What Should We Do Next?

The heat duct redo is over and R couldn't be happier. Well...I guess he could be happier if it was race season and all he had to do was play with their (G & R's) race cars....but that ain't gonna happen. So with that said.....he's still happy that he doesn't have to go under the house anymore and that the furnace isn't coming on as often.

So what's next on the agenda?

We have several medium size dead trees that need cutting down but the weather is too snowy for that right now. The plan is to cut the trees down before the ground thaws and the spring rain starts. If we cut them down now while the ground is hard the lawn will not suffer from a terrible case of divots. I think we will set aside the tree falling until we have a sunny day.

R likes demo so maybe we will knock down that free standing wall that enclosed the coal room. The coal room was formed by building a cement block wall and adding a door. The door and door frame was removed several months ago because it was hanging by one rusty hinge. If we knock down the wall it would give us a larger storage room plus more light.

I am going back to stripping paint off the stairs and foyer/hallway trim. My plan is not to start the dining room until I am done with the stairs, foyer, and hallway.

The dining room is going to be a tough job. From what little investigating I have done so far the indication is that the wood was never varnished and was always painted which makes the paint very difficult to remove. In addition to the windows, window trim, and baseboards to strip there are two corner cabinets and a wide wooden ledge in the bay window that need to be stripped.

OOPS! I just remembered that I still need to strip the fireplace surround and mantel in the living room. That also has never been varnished and appears to have received it first coat of paint in a lovely shade of GREEN!!!The living room fireplace mantel and the dining room corner cabinets have fluted areas on them. I think my only course of action is to use stripper in those areas. I purchased some Peel Away last fall and will try that first. If that doesn't work I guess I am stuck using Citrus Away. I don't mind using the citrus stripper on parts that I can lay horizontally because it stays in one place. But the cabinets and mantel will require vertical application and I see a big mess if I have to use citrus stripper instead of Peel Away.

I also need to finish installing the glass panes in the sashes for the casement windows frames that R and I rebuilt in the fall.I can prime and paint them once the panes are installed and glazed. Of course they cannot be installed until the weather breaks. So I think the sashes will be one of those projects that get worked on for an hour a day and in between other projects. I find that glazing window panes aggravates the bulging discs in my neck. I need to rig some sort of easel so that I can prop the sashes upright instead of working on them while they lay across saw horses.

So there you have it, all the possible scenarios for our next project or should I say projects.

FYI nothing was accomplished today because R had a dental appointment which involved some prep work for his dental implant. Needless to say, he had to take a pain pill and has been in bed since he came home at 1PM.