Gateway Arch Plans Revealed

St Louis Gateway Arch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The movers and shakers in St. Louis have announced the winning firm in a competition to udpate and redesign the grounds of the Gateway Arch.  The link below describes the contest process and the winner.  There is also a cool animation of the new design.

http://www.metropolismag.com/pov/20100924/framing-the-gateway-arch

“Old North” Food Co-op Makes Supermarket News

Congratulations to our friends in the Old North neighborhood of St. Louis.    The new food co-op was written up in Supermarket News this week.  Check out the link below.   The article gives the Old North Restoration Group kudos for setting up the store in an inner city “food desert” location where less than 40% of the people have access to a car – the coop improves their access to fresh and locally grown fruits and vegetables so they can eat healthy.

http://supermarketnews.com/Produce_Floral/st-louis-co-op-fills-need-0920/index.html

Day 104.25 – Block Paaaarty!

Tonight we had the annual Gayola block party!

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Day 104.5 – Musical Interlude

Dave’s band, Barefoot Jones, setup on the front porch and entertained the neighbors at the Gayola Block Party.  This is the 7th time we’ve been able to do this. Enjoy!

• Paradise – by John Prine
• Get Out of  My Life Woman – by New Orleans songwriter/producer Alan Toussant
• Highway 61 Revisited – by Bob Dylan

Day 104 – “Mission Accomplished!”

Today we held a press conference on an aircraft carrier and declared an end to contractor operations in the Kitchen!   The deciding factor was that the ice maker finally started to make ice!     We knew that the ice maker was finally getting water (there was water in the internal water filter), and we heard it cycle a couple of times and something that sounded like ice falling into the ice-cube drawer but when we checked there was never any cubes. We checked today about mid day and it was full of cubes!   We still have some more work to do (back splash, painting, shoe moulding, unpacking etc.),  but at least we’re done with the contractor!).

We spent the rest of the day getting ready for the block party tonight.     Linda did lots of cleaning inside so we would be ready for giving house tours to the band and neighbors. Linda made 7 layer salad and a couple of batches of cornbread for the pot luck dinner.  I spent a couple of hours clearing off the front porch, stacking extra lumber and refrigerator doors in the garage, removing bags of lath and plaster rubble, sweeping, raking up a couple of huge bags worth of acorns from the front yard and sidewalk, setting up band equipment on the front porch. I plugged the iPod into the PA and it was fun to work outside with a huge sound system playing music.    By mid-afternoon the sky cleared up and we had blue skies and 70 degree temperatures for the rest of the day – perfect block party weather!

Day 101 – Cat’s Eye View

By popular demand, below is a “highlight” slideshow of the cats inspecting, helping, and being bored with our kitchen remodel and home renovations. The cast of characters includes:

• Sienna – yellow female (the inspector)
• Taji – yellow male (the climber)
• Isabeau – black female  (the lounger)
• Blaze – tuxedo male (the sofa surfer)
• Sammy – long hair tuxedo female (the camera shy) 

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Day 100 – Contractor Returns

The contractor came back today to finish up a few things left on the punch list:

• Fix the ice maker (needs a new valve in the basement where the ice maker water line taps into the cold water)
• Put a coat of polyurethane inside the sink base.   This is because they redid the inside of the sink base with 1/4″ plywood to fix all the extra holes from moving the sink base several times to get it centered under the kitchen window
• Fix the screws poking through the side of the pantry.  He backed the screws out, tapped the bumps down with a wood block and then touched up the color with a stain marker.    It’s not ideal but I think they finally wore us down!

Everything the contractor was supposed to do is now done, but just to be on the safe side,  we’re waiting a couple of days to see if the ice maker produces ice.

Day 99 – Knock Knock Knockin’ on Basement Door

Today I finished up work on the basement door:

• Sanded down the areas I had plastered the week before
• Since we were reusing the old basement door frame there was a skinny line of white paint all around the frame that showed when the door was shut.  It got out a putty knife and spent a least an hour scraping all this off.    Then sanded it down to bare wood with a detail sander attachment to Dremel multimax
• Then I painted the parts that had been plastered and sanded to match the wall color.  I wanted to get this painted before I put the trim on since there would be a skinny little gap between the trim and the wall.
• Then we took off and went to a BBQ
• When we came back I hand rubbed some dark stain on the door frame where I had scraped and sanded earlier.  And I touched up some nail holes and gouges in the recycled trim where bare wood was showing.
• Now it was time to install the hardware & lock set.
• I did another prototype on a scrap piece of wood.  Working out how & where to drill and chisel.
• Then I rehung the door and started work. 
• Drilled out four holes with 3/4 inch bit.  squared off the opening with wood chisels.   This involved much trial and error.  Worked on it for a while, then try to slide the lock in, then chisel some more, then try to slide the lock in, then chisel some more.  Repeat 30 times.
• Then I marked out and chiseled out the spots for the “ears” of the lock
• Then measured, marked and drilled the hole for the door knob and for the skeleton key lock opening
• Then dry fit everything together.
• Then screwed the lock into the door
• Installed the face plates for the door knobs
• Put the knobs on and screwed together
• It worked!
• In the old door frame the strike plate was about 4 inches too low — so I marked out where the strike plate needed to go and drilled and chiseled another square hole in the door frame, and screwed in the strike plate.   The door closes, latches with a snug fit – but not too tight.
• Then I got out the compressor and nail gun and nailed the final piece of trim in place on the left side of the door where I had plastered and painted.
• Complete!  (except that now I have to scrape the white paint off the hinges (which shows up nicely against the dark wood!) and white paint off the door knob and face plate on the stairs side of the door, and rub some tung oil on the new trim…manana).
• Looks good.  

Now we can keep the kittens from escaping out the basement door while I load band equipment in & out of the downstairs basement door!

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Day 97 – Musical Interlude

Took the day off (Saturday) from working on the house.   The band played a gig at Riddles – one of our favorite places.   About 12:30 am all these college kids came in and packed the place.  The more crowded it got, the more people wanted to come in. It was crazy!   We kept playing about 1/2 hour after our normal quit time – until they turned the lights on and started throwing people out.   It was almost like a flash mob.  I figured we’d help the bar sell as much as they could!   Linda shot some flip video – and you can see a guy in the video that has hair just like Sideshow Bob from the Simpsons!

Day 96 – Ordered Subway Tile

Linda called the tile store today and ordered the tile for our back splash.   We’re going with an off white 3×6 inch subway tile.  We will also have one accent row of 1×1 green recycled glass tiles.  Will take about 2 weeks to come in.   We’re hoping Brian come over and install quickly after it arrives – so we get in under the wire before their next child is due!

Also someone came to a meeting at Dave’s office today driving an original Shelby Cobra.   Everyone in the office went outside to check it out. Great car!

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