Game of Thrones

I have written before about my favorite TV shows on the Walking Dead journal entry and mentioned Game of Thrones. Tonight is the premiere of Season 6 and I will be ready and waiting when the show airs. The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones both started around the same time and shocked audiences at the pace in which they killed off beloved characters. Now the show has caught up to the books and is beginning to close out the story before the books are complete. This seems presumptuous but possibly more satisfying since the show will end on its own terms and Walking Dead will go on until the show gets cancelled. Unfortunately, Walking Dead has already begun to lose some of its edge. Let’s hope that does not happen here with Game of Thrones.

I began watching just before season 3. We had a promotional deal where we were getting HBO for free and we binge-watched the first two seasons just before season 3 began. Since then, we have watched all of the episodes. Sometimes, I would also read up on the commentary on the previous episode as people compared the story in the show to the one in the books. There was another guy at work I would talk to about it sometimes. He never watched the show but read the entire series on his midnight shift rotation. I guess you can read all of the books for free if your local library owns the digital copy and you have library card and an e-reader.

This season we’ll see what story line prevails: political infighting, global conquest, or the demon army marching south with winter. Of course the White Walkers seem like the most ominous threat to this world.

Jon Snow sees the White Walker King re-animate the dead soldiers at Hardhome

The cast is large and has many good actors, Gwendoline Christie has crossed over into the Star Wars franchise and Pedro Pascal has a lead role in Narcos which I watched for the entire season before realizing he was also a main character in Game of Thrones. I suppose I watch those other TV shows/movies more than other shows starring cast members. Except for one, Peter Dinklage. In my opinion, he is the best actor in movie/TV right now. He is consistently getting roles in TV and movies in drama, comedy, and action. Besides crossing over to get roles in different genres, he is also getting roles based on his acting ability rather than his size. He seems to be in some poorly criticized, goofy comedies, but he also plays regular characters in drama and action movies despite his size. He was able to break the type cast and get significant roles that were not written for little people, which is an accomplishment. Of course he is a master of dialogue which is his main skill.  

Peter Dinklage wins another Emmy for best supporting actor for his role on Game of Thrones

Closet Renovation II - Ceiling Work

Now that the closet is empty. Let's start at the top and get rid of that horrible popcorn ceiling. This can be done less messy than you think. Instead of just scraping everything off with a putty knife YouTube showed us a few tricks. We bought a gallon sized sprayer (the other two we have are for pesticide and herbicide so we got a new one for water). Fill the sprayer with water and get the popcorn on the ceiling wet like a paste. Now it is easier to scrape off and does not fall down on you and the floor like a blizzard.



Now the ceiling is bare and looks better already.



Let's get rid of these wires too. They are from a defunct security system. They were removed by going up in the attic and pulling them out.

Don't forget the other part of the new closet. All of this has to go:

OK, so the door and the shelves were easily removed. Nothing too bad so far. We'll see what happens when the real demolition begins. 

Closet Renovation

This entry has been a long time coming. It is actually what spawned the idea for a blog. We did a closet renovation lasting five months; from August 2015 to August 2016. In this time we combined the master closet with the adjacent master bathroom closet. We moved the entrance from the bedroom to the bathroom to keep it functional as a bathroom closet as well.

 

There were many, many obstacles but we completed it in the end and have more space than ever before. Now I will share the steps, thought processes, and complicated issues for your consideration or entertainment. There will be many more posts to follow since this was a large project for us.

You can see that we were lacking space, shelving, and storage. We even had a door opening into the closet which really cut down on space. And, yes, that is a picture frame hung without a picture inside.


So step one is to empty out the closet so that we can assess the situation and begin work. If I've ever learned anything about construction, it's that no matter how simple a task is, it is actually harder.

So you'd figure that putting all the stuff from one closet into another would be a good, temporary solution while the renovation is going on. Normally that would be sound thinking unless the guy that built the other closet built our closet. Apparently the construction workers who put the other closet together didn't have stud-finding technology or just didn't care because they hung the support brackets for the closet straight on to dry wall, not the studs. You see the result.

Excellent, now there was a mess in the spare bedroom. We just lost ANOTHER closet. This renovation is costing us THREE closets now. It was solved by turning the spare bedroom into another closet with clothes laying everywhere. Luckily I had still kept the wardrobe boxes from previous moves. After pulling them out of the attic, that gave us some more room but now we had all of the winter clothes boxed up but whatever it is August, right?

Before the first demolition even took place there was a disaster but the master closet is now empty and the first shelves have been removed. Now it is time to begin.

Chores II

As indicated in my last post, we were cited by Code Enforcement for having a leaning fence which included the side of the fence and the gate. Here is how I "fixed" it. I temporarily fixed the leaning fence by reinforcing it until we get around to replacing it. I also installed a new gate on the old posts which were still sturdy.




Old Gate - 12 ft. opening, double doors

Leaning part of fence

Another shot of the leaning fence

This is why the gate was leaning. Instead of a lightweight frame, the original installation used a corral gate and mounted boards on it. This was too heavy for the wood posts to support and over time the gate would not operate properly because it began to lean due to the excessive weight. I know that we live near horse country but the people who built the fence should have used better material, not what they could find at the local feed and supply store.

I bought some new pickets for the fence repair and already had a post left over from another project.



We bought a 12 foot (two 6 foot door), double-door aluminum frame gate from Dura-Gate. We originally bought a six foot gate from them about four years ago to replace another six foot gate that was poorly constructed and falling over. Since then, we purchased another four foot gate last year to open our back fence into the park that is right behind our house. That gave us easy access to the park. The gates are holding up much better than wood construction fences so we bought another for this project. I got a recommendation from someone at work for a local company, but this was a cheaper option.











I had to break out the saw horses and jigsaw. The first gate went up fine, once put together the second 6 foot gate was slightly too big for the opening so I used the jigsaw to cut 1 1/2 inches off. I basically put the frame together and cut just inside of the vertical beam. The screws that come with the kit will allow you to insert the screw anywhere in the frame so you don't need to worry about pre-drilled holes. This makes the gate customizable for any opening.


First gate is up mounted on the old post.

The other gate installed + more demolition.

The pickets get installed with screws on to the aluminum frame. The ones that come in the kit have a special head to go through the aluminum and wood. The kit comes with lots of extra fasteners.
 
Also I keep hearing about some phantom "bald spots" on my head as you can see in this photo above. Upon close investigation, I do not have a bald spot (yet). My hair is very fine and in the sun it can look like it is thin but I'll appear to have a bald spot depending on your point of view in the right light. My golden brown hair doesn't help.
 
I got rained on but have to keep working. Still used corded drill in the rain. It's Florida, we have to deal with this all the time.
Also notice that the gates are not leveled yet. The one on the left is higher. This will eventually get fixed at the end when we adjust the plumb, a feature that is included on the hinges.

Almost done installing pickets.


Just details left.


Gate latch. Whoops, a little too tight. We had to adjust the horizontal width on the hinges to fix. Of course after we installed the latch, we realized it had to go on the other side based on how we use our fence and where the anchor post gets installed. Basically, the side with the latch stays shut most of the time and we installed it on the side that opens regularly.

 Now a custom picket to hide the post but has cut out holes to allow the hinges to open and shut with the gate.  

Now let's not forget the other complaint from Code Enforcement, the leaning fence. I dug the new fence post a few days earlier and filled the hole with concrete and the sand (not dirt) that Florida is built on. Then I screwed pressure treated 2x4s to connect the two posts.
This is an eyesore and will of course get in the way but will last long enough to get Code Enforcement off my case until I am ready to replace the fence on my own timeline.
 
Final product with the gate. Its not exactly plumb and even 1. because the original fence posts were slightly leaning and 2. we intentionally closed any gap to keep the dogs from trying to escape so that left it slightly cock-eyed. We may fix later based on how our dogs respect the new boundary.

 Here is the side view of the fence no longer leaning.


All right, the estimated costs:

Fix the leaning fence: Concrete, 8 ft pressure treated 4x4 fence post, 6 ft pressure treated 2x4, and screws. Estimated cost $15-20.

Fix the gate: 12 foot Dura-Gate double gate frame kit and pickets. Estimated cost $435

This isn't the last you'll see of the fence here.