Ready for Seeds

84 degrees and many bugs but no biters.

This weekend I spent time working on the remaining upstairs faux timbers and trim around the windows.  I'm pretty much done with my neighbor's ladder and really would like to get it back to him but my better half reminded me that I need to put screens up on the south facing windows of the girl's rooms before the weather gets too hot.  I made screens for all of the windows of the main house a couple years ago but they sit in the attic waiting for their chance to meet the mosquitoes.

As I write this entry in the blog I'm looking out the dining room window at the Pointed Playhouse and see how really different it looks and think back to last August when I was taking down the many limbs of the trees and shrubs where the structure sits today.  Then came the leveling of the foundation, cinder blocks, etc... and now I see Geraniums in the windows.  Here are a few pictures of the finial and timbers going up on the west side.

As you can see I had a blowout in finial #2 due to rot (bugs or moisture in the firewood).

Turning the third finial.

Added some tongue oil before I cut it off the lathe.

Good finial and the blown out finial.  As you can see this one is pointed, which signifies the direction of the sun as it slips beyond the west horizon.

The bottom left and right timber is actually curved.

Almost done.

I worked for about four hours on Friday at home on a project for the company and had time to get some of this done in the afternoon.  On Saturday I worked on the dormer window.  I don't know why such a small window has taken so much time but the trim around the window and the detail just above took almost the entire day.

Top detail of dormer window.

I used biscuits to hold the pressure treated wood tight around the corner.  I do this for woodworking project inside and hope that it will hold up on the exterior trim.

Possibly the last time I use the tall ladder.

The upstairs is now done and the plants are hung.

We got up late this morning on a Sunday and Lucy (our cat) decided to go "dumpster diving" in my wife's sock drawer.  I took a picture with my phone and was the first to go down and get coffee with the anticipation of working on the small seed incubator.

Lucy thinks she is a tube sock today...

The glass top that I bought for the seed box is really a storm window but fits nicely into a frame that I made from two long 2x6 pressure treated boards that I ripped down on my table saw to the correct dimension.  I used a half lap joint along with exterior grade wood glue and four galvanized screws at each corner, which will hopefully hold up in our tough Al Gore winters here in southern Virginia.

Framing in the box that will be used to germinate the seeds.

All put together, primed and waiting for a final coat of paint.

Side view that shows how the top latches to the house.

And so goes the end to another beautiful weekend.  I'm happy to be done with the upstairs and plan to finish painting the seed box some day after work this week and get the last of the faux timbers up on the downstairs to include the hanging Geraniums under the last two windows.

A good weekend.

Over the next week you can expect to see the completion of the exterior and more compost and mulch going in around the Pointed Playhouse and the planting of yellow squash, butternut squash, eggplant and hostas in the beds.

Oh, I ordered six yards of compost and ten of mulch.  Come on over!