Thursday January 15: Making Great Progress

Monday started out as a great day - picked up the rental car from Enterprise and as is often the case, Sirius Radio was still active on the 2015 car we had for the next 24 hours.

I thought about just sleeping in the car - listening to Willie's Roadhouse! No seat warmers though. I must be getting spoiled - especially for a couple whose first "brand new" car was a 1967 Ford Falcon and then a 1974 Ford Pinto (later to be know as the 'catch on fire when rear-ended' car).

That's back when these cars cost less than $2200 brand new!!

Off we headed for the almost 2 hour drive to Homestead in search of Walter and the two teak doors we found on Craig's List.

He didn't get home from work until 7:30 so after we spent some time shopping, there was a welcome stop at Duncan Donuts for hot chocolate and a Boston Creme.

Perfect :-) Home by 9:15 - just in time to watch the second half of the Ohio State - Oregon football game. It was the Bucks over the Ducks - fun to watch for sure :-)

Using Rick's table and Randy's circular saw, Steve again measured, measured a second time and then cut the two doors down to where they would fit quite nicely in the space we had.

This involved cutting the doors narrower and shorter - all without losing the basic louvered look.

Hinges and handles will come from the doors under my desk area. Not a perfect match but with a finish on the doors I think it will be just fine!

Next was to make a cover for the burners. This will keep them from getting scratched or messed up from sitting the water pitcher, dishes or whatever on top of the burners.

We're using starboard - a plastic product that is easy to cut with normal tools. Should work fine.

The sides also needed to be cut so there was lots of measure, measure, measure, cut.

After staining the boards, the last step for the cover was to attach the top to the sides with small stainless screws.

The fit was perfect. And this after what became a long day of working on the doors and the cover. Amazing!!

A cutting board (actually a maple stair header) will finish the top front edge. This is ordered and won't be in until Monday so maybe we'll have the doors installed by then.

And it hasn't been all work - even though it seems like it sometimes!

Our new favorite breakfast place is now Porky's! We have been there so much that yesterday, the waitress asked if we were 'locals' - she could give us the loyalty discount of 10% off.

Told her were weren't really but would be around for the next 2 months or so. That was enough for her - so we have been decreed locals :-) Haven't lived anywhere long enough lately to be called locals - I kind of like it :-)

One of the best things is that Porky's is not quite 4 miles round trip on the bike - Great way to start the day.

Question: how do you make a rectangular cupcake tin fit into the round convection oven?

Simple - take a dremel and cut one end of it off! The 3 x 3 that's left fits perfectly into the oven now. I mean after all there's no need to give up having cupcakes or muffins just because the oven is now round :-)