The Mizbei’ach

{cue: TV announcer voice}

The challenge: Help your daughter build a model of the Mizbei’ach (the Altar in the Mishkan/Beit HaMikdash) for school, when:

1. The teacher only gave the class three days to complete the assignment.
2. You are IY”H making a bar mitzvah in less than two weeks.
3. Your family’s Klei Beit HaMikdash bar was previously set extremely high by ESG’s gorgeous model of the Mizbach HaKtoret.

Can it be done?

</announcer voice>

I admit that I had serious doubts. As I told ACSD (=a certain Shiputzim daughter), I didn’t even know where to begin.

“But,” I added brightly, albeit rather skeptically. “Maybe Abba will have some ideas.”

And B”H, Abba (aka “YZG” aka “Mr. S.”) did.

In fact, as soon as he heard about ACSD’s assignment, YZG started thinking, and within a few minutes, TRLEOOB (=the real life equivalent of our blog) had been transformed into a scene straight out of MacGyver.

First, YZG and ACSD headed upstairs to scrounge around the attic.

They reappeared shortly thereafter, armed with an odd assortment of empty shoeboxes, old doorstops, aluminum foil, paper, crayons, scissors, glue, scotch tape, rubber bands, cardboard, toothpicks, recycled plastic containers, and more, and immediately got to work…

I’m sure you’ll agree that the result is pretty amazing:

If you click on the pictures for a closer view, you’ll be able to see some of ACSD’s handwritten labels, which identify each part of the Mizbei’ach.

Beautiful job, ACSD (and YZG)!

May we all be privileged to witness the fulfillment of the words of the daily Amidah prayer, speedily and in our days:

“…וְהָשֵׁב אֶת הָעֲבוֹדָה לִדְבִיר בֵּיתֶךָ, וְאִשֵּׁי יִשְׂרָאֵל וּתְפִלָּתָם בְּאַהֲבָה תְקַבֵּל בְּרָצוֹן, וּתְהִי לְרָצוֹן תָּמִיד עֲבוֹדַת יִשְׂרָאֵל עַמֶּךָ.”

“…And restore the service to the Inner Sanctuary of Your House. And accept the fire-offerings of Israel and their prayer, with love and favor. And may the service of Israel, Your nation, always be favorable to You.”

From the Our Shiputzim mailbag

Hellooooo, Our Shiputzim fans!

We recently received the following letter:

To Whom It May Concern:

I’ve been a loyal reader from the very start of this blog. In fact, I haven’t missed a single post.

But I do have one complaint: Now that you’ve moved on to other topics, you’ve left some of us in suspense. For instance, what ever happened to that closet you were building in AMG’s room? How about the light in the attic? Do you still just have one light up there? I’m sure there are more open issues as well.

As a favor to your long-time fans, please consider posting an update on these and other matters.

Thank you.

Sincerely, Wondering-on-the-Web

Well, “Wondering”, we do appreciate that you took the time to write. However, please rest assured that the renovations remain our primary focus. Yes, we have expanded this blog’s purview. But we have not abandoned our original mission, which was – and is – to record all the fascinating (and otherwise) minutiae of our renovations.

And so, to answer your specific questions:

1. AMG’s closet: When I last posted about this closet, it looked like this. Today, it still looks like this. In other words, the carpenter has not been back since then – although he keeps insisting that he’s coming “tomorrow”. (Apparently, in his world, tomorrow=tomorrow+1.) But don’t worry. Our intrepid reporters are closely monitoring this story, and we will, of course, bring you any late-breaking developments as soon as they come in.

2. Attic lights: As you will no doubt recall from our last tour of the attic, there was only one fluorescent light fixture up there. This was fine before we started bringing stuff up. But once we added all the shelves, the attic was just too dark. And so, YZG and his talented team of assistants headed up the stairs, opened the hatch, and got to work. First, they spent some time caulking up a few more holes. And then, they installed two additional lights.

Here is new attic light #1:

And here is new attic light #2:

“Wondering”,  I hope that answers your questions.

Meanwhile, those of you who fell asleep during the course of this post can wake up now, but I have to say that I’m shocked – shocked! – that you weren’t enthralled by our light bulbs. I mean, after all, does it get more exciting than that?! (Don’t answer that!)

And on that note, we wish you all a good night from the entire Our Shiputzim staff.

Episode #82 - in which the carpenter hatches an idea

Hellooooo, Our Shiputzim fans!

I’m pleased to report that you’re in for a real treat tonight. After weeks of anticipation, the carpenter is finally making his long-awaited blog debut right here in this very entry.

Yes, that's right. As our loyal readers know, the carpenter has been scheduled to arrive for some time now, and this afternoon, he finally showed up and immediately got to work on our brand-new attic hatch door.

Let's go to the videotape pictures.

Here's a view from inside the attic:

Shall we get a bit closer?

This is a close-up of the latch when the door is open:

Here's the railing with the hatch open:

This is a view from below of the attic stairwell with the hatch closed:

As you can see here, YZG still needs to seal up the holes around the railing:

Those of you who were really excited* to read about this latest addition to our renovations - and I can only assume that this includes our entire readership - will be thrilled to learn that the carpenter is due to make another appearance or two here at Our Shiputzim.

When will that be and what will he be doing, you ask? Ahhhh, but that would be telling...

In the meantime, please keep those comments coming and have a good night from the entire Our Shiputzim staff.

__________

*Okay, so maybe it didn't measure up to roof views, but then again, how many things actually do?

A new twist on the words “storing it on the computer”

Hellooooo, Our Shiputzim fans!!

We begin this evening’s posting with a special shout-out to our reader in Sweden. Clearly, this has become a truly international blog with an audience which spans the globe.

As you will – no doubt – recall, when we last met, YZG and his talented team of assistants had brought some of the shelves up to the attic. Since then, they made considerable progress.

Please follow me as we head upstairs to see what they have accomplished so far.

Unfortunately, attic views just don’t have the same je ne sais quois (I told you this was an international blog!) as roof views. But, as we say in this country, “zeh mah she’yesh”.

On that note, allow me to present -

Attic view #1:

Attic view #2:

Attic view #3:

Attic view #4:

And, attic view #5:

“But what does all this have to do with the title?!” some of our readers are surely wondering by now.

“Good question!” I respond. “I have two more attic views, which should explain everything, but first, I want to say good night.”

And, so: Good night from the entire Our Shiputzim staff.

P.S. Here is attic view #6:

And attic view #7:

Let's shelve that plan for now

There's nothing more boring than a blogger who, after not posting for a few days, briefly returns with a lame excuse and an insincere apology for neglecting the blog - only to once again abandon the poor, lonely blog and the faithful, long-suffering readers.

Alas, such appears to be the case here. However, in our defense, we should note that we did post a request for future topics here. Yet, the response was limited to a single comment (to be found here).

So, unless - or until - several other readers chime in with suggestions for future topics, posting is likely to become even more infrequent and the entries are likely to become even less interesting, as our renovations slowly begin to wind down.

In the meantime, let me bring you up-to-date:

On Friday, the carpenter arrived to re-measure the attic-stairwell-formerly-known-as-our-hole. Hopefully, he'll be returning some time this week.

Also, on Friday, ASG washed the playroom floor, and everyone managed to remove all the toys and books from the living room before Shabbat. Unfortunately, the pictures of the playroom have not been cleared for publication. (We haven't yet decided how we want to organize all the playroom furnishings.)

In other news, the kablan is off to Europe on vacation for a few days, which gives us about a week to empty ASG and AMG's rooms in advance of the painting. To that end, YZG and AMG once again hosed down the attic, which had become dusty again due to the installation of "Our Stairs: The Sequel", in general, and the carving out of the top stair, in particular. Afterwards, they used bleach to wash the floor and then started bringing the shelves up from AMG's room.

This is what the attic looks like now:

And:

And that's where we're holding for now.

As always, watch this space for future updates, and feel free to leave a comment*. We love hearing from you.

===============

* In response to a reader's query about comments to old posts, let me explain ("no, there is too much, let me sum up") that all comments - even those left on the older posts - come directly to us.

Shine a little light

Good evening and welcome to another riveting edition of “Our Shiputzim”.

As you will, of course, recall, when we last met, we were waiting for “Our Stairs: The Sequel” to be installed. To that end, we had hoped that the masger would come today and do his thing.

However, as it turned out, he had to go to the dentist today, and so the kablan came by himself and worked some more on the attic insulation.

That’s right. We’re about to show another three boring excitement-challenged pictures of the attic. We’ll wake you up when it’s over…

Insulation view #1:

Insulation view #2:

And insulation view #3:

Okay. We’re finished with the attic views. You can start reading again.

In completely unrelated news, YZG installed a light above the milchig sink, as you can see here:

And here’s a close-up of the light switch:

The Our Shiputzim editorial board, the writing and blogging department, and the milchig dishwashers union wish to thank YZG for his fine work and to express our appreciation for the improved lighting conditions.

That’s it for now.

Be sure to join us tomorrow for yet another spellbinding episode of…. Our Shiputzim.

Content? Where we’re blogging we don’t NEED content

Yes, I know. Long time, no write.

The problem was that there really wasn’t much to tell. In fact, there still isn’t, but don’t worry. I won’t let the fact that I have nothing to say stop me from posting.

We begin with a brief (or maybe not so brief) survey of the assorted holes and cracks which have been patched up since our last post.

Here are some pictures from the attic:

And:

And also:

But, wait! That’s not all. We also have this picture:

And this picture:

There are, of course, plenty more where these came from, but there’s only so much excitement one can handle. So, please follow me outside. (I’m going to have to ask those of you in the back to please remain with the group. Thanks.)

Let’s see. We have this picture:

And we have this picture:

And then there’s this picture:

And, of course, this picture:

And last, but certainly not least, there is this picture:

I suspect that by now we’ve lost most of our audience, and so I believe that those of you who have stuck it out until now deserve some sort of bonus (or tchupar, if you will). How about a couple of pictures of the top attic step?

Here’s one:

And here’s another:

Wasn’t that fun?

In other news, YZG (with some help from ASG) sealed the hole up temporarily with some old particle board:

And, finally, the kablan told us that he’s giving us a present. He wants to make us some shelves out of the extra steps. Here are the brackets which he brought over before Shabbat:

That’s about it for now.

Enjoy your cheesecake and have a chag sameach!

The writing is on the wall

Hellooooo, Our Shiputzim fans!

We gather that many of you have been "in metach", as the kids like to say, about the stairs. Before we get back to this topic, however, let's take a quick survey of today's other accomplishments.

First, the kablan spent some more time working on the insulation in the attic, as you can see here:


And also here:


He still has to finish up in one corner, and then he's planning on turning off the lights and using silicone to seal up any cracks where light comes through.

He also used something we like to call "devek shayish" (because that's its name) to seal up various and sundry holes and cracks.

For instance, here's one hole where the railing was attached to the floor:



And here's the other hole:



Here's a picture of the floor leading into the bathroom:





And here's ASG's room:


Yes, I know. This is even more enthralling than Friday's pictures of white bathroom walls. :-)
So, since you get the general idea, why don't we just cut to the chase and get back to the stairs.

We begin the stairs segment of today's posting with a heartfelt thank you to a certain "anonymous" (yeah, right!) engineer for his valuable help and professional advice about the stairs. His brilliant insight - namely, cutting a step into the attic floor - makes all the difference. Even the kablan was very impressed.

Anyway, as per the aforementioned engineer's suggestion, YZG and the kablan spent some time playing with string, as you can see here:


And here:


And then, they began drawing on our newly painted playroom walls, as evidenced here:


And here:


(Reminder: You can always click on any of the pictures to enlarge them.)

That's about it for now.
Have a good night and please keep those comments coming.