Climate change: It's awful but it's giving me guilty pleasure..

What's wrong with this picture? It's the freaking middle of january, it's Canada, and I'm working outdoors all day! A few years ago normal at this time of year would mean most of the four foot page wire fence disappeared under snow, and the  neighborhood snowplow guys laughing on the way to the bank.

Here's our front yard today...
    So there's another project on the go, involving lots of sanding outdoors, just waiting for a day like today.
Here is the view looking down on the kitchen from upstairs in our rental cottage. It's a cathedral type ceiling obviously. The plan is to create more space for the guests, especially a playspace for their kids, since up to 6 people in 24'x26' is kind of cramped. So the kitchen part will be floored over with 2x8 joists and 2 x6 t&g boards. (http://www.fundyfarmcottages.com/)

The lumber needs to be sanded to get rid of bumps and inkings, and knotholes and dings filled. I save the sawdust, and mix it with white glue or carpenters glue for an inexpensive filler for the larger holes.



Here's an edge chip glued back in place and held with rubber bands.

I use this stuff for finer cracks and nicks, thank goodness they have now come up with a human friendly type of wood filler that doesn't knock you back with noxious fumes. The reason I'm going to all this trouble is because I want an open type ceiling so that from down below you see the exposed joists. I'm going to whitewash the joists and underside of the t&g with a dilute paint/water mix so that the grain of the wood will show through. The upper side will be lightly stained and varathaned.

My trusty old old sander has seen better days. Yes, that's a vacumn cleaner bag duct taped to the dust catcher hole. The thumb button that keeps the machine running without using the squeeze trigger quit long ago. It's very tiring to keep your finger pressing the trigger constantly, but there's a fix for that! Just use a rubber band from a bunch of broccoli, wrap it around the trigger and run a large twist tie through the rubber loops and twist. With a bit of trial and error adjustment with the twist tie and rubber band tension you can find the sweet spot where you only need the slightest finger pressure on the trigger to run the machine. The rest of the squeezing is being done by the tension of the rubber band. Alas, my poor old sander fell on the deck today and the front handle snapped off. Maybe if this gets pathetic enough DH will buy me a new one for mothers day..