1960's Craftsman Table Saw Refurbish Part 3

If you are new to this project click on the links below to read.... 

Part 1

Part 2

Today was beautiful.  Sunny and about 50 degrees.  We carried the saw base outside and put it up on saw horses so R could sand the base and enjoy the sun at the same time.  But first we had to glue the two top pieces together to form one top.  

Once that was done R got busy using the belt sander to remove decades of dirt and oil off of the old wooden base and

I got busy shoveling snow off the deck.  Despite the above freezing temps and full sunshine, the snow just was not melting fast enough for us. 

After sanding was completed, R cut some little pieces to fill in around the legs.  

This is purely for aesthetic purposes just like the trim piece that we added afterwards.  The trim piece was left over from the flower box tune up that we did to spruce up the backs of the flower boxes on the deck railing.  BTW I ordered 4 more flower boxes from Dave Ciliberto of Ciliberto Woodworking in Vermont. Dave has built all of my window/flower boxes and he does a great job.

We were one piece short on the little trim piece that we added to the base.  But that is OK because I need more for the new window/flower boxes, so we will just add 3 feet to my lumber list and pick up enough to finish the saw base and the new window/flower boxes when they arrive.

By 3PM we had our coats off and were wearing just sweatshirts AND the snow was still hardly melting.  I just couldn't let this afternoon go by without painting something.  I look at it like this,  if it is warm enough to paint then spring has sprung and goodbye winter.  So I used the air gun to blow off any residual saw dust and then opened my quart of Royal primer/paint from Ace Hardware and put the first coat of paint on the saw base.  The base will need a second coat tomorrow but it already looks so much better.

What do you think?  

Tomorrow we will add that last piece of trim and I will give the entire base a second coat AND then I am going to prime some shutters.  R will probably spend the day cutting the new top to fit and then sanding the new top.  Saturday's mail brought both of the products that I purchased to restore the saw table.  More on those products later.

Reuse Repurpose Recycle

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Laboring Away on the House on Labor Day

While priming and painting the kitchen exterior walls I had an epiphany.  It was about the game room which is next in line for shingles and window replacement.  We already have the two window units to replace the last of the two large mid century casement windows in the game room.  

We already removed one large casement window on the north side of the game room several years ago.  I like to keep windows on the north side at a minimum because of the cold winter winds that can come from the north.  Plus, that area is perfect for a large screen TV.   This room at one time had 4 doors and 4 large windows.  We have already closed off two doors and removed one large window and have another large window in our crosshairs. 

But on the south side of the game room we have a large blank wall to one side of the patio doors and a large window unit will be installed on the other side.  I have a real problem with things being unbalanced and not symmetrical when it comes to design. 

We already know that at one time there was a small window on that wall. We uncovered the small window when we did some game room demo years ago.  The small window is out of scale with the other windows so we will relocate that small window to the basement.   And in it's place we will install another window unit exactly like the kitchen windows and the window on the other side of the patio doors.  This should give us a lot of light in the game room in the summer, much wanted solar gain in the winter, and remedy my disdain with unbalanced design elements.  

I wasn't sure how R was going to feel about buying another large window unit. But as soon as I mentioned it, he was on board.  Whew.....that was a relief.  R has a hard time with change so if he thought it was a good idea, it must be......right?

I actually was able to get some grey paint on the shingles today.  R was using the ladder that I needed to use to finish the priming at the very top, so I started at the bottom and painted upwards until I got to the unprimed area.  By the time that R was finished and the ladder was available, it was after 6PM so we called it a day.

 The area of the blue tarp is the location of where we will add an additional window unit like the large window above and below.  This will also help to repeat that same design element so it looks more cohesive and not a willy nilly arrangement of various sizes of windows.  

I am so looking forward to comparing the before and after  photos of this part of the house.

I hope everyone is enjoying their Labor Day holiday.

Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle

Window Windfall

I knew that I wanted a window where the hay loft doors are on the barn.  The window had to be vintage and inexpensive because there was no way that I was going to spend a couple of G's on a window for the barn.  Recently I had located two large divided lite picture windows on Craigslist for $300 each.  I would only need one but I really wanted a window that opened to  help with the heat that collects in the barn loft.  But $300 was a pretty good price until Friday when I found these.

On a whim I ran into one of my favorite consignment shops on Friday.  Not only did I buy two vintage casement windows with original hardware but I also scored a wood window for one of my vintage wood storm doors.

Our plan is to trim out the casement windows so they match the windows on the house.  The windows will open inward and we will probably make wood screens at a later date.

But the best part is that the two casement windows were $22 each and the wood storm window for the door was $14 so that equals a big SCORE!!! in my book.

I needed to run an errand mid day so I decided to use the heat gun to strip the paint off the windows because it is far easier to just shut off a heat gun and go than it is to stop painting, put away the paint, and clean the brush and then go.

We did move the ladder over to the right side and I will paint as far as I can reach.  After that we will need to bring down the ladder and remove the stabilizer bar (love it and it makes the ladder feel sturdier) so I can get closer to the edge.  

I will not let this holiday weekend end without the painting getting finished.  

Today the Wasps Won

I spent over an hour today at the oil change place.  Normally it is a 30 minute max visit but today was another story. I was down to 1% oil life and I plan on driving this vehicle until we are done with the majority of the messy work on the house.  No need to trash a perfectly good SUV so I will continue to drive this vehicle.  I currently have 258K miles on it so I know it can last until we are done with the house. The suspension isn't the best and I need a new AC compressor but none of that interferes with trips to the lumber yard or garden shop.  

It was early afternoon by the time I got home and started painting.  I painted the white trim and grey portion on the right side.  I climbed down and got R to help me slide the ladder over to the left side so that I could paint the white trim and grey portion on the left side before moving the ladder down two rungs.  Unfortunately a handful of wasps showed up and were buzzing around the top of the ladder.  I decided to stop painting and eat a ham sandwich in the hopes that they would go away.

The ham sandwich was tasty and it looked like the wasps were gone so I started up the ladder and got all the way to the top only to be met by two wasps who were very unhappy to see me.  So I hurried back down the ladder.

Watering plants seem to be an everyday chore now that we haven't had any real measurable rain in weeks.  I thought if I gave the wasps time to buzz off, that I could still get some painting done and move my ladder down before calling it quits for the day.  Unfortunately the wasps had other ideas and just would not go away.

Since I can't show you a finished south side, I'll show you a finished west side and some of the flowers that are just about to bloom. 

 Here is the pink hydrangea that we bought on mark down last fall.  It is only 2 foot tall right now but should grow to 4 feet and help to hide the gas meter. 

This is a pink coneflower which is one of the staples of my landscaping.  I have four plants that you can find throughout my yard.  Hostas, daylilies, coneflowers, and Knock Out roses.  They all do well with my soil and do not seem to be affected by the black walnut trees. 

Finished west side of the house.  I love this time of the day when the shadows of the large trees in the front yard are cast onto the front of the house.

 Fingers crossed that I can wind up the painting tomorrow because I would really like to finish putting rocks in the bed around the foundation.  I can't do that until I am done painting because the rocks interfere with the ladder sitting flush on the ground. 

We are those kind of people now

Today the temperature got to a high of 95 degrees but tomorrow is forecasted to be 69 degrees for a high temperature.  I love summer but I find it very difficult to paint in 95 degree weather so tomorrow should be a great painting day.

After some initial running around taking care of errands, I stopped and ordered our next round of windows to replace the inappropriate style windows that were installed in the 60's or 70's. The windows should arrive around Labor Day weekend.

When I arrived back home, R informed me that we needed more bird seed and when would my sister and I make another trip to Sam's Club?  I reminded him that she was puppy bound and it would be another month or so before she would make it into  the big city from the boonies to make another trip to Sam's Club.  So I suggested that we just get a membership for ourselves.  He agreed and off we went to Sam's Club for black sunflower seeds.

$190.00 later we left the store.

R was like that episode of Modern Family where Mitchell goes shopping at a Costco store for the first time.

So I guess we are 'those kind of people' now.

We drink diet Coke and when we passed a large package of diet Coke cans R said "that's a good price, its 31 cents plus 10 cents for deposit.  41 cents is CHEAP."  So we put a large package of diet Coke in the cart.  Then it was a huge package of baby Swiss cheese, then a huge package of socks, then some snacks, two huge containers of pretzels (one large one wasn't enough), and a yellow honeydew melon. We needed two containers of pretzels but only one melon?

  

We finally made it to the bird seed.  Not only did we get a 40 lb bag of black sunflower seeds for under 19 bucks but also a bag of mixed seed which we usually don't buy.  This 40 lb bag of mixed seed had peanuts and a lot of good seeds so it was deemed a good buy.  Then he noticed a 30 lb bag of dry cat food that our cats eat in between their can food meals.  I could hardly push the cart.  That's how they get you.  You come for one bag of bird seed and and before you know it...you are $190 lighter in the wallet.

The veggies in pots are kicking it.  We might be eating a cucumber this weekend, probably along with a pretzel.

 Lemon Boy tomato.

 Jalapeno pepper. 

 Tomatillo.

 Celery.

I was able to get a little more painting completed once the south side of the house was in the shade.  Tomorrow I will lower the ladder and move it to the side and hopefully finish another portion.   

I was sidetracked and buzzed

My 'to do' list today had 10 tasks on it.  I was able to only accomplish the 4 easiest tasks.  I tried my best but it was fruitless. Man, animal, and mother nature were all against me today.

We got an early start because R needed to take his truck in for AC service, so I needed to follow him to the shop to bring him back home.  While he was giving them the keys, one of the guys mentioned that he knew where R could get a new bumper for $100.00.  This truck came with a screwed up rear bumper and it was one of the reasons why the truck was so affordable.  He could get by with the bumper that is on there but for a 100 bucks it would be nice to have one that didn't look like someone had run into the rear of the truck.  But then again it is a work truck that we use to haul rocks, dirt, mulch, debris, and scrap so it doesn't have to look pretty.

But first R wanted to check the price of a replacement bumper at Bumper Mart......yes, Bumper Mart.  So we needed to drive over there and price a replacement bumper.  Nope they couldn't beat the $100 price so we drove back to the shop to tell them to order the $100 bumper.

We drove home and watered and fertilized all the flowers and veggie plants.  We use fish fertilizer and the flies came from the next county the minute I opened the bottle.  Ewwww, it's stinky but works great.

I was just about ready to open a can of paint when R asked me what I wanted to do with all the branches etc behind the barn.  Normally we would just burn them but currently we are under a 'no burn' condition because of the lack of rain.

While I was behind the barn I heard a bird making a lot of noise.  I finally located it and it was a woodpecker feeding her babies.  Did I have my phone with me?  Nope and by the time I got back to take a photo, she was gone.  Bye bye...I'm outta here.  So I kept my phone with me all day in the hopes of getting a photo.

I was just about ready to open my paint can when I heard the mail truck.  So I walked out to the mail box to get the mail.  That's when I got distracted for another hour.  Sharon from Laurelhurst Craftsman sent me a Flint Faience Tile catalog.  I had to immediately sit down and look at the tile options that were available back in the 1920's when my house was built.  I found my master bedroom fireplace tile and my master bath tile and sadly the vestibule tile that we removed and discarded.  In my defense, it was damaged and missing a lot of pieces, plus we thought it was from the 60's.  I'm ashamed.

Thank you, Sharon

So now I want to correct that mistake and install mosaic tile in the vestibule. Probably in various green shades.  The original was various tan shades which is not a color that would work well with anything that I have in my house right now. 

By now it was lunch time.  We ate and I don't know about you but after I eat a meal I am worthless for about an hour.  I spent the next hour day dreaming of tile and snoozing in my reclining lawn chair.  When I finally woke up out of my food stupor I opened a can of paint.

About two seconds after I stuck the paint stir stick in the paint, R walked up and said "you have to drive me to the shop to pick up my truck".  OMG I'll never get any painting done.

I drove him up to the shop and drove right home to paint.  I reopened the paint can and started up the ladder when I realized that the ladder was at the wrong angle.  Back down the ladder I went and waited until R came home to help me adjust the ladder.  The ladder is heavy and it takes two people to adjust  it even when it is not fully extended.  I waited and I waited and I waited.  R had decided he needed a Mexican mocha coffee and then he ran into a couple of people he knew and yadda yadda yadda it was an hour before he came back home.  In the meantime I was back looking at tile designs in the Flint Faience Tile catalog.

Once the ladder was adjusted and I was actually able to paint.  I got all of this painted...

...before a bee/wasp/hornet buzzed my head and hair.  I was afraid of being stung (I'm allergic) or falling off the ladder or spilling paint all over the new windows so I came back down the ladder and called it quits in the painting department.

By this time the sun was partially behind the trees in the front yard so I decided to transplant a catalpa tree that I found growing in my rose bushes.  I've been watering the tree heavily for the last two days to help with transplanting stress but first I needed to dig the hole.  I picked a good spot and started to cut through the sod.  I was shocked at how hard the soil was where I was digging.

I peeled back the sod and started digging.  Actually it was more like chipping away than digging.  I finally gave up and filled the hole with water to soften the dirt and will attempt to plant the tree tomorrow evening.  I always transplant trees in the evening so that they can recover in the cool of the night from any transplanting stress.

By this time I was ready to call it quits when I remembered I had one more trash can of twigs that needed to go to the curb for trash pick up tomorrow.  I no sooner got behind the barn and I hear that woodpecker again.  I look up and she is feeding her babies.  Their little heads were sticking out of the hole in the side of the tree.  I reached around to my back pocket to grab my phone to take a photo and it wasn't there.  By the time I got back....she was gone.  I'll get a photo one way or the other and I'll get some painting done, too.  When? I don't know.

Hotter Than the Hubs of Hell

We scored the doors. We are 2 for 2 when it came to our last two great finds.

Not only were the doors in perfect shape but the entire drive to and from took exactly 1 uneventful hour. No traffic jams, no traffic detours, or bad GPS information. Drove there, looked at doors, put doors in truck, and then drove home.

One thing that we did notice on the drive there were all the storm damaged trees. According to the owner of the doors this was the result of the storm that went through last week during the Back to the Bricks Cruise. I posted how the storm siren was blaring but the sky was sunny except to the north where the sky was rather dark. I did not notice any structural damage on our drive and it appeared to us that it was mostly tree damage.

I forgot to take a photo of the doors...oops!!! I will do that tomorrow and then add it to this post.

Tomorrow's forecast is for rain later in the day. We are keeping our fingers crossed because number 1... we need the rain and number two...I need a cloudy day to finish picking up all the limbs and debris that we cut down along the front fence row last weekend.

The clean up has been slow due to the extreme heat. It's been hotter than the hubs of hell. The clean up area is in the sun and close to the asphalt street which seems to reflect a lot of heat. Just walking out to the street has been exhausting in this heat.

Last Saturday while R was at the track with G, I was able to get all the fence posts and the top rail on one side painted and most of the top rail on the other side painted. I have about 20 feet of top rail left to paint. Hopefully it will be cloudy tomorrow and I can finish painting. This would leave just the chain link to paint and I plan on doing that this fall with a full size roller.

After the top rail is painted and we have finished picking up the debris I will review my list and see what we accomplished. To be truthful I kind of forgot what was on the list so I won't peek and look at it now because I know I will just be disappointed in our progress.

I'll just do a Lindsey Lohan and refuse to take the blame for the slow progress. What would Lindsey say?

"It was too hot" (make sure you whine when you say that).

"The branches had thorns and picky thingies on them." "Ouch" (whine again).

"Who ever cut the branches left them too long." (Again Lindsey never takes the blame so I shouldn't either).

"It was too hot AND dusty." (Lindsey's excuses are feeble, so mine will also be feeble).

"I didn't know it would take this long to clean up." Waaa Waaaa!

Painting the Chain Link Fence

Our property is surrounded by a 6 foot tall chain link fence. Simply put.....it is ugly.

In some places the chain link is rusty. It appears that at some time the fence was repainted with silver colored paint. So why not paint it again?

My hope was that by painting the fence in a satin black that it would recede into the background and disappear. I'm using Rust Oleum black satin enamel. This is the same paint I used on the wrought iron driveway gates.

Here is what the fence in the right side of the driveway looked before painting. These photos are not the best. Photographing chain link fence while facing the sun rarely results in a good photo.Here is the fence after painting the posts and top rails. You can see my neighbors chain link fence on the right side of the photo. The fence no longer jumps out at you. It recedes nicely into the background. Of course I would rather have wrought iron to match the gate but as R would say,"If wishes were horses we could all take a ride." Where in heck does he come up with these sayings?I still need to paint the chain link but I want to wait until I can do both sides of the chain link at the same time. It was getting late when I finished painting the posts and top rails this evening. I will use a small roller to paint the chain link.

That was several days ago. I have now started painting with the small roller. That is going slower than I expected but I like the results.

Painting has come to a standstill between the rain and intense heat. At this point I have about 20% of the fence painted.