This Is What A Feminist Looks Like

We all have strengths and weaknesses. Things we do well and things we don't. A true partnership takes advantage of each party's strengths to cancel weaknesses, strike a balance and create something that is greater than the sum of it's parts. It requires each to contribute and even push past what they think they can do. It assumes an individual desire to learn new skills and a collective determination to work together. It knows no gender preferences only competence and willingness. It's a beautiful thing to be a part of.

I'm usually baffled by so called modern feminists. I always thought that the first real feminists were those Pioneer women who toiled, fought and died at their husband's side. Who took on any challenge, any task, any danger and damn anyone who disagreed with their choices. I find true feminists in the unwavering sharing of hardship and the acceptance of the idea of partnership with all that entails. Independent and yet realistic. Real feminists are wonderful beyond the ability of the the world's finest authors to describe.

Here is my feminist.

Tired, dirty and yet still with a beaming smile on her lovely face. She's a true scion of her Pioneer foremothers. Unafraid and imminently competent. Not just willing to work hard by her husband's side but joyous for the opportunity and confident in her own skills and abilities. Unconcerned about her femininity because she knows exactly who and what she is and how beautiful that makes her. My wife but not my property. My partner but not my slave. She can be counted on in any situation and that makes her strong. Capable of taking care of herself but always making sure I know how much she values our marriage and appreciates me for who and what I am.

Pour some concrete? Sure. You do the heavy lifting with your male body built for that chore and I'll do the rest. The very picture of a proud, confident woman. Surveying her work and pleased with the results. There is no task beyond her. No job she cannot tackle with the talents The Creator gifted her with and which she has honed and perfected over the years of her life.

I have my task. The bags of concrete are heavy and unwieldy. The mixing requires the strength and endurance the Good Lord provided to me so I could be the partner she deserves. Those attributes she knows she can depend on. They free her for her own work. Work she cherishes because she's a feminist. A strong woman who knows her own mind and takes a back seat to no one. Yet she understands where each of us can best contribute and doesn't resent what she cannot change even if she were of a mind to do so.

Ah beauty. Where can it be found? Some find it in the lunatic gyrations of the latest Hollywood sensation abasing herself across the screen for the delectation of her hordes of misinformed fans. Some in the ravings of a leftist icon who professes independence while prostituting herself for fame and public alms. I find it in the quiet confidence and competence of a woman who has shared every task that has come along in our lives. Yes, she is so very beautiful. The moment matters not, just the woman in that small slice of time.

And when the task is finished she takes joy in a shared success. A job well done. Together. 580 pounds of hand mixed concrete and I didn't spread a single trowel full. I did my part and watched as my beautiful partner did hers. I smiled inside as her pride beamed across her features. Who takes such prideful joy from a task like this? Perhaps someone who doesn't care about the job, only the opportunity, surely given by a loving God, to once again share a hardship with the fortunate man she shares her life with.

Maybe I'm missing something important. Perhaps as a man I simply do not understand. That may be but I do know what I love and what I respect. I love and respect my own dear feminist with all her strengths and all her weaknesses.

I wouldn't trade her for anyone else on the face of the Earth.

Six

The House

A couple of observations. First, we are no longer 25 years old. heck, we're not even 45 any more. Second, a good pocket knife may well be the single most versatile tool you can possess. Third, California building codes purely suck.

We got the word from our realtor in May that the local market had recovered to the point that selling the California house was now a go. When we left in 2010 we were badly underwater on the mortgage. To the point that it would have cost us an arm and leg to get out from under the thing. We decided to hold on, rent it out and see if the market would come around. It apparently has. So last Wednesday we took the kids to the airport in Las Vegas and headed out to California.

We got in late Wednesday evening and started right in to work. We borrowed tools and whatnot from Car Guy since he has everything and lives just down the street. We also decided to just sleep in the house so we could work whenever the mood struck us. Primitive but workable though it was a bit crowded with two adults and one Black Lab.

Speaking of which. Never let anyone tell you dogs don't get homesick. Angus spent the whole week trying to convince us it was time to go home. The first night I found him sitting in the entrance, leaning against the front door and whining softly. Every time we got near the truck he wanted in right now. That boy wanted to go home and he wanted it bad!

We had a lot of work to do. One of the things we brought with us was the paint sprayer since we had an entire house interior to paint. Lu handled that part while I did all the repairs and updates. The kitchen/dining room was red, the master bedroom was blue and white while the rest of the house was a tan color. The realtor wanted the whole house Navajo White. She indicated that the banks were driving the market and all their houses were that color so that's what buyers were expecting. Since the renters had made various holes and bad repairs a paint job was in order anyway so we gave her what she wanted.The best part was the fact that we were replacing the carpeting so draping and taping off was reduced a bit.

What color is Navajo White? This is Navajo White. Not that Angus was an issue in a newly painted house or anything.

Some before and after shots:

The Great Room

The Kitchen/Dining Room

Master Bedroom

DOs Room

Spare Bedroom. In this room I had to do three repairs to the drywall. You can see them from the center right to the far left at the bottom of the wall.

Bear in mind that Lu did all the painting. I hate it and suck at it. She likes it and is good at it. I married well my friends. I reciprocated by doing all the repairs and the yard work. The yards were a mess in spite of having hired a service. They were summarily fired when we saw the state of the yards. Word to the wise; get references. Good ones.

As of today the carpet has been replaced with a good quality tan Berber. The realtor sign is up and an open house is now scheduled for Sunday. Our agent anticipates receiving offers even before the OH so we're keeping our fingers crossed.

We finished late on Monday and headed for home that night. I hate driving in the heat and the late night traffic is so much better so we drove straight through and got in to Hurricane Tuesday morning exhausted. We've been just trying to recover since then. We had a lot of late nights and worked 14, 16 and 18 hour days trying to get the place ready. The realtor was pleased with our work and pronounced us ready. When you consider the bid for the paint job alone was 2500 dollars and that didn't include any repairs we saved a bundle by doing it ourselves.

We've had our termite inspection. They'll be going by on Monday for a treatment but found very little to address. That made me very happy. Had some dry rot but in a house built in 1969 that's hardly surprising. One word of advice. Fix It All (aka Fixall) is pure magic. I used it to repair a lot of my dry rot issues and I highly recommend the stuff. Cheap, mixes quickly and easy as stink to use. I get no commercial kickback from those folks I just love their product.

There were a couple of areas I had to bring into California Building Code compliance. One was understandable, the other was stupid. I had to retrofit the water heater containment for earthquake safety by adding a double steel strap. No problem. Then I had to add in a 20 minute fire door between the garage and the house which was idiotic because it already had a solid core door installed. No dice, it must have the certification and it must have swing hinges so it will close automatically. I really didn't want to remove the jamb and install an entire unit which would have cost me a cool 200 bucks. Instead I bought a non-pre hung door for 60 and routed out the hinges. A bit more figuring and such but cheaper and easier in the long run.

Now we wait. When and if we get an offer we like there will be a home inspection. I'm crossing my fingers that no major issues arise but if they do I'll be loading up again and heading out. I am convinced that I can do a better and much cheaper job than anyone we could hire. besides, Car Guy is there and if there's anything I can't handle I know he can.

It was quite a week and we're all still pretty tired. The first two days back Angus didn't even snivel about walkies so that gives you an idea how long the trip was. If the house sells for enough for us to get out clean it will have all been worth the effort. There's even a small chance we'll sell it for enough to make a small profit but considering that we've been subsidizing the rent by 800 dollars a month for nearly 3 years and are now carrying the mortgage entirely it seems unlikely we'll recoup all our investment. Still, we're not being greedy. If we can get this white elephant off our backs with just a little pain we'll be very happy.

I'm back now and should be blogging regularly again. Thanks for all your well wishes, they mean a lot to us. I'll update as things progress.
Six

Holy Schlamoley

We're back after what ended up being quite a week. Wednesday we took the kids to the airport and were in California by that evening. Due to the work schedule and time pressures we jumped in immediately. We completely painted the interior of the house, did some major yard work, fixed a host of renter issues and generally got the house ready for the market. Open house on Saturday. The house goes on MLS tomorrow and our realtor is expecting offers even before the OH. Apparently inventory is low and demand is high. How much has the market changed in the last year? If we get what she expects it's gone up in Salinas between 70 and 80 thousand in the last year, 30 to 40 just since September 2012. Timing is everything and we felt The Good Lord was rapping us both on the forehead, telling us not to miss this obvious blessing (if our realtor wasn't just blowing smoke. Not likely but always a possibility. We're continuing to pray. Hard.). To that end we basically went through that house from end to end in 6 days. It was exhausting but if it all works out definitely worth the effort.

We left California last night at 9:18 PM and rolled into the driveway at 7:15 AM this morning. Tired but oh so happy to be home. Especially Angus. We took a nice nap this morning, got up to shower and eat something. We're still pretty bushed but I'll have a complete report with pics up tomorrow. I'd have posted from there but we ended up not having any internet access. My thanks to Car Guy who provided help, tools, expertise, food and much needed support. Good friends are such a treasure.

Thanks for all your well wishes and for checking in. See you tomorrow.
Six and Lu

Fence

Excuses are gone. It's time to get back to work on the house. I decided to go ahead and put up the fence between our house and Sarge's. It runs along the north side of the house, beside Sarge's driveway, from the back of the property to the front corner of the garage. I put up a temporary fence last year to keep the dogs in the yard. It consisted of some chain link and black wrought iron I already had. The chain link started to sag and look terrible so it's time to replace it permanently.

Materials consist of eleven 8' pressure treated 4x4s, eleven 50 pound bags of post concrete, thirty 8' pressure treated 2x4s with screws and galvanized steel hangers. I'll buy the actual fence boards in the next day or two, just before I put them up.

Here's how the area and old fence looked.

Looking back from the front of the garage.

You can see the chain link and the wrought iron sections. I used the WI to make a temporary dog fence until the new fence is up.

Really, that's just embarrassing.

I ran a string along the property line and then drove in a stake every 8 feet. Those are where I'll later dig holes for the 4x4 posts. I then laid out the posts with one bag of post concrete per hole. It didn't actually take all 11, I used 9 1/2 bags for 11 holes but for 2' deep 6" holes for 4x4 posts one 50 pound bag per is a good rule of thumb. It actually depends on depth uniformity and how much you have to hog out the hole for fit.

I was going to dig the post holes by hand. Then I remembered that I'm actually lazy. And I'm a guy so you know, power tools. Plus I got to draft some cute help.

Holes drilled and posts set in place.

Now it's time to make things more or less permanent. This may not be the way others do it. It might not even be the best way to do it but it's the way that works best for me.

I started out by setting the two end posts and leaning the others back.

I then ran a string from the first post to the last. I'll use this string to set the rest.

I then set the center post of the run. I now have two ends and the center done. This will break up the run into two halves and allow me to more easily get the posts set correctly.

After the center post was set I broke it again and set a center post in the two half runs. The rest went from there, working from back to front.

A word on setting posts. This must be done correctly to get a straight and plumb fence. Time spent here will pay off when putting up the fence boards. The better the posts are set the less finagling and fudging you'll have to do later. The posts are the foundation. Get this right and the rest is a lot simpler.

I start off by checking plumb while the post is set at the string line. If the post is plumb but not touching the line the entire post has to be moved toward the line. This was necessary for me because the fence is located on the property line. I had to drill the holes on my side of the line so some fudging became necessary. You can see here that the post is plumb but about an inch away from the string.

Time to hog out the holes. Done the old fashioned way.

Now the post is straight and plumb and as close to the string as I prefer. I don't rest the post on the string. If the posts push against the string even just a bit it'll tend to create a cascading error that will make the fence either wavy or bowed. Instead I leave a gap of between 1/16 and 1/32 of an inch between the post and the string. That will tend to cancel out any errors and make the fence much straighter.This is also the time to ensure the post is square to the line. It's not critical, a little error is acceptable, but the better the posts are set the easier the fence boards are to put up and the better the fence will look. Am I harping? Well, maybe a little. There, perfect. The post is plumb, square and right at the correct distance from the string. Let's set that sucker.

A word on post concrete. The big box home remodel store was out of actual post cement so I went with a quick dry concrete. I set the posts dry and add in water in stages as I fill the hole. Get the post aligned correctly, add in a little concrete. Check the post. Correct and add in some water. Check the post again, Correct and add in some more concrete and water. I do this until the hole is filled with concrete and water and the post is set correctly. It's a little time consuming but it allows me to set the posts alone and check and correct all the way to the top. Others may click their tongues and chastise me for this practice but I've done it many times and had good luck with it. The concrete draws in the water and will cure in the hole as well as if poured wet. Hey, it works for me. Your mileage may vary. True post cement is designed to do this very thing and the only real difference between post cement and quick dry concrete is gravel, the name and cost.

Eleven posts later and it's done. The posts are set, straight, plumb and square. Ready for stringers and boards.

This work actually took me two days because I'm retired and lazy and no one was paying me to finish on a deadline. One day to prep the site and auger the holes. One day to set all the posts. Tomorrow I'll be putting in the stringers and getting ready for boards. This weekend I'll put up the fence boards. All 160 plus of them. There will also be two gates, one at the back corner and another at the front of the garage.

More tomorrow God willing and the creek don't rise.

Six

Garage Build

The delivery guy dropped off a package on Tuesday afternoon. It was 9 large boxes and 1 small one on a triple long pallet.

Here's the boxes, unloaded and partially opened. That's a lotta parts!

First step is to do some assembly, lay down the foundation and put up the corners, main pillars and support beams. It's important brace the walls as at this point it can be blown down by a strong wind.

Slot A goes into Tab B and then attach the doohickey with alternating thingies. Got it. Wait...what?? I'm a guy. I hate instructions.

The 2 main trusses. They had to be assembled piece by piece by piece. There were a lot of parts.

This is where we left off yesterday. Most of the main supports are in and the trusses and roof beams are assembled and ready to install. That's what we'll be working on today along with putting on the exterior sides. We're still several days away from a completed garage.

More tomorrow.

Six

Jasmine Oh Jasmine

So it was time to do one of the honeydo's highest on my list of things I really, really did not want to do. Taking out the Jasmine vine out front. Why now?
'Cuz I don't want to end up like this guy.

This is what that mess looked like before I started. Each wing of the vine is 16 feet long and a little over 5 feet high. There are 3 main roots and, as anyone who has ever messed with these things knows, about a million little roots.

Started by pushing it over as far as it'd go because I'm a gorilla and that's what gorilla's do.

It's been up for 20 years or so and the 4x4's were rotted pretty badly. I pushed and pushed but surprise, surprise it completely failed to fall over and onto my trailer. It was pretty obvious some cutting was needed. Cue my double bitted axe because I broke my chain saw doing the fence. Yeah, I'm that guy.

Half down and ready to be dragged away. Yeah, that's my help laying on the lawn sunning themselves with the cooler nearby. Oh, turns out the vine was heavy. Really heavy. Like about 500 pounds of heavy. Oh, my aching 50 year old legs. That's about 2 hours of solid, backbreaking work. Well..... work for an old guy anyway.

Hey, I can see the street!

And the house.

One down and one to go. Luckily for me my timing worked out perfectly and Lu got home just in time to help out with half number 2. Tell me that isn't a frickin' mess.

Number 2 is gone and Lu poses next to her triumph. She finally got me to finish what I've been swearing I'd do for the last 15 years. Remember that bear in the procrastination poster? He's got nothing on Lu. Man, I need some window treatments now. Sigh.

For comparison. That trailer is 5 feet wide and 10 feet long. I'm 6 feet tall. That is a pile o' Jasmine. Unseen under that pile is about 1200 pounds of broken concrete and brick that used to be 2 benches (you can see one of them in the before photo). I'm thinking I'm gonna have to cough up a lung at the dump.

The After picture. Please ignore the partial glove on the left. I was lacking adult supervision at that moment. We can now see out and, even more importantly, it no longer looks like the entrance to the Brazillian Jungle Ride at Retarded Otto's Amusement Park. My neighbors will be so happy.

All this just so I can rent the place out and someone else will miss out on the joys of Jasmine pollen and Jasmine trimming.

Becoming a slum lord better be worth all this effort.

Six