In the garden, and RAIN!!! (2) by SIGNYM

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

In the garden, and RAIN!!! (2)

POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Monday, August 10, 2026 03:05
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VIEWED: 318482
PAGE 160 of 162

Friday, July 31, 2026 9:57 PM

Picture Time.

First is easy stuff that I finally got around to. Like cleaning those gross shades. Like I said, I got the burn marks off the bad one, but then I realized it was clear and the other two were nicotine stain yellow.

And now that the kitchen is all clean, I figured I'd snap an after shot for one of the before pics I put up last week.

And the finished bookcase...

I put some caulk on it where it needed it. Obviously not a pro job with that top left hack job, but I know the thing is built like a tank and you can hardly notice it. All that's left is putting down contact paper on the surfaces when I've given it a few days to cure.

Before/After of the master bedroom closet and entry. You can see the louvered linen closet door in the after shot.

Before/After of the small bedroom closet that I just installed today.

I had to add length to the right door, so I used the smallest part of a piece of window/door trim since it was the perfect height to cap off the ends, then I put my trim on that. For the door that was the right size, I just put the trim flush with the bottom.

And the chest...

I'm wrecked.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Friday, July 31, 2026 10:07 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

I'm REALLY having fun with that chest.

I've actually never restored a piece of furniture from start to finish, even though that's what my mom and step-dad did after they retired. Whenever I did go over there and worked, I was either the sanding grunt, or I was gluing and clamping pieces that had broke but could be repaired. I don't blame him. The money is in the finish, and he had a spray booth that would have that box finished in no time with a perfectly even sheen and no brush marks at all.

I had a chat with Google AI about the best way to go about doing a lot of the stuff here. Made sure to go with water poly inside and out. At first it said to use the wipe on poly I had inside because it would be much easier to use than brushing on the water based poly, but I had asked it if there would be any problems with that if somebody stored clothes or linens in there and it then said to use the water based stuff to lock everything in so the smells and oils won't contaminate the clothes.

It recommended starting with the inside first since I was doing two colors. I'm glad that I did. I know for sure I have to spend a lot more time sanding the outside smooth. I thought I was thourough, but I know I wasn't. Just a week ago I was really feeling under the gun with all the projects that I took on all at once and I didn't give this piece the time it deserved. I like how that looks on the inside though, along with that black gunk and other abuses and imperfections it had from just being like 100 years old. Stuff that I could have removed with another 4 hours of sanding if I wanted to. When she opens it up, she can remember where it came from. But on the outside? I want that stain to look perfect and I want to get a gloss so high on that it looks like a brand new bowling ball.

Too bad pieces like this don't just fall in your lap all the time. I could probably make what I need to keep my health insurance just doing 1 or 2 pieces like this every month.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Friday, July 31, 2026 11:43 PM

BRENDA

That is some fine looking work there SIX.

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Saturday, August 1, 2026 12:29 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
That is some fine looking work there SIX.

Thanks, Brenda.

Don't mind the tight angle in the after shot of the small bedroom. Had to get in pretty tight to hide all the hoard that I have to go through in there.

I'll have pics of inside the closet too. There was just a lot of stuff in there right now. I've got to take that all out so I can clean it and do a few paint touchups. I had my hard shell guitar case up against the wall and it ruined the paint job behind it for some reason.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Saturday, August 1, 2026 1:13 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Great work, SIX!

It's great to see the results of all that work! I remember you deciding what to use for that opening in the kitchen to the lower level. For the longest time I had no idea what you were talking about. It was an architectural feature I've never heard of.

Bifold doors. Closet renovation. New trim. HORRIBLE wallpaper and paint job gone! Restored flooring. Nice, nicely proportioned furniture and beautiful light fixtures. New kitchen floor. Plus the stuff we can't see: Major repairs. Repaired sump drain pipe. Improved grading. New windows. Hole in floor fixed.

It used to be dark, busy, almost oppressive. Now it's light and calm and classy.

SIX, you've done an impressive job.

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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Saturday, August 1, 2026 2:08 AM

BRENDA

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
That is some fine looking work there SIX.

Thanks, Brenda.

Don't mind the tight angle in the after shot of the small bedroom. Had to get in pretty tight to hide all the hoard that I have to go through in there.

I'll have pics of inside the closet too. There was just a lot of stuff in there right now. I've got to take that all out so I can clean it and do a few paint touchups. I had my hard shell guitar case up against the wall and it ruined the paint job behind it for some reason.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

Don't worry SIX. I found the angles were fine to see what you did.

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Saturday, August 1, 2026 12:38 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Great work, SIX!

It's great to see the results of all that work! I remember you deciding what to use for that opening in the kitchen to the lower level. For the longest time I had no idea what you were talking about. It was an architectural feature I've never heard of.

Bifold doors. Closet renovation. New trim. HORRIBLE wallpaper and paint job gone! Restored flooring. Nice, nicely proportioned furniture and beautiful light fixtures. New kitchen floor. Plus the stuff we can't see: Major repairs. Repaired sump drain pipe. Improved grading. New windows. Hole in floor fixed.

It used to be dark, busy, almost oppressive. Now it's light and calm and classy.

SIX, you've done an impressive job.

Thank you, Sigs.

Yeah... I learned a lot doing all of it along the way. I tended not to want much to do with actual finish work outside of painting when doing this stuff with other people over the years. I always liked doing the demolition because nobody I ever worked with was going to complain about my speed doing that. So I either had to draw from memory of seeing other people finishing stuff or rely on YouTube University.

The really cool part is just how little I've actually paid in cash to get all this work done. Not going to claim it was anything close to free overall. I've probably spent $600 on paint alone. But that 2/3 bathroom remodel was only about $50 so far (I did have things like new knobs and the paint purchased back when the kitchen was done years ago).

The kitchen is all original outside of the new flooring which I got on the cheap because they had a "remenant" that was big enough to do the kitchen floor and both the coat closet and pantry with more to spare. That was something like $89 instead of over $125. And those poles for the overlook were BEEFY oak coat closet hangers that are about double the width of any of my actual closet poles. Normally $22 each but I got them on sale for $10 each. So probably add about $300 for paint and another $100 for caulk, knobs and hinges and the hinge jig. (I did have to buy that drill press and the forstner bit set for the overlook, but I generally don't count the purchase of tools as a cost of a job unless they were single use or rentals... but technically that was another $75 or so).

And all the trim in the house basically was free after the clearance prices and me taking out that new card to pay with it that gave me $250 signup bonus for spending $1,000 in 90 days (I used that as an excuse to load up on stuff I know I would be using eventually).

So far, that kitchen remodel was probably $600 and the bathroom was about $50.

I would like to get a nice jet black countertop to replace that awful Menard's special that's sitting on top of them now though. It's why I haven't caulked any of that to the wall yet.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Saturday, August 1, 2026 1:35 PM

BRENDA

Out in a bit on what should be a cooler day. Got some rain where I am over night. Outside of the library not totally sure what I am doing.

SIX if you didn't get my message in tags. I did the restart before I went to bed last night. Everything is working this morning. Turning into a two finger typist because of my hands as I don't know what is going on. Going to look at another store about laptops.

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Saturday, August 1, 2026 4:28 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
SIX if you didn't get my message in tags. I did the restart before I went to bed last night. Everything is working this morning. Turning into a two finger typist because of my hands as I don't know what is going on. Going to look at another store about laptops.

I did, Brenda. And I posted a new reply in your thread.

I thought you said after the restart you were still having problems, no?

If not, disregard the last message that I put in Your thread about the next step. If everything is working fine now, we're all good.

Don't slow your typing down because you're worried about your hands shaking. I really don't think you did anything wrong and most of this was coincidental, based off of your descriptions.

Windows really does need somewhat regular restarts, and I've gleaned from our conversations in the past that you hardly ever give it a proper restart and it's usually just in sleep mode when you're not using it.

I would try to make it a habit on the 1st of every month to do a restart on your computer and you shouldn't run into issues like this anymore. This might just have happened because you've been running that computer since the monitor situation without ever giving it a proper restart.

And the best part is when you finally get around to upgrading the computer it's almost certainly going to have an SSD hard drive which is lightning fast compared to the cheaper/older mechanical hard drives. We're talking like 30 to 60 second restart times instead of 5 or 6 minutes.

Yeah... Get yourself a laptop when you can and we'll get everything you use on there too so you'll have a legit backup and way to get online so we can troubleshoot the other computer. I bought my laptop about 6 years ago, and except for offloading some of my project work onto it a few months ago, I've only ever fired the thing up 2 or 3 times since I got it. But it's always there in case of an emergency.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Saturday, August 1, 2026 4:39 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

ULTRA BRIGHT WHITE PAINT MY ASS!!!

Instead of opening one of my 3 unopened cans of flat white paint I've been using for all the ceilings and some closet walls, I spotted a half gallon of ultra bright white flat Behr paint that I got from my buddy.

It went on white, that's for sure. You can see that in the photos below (or more accurately, you can't see anything). I thought the problem was solved. But after I snapped some pictures and got them ready to post I went back in and it all dried freakin' BEIGE!!!

Dammit.

The inside of the can looked good, but some of that rust on the outside along the rim must have gotten into the paint at some point. Not enough for me to notice it when it was in the can.

Throwing that shit paint out. I guess I've got to bite the bullet and open a brand new gallon of paint just to do about 10 touch ups. Stupid. Oh well... I remember getting the flat on an insane rebate sail for only $8 each years back. Wish I bought more of the high-gloss stuff since that was only like $15 at the time of that sale and now goes for about $35 when it's not on sale. But I've got 1.5 gallons left and that should probably get me through most everything left to do in the house when I get to it all, I would think.

This just pisses me off, especially since I used up all the rest of my flat paint last week and would have easily had enough left on my brush and the bottom of that can to do what I need to do now.

Anywho.... Here's a better look at the closet, and the little trap door I need to start work on soon.

Ain't nobody got closets like Jack because Jack is crazy.

Oh... and that hole definitely was cut out to hide something. There's literally nothing under there. I am very intimate with that hole since, if you don't remember, that's the hole I literally fell through and put my foot right through the basement ceiling when I was taking a video of work to show my mom. My gonads hurt me for a week after that and I was pretty worried I ripped something and gave myself a hernia.

It's about 3 feet away from the tub, and there is nothing there at all. No plumbing, no electric, nada...

I wonder what they were hiding in there?

It was all carpeted over like everything else and it was covered with some nasty plywood.

I've got some scraps from a nice hardwood floor still out in my garage for this very project. I ended up using most of them as faces and support beams on all those shelves I built for the garage, but I've got plenty left to do this. I think what I'm going to do is notch out enough on both the floor and the top that I create so I can lay hinges in there backwards, flat and flush with the surface. Maybe put a little hole in the front of it for you to put your finger in there and lift it.

It would never be a good place to really hide anything unless somebody carpeted the entire upstairs again, including the closets, but what a fun little thing for a kid to have in their closet one day.

I haven't come up with a solid plan yet, but I've got a vision. I need to make sure that I build a proper base in there that will take any and all weight of anything you put in there off of the basement ceiling drywall first, then I want to build some nice walls for it to so everything is safe and looks great.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Saturday, August 1, 2026 4:52 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

See... I love posting pics here and then noticing things I didn't notice or forgot about IRL...

It occurred to me as I was hanging that door that I never painted that header beam in the closet. And until looking at it right now in the pics, I already forgot about it.

Now I wont' feel so bad about opening up the flat paint for touch ups. I'll hit that with a few coats as well and skip primer. Then when it dries I'll make it shiny like everything else.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Saturday, August 1, 2026 5:09 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Now here's a cool thing I can point out that I didn't realize until now.

I know I've talked about the crazy walls in my house and how at one point I was convinced that they had plastered about 3/4" walls on top of drywall and couldn't wrap my head around that. All the stuff I tore out in the basement was drywall, but any original walls in the house on the top 2 floors were done this way.

And that closet was an addition at some point. There was a point in time where that bedroom was quite a bit larger and people used wardrobes if they didn't have closets.

I know all of this for a fact because the light switch for the bedroom used to be outside of the bedroom, on the left side of the stairs to the attic. So at some point they made the bedroom a little smaller to keep access to the attic outside of that bedroom and made the closet to make the loss of space make sense. And this totally explains why I have an empty door frame before getting to the small bedroom or the attic door.

But they didn't move the electric into the room. It's one of the things I was doing way back when I'd BS with Wishy and JO every night. I don't think I'd have it in me to do all that work again today, but I was pretty proud of that job and the fact it was all done with hard pipe was insane.

So this cool shot here shows that they just eliminated most of the wall that used to be there to make that closet. Or maybe they did have a small closet in there across from the steps to the attic when it was all in the same room?

If that's the case, they opened it up much wider for bifolds.

Either way, that spot right there is the only remaining place where you can currently tell how these walls were actually done.

I learned just a little while ago on some random youtube video that popped up in my feed that this is the way they were temporarily doing things before the complete transition to drywall. It was a lot easier and cheaper to do it this way than to pay the really skilled artists that would plaster over wood lathe like all the walls in my Grams house were.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Saturday, August 1, 2026 5:28 PM

BRENDA

Aah, SIX. That paint looks gray to me.

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Saturday, August 1, 2026 5:29 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Just FYI... If you can't see any images that I'm posting, it looks like imgbb.com might be having some issues right now. They did come back up for about 30 seconds, but then showed generic "uploading this content requires registration" images again.

Hopefully they come back up and I don't have to find another image hosting platform and reupload things.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Saturday, August 1, 2026 5:30 PM

BRENDA

Yeah, everything is fine today. Will add to notes about getting a routine of starting up.

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Saturday, August 1, 2026 5:31 PM

BRENDA

Everything done for today. Hands are bad right now because of stretching to reach things off of very high places. One was a broom handle situation. Aarrgh!

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Saturday, August 1, 2026 5:32 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Aah, SIX. That paint looks gray to me.

Oh... I mean on the white wall on the left with the shelves on it. It was taken in the dark, so maybe that's why it looks grey. The paint on the left wall is the same paint on the rest of that wall, which is a blue/grey.

If I wasn't painting int the dark, I would have noticed this sooner. My eyes couldn't tell the difference when it was still wet, but the camera already could.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Saturday, August 1, 2026 8:23 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Heh... I knew that was going to happen.

I've got to put at least 2 coats of my good white paint on to cover up the bad paint I used for the original touchups. What a dummy. I honestly couldn't see the difference without the lights on, but they were in the pictures I snapped when the paint was still wet. All I had to do was put some lights on instead of going by the limited light from the cloudy day.

Oh well. I'm getting all that header done too, and that's probably going to need 3 coats since I didn't put primer on it.

I look at how nice I made that header in the master bedroom and I'm kind of mad at myself for not doing that in the small bedroom too before putting those doors up. Oh well. I'll just camouflage it now. No big deal...

Sun will be going down soon and I've done nothing much but procratinate all day. Hopefully I'll get something else done besides just that.

I've got some nice cardboard I'm going to cut to size for the large bedroom closet so I can start getting some stuff in there. There's a perfect spot in there for my good guitar, so that's where it's going. I'm just going to make sure to put a hand towel between the back of the case and the wall so I don't have more walls to touch up down the road.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Saturday, August 1, 2026 11:34 PM

BRENDA

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Aah, SIX. That paint looks gray to me.

Oh... I mean on the white wall on the left with the shelves on it. It was taken in the dark, so maybe that's why it looks grey. The paint on the left wall is the same paint on the rest of that wall, which is a blue/grey.

If I wasn't painting int the dark, I would have noticed this sooner. My eyes couldn't tell the difference when it was still wet, but the camera already could.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

Oops, sorry SIX.

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Sunday, August 2, 2026 5:17 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Aah, SIX. That paint looks gray to me.

Oh... I mean on the white wall on the left with the shelves on it. It was taken in the dark, so maybe that's why it looks grey. The paint on the left wall is the same paint on the rest of that wall, which is a blue/grey.

If I wasn't painting int the dark, I would have noticed this sooner. My eyes couldn't tell the difference when it was still wet, but the camera already could.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

Oops, sorry SIX.

No worries, Brenda.

Funny story about today when I was doing the 2nd/3rd coats on those touch ups and AFTER I told you the difference in the walls.

I mentioned it was super cloudy today, and in the afternoon when the sun is on the exact opposite side of the house, apparently there are some weird color effects when coupled with my LED flashlight...

I noticed on the wall with the blue that there were areas that I hadn't touched up yet. Of course I haven't because I don't have any of that blue paint at the moment to do those touchups...

But I didn't see the blue, and both walls looked to me like they were the same color and I just did it.

Two seconds later I realized what I just did and I ran to the bathroom and got some baby wipes and fortunately was able to get all that white paint off my damn blue/grey wall.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Sunday, August 2, 2026 5:29 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Nothing to really make pics about, but got a lot done today/tonight.

I got all those touch ups finished in the closet and 3 coats of white paint on everything that wasn't white on the header of the small bedroom closet. It's not perfect like the other two hung doors are, but it's so hidden with that trim I lowered below the opening and just about the height of the track you can't hardly see it when the closet is closed unless you're right up under it. And now when it's open all you see is white even if things aren't capped and cornered off like I did it everywhere else. I might snap some pics of that tomorrow.

I discovered my estimation of boxes in my attic was high and I only have 20 left that haven't been brought down.

The worst news is I have two obscenely large totes of all of those ancient black and white photos that I never went through with my Grams. I swore my Aunt took all that, but now I remember when I said I had photos she was only interested in those of her parents and siblings and pics when me and my brothers and cousins were growing up. She had no interest in storing these two huge things in her little apartment.

I'm at a place in my life where I just can't. The health issues these last few years is making me rethink a lot of stuff, and me holding onto this stuff when it seems nobody else in my family gives a rat's ass just seems foolish. I know they're not worth anything monetarily, and I am just about 100% sure that there is not a single person in any of those pictures that I've ever met in my life. Even babies.

I really think I'm going to put out one last call to the family and see if anybody wants to take those off of my hands. I'm certainly not getting rid of everything I had in boxes, but where those things seemed so important to me 3 years ago, I just don't have that feeling about them anymore today. I will quickly go through them though and see if there are any pictures that speak to me. I don't have to get rid of all of them, and there might be some I feel are worth setting aside.

Oh... and I've spent about 5 hours sanding that chest by hand, literally. No tools, just folded up sandpaper and my fingers. It really needed it. You could feel with your hands the imperfections from the power sanders. I started at an 80 grit and went to 100, 150 and then 220. And I had to do this twice. And even after wiping that down and getting the tiny wood dust out of the grain, I'd feel it again and still feel the imperfections, so I kept wiping it down and hitting it again with 220 grit paper until I couldn't feel anymore of those after a wipedown.

If this doesn't take my stain the way I want it to, I really don't know what else I could have done. The damn box looks shiny on the outside now and there's not any product on it yet.

I also got my knockoff dremmel tool out and cleaned off all the rust on the screws on the bottom of the chest that were too deep for my power sanders to clean.

It's all ready to go and it's really late in the morning, but I'm just taking a break now before I stain it. This is exciting. The moment of truth.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Sunday, August 2, 2026 1:31 PM

BRENDA

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Aah, SIX. That paint looks gray to me.

Oh... I mean on the white wall on the left with the shelves on it. It was taken in the dark, so maybe that's why it looks grey. The paint on the left wall is the same paint on the rest of that wall, which is a blue/grey.

If I wasn't painting int the dark, I would have noticed this sooner. My eyes couldn't tell the difference when it was still wet, but the camera already could.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

Oops, sorry SIX.

No worries, Brenda.

Funny story about today when I was doing the 2nd/3rd coats on those touch ups and AFTER I told you the difference in the walls.

I mentioned it was super cloudy today, and in the afternoon when the sun is on the exact opposite side of the house, apparently there are some weird color effects when coupled with my LED flashlight...

I noticed on the wall with the blue that there were areas that I hadn't touched up yet. Of course I haven't because I don't have any of that blue paint at the moment to do those touchups...

But I didn't see the blue, and both walls looked to me like they were the same color and I just did it.

Two seconds later I realized what I just did and I ran to the bathroom and got some baby wipes and fortunately was able to get all that white paint off my damn blue/grey wall.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

That is cool and funny.

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Sunday, August 2, 2026 1:34 PM

BRENDA

Slow Sunday as my hands are still a little shaky. They are better than yesterday but yeah. Nice and slow.

SIX, I did clear out that little notification area in the right corner at the bottom. And it was a notification about no threats. Also I wonder about taking a chance on reupping my anti-virus. It's a free thing that was already installed on the drive when I got it.

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Sunday, August 2, 2026 2:54 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

How does that work with the shakiness, Brenda? Does it come and go? Does weather impact it? I don't remember you talking about it too much before. My mom's MS comes and goes. I could see her one day and it's like she never got it, but I could see her 3 months later and she can't hardly get out of the couch on her own and she takes small steps to get everywhere. Humidity is really bad for her, which is why I was really mad when they upped and moved from Arizona (one of if not the driest state in the country, to the most humid).

The notifications for no threats is normal. That's the built-in Windows Defender.

Normally I would have told you not to bother with anti-virus software because Windows Defender is good, but I'm pretty sure we're not getting updates on our Windows 10 security anymore (since October of last year).

Adding antivirus is easy. Which one did your computer have before?

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Sunday, August 2, 2026 5:34 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Okay... We are not going with another coat of stain.

What a waste of time. I decided to just try it on the bottom of the box and it hardly darkened the color at all. If it even did, I can't tell. But I've got to wait 2 hours before I can put poly on now while that dries.

I was thinking about putting contact paper on the bookcase, but I read that I should be waiting at least 14 to 30 days before doing that. I know I waited a long time on the kitchen cabs before doing it, but I didn't remember waiting that long. I must have though because I wouldn't have put it on without checking first.

I think I'll spackle all the brad nail holes for the 3 long pieces of mid-level trim in the basement and all those corner pieces I fleshed out the stairwell with. It will be nice to get that done and sanded down and cleaned up. Needs a little caulk too, but I always do the spackle first.

I will be putting something like 6 coats of poly on the outside of the box, and they need at least 2 hours drying time in between scuff sands and a new application. I won't be starting poly today until 6PM at least, so it's going to be another long night.

I keep going the way I'm going, I'm going to force myself to do dehoarding just from lack of stuff I can still do without doing a proper sump operation that will leave me virtually free of water issues if done right. I can't be doing anything more in the basement that hasn't been done until that's finished. I really never should have finished most of that room in the basement, but through some blood sweat and tears over the years I've managed to save the work so far.

I'm hoping once summer winds down I can get my buddy out here for a few days on the weekends or something. There's just certain things like this that I feel much better doing when he's around, like back when we jacked up my porch and fixed the flooring from underneath. I spent about 80 hours working on things in between his visits. He was probably only here 10 hours in 3 days, but we didn't waste a minute of that time.

I should probably get down there soon and figure out how I want to run my electric so both pumps are on different circuits. I know I'm stuck with the one as it is without doing a ton of work, and it's never been a problem with what it shares the circuit with such as my microwave. But I can't add a 2nd pump to that. When I open the wall by the breaker box to do the work for the generator plug outside the house, I will be checking to see if the 2 foot electrical conduit nub with capped off wires is it's own circuit straight from that box that was terminated for some reason. If that's the case it will make my work a LOT easier. Won't know until I put some huge holes in the one room in the basement that has all the walls finished.

:(

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Sunday, August 2, 2026 7:00 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Change of plans...

Had me another little chat with Google AI, and it seems that the best path forward now is to use Super Glue to seal in all those screws on the bottom before I add my water based poly. Glad I asked that question before I got started.

I thought I was ready for the first coat and figured I'd burn time getting a few more pics ready, which I did. But I got sidetracked into that conversation about the screws and now it's time to start the poly and I'm going to have to do the super glue thing and wait about 30 minutes before starting it.

Got as much rust off the screwtops on the bottom of the box with my dremmel as I could.

5 additional hours sanding by hand.

And our stain...

The poly is transformative. I have to keep that in mind when looking at this. It's not the result that I expected, even after trying a 2nd coat, but it's not bad. I can tell that's going to match her furniture, and if you look at the parts where I filled it in with wood filler and it really took the color, it's going to be damn near a perfect match. I was just a little disappointed at how much brown still shows through. I'm sure I could have done something different to change that, but I don't know enough about what I'm doing to know what that would have been.

But I'm telling you though... If I really put 5 or 6 coats of poly on this thing it's going to look amazing regardless.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Sunday, August 2, 2026 7:10 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Hey Sigs...

You have any ideas of what I could do to keep this thing elevated off the floor?

It's going to take about a month to cure and where it's going is on top of a really nice carpet.

If it were me, I'd just throw some 2x4 scraps under either side and call it a day, but my aunt isn't going to go for that on her carpet.

I'm almost wondering if I need to send her pictures on her retirement day and let her know it will be ready to use next month. Because otherwise she's going to be tripping over it in her kitchen or bathroom because there's nowhere else that isn't covered in very nice looking carpet.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Sunday, August 2, 2026 7:40 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Super Glue actually went quick and easy. Great tip by Google AI to use toothpicks to spread it around on the screws that only needed a little bit, and to keep it from balling up on you, especially in the deeper holes. I was worried I wouldn't have enough with 4 cheap tubes from Menards that are 3/4 full of air and only one tiny real Super Glue brand from the dollar tree. I only needed one.

Give that about 30 more minutes and I'll start the poly on the outside.

Can't wait!!!

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Sunday, August 2, 2026 7:42 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Does it still look like a Coffin, Brenda?

Hopefully that blue/grey makes a difference.

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Sunday, August 2, 2026 7:56 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

I found the little radio thing I got when Grams was passing so I could put a bunch of music she would have grown up with and have that playing in the background. I should get that thing charged up and get my music on an SD card so I can play that down in the basement.

I was listening to Jaynez's Pink Floyd video from the Music II thread while I was down there last night, but it was coming from upstairs and I just really couldn't hear it good over the sanding. I think I'm going to go do that now while I'm waiting for the super glue to dry. If I don't have a spare SD card I can find easily, I'll make sure to copy all those songs to my backups folders before putting my stuff on them.

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Sunday, August 2, 2026 9:44 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Since I want to get 6 coats on this thing, I'm trying to speed it up a little bit. I have a pretty low-key chepo fan I got for a few bucks after rebate that turned out not to be really worth much but it's probably perfect for this. I've cleaned up the basement real good and the sanding was all done in the other room, but I just don't want any of my high powered fans kicking up everything while I'm trying to speed this along.

I've decided that the bottom of the box is going to have at least one if not two of those coats skipped since I have a good amount pooling in those screw holes despite the superglue going in there first to provide a barrier from the water/rust. At the end of the day I don't really care if it only gets 2 coats, but I will try for 3.

I still have a bunch of rubber feet that I bought for the front stairs of the patio whenever I get around to building the back section. I used them on the front step that I remade years ago becuase it was completely rotted out and unsafe, and these rubber feet have ensured that the rot never sets in, but the paint job on the bottom sides of all 6 legs is still good.

I had just enough left to do the back, but I guess I'll just have to buy more whenever I get around to it. I think I'm going to use 4 of them in the corners to get this thing off the ground. That hopefully would get it high enough off the ground where the carpet isn't coming into contact with it while it's curing. It won't be easy to drag around though, so she'd want to find a more permanent place for it.

I always thought if I did it right it would look great sitting right under a foyer table that I measured years ago and knew was wide enough to fit this. I'm not sure if it would slide in and out safely with the handles, but if I've got those feet they could still just be put under there pretty much for keeps one time and the handles would just be in between the front and back legs on either side and you'd have to be careful if ever you did move it from under the table.

Unless I'm up past 8AM, I'm not getting all the coats on tonight, but I'll probably have some pictures of the progress. I already have pics of the first coat and they look great, but I'll probably wait to show anything until at least 3 coats are on it like I've already got inside.

It's just too bad I couldn't do the lips at the same time and I'm going to have all this stupid drying time just for them at the end. Oh well... Next time I'll have painters triangles and hopefully 2 giant work benches free to do this stuff on.

Got my Gram's music from the 30's through the 50's all backed up and in the process of putting my music on the card. Slow as hell with the cheapo thumb drive I bought that has about 7 different slots for different things. It's handy as hell on the rare occasion you need it, but I didn't realize it was only USB2.0 and I'm stuck with about 1.5mbps speeds.

I'm not even sure the radio actually works anymore, actually. Got it plugged in now and haven't gone back to look at it for about an hour. Just plugging it in the wall did not give it the juice it needed to power on, so hopefully it starts now. Bummer if it doesn't. My buddy bought the same one before me years back and he still uses it all the time today. I've only used the thing 1 time for about a week and it's been in storage ever since.

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Sunday, August 2, 2026 11:31 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Coat two is on and drying. It's much quicker than 2 hours with that little fan on everything. I was able to get to scuff sanding it a lot earlier than I thought I would. Still no way I'm going to get 6 coats done tonight.

I wasted away the daylight hours so I'm not going to be putting spackle up in the dark and that will have to wait. I might bring some more stuff down into the small bedroom. I'm going to need a monitor for the work I'm doing, and some of it requires old composite cables, so fortunately I didn't throw away the small TV my old man gave me to throw away that's got them, or I'd be taking a TV from somewhere I don't want to be moving them.

I'm also going to test out a piece of old tech I have sitting on the TV stand that's no longer needed there to see if it even still works before I move it up in the bedroom. Gotta make room for that Atari. Still don't know if it works or if that adapter my brother had in there is going to do the trick for me, but I'm dying to find out.

So mad that I have to wait 30 days to put that contact paper on the bookcase. A lot of decisions about my stored books and knickknacks and what I'm keeping and giving away is dependent on what fits on that thing. Oh well... There are other projects to do and other things I need to dehoard over the next 27 or so days.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Sunday, August 2, 2026 11:39 PM

BRENDA

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Does it still look like a Coffin, Brenda?

Hopefully that blue/grey makes a difference.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

Sorry man. For right now it still looks like a coffin. Maybe once you are finished with it won't.

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Sunday, August 2, 2026 11:45 PM

BRENDA

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
How does that work with the shakiness, Brenda? Does it come and go? Does weather impact it? I don't remember you talking about it too much before. My mom's MS comes and goes. I could see her one day and it's like she never got it, but I could see her 3 months later and she can't hardly get out of the couch on her own and she takes small steps to get everywhere. Humidity is really bad for her, which is why I was really mad when they upped and moved from Arizona (one of if not the driest state in the country, to the most humid).

The notifications for no threats is normal. That's the built-in Windows Defender.

Normally I would have told you not to bother with anti-virus software because Windows Defender is good, but I'm pretty sure we're not getting updates on our Windows 10 security anymore (since October of last year).

Adding antivirus is easy. Which one did your computer have before?

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

Hey, SIX. Both my family doc and the neurologist basically say the shakiness comes from doing to many heavy things. Before I moved here I had two or three nasty falls and landed on my hands hard. It's taken till now for those falls to show up in my hands. The shakiness does come and go. Sometimes they don't shake at all and because of carrying to much heavy stuff on Friday and Saturday. Yeah, not good. Taking it easy today has made a difference.

It is Malware anti-virus. It's spelt weird but like I said it is a free thing and I get the pop-ups to redo it every so often. But with all this weird stuff, I haven't bothered with it.

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Sunday, August 2, 2026 11:47 PM

BRENDA

I emailed my friend about my cancelled trip. She answered that and then later the same day she sent me another one. Her husband's cancer has come back. He has an appointment on Tuesday to find out when he starts radiation treatments then it will be another course of chemo.

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Monday, August 3, 2026 12:46 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Does it still look like a Coffin, Brenda?

Hopefully that blue/grey makes a difference.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

Sorry man. For right now it still looks like a coffin. Maybe once you are finished with it won't.

I wonder if the handles will make it look more or less like a coffin.

Not a bad idea though... Maybe I should get into the coffin making business. Those things get stupid expensive.

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Hey, SIX. Both my family doc and the neurologist basically say the shakiness comes from doing to many heavy things. Before I moved here I had two or three nasty falls and landed on my hands hard. It's taken till now for those falls to show up in my hands. The shakiness does come and go. Sometimes they don't shake at all and because of carrying to much heavy stuff on Friday and Saturday. Yeah, not good. Taking it easy today has made a difference.

Oh okay. I know you can't watch movies with flashes and thought that maybe it was all related. Still not good, but probably better that it's physical rather than neurological. Do they recommend you to do any sort of exercises that could help. Light stuff even as light as daily stretches that might relieve some tension build up?

Quote:
It is Malware anti-virus. It's spelt weird but like I said it is a free thing and I get the pop-ups to redo it every so often. But with all this weird stuff, I haven't bothered with it.

Malwarebytes? Probably.

If yes, here's the website: https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download

Just click on the button that says "Free Antivirus Download". It will show up in your browser's download when it's completed. You just run that and let it do all the default setups and say "I agree" and "OK" all the way through. The defaults would be all that you need.

But you don't do any financial stuff on your computer at all, right? If you're not tied into that world at all, you probably don't have to bother. And I don't imagine you're doing much online that's putting you into places where you could get yourself into virus trouble anyhow.

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Monday, August 3, 2026 12:59 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

I got my brother's Atari working.

That little adapter he bought worked perfectly.

The bad news is the controllers are bad though, because of course they are. That's why the system failed and those controllers were notorious for that. This is my fault though because I stored them away for maybe a decade in just about the worst spot possible. How many summers has it been baking up there in the humidity?

All's not lost though. The strange thing is that the sticks on both of them still work. That's usually the part that goes. The start/reset/pause buttons on the top work. But none of the buttons on the sides of either controller are working though. I might be able to open them up and clean the insides of any residue and gunk and get them working nice again. I'm sure there's YouTube videos on how to do it.

Worst case scenario would be buying new ones. I doubt I'd find anything original that still works that wouldn't require me to take a mortgage out on my house, but that oldschool video game community is pretty huge and they make all sorts of things like replacement controllers and even brand new games that they're making nearly 50 years after the systems came out.

They're not cheap though. They can't mass produce them because the market is so small.

Hopefully they clean up and work. The fact that the sticks are working, even if they are a little tight, is a good sign.

One complaint though... No Pac-Man??? Where's Pac-Man??? It's the most common game and it came with the console. I could have been playing that right now without the need for the buttons!!!!!

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Monday, August 3, 2026 2:10 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Not as expensive as I would have thought to replace those controllers actually. Still far out of any amount I'm willing to spend on that right now. Look to be about $50 to $75 for one that's guaranteed to work, and some guy will supposedly fix them for you for $40, but seems really cheap in 2026 to me unless they're from a different country where the USD goes a lot further than it does here.

Unfortunately, unlike nearly any other system ever made, you can't just buy a cheap USB adapter and use modern controllers on it. It had a unique 15 pin connector vs. the 9 pin connector that most other consoles were using (Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Sega Genesis... yes... you could use a genesis controller on the two other atari systems and vice versa). Nintendo was 9 pin too, but they molded the plugs different so you couldn't change them up. The Atari 5200 though had analog controls and a potentiometer inside which varied the voltage in ways modern digital controllers won't handle, and it also had the 4x4 phone keypad that makes it twice as hard to do. People have figured out how to do it by cobbling a bunch of dongles and wires together, but that's going to run you $300 if you never want to worry about a controller dying on you again.

Maybe I get lucky and they clean up well.

It's at least a cool conversation piece as is right now. The system, games and controllers all look fantastic without hardly a blemish on them. Shame if I can't get it working soon, but it's not wasting space anymore than the other thing I took out already was, and this looks a lot cooler.

Getting tired and getting tired of waiting for that 2nd layer to dry enough to move on. That first coat seemed to dry so quick, but this is still tacky in some spots. I might just let it go until tomorrow. Shouldn't have a problem doing 4 coats in one day now that everything is already moving.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Monday, August 3, 2026 4:22 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

I think I must have gone thicker on that 2nd coat or something with how long it took to dry.

I'm really getting a feel for the wood now. I don't know whether it's the brush I'm using, the fact that this is an old half can of poly that I can't even be sure I bought myself, chemicals that may have still been in the wood or what, but I've been getting bubbles popping up from the very beginning when putting poly on the inside. I didn't shake the can... it's stirred... so that's not the problem. It's not everywhere, but only certain spots. I realized that this is anywhere there were bigger imperfections in the grain that also sucked up more stain, as well as around the corners of the piece. As I rubbed my brush across these areas the bubbles would just pop right up on the surface. I assume this must be some sort of displacement of tiny little pockets of air getting trapped in the grain as I swipe.

So, at least for the first 2 coats anyhow, I haven't actually been sanding down enough before putting a new coat on. After my 2nd coat, I wasn't happy with how the light shined on the piece as you moved your head so you could see the light bounce off of it. But the funny thing is that after spending about an hour sanding it all down real good with 220 grit paper, even though a lot of the high spots are greyed out a bit and I haven't yet dusted it off for poly, the shine is good and runs smoothly from end to end now.

While I sanded with one hand this time, I was also going back over the whole thing with my fingertips of my other hand to feel how smooth it had gotten. If I felt even the tiniest hint of braille, the sanding wasn't done in that spot.

It's late, but if I'm as happy with how the 3rd coat looks as I think I might be, I'll take the time to post a pic of it. The 2nd coat looked good, but I'm really hoping after all this sanding between the coats this time it really shines.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Monday, August 3, 2026 5:52 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Yup...

I think this may just be my favorite thing I've ever done.

I think I said a few months back that I was already jealous of my aunt for the box she was going to get when I finally got around to it. I wasn't wrong.

Shiny!

We're only 3 coats into it and you can already see stuff from the ground reflecting off the left side of the box like a foggy mirror.

I'm doing 5 or 6 coats, depending on how far the rest of that poly gets me. I didn't think that I would, but I'll probably get 6 with more to spare now. That 3rd coat went on easy compared to the first two after that sanding job. I just have to make sure I leave enough for the lips when I finally getting to turning these things back over again. 24 hours after whenever I put the final coat on.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Monday, August 3, 2026 6:21 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Hey Sigs...

You have any ideas of what I could do to keep this thing elevated off the floor?

It's going to take about a month to cure and where it's going is on top of a really nice carpet.

If it were me, I'd just throw some 2x4 scraps under either side and call it a day, but my aunt isn't going to go for that on her carpet.

I'm almost wondering if I need to send her pictures on her retirement day and let her know it will be ready to use next month. Because otherwise she's going to be tripping over it in her kitchen or bathroom because there's nowhere else that isn't covered in very nice looking carpet.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

How about faux feet? Four, or maybe six blocks of decent-looking wood to hold the chest up off the carpet while it cures. They don't have to be attached, all they need to do is sort of match the style and color of the chest. Here are a few possibilities of the kind of shapes you could create...

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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Monday, August 3, 2026 12:43 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Thanks Sigs. I didn't know they had so many options. I had rubber feet I used for my front porch step when I had to make a new one since the old one was hollowed out by ants after the wood rot set in. I was going to use those, but that would leave me short when I did the back steps. I'll see if Amazon has a cheap 4 pack that would look good. I think the black ones that you posted first would look great with the black handles and hinges. Not that you'd see much of them under the box and in the carpet.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Monday, August 3, 2026 12:49 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

I wasn't planning on being up yet, but I've been dealing with a LOT OF NOISE outside.

I was hearing chainsaws and they sounded close, but that was going on for a while and the whole time I could see part of my neighbors tree out my window and figured that was too good to be true.

Somehow I managed to maybe grab 20 minutes of sleep in between, and when I opened my eyes again I could no longer see all the branches that I usually do from my couch.

Holy shit! They're actually cutting it down!

I'm wondering if somebody saw me outside after the storm last Monday snapping a bunch of pictures of the tree and they went out and saw that 50 foot limb snapped off and just waiting to fall on my house with the right wind.

Looks like it's just a big pole now.

If I thought I wasn't getting any sleep earlier, I think things are going to start getting LOUD. At least if they're using the same guys I did who charged half price but didn't give a shit about your lawn. Good for them and for me that our area between our houses is all Moled out and half weeds, so who cares?

Just mind the house, please.

Man... My overall general anxiety I walk around with in the back of my mind has just decreased by quite a bit.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Monday, August 3, 2026 2:06 PM

BRENDA

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Does it still look like a Coffin, Brenda?

Hopefully that blue/grey makes a difference.

--------------------------------------------------

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

Sorry man. For right now it still looks like a coffin. Maybe once you are finished with it won't.

I wonder if the handles will make it look more or less like a coffin.

Not a bad idea though... Maybe I should get into the coffin making business. Those things get stupid expensive.

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Hey, SIX. Both my family doc and the neurologist basically say the shakiness comes from doing to many heavy things. Before I moved here I had two or three nasty falls and landed on my hands hard. It's taken till now for those falls to show up in my hands. The shakiness does come and go. Sometimes they don't shake at all and because of carrying to much heavy stuff on Friday and Saturday. Yeah, not good. Taking it easy today has made a difference.

Oh okay. I know you can't watch movies with flashes and thought that maybe it was all related. Still not good, but probably better that it's physical rather than neurological. Do they recommend you to do any sort of exercises that could help. Light stuff even as light as daily stretches that might relieve some tension build up?

Quote:
It is Malware anti-virus. It's spelt weird but like I said it is a free thing and I get the pop-ups to redo it every so often. But with all this weird stuff, I haven't bothered with it.

Malwarebytes? Probably.

If yes, here's the website: https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download

Just click on the button that says "Free Antivirus Download". It will show up in your browser's download when it's completed. You just run that and let it do all the default setups and say "I agree" and "OK" all the way through. The defaults would be all that you need.

But you don't do any financial stuff on your computer at all, right? If you're not tied into that world at all, you probably don't have to bother. And I don't imagine you're doing much online that's putting you into places where you could get yourself into virus trouble anyhow.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

I don't know about the handles. I think it is the way that it was built that makes it look like an old style coffin.

Never know. From my understanding they do.

Perfectly reasonable to think it could be tied to my seizures. But I'm just glad that it isn't. That would make life really hard. Nobody has recommended stretches or but I do little things like stretch my hands out and stretch my arms up over my head. Doing that sometimes my wrists will crack.

That's the way.

Like I said it was on the system when I got it.

Nope, I will not do financial stuff on the computer. I do not trust that.

No. Outside of for my writing there is only about 5 sites I go to on a regular bases.

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Monday, August 3, 2026 3:39 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
I don't know about the handles. I think it is the way that it was built that makes it look like an old style coffin.

Yeah... In my mind it was going to be a lot more blue/grey when it was finished, but Sigs would have to tell me what I did wrong. I didn't want it to look painted or I would have just painted it, but I thought I'd be able to get rid of most of the wood color while leaving the visual look of the wood grain patterns, but this ended up being one of the lightest looking pieces I've ever done. Stark contrast from the dark brown shelves I was able to make in my closets with the Dark Walnut stain from the exact same manufacturer. Oh well.

Quote:
Never know. From my understanding they do.

Yeah. I think I heard something like $25-30 thousand for a fancy one, and that was probably 15 years ago.

Not what I'd be doing.

I'd be bringing Cheap back. If I could learn how to make dovetails like that, I could construct boxes like this in way less time than it takes to strip and sand it all down first. I could probably charge people $1,200 to $1,500 for a coffin that looks really nice, but doesn't have all the "frills".

The rich people can still have their fancy coffins. But people like me who plan on digging a hole in the backyard and putting a sign up asking for somebody to finish the job when I go to sleep the last time should be thrilled about it. They charged over $2,000 for the piece of plastic resin crap they put my grandma's and uncle's urns in. My coffin would be cheaper than most headstones.

Quote:
Perfectly reasonable to think it could be tied to my seizures. But I'm just glad that it isn't. That would make life really hard. Nobody has recommended stretches or but I do little things like stretch my hands out and stretch my arms up over my head. Doing that sometimes my wrists will crack.

Yeah. When I was a kid and we went out to eat on Sunday mornings after we had to get up real early to go grocery shopping with our mom, there was a woman named Barb who ate there that we often ate with. She had a neurological problem, but I don't remember what it was. Most of the time she was fine, but then her hands would start shaking.

I remember she drank coffee, but I don't remember how. I'm sure at that point she had some sort of "system" to do things like that just in case an episode happened as she was drinking the hot coffee.

Quote:
That's the way. Like I said it was on the system when I got it.

Nope, I will not do financial stuff on the computer. I do not trust that.

No. Outside of for my writing there is only about 5 sites I go to on a regular bases.

Honestly, Brenda, I'd just skip it and not worry about it. If you ever do break down or we are all forced to start doing all of our banking and bill paying online, you would want to get a new computer that could run Windows 11 to be truly safe anyway.

The only thing you likely have on your computer that anybody would ever be interested in is your book, and that's not what the criminals are looking for. They're looking for a quick and easy payday through access to all your passwords to your bank and cards. As long as you're doing all of that the old way, no worries.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Monday, August 3, 2026 4:24 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

I was just looking at the box and really tempted to leave it at 3 coats, but there are a few spots I don't like on the front of the body, and if I'm going to do that I might as well at least do one more coat everywhere. I'll probably let that dry and then only do whatever panels I feel still need a 5th coat and call it a day.

24 hours after I get that done, I can flip things over and work on the lips. Technically I don't need to put another coat on the bottom and I could flip that over later today, but I wouldn't be able to do that with the top if I'm putting another coat of poly on, so I'll just hit it all now.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Monday, August 3, 2026 4:29 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

I was thinking SIX that if you had some blocks of wood you could shape them and paint them black. Just for temporary support.

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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Monday, August 3, 2026 5:47 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I was thinking SIX that if you had some blocks of wood you could shape them and paint them black. Just for temporary support.

Good idea, Sigs. I actually have 3 small blocks of wood that I thought I might have been using for that bifold door but I didn't need. Just need to cut one more off, and maybe I'll shape them all to the same size and even break the edges on my belt sander. We could think of them more like coasters.

I decided against adding those rubber feet. I don't want to screw anything into this, even on that bottom. I think it would be nice for her to be able to drag the nice smooth surface on the carpet at some point too, instead of having big rubber feet on it holding it firmly in place.

Just did what may be the final sand down on the outside of the box. It went very well compared to the last scuff sand which took about an hour. Not including the bottom which I did decide to hit harder this time, the rest of the box probably only had about 5 to 10% of the surface covered in anything that wasn't like glass.

I only want to do one more coat outside now for sure because I want to have enough to do one more inside while I'm doing the lips. It could use a good sand down that it wasn't getting like the outside got, and I think I can make that way smoother inside than it is now with just one more coat after a good sanding.

Did you see that my neighbors finally took care of that tree?

Nothing but a stump left now, and I see the stump grinder parked down the block waiting.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Monday, August 3, 2026 6:21 PM

BRENDA

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
I don't know about the handles. I think it is the way that it was built that makes it look like an old style coffin.

Yeah... In my mind it was going to be a lot more blue/grey when it was finished, but Sigs would have to tell me what I did wrong. I didn't want it to look painted or I would have just painted it, but I thought I'd be able to get rid of most of the wood color while leaving the visual look of the wood grain patterns, but this ended up being one of the lightest looking pieces I've ever done. Stark contrast from the dark brown shelves I was able to make in my closets with the Dark Walnut stain from the exact same manufacturer. Oh well.

Quote:
Never know. From my understanding they do.

Yeah. I think I heard something like $25-30 thousand for a fancy one, and that was probably 15 years ago.

Not what I'd be doing.

I'd be bringing Cheap back. If I could learn how to make dovetails like that, I could construct boxes like this in way less time than it takes to strip and sand it all down first. I could probably charge people $1,200 to $1,500 for a coffin that looks really nice, but doesn't have all the "frills".

The rich people can still have their fancy coffins. But people like me who plan on digging a hole in the backyard and putting a sign up asking for somebody to finish the job when I go to sleep the last time should be thrilled about it. They charged over $2,000 for the piece of plastic resin crap they put my grandma's and uncle's urns in. My coffin would be cheaper than most headstones.

Quote:
Perfectly reasonable to think it could be tied to my seizures. But I'm just glad that it isn't. That would make life really hard. Nobody has recommended stretches or but I do little things like stretch my hands out and stretch my arms up over my head. Doing that sometimes my wrists will crack.

Yeah. When I was a kid and we went out to eat on Sunday mornings after we had to get up real early to go grocery shopping with our mom, there was a woman named Barb who ate there that we often ate with. She had a neurological problem, but I don't remember what it was. Most of the time she was fine, but then her hands would start shaking.

I remember she drank coffee, but I don't remember how. I'm sure at that point she had some sort of "system" to do things like that just in case an episode happened as she was drinking the hot coffee.

Quote:
That's the way. Like I said it was on the system when I got it.

Nope, I will not do financial stuff on the computer. I do not trust that.

No. Outside of for my writing there is only about 5 sites I go to on a regular bases.

Honestly, Brenda, I'd just skip it and not worry about it. If you ever do break down or we are all forced to start doing all of our banking and bill paying online, you would want to get a new computer that could run Windows 11 to be truly safe anyway.

The only thing you likely have on your computer that anybody would ever be interested in is your book, and that's not what the criminals are looking for. They're looking for a quick and easy payday through access to all your passwords to your bank and cards. As long as you're doing all of that the old way, no worries.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

I think it looks fine being a lighter colour. But that is just me.

Yeah, I've heard those figures even for today.

Never understood the need for frills when no one is going to being looking at it regular.

That's terrible what they charged for grandmother and uncle's urns and for crappy ones no less.

I found the bill that was sent to the Veteran's Affairs up here. Years after my dad died. Think I found it just after my mum had died. Anyways don't remember the price of the coffin but the VA was charged $500 for digging a hole. Now, mind this was in the late 70s. But I was shocked at the price. Would have cost next to nothing to do it the way our ancestors did it.

Myself, I am so not ready to think about that. I got almost another 30 or 40years left on this planet.

Oh yes. You do develop a system for eating and drinking. Coffee for me is usually using two hands if I want it and they are shaking, other wise I wait until they stop and I think it is safe. Also for grocery shopping. Same thing when physically writing something. I either wait or try to slow down a bit so my signature doesn't go screwy.

That's what I was thinking. Just ignore it. Yeah, it is really just my book. And like I said. I do not trust doing things like that over the internet. Just too many crooks out there. Yup, just do everything the old fashioned way.

I know I am a dinosaur.

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Monday, August 3, 2026 6:25 PM

BRENDA

All done for today. Hands are so-so. Bringing heavy things back and doing heavy things when in. *sigh* Oh, well. One I had to do and other I just wanted to do.

SIX, you talk about neighbours finally cutting down that tree. I would love to put up a sign that says, "NO SLAMMING YOUR APARTMENT DOOR!!!" I just had someone do that about three times now.

I try not to do that as these are security doors and heavy, so when you let them go they bang some thing fierce.

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USER	POST DATE
6ixStringJack	08.10 01:51
SIGNYM	08.10 03:05