Thursday, Sept 6th marks the day we began our journey back home. To get home we had to take 3 flights. The first leg was on a ATC-72 Turbo prop plane with Blinter Canaries to get to Gran Canarie Island. The turbo prop plane was a very modern, fully digital aircraft. The second leg would take us from Gran Canarie to Madrid and then the final leg to JFK on Iberia airlines. We had a 20 hour layover in Madrid. So I booked a hotel room and planned a day around the old portion of Madrid.
As we boarded the Turbo prop, the pilot heard that he had Americans on board. He quickly came out of the cockpit and found Jill & I. Turns out he was planning a trip to New York and wanted to pick my brain on what to do and what to see. In turn Jill got to sit in the pilot’s seat with the co-pilot taking her through all the controls. I was very impressed with Blinter Canaries airline. It is a small airline catering to the Canary Islands, but the planes are very new and the staff is very professional.
The flight to Gran Canarie and then to Madrid went without a hitch. When we got to Madrid, we had our first travel problem to deal with. Both mine and Cathy’s checked luggage didn’t make the transfer in Gran Canarie. We found ourselves in Madrid with our bags still in the Canaries. We almost made it through the trip with no major problems!
Of course I made everyone pack thier carry on luggage with the remaining clothes to get all the way home. The Iberia rep was able to quickly locate our bags, they were already tagged for the next flight in the morning to Madrid. I had the rep ship the bags to our house, so we wouldn’t lose the day trying to track them down. As it turned out our missing bags crossed the Atlantic on the flight before us. Both bags were waiting for us in the JFK terminal before clearing customs. The Iberia flights across the Atlantic was as comfortable as you can be for a 7 1/2 hour flight in economy. The planes were nicly kept and the flight attendants very good. I would fly Iberia again if the need ever arises.
We started the day heading down to Puerto Del Carmen’s old harbour. We strolled around the seaport and the side streets. I am finding that Lanzarote is a very safe place. The policia take security and safety very seriously. There is an old world charm to the old harbour area. Small side streets that hide a lot of shops. Lots of hills. The entire town of Puerto Del Carmen sits on a hill side. You definitely need to have a good pair of legs and a good pair of walking shoes to get around and really see everything that is to see!
We found the water sports center in Old Harbour, where they had jet skis, parasailing and banana boat rides. We had a blast taking a banana boat ride across the harbour. The water sports center sits on a pier that is about 10 feet above the water. The locals were jumping off the pier into crystal clear blue water.
After jumping off the pier we walked to the other side to swim at a small sandy beach with large pumice stones scattered around the beach and water.
Our villa has semi-private balcony overseeing the bay of Puerto Del Carmen. We have 4 pools to choose from. The villa doesn’t have AC, however everyone reassures us that it isn’t needed. The breeze is constant through the night and there is no humidity.
The views and scenery are spectacular. The Canaries are volcanic, so the mountains are jagged, the beaches have long stretches of sand with occasionally lava rocks interrupting the flow.
We arrived at JFK at 3pm with plenty of time for our 5:55pm flight. Normally for family vacations Cathy & I split duties. She handles getting the kids through the airport and onto the plane. I handle the luggage,
The pipe leading to the outside faucet broke just inside the house. Fortunately is was just behind the spigot, so most of the water shot out of the house and didn’t end up in the basement.
Over the past years the trees have been spreading their roots under the driveway and the sidewalks. Recently the sidewalks have gotten lifted at odd angles. The portion of the sidewalk over the driveway has started to rock as the cars are driven over it. Basically the time has come to rip out some of the sidewalks, remove the roots and re-pour new concrete.
Originally I was insisting that we need to hire a contractor to come in and do the job. There was a total of 50′ of sidewalk that needed to be replaced. I think I was actually starting to win over my wife with the contractor until my very good buddy Mark made the comment “What are you thinking? We could do it in a weekend…” In that instant all my hopes of avoiding a very labor intensive job vanished.
The cement truck was pretty cool. The truck actually mixes the sand, rock, mortar and water on the job site. The normal trucks have the cement mixed at a plant and then there is a rush to get the cement to the job site and off loaded before it begins to cook. With the 50′ of sidewalk I had calculated I would need 2 yards of concrete. I ended up using 2.5 yards. Part of the driveway was thicker than the expected 4 inches. With the truck mixing the concrete on site, it was no issue at all for the extra material. Also cleanup was a breeze. The truck just needed to clean out the auger and chutes.
Now that the project is completed and feeling has returned to my limbs, I’m glad the work is done. The sidewalk looks great. This past weekend I had 2 trucks deliver 7 yards of mulch and 5 yards of topsoil. Both trucks drove over the sidewalk with no issues at all. Whew!
On Good Friday I decided to start the rebuilding of the stairs in the house. The old stairs were made of popular / pine and were stained black. When we moved into the house, I had the carpet guys just cover them when the carpet was being installed in the family room. I knew I was going to rebuild the stairs at some point. After 17 years in the house, the time had come to tackle the project. We wanted to tear up the carpet in the family room and put down a hardwood floor. In doing that, The stairs really needed to be replaced first, so the new hardwood floor could be set up against them.
I made the new stairs from solid red oak. The stringers, risers, treads and all the wedges are made from red oak. After doing some research on the best method to build them, I decided to route the stringers so the treads and risers are recessed into the stringers. I spent the better part of a day creating my templates for routing the stringers. Here is a photo of one of the oak stringers. I had just routed only the treads in the board. Right next to the oak stringer I have my pine practice board.
With the stringers routed out, the treads and risers are held tightly in by a wood wedge. The wood wedges account for the slight variations in wood thickness. Even though all the treads are 5/4″ thick, by the time they are planed and sanded, there can be 1/32″ difference in the thickness of the treads. That difference would allow a gap to occur and cause the stairs to squeak. The preferred method uses the wedges to tighten the treads and risers and allow no gaps to occur.
Overall I spent 8 days building the new stairs. That includes fixing & painting the sheetrock and putting on 3 coats of urethane.