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The Shed Project Continues…
July 13, 2010
renovations, tools building a shed 1 Comment
Here are a few more pictures of the shed project. It was soooo hot last week, but Rob just kept working on it.
Rob had to set up a scaffold to do some of the work.
It’s looking pretty good, now! Rob will continue to work on the shed over weekends during the summer. I’ll continue to post more photos as the work goes along.
What is it With Men and Sheds?
July 10, 2010
outdoor stuff, renovations, tools building a shed, DeWalt tools 3 Comments
This is the question I keep asking myself lately. Handy Man has been talking about this darned shed for over a year now. He took this week off from work so he could do a lot of work on it. He doesn’t expect to finish it, but he wanted to get the framing up.
We have a garage and a basement, so why he also feels the need for a shed is beyond me. Here is how the conversation has been going lately:
Crafty Woman: Do we really need a shed, too?
Handy Man: Yes, I need more room for my lawnmower, my generator, my snowblower, blah blah blah…
Crafty Woman: Is it possible that you just have too much stuff?
Handy Man: *Sighhhhh*
Rob planned out the expense of all the wood and extra gear by making a few trips to Lowe’s and Home Depot. He made a list of materials and wrote down prices. He bought just enough to do the framing and the plywood this week. In order to spread out the expense (and work!), he’ll buy more materials and work on it more over the summer and possibly into September.
Normally, we are “git-r-done” people when it comes to renovations…I can’t stand letting projects drag out for too long. However, this doesn’t involve any kind of construction mess inside the house (yaaay!), so we’ll complete it gradually and spread out the expenses a bit.
Of course, it was HOT and HUMID this week in New England, so there’s been a lot of sweating and drinking of water and lemonade.
Here’s Handy Man with his ginormous DeWalt nail gun. That thing scares me.
I’ve been helping him a bit, but I stay far away from the nail gun. And we make sure that Handy Boy stays away from it, too. Handy Boy has been entertained by using bits of leftover wood, and his own small tools, to build a chair and a table (pictures to follow).
Looking good so far! So, I’ve been supervising, 
and making sure that the Boys drink plenty of water.
We’ve been WICKED busy this week. In between shed construction, we’ve also been squeezing in some fun with Handy Boy. Also, I’ve been working on organizing my scrapbook paper. Stay tuned for more info on both projects.
The Shed Project Continues
July 6, 2010
outdoor stuff, renovations building a shed 3 Comments
It’s been hot, but Rob brought home a huge load of wood to continue working on his shed. He covers up the pile with a tarp at night, although there is no rain in the forecast.
He has one of the ends cut out, and he’s trying to figure out a way to raise the end up. We may need some help! But I’m sure he can figure it out.
More details to come about the shed construction…I told Handy Man to take a bit of a break today from it, as it was nearly 100 degrees here! He worked for a short time in the morning, but then did take a break for the rest of the day.
Patriotic Trifle
July 5, 2010
recipes patriotic trifle recipe 3 Comments
This is a great 4th of July or summer recipe. It’s so light and cool. Warning, this takes a LARGE bowl. The bowl I used was big, but it still overflowed a bit.
Patriotic Trifle
1 1/2 cup milk
1 4 ounce package instant vanilla pudding mix
1 8 ounce tub cool whip
1 package angel food cake, cut into 1/2″ cubes
1 pint strawberries, sliced
1 cup blueberries
Mix pudding according to package directions, using only 1 1/2 cups of milk. Gently stir in 3 cups of cool whip. Place 1/2 of cake cubes in large serving bowl. Top with half of the fruit. Spread half of pudding mix over fruit. Top with remaining cake cubes, then remaining fruit. Spread remaining cool whip on top. Garnish with fruit if desired.
Here is a photo of the trifle with all of the yummy layers.
Here is my completely pathetic attempt to “garnish” the dessert with a few leftover pieces of fruit. Presentation is not my strong suit, and we just wanted to EAT IT.
This is a picture of the fruit trifle that Handy Man decorated several years ago, when I was having a group of friends over for a scrapbook party.
Showoff.
For the record, my ugly-looking trifle tasted just as good!
Meatball Recipe
June 29, 2010
recipes meatball recipe Leave a comment
This is more of a recipe that is good for fall and winter, but we’ve been dying for this lately, so I made some meatballs today. There aren’t many ingredients, they are pretty easy to make.
Meatballs
1 pound hamburg
1 cup Italian breadcrumbs (we use Progresso)
1 tsp grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs
1/2 tsp pepper
Lots and lots of pasta sauce. (You won’t find any home made sauce recipes on this site, har har. I’m too lazy for that. I cheated and used a brand from a jar.)
Mix the meat and all the ingredients except the sauce together. I used my Kitchen Aid mixer to make this easier.
Roll into balls, these are about 1 1/2″ in case anyone is curious. Needless to say, they don’t have to look perfect.
Brown meatballs in a skillet. They just need to be partially browned/cooked, not cooked all the way through. A little pink is ok. We just shove them around the skillet with a spatula so they don’t rest in one place for too long.
Plop the meatballs into a crock pot with plenty of sauce. Cook on high for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes or so. Then set to low and cook for about 2 or 3 more hours. Stir about every 30 minutes so the meatballs don’t stick to the crock pot.
Test a meatball on a plate, and try not to devour them all before supper time. Serve with pasta, or in sub rolls. Yum!
School’s Out!
June 25, 2010
kid stuff, organizing sorting school papers 1 Comment
Handy Boy brought home a big pile of school papers, notebooks, workbooks and art projects this week.
I just realized, this isn’t even the whole pile! I’ve gone through some of it already. Several papers are repetitive and can be recycled. Some papers will be saved for his school year scrapbook. During the school year, I put the papers I want to save in an accordion-type file; and go through it again at the end of the year. This is the final sort that I do to determine what I’ll save or toss.
Since I scrapbook, I put some papers (and his report cards) into the album. There are other items that I save in a large manilla envelope and label “3rd Grade.” I then put the large envelope into a canvas box I bought at Target:
This way, I don’t feel like I’m overrun with school papers, even though there are several that I want to keep.
One more tip: if your child has a large art project that is difficult to store, take a photo of it and keep the photo. I don’t toss all of Handy Boy’s bulky art projects, but I just can’t keep them all, either.
Do you have any children’s school papers to deal with? How do you handle it?
Declutter Challenge for a Monday
June 21, 2010
organizing organizing paperwork Leave a comment
Rob decided that he would go through all of the manuals that we have for tools and appliances and organize them. He tossed instructions for things we no longer own, and also tossed the extra packaging that the manuals came in.
Then he put the manuals into this plastic box that we already had for storage.
I asked Handy Man if he can find most of this information on the internet. He says that he probably can, but he says that sometimes he just prefers a paper manual.
Do you have any manuals for tools or appliances? Do you keep them, or toss them?
The Shed Project
June 19, 2010
renovations building a deck 1 Comment
Handy Man has decided that he wants to build a shed this summer. This is to store some of his “toys” in, like his lawnmower, snowblower, etc. It is also for storing the generator, which we seem to need to use a lot over the winter.
First, he built the deck platform. It measures 8×12, and Rob was careful to make sure that everything was level. He used 2×10 pressure treated wood, with concrete deck blocks in the corners and on the edges.
I didn’t happen to get any photos of Rob building the platform, but I will get some pictures of him building the rest.
Rob has some vacation time coming up soon, and he is hoping to build the walls, the roof, etc. He thinks that he is going to finish it over vacataion, but we’ll see. I’ll have to add this to his Honey-Do List.
Have you ever built a shed before? We did look into buying a pre-made shed, but the prices were exorbitant!
