What did you do today? - 2022 version

[Out-to-Lunch]

Mostly finished building a sauna... in a 6x12 enclosed trailer.

Got rid of hot tub some years ago, decided on a sauna, but no good place in the house.
Bought enclosed trailer, insulated walls and ceiling. Built a divider at 8' from head end, with hinges for wall and door, so it can be opened. Built 7'6" x 24" wide bench which is hinged. Thus can be lowered. This setup allows the trailer to be used as a trailer, or sauna. The heater is free standing, thus easily removable, with some hooks to wall to keep from falling over if nudged.

The last several days had 10F and 20F temperatures and snow over 8". Running the sauna at 170F, the snow on roof did not show any signs of melting, so insulation method is a success.
Great when a plan works out.

You are my hero! I built a nice one in my house, but a dual-purpose, traveling one sounds lovely.

 

[Music Lover]

Mostly finished building a sauna... in a 6x12 enclosed trailer.

Got rid of hot tub some years ago, decided on a sauna, but no good place in the house.
Bought enclosed trailer, insulated walls and ceiling. Built a divider at 8' from head end, with hinges for wall and door, so it can be opened. Built 7'6" x 24" wide bench which is hinged. Thus can be lowered. This setup allows the trailer to be used as a trailer, or sauna. The heater is free standing, thus easily removable, with some hooks to wall to keep from falling over if nudged.

The last several days had 10F and 20F temperatures and snow over 8". Running the sauna at 170F, the snow on roof did not show any signs of melting, so insulation method is a success.
Great when a plan works out.

Great idea!! Is it portable?

 

[RobbieB]

So, this work you are doing is on the boat you already owned, right? Or did I miss that you bought the 44-footer?

The one I already own.

But I did accept the counter offer (full price) on the the 44 foot trawler. I went a little under the asking price but the seller had already reduced it as far he was going to go. The broker asked him if he was willing to lose the deal over 4 grand and he was. I asked myself the same question and went for it.

So the yacht adventure is afoot -

 

[ls99]

Great idea!! Is it portable?

It is towable by a pickup truck.

 

[Ronstar]

The one I already own.

But I did accept the counter offer (full price) on the the 44 foot trawler. I went a little under the asking price but the seller had already reduced it as far he was going to go. The broker asked him if he was willing to lose the deal over 4 grand and he was. I asked myself the same question and went for it.

So the yacht adventure is afoot -

Congrats! If you want to do "the loop", now is the time to do it. Not much pleasure boat traffic on the Illinois River this time of year. Just stay in the shipping channel to avoid ice.

 

[jcfradio]

Less than two inches here. About 15 minutes with a shovel to clear the driveway and sidewalk. Nothing much, but the first time I've shoveled snow in nearly a year, so it actually felt good.

Glad that it missed you. It was no dud here - 16 inches of snow with 30 mph winds. Took me 2 days to shovel the driveway. At my age, I am not going to rush moving (by my calculations) about 25 tonnes of snow from the driveway

 

[street]

The one I already own.

But I did accept the counter offer (full price) on the the 44 foot trawler. I went a little under the asking price but the seller had already reduced it as far he was going to go. The broker asked him if he was willing to lose the deal over 4 grand and he was. I asked myself the same question and went for it.

So the yacht adventure is afoot -

That is great! The enjoyment will be personalizing and making it yours. For me the enjoyment and satisfaction are working on it will be as much fun as using it what it is intended for.

 

[Bamaman]

I went to the eye surgeon that told me I needed cataract surgery.

And I replaced the two batteries on my diesel pickup.

 

[Ronstar]

Went for a hike, shopped for supplies at Menards and created a gear closet in the basement for hiking, fly fishing and photography gear. And organized my new wooden handle screwdriver set. A busy day.

 

[Walt34]

Finished cleaning up what little was left to do with yesterday's snowfall (I'll admit DW did most of it, she's fussier than I am). Picked up a prescription and found the roads clear and mostly even dry with only a few patches of snow still sticking in places where the road is always shaded.

A new R/C airplane, an Eflite V900, arrived via Fedex today, only one day late because of the snowfall. I had expected that and don't mind, it's not like it was insulin or something important. It'll likely be at least a month, probably two or three months, before I can fly it anyway. So tomorrow's project is to assemble it. It's stretch to call it "building" like we used to do with balsa and plywood kits. But they are fun to fly, this one will do 120 mph out of the box so I'd better be thinking well ahead of the airplane with this one!

 

[aja8888]

Went for a hike, shopped for supplies at Menards and created a gear closet in the basement for hiking, fly fishing and photography gear. And organized my new wooden handle screwdriver set. A busy day.

If you saw where i keep my 75+ plastic/wooden/metal handle screwdrivers, you would laugh!

Nice box and very lucky screwdrivers. I'll bet you clean them after each use!

 

[Ronstar]

If you saw where i keep my 75+ plastic/wooden/metal handle screwdrivers, you would laugh!

Nice box and very lucky screwdrivers. I'll bet you clean them after each use!

Thanks - these are house screwdrivers. they won't see much use. I don't think I'd laugh at your screwdrivers - I have a lot of nasty screwdrivers - the working screwdrivers - in a pile somewhere in the workshop.

 

[street]

Finished cleaning up what little was left to do with yesterday's snowfall (I'll admit DW did most of it, she's fussier than I am). Picked up a prescription and found the roads clear and mostly even dry with only a few patches of snow still sticking in places where the road is always shaded.

A new R/C airplane, an Eflite V900, arrived via Fedex today, only one day late because of the snowfall. I had expected that and don't mind, it's not like it was insulin or something important. It'll likely be at least a month, probably two or three months, before I can fly it anyway. So tomorrow's project is to assemble it. It's stretch to call it "building" like we used to do with balsa and plywood kits. But they are fun to fly, this one will do 120 mph out of the box so I'd better be thinking well ahead of the airplane with this one!

Interesting! So, that plane is powered by battery's, right?

I have a very old plane that has a Cox engine and powered with fuel. You started with a battery and wound up the prop to get it running. I still have it.

 

[EastWest Gal]

I’ve been doing some minor sewing projects the last couple of days. I finally decided to clean out the drawers of the cabinet of my inherited sewing machine. At the bottom of one of the drawers was the receipt. $339 for machine and cabinet, purchased by my MIL in 1957. Pretty expensive back in the day. I’ve had it cleaned and repaired twice since we took possession in 1995. We just rearranged the upstairs of the house and created a hobby room. The machine now has a terrific view over the back yard.

Funny that it took so long for me to decluttering the drawers and find the receipt. 26+ years since she passed. Shades of thread I’ll never use, a few zippers and other things I finally threw into the trash. Many attachments and a container that fits them all, cleaned and organized.

The fog of work got in the way over the years. Doing this cleaning project helped me remember. I made a number of Halloween costumes for DS on his grandmother’s machine as well as a few other projects.

 

[Walt34]

Interesting! So, that plane is powered by battery's, right?

I have a very old plane that has a Cox engine and powered with fuel. You started with a battery and wound up the prop to get it running. I still have it.

Yes, battery electric power has pretty much replaced the old glow engines. While the run time is not yet quite what the glow engines can do with a full tank of fuel, electric is very close and of course you don't have the mess of cleaning up castor oil and the cantankerousness of the glow engines. It's worth the tradeoff even for this old diehard.

Don't throw away that old airplane with the Cox engine. Selling it will not add much to your portfolio (maybe in another 100 years) but there is a market for those on eBay or rcgroups.com classified. If you decide to sell it someone will be glad to have it, more for sentimental value than anything else.

 

[John Galt III]

I’ve been doing some minor sewing projects the last couple of days. I finally decided to clean out the drawers of the cabinet of my inherited sewing machine. At the bottom of one of the drawers was the receipt. $339 for machine and cabinet, purchased by my MIL in 1957. Pretty expensive back in the day. I’ve had it cleaned and repaired twice since we took possession in 1995. We just rearranged the upstairs of the house and created a hobby room. The machine now has a terrific view over the back yard.

Funny that it took so long for me to decluttering the drawers and find the receipt. 26+ years since she passed. Shades of thread I’ll never use, a few zippers and other things I finally threw into the trash. Many attachments and a container that fits them all, cleaned and organized.

The fog of work got in the way over the years. Doing this cleaning project helped me remember. I made a number of Halloween costumes for DS on his grandmother’s machine as well as a few other projects.

I was trying to sell a 50's or 60's vintage Singer sewing machine when my parents were moving into a ccrc. Gave up and listed it for free. A young woman of about 25 showed up, newly arrived central European was my guess, and sternly accepted the free sewing machine. I put it in her car and she drove off, not even saying thanks. The next day, she emailed me saying thanks very much, and that her mother was going to use it to make and sell garments. She was probably wondering why this very useful and profitable sewing machine was free.

 

[John Galt III]

Snow plow guy at commercial property next door created a snow and ice dam in the swail that diverts rain water away from my property. Couldn't get to him in time to alert him. I got a shovel and spent 10 minutes reopening the swail flow line. Needed the exercise anyway. Went for a walk around the neighborhood in the bright sunshine afterwards.

 

[GoBears]

Now that I’ve rolled the money into an IRA, today I shredded all of my old 401k statements. Interesting to see the first statement (January 1990) with a 0 balance and asset allocations that I could now kick myself for. Of course, at the time I had no idea about investing. It was also interesting to see that we had all of 5 investment options - a growth fund, a growth and income fund, a bond fund, a government securities fund, and a money market fund.

I also did some catching up on Quicken after neglecting it over the past several months. I still need to add my new Schwab IRAs to Quícken, but haven’t been that motivated to do so. It’s interesting - before retirement I tracked investments daily and worried about whether we had enough; after retiring, my attitude shifted 180 degrees and I am not stressing about finances because, I suspect, the decision was made and there is no turning back.

The pandemic puppy and I also went on two walks today. One of the people we passed while walking downtown called out how much they liked my Airedale.

 

[rodi]

Had a productive couple of days:

- interviewed 3 solar companies. Chose one. Signed the contracts last night.

- made some decisions about cars and cash. Kids have mostly moved out. Older son has our beater pickup - but would prefer something smaller. (We pay insurance.) Younger son can't have a car on campus freshman year so we have 3 cars at home. We've been thinking about switching beater truck to younger son this fall - good vehicle to go to the surf breaks. That would mean providing older son a vehicle. Decided to SELL my 2017 forester to carmax. We'll buy a beater used sedan to give to older son in the fall. We'll share hubby's 2019 Rav4, with the scooby van as back up. Because of the inflated used car prices we'll get enough to buy the beater car AND pay off the solar plus a few thousand in the bank. Hubby's car has been languishing in the garage with no use... we really don't need to cars plus a camping van.

- Spent the morning trying to claw back money. Updated my claim for a refrigerator repair through the costco/citibank extended benefits warranty program. Updated my claim against the travel insurance for my cancelled cruise. (Cruiseline cancelled on me but won't give cash refund - only travel credit.) Both claims had required a bunch of documents to open the claims... Both claims wanted the same documents again. Ugh.

Next I'll download all the tax documents and start updating my 'draft' tax return with real data. It's a money kind of day.

 

[Hermit]

I'm sitting in my almost-finished living room. I hired a neighbor to do the trim work which is his specialty. He spent several years working in Vail, CO and does incredible work so now my upstairs looks like a mini mansion instead of a cabin. He did the trim and interior doors while I finished the floors and we finished the day DD and her family arrived for Chrismas and New Year's week. I got some help unpacking kitchen boxes (that I packed up in Virginia in 2013) and arranging kitchen stuff that week.

This morning I finished putting floor transition boards at the three exterier doors. I still have lots of small detail work to do like crown molding and tiling the bathroom. The appliances are expected in March. Right now I am just enjoying watching the snow fall and tending the fire in the wood stove.

Life is good!

 

[NW-Bound]

Went for a hike, shopped for supplies at Menards and created a gear closet in the basement for hiking, fly fishing and photography gear. And organized my new wooden handle screwdriver set. A busy day.

Very nice box. Too good for a screwdriver set. I would like to see the box filled with gold bars. Like this.

 

[aja8888]

I'm sitting in my almost-finished living room. I hired a neighbor to do the trim work which is his specialty. He spent several years working in Vail, CO and does incredible work so now my upstairs looks like a mini mansion instead of a cabin. He did the trim and interior doors while I finished the floors and we finished the day DD and her family arrived for Chrismas and New Year's week. I got some help unpacking kitchen boxes (that I packed up in Virginia in 2013) and arranging kitchen stuff that week.

This morning I finished putting floor transition boards at the three exterier doors. I still have lots of small detail work to do like crown molding and tiling the bathroom. The appliances are expected in March. Right now I am just enjoying watching the snow fall and tending the fire in the wood stove.

Life is good!View attachment 41550View attachment 41552View attachment 41553

Nice to see the fruits of your hard labor! Beautiful!

 

[Walt34]

A little PM (preventive maintenance) on the back porch and deck. DW pointed out that a total of four nails had worked themselves loose two in the deck and two in the railings. So I pulled those out and replaced them with screws. Since it was 18° F at the time that's enough work for one day.

 

[RobbieB]

Scheduled the sea trial and survey for Thursday next week.

Woo-hoo, the adventure continues!

 

[street]

I'm sitting in my almost-finished living room. I hired a neighbor to do the trim work which is his specialty. He spent several years working in Vail, CO and does incredible work so now my upstairs looks like a mini mansion instead of a cabin. He did the trim and interior doors while I finished the floors and we finished the day DD and her family arrived for Chrismas and New Year's week. I got some help unpacking kitchen boxes (that I packed up in Virginia in 2013) and arranging kitchen stuff that week.

This morning I finished putting floor transition boards at the three exterier doors. I still have lots of small detail work to do like crown molding and tiling the bathroom. The appliances are expected in March. Right now I am just enjoying watching the snow fall and tending the fire in the wood stove.

Life is good!View attachment 41550View attachment 41552View attachment 41553

Hermit, things are looking great!! I have felt that feel of hard labor myself when completing my home, I built from ground up. A lot of blood sweat and tears in a build like that but the reward of that hard work is something no one feels unless you have done it.
So nice to kick back and enjoy! Job well done Sir!!