Let's Paint!

[Thorondor]

If you want your place lively, not dead, you want Zombie at the project's head!

 

Oh, brother, talk about sealing the deal there. No bridge too far, no gap too wide. Well, it's all about as much to code now as it ever was.

 

You know I agree with you that more was to be gained by holding off a bit longer and seeing to more things (like that cracked window pane in the garage) but I guess there's some merit to the popular saying: A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

 

Meanwhile, not a soul can say you didn't go above and beyond on this job. Killer beetles and all...

 

[Zombie]

So I took some pics of the house after work today. Let's start outdoors with the West side.

 

 

Very nice. The only thing I could see doing is adding another coat of paint to the fascia to the left of the window as my red primer spots are still peeking through a little bit.

 

On to the inside of the garage, first the West.

 

 

I assure you, the same glass window is in the frame, but now it's actually completely clear. I think that really made a positive difference on how it looks on the inside. The crack in the glass is hardly noticeable from a couple feet away. Here's the North.

 

 

To the left is the coax and phone lines I carefully arranged and stapled to the wall. If this would be my garage I'd either cover over the wires with a half piece of PVC pipe and paint that to match the wall or I'd try to fish the lines down through the wall. I guess I could paint the wires which might still happen, but at least it looks neat. (Just to note, there is a hatch to the attic on the ceiling and if memory serves, I painted the date on the inside frame in the early 90's - might have to add to that and take a pic of that). To the bottom is the rusty vent cover which I painted a couple coats on. And of course next to the door is the garage door opener and cleaned outlet and switch (I'll see about getting a pic of this too). Can't forget about the East and my quick fix.

 

 

I guess the thing to point out on the East wall is that I don't see any big imperfections on it anywhere even with a satin finish. The kickplate isn't the exact size of the existing one, but hey, at least it's close and present. And the fix doesn't stick out too much now that it's the same color (the photo looks lighter but I think that was caused by the flash and the light being reflected off the sheen). And the big thing is that it smells fresh in there from the paint. Psychologically, it probably makes you think it's new.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

If it even smells like new, you'll know it's true - Zombie did it for you!

 

Very nice indeed overall. And I can just barely see the crack in the glass window in your photo. Plus, it has to be said you've done a bang-up job "reconstructing" that East wall.

 

I guess I'd settle for painting the coax and phone lines in the wall as that would render them rather invisible instead of sticking out in casual glances.

 

It's really all in the mind's eye as it were anyway, right?

[Space Voyager]

Some dread the zombie apocalypse, but we at StrategyCore know that when it happens, all built structures will be kept in perfect order. Erm, and plants will be looked after.

 

Great job, the buyer will get much more than what he paid for.

[Zombie]

I wasn't able to get over to the house this week unfortunately. On Tues I had a little time at the shop so I cleaned the workbench in the backroom as it was in a constant state of disarray since I started work on the greenhouse. You know, half-started projects, random hardware, things I didn't have time to put away etc. It all adds up. Once I got all the stuff put away I cleaned the surface with some soap solution and a scrub brush. Wouldn't you know it, but the scrub brush somehow was able to lift up some loose flaps of clear polyurethane. After I dried the surface off I investigated and found that some areas still had that gloss finish underneath. Guess I forgot to sand before applying the final coat. So I scraped off all the loose flakes and sanded everything down.

 

 

Got out the marine polyurethane and found it didn't have a skin at the surface which surprised the heck out of me. Brushed on one heavy coat.

 

 

Better. I felt some rough spots due to air bubbles or the finish underneath after it dried so I sanded it down again. It's currently waiting on a final coat. Once I get done with that it'll be ready for the (hopefully) busy holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas and Valentines day). The long table in the backroom also needs a refresher coat of paint on it as there are a couple of chips in the surface and primer spots. Might be able to get to that eventually.

 

So, yeah, I do tackle projects at the store when I have the time to spare.

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

I was finally able to put on another coat of clear polyurethane on the workbench in the backroom a couple days ago. Looks better again and should hold up for a while.

 

 

No more work at the house as tomorrow it officially changes ownership. There was a couple spots I wanted to touch up but the weather just didn't cooperate much. There were only a couple days in December which were fair enough to tackle something during the day but the trouble is that the weather doesn't stay the same at night and you need time for paint/caulk to cure properly. Basically you are limited by how warm it is and how long it lasts. I counted up the hours I worked there and it was right around the 40 hour mark. Wasn't a ton of time overall as I wasn't spending full days working there - just a couple days a week for a few hours at a clip.

 

Other than that, not much else is new except I put those plywood pads underneath the table legs outside on Monday (check my post on October 9 for the particulars). I also cleaned up the greenhouse yesterday. It was kind of a mess from the pine needles from wreaths and garland and leaves. Not a day too soon as we had some snow today. I have no idea if the paint I ordered a couple weeks ago arrived as nobody called. I might have to stop over there to find out what's going on. I basically used up my stockpile of primer at the store for the house instead and I need to replenish that.

 

Might be changing over the fluorescent tube fixtures in the store over to LED next year. I watched a few videos on how to do that and it's not too bad except I have to work on rewiring the fixtures in-place on the ceiling. Not ideal, but it is what it is. I want to do a trial run of a couple fixtures just to see if there are any surprises that await (what materials do I need to have, what can I get to make the job to go quicker etc). For instance, if I use up a wire nut on a single fixture then I'll need to multiply that by the number of fixtures to know how many I'll need (we have quite a few fixtures so it can be significant quantity). The fixtures in the store have light diffusing coverings so I can get by with clear LED tubes there, but there are some fixtures where the women work where there are no diffusing coverings so we'd need frosted bulbs so it isn't too glaring and bright. In the backroom we have some 8 foot fixtures. I can get 8 foot LED replacement tubes but they are pricey. Is it cheaper to get 2 - 4 foot LED shop lights instead of trying to replace the bulbs? Maybe.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Trusty old backroom workbench still deserves your loving attention I see, Zombie. Even scratches get preserved under the new glossy finish!

 

About time you wrapped things up at the old boss's house too. Talk about generosity with your time and even the store's own paint supplies - must have been a pretty good sell to be worth the extra pampering.

 

On the other hand, you're right indeed in seeking savings by going the way of the LED. It's going to take a little bit of doing that rewiring so it's good you're taking your time with research / prep work.

 

Just don't let yourself be tempted by the cheaper LED tubes because you can end up going through a bunch of those in a hurry if you're not careful.

 

So, may you find the light in 2021.

[Zombie]

On the other hand, you're right indeed in seeking savings by going the way of the LED. It's going to take a little bit of doing that rewiring so it's good you're taking your time with research / prep work.

 

We have so many fluorescent lights that are burnt out right now that we are actually saving energy that way, lol. Yeah, I mentioned we were thinking of replacing the bulbs back in March/April/May/June but that kind of fell by the wayside. I can only pester the powers that be so much. Kinda glad we waited though as this forces our hand. It needs to be done anyway and it makes sense to be putting the money into something which will actually save money and energy.

 

I think I mentioned I replaced the 200W light bulb in the back cooler with a LED a while back. Well, we have a 200W incandescent in the front cooler too and since this new LED seems to be working out fine (with the high humidity and cold temps) I got another bulb to replace the one in the front once it burns out (should be any day now). Also got a couple 100W equivalent LEDs to replace a couple lights around the back cooler (neither have burnt out yet, but one fixture is non-functional). We recently purchased and installed a 150W equivalent CFL in the rafters above the door to the back cooler. It wasn't cheap, so I'm hesitant to swap over to LED for that one Maybe if we can find a LED bulb that fits and has the same equivalent lumens I'll be persuaded.

 

Haven't had much time to poke around in any of the fixtures out front to see what is involved and what items we'd need. Hopefully the beginning of the new year will bring quieter times to get the ball rolling.

 

Just don't let yourself be tempted by the cheaper LED tubes because you can end up going through a bunch of those in a hurry if you're not careful.

 

Aren't all LEDs manufactured in China anyway? Nah, we'll be going through one of the local electrical supply companies to get the bulbs for us. They of all people should know which ones are better. Plus they will be able to source the full quantity instead of clearing the marketplace. There would be no way I'd just purchase some cheap ones online, install them and find out they last only a little while.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

All well and good planning, Zombie. Let's see how it all holds up when implemented in full in reality.

 

Speaking of which, how about a sprinkling of magic: does the store get any Christmas lighting by your hand?

[Zombie]

Speaking of which, how about a sprinkling of magic: does the store get any Christmas lighting by your hand?

 

It does on occasion. Usually I have my hands full with other stuff, but I do try to help out with decorating. Some things end up on my lap because I'm so tall and am not afraid of ladders or heights. No pics of this, maybe next year if I remember.

 

Took a pic of the greenhouse last week because the snow was just sliding right off even though it was frozen on the bottom.

 

 

When it warms again I still need to tighten the top up. Should be strong enough for now as long as I knock the snow off and we don't have big storms that dump 6+ inches of snow (so 15cm).

 

All well and good planning, Zombie. Let's see how it all holds up when implemented in full in reality.

 

There was a change in plans unfortunately. Maybe the bossman was skittish of me working on the lights or maybe he forgot I told him I could handle it when I have the time. Whatever the reason, I gave him another option which was just to swap out the fluorescent tubes with new ones which should pinpoint which fixtures have burnt out ballasts. Then have an electrician come in to convert those fixtures to LED. That way everything is lit up and functional. Then as I get time I can work on switching over the rest (or maybe he'll hire the electrician again - dunno what the plan is). As the lights in the store are converted to LED I'll take the slightly used bulbs and and swap those out for the area where the women work.

 

So last week I replaced all the used tubes in the store with new ones which brightened things up significantly. I also cleaned up the plastic diffuser covers which helped too. Only have 4 sets of fixtures which have burnt out ballasts so supposedly the electrician is coming in for that sometime. Tried taking before and after pics but none turned out due to shooting directly into the lights. Oh well.

 

I did get the bossman to buy me two 100W equivalent LED bulbs for the area by the the small garage door, rolling tables and back cooler. Up to this point I was using up some old 60W equivalent CFL's in two of the sockets (these came from the small garage when I changed that over to LED). Anyhow, these bulbs have quite a few hours on them already and don't last very long when I screw them in. So it just makes sense to bite the bullet and switch to LEDs. Much brighter back there now! There's just one more socket back there where I have a 150W equivalent CFL - we just replaced that recently and it's plenty bright yet so makes no sense to do anything with that. Still have a 200W equivalent LED bulb for the front cooler when that incandescent bulb burns out (should be coming up soon) and that's technically the last incandescent bulb in the basement and first floor of the building. Little by little I get everything switched over.

 

Besides the lighting issues, I did do a little drywall repair/caulking/sanding and priming over at the biossman's house. His place is 21 years old and as time goes on the house settles and cracks form in places. Plus the teenage daughter threw a temper tantrum and punched 4 big holes in the drywall in the upstairs hallway. Got most of that patched and primed now all that's left is a little more caulking and to apply the final coat. No pics to respect privacy obviously.

 

It was about that time again and I had nothing else better to do because of the cruddy weather so I cut, folded and stapled up some of our 1/8 size cardboard boxes from flowers. Did this back in April (check back on my previous posts from that time to see) and I also made a bunch of them in early December. I have been saving them from recycling for a while and eventually the area I have set aside in the back garage fills up. Plus we'll be getting a slug more for Valentine's Day. Made up 156+ boxes and took a pic of this the other day.

 

 

20 cardboard boxes fit in one styrofoam box (which we use as "tables" for deliveries) so it's a good use of otherwise wasted space. You can see one of the styro boxes leaning up against the ladders in the pic.

 

A lot of my time recently has been to stock up on vases for Valentine's Day. We used quite a few glass vases for Christmas and our inventory was getting pretty low on some varieties (I normally do this on purpose - run inventory down past a holiday then restock before the next holiday). Well, due to Covid19 there is supposedly going to be a shortage of glassware coming up as one of the big manufacturers (Syndicate Sales) isn't running as many shifts and they are having a tough time finding employees to fill positions. I heard this from multiple wholesalers so I've been quickly beefing up our inventory to basically full capacity. Placed another order last week to fill out the rest of what is low, but there is going to be a problem getting two types. I have one of our wholesalers trying to source them for me - hopefully he can come through.

 

Otherwise, my time is spent keeping up with buying fresh flowers and the usual day-to-day responsibilities.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

No cold snap can capture Zombie's greenhouse - snow and ice will slide real nice and no cause shall there be to even grouse.

 

Marketing aside, it's great to see it in such good shape still. It shows how good of a job you actually did overall.

 

Even without any pics to show for it (for the obvious reason stated) you shone a light all the same on the overall issue of lighting and even paying for an electrician to deal with some of it won't moot the long term benefits in terms of costs.

 

I see you're still flexing those caulking skills to good effect too, successfully countering the way of the exploding fists!

 

Business-wise, I can only hope you don't stay boxed in overmuch, as the "bug" spreading hasn't really abated and repeated lockdowns - over on this end at least - are expected to easily last for well over another month.

[Zombie]

Even without any pics to show for it (for the obvious reason stated) you shone a light all the same on the overall issue of lighting and even paying for an electrician to deal with some of it won't moot the long term benefits in terms of costs.

 

Had the electrician over today and he swapped the fixtures with dead ballasts over to LED pretty quick. He also replaced an exterior HPS (high pressure sodium) light over to LED as well. It uses like 1/10th the wattage of the HPS and is quite a bit brighter. Hopefully it'll stand up to the elements okay.

 

Bossman picked up a LED fixture before we decided to have the electrician do the work. He doesn't want to return it if we could use it at the store so I thought on it a bit and gave him some options. Basically where it'll go depends on how bright the light actually is. If it's bright enough I was thinking of replacing that 150W equivalent CFL by the back cooler with the LED strip. If it's not bright enough for that application, then it might go in the basement at the bottom of the steps to replace two fluorescent tube fixtures. We shall see, have to do a little testing on it first.

 

Business-wise, I can only hope you don't stay boxed in overmuch, as the "bug" spreading hasn't really abated and repeated lockdowns - over on this end at least - are expected to easily last for well over another month.

 

Edit: I wrote a long winded rant of a reply and decided against venting. It's not gonna help any. No lockdowns over here since Mar-April and Biden doesn't seem enthused on closing anything. Hopefully the vaccine will become available to make this all a moot point. Crazy scary situation over here if you can imagine.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Yeah, Zombie, I've heard about the, shall we say, logistics issues that are hampering things on your side of the pond.

 

Can't say we're not struggling with containment problems of our own, what with medical personnel pushed to their limits, rushed vaccination of risk groups, ambulances lining up at hospital entrances waiting to be allowed in, running out of room for both the ailing and those already lost, and to top it all off, somehow dealing with the recently surfaced new strains of the thing making the rounds all over the globe.

 

Big pharma is already talking about the development of "boosters" to properly tackle the latest variants, so, overall, I can absolutely agree it's not a pretty picture, to put it mildly, no matter where we happen to be.

 

I guess ultimately there's only so much we can do on a personal level really, being responsible in our behaviour, to remain safe and ensure the safety of others to an extent, with or without governmental intervention. If we can do that we'll at least have contributed to the solution instead of adding to the problem.

 

Just do your bit, keep your wits about you and take care, Zombie.

[Zombie]

I've been trying to get ready for the big Valentine's Day push for the last couple weeks or so. It's always like this after Christmas: you get a couple weeks as a breather which is nice , but then you start to realize that Valentine's Day is a month away? Now it's 3 weeks away. Now it's a week away!?! WTF, where did the time go?! Our business usually slows down in January, but that slowness does not translate over to my work. (BTW, my "start" to Valentine's begins the week before as that's when fresh flowers start arriving which means most projects need to be completed by this time so it doesn't interfere).

 

With that said, I cleaned up the back cooler last week. Swept it up as there were pine needles in there yet from Christmas greens, then washed the floor. The floor paint is still holding up great so nothing needs to be done there. The other day boxes of greens arrived for Valentine's Day: Huckleberry, Red Huckleberry, Salal (Lemon Leaf), Leather Leaf Fern, Variegated Pittosporum and Nagi (aka Podocarpus) and all that goes into the back cooler.

 

With the back cooler set, my attention went to the middle cooler. Nothing has been done in there since I turned it off the week after Christmas. I noticed that the paint was peeling on the floor and also there were some chips off of the "step ups", or "risers". Luckily I still had some gray primer yet so I primed the bare spots and brushed on a coat of gray polyurethane on the spots.

 

 

Of course, I'm not going to get a brush wet with paint for that little bit so I also did the same thing to the right rolling table by the back cooler.

 

 

I mostly concentrated on the lower shelf as it gets scraped up from putting empty plastic delivery crates on it. Didn't check the left table though, but I might still if I have time. Touched up some spots on the table in the backroom too. A second coat would be nice, depends on time and if something needs to be used quickly. We shall see.

 

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

Yeah, because why not work extra just before a huge push incoming...

[Zombie]

Had a little bit of flower cutting today. I was only expecting the lilies to show up for Valentine's Day, but it turns out there was lots more stuff. Recruited one of the women to give me a hand filling up some buckets so I could concentrate on cutting the ends off the flowers. She didn't think we were going to get it all done, but I calmly explained that cutting doesn't take too much time. Got everything in water except for a couple cases of red roses, one case of white roses and a case of tulips and those can wait till tomorrow.

 

 

There's more flowers to the right of the pic which I couldn't fit in and we also put some stuff in the cooler to hydrate overnight (mostly roses, they open too fast if you leave them out). So that's a good start. More flowers are arriving Sunday afternoon so that'll be the next push.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

To bring on the full gamut in Zombie trust for the final cut!

 

Things are looking up already with this starting lineup. No shortage of options there and I imagine you'll even have some preset mixes to go when the time comes.

 

Speaking of which, it's just a little over a week to day so keep it up!

[Zombie]

Things are looking up already with this starting lineup. No shortage of options there and I imagine you'll even have some preset mixes to go when the time comes.

 

Yup, though we've been buying consumer mixed bunches instead of making our own as it's probably cheaper and faster. (I say "probably" cheaper as it depends who is making the bunch. I used to do them all the time back in the day assembly line style and could churn out a crap ton of them really fast). When we get them in I'll try and get a pic.

 

No painting today, was too busy trying to get some of the flowers in the coolers. When a holiday happens I always have to do a shakedown to purge the cooler of old flowers so that everything is fresh. I don't throw everything out though, it's more of a pick and choose: whatever still is ok we keep, and iffy goes bye-bye.

 

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

Man, every time you post flowers... Plants vs. Zombies pops into my mind! Even though I never played it.

[Zombie]

No painting projects to report. Valentines day kinda got in the way of that. Then it got really cold (for 2 weeks now hasn't been even near freezing) and snowed a few times. The company that plows our lot does a crappy job which means I have to clean it up. And after Valentines day it's usually spring cleanup. Case in point: I decided to clean part of the shelves in the backroom. I cleaned them with the bosses son last year about this time, but we just washed the (raw) wood shelves and put everything back.

 

I started kinda in the same manner: take everything off the shelves, dust, then scrub them with some soap. Did that, and figured I should do the microwave too. One thing I noticed is that someone spilled something greasy on the shelves a while ago. Last year's scrubbing didn't get rid of the stains and neither did this year's. I progressively increased the strength of the cleaning solutions but nothing seemed to lift those stains. I finally decided on full strength ammonia and that did the trick (yay chemistry)! Ammonia saponifies oils into soap much like lye does. Here's the after cleaning part:

 

 

Now its time to fill those shelves back up with "waxed" containers. By waxed I mean we use a hot melt pan glue (used to be a type of wax) to glue pieces of floral foam into containers so that they are ready to go. Yeah, the women can wax a container themselves as they need it, but I do it so much faster and cheaper (years and years and years of practice and literally thousands of containers per year equals some level of expertise),

 

 

Its pulled together nicely now, only a couple more types of containers to wax and we'll be set for a while. I could see eventually priming and rolling on a coat of polyurethane on the shelves, but at least they are clean for now. Besides, I have other painting projects I want to get done this year.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Past the cleaning itself one sure can't fault you for lack of neatness, Zombie - just looking at how well squared off the "waxed" containers are.

 

Can't help but think that microwave feels a little out of place in the middle of it all though.

[Space Voyager]

Z, are you still alive? How did the international women's day go?

[Zombie]

Z, are you still alive? How did the international women's day go?

 

Quiet. It's kinda a non-holiday. I remember 5-6 years ago it was busy as heck with tons of walk-in traffic. We were actually running out of some flowers due to demand. But other than that year it's just a normal day. Btw, sorry for the late reply, didn't see this post.

 

So last year around this time I was well into the greenhouse reconstruction. Up till last week, there was still snow around the greenhouse because it's been pretty chilly. It finally warmed up a bit so I was able to shovel out the sides and get that all melted. In the meantime I figured I better finish off the middle cooler as Easter is a couple weeks away. Just brushed on a coat of gray polyurethane on the step-ups and floor.

 

 

The joint between the top and middle shelf was pretty big so I put a heavy bead of caulking on it first. Looks a lot better now.

 

Since the greenhouse was getting warm inside I did a little cleanup in there. While I was in there I inspected the tables and noticed some scratches and chips in the paint. It probably happened over winter as I didn't see it last year. Anyhow, got out the red latex and filled in the problem areas.

 

 

I had the patchwork quilt thing going on there with scratches, red latex, base coat and darker base coat and that just looked gross. Not only that, but the South tables had some silver over spray from when I was fixing up the metal frame of the greenhouse last year. Might as well roll on a new coat to spruce things up.

 

 

Amazing improvement as usual. So a couple years ago I purchased two old gallons of a stock red polyurethane from the paint store for a song. An employee mentioned that the red was being discontinued so I had him color match the old paint with a fresh pail. The color seemed perfect at the time. However, when I opened up the can the other day I could see it wasn't going to be as red as it was before - even before mixing. After mixing it was pretty apparent this was going to be on the brown side. Oh well, I don't mind the color difference as long as everything matches. Oh, and I brushed on a coat of old red polyurethane on the park bench... you might be able to see the difference between the colors.

 

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

Oh well, perhaps today's Mother's day brings some traffic.

 

I remain in awe of your demand that everything is 100%.

[Zombie]

Today it was really nice outside but I have to pick my fights carefully this time of year as it's still too cold (at night) to paint. Took advantage of the weather by catching up on buckets. We use plastic buckets for flowers and after every use they have to be sanitized or else bacteria will grow and multiply and eventually clog the stems of new flowers, which limits uptake of water and eventually kills the flower.

 

Needless to say, you have to clean buckets before reusing them. I use a combination of bleach and commercial bucket cleaner - in this case FloraLife DCD (Disinfectant, Cleaner, Deodorizer).. scrub the bucket with this solution and let it sit overnight or however long you want. In winter it's tough to rinse the buckets out and dry them for reuse as they take up a lot of room, and because it's busier, you are constantly using the buckets as fast as you clean them (basically a never-ending project). Throw in a holiday (like Valentines Day for example) where every bucket is called into service and you'll soon be overwhelmed with stacks and stacks of them. The last week was bucket cleaning week - I cleaned everything and stacked them up. Because of the weather I could take them outside and rinse them off with the hose which makes the process quicker, then haul them into the back garage to dry. Here's a sampling of the larger buckets I rinsed out and stacked today:

 

 

The buckets on the right side of the isle are the white pails... 5-gallon (19L) on the bottom, 4-gallon in the middle and 3-gallon on the top. Total: 74 pails. Stacked up to the ceiling. On the left side are the black pails... 4-gallon on the bottom two rows and part of the 3rd row, some 3-gallon display buckets in the foreground and a mixture of 2-gallon display pails in the background. Total: 84 pails. Not to the ceiling but it's close. Grand total: 158. I have about 75 more buckets left to do (they are cleaned already just awaiting a rinse). Maybe I'll get to that tomorrow if the weather cooperates.

 

- Zombie