We met Mike and Karen Ufnal during our last Air Force assignment at Randolph AFB from 1995-1998. Mike and I worked together within the Environmental Division. He was a very smart engineer, but generally a man of few words. When he did speak, you can bet his words were thought through carefully. Karen was the more extroverted of the two, and when we ever got together, there was a guarantee of beer and laughter. It was a no-brainer then that as we worked our way north toward Canada, we had to stop and visit them.
I made a reservation for 2 days at the Field and Stream RV Park only a short distance from their house in the Town of Milford, NH (population 16,131). While coordinating our get together, we learned they had just purchased a getaway house on nearby Winnekeag Lake, Ashburnham, MA (population 6,315). This definetly sounded like a project opportunity to us, so we began what has become our standard routine of cajoling and finally convincing them to take us up on our offer to help. Happily, they did!
From our park, it was about 20 miles to the lake house or a 30 minute drive. While they provided coffee each morning, we located a decent breakfast joint along our commute called 873 Cafe and Tavern in Ashby, MA (population 3,193). This became our morning routine before showing up to work between 9 and 10 AM. Yes, we generally kept banker’s hours. Karen was still working, but she either brought or sent lunch via Mike each day.
We met them, one son-in-law, and two grandkids at their lakeside house the afternoon of day 2. The house was beautiful, but it had experienced some wear and tear from being vacant and unmaintained for over a year before it went up for sale. They needed our help with repairing the hallway ceiling that was damaged from a water leak and demolishing the remains of an entertainment center in the walkout basement. Mike certainly could do all this work, but with three of us tackling it, we figured we could knock it out in 3 days. We extended our stay at the RV park and started the next morning. Mike brought coffee and donuts.
MFI took on the ceiling repair, which was straight forward. We cut out the damaged sheetrock and screwed in a new 41″ X 48″ piece. Once in place, MFI put her float and tape skills into action, and all of us took turns at sanding between each float cycle. We didn’t have time to prime and paint the finished product. This repair lead into two existing conditions, which we decided to take care of as well. First, the panel beside the refrigerator was too long and prevented the fridge door from opening fully. We removed the panel, cut it down, reinstalled it, and painted the hall side to match the entranceway color. Second, the crown molding in the entranceway was not installed with mitered corners and wasn’t run to the end of the fridge panel. We pulled it down and cut new pieces, painted them, and fitted them for later installation. Again, we didn’t have time to reinstall the crown molding before leaving.
These pictures show the new mitered corner and subsequent location for the two newly painted and fitted crown pieces for the front entry. In the last picture, the fridge has been pulled forward and the panel removed.
Mike sent us two these pictures once he had finished the job. The first shows the installed crown pieces in the entry, which included running it to the end of the fridge panel. The second shows how nice the green painted panel matches with the entry and hallway color scheme. And both show the finished ceiling repair. Nice improvements.
Mike and I took on the basement demolition. The house was built by a contract home builder, who had been the sole owner. We suspicion he was macho type, because of the over-the-top design of the entertainment room. Really, roman columns? Mike had started the demo, and actually wanted to deconstruct the entertainment structure so the materials could be placed on the curb and reused by someone. The project looked simple enough but took longer than we expected. The result was a vastly more open second room in the basement.
Mike and Karen readily accepted our credo of working for food, and fortunately for us, Karen was a fantastic cook and prepared delicious dinner meals. We joined them at their house after showering at Arthur. Mike would open his first beer, and the three of us would start on a bottle of wine. The conversation was nonstop throughout dinner and usually lasted into the evening. It was difficult to leave each night. We were assigned to many of the same bases over our careers, so there were many common experiences and related stories to share. The new ones were hilarious, and the ones we’d heard before were worth hearing again. We were sad to leave, and even sadder when realizing we didn’t get a picture of them for this blog. We stay in touch via Instagram and Facebook.
