This picture is the finishing touches on my 4th of July weekend. You could say I didn't do much other than work. It wasn't a very enjoyable weekend. I talked with Gordy after last weekend and we decided a relax in training was in order, sort of an early summer break. So, I took up a project I have neglected since moving in. The garage had been looking pretty rough with tons of chipped paint, the upper windows on both ends were boarded over, and there was a large 30ft tall pine tree in the corner full of wasps and pine cones. One thing led to another and by Friday afternoon I was trying to do all 3 parts of the project at once. I decided I couldn't paint with the pine tree and wasps so that came down. Pretty easy too, even with a handsaw and a ladder it was down in an hour. I don't waste time. It was hauled away in 1.5 hours total, except the reamining 12ft stump, couldn't get through it with the hand saw.
I should say that with the pine tree gone, Ellie discovered if she stands on a chair in the kitchen she can see the race cars between corner 4 and 1 on Saturday nights, she is pretty excited about that.

Next up framing in some storm windows for some ventilation and light in the upper level. There is tons of room up there and it's great for storage with walk-up steps inside. Even enough room for a shop, lots of my bikes are stored up there but with no natuarl light it was kinda dark and stuffy. Problem solved. It took a while for the first one, but the 2nd one on the other side I had framed and installed in an hour. I have never done that before but it wasn't too bad.

The scraping took about 3 days, 2 days longer than I thought it would. The back was really bad, the sides were not as bad and only from the middle up, but as soon as I started I relized I was in for more than anticipated. The previous owner sprayed a quick coat on to cover, but it didn't adhere well so it scraped right off. That, along with the old paint/primer coming off I was down to bare wood on probably 65% of the garage. Monday morning I was finally done with scraping. Then the fun part today was spraying. The sprayer worked ok, but it wasn't getting in the deep pores of the old wood enough so I basically sprayed it on thick, then used a brush to get a good cover and push it in the wood. I used a paint/primer mix so we'll see how it holds up. I'm hoping in the next 5 years to side the garage so if this lasts that long I'll be happy. Sure looks good now.

The rest of my 4th weekend was spent at work. I had to work both Saturday and Monday so other than standing on a ladder 6 hours before work and then working 9, I didn't really get to do much. Actually, I take that back. After church on Sunday we went to Mauthe lake with my sister and had lunch on the grill and some beach time with Ellie, the highlight of my weekend.

I actually find projects like this to be somewhat relaxing mentally since I don't think about training at all and it gets my mind a bit refreshed from the last 4-5 months of riding every day just doing something product and different. We are planning a nice weekend up in Eau Claire after WORS for some waterpark time so that will be nice to enjoy now that this project is done and crossed off the list.