sprayer, get home and put the first coat on the rafters before dark. HA!
Jerome and I like to watch this show on HGTV called "Renovation Realities". We giggle at the people going through their issues with their home renovations that are supposed to happen in a short period of time and what their budget is. It never gets done in the time allotted and the budget always rises. So, if we were going to be on this show for the painting of the rafters, it would go something like this:
Problem: Rafters need to be painted before roof is installed
Solution: Rent a paint sprayer and Jerome sprays rafters
Budget: $50 for the sprayer (rent for 4 hours); $100 paint (2 gallons we already had for our windows); $200 for the contractor to put plywood on front inside rafter.
Time frame/Goal: 9am Monday
Well, we didn't get much in the way of instructions from the guy at the tool rental. But we did find out that he is a school teacher and that this is a part time job for him. Why people feel they have to explain themselves to complete strangers, I'll never know.
Jerome ran into issues immediately. The sprayer continued to get clogged. He was forever stopping to clean it. The over spray was tremendous. Our tree and ground below is now all set for winter; it looks like there is snow on the leaves, branches and dirt. We worked until the wee hours of the night - with flood lights and bug spray. Jerome losing more and more patience. It seemed that if we didn't have a full bucket, the sprayer wouldn't work. As soon as the primer tube was out of the paint, it stopped spraying.
This morning (Monday), Jerome went back to The Home Depot to get some 5 gallon buckets of outdoor paint. This cost us $300. And on his way home; alone with his thoughts - he thought that we had made a mistake and we should just make a bead board ceiling and be done with it. When he got home, he proposed this to me. After watching him struggle last night, I agreed to his suggestion. But still needed to get the ends painted because they will still be exposed under the metal roof. He cleaned the sprayer and returned it and the 10 gallons of paint to The Home Depot. He was going to stop at McDonald's to get us a breakfast sandwich, but when he got there, breakfast was over. So he decided he was going to go to Sheena's (our Spartan store) to pick up English muffins, but the roads were barricaded for the parade. He asked the officer if he could go through and head to Sheena's and come back and was told no. So, he came home and made us a breakfast sandwich on bread. First time the Parade made it inconvenient for us to live here.
We worked on the painting from 8:30am to around 7pm this evening.
So...
Project changed: Painting only the outside rafters that will be exposed under the metal roof
Over budget and changed: $30 sprayer (Jerome got a discount after talking with the tool rental guy); $200 for the sheeting by the contractor (money spent for no reason); $50 for another gallon of outdoor paint; $? for bead board (we're thinking around $200-$300)...
Didn't make original deadline: 7pm Monday + extra wood was added to rafters on Tuesday that will also need to be painted
We are exhausted. It didn't rain on us like it had predicted...it's raining now. I think we were really lucky and I think the bead board is going to frickin' look great.
When we moved in to this house in 2005, our neighbor told us that Romeo is CRAZY during the Peach Festival - it will be hard to get out of your driveway, etc. Until this year, we haven't had an issue.
Before I get into that, let me do things in order. This Labor Day weekend we had a few things happening. We decided on the fly that we would be painting the rafters that are over the covered porch so that it would seem more airy since we would be keeping it open; as in no ceiling. In order to do this, we'd have to rent a sprayer from The Home Depot and spray it this weekend. We already had things planned for Saturday and Sunday, so the idea was to spray on Monday. We were hoping that the weather would cooperate.
Saturday, we were invited to a friends house for a BBQ. We met these friends through our MINI Cooper club. Prior to leaving the house, we needed desperately to clean the driveway area. One of the things the general contractor told us when bidding for this job was that they clean the area every evening. I'm not sure what he meant by "cleaning", but it's not the same as what we would call cleaning. So, as I went through the trash wood pile and other garbage; separating the plastic, paper, metal and returnables - Jerome was prepping the rafters by sweeping the dust and dirt off the wood.The BBQ ended around 10:30pm which was good because we needed to get up really early (5am) to get our butts down to the Riverwalk area of Detroit for the "Bike the Bridge" day. "Bike the Bridge" was an effort by a lady cyclist who wanted to bike over the Ambassador Bridge into Windsor. She met with the Detroit people, the Windsor people, Homeland Security, etc. It was a big to-do. Apparently, over 30 years ago, they had a bike lane on the bridge, but no one has been allowed to cross without an automobile since the 70's.
We were invited to this by a guy from our MINI Cooper club; Chris. Jerome was geeked. I was a bit worried. As you may know from previous posts, I am out of shape. I've gained a bunch of weight. Another thing is that for nearly 4 years, I've been having heart palpitations; I call them flutters or a jumpy nerve. Anyway, 2 weeks before my last day of work, I found out that I have a leaky valve in my heart. The doctor said it's nothing to be concerned with, but since I've been laid off, it's been getting more frequent and shows up whenever I do any kind of "exercise", even stretching. I was thinking that the incline was going to bring my heart down for the count.
We got there and met up with Chris. He introduced us to his friends; Troy and Jim. OMG! I worked with Troy at Chrysler back in 1998, and I used to party with him every now and then back in the day. Small world.
There were around 60 cyclists.
So, we started out - my bike is not really a serious "cycling" bike - but everyone commented on how pretty it is.
Right out the gate, my chain popped. Jerome needed to stop and put it back. It popped again. UGH! I was getting worried because Jerome really wanted to do this and I didn't want to hold him back - and the group disappeared around a corner...
He figured it out, the rear fender's screws were making it so that I couldn't shift into the higher number lower gears. Since we got the fenders last weekend, I hadn't tried them out. So, the gears I could use were 1-4, and that's it. We took off and caught up with the other riders. Whew! From the moment we got there, my heart was going nuts. I was really getting worried.
Finally, we were flagged to go to the bridge and started our assent. I was determined not to walk the bike up the incline like I do when we ride around Romeo. As we were going, one cyclist started walking her bike up. I felt better because I was worried they weren't going to let us do that; Sue (the organizer) had said that there would be no stopping allowed on the bridge and we only had 30 minutes to cross. (Note in picture below: I'm in the middle, lady on my left is around my mother age and the lady on the right of me is walking.)
So, after seeing the lady walking her bike, I gained some confidence and not once felt like walking it. I made it to the top and the other side was a piece of cake. In fact, I think the incline was not even compared to the incline of our street. The great thing is that since I started up the bridge, the palpitations stopped and I have yet to have one like those that I was having for the two weeks that I've been laid off.
The rest of the day was spent in Windsor doing a little tour of Sandwich Town and having a little meal and then watching the bike races that were going on in Little Italy. (This mans alligator shoes matched my bike...ah, Little Itlay)
They then loaded all our bikes in a Ryder truck and us in a bus and took us back to Detroit. Unfortunately, my pretty bike ended up with a few scuffs on the truck ride back. Jerome says he'll buff them out.
Now the idea was to get home, drop off the bikes and head to The Home Depot to rent a paint sprayer, get home and put the first coat on the rafters before dark. HA!
Jerome and I like to watch this show on HGTV called "Renovation Realities". We giggle at the people going through their issues with their home renovations that are supposed to happen in a short period of time and what their budget is. It never gets done in the time allotted and the budget always rises. So, if we were going to be on this show for the painting of the rafters, it would go something like this:
Problem: Rafters need to be painted before roof is installed
Solution: Rent a paint sprayer and Jerome sprays rafters
Budget: $50 for the sprayer (rent for 4 hours); $100 paint (2 gallons we already had for our windows); $200 for the contractor to put plywood on front inside rafter.
Time frame/Goal: 9am Monday
Well, we didn't get much in the way of instructions from the guy at the tool rental. But we did find out that he is a school teacher and that this is a part time job for him. Why people feel they have to explain themselves to complete strangers, I'll never know.
Jerome ran into issues immediately. The sprayer continued to get clogged. He was forever stopping to clean it. The over spray was tremendous. Our tree and ground below is now all set for winter; it looks like there is snow on the leaves, branches and dirt. We worked until the wee hours of the night - with flood lights and bug spray. Jerome losing more and more patience. It seemed that if we didn't have a full bucket, the sprayer wouldn't work. As soon as the primer tube was out of the paint, it stopped spraying.
This morning (Monday), Jerome went back to The Home Depot to get some 5 gallon buckets of outdoor paint. This cost us $300. And on his way home; alone with his thoughts - he thought that we had made a mistake and we should just make a bead board ceiling and be done with it. When he got home, he proposed this to me. After watching him struggle last night, I agreed to his suggestion. But still needed to get the ends painted because they will still be exposed under the metal roof. He cleaned the sprayer and returned it and the 10 gallons of paint to The Home Depot. He was going to stop at McDonald's to get us a breakfast sandwich, but when he got there, breakfast was over. So he decided he was going to go to Sheena's (our Spartan store) to pick up English muffins, but the roads were barricaded for the parade. He asked the officer if he could go through and head to Sheena's and come back and was told no. So, he came home and made us a breakfast sandwich on bread. First time the Parade made it inconvenient for us to live here.
We worked on the painting from 8:30am to around 7pm this evening.
So...
Project changed: Painting only the outside rafters that will be exposed under the metal roof
Over budget and changed: $30 sprayer (Jerome got a discount after talking with the tool rental guy); $200 for the sheeting by the contractor (money spent for no reason); $50 for another gallon of outdoor paint; $? for bead board (we're thinking around $200-$300)...
Didn't make original deadline: 7pm Monday + extra wood was added to rafters on Tuesday that will also need to be painted
We are exhausted. It didn't rain on us like it had predicted...it's raining now. I think we were really lucky and I think the bead board is going to frickin' look great. 
Comments
Those guys at Home Depot rental are some of the most ill informed people I have ever met. Do any of these people even use the tools they rent. Once we rented a wood chipper from them. My husband spent three hours sharpening the chipper, adding hydraulic oil, and fixing several leaky hoses that were causing the low oil level.
I have found with smaller items that it is cheaper just to buy them and then after you are done and no longer need them just sell them on eBay or Craigs List. We rented a pneumatic air nail gun (wood floor nailer) for two days. We were stressed to get it done and the nail gun was ragged out big time. Next time we bought one and it nearly cost us what we paid to rent one for two days.
And I love bead board especially painted bead board.
They have a used bookstore downtown and I could spend a fortune in there.
I just love how they talk. And how cool is it that they call their money loonies and toonies?
I bought something at a store and he said it was something like 2.87. I had a lot of Canadian change so I looked at him and said 'is this enough?' and he said 'just give me a loonie and a toonie' I went 'huh? I feel like I'm in a foreign country' then realized I was..LOL
And during this biking event, there was a little tour in Sandwich to which they had a Canadian tour guide. He would not project his voice so it was pretty hard to hear him - but when he said "house" and "about", Jerome and I cracked up!