What the caulk?

I don't know if caulking can go bad or not but this one sure seemed like this one did today.  I know that not all product are made from the same ingredients and different caulking is made for different applications.  This particular dud was DAP ALEX PLUS (It is capitalized on the manufacturers website, I am not yelling) Acrylic Latex Caulk Plus Silicone.  I have always had excellent results with this product and didn't not anticipate any problem as I was using it to seal in the trim on the other kitchen window which is by the refrigerator.  The problem is that the product would not stop coming out of the tube 10.1 oz tube. Many caulk guns come with a release switch that takes the plungers pressure off.  Those that do not have that feature usually have an easy was to release it.  This was not my issue,  I took the entire tube out of the gun and it was still coming out.  Never have I seen anything like it before.  It is common for a little to come out but this left a pile of it.  If there is a way to cleanly start a bead of caulk when said caulk is already hanging out of the tube then that is a trick I do not know.  It also started setting up too soon and got gummy very rapidly.  There was only one tube here and I was not wanting to make a hardware store run so the product  I ended up using was Red Devil Onetime Lightweight Spackling.  This product is something I usually use for nail holes or cracks in wall but I also use it to fill my brad holes on the trim. This particular window needed 2"of  jamb extension but like most milled lumber and engineered wood products 2" measure to an actual 1 5/8" or something absurd like that.  The 3" board was too wide and I did not want to make that cut with a circular saw; I am not good with them and frankly they scare me.  The gap caused from using the 2" jamb was jammed full with trimmed down pieces of fanfold extruded polystyrene insulation that was left over from the roof, of all things.  The ALEX PLUS was going to cover over it and seal the jamb extensions to the window.  If you read this far then you know how that went.  The spackling claims not to shrink or crack but it does sometime; this whole window may look a disaster in a year.  After all that I was just not up for painting it.  I am sure it will need some clean up before painting.

I cut the case trim for the door leading from the kitchen into the garage.  Doors are usually easy because the sides are typically flat on the bottom and only angled at the top.  The problem with this particular door is that the right side abuts to the kitchen cabinets with a distance less than the width of the casing,  This side is also the hinged side so they get in the way to complicate matters further.  There is some decorative crown trim on the cabinets so a clean corner can not be made. Also, the distance from door frame to cabinets is not consistent.  Pictures will make this easier to understand so I will take them and post them to Instagram tomorrow. (https://instagram.com/gregbonnough/)  Instead of trying to work all of that into an nice 90 degree corner I cut the ends flat then measure the rectangular area at the top corner that had no trim,  Cardboard was used to make a pattern for the wood which will fill that space.  The cardboard was meticulously trimmed down to fit snugly against the crown molding.  After the pattern was transferred to the wood a jigsaw was used to precisely make the cut.  It seemed to all fit together so we will see how it hangs after painting.

The shelves to fill  the old refrigerator and wall oven holes arrived today. They assembled easily and look good in place,  I am very pleased at the way that project came together.  Decorative tilework or at least painting behind the old fridge shelf is still in the long term plans.  Cookbooks will be stored on the top but it is a wire shelf that is not well suited for the job.  It seems that a wooden shelf will ameliorate that issue.  They do sell plastic inserts but I have a pile of salvaged wood in that barn and surely one of those old cabinet doors will work.

In other news, I was able to recover my ebay password finally. If I can manage to part with anything then perhaps I can make a little money.  That never hurts.

Persephone the cat was a little more daring today.  She napped on the back of the couch and did not run away when Emrys got up on the seat of the couch.  It will be a beautiful day when my little lady can live without the fear of being harassed by these guys; it will be an even better day when humans can do the same.  Be well.