Hurricane Isaias
This weekend we wound up coming up for a short weekend. We were planning for our normal 2 day weekend, but an unscheduled visit from a hurricane Isaias changed things up for us. Fortunately, it is a smaller storm and although we’re in the cone of uncertainty, based on the info I’ve seen thus far it looks as if it’s going to stay offshore. The most dangerous part of hurricanes is the east/northeast side. Fortunately for us, we won’t see it. For the west end of the Bahamas, sorry. Again.
Storm shutters? Nope. Pork butts!
Like all good Floridians, we got prepared just in case. For us, that meant cooking a couple pork butts on the smoker! If we’re going to be without power, at least we’ll be eating good. We did not end up putting up our storm shutters, and it seems that most of our neighbors felt the same way.
Florida summers are hot!
We made it up Saturday evening with another big load of lumber. We got it unloaded just in time to watch the sunset from the front porch. Beautiful, as always. Oceana brought a bottle of wine but forgot the opener. No problem. A drill, a #10 screw, and a clamp and she was sipping chilled white wine. We were both real tired after another long week so we ended up in bed by 8:30. We are grateful to have a room to sleep in up here. However, the only bummer with having a window unit is that it takes a long time to cool the room down. And it was a hot day. Which means it was a hot room. To those that lived in this house for 85 years without A/C. My hat’s off to you.
Early start
Sunday morning we got after it early. I got into trimming out the outlets and switches while Oceana got started with the trim paint. For the outlets, I had to go back into the crawl space and add a junction box to connect two of the wires from the outlet that got removed when the sliding doors went in. Once all of the outlets and switches were trimmed out, I made the final connections in the breaker panel and flipped the breaker on. Good.
Floor grinding
Next up was getting started on the floors. The floors don’t look that bad. But they could look a whole lot better. Since we’re redoing the floors throughout the rest of the house, I figured it’s worth doing these floors also. So I got the grinder set up with the vac and got to it. Now, sanding floors and painting trim isn’t the best combination of work to be doing in the same room at the same time. But oh well, we made it work. Oceana had painted the windows first, which was good. They dried quickly and any dust that settled on the window sill came right off. As Oceana painted the door casings, I worked on the opposite side of the room. We both worked our way around the room until all she had left was the baseboards. I finished up the initial heavy sand with 40 grit and we got the room cleaned up. The floors will still need sanded with more grits – 60, 80, 100, and 120 before being clear coated. But the heavy work is done. Oceana then painted the baseboards as I got the van loaded up.
Chainsaw? Check.
I made sure to load up the chainsaw as we’re still expecting 40+ mile an hour winds. Based on this mornings forecast, the storm should be making landfall in West Palm Beach around 2pm. I figured if we left at 12, we should be able to meet it at our house right at 2! I’m hoping for no damage and minimal yard clean up. We will see soon enough though! Another short yet good weekend. Thanks for following along our journey!
Tropical Tidbits
On a bit of a side note – if you’re interested in hurricane info, there’s a guy with a site called Tropical Tidbits. When there’s an active storm, he’ll usually post every evening with a down to earth explanation of the storm and what factors are affecting the storm. It’s really good stuff. I found the page last year when we were riding out hurricane Dorian and I bookmarked it for future use. I’m glad I did so I figured I’d share it for those who may be interested. Enjoy!
Update Monday 8/3
The storm passed us just off the coast of Palm Beach. We didn’t see any major winds or storms which means no damage and minimal yard clean up. Good.
I’m so glad the storm missed you guys and you didn’t need to put up the shutters! The wood floors in the bedroom are looking really good. Such a difference after one sanding… Oceana must be getting really good at painting window frames and baseboards, which is a good thing because there are more rooms to do. Too bad the air conditioner in the bedroom takes a while to cool down the room…hope you brought some fans along. We enjoy seeing your work and the progress on the house. Can’t wait to see the house and both of you sometime! Love, Mom
Those floors are going to be gorgeous. I’m expecting an invite when we get down this winter. I’ve been thinking about an appropriate housewarming gift for you!
We’re happy to have you over when you get down this winter! We’re planning a BBQ party after we finish for everyone around the lake but no promises on when that will be.