A Handful of Small Jobs

The weather was rather brisk today so that limited us on what jobs we could work on. So rather than "cut a large swath" as R would say, we chose to get a handful of small jobs done or at least started.

First off.....I installed the decorative metal straps on the Dutch door so that I wouldn't lose any of the decorative square head screws that attach the straps to the door.After I installed the straps on the door, R pulled up the underlayment that was on the landing behind the door. Last year we pulled up the ugly vinyl but never got around to finishing the job. Underneath all the ugliness was a grey painted wood floor that looked just fine. This week we will remove the rotted threshold and replace with a new oak threshold.

That job prompted us to remove the last ugly vinyl in the house. The little mudroom just off the kitchen has the world's ugliest vinyl. Now tell me this......when was this vinyl considered lovely? I think the answer is never. Plus, I have no idea what it matched or coordinated with in the kitchen. Since the room is small, I left R to remove the vinyl and I went outside to remove some paint from around the dining room windows.
Last year the Pink Diamond hydrangeas were so big that I had difficulty getting my ladder in position to scrap paint. By the time winter came I had two areas that I missed above the middle and right side window.

I was able to reach some of the paint above the middle window and started paint removal on the shingles between the windows. By this time the temperature was so low and the wind speed so high that my heat gun was ineffective.
This seemed like a good time to stop for the day.