What A Labor Day Weekend!

Oh dear readers what a weekend it was, and now a message from our sponsors!

 Friday-
Friday evening our friends Jeff and Donneta from Kansas came down to spend the weekend like they have done every Labor Day  for the last  12 years! (We go and visit them for two weeks every Christmas.) Friday evening Dad put the boat in the water, my Grandpa's 1956 Lone*star  that he restored a few years ago.

Then grilled at my parents cabin, they cut up chicken breast chunks and wrapped them in bacon on skewers. YUM it went fantastically with some Idaho red's potato salad!

( Donneta, Jeff & Dad)

 *  *  *

 Saturday-
Bright and early Saturday morning I started preparing the Casablanca for all the company that was coming to spend the weekend! I made some Jello molds in lime green, and blueberry...

These were a hit! Haha so easy to do and like everyone kept telling me "SO 50's!"  I also made a Double Cinnamon/Devils food cake for my girlfriend Patricia's 18th Birthday!

Guests to the Casablanca started showing up around noon, seven friends motored out to the lake for the second annual Labor Day fish fry.

(Caitlin, Patricia, Wes, Jenny, Brett, & Lydia)

Where all the fish and hush puppies one could eat were to be had! The fish fry is hosted by the Myers Family (and a lot of other families contribute) on Labor day weekend and as you can see there was a pretty good turn out!

After lunch we all loaded up on the golf cart and headed down to the beach for what is provably the last swim of the season. That water got COLD in the last few weeks! But that didn't stop us for long.

 (Caitlin couldn't get in the water, so she sun bathed on the dock!)

(Friends Jenny and Wes take a dive!)

(Brett & Lydia)

After swimming for a few hours we headed back to the house to snack and lounge about until dinner time. Friend Caitlin entertained us with a little decorative piano!

Eventually the snacks just weren't cutting it so we all went out to the gravel pit to light a fire and get dinner started!

(I had just poured gasoline on the tender and Jenny is scolding 'That is NOT how we do it in Campfire kids!'")

I'm not sure if it was the heat of the moment, but they did a little tribal fire dancing!

 (Friends JayPat and Kaeli )

Fire lit, we broke out the makings for chili/hot dogs!

 (Lydia, Wes, Caitlin)

(Brett, Patricia, Jenny!)

(Jenny made a 'hot dog bun grilled cheese' over the fire)

Im looking forward to some inside on the stove cooking we normally cant do because its so hot outside. Meatloaf's, casseroles, soups, ahhhh love it! 

 (Just a typical evening here at the Casablanca)

Dinner finished, we broke out the cake for the birthday girl!

After birthday wishes were exchanged we all sat around the fire chatting for a while telling jokes and stories.

 (Brett and Wes)

(Jay & Kaeli)

 After viewing a movie on the Drive-In and a few more rounds on the piano Saturday night begrudgingly drew to a close. Friends Wes and Patrica however had made plans to stay with me until Monday.

*  *  *

Sunday-
Sunday morning we slept in,  before breakfast Wes, Patricia and I cleaned up from Saturday nights  get together. I can also simi-proudly say that our little group of nine people were provably the ONLY ones at Lake Diversion who were sober!  We swam some more, then went back to the house to make lunch Patricia made grilled cheese sandwiches.

 

(Ta-da Grilled Cheese sandwiches, with chips and Dr. Pepper!)

Most of the afternoon was spent in the Turquoise room watching season 1 of  'United States of Tara'  and 'Pushing Daisies'. That evening friends Pam, Luzmila, and Brannon dropped in for dinner and a show.

(Patricia, Wes, Brannon, Pam, Luzmila)

 (Pam & Luzmila)

We ended up watching 'Anger Management'  HILARIOUS movie! After the show was over we all went back to the lounge to hang out, here Patricia and I are giving a recital of our "Up and coming version of Jingle Bells" .

Monday-
Monday morning we got up and tried to make waffles in the new 1954 waffle iron... key words in this sentence is tried!  Here's a picture of before, we've just mixed the batter and I'm about to put it in the iron.
Well a little voice in my head said "You should provably put some cooking oil on the iron first...."  NAW...

What happened next was like something I saw in a Katherine Hepburn movie (where she accidentally puts yeast in the waffle batter) I had put to much batter in and as it cooked the waffle iron  slowly pried its way open.

(YIKES!)

 After much scraping and a few choice words, we gave up on the waffle iron. So we reverted pack to the waffles not so distant cousin, the pancake. Out came my best frying pan down went the batter and up came one of the prettiest little pancakes you ever saw!

(Me and Wes showing of the first pancake EVER made at the Casablanca)

 After breakfast (more like brunch) we threw our bathing suits on and hit the water! 

Went back to the house to make some more lunch, and watch more of "Pushing Daisies"

(Do not question the alligator hat, just laugh!)

We finally had to pack up and head home  around 6 PM on Monday, what a wonderful weekend it was and truly the best way to end summer (even though iv posted that like 6 times in the last few weeks). We're all excited for Halloween that the next scheduled get together but I'm sure there will be some impromptu gatherings because as we all know...

"Sooner or later, Everyone Goes to Mick's"

-Mick-

4 Of A Kind, Some Lawn Chair Restoration.

OK OK, I know I don't need anymore lawn chairs!

But I didn't have this style of chair, and they are four matching chairs... and come on I mean good for the Drive-In right?!  I mean this only brings me to 34 pieces of lawn furniture.... "THIRTY FOUR PIECES OF LAWN FURNITURE?!"  I hear you, and my Mother cry.   Well.... umm.... seating will never be a problem at my place? haha.  I found these on Craigslist, and I need to stay off that site I keep finding junk to buy!  But saw these lawn chairs called the gut and haggled over the phone (which I dislike) he wanted $100 and after much haggling $80 was the final price. (DAMN I'm rusty! In my lawn chair buying prime I could talk down a set of four lawn chairs from $100 to $40.)  I liked them so I payed the price, Happy Birthday to me!  When I met the guy at Lowes to pick them up, he said "yeah , they are good old chairs, I just have to many of them"  I thought "Sir, you have NO idea"  and then as he unloaded the chairs out of his truck he glaned over at my trusty old Lincoln Town car and asks "Are you going to be able to get all of these in there?" I replied "Sure!" while thinking 'Haha this isn't my first lawn chair rodeo'. haha 2 minuets later I had 3 in the back seat and 1 in the passenger seat  hauling like a champ!

When I got the chairs home  I buzzed them down with the electric wire brush to see the problem spots, Dad spot welded the busted arm rests.

That's the only problem I have when restoring vintage lawn chairs, usually the bottom tubing that holds the chair up is rotted. and in this case the water had collected in the arm rests and either rusted its way out, or froze in the winter and busted the tubing.

(There's the culprit! All the chairs needed new tubing on the bottom)

So I used the chop saw, and cut the rotted parts out. I then cut new pieces of tubing to fit in the place of the old ones.

Dad does a great job 'brazing' the tubing together, after that they get wire brushed a little more and then they were ready to paint the next day! These 4 chairs had  a perfect mate waiting for them at the Casablanca, until now this round metal table had been the misfit in the lawn chair dept. In  all my chairs I didn't have any that looked good/ fit around it but now!

(Now its a perfect match! The table received a new coat of fresh white paint)

(Mean while the chairs, received a new coat of.... drum roll please!)

LIME GREEN! Suggested by Micheal over at Cul-de-sac shack, and confirmed by Girlfriend Patricia! (Patricia and I picked out the color the day I picked them up at Lowes)  and after a week of worth of work...

Ta-Da! Just in time for Labor day weekend, I absolutely LOVE the way they turned out! The hardest part was picking out the color (almost always is) and it came down to Lime Green, Turquoise, or Red. All great colors but Lime Green was clearly the way to go! And now we have a new color lawn chair  at the Casablanca, (the only ones that wont need repainting in the spring.

Id like to give a special thanks to my Dad.

This man can literally fix ANYTHING!  It blows my mind some times and if he does it,whatever it is will last FOREVER.
Id also like to thank Michael for the suggestion of Lime Green looks amazing! However onw that I have four crisp new paited chairs, all thew rest are looking a little worse for ware, I know what i'll be doing next spring! Paint, paint paint! Haha

-Mick-

The Marvelous "Muntz" Tv Transformation!

Well readers after my bed rest project number 1, refinish the new TV set!
As you will recall I picked the set up for $20 at my favorite antique store, and it has been sitting out side in the shop since then the following restoration takes place in 3 days.

(Before on the day I picked it up)

(After 3 days work!)

(Before, notice all the scratches)

(After, not bad eh?)

This set wasn't in terrible shape but it was not "put a coat of varnish on it and call it a day" either.  First thing I did was take the old guts out, the picture tube was broken as were the bulbs so out they came. Muntz's  TV's were made with few parts and were the "Blue Light Special" from 1951 - 1953 they were so popular because they were made with fewer parts they sold for under $100!  Indeed they were made with fewer parts, I took out 5 screws ans the tube and transistors slid out! (V.S. the 23 some odd screws and 4 hours it took to take the RCA TV tube out in the TV at the lake!) With the guts out it was time to start sanding!

(Look at all the scratches on the top of the set!)

I used super heavy grit sand paper to get the old varnish and stain off, I decided to get a crisp even "new" look id go right down to the wood.

(halfway done)

( One side down and the end of day 1, my arm was give out from hand sanding!)

(Day 2, top and other side done)

(Right side door sanded)

(Both doors, I left the trim around the speaker its original color to contrast with the new stain)

I also left the original stain on the inside of the doors and interior of the set because it was beautiful and hardly had any scratches or water damage.

(I love the tiger stripes on the interior wood)

I stained the wood 2 times with Sherwin Williams "Old Oak" stain and let it dry over night. Day 3 I got up stained the wood 2 more times, it didn't come out quite as dark as I wanted it too. Then applied 2 coats of polyurethane let dry 3 hours, lightly sanded then applied another coat.  Once dry I hauled it into the house and fixed the new TV set inside and Viola!

I like the golden stains contrast with the darker stain around the speaker. I'm really please with how this project turned out! I cant wait to watch all the Christmas Specials on it (I'm particularly looking forward to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer). Tune in Tuesday for the Labor Day weekend festivities!

-Mick-

How About A Drink?! A Revamped Retro Bar Story.

 One of several little/ long term projects I will be sharing this week, The Bar!
As you will recall from a few posts back, I decided it was time to add a bar to the Casablanca and went searching for one on the computer. I used this great website "Freecycle" on yahoo it's regional, and you can find stuff in you own city, which its where I picked this up...

A 5 ft homemade cocktail bar, the guy giving it away said it it just needed a top and I could have it if id just come pick it up. Well naturally I loaded up the truck and went right over to get it. But my head was already teaming with ideas, while the stained wood was nice... it just wasn't "Casablanca". So once home I played around with my ideas on Microsoft paint, and came up with this I really liked.

Idea set in my head, I dragged the bar under the carport and spent all day painting 2 coats of course!

After it was painted I took it to the lake, and started thinking about what kind of top I wanted to go on it. It was then I remembered a project from 2009 and had the PERFECT solution to the bar top. One of my moms friends was remodeling her 1961 Ranch house (one of those great tract home!)  well she was going to put new tile in the kitchen, and she knew how "into" the 50's and 60's I am, so she called me up and said that if I could find a way to get them off the counter tops and back splash I was welcome to them. When I got there here's what was waiting for me.

The good thing for me, is after 49 years the tile glue tends to loosen up! 4 and a half hours later (you have to take your time, if you rush you'll just chip and break stuff) this is what I'd accomplished...

She thought I was crazy for wanting those ugly old turquoise tiles, but as you fine readers know "Turquoise is my signature color" so I didn't mind the bloody knuckles to much! Haha.  Well when I chipped those tiles out I didn't have a clue what id use them for so I packed them (49 yr old kitchen grit and all) in boxes and put them in the storage house. Now it was time to use them, the color of the tile matches the paint color almost exactly! Well when I knocked the tiles out and boxed them up they were FAR from ready to be re-tiled again. So I set up a "Tile reclaiming station" under the carport one afternoon and started scrubbing and chipping the old grout away and getting them ready to be relaid.

 (Most of the tiles had chunks of cement on them from the back splash)

Letting the tiles soak in warm soapy water helped the gunk come off a lot easier, and in no time at all I'd readied 86 tiles for my project.

Now all of this was put on hold because of the surgery, so this being the first weekend back to the lake I wanted to GET STUFF DONE! Saturday morning we cut the board for the bar top...

Anchored it down to the bar....

Then my friend Debbie "The tile Queen of Lake Diversion" came over to help, my little sister has been her apprentice on many a tiling job here around the lake so she helped too!

 (The Renovation Diva's of Lake Diversion)

Here is the nearly finished project! Doesn't the tile look great, it was well worth the save and cleaning time. However I had a few more finishing touches to add. I know there's a bottle opener on the side of the Coke Box, but that's about 12 feet away, so I picked this old cast iron bottle opener up at the flea market some new gold paint and...

Since the bar will be open mostly in the twilight hours, my friend Patricia and I got some blue tube lights, and mounted them under the overhang of the bar's edge so it will glow neon blue at night!

Pretty cool huh?! not bad for a freebie!
A special thanks to   Debbie and my sister Mable, as well as Kari for letting me tear apart her kitchen! I think it was worth it and ready just in time for Labor day weekend!

-Mick-