In late June and early July, we spent 3 weeks in Lake City, MN doing projects for our good friends Tony and Georgia Zugay. We also helped their daughter and her husband, Dawn and Tony Mendoza, with projects at their house in St. Paul, MN. It stood to reason we should also offer our help to their son Michael and daughter Kristi. Michael and family also live in St. Paul but they didn’t have any projects. However, Kristi and her husband Will Hartman recently moved into a house in Colorado Springs, and they definitely had big plans for their place. We set aside 2 weeks to see how we might help.
We joined the Hartman’s for dinner when we arrived and did a walk-through to determine what projects were feasible in 2 weeks. We also met their three boys in person for the first time: Bowen, Sam, and Nick. We’ve watched them grow up via shared photos and Christmas cards. Their house renovation plans included building a guest bedroom, bath, and living space in part of their large basement. Unfortunately, the design wasn’t yet settled, so initial thoughts of our framing the rooms out had to be tabled. Two other projects quickly came into focus. The first was painting the bannisters for their first and second floor railing, and the second was an assortment of electrical upgrades throughout the house.
There was uncertainty about the proposed black bannisters, so I only taped up the first floor railing and painted it black. Fortunately, after several days of seeing it, they agreed I could proceed. Will’s mom and step-dad were visiting, and it helped that they both liked the black too. I don’t recall how long it took me to tape the remaining railing bannisters, but it was mind-numbingly tedious. Yet once the painting began, both Will and Kristi grabbed a roller and helped. Because we went from white to black, two coats were needed. There were 84 bannisters!
MFI replaced a failed GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter) outlet in the garage. The Hartman’s normally used it for their garage refrigerator; but because it only worked intermittently, they had to unplug the automatic sprinkler system and use that outlet for the refrigerator. This annoyance went away with the new GFCI. Next, Will wanted additional outlets in the garage; one on the south wall, and one for his workbench. Additionally, Kristi wanted an outlet beside the entry to the house for recharging her vacuum cleaner battery. She wanted to be able to simply crack open the door and grab the vacuum off its holder. MFI made short work of running power off the outlet for the garage door opener to the new south outlet.
The other two garage outlets weren’t as easy. MFI found an outlet in the basement utility area with nothing else on the circuit. In order to run power from there to the garage, we had to open the gyp wall in the garage, drill a hole in the wall plate, and fish a line through for a power line pull. We ended up dropping a small chain through the hole up above and used a bent metal clothes hanger to snag the chain from the basement. Running the power line took longer than expected, but it was very satisfying once we got it.
The three brothers had a substantial gaming system set up in the nothwest corner of the basement. The system was powered by a 100-feet extension cord running from a second outlet in the basement utility area. MFI made a run from that existing outlet to a new outlet she installed in the gaming corner.
The Hartman’s purchased a new ceiling fan and light for Sam’s room. When it was delivered, MFI took on the installation.
I took on several small jobs when not helping MFI and when I needed a break from the monotony of the bannister job. I repaired and painted the damaged outside wall corner bead located just inside the house entrance from the garage. Will was using another 100-feet extension cord for his Traeger grill on the back deck. I got it off the ground and tidied up the run with cable hangers. I also anchored two book cabinets to the wall in their office. Safety first!
Even though the design of the basement guest room wasn’t settled, the entrance to it will be off the stair landing in the basement. We decided to frame out where the future door will be, installed a switch box for room lights, and ran an unpowered line to the box.
We were fortunate once again to have friends who were such good cooks for our lunch and dinner meals. Not just good cooks, but deliberate in making the meals healthy. We were so grateful for their support. Before we departed, MFI accomplished two more tasks. The Hartman’s wanted to install a bedet in their master bath. It needed a power source, so MFI installed yet another new outlet. We subsequently heard from Kristi that the bedet worked beautifully, although the boys enjoyed the heated seat so much, it was in heavy demand. Finally, while doing our laundry at their house, MFI saw that the door swing on the dryer was in the wrong direction. She fixed it! Georgia and Tony (Kristi’s parents) visited the Hartman’s right after we had moved on. Georgia did some laundry during their visit, and we subsequently heard how thrilled she was to have the door swing switched. Much more convenient and efficient! These are the very things that bring us joy in helping others.
