I just recently finished watching 'The Terror' from AMC. It was a ten part mini-series about an English expedition to find the Northwest Passage. It was really well done. The acting, the sets, the writing, everything. As I was making my way through it there was something about it that kept me from getting really into it. About half way through the series it dawned on me. Nothing was really happening. I mean, there was stuff going on, but it wasn't engaging. It's like a movie that people say is almost perfect in every movie making technical way, but it's boring. Like a Stanley Kubrick film. Not the good ones. Like Barry Lydon.
The show did not pick up steam as far as plot points and action until episode eight. The last two and a half episodes were amazing too. By that point you're invested in the show, but you start to wonder why. I almost gave up on the show. I was giving it to the halfway point before making my decision as to whether or not to keep watching. And then they threw in a huge plot point and hooked me. All I kept thinking was 'why wait this long?'. I understand that they need to have some episodes to set up character dynamics and story line, but it just felt like it took too long. Is this just part of the new television and movie watching era? If we do not have something resembling instant gratification in something we are watching, do we just give up on it?
I don't think that this is a new phenomenon. How many times have we heard people talk about shows where you need to get past the first season before the show starts to get better? Or the first movie in a trilogy isn't that great, but the second and third ones are higher quality. I've had that problem with books too. 'Oh, just get past the first one hundred pages, it gets better.' WHAT?! You need to hook the audience not make them wonder if they should be flossing their teeth instead.
20 June 2018
13 June 2018
Deck Work
We have moved to the exterior of our house for our next house project. When we first bought our house, we knew that the back deck was something that was eventually going to need attention. Not structurally, but aesthetically. The paint and stain was starting to peel within the first year, and it just got a little worse over the past winter. Both sets of our parents, along with my sister and her kids, came out for a visit and helped with the project. While the project is not one hundred percent done, the heavy lifting has been completed. All that remains is the painting which can be done over the course of a weekend.
The first steps were taken at the beginning of the month. We stripped away all the old paint from the planks, but struggled to decide what to do with the spindles that lined the deck. We eventually determined that it was going to be much easier to remove the spindles, there were only two screws per, and sand the paint away. Over Memorial Day weekend, my in-laws came into town. We had plans to make some decent progress, but Mother Nature had other ideas. The entire time that they were here we were in the midst of a mini heat wave. It was topping out in the mid to high 90s, with heat index topping 100. Because this project is something that we can take our time on, we did not feel rushed to work on it. We got everything removed and stripped a good number of spindles, but it was just too hot to do anything. I mean, why would you exert yourself on a project that does not need to be completed quickly?
This past weekend, my parents and sister came out and we finished the most difficult part of the project. We built a privacy fence on one side of the deck. We are extremely close to our neighbor's house. In fact, their driveway butts right up to our property. So it will be nice to be able to sit on the deck and not look into their living room or back den. It ended up running the length of the deck (about eight feet) and is about seven feet tall. We also replaced the lattice work that was on the bottom of the deck. The previous owners just placed cheap white plastic lattice work around the edge and it looked terrible. Over the course of time, the white plastic took on a green hue from all the grass being cut. With the paint, we hope to avoid that.
The last things that we have to do are reattach the spindles and paint the deck. We bought it at the start of the project and that is what got the ball rolling. It needs two coats and needs to be painted when there is no rain in the forecast for two or three days. This is the most difficult part because not only do we have to work around the weather, we have to work around our work schedules. Not having every weekend off will make this last part very difficult. The nice thing is that all the hard work is done and we can still use the deck. It'll just look incomplete until we have time to paint it all.
The first steps were taken at the beginning of the month. We stripped away all the old paint from the planks, but struggled to decide what to do with the spindles that lined the deck. We eventually determined that it was going to be much easier to remove the spindles, there were only two screws per, and sand the paint away. Over Memorial Day weekend, my in-laws came into town. We had plans to make some decent progress, but Mother Nature had other ideas. The entire time that they were here we were in the midst of a mini heat wave. It was topping out in the mid to high 90s, with heat index topping 100. Because this project is something that we can take our time on, we did not feel rushed to work on it. We got everything removed and stripped a good number of spindles, but it was just too hot to do anything. I mean, why would you exert yourself on a project that does not need to be completed quickly?
This past weekend, my parents and sister came out and we finished the most difficult part of the project. We built a privacy fence on one side of the deck. We are extremely close to our neighbor's house. In fact, their driveway butts right up to our property. So it will be nice to be able to sit on the deck and not look into their living room or back den. It ended up running the length of the deck (about eight feet) and is about seven feet tall. We also replaced the lattice work that was on the bottom of the deck. The previous owners just placed cheap white plastic lattice work around the edge and it looked terrible. Over the course of time, the white plastic took on a green hue from all the grass being cut. With the paint, we hope to avoid that.
The last things that we have to do are reattach the spindles and paint the deck. We bought it at the start of the project and that is what got the ball rolling. It needs two coats and needs to be painted when there is no rain in the forecast for two or three days. This is the most difficult part because not only do we have to work around the weather, we have to work around our work schedules. Not having every weekend off will make this last part very difficult. The nice thing is that all the hard work is done and we can still use the deck. It'll just look incomplete until we have time to paint it all.
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