See - I DO love you, little house!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...