Plans for the year

Last year I said:
"Plans for this year:
• Get the windows in and the dang living room done. (Minus the floors. Those will have to wait.)
• Get the bathroom done. Please, please let the bathroom be done.
• Pony up and just get the front step done.
• Rebuild the platform over the well.
• Finish the house sills."

That list can now look like:
• Get the bathroom done. Please, please let the bathroom be done. For real this time. Or at least have a *solid* plan for the space.
• Rebuild the platform over the well. The make-do roof I slapped on it is working ok, but already shedding shingles from where the base material wasn't very sound to begin with. But I knew that was temporary.
• Finish the house sills. This means getting on Ian's schedule of work.

To that I wish to add:
• Move all the bathroom crap out to the shed so I don't have to look at the visual reminder of this drama every day. I have some friends coming over this Saturday to help me with this very thing.
• Replace vertical supports in the basement. They feel like they were added haphazardly in the past, and the metal pipes are rusting out on the bottom. I'd like to replace them with some nice solid 4x4's is more logical locations. That might tighten up the shifty floor above, especially in the dining room. I'm hoping to make that an add-on when Ian comes to do the sills.
• Replace the dining room and perhaps kitchen window? We shall see.
• Perhaps repaint and reorient the dining room.
• Try my hand at refinishing the floors? Heck, I've refinished what feels like miles of trim. At least the floor can't shimmy around on me. I'm pretty sure it's only a few sad coats of varnish on the wood, which I can probably blow through pretty quickly with the orbital sander and an industrial box of sandpaper. I'm good at emptying rooms at this point, and my knee pads are already warmed up from the repointing work. The living room and office have doors I can close. The hallway and dining room would be impossible to keep the cat out of, so I might have to skip those spaces for now.
• Finish repointing the basement. I'm guessing it's going to take at least 20 +/- more bags of mortar, which means 1, (if not 2), more trips to PA. (So, $600 + travel.) There's an SCA event in the spring that might take me down that way again, I just would need to work on logistics.
• Go room by room and tick off any lingering little annoying projects.

Things I should start thinking about:
• The roof. When I bought the place, I was told there was 3-5 more years left in a very tired roof. We are rolling up on the latter part of that time frame. Unfortunately, that is a project I can only throw $$ at.

Dressed up for the holidays.
Too bad we've only had about 5" of snow this year, and it melts as fast as it falls. :(

Other things to do!:
• Continue on my leaded glass project. I have the 2 half-sized panels done. Now I have to figure out the wood frame part. The wood will determine the size of the two lower panels.

Panel #2, which matches Panel #1 from the class.

Part of this project is also involves making one full sized panel, which I can do independently from the rest of the window. That will use normal sized lead and glass, so hopefully it will be a smidge easier? We'll find out!
• Write and defend the paper that will accompany the leaded window project. That's actually more daunting than the physical work.
• Figure out where to take a stained glass painting glass around here. I have some leads from last year, I just need to follow up on them.
• Maybe take a couple more panel commissions. I have to talk to the tax man to see if it's worth it. There's a fine balance of freelance/gig work and when it's worth it or not.
• Keep hiking and walking whenever I can.
• Try to travel a little, tiny bit? This one is hard, because of $ and time. Most of my income is turned around into day-to-day support for myself and the cat or paying for/working on the house. I can keep costs down by hitting SCA camping events, which tend to be more affordable than dropping big $ on hotels, but I'm having a hard time with my relationship to/within the SCA organization right now.

That's it in a nutshell. 

Keep on keeping on, friends.

Sunrise from the top of Potter Hill Road.