Saturday, December 31, 2011
Trying out my new camera
I really love my Nikon D200 camera and the quality of photos that I get from it. I have half a dozen different lenses, a special flash unit that works with it and some other features that make it a wonderful system. BUT, it is large and heavy to carry around so I find it tends to sit at home on a shelf unless I know that I will specifically want it to take photos, so then take it along. Sometimes I'll even take an extra lens or the flash unit, too.
So, I saw an ad on TV for a new Nikon camera, the Nikon 1, that looked good, offers some of the features of the D200 (interchangeable lenses, view finder, etc) plus a lot of things that the D200 will not do. I looked into it and found that Nikon had sale prices on the lenses that go with it that would be in effect until the end of the year. I hadn't yet bought myself a Christmas present, so went ahead and ordered the basic camera that comes with a 10 to 30mm zoom lens ($50 off on the sale) and a 30 to 110mm lens ($100 off!) from Amazon.com. They came last Thursday- the UPS guy came with it about 11:00am. I put the battery on to charge and Pat & I went out to lunch, with the quick start direction sheet.
When we got home, the battery was fully charged so I put the unit together, found an empty SD memory card, took a picture of Pat & one of our cats, Peewee
and I headed off to my local Starbucks to read the owners book, drink a mocha and learn about my new toy.
I decided to start out with it just letting it handle its own settings so took a couple of photos of one of our barista's while sitting at my table drinking my mocha and reading
This photo is totally unchanged from when it came out of the camera except to reduce its pixel count to upload to Flickr and I think the camera did a very good job on setting the best white balance, exposure and focus.
By the time I headed home at almost 17:00 it was getting dark and the homes in our park had begun turning on their outside Christmas lights. I thought that would be a good test of the automatic settings, plus it was raining so there should be some pretty good reflections on the wet pavement. Here are a couple of those shots, again with very little correcting of the image after it came from the camera.
Yesterday we went to lunch with a good friend over to La Conner, Washington. La Conner is a quaint little village on a waterway that separates Fidalgo Island from the mainland and the restaurant we went to is right on that water way. I left Pat & Barbara to place my order with theirs and went outside onto the dock to take some photos. It was a crisp, windy but sunny winter day and although it was shortly after noon, the sun in the winter this far north is waaaaay to the south in the sky so even at noon we don't have that terrible directly overhead lighting that you tend to worry about while taking photos around noon. I am just including one photo that looks across the waterway toward the Indian Reservation but I think it shows what the little camera is capable of in delivering landscape photos.
My lovely bride and I have a habit of going out to breakfast together on Saturday mornings and I have been carrying this little toy along so of course used it to take a picture of Patti B as she sat across the table from me.
There has been no image changing here, other than a very slight darkening of the image so it is almost as it came from the camera. There is a fireplace to her left providing some lighting and the lighting in this part of the restaurant is what I'd call cozy comfortable (not real bright) but the camera seems to have handled it very well.
I like the Nikon 1. There are two models, the V1 with a viewfinder and a 3" monitor screen. When you put your eye to the viewfinder, the monitor turns off. The other model (L1) just has the monitor screen. In my experience, those monitors are harder to use especially in bright light, so I spent a little more money and got the one with the viewfinder. So far I've only played with the standard lens which goes from a slight wide angle view at 10mm to a slight telephoto view at 30mm. The aspect ratio to compare to a lens length on a standard 35mm camera is 2.7, so the "normal" image size would be with this at about 18.5mm. Shorter than that would be considered a wide angle view, longer a telephoto view. At the higher 30mm setting (81mm on a 35mm camera) it is about the perfect length for people portraits. Oh, and the camera will take HD level video with sound and even has a connector for an external microphone for the audio. Some day I will get brave and give that a try but for now, I am having a lot of fun learning how to use it to take still photos.
I hope everyone who reads this had a good Christmas and will follow with a Happy New Year. Pat & I don't like to go very far from home on New Year's Eve but will be going to a party here in our park with the Singles Group. We went to events with them before we were married and they keep telling us to please continue coming as they consider us to be alumni.
So, I saw an ad on TV for a new Nikon camera, the Nikon 1, that looked good, offers some of the features of the D200 (interchangeable lenses, view finder, etc) plus a lot of things that the D200 will not do. I looked into it and found that Nikon had sale prices on the lenses that go with it that would be in effect until the end of the year. I hadn't yet bought myself a Christmas present, so went ahead and ordered the basic camera that comes with a 10 to 30mm zoom lens ($50 off on the sale) and a 30 to 110mm lens ($100 off!) from Amazon.com. They came last Thursday- the UPS guy came with it about 11:00am. I put the battery on to charge and Pat & I went out to lunch, with the quick start direction sheet.
When we got home, the battery was fully charged so I put the unit together, found an empty SD memory card, took a picture of Pat & one of our cats, Peewee
and I headed off to my local Starbucks to read the owners book, drink a mocha and learn about my new toy.
I decided to start out with it just letting it handle its own settings so took a couple of photos of one of our barista's while sitting at my table drinking my mocha and reading
This photo is totally unchanged from when it came out of the camera except to reduce its pixel count to upload to Flickr and I think the camera did a very good job on setting the best white balance, exposure and focus.
By the time I headed home at almost 17:00 it was getting dark and the homes in our park had begun turning on their outside Christmas lights. I thought that would be a good test of the automatic settings, plus it was raining so there should be some pretty good reflections on the wet pavement. Here are a couple of those shots, again with very little correcting of the image after it came from the camera.
Yesterday we went to lunch with a good friend over to La Conner, Washington. La Conner is a quaint little village on a waterway that separates Fidalgo Island from the mainland and the restaurant we went to is right on that water way. I left Pat & Barbara to place my order with theirs and went outside onto the dock to take some photos. It was a crisp, windy but sunny winter day and although it was shortly after noon, the sun in the winter this far north is waaaaay to the south in the sky so even at noon we don't have that terrible directly overhead lighting that you tend to worry about while taking photos around noon. I am just including one photo that looks across the waterway toward the Indian Reservation but I think it shows what the little camera is capable of in delivering landscape photos.
My lovely bride and I have a habit of going out to breakfast together on Saturday mornings and I have been carrying this little toy along so of course used it to take a picture of Patti B as she sat across the table from me.
There has been no image changing here, other than a very slight darkening of the image so it is almost as it came from the camera. There is a fireplace to her left providing some lighting and the lighting in this part of the restaurant is what I'd call cozy comfortable (not real bright) but the camera seems to have handled it very well.
I like the Nikon 1. There are two models, the V1 with a viewfinder and a 3" monitor screen. When you put your eye to the viewfinder, the monitor turns off. The other model (L1) just has the monitor screen. In my experience, those monitors are harder to use especially in bright light, so I spent a little more money and got the one with the viewfinder. So far I've only played with the standard lens which goes from a slight wide angle view at 10mm to a slight telephoto view at 30mm. The aspect ratio to compare to a lens length on a standard 35mm camera is 2.7, so the "normal" image size would be with this at about 18.5mm. Shorter than that would be considered a wide angle view, longer a telephoto view. At the higher 30mm setting (81mm on a 35mm camera) it is about the perfect length for people portraits. Oh, and the camera will take HD level video with sound and even has a connector for an external microphone for the audio. Some day I will get brave and give that a try but for now, I am having a lot of fun learning how to use it to take still photos.
I hope everyone who reads this had a good Christmas and will follow with a Happy New Year. Pat & I don't like to go very far from home on New Year's Eve but will be going to a party here in our park with the Singles Group. We went to events with them before we were married and they keep telling us to please continue coming as they consider us to be alumni.
Labels: Christmas, Events, Holidays, Landscapes, Our cats, Pat and I, Photo gear, Photos
Sunday, September 26, 2010
We have a new fireplace!
We have dreamed about putting a natural gas fired fireplace into our house for some time but just were not sure where to put one in a house as small as ours (1450 sq ft). But we are hearing that the long range weather forecast for our area is calling for another nasty winter, much like the one of two years ago, so we decided to finally go ahead and just do it.
We had visited the booth of a local heating supply place at our County Fair this summer so we started with them. They had a nice unit on a special price that we liked, so we ordered it. The delay was in getting the special sized hearth made, but it finally arrived last Thursday and they came on Friday to do the installation. Of course I have some photos of that process and I hope I can get them in here as Flickr has changed the way the code is copied to put into a blog. I hope I've figured it out. Here goes.....
This first photo shows part of our living room, with the hearth about in the right place. We felt this location would provide some heat into the dining area behind the fireplace and the kitchen is then to the left in the photo from the dining area. We rarely have power outages but they do happen and we wanted to be sure this stove would work, even with the AC power off. It does although not as well as it will with the AC powered blower working.
The two installers, Tim and Jake, have carried the main unit in and are placing it on the hearth. It is by Vermont Castings and has a cast iron firebox so weighs about 200 pounds. Tim is the stove man, Jake is the carpenter.
As you know, we live in a cat house with Huggy, Molly and Peewee. Peewee is the youngest and most inquisitive, although Huggy was watching most of the process from her perch on the sofa. Except when she was asleep which was quite often. Peewee has given the area around the floor a good sniff test and is now checking out the top. Better now than later when it gets hot.
Our manufactured home requires that outside fresh air be supplied to the firebox for combustion. With a gas fired unit there isn't a lot of exhaust so they are able to use a double walled chimney, with the fresh air coming down the outer part. With a fireplace that burns wood or pellets, you have to cut a vent into the crawl space under the house that comes up to the bottom of the fireplace. Gas is a lot easier.
The chimney goes through the roof inside a box that keeps the hot parts from the combustible parts of the house. For that, a fairly large hole has to be cut into the roof and it has to be aligned with the hole in the room ceiling where the box accepts the chimney from the stove. Here Tim and Jake are checking the alignment of the drill before punching the holes out through the roof.
Pat is sitting at the dining table in the background while the fireplace is in its final position, with the chimney installed. The glass front of the firebox has been removed so that Tim could place the "logs" in their proper position. These are some sort of a ceramic that glows when the flame heats them. There are also "embers" added to the mix. The iron front that goes in front of the glass is also here on the floor. You can see some of the gas controls under the firebox. We have a remote control that runs on batteries and the receiver in the fireplace gets its electrical power from some units that generate power from the heat of the pilot lite so no household electrical power is needed to operate it, although it will distribute the heat better if AC power is available to drive the fan system.
Here is the unit operating. When Jake finished hooking it up to gas he could get the pilot lite to ignite but it wouldn't stay on even after quite a long burn-in with the button depressed. Jake isn't a stove man and Tim had gone on to another job so we called in Jesse who got it working. These have a high temperature paint on much of the unit but it does smell a bit at first so they suggested that we let it burn for a couple of hours with the doors & windows of the house open. It was 77 degrees outside so we didn't need the heat but it did get the paint smell cleared.
Here's a closer view. I have been playing with using a couple of different sizes photos from Flickr and am anxious to see how they look in the blog. Hopefully they will be okay.
Anyway, we now have a fireplace so should be all set for winter. However, the pilot lite went out yesterday and it again won't stay lit. We will have to have the stove guys back out tomorrow to get it resolved. I'm glad that we did this before winter set in.
We had visited the booth of a local heating supply place at our County Fair this summer so we started with them. They had a nice unit on a special price that we liked, so we ordered it. The delay was in getting the special sized hearth made, but it finally arrived last Thursday and they came on Friday to do the installation. Of course I have some photos of that process and I hope I can get them in here as Flickr has changed the way the code is copied to put into a blog. I hope I've figured it out. Here goes.....
This first photo shows part of our living room, with the hearth about in the right place. We felt this location would provide some heat into the dining area behind the fireplace and the kitchen is then to the left in the photo from the dining area. We rarely have power outages but they do happen and we wanted to be sure this stove would work, even with the AC power off. It does although not as well as it will with the AC powered blower working.
The two installers, Tim and Jake, have carried the main unit in and are placing it on the hearth. It is by Vermont Castings and has a cast iron firebox so weighs about 200 pounds. Tim is the stove man, Jake is the carpenter.
As you know, we live in a cat house with Huggy, Molly and Peewee. Peewee is the youngest and most inquisitive, although Huggy was watching most of the process from her perch on the sofa. Except when she was asleep which was quite often. Peewee has given the area around the floor a good sniff test and is now checking out the top. Better now than later when it gets hot.
Our manufactured home requires that outside fresh air be supplied to the firebox for combustion. With a gas fired unit there isn't a lot of exhaust so they are able to use a double walled chimney, with the fresh air coming down the outer part. With a fireplace that burns wood or pellets, you have to cut a vent into the crawl space under the house that comes up to the bottom of the fireplace. Gas is a lot easier.
The chimney goes through the roof inside a box that keeps the hot parts from the combustible parts of the house. For that, a fairly large hole has to be cut into the roof and it has to be aligned with the hole in the room ceiling where the box accepts the chimney from the stove. Here Tim and Jake are checking the alignment of the drill before punching the holes out through the roof.
Pat is sitting at the dining table in the background while the fireplace is in its final position, with the chimney installed. The glass front of the firebox has been removed so that Tim could place the "logs" in their proper position. These are some sort of a ceramic that glows when the flame heats them. There are also "embers" added to the mix. The iron front that goes in front of the glass is also here on the floor. You can see some of the gas controls under the firebox. We have a remote control that runs on batteries and the receiver in the fireplace gets its electrical power from some units that generate power from the heat of the pilot lite so no household electrical power is needed to operate it, although it will distribute the heat better if AC power is available to drive the fan system.
Here is the unit operating. When Jake finished hooking it up to gas he could get the pilot lite to ignite but it wouldn't stay on even after quite a long burn-in with the button depressed. Jake isn't a stove man and Tim had gone on to another job so we called in Jesse who got it working. These have a high temperature paint on much of the unit but it does smell a bit at first so they suggested that we let it burn for a couple of hours with the doors & windows of the house open. It was 77 degrees outside so we didn't need the heat but it did get the paint smell cleared.
Here's a closer view. I have been playing with using a couple of different sizes photos from Flickr and am anxious to see how they look in the blog. Hopefully they will be okay.
Anyway, we now have a fireplace so should be all set for winter. However, the pilot lite went out yesterday and it again won't stay lit. We will have to have the stove guys back out tomorrow to get it resolved. I'm glad that we did this before winter set in.
Labels: House, Our cats, Pat and I, Photos, Weather
Friday, April 30, 2010
Off on a road trip!
We are about to head off on a road trip to the Oregon Coast, to celebrate our third anniversary last Wednesday. It will be another trip in the Prius and over roads that don't include any high mountain passes so I expect our mileage will be pretty good. The best we have had so far was about 53 miles per gallon on the trip last October from Spokane, WA to Chelan, WA. I don't know if I'll be posting while on the road or not. We will take my new netbook laptop (that I am using now) and will be able to log on but I don't have photo editing software on this machine so will be limited in what I can do with photos until we get back home. My camera takes large files and I always reduce them in size as well as usually tweak each image a little before uploading them to my Flickr site. I use Flickr to host the photos that I put on the blog. I'll see how the photos look unedited and may try one or two, just to see how it does.
The three cats will be at home and cared for by one of Pat's daughters. We are not brave enough to risk taking even one of them on a car trip.
Okay, I've got lots to get finished today so will end this & get it posted.
The three cats will be at home and cared for by one of Pat's daughters. We are not brave enough to risk taking even one of them on a car trip.
Okay, I've got lots to get finished today so will end this & get it posted.
Labels: Computers, Our cats, Trips to see things, Wedding
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Welcome (almost) to February!
This being the last day of January it seems appropriate to welcome the month of February. Welcome! In our area we have set a record for the warmest January on record and those records go back into the late 1800s, so this is a pretty long standing thing. Our weather guessers are saying they expect February to be warmer and dryer than January was, but it normally is so I'm not sure if it will be quite a bit better than usual or what. I have noticed more hours of daylight and that I like. It will also do well for our home heating bills, although I guess what is good for us here is not so good for others in different parts of the country. Last year we had a very cold, snowy winter while the East Coast was enjoying balmy weather. This year it seems to have flip-flopped. I don't know what next year will bring but I'll vote for another El Nino year like this one, although it didn't get started until about the end of November.
February is also a month with some important birthdays for our family. It starts out with Pat's younger brother on the 4th, then Pat's on the 22nd and my brother's on the 24th. Pat and T have a fun thing of trying to outdo each other with wacky birthday cards but Pat is a little behind since if she goes too far overboard it will catch up as T's BD is first and he has almost three weeks to find an appropriate card. The 22nd also used to be the birthday of George Washington, our country's first President. Pat told her school mates the reason they got a holiday on the 22nd was to celebrate her birthday. We also used to get Abraham Lincoln's birthday off on the 12th. I guess Congress decided it was too much to allow the People to have two holidays in one month. Or there was a lot of pressure from government employees who wanted three day weekends but thought they couldn't get two of them in a month, so they canceled both birthdays and we now just celebrate an office workers holiday on the 3rd Monday. We haven't canceled or moved Pat's birthday- it will still happen on the 22nd.
I've had a few questions about how Huggy is doing. She is fine although we are still having cat wars between our three cats. Huggy and Peewee, the youngest one, have almost made it a game. Molly is still the queen of the house and she tries to just ignore both of the others although they sometimes do get her involved. There are times when they will all three be in the same room and just quietly ignore each other. That is about the best we seem to be able to have happen.
February is also a month with some important birthdays for our family. It starts out with Pat's younger brother on the 4th, then Pat's on the 22nd and my brother's on the 24th. Pat and T have a fun thing of trying to outdo each other with wacky birthday cards but Pat is a little behind since if she goes too far overboard it will catch up as T's BD is first and he has almost three weeks to find an appropriate card. The 22nd also used to be the birthday of George Washington, our country's first President. Pat told her school mates the reason they got a holiday on the 22nd was to celebrate her birthday. We also used to get Abraham Lincoln's birthday off on the 12th. I guess Congress decided it was too much to allow the People to have two holidays in one month. Or there was a lot of pressure from government employees who wanted three day weekends but thought they couldn't get two of them in a month, so they canceled both birthdays and we now just celebrate an office workers holiday on the 3rd Monday. We haven't canceled or moved Pat's birthday- it will still happen on the 22nd.
I've had a few questions about how Huggy is doing. She is fine although we are still having cat wars between our three cats. Huggy and Peewee, the youngest one, have almost made it a game. Molly is still the queen of the house and she tries to just ignore both of the others although they sometimes do get her involved. There are times when they will all three be in the same room and just quietly ignore each other. That is about the best we seem to be able to have happen.
Labels: Birthdays, Holidays, Huggy, Our cats, Weather
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Another week has slipped by
It has been a week since my last post. I don't know for sure just where the time is going but it sure has been flying by. We have been busy but are taking a few days off to head for the Pacific Ocean tomorrow with our RV for a few days. We are members of a membership campground and are driving there to spend three nights in their Ocean Mist campground at Ocean City, Washington. The weather sounds like it will be good with high temps down there in the upper 60s to low 70s and sunny days, which is about as good as it gets on the northern Washington Coast. I'll take my camera and some books but we are leaving the computers at home. We do have kites to take and look forward to flying them on the beach. I'll try to get some photos posted before too long after we get back home Thursday afternoon, but that night is our Mexican Train game night so it will have to wait at least until Friday.
Some have asked about our cats. They are all fine. Miss Molly goes to the vet tomorrow morning before we leave but it is just for her regular checkup. Peewee is sitting beside me on my computer desk as I type this which will work fine as long as Huggy doesn't come into the computer room. We still have Cat Wars going on but I am almost of the opinion that it has become a bit of play for Huggy and Peewee. Most of the time Molly just ignores Huggie's hissing, looks at her and then walks off. Sometimes we will find them lying on the floor just a couple of feet apart, especially in the sunroom. Once we found all three curled up asleep on our bed. At the same time. They will probably all be ticked off with us for leaving them alone while we are gone but Pat's daughter, C, will come by to feed and scritch (pet) them every day. And we hope she'll also water the plants but her first interest is the cats.
More later.
Some have asked about our cats. They are all fine. Miss Molly goes to the vet tomorrow morning before we leave but it is just for her regular checkup. Peewee is sitting beside me on my computer desk as I type this which will work fine as long as Huggy doesn't come into the computer room. We still have Cat Wars going on but I am almost of the opinion that it has become a bit of play for Huggy and Peewee. Most of the time Molly just ignores Huggie's hissing, looks at her and then walks off. Sometimes we will find them lying on the floor just a couple of feet apart, especially in the sunroom. Once we found all three curled up asleep on our bed. At the same time. They will probably all be ticked off with us for leaving them alone while we are gone but Pat's daughter, C, will come by to feed and scritch (pet) them every day. And we hope she'll also water the plants but her first interest is the cats.
More later.
Labels: Huggy, Our cats, Pat and I, Small towns, Trips to see things
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Happy Easter to everyone!
I'd like to wish a Happy Easter to everyone. I hope you are all able to spend at least part of the day with family and loved ones. We had breakfast with one of Pat's daughters and the other one is coming by this afternoon with her two kids to see the new sunroom. Her husband is in sunny Arizona to watch a Mariner's Cactus League baseball game with his brother.
Speaking of the sunroom, we and the cats have been enjoying it, especially when the sun shines. Friday morning we woke up to actually see snow falling, although it didn't stick nor amount to anything. But you know it was cold. We have heat out there set for about 48 degrees so that is what the temp inside it is in the early morning. In the afternoons it has been getting up to the mid to upper 60s if overcast and mid 70s with at least some sunshine. That is with outside temps of around 50. Spring officially came this past week but you'd hardly know it from our weather and the long range projections are not much better.
Peewee, one of our cats, has been making herself very unpopular around our house by wanting to go out into the sunroom whenever she is awake. And that seems to always be from about 3am on, while we are not ready to get up until closer to 6. She is very vocal about it and is pretty loud in the middle of the night when the house is quiet. Pat has been talking to her about that, trying to get her to listen to the cuckoo clock and wait until it cuckoos six times before coming in to "talk" to us. So far that hasn't worked too well. I guess she needs more training in math so she can count to six (Peewee, not Pat.) Then too I can visualize her hearing the one cuckoo at 03:30, four at 04:00 and another at 04:30 and figuring that makes six.
We had a water leak a couple of weeks ago that had water slowly dripping from one of our kitchen lights that are recessed into the ceiling. We had a guy out to find and fix the leak but have decided it is time to re-roof the house. The house was built in 1994 but these mobile homes, even the better ones, seem to use the cheapest materials they can get away with. All of the houses in our park are within a couple of years of being the same age and there have been a lot of them re-roofed over the last couple of years. Anyway, we got a couple of bids and the work starts tomorrow. That is almost $6000 we hadn't planned to spend right now but it needs to be done. So things will be pretty noisy around here for the next four days or so. At least it will be quiet at night. If we can get Peewee to cooperate!
Speaking of the sunroom, we and the cats have been enjoying it, especially when the sun shines. Friday morning we woke up to actually see snow falling, although it didn't stick nor amount to anything. But you know it was cold. We have heat out there set for about 48 degrees so that is what the temp inside it is in the early morning. In the afternoons it has been getting up to the mid to upper 60s if overcast and mid 70s with at least some sunshine. That is with outside temps of around 50. Spring officially came this past week but you'd hardly know it from our weather and the long range projections are not much better.
Peewee, one of our cats, has been making herself very unpopular around our house by wanting to go out into the sunroom whenever she is awake. And that seems to always be from about 3am on, while we are not ready to get up until closer to 6. She is very vocal about it and is pretty loud in the middle of the night when the house is quiet. Pat has been talking to her about that, trying to get her to listen to the cuckoo clock and wait until it cuckoos six times before coming in to "talk" to us. So far that hasn't worked too well. I guess she needs more training in math so she can count to six (Peewee, not Pat.) Then too I can visualize her hearing the one cuckoo at 03:30, four at 04:00 and another at 04:30 and figuring that makes six.
We had a water leak a couple of weeks ago that had water slowly dripping from one of our kitchen lights that are recessed into the ceiling. We had a guy out to find and fix the leak but have decided it is time to re-roof the house. The house was built in 1994 but these mobile homes, even the better ones, seem to use the cheapest materials they can get away with. All of the houses in our park are within a couple of years of being the same age and there have been a lot of them re-roofed over the last couple of years. Anyway, we got a couple of bids and the work starts tomorrow. That is almost $6000 we hadn't planned to spend right now but it needs to be done. So things will be pretty noisy around here for the next four days or so. At least it will be quiet at night. If we can get Peewee to cooperate!
Labels: Holidays, House, Our cats, Sunroom, Weather
Saturday, February 16, 2008
The sunroom contractor is finished! Finally!!!!!
This sunroom construction project sometimes has felt like it would never be finished, but yesterday The Contractor and his helper finished their part and left our house about 15:00. We have some things to finish including the electrical and the final floor covering in the room, plus some painting and oiling of some of the wood parts. This room was ordered August 25, 2007 and was supposed to be finished by Halloween. It is three and a half months late but I do like it and think we will get a lot of use from it. I do of course have a few more photos to post of the project:
I took this photo while they were working on the room on Valentine's Day. It shows the new door that is to be installed in the wall behind where it is sitting in this photo, where the large window is in the photo. You can see some of the wood planking that is going over the old wall of the house and the same material is on the ceiling of the little brow roof above in the photo. You can also see the screen for the sliding glass door that goes out onto the concrete patio from the sunroom.
The rest of the photos were taken today. What this one shows is pretty much completed. There is a usable amount of space left on the outside patio that we can enjoy it when the weather is good enough to be outside. It will also give us a nice direct way to get from inside the house to the back yard, through the master bedroom and the door into the sunroom. Before in order to get back here we had to either go through the garage and walk along the north side of the house or out the front door and walk all along the south side. I think the BBQ may get used more often now.
A view looking at the south west corner of the sunroom from the common area behind our neighbors lot. This is a bit of a telephoto shot- it really isn't quite that close to the camera position. They did a pretty good job of picking out new vinyl siding that matched the siding on the house.
The camera is looking toward the original house wall and the new door into the master bedroom, after it was installed. This shows pretty well the tone of the wood on the walls after it was stained and you can see that we decided to paint the ceiling part of the little brow roof at the top of the sunroom wall in white. It seems to look better and matches the overall look of the sunroom ceiling than if it had been stained like the walls. There will be a wall light and an electrical outlet on this wall but they still need to be cut into the wall. And we haven't decided what we want there for a light.
I left this photo in the larger size as I think it will work okay without messing up my blog template and it shows detail better. The roof of the sunroom is a poly carbonate plastic that is divided into four compartments so it is very well insulated. The vertical walls are 1/4" acrylic plastic and not so well insulated but we may add a plastic membrane during the winter. The support structure is aluminum. The knee walls have R19 fiberglas insulation and the floor deck is also insulated with R19 fiberglas. The 3 opening windows and the sliding glass door are all tinted double pane glass. The unit is pretty well insulated.
Here is Peewee coming out the new door into the sunroom. She likes it!
In this photo she looks like she is saying, "Alright, where is my food?"
We actually had some broken sunshine today with outside temperatures that got up to the mid to upper 40s. With the sunroom door closed the inside temp got up to 70. It was very comfortable to be out there working on it and tomorrow is supposed to have even more sunshine and be a bit warmer, too. Peewee likes the room and I think we will too. Now we have to get those window cranks before it really gets warm out there so we can open them for ventilation.
I probably won't be putting more photos of this project up here until we have it all finished. I am setting up a set of photos on my Flickr site and putting them in order so if anyone wants to follow the project through, click on one of the photos here and go there. There will be photos there that I have not posted here.
I took this photo while they were working on the room on Valentine's Day. It shows the new door that is to be installed in the wall behind where it is sitting in this photo, where the large window is in the photo. You can see some of the wood planking that is going over the old wall of the house and the same material is on the ceiling of the little brow roof above in the photo. You can also see the screen for the sliding glass door that goes out onto the concrete patio from the sunroom.
The rest of the photos were taken today. What this one shows is pretty much completed. There is a usable amount of space left on the outside patio that we can enjoy it when the weather is good enough to be outside. It will also give us a nice direct way to get from inside the house to the back yard, through the master bedroom and the door into the sunroom. Before in order to get back here we had to either go through the garage and walk along the north side of the house or out the front door and walk all along the south side. I think the BBQ may get used more often now.
A view looking at the south west corner of the sunroom from the common area behind our neighbors lot. This is a bit of a telephoto shot- it really isn't quite that close to the camera position. They did a pretty good job of picking out new vinyl siding that matched the siding on the house.
The camera is looking toward the original house wall and the new door into the master bedroom, after it was installed. This shows pretty well the tone of the wood on the walls after it was stained and you can see that we decided to paint the ceiling part of the little brow roof at the top of the sunroom wall in white. It seems to look better and matches the overall look of the sunroom ceiling than if it had been stained like the walls. There will be a wall light and an electrical outlet on this wall but they still need to be cut into the wall. And we haven't decided what we want there for a light.
I left this photo in the larger size as I think it will work okay without messing up my blog template and it shows detail better. The roof of the sunroom is a poly carbonate plastic that is divided into four compartments so it is very well insulated. The vertical walls are 1/4" acrylic plastic and not so well insulated but we may add a plastic membrane during the winter. The support structure is aluminum. The knee walls have R19 fiberglas insulation and the floor deck is also insulated with R19 fiberglas. The 3 opening windows and the sliding glass door are all tinted double pane glass. The unit is pretty well insulated.
Here is Peewee coming out the new door into the sunroom. She likes it!
In this photo she looks like she is saying, "Alright, where is my food?"
We actually had some broken sunshine today with outside temperatures that got up to the mid to upper 40s. With the sunroom door closed the inside temp got up to 70. It was very comfortable to be out there working on it and tomorrow is supposed to have even more sunshine and be a bit warmer, too. Peewee likes the room and I think we will too. Now we have to get those window cranks before it really gets warm out there so we can open them for ventilation.
I probably won't be putting more photos of this project up here until we have it all finished. I am setting up a set of photos on my Flickr site and putting them in order so if anyone wants to follow the project through, click on one of the photos here and go there. There will be photos there that I have not posted here.
Labels: House, Our cats, Photos, Sunroom, Weather
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Peewee and the Sunroom
Our cat Peewee loves to lie right on top of the heat registers of the forced air heating system in our house. She also likes to be close to Pat so when we are in the computer room she would latch onto the one register that is in that room. We recently got a new table for Pats side of the room that her printer sits on and it covers Peewees register. Plus, there is a shelf down low on that table to both give support and give us a place to store printing paper, etc. The vertical support for the table cuts across the middle of the heat vent and the shelf has only 4 1/2 inches of space below it, so poor Peewee has been trying to figure out how to get onto HER register. This shows her latest and, so far, most successful attempt:
I think I had gotten her attention just before I took this photo as she raised her head to look out, so you can see her pink nose near the right side of the photo just below the shelf. Silly kitty.
The Contractor came back Thursday afternoon and also worked all day on Friday. Earlier in the week it was clear but cold and now after he has shown up the rains started again. Pretty hard rain. On Thursday they (he brought his 17 year old son along to help) got some of the aluminum supports for the sunroom fastened onto the knee wall. In the morning on Friday they got the part of the house roof overhang cut away that needed to be cut into in order to add the little roof across the back of the house that the sunroom will attach to.
This shows the first of the aluminum supports in place and the header for the little roof, with the older part cut away.
But then they decided to go get some 2X4s and plastic sheeting to build a tent over the whole thing. I wish they had done this sooner since some of the wood decking of the floor has gotten wet, even though it was covered in plastic. This photo shows a pretty good view of the 2X4s and tent and how far they got on the aluminum studs and rafters. This photo was taken on Saturday in the sunshine, while they are not here working of course, but it does show how far they did get on Friday. This view is from the back of our yard looking toward the house. Two of the awning windows are in place between wall studs. The bright blue on them is just a covering to protect the white vinyl while the construction is going on. They also have the vinyl corner pieces in place on the knee wall. It will be sided in the same vinyl siding as is on the rest of the house.
I took this photo with my back up against the house and looking out through the sunroom toward the back yard. You can see the windows in place and in fact can pretty well see how their glass is tinted. It is easiest to notice in the right side window if you compare the green fonds of the Pampas Grass plant as seen through the glass to that part of the plant to the left of the window. All of the vertical glazing will be tinted like this. I think this spring we will add a fence around at least the back yard, so there will be a cedar fence about six feet tall that will run across the yard at about the end of the crushed rock path that heads toward the common area yard beyond the edge of our lot. There will be a gate in the fence there so we can come & go into the common area yard.
This view also shows a bit of our community. The gazebo where our wedding ceremony occurred is just to the right of the area shown in this photo and the clubhouse is just beyond that gazebo. We are a gated community of 120 mobile or manufactured homes but all are mounted on foundations so they sit on the ground like a stick built house rather than up in the air three feet or so like mobile homes are often sited. The landscaping in the park is nice and all places have to be well maintained. I'm not used to living in a place where we have to ask permission to do something like building this sunroom, but this is one of those places. There are advantages and disadvantages to that kind of restrictions. But for us now, we are just glad that The Contractor has been showing up pretty regularly and that this project should (maybe) be finished before too long. He should be back on Tuesday and work all next week on our project. It is probably good that we didn't go to Arizona this weekend!
I think I had gotten her attention just before I took this photo as she raised her head to look out, so you can see her pink nose near the right side of the photo just below the shelf. Silly kitty.
The Contractor came back Thursday afternoon and also worked all day on Friday. Earlier in the week it was clear but cold and now after he has shown up the rains started again. Pretty hard rain. On Thursday they (he brought his 17 year old son along to help) got some of the aluminum supports for the sunroom fastened onto the knee wall. In the morning on Friday they got the part of the house roof overhang cut away that needed to be cut into in order to add the little roof across the back of the house that the sunroom will attach to.
This shows the first of the aluminum supports in place and the header for the little roof, with the older part cut away.
But then they decided to go get some 2X4s and plastic sheeting to build a tent over the whole thing. I wish they had done this sooner since some of the wood decking of the floor has gotten wet, even though it was covered in plastic. This photo shows a pretty good view of the 2X4s and tent and how far they got on the aluminum studs and rafters. This photo was taken on Saturday in the sunshine, while they are not here working of course, but it does show how far they did get on Friday. This view is from the back of our yard looking toward the house. Two of the awning windows are in place between wall studs. The bright blue on them is just a covering to protect the white vinyl while the construction is going on. They also have the vinyl corner pieces in place on the knee wall. It will be sided in the same vinyl siding as is on the rest of the house.
I took this photo with my back up against the house and looking out through the sunroom toward the back yard. You can see the windows in place and in fact can pretty well see how their glass is tinted. It is easiest to notice in the right side window if you compare the green fonds of the Pampas Grass plant as seen through the glass to that part of the plant to the left of the window. All of the vertical glazing will be tinted like this. I think this spring we will add a fence around at least the back yard, so there will be a cedar fence about six feet tall that will run across the yard at about the end of the crushed rock path that heads toward the common area yard beyond the edge of our lot. There will be a gate in the fence there so we can come & go into the common area yard.
This view also shows a bit of our community. The gazebo where our wedding ceremony occurred is just to the right of the area shown in this photo and the clubhouse is just beyond that gazebo. We are a gated community of 120 mobile or manufactured homes but all are mounted on foundations so they sit on the ground like a stick built house rather than up in the air three feet or so like mobile homes are often sited. The landscaping in the park is nice and all places have to be well maintained. I'm not used to living in a place where we have to ask permission to do something like building this sunroom, but this is one of those places. There are advantages and disadvantages to that kind of restrictions. But for us now, we are just glad that The Contractor has been showing up pretty regularly and that this project should (maybe) be finished before too long. He should be back on Tuesday and work all next week on our project. It is probably good that we didn't go to Arizona this weekend!
Labels: Our cats, Photos, Sunroom, Weather, Wedding
Friday, July 06, 2007
Cat Wars, scene 1
Huggy has lived with Molly and Peewee now for about a month. I think they are used to each other but they still hiss and chase. For the first couple of weeks Huggy was the dominant one. But one day Miss Molly, who is about the same age as Huggy (both 9,) decided that she was through being chased and hissed at in her own house and hissed back, then chased Huggy under the bed. Since then she hasn't let Hug chase her but has done it many times herself. And now Peewee has started to do the same thing, although not to the extent of "treeing" Huggy under the bed. These photos were taken a couple of weeks ago when Molly was not taking any guff from Hug but Peewee wasn't yet so sure.
This first photo shows Miss Molly looking around the corner toward Huggy, with Peewee safely sitting behind her in the kitchen.
Huggy is at rest on the living room floor. She actually is more than at rest. You can see the Purrpad Pat has for the cats. It always has kitty candy (catnip) on it and Hug has been indulging herself in the stuff. So she is in a bit of a "kitty high" but is still keeping an eye on Miss Molly.
Molly and Huggy are eying each other. The Purrpad shows up better in this photo as do the Tiger Tails that also get covered with catnip. Can you feel the tension?
This photo better shows the relationship between Huggy on the left and Peewee on the right. Peewee still isn't sure if she wants to take on that hissing monster in the living room, but Molly has decided to just supervise the whole event, so she has moved over to one of her proper supervisory positions.
Here she is, in her chair at the dining table, where she can oversee all that is going on. This round ended peacefully as Huggy was a bit too relaxed to "go to battle" and Peewee wasn't yet ready to be so adventuresome. We still haven't had any blood let so the battles are not that serious but we do get tired of the posturing, hissing, chasing, etc. Huggy started it by acting that way when she was the new comer. I don't think Peewee even knew how to hiss until she saw Hug doing that.
In a week and a half we will go away with the motorhome for almost two weeks. We will take Huggy along with us so they will get a break from each other. I hope that when we return they will start over with their relationship and just get along or at least ignore each other. But I am not betting anyone that will happen. Maybe someday.
This first photo shows Miss Molly looking around the corner toward Huggy, with Peewee safely sitting behind her in the kitchen.
Huggy is at rest on the living room floor. She actually is more than at rest. You can see the Purrpad Pat has for the cats. It always has kitty candy (catnip) on it and Hug has been indulging herself in the stuff. So she is in a bit of a "kitty high" but is still keeping an eye on Miss Molly.
Molly and Huggy are eying each other. The Purrpad shows up better in this photo as do the Tiger Tails that also get covered with catnip. Can you feel the tension?
This photo better shows the relationship between Huggy on the left and Peewee on the right. Peewee still isn't sure if she wants to take on that hissing monster in the living room, but Molly has decided to just supervise the whole event, so she has moved over to one of her proper supervisory positions.
Here she is, in her chair at the dining table, where she can oversee all that is going on. This round ended peacefully as Huggy was a bit too relaxed to "go to battle" and Peewee wasn't yet ready to be so adventuresome. We still haven't had any blood let so the battles are not that serious but we do get tired of the posturing, hissing, chasing, etc. Huggy started it by acting that way when she was the new comer. I don't think Peewee even knew how to hiss until she saw Hug doing that.
In a week and a half we will go away with the motorhome for almost two weeks. We will take Huggy along with us so they will get a break from each other. I hope that when we return they will start over with their relationship and just get along or at least ignore each other. But I am not betting anyone that will happen. Maybe someday.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Cats, RVs and more
I thought it might be good to post a couple of photos of Pat's two cats, Molly and Peewee. These are not the greatest of photos but you can have a better idea of what these two look like.
This is Molly. She is about the same age as Huggy- both will be 9 in May.
Here is Peewee. She is 4 and is usually very active but I managed to catch her in a relaxed pose. She is a nearly perfect tuxedo cat, with the left and right sides almost a perfect mirror opposite of each other.
We have had Huggy over to Pat's house a couple of times and need to do it more often. Somehow time just seems to slip by. This week Pat is working some every day, either at her volunteer job at the hospital (today) or at the school district office where they have needed some extra help with special projects. This has given me some extra time to spend at my house going through things and I am making some progress at that. I also had a little time to go looking at RVs.
We have decided to trade my Sea Breeze RV for one that we pick out that will become Pat & Dick's RV and I think we have found the one we want. I had thought about looking for a unit that is a little smaller than my present one and the one we are looking at fits the bill perfectly. It is new but a 2005 model, so the price is lower than a 2007 unit would be. The brand and model number is a Trail-Lite 31SL. It isn't a lot smaller at 31' and it does have one slide out, so the actual living space is probably a bit larger than the Sea Breeze. But it fits us pretty well. I took some photos of it yesterday morning and in the late afternoon after Pat got home from work and we had our mocha, we went to the dealer so she could see it. I have three photos of it to post today:
This first photo is of the main living area looking forward. It is a Class C motorhome, which means that it is built on a cut-away van chassis. You can see the driver/passenger seats along with the dashboard up forward. These units have a space above the driver/passenger seats that often has a large bed but these can be awkward to get into. The one we are looking at has an entertainment center built up there. It contains a 24" TV with a theater sound system and storage for DVDs, books, etc. There is enough space for one person to sleep in front of it and I suppose that could be called the Dog House. I had better behave.
The upholstery material is a gray suede material that looks good and I guess will wear pretty well. The wood work is real wood without any pressed board.
Here is a view showing the kitchen area and looking down the hallway to the bedroom at the rear of the coach. Like most RVs the counter space is pretty limited but we are thinking of putting a flip-up extension to the left of the sink. The stove has three burners plus an oven and there is a microwave/convection oven combination unit above the vent hood. The fridge is just past them and has wood covers over the doors that match the other wood in the rig. The door you can see that is past the fridge goes into the shower and there is an identical one across the hall that goes into a small room with the toilet and wash basin. The doors are regular solid core household type doors. You can just see part of the bed through the last doorway. It is a queen size island bed with space to move around it on three sides. It doesn't have as much storage space under it as the one in my Sea Breeze has, at least from the inside, but there is a large storage space beneath the head half of the bed that is accessible from both sides outside the rig. Pat seems to approve of the kitchen so that is the main thing.
The slide out area contains the dinette and sofa. I have never had a rig with a slide out and have some concerns about them but understand that the newer ones have resolved most of the problems of the early units. Also this unit does not have any of the heavy things such as the fridge in the slide out. And the rig is equipped with hydrolic jacks to level it before you extend the slide. They sure do add more space to the inside of the rig. For those not familiar with them you can sort of see the slide out area by looking behind the dinette seat and at the area enclosed by the wood "frame" that goes up and then comes forward. It is an area that mechanically slides out of the rig about 18" when it is parked, extending the inside living space. The dinette and sofa also make into sleeping areas so there is room for grandkids.
We haven't signed on the line yet to purchase this unit but are strongly leaning that way. It looks like it would work well for our needs. I think what I am most happy about is that it is sounding like Pat will do some traveling with me in an RV, something that I really enjoy doing and I hope that she will like it as well as I do.
This is Molly. She is about the same age as Huggy- both will be 9 in May.
Here is Peewee. She is 4 and is usually very active but I managed to catch her in a relaxed pose. She is a nearly perfect tuxedo cat, with the left and right sides almost a perfect mirror opposite of each other.
We have had Huggy over to Pat's house a couple of times and need to do it more often. Somehow time just seems to slip by. This week Pat is working some every day, either at her volunteer job at the hospital (today) or at the school district office where they have needed some extra help with special projects. This has given me some extra time to spend at my house going through things and I am making some progress at that. I also had a little time to go looking at RVs.
We have decided to trade my Sea Breeze RV for one that we pick out that will become Pat & Dick's RV and I think we have found the one we want. I had thought about looking for a unit that is a little smaller than my present one and the one we are looking at fits the bill perfectly. It is new but a 2005 model, so the price is lower than a 2007 unit would be. The brand and model number is a Trail-Lite 31SL. It isn't a lot smaller at 31' and it does have one slide out, so the actual living space is probably a bit larger than the Sea Breeze. But it fits us pretty well. I took some photos of it yesterday morning and in the late afternoon after Pat got home from work and we had our mocha, we went to the dealer so she could see it. I have three photos of it to post today:
This first photo is of the main living area looking forward. It is a Class C motorhome, which means that it is built on a cut-away van chassis. You can see the driver/passenger seats along with the dashboard up forward. These units have a space above the driver/passenger seats that often has a large bed but these can be awkward to get into. The one we are looking at has an entertainment center built up there. It contains a 24" TV with a theater sound system and storage for DVDs, books, etc. There is enough space for one person to sleep in front of it and I suppose that could be called the Dog House. I had better behave.
The upholstery material is a gray suede material that looks good and I guess will wear pretty well. The wood work is real wood without any pressed board.
Here is a view showing the kitchen area and looking down the hallway to the bedroom at the rear of the coach. Like most RVs the counter space is pretty limited but we are thinking of putting a flip-up extension to the left of the sink. The stove has three burners plus an oven and there is a microwave/convection oven combination unit above the vent hood. The fridge is just past them and has wood covers over the doors that match the other wood in the rig. The door you can see that is past the fridge goes into the shower and there is an identical one across the hall that goes into a small room with the toilet and wash basin. The doors are regular solid core household type doors. You can just see part of the bed through the last doorway. It is a queen size island bed with space to move around it on three sides. It doesn't have as much storage space under it as the one in my Sea Breeze has, at least from the inside, but there is a large storage space beneath the head half of the bed that is accessible from both sides outside the rig. Pat seems to approve of the kitchen so that is the main thing.
The slide out area contains the dinette and sofa. I have never had a rig with a slide out and have some concerns about them but understand that the newer ones have resolved most of the problems of the early units. Also this unit does not have any of the heavy things such as the fridge in the slide out. And the rig is equipped with hydrolic jacks to level it before you extend the slide. They sure do add more space to the inside of the rig. For those not familiar with them you can sort of see the slide out area by looking behind the dinette seat and at the area enclosed by the wood "frame" that goes up and then comes forward. It is an area that mechanically slides out of the rig about 18" when it is parked, extending the inside living space. The dinette and sofa also make into sleeping areas so there is room for grandkids.
We haven't signed on the line yet to purchase this unit but are strongly leaning that way. It looks like it would work well for our needs. I think what I am most happy about is that it is sounding like Pat will do some traveling with me in an RV, something that I really enjoy doing and I hope that she will like it as well as I do.
Labels: Our cats, Photos, RVing
