Even More Home Improvement

Happy Winter Solstice to all of you, as we celebrate the shortest day of the year, and the eventual return to daylight savings time.  Today we have had a thick cloud deck which will probably obscure tonight’s full moon.

This has been the week of contractors.  We are glad it’s Friday.

The house was built in 1999.  From what we have seen, maintenance, particularly preventative, was not always performed.  One case in point was the front door.  It looks OK from a distance.



Closer examination reveals that one could see daylight through the door.  See the flesh colored patches on the left side?  That’s wood putty Jim smeared on it last May, shortly before we left.  Also suboptimal feature was the daylight we could see under the door on the other side.  We suspect that’s how the scorpions were getting in.  Did you know that if you can slide a credit card between two surfaces, a scorpion can pass through the space as well?  Sleep well knowing that!



We spent a fair amount of time debating fiberglass vs. steel.  Then we went into Dale’s Doors, saw the wood doors, and all thoughts of a synthetic door went out the window.  Yes, wood requires maintenance, but it’s so pretty.  This is a knotty alder door with an arch and V grooves.  We had it installed Wednesday morning.  Happy we are not to have attempted that.



Wednesday afternoon Southern Arizona Rain Gutters arrived.  They do single piece extruded gutters (or as our neighbors to the north call them, eaves troughs). 



They have a roll of gutter material which is extruded to the proper length on site.  After the end caps are put on, they attach them to the house.  See the rectangular shapes on the parapet?  That’s where the water runs off the roof into the gutter.  They’re flashed on the bottom.  Whoever built this house had a brain fart and nailed the gutter to the support beam over the patio.  Water got behind the gutters and gave us that dark section of wood.  Fortunately it’s dry here so nothing has rotted, only discolored.  This will, however, give the homeowners a staining project they really did not want.



Now the water will be carried away, onto the new pile of rocks and down into the wash.  With any luck, the water will stop bashing the bougainvillea in the head.



Yesterday and today Sage from Door Medic was out sanding and finishing the door.  The side that faces out is done with teak oil.  The inside is satin spar varnish, non-shiny.  I love this door.  It’s stupid to love inanimate objects, but I do love the door.  It was open when I took this picture because Sage put polyurethane on the threshold and it’s still tacky.



Here is our very festive wreath on the front gate.  After we bought it we noticed the tag that says for interior use only.  If rain is forecast we’ll have to bring it in.



Speaking of rain, here are a couple of photos from the GPNW.  These were taken in Anacortes.  They’re had some pretty impressive wind as of late.


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So there you have it. Home improvement and wind.