Plain Jane Victorian

Back to Painting

2011-07-03T09:38:00.000-04:00

We've been working on painting the outside of the house now for several years. See this post from 2008, and that was even a year or two into the painting. When I first started, I did these color swatches on the back of the house to see what color I liked best.

We noticed that those swatches are still holding up fairly well, even though there was no prep work done on them at all and the condition of the clapboards was/is pretty horrendous.

Combine that with the fact that we have a 5 - 10 year plan to redo the back of the house - meaning that I don't want to put a whole lot of work into something that's going to be torn down. So we decided to just do a quick scrape of the loose stuff and paint right over it. Only missing or totally broken boards were replaced. Windows & trim were ignored for now. I certainly didn't bring out the Paint Shaver Pro or the IR heater!

Time is still very limited, so with my snail's pace, I did one wall of the bumpout-bumpout a couple weeks ago, and I did another wall yesterday.

Good enough, I say. In the past I've talked with my father - he says that I have the ability to know when something is good enough. His brother still hasn't put siding on his house 25 years later because he can't get something perfect - whatever that "something" is. Well, it may take me 10 years to finish painting the house, but the back will only be good enough to not annoy the neighbors before it gets torn down.

In other house news, we also got a couple of sections of fence put up. The fence is mostly functional - so that our 2 big 70 lb doodle dogs can run around while we're out there doing things. Our next door neighbor, Joyce, took the chain link fence between our front yards down, and we put that one in the back, where all the weird hobbled together chicken wire fencing was. Then she had her contractor put up a cedar picket for the back half,

and we used him to put up a vinyl picket (we didn't need something ELSE to paint) with a gate going across our driveway,

and a couple of sections in the back that are visible from the front.

We wish we could have had the whole yard done, but we did what we could with our current budget.

You might have noticed in that picture with the gate, that the front of the garage is painted now. If you have good eyes, you also might have seen that the lights I was drooling over in a previous post are now up! Those were a gift from Jim. I love them every time I see them.

And here's a picture of the house as it is now. Still work to do on the 2nd floor bay and the gables.... Aside from the garage being painted and the fence up, it doesn't look a whole lot different from last year. But the rose bush is going crazy and looking great again!

Finally... an update... and a finished project or two

2011-01-27T14:20:00.004-05:00

I have occasionally been doing things around the house. Not nearly at the pace that I was pre-pregnancy (and I thought I was slow then...) But every once in a while, I get the chance to chip away at a project. Vacation days are pretty good for that - I have even a little more time on the vacation days that Morty still goes to daycare.

Right before I had Morty, I was sort of working on a little kitchen cabinet project that I blogged about here. Well, now that the garage is up and partially wired, I braved the cold temperatures, wearing Jim's insulated Dickey overalls and breaking out a couple of those handwarmers and continued working on it over Thanksgiving and Christmas break.

Here's the left side cabinets with their fake shaker frames put together.

And here's progress on the right side. As I sanded the door fronts down, I was trying to even out the horrible dents in the wood, that are just magnified by the glossy paint. I'm not sure if I made things better or worse, but definitely the frames help camoflauge the bad wood.

Here's the right side, with all the frames up, and starting with a coat of primer. I think I was in a hurry to get things livable when I first moved in, because I used a roller to paint the cabinets. Definitely it was better than the hideous blue, but the roller pattern got on my nerves too after a while. This time I only used a brush. I have a friend (Peter) who can't stand the lines from brushes, so when he painted his cabinets, he only sprayed. I don't think my spray technique is good enough to leave things texture-free.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE how this worked out! Of course, it's all just fake shaker, and the problems with the cabinets themselves and the kitchen still exist (especially on blustery winter days, which we've had a lot of lately), but I am so much more satisfied with the way these look - it just adds depth and interest and helps make thing look so much more... classy? I don't know what the word is, but I like it so much more!

The other project I worked on over Thanksgiving timeframe was a dog feeding station. I found the plan on This Old House website. Before I made the project, Abbey's food bowls were a bit of a mismatched, dirty, ghetto mess. She's SO tall that we even put one bowl on top of another big bowl to get it in a better position for her. Goodbye ghetto mix of bowls! (green Pyrex bowl, you go back in the cupboard where you belong!)

Hello feeding station! Two stainless bowls go in the holes. If I ever get around to making another one of these for Oscar (it's in "the plan", I'd make a few minor changes - like for some reason, the plans give measurements using the assumption that a 1x12 is actually 12". I don't know why they did it, and it didn't really end up being a big deal, but it was a little confusing) Notice the face frame on the feeding station now matches my cabinets? hmm? nice, huh?

Then over Christmas I worked on this Vegetable Bin Toybox. Somehow I found this blog by Ana White, where she has all sorts of furniture plans, broken down and simplified. I had been eyeing a similar toybox in the Land of Nod catalogue for Morty, but always felt it looked way to simple to spend the money to buy it. (that's the cheap, penny-pinching side of me coming out - thank you Dad). Ana had a plan for this box, and so I gave it a try. Turns out either it's way smaller than I thought it would be, or Morty has WAY more toys than I thought. Probably the latter. Again, it's in "the Plan" to make one or two more of these and stack them.

Then the final thing I worked on over Christmas was this "Vinage Industrial" cart. It was a combination of an Ana White plan and some other plan I found on the internet, that actually referenced the Ana White plan too.

I decided to personalize it a little bit by spray painting the "Natick, Mass" on it. I had a much more complex idea incorporating Jim & Morty's name into a fictional Manufacturing Co. - like a real manufuring factory might have had - but that was way too many letters to create a stencil. So I went with the simple.

The top of the table is actually made of slats from a couple of pallets. I think they were the pallets that the wood pellets came on. They were dirty and gross and needed a lot of sanding, but it sure gave a well-worn look that I was going for. I put a coating of amber shellac on the whole thing. I'm not sure whether or not I like the color. If I were to do it again, I'd probably just do it with clear shellac. But the amber is kind of growing on me.

I found the wheels on Amazon. I think they are Albion wheels. Since I used reclaimed pallet wood and scrap wood from the garage build, the wheels were the most expensive part of this piece!

It doesn't have all the cool hardware of the carts you can find all over at places like Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn, Barnhouse Electric and the like, but it is a WHOLE lot less expensive! (if you don't count my time - which IS very precious)

MGZ done... back to DIY

2010-06-27T15:28:00.002-04:00

I should probably update this more than once a month... but working full time and being a mommy leaves precious little time for blog updates unfortunately!

Anyway, MGZ finished the contract work on the garage. It looks so fantastic! We're very very happy with it. We still have a few things to finish on it - we had to make some concessions to keep it all within a reasonable budget. So the garage doors and the driveway are coming separately next week. Then we have been working on the grass, and soon Jim will do the painting and lights.

Here's the grass - it's coming in pretty nicely. Jim waters it faithfully every morning and night. He also put in the gravel to keep the topsoil from splashing back up onto the siding when it rains.

Everything looks so nice and uniform now. No more big divets in the yard or random cement blocks.

Jim also got a truckload of mulch to help clean up the foundation plantings. And remember the hated azaleas? Well those have been pulled out now to make room for something better. Thank you Toyota truck and big chain.

This is my favorite time of the year for the front yard plantings. Everything is in bloom and the rose bushes are going crazy.

And in the front, you can also see that MGZ added the shaped cedar shingles to the front peak. Jim has also been working to get some of the trim boards scraped for painting.

On the north side of the house, Jim also dug out a shape for the foundation. We plan to extend the brick pavers that are in the front yard over to this side too. One day. For now, it's defined and has mulch.

This coming week will bring the driveway and the garage doors. It's going to look pretty good when those are done...

And here's the little guy and me. As you can see, he's quite pleased with the new daddy-son hang out digs!

On to the Siding

2010-05-27T16:36:00.001-04:00

It's been a few weeks since my last post... I started back to work full time, so my blogging has had to suffer a bit. Normally in our DIY world, that wouldn't mean a whole lot. However, since we're having this work done by MGZ, a lot has happened.

The framing is finished. (here's the second floor)

The windows are in.

The roof is up.

The cornice returns are built & tiled.

The trim boards are up.

The cement floor is laid.

The siding is started.

The (custom) frame for the arched window is built. The epoxy I used to rebuild the sashes a few years back has not held up so great. That was just stuff I bought at Homer. I'm hoping/thinking the special Rot Doctor stuff I bought for the porch posts does better. At some point I may need to re-repair the sashes...

Makes me tired thinking about it! Luckily, that's all I have to do on this project!

Framing Continues

2010-05-01T14:52:00.000-04:00

This past week was pretty exciting for the Plain Jane Carriage House. It started on Monday with the crane lifting the steel beam in place to support the second floor. Here's a video:

With the beam in place, they finished the first floor ceiling/second floor floor. Here it is in progress:

And finished:

And started work on the stairs. Here's the opening for them and the parts being prepped. I think it's called the stringer...?

And here's the opening for the stairs:

Because the first floor ceiling is so high (12') to accomodate Jim's lift, the stairs have to turn. Here they are finished:

With the floor and the stairs in place, they started framing out the gables for the second floor. They built these flat on the floor, and then lifted them up with a crane. They stayed late Friday to get the front and back lifted up and the beam put in place between the two.

Here's a video of them lifting up the front 2nd floor and gable:

It's pretty cool right now because you can see the scale of the garage with the house.

We're using one of the arched windows I reglazed a few years ago to put in the front of the garage so that it matches the front of the house. Here's Jim working that window out from the back of the attic.

I think he's still trying to decide what to put in it's place. For now, the plastic will have to suffice.

The Framing Starts

2010-04-24T16:46:00.000-04:00

The little guy and I watched this past week in between appointments and errands as the framing began. Here's pictures that span from Wednesday through Friday...

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday:

Foundation Done

2010-04-19T08:40:00.000-04:00

There was a whole flurry of activity this past week. Essentially the entire foundation is now done. After the little garage was demolished, they dug a huge hole in the backyard. Then the foundation guys came and poured the .... "footers" I think (not 100% sure on the terminology!). Then after those were dry, they came back and poured the foundation walls. Crazy how fast those went up.

Here they are bringing in the forms for the foundation with the truck that had this CRAZY big crane:

And here they are setting everything up:

And of course, here is the concrete being poured (I have this in video, but I'll spare you - it's like watching paint dry):

When everything was broken down and dry, the filling up of the hole began!
Dumping Dirt into the foundation:

Jim actually took a couple of days off of work so that he could watch the foundation being put in, but the guys were so fast, it was already done before he was off. But I think he enjoyed walking around and checking things out as they were happening anyway. Here he is chatting with Mike Z, the general contractor:

But we cannot forget the water and electricity lines out to the garage! To do that, they had to dig a trench from our house foundation. The only weird thing is that there is a sort of 2-story gabeled bump out on the driveway side of the house. It seems to be newer than the rest of the house, and doesn't seem to actually have a foundation itself. The basement doesn't go out with it, and when we have looked at the "foundation wall" below it, it seems to just be bricks (which are actually loose) and hollow to the porch. A little scary. But I prefer to not think about it too hard. Anyway, they were digging the trench to that part of the house... I think they ended up getting the electric and water lines from the original basement-ed part of the house right next to it -- not really sure how that worked out - I wasn't paying enough attention. As you can see from the video below, we ended up a little bit trapped inside the house! We've never actually had a key for the front door (previous owner never gave us one), so it was a little bit tricky for a day or two until it got covered back up.

Digging the trench:

We are having them re-grade our lawn as part of this project. We knew there was a slope and some bumps in it, but apparently it was 2 feet lower in the back. And even with that giant hole and filling it back up, to get things all even, they still had to bring in FIVE truckloads of dirt! That's right! - five truckloads! Seems like a lot to me... And here is a video of the dump truck (again - for the little guy that will be sad he missed out!)

Bringing in more dirt:

And the only casualty of this work is my little garden gnome - you might not be able to see him, but the sunbleached guy is in the center of this picture. Now he is somewhere underneath the ground.

So foundation is complete, electric inspection is done, and I believe that the framing will start this week!

Demo Day

2010-04-09T07:54:00.001-04:00

Well, yesterday was the big day. The little garage was demolished.

When I replaced the shingles and siding, luckily I only did the front. Some might say I was lazy, but I like to think I had foresight to know it would have been futile.

And here is Oscar enjoying his last romp in the open expanse of our backyard.

It's always a little amazing how much faster a contractor with the right tools is...

He just pushed the dumpster in through the garage door and went at it with the back hoe. Here's a couple of videos capturing the event:

The start of the demo:

And dumping the north side wall:

These were captured mainly for Jim, who couldn't be home from work this morning... but also for Morty, who will one day be sad he wasn't old enough to care at the time! What little boy doesn't love a front loader and a backhoe?

Here's Oscar checking the whole thing out from inside the house. Abbey was a bit more sheepish and stayed in the background. Although she barked the loudest through the day.

After all the garage was down, the digging commenced. Now there is a giant hole in our backyard. And what yard didn't get digged up, pretty much is piled up with dirt. So the dogs now only have a teeny tiny space to do their business.

The contractor pulled out a few bottles from his digging. Jim and I went later last night to check the bottles out. It didn't look like there was anything particularly special, but we looked further at the location on the back right side of the hole. It looked like it must have been a fire hole, because it was blacker, sootier dirt than the rest of the dirt, and there was a lot of random garbage in there - like pieces of a bedframe and the bottom of a tiolet and some other unidentifiable stuff. Nice.

Contract Signed & Another Search for Lights

2010-03-28T09:17:00.001-04:00

Well, yesterday Jim and I finally signed the contract with the contractor! Turns out we're going with the design/build firm. We negotiated some things to keep it in the price range we needed, and turns out that we'll have to do the siding ourselves, but it will be a relief for Jim not to have to do the GC-ing.

Now I guess there's some permit approval by the town or something, and then they start the work. Michael, the architect/contractor, thought it would be within 3 weeks. Jim is not quite sure he will be able to stand the impending waiting!

Meanwhile, he has been condensing the basement to fit the garage stuff in there in preparation for demolition. The basement already has our regular basement stuff - laundry, pellet stove pellet bags, table saw and woodworking bench, assorted tools, and leftover project suppies. Then when he got out of his rented hobby shop, the basement also got packed with all that stuff - tires, car parts, ... well, frankly, I'm not exactly sure what all he put down there, but it is definitely PACKED. And now we'll have to fit all the garage stuff somewhere - bikes, gardening supplies... I think the lawnmower and the snowblower will just be put under a tarp outside. Yep, it's going to look a bit like shanty town at our house for the next few months. That's ok, though, it will just match our neighbor's assortment of carports.

I got put in charge of finding exterior lighting. Well, of course, I found some fantastic lights! I saw an ad in TOH magazine for a place called Barn Light Electric. I love, love, love their stuff!! Maybe it's the renovator in me combined with my factory working engineering side... but they have a great mix of vintage and industrial in their lighting. Heres a few of my favorites of their outdoor lanterns:

But take a look at this one (referred to as Owings Mill) - how perfect would this be?!

Mmmmmm nice!

Ah, but they are not cheap... And with all the cost cutting on the garage to get it within budget, it's not very likely these will be the first lights to go up, unfortunately. But they are my dream lights. We may have to go with a Homer special for the short term, but I REFUSE to put that black trapazoid lantern up. You know the one - it's the one everyone seems to have...

I'm not sure why, but I just hate that light - and all the variations of it. Well, I'll probably have to find something I can live with... This one from Lamps Plus isn't too bad, and it's about a third the price.

But it is still not as nice as the Owings Mill...

Oh, and I salivate over these carts from Barn House Electric too:

I'm pretty sure I've seen them elsewhere... maybe Restoration Hardware or something. But they are so great. Maybe we need one in the new garage?

I'm Back, the Little Guy, and plans for a Garage

2010-03-21T12:52:00.000-04:00

Yes - I AM alive and well... and thankfully, the baby is also alive and well! The last post was when I went on strict bedrest, and it was definitely needed. The unfortunate news is that I actually delivered 8 weeks early, on the day after Thanksgiving. It was a little scary for us for a while, but Morten made it through, came home just before Christmas, and is surviving and thriving now!

I have been off work: 6 weeks of maternity leave (mostly spent while he was in the hospital), 4 weeks of vacation, and now I am in the middle of 12 weeks of FMLA. It is so awesome to be home with him. It's a little strange to me, however, to not actually have time to do any projects! I might be able to, if I can figure out how to do it in 15 minute spurts during naptimes... that must get better, right? Or maybe it gets worse? Any other home renovators with children out there have advice?

The big thing for us (and primarily for Jim) is still the garage project. It has changed and morphed quite a bit since my last entry. We had a design-build firm work up architectural drawings both of the current Phase 1 garage, and also of a Phase 2 that connects the garage with a mudroom, rebuilds the kitchen, and adds a master suite on the 2nd floor (beginnings of "the dream" coming to life). Here's their drawing for the Phase 1 garage:

In past posts, we were debating on the location - straight at the end of the driveway, or behind the house, with a right turn at the end of the driveway. You can probably tell with the location of the garage doors, we chose to go straight at the end of the driveway.

And here's a section drawing, so you can see that there is a second floor:

The first floor will hold our two "daily drivers", Jim's project car (currently a 36 Ford), a lift for working on the project car, and his toolbox and supplies. The second floor is planned to be a workshop area, so we can get the table saw and other woodworking tools out of the basement. I'm sure there will be car stuff up there too.

Jim is still doing some negotiating and pricing to determine if we're going to go with the design-build firm for the build, or if he's going to sub it out himself. We're on a pretty strict budget, but still want to make this look like it fits the house, and of course, be quality work. If we can get it into a reasonable price, and Jim thinks he's just about there, we should be able to start this project this spring.

Grand Plans - Thwarted AGAIN!!!

2009-11-14T17:05:00.000-05:00

Well, unfortunately my hopes of getting my modified bed rest eased up were dashed with the news that I was now to go onto STRICT bedrest. So much for sewing... and pretty much anything related to the house besides just looking at it from my horizontal position on the couch. The good news is that I will not be pregnant forever. Meanwhile, I'll do my best to keep the little guy in my belly baking for as long as possible! I was 30 weeks yesterday, so we're hoping to make it to the end of the year.
Prior to going fully down, I did get a chance to also finish these curtains for the kitchen:

The inspiration came from some cafe curtains in the Pottery Barn catalogue:

Apologies for my poor photography skills... not quite the light and airy look of the catalogue, but you get the idea. I got the fabric last year at the closeout sale for Fabric Place, with the intention of making these curtains, but it looks like I underestimated the yardage, and only got enough for 3 of the 5 windows. Oh well - the other 2 windows are a different size and more in the kitchen prep area while the 3 that now have the coverings are in the eat-in area, so I think it all works.

Then a few weeks ago I pulled up eBay (lots of spare internet time on my hands these days) and found this great metal sign. I figured it fit the bare wall space above the table pretty well (2' x 3'), so I went ahead and bid. I can't remember the exact price, but I got it for less than $130 - which isn't too bad, if you consider the price of an equivalent size of artwork, and definitely not too bad of a price for an authentic vintage metal sign. Here it is as Jim mounted it:

As I was thumbing through the September issue of This Old House magazine a few months ago, I came across a Reader Remodel that had a similar kitchen issue as us... horrid flat cabinet doors. They ended up doing something I have always thought about doing, but never thought it would actually work - until I saw their picture. They just added some stock molding in a frame to the outside of the cabinet doors:

So I played around a little with what I had in the house, and checked at Homer to see what thicknesses and widths they had in stock, and found something I thought would work. I bought enough for a couple of cabinets and came home and played with my router a bit.

This is the first time I've done anything besides just plain butt joints. Real joinery! I made half-lap joints on the corners. It took me the longest time to set the router up for the proper thickness of cut, but here's my joint - all glued up:

And here's what the frame looks like all glued together:

Since we don't have a lot of clamps or much space in the basement to glue things together, and I wasn't supposed to be on my feet very long, the plan was to do this slowly, one door frame at a time, and just kind of get through it bit by bit. Each door costs about $15 in materials, so to do the whole set of cabinet doors, it will only take about $200. The ultimate plan, of course, has us redo-ing the kitchen in 5 - 10 years, so we don't want to spend too much on temporary fixes anyway (i.e. totally new cabinets). It was a perfect plan. ugh - until strict bedrest. So my little frame is sitting in the basement, off to the side. Waiting for the day I can start my little projects again.... in between feedings and naps... (I fully realize I might be fooling myself here.)

More Nursery Sewing - Crib Set

2009-10-27T10:17:00.000-04:00

I've been doing some more sewing for the nursery... slowly, and as I've felt up to it. Here's what I've finished in the last week or so. If you remember, here was the inspiration picture for the crib bedding:

The crib that we have is one that Jim's mom found yard-saling. It has these kickbars on the bottom as a mechanism for dropping the crib sides.

Useful, but kind of ugly - and the way that they are positioned pushes the bedskirt out of alignment. We were going to trade the crib for a different one that Jim's mom had also found, but I think that I figured out a way to make it work... I added another panel to the skirt, making it look like a box pleat. It covers most of the kickbar and makes it far less objectionable.

I also made a cribsheet out of brown gingham. I'm not sure I like the gingham next to the ticking stripes of the skirt. It might grow on me. I'll probably make a few more fitted sheets out of off-white or dark brown fabric. It was super easy to make... I just followed this tutorial, except I sewed lastin elastic around the entire edge, instead of just the corners.

The hardest piece was the bumper pads. Yes, I know there is debate on whether you should even actually have these due to SIDS concerns, but I kept the padding to a minimum, and it was just too cute to resist. If I were to make this again, I'd construct it a little differently to make the sewing come out cleaner, but an infant isn't going to know the difference, and most people won't even see what the issues are. The monkeys in the fabric I bought seem to be smaller than the ones in the inspiration picture. Maybe they came out with a different version of the print. It still looks fine to me.

Here's the finished bedding.

I think it turned out cute. It was more work than buying a set, but I like the monkeys better than any of the sets I saw, and I was able to make it for far less than what the sock monkey bedding was priced anywhere I found it on-line.

I still have plans to re-stain or paint the crib. My plan was to paint it white like the inspiration photo, and to match the glider. But maybe a dark stain would look good too?...

Garage Plan Update

2009-10-23T17:26:00.000-04:00

Jim was finally able to meet with the town building inspector this week. He was able to give Jim an idea on what would actually pass variances and what wouldn't. The outcome of that meeting was that while we could probably get a variance for the detached garage on the previous plan I posted, it would not ever be able to be attached.

So the current plan is to try to fit something within all the requirements so that we don't actually have to get any variances and the inspector will go ahead and give us a permit. There's basically a couple of options:

-Move the garage in the previous plan to the right a few feet (must be 12 feet from the property line for an attached garage) and back
-Move the garage to the back of the house, slightly angle it so that it remains 12 feet from the property line and also makes it easier to pull into the garage.

Our current thought is to do the second option. Here's Jim's plan for that:

Jim has more thoroughly thought out the pros and cons of both options (I had to work on a midterm last night)
But if I remember right, the pros for this option are
-get a permit quickly
-more streamlined look with the house

cons
-larger driveway to snowblow
-have to find 3 carriage house doors now
-might be a little tight getting into the garage (either option becomes difficult when meeting the set-back requirements)

Anyway, this decision moves us along. Now Jim can go back to the architect and tell him what he wants drawn up. Then he can take the official drawings to the building inspector to get the permit.

The Biggest Refrigerator EVER!!!

2009-10-23T08:41:00.000-04:00

OK, maybe not "EVER"...
When I bought the house several years ago, I decided I had to have a true vintage refrigerator in the kitchen. I was in a time crunch to move in so I started my search locally. That came up empty, so I expanded my search on eBay and found my lovely little GE fridge I had shipped in from Wisconsin, of all places. I had been living in apartments and hardly eating in, so I usually only had about 3 things in a mostly empty apartment fridge. So my little vintage GE fridge suited me just fine.

Fast forward to today... There's now 2 of us, and as I'm finishing up night school, we're trying to eat more home cooked meals. The little GE fridge doesn't quite cut it anymore. It doesn't even fit a whole gallon of milk. So we've been making runs to the store every couple of days for a new half gallon, which, by the way, sometimes costs MORE than a gallon. The thing is constantly jam packed.

Then add in the little one on the way... I'd like to actually try to cook at least some of my own baby food. There's no space for that now.

Out of curiosity the other day, I measured the inside space of the vintage GE fridge. 5.5 cubic feet. That includes the about 1-2 cubic feet that is wasted by the unusable and constantly frosted up freezer compartment. hmm.

Jim's has continued to troll Craigslist, and came across a lovely 4-year old Jenn-Air french door stainless steel number. It was even "counter depth" - so it wouldn't stick out too much from our less-than-standard-depth counters. Awesome. The price was pretty good, so we snapped it up.

20 cubic feet. Not the biggest EVER, but ridiculously big compared to a little vintage fridge!

Even more amusing is what the new fridge looked like once we transfered all the jam packed food over to it (and bought our first gallon of milk in a long time):

Just so you don't worry, I won't be throwing the little GE fridge out! and I won't be selling it - I couldn't bear to part with something so cute! It has a future in Jim's to-be-built garage...

Jim's Garage Plan

2009-10-13T22:12:00.001-04:00

Jim has been working on Google's Sketch Up to draft up ideas for the garage. We finally figured out how to format it to add to the blog. So here it is - this isn't an architectural drawing, it's just him playing around to see how it would look.

The size he's looking at is 24' x 36', large enough to fit 2 cars in the front, a project car or two in the back, and high enough to add a lift or two. Maybe more than a typical suburbanite would need, but what can we say, Jim's a car man.

We'd like to also make it big enough that we could finish the second floor one day if we like. Maybe a future workshop or playroom or something... But for now, it will be unfinished.

Then my favorite - The phase 2 of the plan will connect the garage to the back of the house via a *mudroom* and fix the back of the kitchen. (that's still the dream phase for now)

The actual drawings are in process.

So what still needs to be done?
-submit the plans & plot plans to the building inspector for a permit
-petition the zoning board for a variance to build closer to the property line & house than the code allows
-rent a dumpster to put the old garage in
-write a big giant check to the contractor

Refreshed Glider

2009-10-10T07:53:00.000-04:00

So about 2 weeks ago I went on "modified bedrest", so even the mild projects I planned on doing have been downscaled. Now, I really feel like the only project stuff I can do is sew. It drives me a little crazy - especially when I see something that should be done, and I can't do anything about it for the next 3 1/2 months... The curse of being a Type A!!! But I can deal with it for the little one.

The good news is that I am now under doctor's orders to work from home, so that does give me a little *extra* time to sew - not to mention the money I save in gas (I normally commute 50 miles each way)

My fabric came in Tuesday, so here's what I did the last couple of days. Remember this little Craiglist purchase:

Well, here it is now:

All ready to coordinate with sock monkey cribbing!

In brief, I didn't use a pattern. I just took the old covers off and cut out fabric in that shape, adding a seam allowance. Then I just kind of fit the fabric around the cushions, pin, and sew. I added welt cording because I think that makes it look more professional. And I made the seat bottom "box" style - because I think it's easier to fit the strange shape, it looks nicer, and that's the style I have experience making. The seat bottom uses a zipper in the back and the seat back opens at the bottom, so both can be thrown in the wash when they're dirty.

And I also added some ties to the seat back to attach it to the glider.

Luckily, I had some extra cording and an extra upholstery zipper from a past slipcover project... though it made me a little sad because it still had the Fabric Place tag on it - just a reminder of how fabulous that store was, and how junky JoAnnes (or Ho-Annes, as my husband calls it) is.

But in true Tiffany form, the seat back is only 90% done - well, maybe 95%... I didn't use a zipper because it wouldn't construct quite right. My plan is to just put snaps in it to close it at the bottom, but I don't have snaps or a pair of snap pliers yet. I plan to get a nice pair & finish this, but we'll see how that actually turns out. No one sees that part, and safety pins do the job for now anyway!

Nursery Musings

2009-09-27T02:34:00.000-04:00

It's very late (or very early in the morning) and I'm still awake with projects rumbling through my head and a baby kicking in my belly.

So, as I described in the last post, we are going to convert the guest bedroom into the nursery. A few things are starting to come together.

Jim's mom picked up a crib for us while yard-saling. She also got a changing station. Actually, she found 2 of both and let us pick. We sort of eenie-meenie-minie-mo-ed and chose the lighter of the 2. I'm thinking we'll paint it white.

We started trolling Craigslist and found this glider/rocker for $25. It's already white, and I should be able to recover the cushion fairly easily.

Then I think we should move Jim's big dresser into our room and clear out the smaller white one that's currently in our room. It would probably look pretty good in the nursery also. It's functional, but a big pain in the butt to slide some of the drawers in and out. Maybe I can see if there's something from Rockler to help remedy that situation.

As I was creating a baby registry/buying reminder list on Amazon, I came across this bedding and thought it was pretty cute. Plus, I love the way the really dark wood that is in the guest room now goes with the blue color of the walls, and this crib set brings that chocolate color back in. And who doesn't like monkeys???
But then I was surfing around this site today contemplating what I could do to cover the unattractive cushion for the car seat we recently got, and I found this sock monkey bedding. It also has the chocolate and the monkeys - but in a less "cutesy" way - probably more our style. A little more searching, and it looks like the sock monkey fabric is easily available on line... it's a totally do-able project.

Maybe I'm biting off more than I can chew right now, but chances are pretty good, after a visit to the doctor this week, that I'll likely be on bedrest for some of the remaining period of this pregnancy. And definitely working reduced hours from home this week. Besides, it's sort of my normal mode to bite off more than I can chew...

In other news, Jim seems to be getting closer to a garage addition. He spoke with a contractor who gave us a very reasonable bid. Lower than we were expecting. He said he could have it up before winter. We were originally planning to do it next spring, but with the lower bid, it's possible to consider for this fall. That would be nice for Jim. Then he can get back to working on his '36 here at home instead of keeping it in a rented shop that he no longer has time to get to.

The REAL reason I haven't done anything this summer... I'm PREGNANT!

2009-08-21T07:40:00.017-04:00

That's right, folks! 18 weeks now and counting... It's sort of at the point where I can't disguise it very well anymore, so the jig is up, so to speak. As far as the house goes, it's like a curse and a blessing. A curse because it really bugs me to see all the exterior paint that still needs to be shaved, but a blessing because I actually have to relax a little! I'm playing it safe because there is DEFINITELY lead in that peeling exterior paint, and it's best just to save that for another time. (ya, like when there's a baby crawling around getting his hands in the lead paint dust!... just kidding)

I think when most people are pregnant, they get all excited about putting together a nursery. But to them, all that means is picking paint, spreading it on the walls, and buying some new baby furniture. Maybe add in a few decorative items. So simple and quaint! Well, it's just not quite like that for us. First, we have to figure out where the nursery will go. And then, depending on where we pick, it could mean some major work. Here's our options:

1. Change the already mostly complete guest room over.
Advantages with this room - it's on the same floor as our bedroom and would be the simplest conversion, meaning walls, ceiling, floors, electric, and lights are already done - the most like a normal person's nursery project. Disadvantages - we can't fit a crib AND a guest bed in that room, so the guest bed needs a new location. Plus, there's no heat in that room, so we'd need to get some kind of space heater or other solution.

2. Fix up the attic space above the kitchen. Advantages with this room - it would be on the same floor as our bedroom (circled in yellow). Disadvantages - everything else. The room is poorly insulated, if insulated at all. All the walls would have to be demo-ed, electricity wiring and insulation added, new drywall put up, a new floor put in, the window would need to be repaired and have a storm window added, plus we would have to deal with the sloping ceiling. We thought about adding some cute cubbies or something to the kneewalls, but the time the built-ins would be put in, the room becomes very long and very narrow. Plus, as with option 1, there's no heat in this room. Not to mention the weird entry into this room. You have to go through the bathroom, into the "closet room" and through another doorway (follow the blue arrows).

3. Fix up the attic space above the main house. There are really 2 options within this option:

3a. Create the attic space we actually want. Advantages - it would really improve the useable space of the house and up the resale value. We would knock out the walls between the 2 rooms:

and

and create one bigger room. It could be a room that could actually become a child's room/playroom. There is a perfect space at the window to create the window seat/bookshelf unit I would love to have. Disadvantages - it would have to be some major work - demo some walls, repair and open up the stairway , add some electric and lighting, lay down a new floor, deal with a chimney smack in the middle of the room, actually make the window seat built-in. Then the major disadvantage is that we would have to walk up and down the stairs every time the baby wakes up.

3b. Just fix up one of the attic rooms. This could be fairly simple. Advantages - the walls are in decent shape, so it could just be some minor wall repair, painting, a couple of outlets, and a rug. This is also the best repaired original window in the house. Disadvantages - again, it would still be on a different floor. And with the knee walls, it's pretty small.

After humming and hawing (as my father would say) over all these options, I think we have decided to do option 1 and move the guest room bed up to option 3b. That should be the simplest for us.

It would be nice to have option 3a for the longer run, though. But that will probably have to give way to the future phase 1 garage addition and phase 2 garage/house connector with a mudroom (potentially including a kitchen and 2nd floor additions) Hey, it's nice to dream, at least!

I love Craigslist

2009-07-29T16:58:00.012-04:00

Living in a part of the country with really well-off people definitely has its advantages. They often do crazy things like get rid of perfectly good expensive stuff to buy newer good expensive stuff. I guess because its newer. I'm not really sure. Crazy rich people.

We've been looking for a dishwasher for quite some time. We haven't had one in this house, and I, in fact, have not had one since... um... must have been St. Paul over 10 years ago. Our kitchen cabinets are old and not standard size at all - in fact, they are not even full boxes, like cabinets today - they were built with the plaster wall as the back. This poses a bit of a problem when looking for "built in" appliances to add... It is REALLY HARD to find something that will fit! - well, fit without sticking out 3 inches or more. Turns out that the European cabinets must be a different standard size, because the only models I found to fit, depth-wise, were Miele, Boche, and Fisher-Paykel.

For some reason, I fell in love with the Fisher-Paykel. What a genius idea - dish drawers! You don't have to have a full load to run a wash. Definitely an advantage to a small family without too many dishes. We almost got one last year for Christmas, as a gift to each other, but decided it would be better to focus on paying off the roof and Taya's vet bills. So in the meantime, Jim has regularly been trolling Craigslist. He has various things he looks for - one of which has been the Fisher-Paykel. Usually the double drawer shows up for about $1000, but last week, he found one listed for $550. We talked it over, and decided to jump on it.

I went to the place to look at it and give a deposit as soon as she got back to Jim. They had this great beachside condo with a view of the ocean and the Boston skyline on the northshore. Not far, in fact, from this beach I visited with Abbey last April:

Crazy rich people. We couldn't figure out why she wanted to get rid of it (and turns out, neither could her husband), but I'll happily buy things off of crazy rich people!

Next we had to do a little demo work to cut the hole. Luckily, there is a spot just the right width where the previous owners had this strange peninsula bar sticking out.

We tore off some of the wood:

And then used a jig saw to cut the left side of the hole

Cleaned everything up and added some new plywood to section off the cabinet:

We also went to Homer to pick up a garbage disposal (yes, we really are moving into the 21st century folks) and various electrical and plumbing items for the installation.

Unfortunately, that was pretty much the end of the weekend, so to clean things up, Jim moved the dishwasher into the newly created hole, where I can now view it all week and fantasize about all the super clean and sterile dishes I will have next week........

The old fridge next to it may look a bit awkward now. I mean, eclectic - isn't that what they call it?

Jim's Week Off

2009-07-17T07:41:00.012-04:00

Last week Jim decided to use up some of his comp days to get a few things done around the house. It had been raining, and continued to rain for most of that week. But he was primarily doing stuff in the basement.

Here's the pride of his work - a new hot water heater:

Our friend, Pete, works at Brown's Oil and acquires practically new equipment like this from tear-outs in Needham. We've been using an older tankless hot water heater, which has been fine for me, but Jim likes a little more water pressure in his showers. The engineer in me doesn't really understand how it is possible to be more efficient to constantly heat up a giant tank of water versus heating up water only when you need it - for a couple showers a day and some dish washing or laundry - but Pete thinks it plus the new boiler will save us a bunch.

Which brings me to the next item - the new boiler...

...also a tear-out aquisition from Pete. This was put into the basement, but hasn't yet been switched over from our current boiler. Jim specifically wanted the picture to strategically capture the "Energy Star" logo. Our old boiler was put in by the previous owners back in the 80s. Definitely not Energy Star. But they kept meticulous records on it and had the efficiency checked multiple times. I believe it came in at about 80%. But it cannot hurt to have a new boiler. Especially a free one.

We also have a new oil tank from more tear-out action from Pete. I don't think there's a problem with our current tank - it is, after all, just a tank, and not a tank with leaks or anything. But who can resist new free stuff from expensive homes? But I do know that Jim has been planning to re-route our tank filling pipe. Right now it comes out right by the back door. Not that the back of our house doesn't have plenty of other ugly things, but it would be a little more aesthetically pleasing to have it come out in a different location.

I think the plan is to switch the new boiler and new oil tank over next week sometime.

The next project was the washer and dryer:

Nothing new with the actual appliances here - they're still the same ones I bought from a friend when I first moved to Massachusetts (aside from some replacement parts on the washer) But the key with these is the pretty stand they are now sitting on!

This is how they used to be positioned:

So annoying - with the washer in front of the sink and far from the dryer. I just kind of got used to it, but it drove Jim bananas. Now look at their position:

So nice - with the direct access to the sink! And such a nice looking stand - made so that not only does it keep the units off the ground (accomplished before with a ratty old wooden pallet), but it also puts them high enough that you don't have to stoop over quite as much. Jim used some of the scrap Azek boards from the porch to create the stand.

And for the next project... electric work!
These pictures won't mean so much unless you actually saw what was there before. While I did have an electrician do a bunch of work when I first moved in, needless to say, with this old house, there was a lot of left-over funky electrical work, particularly quite a bit of knob & tube. While the knob and tube functions fine, there were a few places with bad stuff - like junctions made only with electrical tape. Jim cleaned some of that up and ran some new wire for a new circuit for the LCD TV and I think a new outlet up to the bedroom.

I think that clears out most of the knob and tube, but not all:

At some point, we want to put wall switches into the last rooms where the ceiling lights are left as pull chains - the living room, the master bedroom, and my closet room. Add that one to the "someday" list.

Then this project is another one that has been driving Jim nuts - at the bottom of the steps to the basement, there is this area where the concrete has been chunking off and creating this hole that's essentially a tripping hazard. He cleared it all out:

and poured a new concrete patch. It should be pretty nice to walk down into the basement without kicking around a few chunks of rock or falling into the carpet covered hole!

And the final project - we now have a fire extinguisher in the kitchen!

hey - don't get mad at us for living here 5 1/2 years without one - we asked for one on our wedding registry - but go figure, no one got us one! he he!

And the best picture of all - Jim after his week of hard labor:

He's gotten soft with his cubicle-based job!

Lady Bugs!

2009-06-13T06:59:00.003-04:00

That's right! Those weird looking things all over my rose of sharon trees last weekend were harmless lady bug larvae. Good thing we didn't pull out the insecticide - I want lady bugs around to eat any aphids we might have. Plus - how can you kill a lady bug??

Yucky Bugs!

2009-06-08T16:40:00.003-04:00

I spent a good portion of yesterday morning weeding. At one point, Jim and I were weeding our side, and Joyce, my next door neighbor was weeding her side of the property division. It was kind of nice to visit and work at the same time.

While weeding the beds with the Rose of Sharon trees, we started noticing these bugs:

They were everywhere - literally - crawling all over the trees and in the beds. None of us knew what they were.

I was pretty grossed out - Jim was ready to go get some pesticide!

This morning I found out what they were. Do you know what they are??

Walnut Hill Beauty

2009-05-31T22:53:00.002-04:00

Driving through the Walnut Hill neighborhood today I saw the "Open House" sign posted for one of my favorite houses. Luckily, I had a few moments, so I stopped and went in. Very nice. It wasn't over-the-top in the way that some Victorians can be, but it still had enough of the historic elements to give it the charm I love. The bathroom upstairs still had the original subway tile on the walls and hex tile on the floors (it was also a good tile job, unlike ours!) There were 4 large bedrooms on the second floor, and an additional 2 on the 3rd floor/converted attic. The funniest thing I saw there was in the sunroom area, which was at some point a porch - they still had the exterior water spigot plumbed in - all enclosed in the piano-adorned sunroom!

The listed price was $799K. Can we sell our Plain Jane and buy please!!! Well, we still can't buy $799K, but that is a serious steal for that place! I would guess that a couple years ago or so, it would have been listed over a million. Just a guess.

So nice.

I'm Alive - I swear!

2009-05-30T14:28:00.005-04:00

I'm totally alive... but swamped. Not much house happenings lately. We havve been in puppy madness the last few weeks. About a month and a half ago, we got Abbey, a goldendoodle puppy (now 5 1/2 months)

and then a few weeks later we got Oscar from Idog rescue group, a group that specializes in doodles. He's an 11 1/2 month old labradoodle.

They (Oscar, in particular) are wild and energetic and need lots of attention and walks/runs/playgroups. A considerable change from Taya!

I'm also back in school for summer semester.

So house stuff has been pretty much limited to trying to keep things cleaned up after the dogs. I've been trying to pre-paint some of the wood shingles for the peaks. And Jim keeps planning his future garage addition. But I really don't want to start anything major until the roof is paid for and we have money upfront - so that probably isn't going to happen for another year. The bank downgraded the equity line of credit - not surprising, considering the state of the economy - so there actually isn't really any other good option than frugal saving... which is what I'd prefer anyway.

Now, I've got to go walk a dog and maybe weed some flower beds...

Not a Mudroom but...

2009-03-07T07:13:00.005-05:00

So here's my version of the Martha Stewart boot tray (see 2 posts ago):

The boots aren't as cute as the wellies & duck boots Martha had, but what can I say? That's what we (Jim) actually wear.

I think it looks pretty decent, though. I also got some indoor/outdoor rugs to help define the space and catch the snow, salt, & sand. The opening is just 4 feet wide, but quite long to the radiator, so I bought 3 of them and just put them together. It works pretty well.

They don't start at the opening of the door because the threshold at that point is too short, and they would get bunched up. But of course the house (or maybe the floor) is not level, so all I have to do is push it down a few inches where the threshold is higher and we're fine!

I splurged on the boot tray and got it from Smith & Hawkin, rather than buying a cheaper black or green plastic one.

I think Martha's had some smooth river rocks, but when I went to Homer, I could get a whole big bag of broken marble for $4, or several small bags of smooth stones for $7 each. Obviously, I chose the big bag for $4, and it was just enough to perfectly fill the boot tray. And I think it has the right effect.

Luckily (?), I have been able to give it the true test, as it snowed 9 or so inches on Monday - yes, that's right, we got a Nor'easter on March 2nd. It's not my ideal mudroom, but it works pretty well for about a $300 investment. One of these days, I'll make a little bench to go with it. But that will have to wait until I'm down to at least 2 night classes.

Rest in Peace Taya

2009-02-15T14:58:00.009-05:00

Apologies for not writing very much lately. School started and took a lot of my free time/house work time and replaced it with HBS case study reading. blech.

The other sad news is that Taya's health deteriorated fairly rapidly since Christmas time. She had another surgery, but they found that the cancer had spread significantly. After the surgery, she wouldn't eat anything. We force fed her, hoping that maybe once she got stronger she might feel like eating. But that never really happened.

Unfortunately we had to make the decision to put her to sleep. She just was not the same dog anymore. You could tell in her eyes that she was suffering. So today we took her to the vet and had her euthanized. It has been a very sad and very emotional time for both Jim and me. We loved that little doggie to death.

Here are some of our memorites of her:

I remember when I went to go look at the pet store, I had no real intention of getting a dog that day, but when I saw you, you came straight up to the front of your kennel and looked at me with your big brown eyes, wagging your tail, and I was in love at first sight.

I remember there was a dog park we would go to very close to our apartment in downtown St. Paul. You loved it there! You mostly would go to the people for attention, but there was one dog you loved to play with. It was a little terrier named Digby. You and Digby would walk around together and Digby would pick up cigarette butts and you would look for trash.

I remember most of all taking you to Chrissy Field. This was a dog beach with all sorts of dogs running off leash. It was like you were in heaven! You loved the sand – you would shove your nose in it and throw the sand up. Then you would use your front paws to dig, dig, dig, until you got it just right, and then you would plop down and enjoy the feeling of laying in the freshly exposed cool sand. But then you would jump up and start running again. You were always a little afraid of the water, at first. You would run up to it and then quickly run away as the waves came in. But once you got your feet a little wet, you would cautiously go a little further. You never really did go for a full swim, but you certainly got yourself wet enough to become a filthy mess when you inevitably rolled in the sand afterwards. You would run after sticks (you were a little better at playing fetch by this time), chase the seagulls, and run up to the other people with this giant smile on your face. You would say hello to the other dogs, but you were really more interested in getting the people attention. And you were so adorable that you had no problem getting that attention. I used to call you an attention whore because you would almost immediately roll over onto your back to present your belly for rubs. You loved Chrissy Field so much that I tried to make sure we went almost every weekend.

I remember taking you to the local park to walk every day. We had to walk down a block and across Franklin and Gough streets (both one-way thoroughfares through the city) to get to the park. Pretty soon after we moved there, I was feeling quite confident with you, and let you off the leash to play with this little beagle that also lived in our building. Before I knew it, you and that beagle started running and running, and ran off! I remember my heart sinking and being terribly afraid and looking and looking for you. We finally found you sitting in the doorway of the apartment building, and the beagle wandering in the parking garage of the hotel across the alley. It amazes me to this day that the two of you survived what was probably a full sprint across Franklin and Gough – especially because it must have been right around 6:30pm.

You somehow knew exactly what I needed and were always there to give me youe unconditional love. You also had this way of sitting on the back of the couch, so that you could wrap your front paws around one side of my neck, while leaning your head onto mine. I like to think of it as your way of giving a hug.

I remember when I moved into this house, I wanted to avoid the trauma of San Francisco move for you, so I started by taking you to the empty house each night and weekend when I would go to do work on it. I still have the pictures of you exploring the place the first time, as you ran to the bay window, lifted yourself up and looked out. That spot would become your favorite in the whole house.

Jim remembers that when we first started dating, he thought it was the most ridiculous thing to have the dog sleep in the bed. Then when I went away and Jim watched you, guess where you slept.

I remember you running big wide circles in the back yard with Jim chasing you. That was one of your favorite games. You would run close – just close enough for us to try and touch you – before you would run far away, only to circle back again. Jim remembers you laying down in the grass after doing circles to rest. You would stare at him until he went and lunged for you, and then you would start the circles all over again.

I will always remember you sleeping in the bend of my knees and the comfort and warmth that brought.

Mudroom Substitute

2009-01-20T14:25:00.008-05:00

While I want, want, WANT a mudroom, and it may - no, will - happen someday, dog surgeries and new roofs must be paid off first. In the meantime, snow, sand, and salt from the winter storms are getting tracked all over the house and defeating my cleaning efforts of the last post, so we really need to find an acceptable short term solution.

Jim mentioned a boot tray last night. I'd love it if it looked something like this Martha Stewart version

That's kinda cute - I could live with that. And maybe I could make a simple little bench to sit on while you take your snowy boots and shoes off. The only real place to put it would be under one of the kitchen windows. Not ideal, as that's where the door swings open to, but this is all a temporary compromise, right?

Then Jim suggested I combine that with a radiator cover I've been thinking of making... I yakked about it here last winter. Here's some pictures of ones I'd like to copy...

Before any of you think I'm ruining the look of old radiators - never fear, these kitchen radiators are hideous and plain - not like the decorative radiators in other parts of the house. And for any of you that think I'll be ruining the heating efficiencies of the radiators by covering them, know that we now use the pellet stove as the primary heat source, and only turn the furnace on when it is extremely cold out...

It's kind of hard to see, but this is the wall with one of the radiators (covered with project supplies). The window to the left of it is where we're thinking of possibly putting the boot mat, and the back door is just to the left of the window.

I think I need to come up with a serious design for this. I've been watching woodworking video podcasts... we'll see. I'm never at a loss for projects. What I really need to do is focus and finish the bathroom doors (2nd door is half scraped). Oh - and classes start back up on Thursday.

Cleaning Lists

2009-01-11T17:37:00.003-05:00

I am a list person. For those of you who know me, this is no surprise. I don't feel like I got anything done (even if I actually did) unless I can cross something off of that list. Sometimes I even add things to my list after I've done them, just so that I can cross them off.

For some reason this weekend, I was getting disgusted at the filthiness of my kitchen and bathrooms. So I decided I was going to do a deep cleaning. I Googled cleaning checklists - and there are some fancy and pretty ones out there - but I just needed a plain old list. So I searched and combined and added a few items. Maybe I'll use this as a template for everytime I clean?

Here's my checklist for the Kitchen:
• Dishes washed
• Countertops and backsplash cleaned
• Cabinet fronts washed and wiped
• Sinks scrubbed and disinfected (including behind sink)
• Outside of appliances (oven, refrigerator, dishwasher, stovetop)
• Inside and outside of microwave cleaned
• Small appliances wiped
• Wash inside windows
• Window sills wiped down and cleaned
• Baseboards dusted or wiped
• Spot wipe walls and switch plates
• Fingerprints washed from woodwork and doorframes
• Clean light shades
• Clean pet dishes
• Trash emptied
• Wash or dust table and chairs
• Floor vacuumed and mopped and dried
• Wash area rugs
• Replace dish towels

And here's my checklist for the Bathrooms:
• Sink cleaned, disinfected and rinsed
• Tub and/or shower tiles cleaned, disinfected and rinsed
• Wall tiles cleaned
• Chrome fixtures shined and cleaned
• Toilet base, rim, inside and outside disinfected and wiped
• Vanity top cleaned and items organized and put away
• Towels changed
• Mirrors cleaned
• Window sills wiped down
• Dust & clean shelves
• Spot wipe walls and switch plates
• Trash emptied
• Baseboards dusted and/or wiped
• Vacuum and mop and dry floor

Everything on those lists was done for the kitchen and both the bathrooms this weekend. They look nice now.

I'm embarrassed to say, but I don't clean nearly as often as I should. I mean, I try and keep up with the dishes every day or every other day. But things like mopping - that hadn't been done since we had our party in November. There just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to do everything... How often do you mop your floors? Wait, maybe I don't want to know!

One - One Working Door!

2009-01-01T18:45:00.009-05:00

That's right - all the hardware is back on and the door is back up. Here's a look at the installed doorknob & backplate:

The plain hardware is kind of growing on me - now that it's all put together. It doesn't exactly match the rest of the nickel & chrome stuff in the bathroom... but I'll probably live with it for now.

We were pretty close to having the door fit, but had to chisel out a little bit at the striker plate:

Here's a picture of the door all closed from inside the bathroom:

It might not look very exciting - but believe me, our next guests will be very happy to have actually have the privacy! The only wierd thing is that the door was poor fitting for so long and people had sort of jammed the door closed, that the top corner of the door is literally bent out - so it still sticks out a little when the rest of the door is closed...

Now it's time to start work on the 2nd door. To better understand the issue and why I am scraping the doors down to bare wood, here's some pictures of the 2nd door...

Maybe I'm obesessive, but it really annoys me when there's giant paint chipped areas that have just been painted over. Or when it gets all gummed up and nasty at the edge. yuck. It's like those little "shabby chic" places that have peeling paint as a decorative element - blah! just makes me feel like scraping it off.

Anyway - here's a view at the different paint layers inside the bathroom:

From latest to earliest, the trim has been
-white (painted by me)
-lilac (the existing color when I moved in)
-mint or sea green (very similar to what is on the walls now)
-tan-like apricot
-mauve
-cream
-tan
-dark stain or varnish

What a crazy rainbow of colors! I have a personal preference for white painted trim but I'm pretty sure that the mauve, apricot, green, and lilac were all the work of the Fanaros (POs). When you're painting something lilac, why stop at the trim???

From the first picture you can see that not only was the beadboard painted lilac, but also the bottom of the tub. And then in the second picture (mid demolition) you can see that the trim and top of the walls were painted lilac also. Yikes. It was like a purple nightmare. That purple still peaks through now and again, and it still makes me have bad dreams.

If the Key Fits...

2008-12-30T20:53:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I met Jim down in New Bedford at New England Demolition and Salvage. I had a few goals:
1. Get rid of the old balusters (hopefully for some trade credit)
2. Find some neat backplates and hinges
3. Find a key that fits in the door lockset

I think we were sucessful in one and a half of the goals...

Not only did we find one key, but actually found 5, and bought the 3 best fits.

They wouldn't pay anything for the old balusters, but they gladly accepted them for free. Unfortunately, that was after we already paid for the keys. I suspect that he would have done a trade, but too late. Hopefully, the balusters will eventually go to a good place. For now, some other pack rat can keep them around in his 80,000 sqft warehouse. Don't worry - I kept 4 of them for myself. Perhaps to be made into some creative something or other.

Now, for the backplates and hinges... they were sorely lacking in cool-ness. Plenty of plain stuff - but I already have plain stuff, so there's no need to buy more. I may look at some other salvage yards, but the repro stuff is looking better and better.

Peeling Paint

2008-12-28T18:51:00.008-05:00

I finally finished scraping and sanding the paint off the first bathroom door. Yesterday I brought all the hardware upstairs and contemplated back and forth about getting new (though period reproduction) hardware, but because of my analysis paralysis, decided to go ahead and clean the old stuff up and see what I had under all those layers of paint.

I remembered reading somewhere about boiling paint off old hardware, so I Googled it to figure out what the actual directions were. Seems several other renovators have used this method and had relatively good things to say about it (paint removal kinda sucks, no matter what) Here's some directions from This Old House magazine.

Here's what I started off with:

I don't actually own an old crock pot, and wasn't about to make a trip to Goodwill. BUT I had just gone through my cabinets to finally throw out old mismatched pots I had from college... so I pulled one of those back out of the trash and used it. The other thing is that I didn't have enough patience to wait overnight to cook the stuff off. I'm not entirely sure it really needed it anyway.

Mmmm... yummy - door hardware soup in a lead paint broth - maybe an entry into next year's soup party??

And here's the final result for the backplates and the doorknobs:

Not too bad for paint removal... but not that exciting of a result. I suppose like most things Folk Victorian, it's pretty plain. The hinges are even less exciting.

The latest project house for TOH has some hardware pictures that are making me salivate...

My searching has me narrowing it down to something like these from House of Antique Hardware for the backplates (at around $30 each):

The dark one only comes in that finish, but I can get the brass one in other finishes... (I can't deal with shiny brass)

There's something wrong with the website right now, but I also found some neat backplates and hinges at Historic House Parts. I like some of the styles in their HHP classics collection...

Ah... I love hardware. Maybe I should take a trip to a few salvage yards while I'm off this week and see what they have... The only bad thing about that is that it's not likely that I'll find enough to have all the doors match. Then again, I'm not sure I really need all the doors to match.

White Christmas

2008-12-21T12:54:00.004-05:00

I grew up in southern Indiana, where while it was cold enough to occasionally snow, we never really had much snow, and I'm not sure I remember ever having a White Christmas - though I distinctly remember singing the song in grade school and thinking how nice that would be. Living in Massachusetts for the past 8 years, I'm not sure I remember ever NOT having a White Christmas. And so it goes this year.

I know this latest storm swept through most of the northern United States, so I'm probably not alone in this snowy magic land. But our storm started Friday afternoon (I worked from home to avoid the 6-hour commutes of snowstorms past) and while it was reported to break Saturday morning and start back up Sunday, it never actually stopped.

Here are some pictures I took Saturday morning:

Jim loves his Ariens snowblower. For 3 1/2 years we shoveled every single time it snowed and then he got the snowblower last year off of Craig's List for some massive good deal. It has heated hand grips, a headlight, and crazy powerful moter to cut through the nasty stuff at the end of the driveway after the plows go by.

We also love our Subarus (yes, we have more than one) because while there is a snowstorm that just won't stop, we are not snowbound the weekend before Christmas!

Now if I can just convince myself to go downstairs and finish scraping paint off that stupid bathroom door...

Everybody Feng Shui Tonight

2008-12-14T20:54:00.007-05:00

Thursday night I went to a Christmas party at a friend's house. She's a decorator by profession and has an absolutely beautiful house. She took a couple of us for a tour of her house to see the upstairs bedrooms. Recently she's been studying feng shui and used a lot of the principles in those bedrooms to do some rearranging, and really feels like it has had a big effect on the relaxation in the rooms.

Since that party, I've been thinking a lot about what she said and looking at my bedroom. It made me think that there's got to be a better way to lay out our bedroom furniture - not that I have a problem sleeping or relaxing in that room - I just don't think it has the best layout.

So I went on line and googled Feng Shui. From what I've read, I'm not sure that an old house is the best for acheiving Feng Shui!

And here's what About.com has to say about Feng Shui bed placement:

Feng shui commanding position is the area further from the door / diagonally from the door, but not in line with the door. In other words, you want to be able to see the door while in bed, but not be aligned with the door.

All the walls are broken up by windows or doors or radiators. The only unbroken expanse of wall is where the bed has already been located, and it's both right next to the entry door (which we don't typically use to enter the room) and right in front of the bathroom door (which we do use to enter) - my apologies for not really "making" the bed -

As you can see, when you walk in from the bathroom, you practically walk right into the bed:

And this is the intermediate placement I came up with, also as viewed from the bathroom door:

I know there's still some Feng Shui principles being violated here - I don't think you're ideally supposed to put a bed in front of a window - or 3 windows, for that matter... and the headboard isn't "solid" - but there's no way I'm giving up my antique headboard. Still, we're going to try this out for a little while. My initial response is that it makes the room feel way more spacious.

And hopefully next week, my friend is going to come over and take a look with me, and we can make this as Fung Wah as possible. Oh wait, that's the Chinatown bus... Feng Shui. We'll get it Feng Shui, old school!

The Cast Iron Surgeon

2008-12-14T20:16:00.007-05:00

Considering our pipe predicament from the last post, we decided that there were essentially 2 option - either
-sleeve the hole, or
-tear out a huge chunk of that cast iron pipe and replace it with new pvc pipe.

While the "y" in the cast iron pipe right at the location of the rust hole was one factor against the sleeve option, Jim also mentioned that he didn't want to be represented in this blog as doing crappy (excuse the pun) plumbing. (My words, not his) So tear out and pvc replacement won out.

Jim started out cutting the pipe with sawzall Saturday afternoon.

Then the battery ran out, and he decided he wasn't sure he wanted to wait, so he pounded at it with the hammer. My favorite part of this picture is how he looks like a wild man because of the red eyes.

Utlimately, the rusted cast iron pipe was no match for his hammer, and it went down. Then with his pvc skills, a replacement pipe and new toilet flange were soon in place.

It was a somewhat unexpectedly quick fix. In the meantime, I stripped paint of the other side of the bathroom door. Unfortunately, I think that one of the bulbs on my silent paint remover is again out. blah!

A Disaster Waiting to Happen?

2008-11-30T21:13:00.009-05:00

So Saturday afternoon, after working for several hours on a school assignment, I finally started stripping paint off of one of the bathroom doors (1 of 3 - yes, that's right, our crazy house has a bathroom with 3 doors... well, we took the door to the back closet room off years ago - but still the house is definitely crazy)

Here's the door dragged down to the basement, with the hardware taken off, getting ready for some therapeutic stripping...

And then here's me, a few hours later, after Jim had come home, working away with the Silent Paint Remover...

Now, let's take a closer look at that picture... as Jim continued to walk around the basement taking pictures, he found something... Notice now the giant cast iron pipe behind me, circled in yellow. This is the pipe coming down from the 1/2 bath.

And here is a closer look at it:

Is that a little bit frightening? Well, here's another view:

Yikes! That's right - there is a HOLE in our sewage waste pipe (according to Jim, also known as a "stink pipe")

The amazing thing is that so far, there is no sign of ... um... spills. We're not entirely sure what to do yet...

One Day Dreams

2008-11-16T22:02:00.006-05:00

Jim and I have talked quite a bit about what we'd like to change with the house. He (obvious to those who know him)wants a bigger garage - a wider & deeper double-storied carriage house type garage. I would like a mud room with a stone floor so people don't walk directly into the kitchen from outside. Then we get really going, and it becomes a bigger addition with a new kitchen and a master suite upstairs.

Of course, at this point, it's all just a dream because there's a roof to pay for and money to save before it could ever happen. Oh yeah, and the economy is in the dumps right now too. But, it's fun to dream.

Jim drew this pencil sketch of what he thinks the ultimate addition should be (apologies for the horrible scan):

Ah - how nice would it be to not have to go outside in the winter to get to the car!

Then the other day I was driving to the grocery store and saw this work being done:

The house is fairly similar in size & scale to ours - here's a view of it from the other side:

I sent these pictures to Jim, and I think he's been drooling at them ever since.

In other news, I started the comforter cover. But I didn't get very far, as I was easily distracted this weekend.

Hot Soup on a Cold Day 2008

2008-11-09T21:26:00.004-05:00

Well, maybe it was more of an "unseasonably warm day" - but we still enjoyed celebrating our end of the (exterior) working season with friends.

This was the largest gathering we've had at the house since I moved in. It was also many people's first chance to see the house, so there were lots of tours and pulling out of the "before" photo book. My friends Tom & Jen even drove up from Long Island and stayed the weekend - it was so nice to have them here!

This year's soup party was a potluck, with prizes going to the crowd-voted "Most Delicious Soup" - and there were 13 incredibly delicious soups! Our honorable mentions were Candice's fresh pumpkin soup and Andrew's (Ancient Chinese Secret) hot and sour soup. Yummy! Here are the winners...

This was first place - Steve & Katherine's Mexican taco soup - with all the fixin's:

This was second place - Kate's gourmet tomato, basil, and pancetta soup:

This was third place - Jen's carrot ginger soup - her mother's recipe:

And the winners - Jen, Steve, and Kate with their prize loot:

We're definitely doing this again!

I See Copper

2008-11-02T20:26:00.005-05:00

So we got the roofers back to put copper in the valleys. It was a little more money, but we decided since this was a once in a "lifetime" roof, we should go ahead and get what we really wanted.

I feel a little bit guilty not doing anything the whole time they were working. Well... ok... so I wasn't "not doing anything" - but I wasn't working on the outside. We were busy cleaning up the inside - leather cleaning & polishing, slipcover washing, mopping, dusting... It's amazing how filthy dirty the place gets on the inside when you're focused on the outside.

While cleaning the house, we had HGTV on pretty much non-stop. It's a bit of a love-hate relationship. Especially the "My Big Amazing Renovation" - or whatever it's called. We have absolutely no sympathy. And we're not sure we believe the "What's My House Worth", where a homeowner has spent lots of money on a renovation and want to know if they've increased the equity in their house so that they can do more renovating. Of course, I haven't seen an episode yet where they didn't increase their equity... And then, there was a show where they took a perfectly quaint bungalow and turned it into a modern decorating monstrosity - complete with an "art piece" of copper tubing and glass knobs screwed to a painted board.

But there's also a Love part of the relationship - and we just can't stop watching it. Like right now. We're watching the 25 Biggest Decorating Mistakes and of course, comparing our own decorating... we just... can't... stop... watching!

So we are pretty much at the end of the outdoors season. With the cleaning and all the HGTV watching, we've been thinking about all the different things to do inside over the winter. Like
-Stripping the interior doors with a million layers of paint on them.
-And I bought some fabric to make a new comforter cover.
-And I need to put new baseboards in a few of the rooms.
-And the kitchen radiators could use some covers
-Oh - and I'd love to have a dishwasher.

And then we start thinking about bigger things... like the dream addition. I'll post some drawings that Jim put together.

And then that brings us back to "not until the roof is paid for"
But, what a pretty roof.

Roofers in Progress

2008-10-25T12:07:00.004-04:00

It's so much faster when you're not doing it yourself... oh, and when it's professionals working in teams...

Yet another dumpster in the driveway (only this one will probably be gone the fastest):

The only wierd thing is that we could have sworn that we were getting copper in the valleys. So when I saw the valleys this morning:

I was a little bummed out. I went back to the contract we signed, and sure enough, it says "Weave all valleys" Jim swears that he talked to them about copper in the valleys, though. Not sure how we missed it on the contract. ALWAYS THOROUGHLY READ YOUR CONTRACT! I think we were so focused on the type of shingle and making sure that the right parts got done or not done (like the center of the bay between the first & second floor). It's not going to kill us, but it is a little classier with the copper. Jim's going to call O'lyn and see what's up.

But I think the color and the look is nice. I wish I could take a picture from the second floor of the neighbor's house - but I think that's the teenager's party room. "ALEX!!!"

Roof Teaser

2008-10-24T13:37:00.006-04:00

Very early yesterday morning, a flat bed truck parked in the street just outside the house. I had just come home from the gym, and was in the midst of my frantic morning routine - and freezing because I was wet from gym sweat and because it's now cold outside. I looked out the front window, and definitely saw that our singles were on the truck.

I thought, this is great - I was working from home that day - so I'd be able to watch the progress.

I showered (during which time, the dog barked incessantly) and then came back downstairs, to find the 3 pallets of shingles in the "courtyard":

I waited all day, but nothing else happened...

Jim left me a text this morning saying they were going to start today - I can't wait to get home and see how it looks! the anticipation is almost killing me...

Dueling Ladders

2008-10-19T21:14:00.009-04:00

I finished the 1/2 posts this weekend Here's a view post painting on Saturday:

As I was finishing these up, Jim went to Homer to pick up some hardi-plank/board-fake-wood stuff to cover the crappy porch soffits (no way we were going to strip thick paint while looking up - imagine neck aches, paint chips in the eyes, and no way to leverage the scraper...) Anyway, he comes back with the materials... and a new ladder! He was so excited about his new ladder, I had to capture it on camera. Warning, though - this is rated PG-13 for some gratuitous use of mild profanity... sorry Mom.

Just to put my reply in context, we've been using a little 6-foot wooden step ladder, left in the garage by the previous owner, for the past 4 1/2 years. Jim likes to say that it wobbles, but I contend that has more to do with the uneven ground than the actual ladder. Besides, if you follow ladder guidelines and don't step on the top two steps, it's all good.

So anyway, Jim used the new ladder to put up the cover-up soffits

And I used the old ladder to paint.

Luckily, both ladders do their job!

Then today we put the remaining railing and balusters up. It was not without problems. But I won't point them out, because we don't think anyone will actually notice them. Here's the pictures

A couple of side notes:
-The roofers are scheduled to start sometime this week.
-We turned on the pellet stove for the first time this season.

Thank Goodness for Columbus Day Weekend

2008-10-14T16:44:00.004-04:00

I'm in a bit of a frantic panic to get stuff done today before I'm off to class, so only a brief description of what we did over the weekend....

I continued prepping and filling the 1/2 posts... they need time to cure, so I probably won't get to painting them until next weekend.

We also bought the beadboard for the porch ceiling. (note that the Homer guy was irritated at me asking him to cut the 16' boards, but was very pleasant when he came back over to help and Jim was present)

We painted those boards on Sunday,

and then on Monday, we were able to put them up. Looks pretty good too. We're getting better and better at doing the miter - a skill that will now be useless, since the floor and ceiling are now done.

It was very nice to have the lights up, as it got dark around 6:30, and we didn't finish until 8.

Well, "finish" is a slight overstatement - we have a very short final board 2" wide to fit on the front... and then there's also some moulding that needs to be put up. But at least now the trick-or-treaters can come to the house without (too much) fear.

Oh - and I significantly chopped down the rhododendron. Still there, just much smaller.

Back to Work

2008-10-06T11:22:00.009-04:00

After a couple of weekends of not doing much for house renovations, this weekend we were back to the grindstone.

Most of Saturday I spent finishing the painting on the handrails & subrails - a deceptively time-consuming activity. I decided to paint them the dark green, so it took 3 coats.

Meanwhile, Jim did some electrical adjustments. The light we chose from Rejuvenation came in, so he put that up.

We also decided to put up 3 recessed lights

This really brightened the porch up - as you can see from this picture taken at dusk...

...which is particularly nice because for some reason, there is no street light that shines on our section of the street. And while this neighborhood is much safer than others I've lived in, it's still nice to be able to see what's happening when it's dark out.

Jim also moved the electrical box, which has been so beautifully displayed at the front door entrance (who chose that location????)

and moved it to a more inconspicuous location at the back of the porch - here is the hole that he drilled for the wires:

Much better location. Jim says it's for my Christmas lights and stuff. Which actually means that it's for my power tools and some family in the future's Christmas lights.

Then Sunday, we finally pulled back out THE BALULSTERS!!! We worked on two sections. I'll just go straight to the pictures, because that's all anyone wants to see!

The last two sections need parts of the 1/2 posts finished (they're in progress...) before they can be put up.

I can't believe how long it's taking to do this porch project. Last year it felt like we got soooo much more done. But it was all just straight clapboard stripping and painting. So much more detail on these, I guess.

I can't believe it, but we're already planning our "end of exterior renovation season" soup party...

Roofing Choices

2008-09-29T10:42:00.008-04:00

This weekend was full of rain. It started on Thursday or Friday and then continued pretty much straight through Sunday evening. Which means there's not a whole lot to do on an exterior house project.

I did clean the basement on Saturday, but that's not very exciting, and I'm not going to show pictures of my creepy basement to you.

If you remember, a while back we had some issues with the roof leaking. Jim put a temporary fix up, and we put a claim in to our insurance company. They did give us some money for it. Not a lot, but enough to lessen the pain.

We have decided to use that money to put up a new roof. And we decided to put up a nice roof. We got a couple of estimates - one by a guy that did the roof at Jim's hobby shop, and one by the company that did the gutters a few years ago - O'Lyn. I thought O'Lyn was going to be way out of the price range, but they actually turned out to be right within the same price as the other estimate.

And I know that they are quick and responsive and professional. When they did the gutters, it was at a time when it was difficult to get contractors to even bid on jobs - everyone was way too busy (with that whole mortgage and lending boom that has now fallen apart. hmmm.).

I think back then I had 3 different estimates done, and O'Lyn was the only one who even responded. At the time, it was an emergency, as one gutter had torn off some soffit boards, so I went ahead with O'Lyn and just had the job done. They were so fast and finished the job in one or two days. So fast, in fact, that they ended up trapping some squirrels that had started to make the opened up wall their home. We had to drill holes in the inside of the kitchen cabinets and bait them out with peanut butter. I think there were 3. They were loud and angry little buggers.

Anyway, because of the past experience and good job and because the estimate was still in the right range, we decided to go with O'Lyn again. This time, as in the last time, they were very prompt with their estimate, put together a professional packet with the quote, and have followed up with phone calls a couple times. They also let Jim bring home some sample boards to pick the right color.

Now, as to the choice of shingles...
We decided to go for the "luxury" shingles and get something that looks like slate. We both wish we could get real slate, but that is not not in the price range, even with the insurance money!

The two shingles in the running were Certainteed's Grand Manor and Carriage House.

Lots of humming and hawing (as my Dad would say). We took walks around the neighborhood and drove around Wellesley looking at roofs.

A Carriage House roof in Natick:

And we used the Certainteed Color View to imagine what the house would look like.
Grand Manor:

Carriage House:

We both felt either one would be acceptable, but Jim had a slight preference for the Grand Manor, and I ended up with a slight preference for the Carriage House. And in this decision, Jim is deferring to me for the final choice.

So as long as the price is equivalent or lower for the Carriage House, that's what we'll do. Wait and see - this could be a quick change compared to our summer-long porch project...

Vacation from Renovation: Jalopy Jamboree

2008-09-25T16:34:00.006-04:00

Even with precious few good weekends left in the season, we took a break from our renovating activities to go to Jim's car club's 7th annual Alter Boys Jalopy Jamboree.

Jim has been killing himself trying to get his '36 ready - he decided to chop the top 10 days before the show... Here it is, in the state it was at the show, looking pretty good:

They found a new location this year, conveniently at the local AmVets, just 5 minutes from the house. It was a very nice location, with sort of a woodsy feel and views of a lake. I think they had their best turnout yet, with estimates between 200 and 400 cars.

The boys controlled the entry:

The wives sold t-shirts, as usual:

It was a good weekend, and we were happy to have several house guests ignore our crazy renovation mess and stay over for the festivities.

And unfortunately, they are forecasting rain for this coming weekend...

Mocking up the Handrails

2008-09-14T19:29:00.005-04:00

Most of Saturday was spent sanding and painting the beam. I'm not sure it looks like we did a lot, but it sure seemed to take a while.

We still need to fake some relief on the dark green brackets at the top of the posts, like I did on the bay window, but the paint needs to dry a little more before I do that...

There was some big community event geared at kids that took place on the common on Saturday. When these type of things happen, because we are right in downtown, our street becomes a parking lot, and we have a lot of extra traffic passing by. We had a lot of people saying they liked the color scheme (now that it looks like a color scheme and not just a pink house). Jim and I joked that we'll be starting a trend... only everyone else will have their houses done before we can even finish our porch...

Speaking of finishing,

I had visions of going all agro-renovator and getting the handrails put up this weekend too. THAT didn't quite happen, but we did get some parts cut out for two of the sections.

Here's Jim checking out how the subrail works. It took a couple tries to get a tight fit with the subrail between the posts. Not having any carpentry training, we kind of learn as we go - I'm sure there's plenty of tricks of the trade that we don't know...

And then I HAD to pull out the camera to take a shot of a baluster in place:

one day all 50+ of those things are going to see the light of day... one day... hopefully soon.

Then my little side project - the house number! I've been scouring the internet trying to find a cool house number to go on the porch. One fitting of the new improvements. I found a few sites that made cool metal ones in almost any font you can imagine. Those numbers were around 80 bucks. While maybe not a ton of money, I wasn't sure I wanted to spend that much for something that may or may not match the gold paint, and with some roof repairs/replacement pending (more on that another day), I didn't really want to spend the extra dollars anyway. So last night a lightbulb went off, and I decided to make one with the scroll saw and paint it with the same gold paint.

Here it is:

I do have to admit that the number broke in two at that thin spot on top. We had to glue it back together. Maybe it won't last through a New England winter - we'll find out - but, hey, the cost was essentially free, and that can't be beat.

Where We Left Off

2008-09-12T10:20:00.004-04:00

I have been totally remiss in posting these pictures... and have gotten a few gentle reminders to get some updates up! After the storm last Saturday, we were able to get out and do a little work Sunday afternoon. We finished putting the posts up and then went after the top beam.

You forget how heavy sanding overhead is, after you haven't done it in a while. We should be able to clean this up this weekend, paint it, and put the trim up...

And pulled back to see the full house as is right now:

And just in case you don't know where we were almost 5 years ago...

yes, it really is the same house.

In the Path of Hanna

2008-09-07T07:58:00.006-04:00

Warnings of being dumped on by Hanna's rain made us start late on Saturday. It was extremely humid, but not rainy for most of the morning. It was about noon that we actually got started.

Here's the first peek at the post on the porch - Jim was testing out the placement and making sure everything was going to be level:

We edged one side and the front of the porch. I cut this piece using the scroll saw:

It cut through the plastic like buttah compared to the poplar balusters.

We put the front edge on and then put 2 of the posts up.

So pretty. We did lots of walking back and looking at it from across the street.

Then we were drawing a chalk line on the long edge of the porch to trim it off and edge it, when it actually started to rain. Jim offered to stand off to the side with a stick while I used the saw, but strangely, I didn't take him up on that offer.

We kept checking the radar, somehow thinking it might pass by or we might catch a clear pocket...

But that was foolish thinking and about 6:30 we packed up and went inside to let Hanna pass.

And the Winner is...

2008-09-04T14:44:00.009-04:00

OK, so maybe I influenced the poll with my exclamation point! next to my favorite, or maybe the majority of you just feel the same way I do... But still, even with a paint program, you're never really sure if it will look the same in real life.

Last weekend with Jim home we were able to do a bunch of post painting. Other than the tedious first day of sanding, none of the work was particularly difficult, so it all went pretty easy. Which almost makes me wonder if we worked hard enough? Particularly since it was my last weekend before fall semester started! Oh well.

Jim, by the way, has a much higher standard of finish work than I do. Which is probably a good thing. It comes from all the body work he has done on cars, I think. I don't really have the patience or technique, so he ended up doing most of the detail himself. They ended up looking pretty good.

And then we primed them:

To make all the painting easier, we drilled screws part-way into both ends of the posts and then set them onto notches cut into the sawhorses. That way we could twirl them around fairly freely.

Then to dry the posts, we put more notches into some 2xwhatevers and left them in the garage overnight:

Then on Sunday and Monday we worked on the painting in this garage set-up. It probably would have been more comfortable had it been higher up, but oh well, what's a little back pain?

I thought this was going to be a masking tape nightmare of a project (that's one way to support Mother 3M), but actually, the more that I worked on it, the easier it got, and I really only needed it for the gold section where it went from square post to turned post. Most of the pinstriping was done without tape - a benefit of the turnable setup.

I really like how the gold turned out:

And overall, I think the posts look great!

This is where we ended on Monday afternoon. We cleaned up and called some friends over for a little Labor Day BBQ.

To finish these off, I need to get some semi-gloss pink paint. The flat paint looks a little odd with all the others all glossy.

Then it's make the base plates, picture-frame the porch floor with an edge piece, and install the posts, etc etc etc. A lot to do still, but it's starting to feel good to see it all coming back together.

Paint My Posts

2008-08-28T17:02:00.010-04:00

OK, so I'm getting more and more dangerous with the computer painting (though still not any better). I've got to pick out a color scheme for the posts, as hopefully in the next few weekends, if all goes well, I should be able to start painting.

Starting with a shopped-up photo from before (no, I haven't finished painting the front or putting up the shingles yet... and by the way, the balusters are only computer added as well - hey, it makes it seem a little more like the final product!) Here are my proposals for the post colors... starting with the most basic

All Cream:

Green & Gold:

Green & Pink:

Green, Pink, & Gold!

And just to see it all...

What do you think? If I've done this right, there should be a poll on the right hand side...

Does Anyone Know an Easier Way???

2008-08-25T10:07:00.005-04:00

Sanding down the flat sections of the porch posts is fairly easy - I just use the orbital sander. The large convex sections are not even that bad - I can use the sander on those too. And the abrasive string works pretty well on the tight grooves...

But the small and medium convex areas and those 3 concave sections... I'm having trouble figuring out an effective way to smooth them out! I've been using one of these sanding sponges:

and I'm not so pleased with how it's working. Maybe I just have no patience. Maybe I'm worrying too much about something that people will never even notice. Or maybe I just don't have the right tool. And maybe someone out there knows a better way?

Maybe I'll save the hard parts for Jim to do when he comes home this week... hmmm...

Filling & Faking

2008-08-23T20:50:00.006-04:00

My day unexpectedly freed up today, so I put the filler on the porch posts.

This filler epoxy was smelly. But it definitely had a longer pot life than the bondo type filler. This goes into the list of "tedious" jobs. I'm not sure I have the skilled hand to recreate some of the lost profile - at least not well. But I have a feeling it's one of those things that people won't even notice unless they're investigating close up.

And what would my weekend be without at least one tangential project?
The other thing I played with today after I finished filling, was the brackets on the bay window. If you've been reading this, you may recall my earlier post obsessing over the colors around the window. Well, the brackets have continued to bug me, so I finally got some new light green paint and did a test. Here's what it looks like close up:

My attempt was to fake some relief and to make it so that the brackets didn't just look like bland and awkward additions. I think it worked pretty well. It got too dark, so I wasn't able to finish all of them tonight... just gives me something else to work on tomorrow.

Hard as Wood

2008-08-21T16:34:00.004-04:00

Aside from the little front door glass mishap, I've been making some pretty good progress on the porch. Jim is off on his Speed Week adventure, so I've been on my own.

Last night I worked on the porch posts. If you recall, they had some pretty nasty rot on the bottom. I chopped off the bottom 1 1/2 inches to reveal, for the most part, fairly good wood. Here's the chopped off bits:

Niiiiiice. The sawing process was a bit of a fiasco, if you can imagine me trying to maneuver 93.5" 6x6 beams around in my basement by myself. (the basement, by the way, is more of what I'd call a "cellar" and is obstructed by chimneys, structural posts, and pipes and overcrowded with woodworking equipment and clothes washer spare parts) The first post I cut was not such a good job, but as with most things in this renovation project, the more I did it, the better I got at it.

Then today, I went at them with the Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer, or CPES from the Rot Doctor. This stuff is supposed to "restore strength to rotten wood while helping to resist further rot in the remaining good wood"

I've brushed that epoxy mix on...

And now I wait 1 - 3 days until I apply the epoxy filler, which I probably won't get to until Sunday.

I've also been working on the balusters. I had started out priming some with aerosol cans of primer. That didn't go very far - I think I got 18 done with 4 cans. So when I went to Homer to get more, I decided to just buy a paint sprayer. Nothing too fancy, but with the amount of woodwork that needs to be done on this porch, it will easily pay for itself versus the ridiculous amount of aerosol cans I'd need at $5 each. And I can use it for priming AND top coats.

While my set up wasn't the best, once I got used to it, the sprayer worked pretty well. And I finished priming all the remaining balusters in good time:

And, lastly (though I actually did this first), I trimmed up the deck boards. They're not trimmed to their final length, but I wanted to be able get on and off the porch without weird contortions or worrying about stepping on unsupported, poorly cantilevered boards. Plus, I think the mailman and the UPS guy are thanking me for it...

Crap!

2008-08-17T23:38:00.005-04:00

You know that SNL skit where Chris Farley is hitting himself and saying "Idiot!" - ya, well that's how I feel today!

After the rain leak issues, our front door has not been the same. It's totally swollen and won't open or close with any sense of ease. So I decided to scrape the multiple layers of paint around the corner that was having trouble. THAT went pretty well. And then I rubbed candle wax on it, and it opens and closes much more normally now. (althought at some point, more work will need to be done to repaint...)

And THEN, for some unknown reason, I all of the sudden decided I needed to get rid of the random security system sticker that has been on the door glass for who knows how long.

So, I took my heat gun and scraper to it. Yes, that's right. I took the heat gun to it. At full heat. You might think I would know better. After all, I have reglazed a couple of windows using this method with varying success. and after all, I am on the "Glass Commodity Team" at work. Yes, that's right - I said the glass commodity team. Over 50% of my job is dealing with glass - suppliers, converting, and processing through high heat ovens. But apparently I left all my "expertise" at work this weekend.

As I'm working on the sticker, with heat gun a-blazin... CRACK!

GRRRRRrrrrr!

I think the only solace I have in this little situation is that because of my contacts at work, I can probably get a replacement light made without too much trouble. But that forces another non insignificant project - it means totally scraping the door, removing the moulding, and reglazing. agh! I have a feeling that's a project for another time. I'll have to live with a ghetto crack at least until the porch is further along.

More Porch Floor Continued

2008-08-15T15:10:00.006-04:00

Last night we continued laying the porch floor from the miter to the back. We had a pretty good method going. We prelaid the boards, marked a line for the screw location, and then put hash marks where each screw was to be drilled. Then I would place the individual boards with the nail spacers, and Jim would screw them in. And so on, in assembly line fashion.

It was working well last night, except for the pesky mosquitos. My blood must be like candy to them because I could not keep them away! I ran over the the mini-mart to see if they had any repellant, but unfortunately for me, they had just run out. So I spent my cash on Swedish Fish and diet root beer instead and returned back to the house. (drat that mini-mart!)

Then I remembered that I had a citronella candle in the garage. So we pulled that and a tiki torch out - left over from when we used to have barbeques... While not a perfect solution, I have to say that it did thin out most of the swarms.

And here Jim is, screwing in the last screw of the field boards:

And Taya, with stomach staples freshly removed, supervised all evening from the front door:

Here is the deck, just before we retired for the evening - to eat our 9:30 dinner and watch the Olympics before we fell asleep:

(notice the Swedish Fish and diet root beer placed conspicuously on the porch floor)

Once again, we were kind to our neighbors and refrained from running the saw to trim off the excess boards.

And here it is, in the light of this morning's sun:

It's almost like you can start to see the beginnings of a good porch - a wicked good porch. You might have to squint really hard and use your imagination, but it's there...

Porch Floor Continued

2008-08-12T09:02:00.004-04:00

We worked a little more for about an hour and a half last night. Here's the progress:

We got the boards laid out and screwed down in front of the door. We thought 9:00 was a little too late to trim off the overhanging boards. What? Like our neighbors have never heard a circular saw before??

Working in the Pocket of the Storm

2008-08-10T21:55:00.011-04:00

I think God must have wanted us to get our boards down today. The weather forecast had us at 70% chance of rain after 3:00. The storm was coming from the south. It got a little dark and the temperature dropped a hair. But this is what we saw when we looked south:

and this is what it looked like to the north:

Very bizarre - it continued this way for the entire evening. Joyce, my neighbor, said it was pouring in Newton, just a few towns away. And apparently it was hailing further north. I think I felt 2 rain drops all evening.

Here's the low down on today's work:

The first thing we did was lay down tar paper. John (contractor neighbor) suggested taking the sawzall and cutting right through the roll and then rolling it out on the frame, rather than trimming after rolling out. One of his "KISS" suggestions - keep it simple stupid. We can use a lot of these suggestions...

Then we pulled out the Azek deck boards. I thought I ordered them with a routed edge... that's what the sample piece had and I wanted what I had in the sample. But there must have been some confusion, because when I opened the packs, the boards had been trimmed down to 3.5, but the cut edge was not routed.

Minor setback. Luckily, I have the router table set up in the basement. So with a change of the bit and a quick test, Jim helped me route enough boards to get going. In the picture below, the right side is the factory edge. You can see that the bottom of the left side is the straight trimmed board, and the top of the left side is where we routed off the square corner:

Then let the geometry begin... we wanted to be very careful and make sure that we were square and that the center, which we were going to miter, would be perfectly along the diagonal board of the frame.

And finally, the first screw!

We used finishing nails as spacers. We also used some large clamps to help hold everything together for the first several courses. We screwed it in 3/4" from the edges on the long side, and 1/2" from the miter edge.

The miter was not 100% perfect - we almost would have had to back cut the pieces to get them to fit together closer. But overall, I'm quite happy with how it turned out. Here's the view from beween the step and the door - where most people will actually be viewing the porch:

This is where we finished for the evening. We still have to lay boards out from both of the edges. But that should be super easy compared to the mitered corner. And then, of course, we will cut all the edges to be even and finish with a trim board. I love it when you can tell that you've done some work...

This one is for Dad

2008-08-10T21:15:00.010-04:00

This post is for my dad. He never reads my blog, but always wants to know what I'm doing on the house. It's not like he's a techno-phobe without internet access... - he's on the computer and the internet on probably a daily basis. I think it might be the word "blog"... so maybe if I shame him into it, he just may actually read...?

Anyway, everytime I talk to him on the phone lately, I'm trying to explain the v-groove I'm routing into the balusters. Last time I talked to him, we talked about what was going wrong with the router/table set up and what options I might need to do to make it better...

So Dad, here is the solution we came up with. It seems to work pretty well:

We put a piece of plexi on the table, and then routed up through the plexi to make the smallest opening necessary. Then we left the clamped fence that we originally had as is.

And here is what the routed v-groove on one of the balusters looks like:

This will sit on top of a base rail with a matching profile - as seen in the picture in this link. Does it make sense now Dad?

As I was routing all the balusters, I took a closer look at some of the one I did first and kept in the "good" pile. I looked at them close up, then put them up in rows on the stairs to see if I had them all together if I'd notice all the faults. Blah! I have gotten too good at making them. So even though this is what they look like from a distance:

This is what I will see every time I look at it:

So the first 10 are now in a bad pile!

But the priming has begun:

Wedding Weekend

2008-08-06T10:59:00.012-04:00

So, I was off to Portland, Oregon for a wedding & friend reunion last weekend:

That left Jim at home to work on the porch himself. He's sort of in a rush because of his Bonneville salt flats speed week trip - he wants to have the porch "done" before he goes. That makes our August schedules slightly out of sink... I just didn't want him to put on the deck boards without me!

Luckily, he obliged. Instead, he did a bunch of bracing and bracketing, and things that don't make for great pictures. But the floor is much more sturdy now.

Here's where the rotted out deck frame just above the stairs has been replaced, 2x4s have been added for blocking, and flashing under the front door was added.

Here's where he added reinforcement to the floor joists:

He also took one of the posts down to take a look at the rot underneath. It's a bit... hmmm... cavernous. Here's a picture I took of the bottom of the post:

We do have some Bondo type epoxy from Homer, and John (the contractor neighbor) gave us another epoxy system that he uses, but then Jim found this site that specializes in rot repair: The Rot Doctor

I told him to go for it and order the stuff up.

The other part of the plan is to maybe cut off some of the bottom length and make a base plate out of hardi-plank or something. Jim made a prototype of that and routed the edges to make it pretty. I'm just jealous I didn't get to use my router first! but comforted in the knowledge that I will get plenty of use out of it...

Monday evening, when I got back, we sat out on the framing and made a list of things that needed to be done (I love lists). I won't bore you with it here. But one change we are thinking of is to switch from overhead lighting to a light next to the door. Jim tells me he thinks he can do that wiring fairly easily now that the floor and ceiling are out. That opens up the choices. I'm currently thinking of this one from Rejuvenation:

Speaking of my favorite reproduction lighting & hardware store... I remembered that they had a retail location in Portland. It was an easy sell to get the people I was with at the wedding to do a side trip. It was fantastic - so great to see it all on display. They had a lot more than what they sell in the catalogue, and I was able to talk with a couple of the folks to get a better idea of what they could do for me.

Although I do have to make one complaint... I was trying to talk to the guy in the salvage area - I bought this door lever for the bathroom a few years ago at Brimfield,

and I've never seen another one like it. I'd love to find another one similar to it, so I tried to ask him about it. He didn't seem very interested in talking to me, and totally dropped our conversation while I was in the middle of it to talk to some girl who walked in. A little wierd and rude. Everyone else was very helpful, though.

Last update is on Taya - she is doing soooo much better! We stopped giving her the pain meds, she's eating her dry food again and drinking water. She's back to being very lively. Still has to wear the E-collar for another week. But I'm so happy she's doing well!

Porch Progress

2008-07-28T07:47:00.013-04:00

Friday afternoon, the shipping company called to schedule the delivery of the porch floor - it's for Monday afternoon (today). So that was the incentive for this weekend's flurry of activity.

Jim left to work on his '36 at the shop, and I started ripping out the hand rails and the floor. Don't worry - I have saved the original turned balusters. I might use a few of them as legs on a cabinet for the sewing room - a project I've been thinking about since I made the vanity for the 1/2 bath:

But I do have all of the balusters in a box in the garage for now. If some soul reading these words wants them, let me know. Otherwise, I'll probably lug them to a salvage yard at some point in exchange for some other goodies.

As I ripped out a few of the handrails, I realized how loose the porch posts were, and made a call to Jim, saying we probably ought to put up some stabilizers. I think he had planned to spend most of the day doing car things, but ended up coming home and helping me out. Anyway, here's the demo that I started, although I had also removed the exposed deck boards at the point where Jim came home:

I especially like how they put that special piece of paper in between the two floors. Not sure what the function of that was - maybe to hold more water to speed up rot. Strangely, it appears that the under layment of 1x6 deck boards was the original floor - the house finishing was built up around it - siding and such. Either that, or they replaced the original floor and shoved the new floor into the crevices. Not likely, at least not for the previous owners, as they seemed to have only done one repair/remodel of everything around the 50s, and that was probably the tongue & groove floor on top. Why take out a rotting floor, when you can just cover it up?

So while I was having fun demo-ing the porch by myself, I was much slower than the two of us together, and soon the porch looked like this:

You may notice in the second picture how one of the despised rhododendrons is now just a bunch of stumps! yes, that's right... I love my chain saw and hate ugly overgrown and diseased flowers... I just left enough stumps to pull the remaining plant out. And you can't see it, but the hideous overgrown hosta has also been removed. I had considered replanting it in a shady section of the yard, but decided it was too ugly and uninteresting. The plant clearing, by the way, though it may seem like a completely random activity, proved to be worthwhile for this project, as it opened up the way for the wheelbarrow...

At this point, Jim and I really didn't know where to go next and how much of the framing really needed to be replaced. Jim, I think, secretly wants to live in a brand new house that just looks like an older house, because he starts talking about how he thinks you have to start with good stuff (interpretation: new boards) underneath or it will be a waste of time. But he admitted that he does not know construction well enough to make a good call.

Luckily, our neighbor John, who is also a general contractor, pulled into his driveway about this same time. He checked it out, gave us some advice, let us borrow some tools, and we were back working.

To replace these lolly columns (which were rusting out and only 6 inches deep)...

...we (meaning Jim) dug some holes about 4 feet deep under each of the post locations:

That did it for Saturday...

When I got home from church on Sunday, Jim had already started with John's borrowed cement mixer. We placed the 8-inch diameter forms into the holes and then filled them with cement, adding a bolt at the top to attach a new post.

One of my jobs was to find the position of the bolt, right underneath the corners of the porch. Since we didn't have an actual plumb-bob, I substituted a nail tied to some sewing thread. Maybe not perfect, but good enough.

We didn't get the cement forms very well centered under the posts, but John said that didn't really matter - the posts just needed to push down on the cement. Jim decided to leave a mark:

My other job was to scrape the remaining original paint - on the bottom most clapboard and then also on one of the turned posts. Somehow I have been able to do about 1/2 of the entire house without problems with the Paint Saver Pro, but on this one tiny project, I managed to cut the electrical cord with the rotating blades :(

I also have to document this:

And the good news is that we cleaned up early so that we could head over to Angell Animal Hospital. They gave us the OK to pick up Taya a day early! She has stitches in her belly, some shaved spots where they put the doggie IV, and a shaved spot with a doggie transdermal patch. But she's eating food and home again.

It Pours

2008-07-25T09:36:00.003-04:00

Jim did a temporary fix on the roof yesterday. Luckily, it doesn't look as ghetto as a big blue tarp:

It's holding the rain pretty well.

He used some wide flashing and slipped it up under the shingles. He said that 2 complete shingles were missing and that the old sheathing underneath had rotted away and that a squirrel had finished the job by chewing more of it away and built a nest.

Today and tomorrow should be rain free, so hopefully it will dry out and we can do a more permanent patch - I just want something that will hold at least a couple of years - until we have the cash flow to do the whole roof.

In other news, we found out that Taya has a mass on the wall of her intestine. This explains why she doesn't want to eat anything - not much is passing through.

After some discussion, Jim and I decided to go ahead with a surgery. They'll cut out the section of the intestine that is affected and sew it back together. They also will have to check for any other problems - other cancer growths or lymph node issues. As with all surgery, there are risks, but they said this is a very common surgery (for various reasons) at Angell, so I feel a little better.

She has been with me for 12 1/2 years - through thick and thin - and I just can't bear to not do what I can to help her. Say a little prayer for her.

When it rains...

2008-07-23T19:53:00.007-04:00

...old houses leak, aparently. I have nightmares about finishing the ceiling in the guest room just before my parents came to visit several years ago for the first time, and then having the whole thing ruined by a rainstorm, just a few days prior to their visit. We found out then that it was a ridge vent that had blown off the peak sometime prior. No idea how long that was going on.

Well, today appeared to be another nightmare. Jim called me upstairs to show me dripping water all over the ceiling in the hallway of the 2nd floor. Not sure if this picture does it justice:

We started our mini-investigation to find the source and any further damage...

Here's the crawlspace in the attic - way in the back you might be able to see that the boards/wall are also wet.

and here is inside the knee-wall closet in the attic. LUCKILY, this is the same closet that I have been keeping my vintage sewing pattern collection. Nice combination: water and 50+ year old tissue paper patterns... I don't think any of them were damaged yet

And here is looking outside of the window in the attic - notice how all of the clapboards are wet. We weren't sure if it was that rotted out cornice trim missing a cover - maybe rain water was getting into that and soaking up the walls?

Then Jim looked outside at the roof. He thinks he found the source. Again, I'm not sure you can really tell from this picture, but it appears to be a small dip in the roof...

I think he's going to look at it closer tomorrow. After he takes the dog to the internal medicine specialty service because she's not eating again. I need one of those money trees. Does anyone know where they grow?

Country Crown Pics

2008-07-23T19:44:00.005-04:00

Got the camera back... here's the pictures of the completed "country crown" moulding. I think it turned out purdy good, as they say in the country:

The only part left now is a little spackle on the drywall they cut for the electricity lines... it may be another 3 years before that gets fixed (or we have another houseguest, whichever comes first)

A proud owner of a router!

2008-07-14T09:47:00.008-04:00

Jim & I finished the crown moulding in the bathroom, caulked it, and painted it, and now it doesn't look bad - pretty good, I'd even say. But Jim grabbed the camera on his way out the door for his latest work trip, so I unfortunately have no pictures of that for you today.

I am also proud to announce that I have finally made a router purchase! I was contemplating buying a whole setup - with a table and everything. Jim reminded me that we are fast running out of "shop" room in the basement, and I should look into using the table saw.

This is the saw that I have:

It's nothing particularly special or fantastic, but it's pretty good as a beginner/hobby saw - which is what I need. It's a Ryobi BT3100. I got it at Homer a few years ago, but for some reason they no longer sell it.

If you look at the accessory table on the right, you can see a fairly large hole - this is where you can attach a router. I don't have any experience with routers, and I couldn't visualize how you attach a router to that table - especially when the router that we had was an old old one from Jim's grandfather. I did a little bit of searching, and found that you can purchase this accessory kit to mount a router:

It seems like the only key piece in that kit for attaching a router is that aluminum dog-eared plate. The kit is listed at $99 at Homer, and less at ebay auctions, but still seems like a lot when all I need is what looks like a simple plate.

More searching, and I found this site dedicated to the Ryobi BT3100. It's kinda funny to have an entire forum dedicated to a Ryobi table saw... But it was helpful. I got the reassurance that you can just fabricate your own aluminum plate - that the bottom of the accessory table has the shape you need molded into the metal. Then you can drill your own holes for whatever router you have or choose.

So with that knowledge in hand, I headed over to Rockler after work and picked up this little router:

It's a Porter Cable 892. Maybe it's more than I need, but after some research, it looked like I'd be wasting my time with less than 2hp, and this particular model has a way to crank the router up from above the table to more easily change bits.

Now, to begin my routing, Jim is going to fabricate that aluminum plate, and I have to wait for my special 120 degree v-groove bit to come in to do this job on the balusters. I have a feeling that everything - bit and flooring will come in all at once - probably on a weekend that I have no time. Or it's raining.

Odds & Ends and some Country Crown

2008-07-07T11:12:00.006-04:00

I finally purchased the flooring for the porch, but it won't come in for probably another 2 weeks, so I tried to finish up some odds & ends this long weekend.

First, I finally finished cutting all the sawn balusters! This is a big accomplishment - and I'm totally excited to have it done. Next I need to route a v-groove in the bottom and paint the suckers. As of yet, I don't have a router or a router table or a v-groove bit, so this may require a trip to Rockler to actually make the purchases (this is why fixer uppers are called money pits)

Second, I finished cutting the two bundles of cedar shingles into the octagon shape. Out of those two bundles I got about 175 cut shingles.

Third, I took some measurements and created a spreadsheet (yes, I AM my father's daughter) to determine how many more shingles I would need to cover the side and front peaks (see this old post for an explaination) and the color breakdown. This included deciding on a pattern for the colored band. Unfortunately for me, I still have about 4 more bundles to cut. Then I need to lightly sand them all and paint them. All you suckers out there that have agreed to help me paint - this is your opportunity!

Then Jim helped out with a couple of little projects:

Fourth, we installed some shop lights in the basement. While the basement is still really creepy, the lights really improve the working conditions. And they're less of a head hazard then the existing dropped lights.

Fifth, Jim installed the exterior faucet for the front of the house.

This project was kind of cool because we used PEX tubing (traditionally used copper is ridiculously priced right now) and quick release connectors. Pretty nifty - wish we would have had these in the 1/2 bath project - could have avoided lighting things on fire! We are a little suspicious that they will all hold together, but so far, so good.

And finally...
Because I have visitors coming in a couple of weeks, I decided to try and finish off the crown moulding in the bathroom. The crack between the ceiling and the walls has been there for... hmmm... at least 3 years:

I've just been avoiding it. But this weekend, I decided to give it a whirl. It's not a typical crown moulding - it's pieced from a cove stock and 1x2s. Something like it was originally there and got tossed somewhere along the way - during our demolition, I think. And I found an example of it in a finish carpentry book - they called it "Country Crown Moulding". Unfortunately, though, nothing in that bathroom is square, and my skills with the miter saw still leave something to be desired... so there are a lot of gaps. Luckily, caulk is my friend, and it will all be painted.

Anything has got to look better than the gaping holes that have been there.... right??

More Porch Lights

2008-07-04T17:49:00.008-04:00

So I'm a little obsessive... ok, I'm a LOT obsessive. I found some more light options for the porch:

Those first two might be a tad bit too large for our porch. They're running right at 20, 21 inches.

Also, I think I might be a little obsessed with maritime influenced lights, as this one is SOOOOO cool... but sooooo too expensive, running at over $1700:

Then in my searching on lighting websites, I found a few cool ceiling fans - Jim keeps talking about getting ones for the living room and the bedroom. I have fears of them being polished brass with tulip bell lampshades and fake wood blades, but if they are as cool as these, I'm willing to put one up...

+ this light kit:

Porch Light

2008-07-03T16:25:00.008-04:00

I did some Googl-ing today to look for a porch light. There are a lot of hideous porch lights out there. I'm limiting myself to ceiling fixtures, as that is where it is already wired. And because the ceiling is on the lower side, they also have to be small enough that you don't hit your head on it.

These are what I came up with...

And I think these last two are my favorites:

See - I DO love you, little house!

2008-06-29T21:23:00.010-04:00

With major school projects behind me now, this weekend I finally got to spend some quality time scraping paint and tearing off boards.... ahhh - feels so good!

Baluster Update: 46 cut. 8 full ones and 2 partials to go.

I finished scraping all the turned posts. Which I'm really happy about because scraping turned posts is miserable work. This is partly why (and I'm sure you have all been wondering) I have chosen to replace my turned balusters with sawn balusters - tedious though the scroll saw cutting may seem, it is far less tedious than removing paint from the existing balusters. And since I don't have a lathe & it seems much harder to learn than scroll sawing, the paper-doll-like version seems more appropriate.

I also lasso-ed Jim to come out and scrape where I have been unable to scrape - that tricky spot over the entry...

Yes - I'll admit it, I was very happy to have some of Jim's man-help!

Then somehow I convinced Jim that at 6:30 it was still early, and we had time to tear down the ceiling. That's right - 6:30 is early for summer light. I did a little bit of the demo, but I was not nearly as fast as Jim, so he ended up doing most of it.

Some who read this may be thinking what a shame it is that I tore out the existing bead board... But even more miserable than scraping paint off of turned balusters, is the thought of scraping paint off of bead board hanging on the ceiling. I promise I'll put new bead boards up - I just can't take the tediousness and neck aches that would result! - not to mention the little scraped bits that would fall through safety glasses and into my eyes. So those old board are going into a dumpster. Sorry for the restoration sacrilege!

With the ceiling out, there's just a little bit more paint to scrape, and then we can brace the roof and tear out the floor. I mean floors, as there are 2 layers - why take off a rotted floor when you can just cover it up? And we're contemplating lighting - I'm thinking about adding a few can lights to the porch, to light it all up, instead of just the area above the front door. So maybe a nice decorative light above the door, and a couple of canned/recessed lights along the side. I'll have to do a little bit of research on that...

Agghhhhhh

2008-06-24T16:52:00.003-04:00

I have been neglecting you, my poor unhappy little house!

I promise - I'll be done with my crazy summer semester on the 4th of July.... and aside from a couple of weddings, the remaining summer weekends will be all yours! I may even take some time off of work to give you some extra love.........

Heat Wave

2008-06-08T15:58:00.008-04:00

Yesterday started a little heat wave here in New England.

Fortunately (or unfortunately) I have been stuck in summer intensive classes the past two weekends - which also means that my work on the house has essentially come to a grinding halt - I can still hear the squeel of the brakes!

But I love to work outside when it's warm. I even love to work outside when it's HOT! Call me crazy - or blame my father for making us (I mean, creating the opportunity to) mow lawns all summer in the southern Indiana heat, which I like to refer to as 90/90 - 90 degrees, 90% humidity.

So as soon as I got out of school yesterday afternoon (yes, that would be Saturday), I trucked over to Homer and picked up some mulch. 10 bags, to be exact. Then I weeded and spread the stuff out along the side and the front. It's amazing how clean mulch makes everything look.

Now, I probably should have been trimming out more of the balusters to use my time more effectively. And I know most of you would have rather spent your time in a cool basement on a 90+ day, but not me!

While weeding, I came across several dandilions. How big can a dandilion get?, you might ask. Well, this one must be in the running... Here it is a day after being hit with a full trigger of Round Up:

Ya. I don't think it even flinched.

And here is a little montage I like to call "Plants around my house that I hate"

ONE DAY, these will all be taken to the Natick Recycling Center to be chopped up into little bits for easier composting! ...well, maybe I'll be kind to the hosta and just split it up into like 20 parts and put it someplace shady.

So I know you have all been asking yourselves
- where's Jim? What's he up to these days -
Ah, yes, well, this has been his little project:

It's a Ford 1936 3-window coupe. He loves it very much. He loves it so much, if he wasn't already married to me, he'd marry it. He says it's now drivable...
I can't wait for a summer time cruise.

A Walk Around the Block

2008-05-24T19:44:00.004-04:00

Well, my short semester break has come to an end. I'm not sure that I really got much done... and now I'm sure I'll get even less done.

I am just over 30 balusters cut for the porch, but still have 20-something to go. I bought enough wood to make the remaining balusters, but didn't get much further than that last weekend. The drill press I purchased from Sears finally came in, and Jim put that together in my basement "wood shop" (just next to the "Carrie Closet" ala Stephen King - old cellars in New England are pretty creepy).

For some reason last Sunday I came to a halt (probably contemplating porch flooring), and decided to take a walk around the neighborhood to see what other houses had. I love some of the houses in Natick and thought I'd share my favorites...

The other thing I was looking for was what other people used as porch flooring. I only found one other porch with T&G boards, and it was totally rotted.

I actually talked to one neighbor for quite a while that had boards that I think were the same as the Azek boards. He was a little fuzzy on the brand, but thought it was Procell, which I believe Azek acquired. He also gave me some dirt on the neighborhood, which is always fun!

Anniversary Celebration

2008-05-16T12:15:00.004-04:00

Last weekend Jim and I went back up to Rockport for a little anniversary get-away. The couple that rented us the manor house last year were kind enough to let us stay in the room in the back. While the weather was very reminiscent of last year, we had a good time. There was no rushing around to pick up flowers or put together welcome baskets or organize decorations. We got to just do whatever we wanted.

If the weather had been warmer, I would have wanted to rent kayaks and go out to the lighthouses.

But, it was not meant to be this year. Instead we mostly just walked around Rockport and poked our heads into the little shops and artist studios.

Then we drove over to Essex and Ipswich and wandered through antique shops. And we ate at delicious restaurants in Gloucester.
We found this - the creepiest cookie jar ever:

And Jim decided that in his next house he wants a fort like this:

We were both sort of pathetic because we were somewhat at a loss for what to do if we weren't working on projects! How many people have to literally force themselves to relax? I guess that's what we have to take the occasion to do!

(Only don't tell anyone, but as soon as we got home, I sawed out a couple of balusters and Jim went to the shop for a bit)

Vintage Woodworks Rocks

2008-05-08T18:22:00.003-04:00

I posted earlier about my porch floor thoughts. I decided to go with the "Clay" color of the Azek boards from Vintage Woodworks. (Clay is the bottom one below)

Although in my internet searching, I came across some info that Azek was coming out with a tongue & groove version in a new line they are calling "Azek Porch". However, to my dismay, they are only selling this in brownstone & slate gray...

I even called up the Ask Azek line to see if there was any chance that they were going to come out with the other colors they offered in their decking line. Of course, the person I was actually talking to was just some customer service rep, so she didn't have any answers for that kind of question. "maybe they will announce something in a few weeks or maybe never".... yeeeaaaahhhh, not so helpful.

So with that excitement, and then disappointment, I went ahead and put in my order with VWW for 3.5 Clay deck boards yesterday.

Today I got a call from Roland, one of the owners of VWW. He felt really bad, but I had found an on-line catalogue issue. They did not currently have any 3.5 boards in Clay, and he had called around to all the area resellers and had not been able to find any more. They could make a special order, however, minimums are 2000 boards (my order was only for 90). -- not really in my price range! We talked about what options I had:
-5.5 deck boards in Clay were in stock
-3.5 deck boards in brownstone and slate gray were in stock
-he might be able to get 3.5 in clay in the next month or so if he gets left overs from another reseller's special order
-he mentioned the Azek Porch product that they were going to carry starting May 24-ish

Hmmmmm.... my dilemma is that really only clay and ivory look acceptable with the current paint scheme. AND it needs to be thin boards to look traditional.

So after talking it out with him, I asked "Could I take a 5.5 board and rip it down to 3.5 and route the edge a little? Maybe you can send me a board to try out?" He was like, "geesh - I should have thought about that! Let me go try"

He called back a little later this afternoon, and said it turned out really well. Then I also asked him if they could route a T&G instead of making a deck board. He said they did that all the time with their pvc beadboard, so that shouldn't be a problem either. He came up with another idea that would use up more of the 5.5 also - just rip it in half. The boards would be smaller than 3.5, but not too small - and would save me in material cost. So now it looks like my options for clay are opened up:
-Buy 5.5, rip to 3.5 and give it a decking edge
-Buy 5.5, rip to 3.5 and route a T&G
-Buy 5.5, split it in half and have smaller deck boards

I'm kind of leaning towards the T&G option. Of course, this is probably the most expensive (of course)

What do you think?

School got the best of me

2008-04-30T11:38:00.006-04:00

I highly underestimated the amount of time that I needed to spend on my group projects for school. So what's new? - Just another over-filled buffet plate... So while I didn't get anywhere near completing my pre-weekend list of projects (I didn't even get any laundry done), I did get to work a little bit on porch projects.

Balusters - I drilled holes in about 10 more of these, but didn't do any scroll saw work. I am still trying to figure out a good way to drill the holes - evenly & without too much breakage on the back of the boards. I'm a little better with just technique, but I might have to break down and buy a drill press.

Paint removal - it was a little chilly to do any heat methods of paint removal on the posts, but I pulled out the trusty Paint Shaver Pro and went to work on the beams. I hadn't fully removed the nails left from the porch enclosure, so I took care of that. There were also screwed in hooks about every 6 inches. It makes me wonder what they used so many hooks for.

I absolutely love my Paint Shaver Pro. It's so fast, and it gets it so clean. I am however filthy and my arms are tired as I'm doing it, but I don't care because it goes so fast. Here's the after shots, taken just a little later that afternoon:

I can't get that one span above the steps because my short ladder is too short and my tall ladder is too tall. As I was staring at the situation trying to figure out what to do, somebody drove by and stopped to see if they could help. I should have taken him up on his offer -- poor sucker, he had no idea what he was really asking! He probably thought I was just trying to get leaves out of the gutter or something. John across the street yelled over, "I've been here 20 years and no one has asked if they could help me!"

Unfortunately for me, the Paint Shaver Pro doesn't work on turned beams, so they will just have to wait for a warmer, school-free weekend.

The best was that Jim came home and started talking to me, then told me that I had a piece of paint on my eye. Sure enough, it was right on top of my contact lens. I felt something a little scratchy, but hadn't gotten to clean up mode yet. Those paint chips go EVERYWHERE. I swear, I wear a respirator and safety glasses, and I'm not sure how much it helps...

The other big house news is that Jim's parents gave us their old dining room table and chairs. I guess they found something new that they wanted. They actually work out perfectly. (And look a lot better than the old door on top of saw horses) It makes it look like people really live here instead of just occupy the space for renovation projects...

Pre-Weekend Baseline

2008-04-25T19:02:00.007-04:00

I have a list of a trillion things going on in my mind for this weekend. It's the last week of classes for school, so of course I have to meet up with my groups on Saturday & Sunday. And I told one of the girls from church that I'd help her sew her dress on Saturday afternoon (but she hasn't called to confirm, so that's a little shaky) But I still want to do some work on the house, so here's the current status, and we can review at the end of the weekend to see how far I got...

Baluster Cutting - 6 of 50 complete

Porch Beam Paint Scraping - 2.5 of 4 complete

Shingle Making - 2 bundles cut to width (I have no idea how many I need, but all the corners need to be trimmed)

Grass Patch Growth - 5 out of 7-14 days

I have a serious problem, because obviously, it's too much to complete in one weekend! It's like when you go to a buffet and you load your plate up with food, only to realize half way through eating that your eyes are bigger than your stomach... I'm that way with house projects. And I always have to have more than one thing going on at a time. I think it drives Jim nuts...

So the other thing I'm looking at is porch flooring. I like the "idea" of real wood floors on the porch, but since this is highly susceptable to rot (as evidenced by the 2 layers of rotted floors there now), I'm highly considering using an Azek cellular pvc deck board from Vintage Woodworks. They have a 3 1/2 inch version that I think would look right. It just seems like putting together a tongue & groove floor would be asking for rot.

Here's what my Porch Design book says:
"...a very traditional wood floor can be made of 1 by 4 lumber. Many "old-timers" feel this lumber should not be "flooring" (with tongue & groove or shiplapped edges), as this will tend to trap moisture."

And I always do like to follow the advice of "old-timers"......

I got their color sample kit. Here they are with my paint chips on the current porch floor:

The one on the bottom is the one I'm leaning towards. It's called "Clay". While it's difficult to see in the photo, it sort of has a greenish cast to it, and matches the paint tones quite well.

So, here we go - update to follow!

Signs of Spring!

2008-04-20T12:48:00.002-04:00

I think it's finally Spring once the forsythia have bloomed...
Here are some pictures of blooms around the house

2 down...

2008-04-16T22:50:00.003-04:00

Only 48 left to go!

I used the new blades, and they worked much better. I only broke 3 tonight.

The ones in the picture are made out of poplar. I also tried cutting one out of "hardiplank" or "tuffboard" -- I don't remember what it was called, but that rot-proof fake wood. I'm sort of against the idea of using fake wood, but wanted to at least give it a try. It kept sort of melting back together. So I'm nixing the fake wood.

Here's my other picture of what I did on Sunday:

I almost got one whole post done, but it started raining. I fiddled around with my Silent Paint Remover. I don't think the bulbs work - they only glow orange on one side. I took it apart, and thought I found the problem - 2 screws at the electrical connection were missing. But moving the screws that were there into different spots didn't change it. I should probably just suck it up and buy new bulbs.

I'm totally ghetto, because that ladder is still in that very same position.

And the Season Begins...

2008-04-15T22:47:00.007-04:00

We had a suprisingly warm Saturday. They were predicting cold & rainy, but it cleared up, the sun came out, and we ended up near 70. I had a school group meeting in the morning, and should have done homework in the afternoon, but with that kind of weather, who can resist doing a little yard work??? (especially when your neighbor's tree fell in the yard a couple months ago)

I bought a chainsaw and chopped that sucker up. It took me about 3 trips to the dump to get the little stuff out of there. Then I called Tony to see if he wanted the wood for next winter. He sounded happy. Later Jim told me that he had already promised the wood to Pete... Well, if I had known.... Anyway, they can fight it out for the wood. I just want it out of the yard!

I also bought a scrollsaw to start work on the porch ballusters. I've decided to make sawn balusters, rather than replacing the turned balusters. I like the look of them better. Of course, I've never used a scrollsaw, so there will be a learning curve, but I'm up for the adventure.

Here's a picture from a catalog of the baluster I want to replicate (notice how the center design is similar to the rosette from the earlier post):

So I adjusted the size to the right dimensions and printed it out to make a paper template. Then I tested it cutting a piece of poplar on the saw.

I went through 7 blades, and didn't finish my sample piece :(
But I guess that's how you learn...
Here's what I ended up with after the 7th and last blade broke:

Monday I talked to a guy at work who does a lot of workworking and asked him for advice. He gave me some pointers and also told me to go to Rockler to get new blades. I went there today at lunch, and I think it's my new favorite store!!! I also talked to the guy there about getting a router/router table set up - that may be what I do with my income tax return... hmmm....

Obsessing over Color and Shingles

2008-04-11T19:38:00.012-04:00

Besides the bay window, I've been thinking a LOT about what to do under the peaks. A couple summers ago I played around with shaped shingles on the garage face:

I made these shingles out of plain cedar random shingles from Homer using the tablesaw to standardize the width, and the mitersaw to chop the corners. It was a relatively inexpensive solution, compared with what I've found on-line, and it produced the effect I wanted.

I'd like to do something similar under the front and side peaks:

And here is another picture from a "Painted Ladies" book (Pomona & Larson) that shows some ideas for designs to put into the shingles with color:

Of course, that is far too busy for my taste, but if you look closely at it, there are several different simpler individual patterns that could be used:

I kind of like these:

But I also like the diamond pattern in between these two - I used something like that on the garage. Jim thinks they look like cherries, so maybe that's why I like it...

One of the things I've been wondering with this shingle idea is if the scale would be right on the front of the house. The peak is broken up with the top of the bay window and also with the arched window.

Just looking at the house makes it really hard to tell. Maybe because of the crappy condition of the old siding. So tonight I amused myself by working in a photo editor. I copied the garage roof shingles onto the above picture. Let me preface this by saying that I am NOT an expert at photo editing, so don't look at the details, just look at it for an overall perspective. This is what I came up with:

What do you think-
-will it work to do the entire peak in the shingles?

How about this one:

I kind of like that a little better. I think it matches the garage better this way, and it just looks better - maybe because it helps define the peak shape even though it's broken up by the bay window.

What do you think????

Gold Rosettes

2008-04-07T11:08:00.007-04:00

After some more searcing on the internet, this is what I found on SFVictoriana. I like it. Maybe I could add above the windows... I'm thinking of just get something like a thin piece of wood about 24" x 6" (not sure the exact dimensions), route the edges & paint it light green. Then I can see if I can add a few of these evenly spaced and painted gold, or maybe just one in the center:

Too fussy for New England?

Obsessing over Color

2008-04-05T18:25:00.016-04:00

As the days start getting warmer, I'm starting to think again about exterior color. I've been looking at my color scheme - particularly in the front of the house and thinking that I don't quite have it right yet. I feel like the dark green brackets above the bay window are too stark of a contrast against the white (which is actually a cream, but still looks very white...) So I pulled out my "Painted Ladies" books (Pomada & Larsen) and looked back at some of my favorite pictures, trying to figure out what I liked about them and pinpoint what I feel is missing in mine.

Now, it's a little hard to directly compare my house to, say, San Francisco ornate Victorians, because the style IS really quite different. Houses in this New England neighborhood tend to be much more basic. (I guess that's why they call it a "folk Victorian") But I think I can still do more with color on what I have.

Here are the bay window details on some of my favorites in the books:

What do you think? Can you see what I'm missing? I have a few ideas...
On the brackets, I want to fake some relief by adding a stripe down the middle in a lighter green, like this:

Then on the 1st floor windowsill, I want to paint a medium green. I can then add the missing crown/bed molding under the sill in the dark green.

Then on the side of each window, I can add some light green details. Something basic, or maybe with a center gold highlight.

And above the windows, I could also add another light green detail, with some gold rosettes or such...

And of course, as Jim points out, I really do hate those asphalt shingles in between the two floors. I've already sneaked a peak underneath those, and they were originally wood shingles. I'd like to reshingle it with painted octagon shingles.

Will all of this make it too ridiculous or too fussy? Hard to tell. But I definitely need some medium and/or light green around those brackets. Now, what will be a good medium and light green? Here's the color chips I've been using for the house:

It may be too small to read, but I've marked the 2 reds I've used - the bottom one is the main color - and I've also marked the green on the brackets. The light green I've marked I tried sampling on the back of the house, but it comes out too light, I think:

So maybe the two above the bracket color become medium and light. I'll have to pick up samples to test it out.

I have some more color obsessions, but I'll save those ramblings for tomorrow...