August 22, 2025, A Full Day.

City of Watertown viewed from a State St parking lot behind Sportsmans Barber shop.

 Friday August 22, 2025 was a busy day for me. About 9:00am I dropped some return packages at the UPS Store for the Better Half. At 11:30 I got a haircut at Sportsman's Barber Shop. At 1:00 I was picking up some items at Sam's club and saw a display for Halloween merchandise. That seems really early to me. Around 4:00 I put a coat of Olympic brand wood stain on new side porch porch floor. The area is about 5 feet by 12 feet. Took 45 minutes for that job, then had to clean my brush with mineral spirits. at about 7:00pm I grilled some cheddar Jalapeno sausages. 

Grilling sausages in evening.

First coat of stain applied to side porch.

August 22 Halloween display at Sam's Club in Watertown.

PHOTOS: Re-building Chaumont House Side Porch

Completed framing deck yesterday, August 13.

I am presenting here some photos of  the side porch re-build project at our Chaumont House. The photos were snapped various days beginning August 1st through August 13th. Yesterday (the 13th) I completed framing up the floor joists. I was replacing old rotted wood with new pressure treated lumber. The job was a pain as I tried to tie new wood into remnants of the original. It's not an example of my finest work by any means. It's solid as Sears was in their early years. Next I will make tongue and groove deck boards to same dimensions as the originals. The weather during this project has been mid 80's to low 90 degree temperatures with high humidity. Slow, sweaty work. 

Side porch repair, Chaumont, NY August 2025

Side porch repair, Chaumont, NY August 2025

Side porch repair, Chaumont, NY August 2025

Side porch repair, Chaumont, NY August 2025

Side porch repair, Chaumont, NY August 2025

Side porch repair, Chaumont, NY August 2025

Side porch repair, Chaumont, NY August 2025

Side porch repair, Chaumont, NY August 2025

Side porch repair, Chaumont, NY August 2025

Side porch repair, Chaumont, NY August 2025

Boat Cruse Guitar, Bat, Porch Boards

Thursday August 7, 2025

Me playing on a boat cruising the St Lawrence River, 

Played guitar aboard a boat cruise on the St. Lawrence River. It was an event put on by Orion Art Gallery as a fund raiser for the Watertown Zoo. It was about 2 hours. Used my Guild Mark V classical guitar, Roland Street Cube battery powered amp. 

Earlier in the day I picked up pine boards for new floor on side porch of our Chaumont house. 27 boards, 1 & 1/8 inch by 6 inch by 8 ft long. Came to a couple dollars over $500.00 withtax. Purchased at Home Depot on zero percent credit for 12 months. Beautiful deal. 

Started the day out by discovering a bat sleeping in our basement. I dispatched the creature. I must seal up the basement. I have no idea how they are getting in there.

Phil Ashwood, Jerry Merril & ? waiting to board boat cruise, Clayton NY

New boards for side porch floor.

Dead bat discovered in basement. Found another one the day before this one. 

Porch Lattice Repair / Rebuild

 

Finished lattice project, Chaumont, NY. (I could have done a better job.)

This afternoon I finished replacing / repairing a section of lattice at one end of our front porch. I used a piece of vinyl lattice that I bought at Home Depot for $50.00. It's very flexible product and was problematic trying to get it in place from under the porch.  I decided to try and brace it by gluing strips of wood to it. from some angles the wood braces were a bit visible so I decided to paint those edges black. I used Loctite brand adhesive. Seemed to work pretty good but one of the braces fell off as I was handling the lattice. Vinyl has a problem with expansion and contraction which can cause it to crack and break if fastened to tightly. I used some at our Franklin St house some years ago and it cracked and broke after a couple of years. I screwed it in place too tightly. 

Replacing lattice on porch, Summer 2025. This is not visible
from the street and consequently has been easy project to put off

Original lattice, very weather beaten and old. But it's salvageable which I intend to do.

New vinyl lattice held in place with wood strips, screws do not penetrate the vinyl.

Painting wood bracing that I glued to vinyl lattice. 

Wood bracing glued to vinyl lattice. This greatly improved handling the thing.

Easily cut the lattice these  hardware scissors

Work at Clay St. Today

 

Apt #1 Radiator, recently painted, with faux wainscoting panel behind it. 

I spent a good portion of the day at our Clay St apartment house, ongoing repairs and maintenance prior to listing it for sale. I washed the front porch floor. Plan to paint it, or at least half of it tomorrow. I then fitted a piece of paneling behind the living room radiator in apartment 1. I discovered an elctrical outlet behind that radiator. The radiator boiler system must have been installed some years after the electricity and the outlet was never removed. It's impossible to access. It's not visible either. I discovered it because the pnel was catching on it as I was slipping it behind the radiator.  When I got home a played through some of my guitar repertoire for about an hour. 

Apt #1 living room radiator a few weeks ago.

Scrubbing the porch floor with soap, water and elbow grease. Prepping for paint.