The old lady has a name. Betty! Betty seems an old fashion enough kind of name to give an old girl like my garage. Betty can sound simple enough yet sophisticated in her humor. Think Betty Rubble from the original Flintstones cartoon. She had a quick wit about her with just a touch of "sauciness" in her humor. That just about sums up the personality of my garage. My Old Betty. She seems simple enough to work on, yet her playful nature will throw a little challenge at me. And if I mess that up her saucy mood can down right make my day miserable. But I love her anyways.
You can see from my unconditional love for her why my wife referrers to her as "The Other Woman"
Betty was also the name of the old lady who gave me my first job. I cut her grass and shoveled her snow. She was an incredible gift to me for marketing my little business as she spread the word to all her neighbors of my reliable nature and determined hard work. I believe it was more from a delight that I was "her" helper. However more calls came in and I soon had a monopoly on most of the old ladies in my neighborhood. I was thinking this was a great until the winter of 1979 when we were hit with on blizzard after another. Thus began the history of my constant back aches. The huge volume of business and the overwhelming amount of attention I was receiving from the other old ladies in the neighborhood started to take a toll on Betty. I was no longer at her beck and call. She had to actually schedule time with me. I began to notice that her sandwiches where a bit skimpy compared to the sandwiches Sally across the street was giving me. Erma's baked goods were a step above hers. But Betty didn't give up so easy to keep the number one spot. She upped her payout from $5 a lawn mowing to $8. Word of this spread and soon everyone felt I was worth $10. Christmas of 79 was a profitable one as my clients dug deep into their pensions and showered me with gifts and cash bonuses to see who could win my devotion. In the end it got a bit ugly as some of the ladies began to gossip to me about the others. Who could, in their lady MacBethian way, fuel my devotion to them while poisoning my opinion of the other. Politics is an ancient game and finds it way into many relationships especially when the affections of a senior woman are involved. Thank God High School started for me and I passed off my business. It was the only choice I had in trying to avoid a full scale geriatric war. However, as time went on I would still get the occasional call to see if I was free to "help an old lady out". The call to swing by for a "little box of cookies I made for you". But they all knew if was over with me. I eventually went from the coveted helper to the "nice boy who used to mow my lawn". A fading memory that maybe brought a smile to them.
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| Now missing the garage tent |
I am hoping my present Betty will do the same when she's finally done. I will think of the drawn out challenges we went through to get her to that place of finished beauty and those memories will bring me a smile of satisfaction. But those days are still in the future. Perhaps long into the future. The progress that I thought would go quickly once she was on the foundation has come in spurts. This time its not for lack of material, but time and weather. In some ways I'm a bit sorry that the garage tent went away because it made a great shelter for a cut station. Nothing drives me more nuts than pulling all the tools out that I need, getting them set up and then it rains. It a substantial amount of tools I need to get some siding on. Table saw, shop saw, compressor, nail gun, on and on and on.... I generally don't mind working in the rain, but I hate having my tools get wet. I guess it's time to invest in a portable canopy. Not really something I can find for free.
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Larry working his magic!
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However, progress has been made I have been getting the old gal a glamorous dressing. I got hold of a portable planer and ran some of the old cedar boards that came from my neighbor's deck through it. Made them look as good as new. I milled those up for my corner trim, door and window casing. (The door was a slight challenge to trim out as the wall is still a bit out of plumb.) The siding went at a steady pace. As it was salvaged from Betty's exterior and even the interior I tried to scape off the old paint and do some sanding before I put it up. By the time I finished the south side of the garage the salvaged siding created a multi colored and textured mosaic that I was nearly tempted to leave. But to the relief of my wife and neighbors, I solicited the help of my Father-in-law, Larry to do some priming. This guy is one fast painter! It was after seeing that first coat of primer that the true potential of the finished beauty really started to show. Betty was turning into one hot mama!
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| South Side before primer |
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| A mosaic of ... something |
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| Hot Mama! |
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| Broken off sill |
The east side facing the house presented it's own challenges. I had salvaged a nice double hung window to put in to that side of Betty. Unfortunately the individual who pulled the window out did quite a number on the sill and I had to replace it.
Luckily I kept one of the sills from the old windows that use to be in the south side of the garage. After carefully cutting out the old sill, I set the window then glued and screwed in the replacement sill. Again I used old deck boards for the milled up for trim and then "BANG" Larry was back to do his magic.
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| Clean Cut |
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| Magic! |
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East Side looking sexy!!
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| Good Ol' Keith |
The north side has some changes coming to it. As I felt I needed to save up some of the salvaged siding for the eventual "pop up" in the roof, I decided to pull off all the siding (once again with the help of my good friend Keith) and actually buy some siding panels for this side.
This side will eventually have a shed roof put onto it so that I have a place to store my little boat. I tried to get something that looked close. I guess I could have tried to hunt down some free material, but the closer I get to finishing this, the smaller my patience for finding salvaged items gets. So please forgive me salvaging gods.
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| Pretty Close |
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| Ain't Betty Lookin' Good? |
I have yet to start on the west side that holds the garage size door. This side has a number of issues of it own that will force on me some head scratching time. That's what Betty likes to do to me. Keep me guessing as to her mood. Keep me guessing to my approach. Will it please her or make her furious? Like any relationship I have to take it step by step. But she is looking beautiful and every time we tassel over something I gotta simply step back and look her over. My mood softens, we figure out how to work it out and once again I'm hers. I can't seem to help myself.
