whittlin'...drillin'...cuttin'...sittin'...etc

I have this nice comfy leather arm chair I picked up at a Salvation Army used furniture shop a few years ago. And what with all the sittin' around I've been doing the last couple of years, with no job and such, it's always seemed a tad too low for my 6'5" frame. It's nice and wide for my "wide load" girthitude....but I always have to put a thick pillow in it or I feel like I'm squatting on my haunches...and my tender little knee-bones don't like that too much. Hard to get up easily from sitting on the ground.

So today, after putting it off for weeks...I finally, instead of watching the Cowboys (and they were winning at halftime my Dad called to tell me)....I made some old fart highchair blocks for the bottom of my chair.

Using some 4"x6" Wolmanized timbers that were given to us by http://benntexas.blogspot.com/, a blogger we check daily who lives south of DFW, I fashioned some elevator blocks.

The round wooden peg feet from the bottom of the chair were a tad bigger than my biggest 1-1/2" paddle bit so instead of driving the 12 mile round trip to the nearest place to buy one (Ace Hdw)...I simply whittled the pegs to be a little skinnier and wollared out the holes with the paddle bit. The pegs were white oak and took some doing, and by the last peg shaving, my knife was getting a bit dullish, but I got-'r done. (pics are sideways..but you get the idea)

A little brown spray paint to make the wife happy with the final appearance and VIOLA...'tis done and is a thang of beauty.!...and the chair is nice and tall..!!

Just tapped them onto the shrunked pegs with a 2# sledge and it's done.
Now, I have't told y'all this, but I finally landed a JOB!!...and won't be able to sit around in this chair all day like I have been....damnit. Gotta git up and and out early....driving 50 miles each way through traffic (yeehaa..not) to the jobsite in Irving...not too far from the old (now gone) Cowboy Stadium.

I'm the superintendant over a project to take 168 old apartment units built in 1964, and give them a complete make-over. Lotta asbestos abatement to be done first....stripping interiors down to the bare studs, moving a few interior walls, adding some scab-on bathrooms here and there (new slab), all new plbg,wiring, HVAC. Putting gable truss roofs onto the existing flat roofs, all new elevations, new windows, removing all sidewalks, adding area drains, new landscaping, and building a ground-up leasing office/club with pool. About a 12 month job.

I was a "senior project manager" for the last 10 years....and haven't been a "super" since 1997, but what the hell...it's a paycheck, and alot less stress than being a PM. I'm happy with it. I'll get some pics of the progress as it goes along. Not officially starting until mid-Dec for actual const work, it won't close with HUD until then.

I hope to nab some good dumpster items from this job, and will add to my collection of wonderful used const junk....(I love const junk.!!...always have) Gotta get the F250 diesel towed to the shop for a head gasket job (+/- $2000 job)....but cheaper than another truck...then I can haul some goodies home for safekeeping.

Here's an old cowhead I need to tie onto the front of the Towncar for the next Terlingua Trip....but it'll probably lure cops and I don't need that Gestapo hassle...so maybe not. Does look kinda like what a plane-flying, goat-herding, terrorist might drive...huh?

Here's a couple of pics of a project I did north of Dallas in McKinney, back in '05. An older folks retirement apt project...240 units I think, hell I can't recall. This was the back side. REAL Austin Limestone...that's what the owner/client wanted and he paid for it.

That is all......CHOW, babeee.!