"Stop Mocking Me!"

"I've got a new project and you don't!". That was a gloating Zar this morning. That's not like him at all, but once in a while he just has to let it out. Absolute glee!

He invited Tessie over to "watch and learn". Those were his exact words....I have a feeling that, in his present mood, he would slap her hands away if she tried to help.

This seems to be his project. All his.

The first thing Tessie asked was, "Are you going to keep the spy windows in the front? They would be handy when the radio is turned around. You could peek out and see that's going on."

His only answer was, "If I can see out of the holes, others can see in...No spy holes. Privacy is my main concern. Now get away from there!"

While I am working on the rugs, he can help entertain you and keep you busy with this project.

As far as mocking Tessie, no he's not. We did a bit of experimenting with the walls a little while ago.

I pulled out the last scraps of illustration board for the mock ups. That's where the mocking remark came in. She overheard us planning.

First I measured the floor and cut a piece of the illustration board to fit. We have to decide what we are going to do with the triangular braces at the bottom of the walls on both sides. As of now, we are still undecided, so are working around them.

In order to make a back wall, I laid the radio face up on the board and traced around it. I then made a 1/4" allowance for the thickness of the wall. I then went inside of the tracing and cut on that line. It isn't a perfect fit yet, but it gives us a place to start.


As usual, Tessie couldn't keep her nose out of the project. Actually, she had a good suggestion.

She looked the fireplace up and down and said, "That thing sticks out too far. Wasted space. If you cut a hole in the illustration board to fit it into, you will have an extra half a foot or so in depth." She was very business like and professional about the whole thing.

We tried it and she was right. Amazing!

I tried cabinets and bookcases along both walls. Again, it took up too much of the space. The whole area is only 7" by 9" to begin with. When you start filling in even the dead space at the sides, you loose a lot of the room.

Zar wants bookshelves, so the alternative is on either side of the fireplace.

We tried a 2 1/2" bottom cabinet mock up on either side. It looks stunted and short. Zar suggested that we go to the height of the mantle with the closed section and have shelves above that.

Tessie chimed in with, "You have to close it in. We need a place to hide the bug beer and chips."

All of a sudden it is a "we" situation....Methinks that Tessie has plans of her own.

Zar had better be careful. She has a way of getting what she wants...

When I left, Tessie had a pencil behind her left ear and a quad rule note pad in her hand. She was furiously making notes....She was about a third of a way through the pad.

She licked the point of the pencil and said, "OK. Here's the plan. Tomorrow we will fix up the fireplace. I think that it needs a faux marble surround and base. It will have to have fire bricks inside. I can faux the marble and you can lay the brick."

I am going to quietly tip toe away now. There is laundry to be done and rugs to be vacuumed in the real world. They can fend for themselves....Good luck to Zar!

See you tomorrow.