Category: Life with Pratts

Pratt Porch Project – Days 15, 16

Once again something unexpected came up. But this one wasn’t optional. A lot of dry rot was found under the deck. Fortunately, none of it had reached into the sill of the foundation. Another bad bit of work by whomever did the original construction — there was no flashing! So all of day 15 was spent repairing that and installing flashing. The end result is in the left picture. Day 16 was the completion of the blue board and installation of the outside door. The wall sleeve for the A/C was installed before the blue board went up, but I neglected to mention it.

Pratt Porch Project - Day 15Pratt Porch Project - Day 16Pratt Porch Project - Day 16

No Buddy From Netflix

On a whim I checked the free Video On Demand offerings on FiOS TV, and spotted a movie with the description “Norwegian comedy” so, what the heck, I pressed OK. The movie is a serio-comic romance from 2003, called Buddy. Carol and I really enjoyed it.

Netflix has both the DVD and the option to play Buddy online, but sitting together in front of the computer isn’t an option, and getting video from the computer to the TV is an annoying and unreliable process. Fortunately, getting TV to the computer is much easier, so here’s a 3-minute scene from Buddy, as played on FiOS TV V-O-D.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/SEP07/Buddy.flv 400 300]

Pratt Porch Project – Days 12, 13

Day 12 was exclusively more shingling on the outside. I won’t post pictures of that until it’s done. Day 13 had another unplanned improvement. The sliding glass door has been replaced. We did it for a variety of reasons. First, it was 30 years old and we knew it would need replacing eventually. It would be more expensive and much more difficult to do it later. And although we thought it was working all right, occasionally it got off its track, and it never operated completely smoothly in the nine years we’ve lived here. Once it had been removed it was obvious that one of the wheels was broken.

Pratt Porch Project - Day 13Pratt Porch Project - Day 13Pratt Porch Project - Day 13
Click to enlarge

I’ve included a picture of the new living room window that’s nine inches narrower than the original. Some of the wallpaper had to be removed to get it ready for the finish work, and the next thing we knew the decision was made to remove ALL of the wallpaper! So I stripped the wall, took down the custom drapes that came with the house, and pulled out all of the mounting hardware. I’ll strip the rest of the living room, wash off the glue, and paint it whatever color Carol wants.