Sunday, April 7, 2019

Hick House Downstairs: The Doors 04-05-19

Hick House contains many portals of assorted dimensions. Doors galore, from one room to another. My favorite was FREE!


Actually, that's a PAIR of doors. I think they're beautiful. When Hick went by the home of This Guy's Son, to pick up the truck keys, he saw these in the front yard. This Guy's Son said, "I'm throwing those doors away. If you want them for your house, you can have them." Of course Hick did! He loaded them up when he returned This Guy's truck and keys, and dropped them off in the bedroom of Hick House. The room they're using as a workshop right now.

The plan was to put these doors in that square archway (Hick is the one who originally called it an archway) between the living room and master bedroom. I'm no designer, but I could picture these beauties by day with a colorful curtain mounted on each one, gathered in the middle like an hourglass, then released at night for privacy.

Alas. My vision lasted only one day. Hick discovered that he would need to enlarge the square archway by 10 inches to fit in the doors, and that is a LOAD-BEARING WALL! He'd have to tear out part of the wall, and get a new beam 10 inches longer to span the opening. As you know, the plan for Hick House is to make a safe home that will pass city inspection. While he would have loved to put those doors in, Hick said, "I ain't spendin' money to buy a beam and re-do that archway!"

I asked what would become of those doors, and Hick said, "They're comin' home with ME!" Even though HOS (Hick's Oldest Son) had the idea to put them outside as a door for that concrete-walled garage/outbuilding. Usually HOS has better instincts than that! Hick pointed out that people would break them for fun, and that they could see inside the building if they were planning to steal tools or whatever HOS eventually stores in there.

Hick was on a door-hanging binge, I guess, and framed in a door for that archway area, rather than waiting to see if he had money left for shelves. The result is nowhere near as aesthetically pleasing as those frenchy kind of windowed doors.


That is now the way to get from the living room to the master bedroom. HOS has already painted the trim gray, since this picture. Hick says he's leaving the door brown, but I think it would look good in a contrasting bright color. This door was also FREE, the one Hick and This Guy drove 90 miles to get from This Guy's Brother.

The living room window has now been given its final framing. It has also gotten the gray trim treatment. Out the window, you can kind of see that concrete garage building.


The trees line the little creek, and then there's a neighbor's house on the other side.

Hick hung the door that goes from the kitchen to the back porch pantry. It's by the built-in cabinets. I assumed it was the original door to the house, because the panel design is exactly like the built-in cabinets that HOS painted gray and white.


Imagine my surprise when Hick said it was not! "I got it up at the Storage Units from my buddy. For FREE. It was a pocket door. I'll have to put a knob and hardware on it. I had to patch a little part at the bottom, but it's not that noticeable unless you know it's there."


After seeing the first coat of HOS's paint job, I think this door is going to look spectacular. Some might even call it breathtaking. You know. For a $5000 house that is being made safe and inspection-passing.

Saturday, April 6, 2019

Not a CENTSational Week for a Future Pennyillionaire

Slow start this week. I stopped by Casey's over in Sis Town on WEDNESDAY, April 3, for some scratchers (won $10), and on the way inside, found my first penny of the week.


It was a 1995 heads-up specimen, waiting there just for me.


I snatched it up forthwith.
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The very next day, THURSDAY, April 4, I came upon my second penny at the Backroads Casey's.


See it? There under the pink Orbit gum? I was rushed, having to interact with a somewhat surly clerk scanning my scratcher winners. For naught. I won nothing on the ones I traded for. Can't win if you don't play, though!


At least I got my face-down 2012 penny!
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2019 Running Total
Penny   # 50, 51.
Dime    still at 7.
Nickel  still at 5.
Quarter  still at 1.

2018 TOTALS
Penny  131
Dime  17
Nickel  6
Quarter  1

2017 TOTALS (Started in March, 2017)
Penny  78
Dime   6
Nickel  0
Quarter  0
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Friday, April 5, 2019

Hick House Downstairs: Bathroom 04-02-19

The bathroom of Hick House, which has been built from scratch, is not showing a lot of progress. Hick says it's one of the last things he's planning to do, lest HOS (Hick's Oldest Son) think that it's move-in ready once the water and electric are done.

HOS has put in the ring where the toilet goes, and painted the walls green. Hick says it's a different shade than the kitchen, a bit lighter, but I'm not so sure. It may or may not show in the photos. Here's a picture from Hick, AND a picture OF Hick!


I think his intent was to show that HOS had put stain on the wood floor. However, knowing Hick, his intent might have been to show his narcissistic reflection in the $5 medicine cabinet he got at the auction. You can faintly see the green color of the walls here. Hick couldn't go in and turn on the light, because the stain was drying on the floor.

Notice the light switch on the wall framed out (can't put up drywall until plumbing is in) by the shower. Hick got himself in another pickle. We might as well call him Mr. Dill. When he was wiring and putting up the bathroom door, he made a minor faux pas. With the door hung and trimmed, he opened it to walk in, and noticed that he'd put the light switch BEHIND THE DOOR! So you have to go in and close the door before you can turn on the light. He couldn't flip the door to open the other way, because he'd already trimmed off the bottom of the door to make it flush with the floor. Old houses are sometimes a little off-square, you know.

Being a resourceful Mr. Dill, Hick put the switch to the ceiling light/exhaust fan there on the shower wall. So you can step inside, turn on THAT light, and then, after closing the door, the one that will be over the sink if you also need it.


You can barely see the color of the walls in this photo, taken by me from the kitchen, across the hall. At least I didn't capture my frightening likeness in that medicine cabinet mirror. My purpose here was to show the floor, which HOS scraped with a wire brush, and applied stain, then later a clear coat. I think it turned out pretty good.


This picture kind of washes out the color of the bathroom walls, but shows that HOS has also stained the floor of the hall, but hasn't applied clear coat yet. The kitchen floor is headed for the same treatment, after most of the other work is done, so they can still work in there without waiting for it to dry, or messing it up.

Next up on the Hick House Tour, on Sunday: miscellaneous doors for kitchen and living room.

Thursday, April 4, 2019

Hick House Downstairs: Kitchen 04-02-19

Here are the current updates to the kitchen of Hick House.


The trim has been painted, and seating for the table has been set in place. They're not going to be fastened down. Hick has a table that goes with it. He figured it was a good size for HOS, his wife, and little HOSS (Hick's Oldest Son's Son) and the baby.

The light was given to Hick by our back-creek neighbor Bev. Hick said he has an even better light for the living room, which he got for $6 at the Goodwill in Gambling Town when he visited This Guy in the hospital. I'd have to agree with Hick about that living room light.


The stove/refrigerator wall now has its tin paneling in place, with painted trim.


And the built-in cabinets are painted now, with tin paneling on the wall.


I think I'd have put that piece where the refrigerator is going to sit in front of it, but Hick said that HOS likes that look. The ex-mayor my sister's husband dropped in, and he, too, said the likes that rustic (rusty) look. I'm not sold on it. I think I'd sand it down and spray some metallic paint on it, but then, I'm not the one who'll be living there.

HOS plans to keep the flooring. Tomorrow, I'll show you what he's done to the bathroom floor.

Wednesday, April 3, 2019

Hick House Downstairs: Kitchen 03-28-19

Whether he holds the deed or not, Hick is still at work on Hick House. He's been doing some wiring during the day, and HOS (Hick's Oldest Son) arrives in the afternoon or evening. Their schedules aren't in sync like last month, but progress is still being made. HOS has cleaned up a lot, and continues to paint and put up paneling.


The flue corner of the kitchen is taking shape. As you can see, Hick caved to HOS's wishes on the industrial look, putting the wiring in conduit on the outside of the walls. Hick is perfectly capable of wiring a house the proper way, since it's a job he did for 20 years in an industrial setting, including offices.


The stove/refrigerator wall has been updated with some tin roofing material used as paneling. Also an extra cabinet, and a microwave that Hick got for $2.50 at the auction. Two of the kitchen walls have flooring as their paneling, and the other two this tin. Industrial look, you know.


The built-in cabinets are taking on the proper hue, accented by a flooring backsplash and counter. That wall will be tin.

A couple days after these photos, further updating had occurred. More kitchen pics tomorrow.

Tuesday, April 2, 2019

The Hauntings of Val Thevictorian

Due to popular demand (2 requests), I will now provide a link to the HEADLESS MAN IN MY BASEMENT story. And by now, I mean after the next paragraph and a couple links. By story, I mean it's the truth, told by me way back on my very first blog, so primitive that I can't even get around in it.

I'm including links here that each open in a new window. This was back when Hick was just a hubby, when Genius was #1, and when The Pony was #2. It was 2005, and we'd been living in our house for 7 years. The tales are in the order I wrote them, which makes the HEADLESS MAN IN MY BASEMENT the 5th link below. Names are descriptive, and not the actual titles.

Picture of our house.

GENIUS'S HAUNTED BEDROOM from June3, 2005

Picture of a haunted piece of furniture?

Picture of bad, bad light bulb.

HEADLESS MAN IN MY BASEMENT from June 4, 2005

OTHER HAUNTING HAPPENINGS from June 5, 2005

HAUNTED WORKPLACE from June 6, 2005

Picture of haunted gym.

OTHERS HAUNTED AT SAME WORKPLACE from June 7, 2005

Enjoy scaring the pants off yourselves!

Monday, April 1, 2019

Hick Is in a Pickle

One of these days, Hick is going to listen to me. You might recall that I cautioned him about jumping right into renovations on the $5000 house. Started working before he even handed over the purchase price, in cash, to This Guy's wife. Cautioned him about not having anything in writing saying that the $5000 house was now his. Not even a scrap of paper written on with a nubby pencil.

"Oh, she knows it's mine. She put the money in her safe, and said we'd go over to the courthouse and transfer the deed. I just never got over there to do it. I was busy working on the house. A couple times I was going to, but something else came up."

It has now been ONE MONTH since we bought the $5000 house. Hick and HOS (Hick's Oldest Son) have made quite a bit of progress on it. I'd say they could probably get $10,000 out of it, easy, in its current state. Not that they have any plans to sell it. Not that they could. Since there's nothing to show they own it.

This Guy had back surgery last week. It had been scheduled for a little while, even before he and Hick went off to get that free door from This Guy's brother. Hick is a good friend of This Guy, and told This Guy's Wife to let him know how the surgery went. By the end of the week, Hick was getting worried.

"I've sent several texts to This Guy's Wife, to check on how he's doing. She don't answer. I tried to call, but it just went to voice mail. I guess maybe she might not have service in the hospital. Or maybe she doesn't have a charger with her. I know they were gonna keep This Guy for a few days, but you'd think I woulda heard something by now. I hope nothing went wrong."

Saturday, Hick finally got a call from This Guy's Wife. "I've got myself in a terrible mess! I'm in the hospital. I fell and broke my hip, and I'm having surgery on Monday. This Guy is still in the hospital, and he doesn't have any way to get home. Our new truck is parked at the hospital. Even if he can get home, there's nobody there to take care of him, because I'm having hip surgery! I guess we'll both have to go into rehab!"

Ain't that a fine kettle of fish?

"The thing is, This Guy's Wife is in the hospital up in the city, and This Guy is in the hospital down in Gambling Town. They don't have a way to get their truck home. This Guy can't be at her hospital for her surgery."

The other thing is, if anything untoward happens to This Guy's Wife, who's to know that Hick owns the $5000 house? Legally.

"Man! That's terrible! And you don't want her die, because then you can't prove it's your house, since her name is the only one on the deed."

"Well, I don't want her to die because I don't want her to die!"

"I KNOW THAT! I was just saying... this could be a problem."

"Yeah. It would have to go through probate, probably. That can take years."

Of course we don't want anything to happen to This Guy's Wife, or This Guy. Hick drove down to visit This Guy on Sunday.

"He looked like death warmed over. They got him up to walk down the hall with a walker. He actually seemed like he was getting around pretty good. He said they have to change his medicine, because it makes him hallucinate. Said he just woke up seeing rabbits on the ceiling. 'I was ready to go rabbit-huntin'! They was BIG rabbits!'"

The hospital is making arrangements to get This Guy transferred to a local hospital for rehab. For his back, not the drugs! Hick is going to get This Guy's truck keys from This Guy's Son, who picked them up from his mom in the other hospital. Then Hick and The Veteran (Hick's Second Oldest Son) are going to drive down to the hospital in Gambling Town and bring back This Guy's truck.

I guess Hick will find time to work on his (alleged) $5000 house later in the week.