A Posse Ad Esse

Well, it's been an uneventful month, blog-wise, because I've mostly been busy with tasks other than the painting. As I showed you last time, the garage was a disaster area; it had been so long since I'd taken time to put things back that nothing was where it was supposed to be. I had to take a few days to give it a thorough straightening up just so I could find what I needed. At the same time, I put up several more lights so that I could see what I was looking for. The older I get, the more lights I need.

Speaking of lights, I put up a swell new light in the gazebo, a high-pressure sodium light. FarmTek has some very reasonably-priced fixtures, so I decided to give one a try. It works magnificently! Just 150 watts, but it lights up that gazebo at night like the Angel Stadium infield.

Fiat lux.

Speaking of the yard, I had to take some time to tend to that, too. Debris is falling there 24/7, weeds are always springing up, and we have a lot of plants in pots that were beginning to feel neglected.

To sum it all up. I've been pretty busy this past month tending to all the things I've let slip as I worked on the house, but I'm back at it now, finishing the patching of the west window casing. I've been having a terribly difficult time getting the sill to look right, especially since I ran out of the new putty and had to start using the old stuff. I thought I could do it freehand, but as I mentioned before, it's very difficult to establish a straight edge out of putty in midair. No matter how much I worked, I just couldn't get the edge straight. It looked awful.

Sic semper WoodEpox.

I realized I had to make some sort of superstructure to guide me. Fortunately, the profile at each end was correct, so I could use the ends as a guide.

Digging around in my nice neat garage, I found some nice rectangular window stop that the contractor milled for me. I cut two pieces slightly longer than the sill, coated them with mold release agent, then clamped them so they were flush with each end. They thus described a straight, level and perpendicular plane along the front of the sill.

Veni, vidi, putty.

I then puttied slightly proud of this plane, and when it hardened I sanded it carefully back even with the edges of the window stop. It worked! The edge is now straight and level, and the front plane nice and flat. I was stunned to see the difference it made. Before I did this, I was very unhappy with the whole appearance of the casing. I thought it looked bad despite all the work I had done. Now, even though there remain many divots to fill in the sill and the top trim is still off, simply having the sill lines established properly suddenly makes the whole casing look great, at least to my eyes.

Ars gratia artis.

And with that, I've moved on to the east window casing while I await a new shipment of WoodEpox.

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Absit invidia.