We've Been Very Busy

We have been so busy that I sometimes forgot to take photos. But as R reminds me....."People don't need to see another photo of a trailer full of wood." He's right.....but don't tell him that!

I've lost track of the number of lawn trailer full of twigs, leaves, and branches that we have picked up so far. Far too many and far too many left to be picked up. We basically stayed outside on all the nice days picking up branches and raking out flower beds. We knew colder weather was coming so we made the best of the good days we did have.

We cut down two semi dead tall cedar trees that were on the back property line. Once they were down we were able to see why they were dying. They were completely rotted out in the center of the trunks. We haven't a clue as to what caused the rot.

Once the trees were gone we then had access to clean out the dead branches, empty walnut shells, and old leaves that have piled up over many many years. We then decided that we might as well get started on the dismantling of the old pool.

Sometimes in the past, probably whenever they decided to decommission the pool, they broke up the floor of the pool to allow rainwater to percolate into the ground. So that leaves us with removing the pool decking which is cement embedded with slate and removing the 10 inch wide cement pool coping (ledge/edge). We plan on using the slate to repair the slate walkways that need to be fixed through out the yard. The cement ledge/edge we will store because it would make great steps or a top for a retaining wall.

We can knock in the walls after all the slate and ledge removal is complete. In the meantime we removed the 24 inch high chain link fence that surrounded the pool. I wonder what the thinking was behind a 24 inch tall fence? R is making a scrap metal run in the next week and now is the perfect time to get rid of it. FYI for all you scrappers out there.....scrap metal is high right now and will soon go lower once summer arrives.

When the weather got cold again......we went back inside where we were back to stripping and sanding. We sold the two poplar doors that were too tall and are patiently waiting for the new door to arrive. The only reason I am patiently waiting is that I am waiting for some vintage ball top hinges to arrive so even if the door does show up we cannot install it until the hinges arrive.

I should finish up stripping the staircase tomorrow. That project went fairly fast because the paint was on top of varnish. The only hiccup was when I run across old carpet tacks that need to be removed. It was very difficult to get a good photo of the entire staircase because it is slightly spiral. The staircase will still need to be sanded and the treads will be stripped with citrus stripper because they will need to be stained and sealed. The rest of the staircase will be painted white with the handrail also stained to match the treads.After tomorrow I will have to make the decision of whether to move back to the living room and strip the baseboard and fireplace mantel or move on to the dining room OR finish the casement windows so when the weather gets warm enough to paint outside the casement windows are ready to go back into their openings. R is voting for finishing the casement windows.

The other day I was on the road as the sun was setting. Wow the sun was huge. There was a heavy haze so it filtered the sunlight just enough so you could see the entire outline of the sun.

Another Day...Another Door

We did not get as much accomplished as we intended. R sanded the baseboard and touched up some other areas with the sander. I stripped the clothes chute door and started stripping the trim around the built in cabinet.

Stripping was a slow process with a heat gun and dull scraper. Note to self....buy new scrapper tomorrow. I previously had stripped the doors and drawer fronts in the built in cabinet so I can't take credit for stripping those today. The built in cabinet is going to be quite the project because the paint is coming off in gobs.

This is what it looked like when we started today.And this is what it looked like when we quit three hours later.No, we did not install the door. Several years ago, I purchased 5 doors off of eBay from a seller in the southern part of Indiana. We drove there to pick up the doors and even though I told the seller we would not be there until 8 or 9 PM, the seller was already in his jammies and bathrobe when we arrived to pick up the doors. We just grabbed the doors and left without checking them. I did not realize until today that he gave me two doors that are too tall. I will need to sell those on eBay or craigslist. It's a bummer because the doors are new and made of poplar and look perfect except they are too tall.

We rummaged through our stack of doors in the game room and found door that we will install in the game room opening. I insisted that we just place the door in the opening so I could see what it would look like once it was installed. I just love it. The door totally changes the feel of the hallway.I now need to order a door for the kitchen doorway. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I can find the size and type I need IN STOCK at Home Depot. I am getting antsy to install the kitchen door and I really do not want to wait while they order the correct size.

In the meantime we will continue to strip and sand.

Dutch Door Removal

On Sunday we removed the Dutch style door that leads into the kitchen. The door did not close properly and will be replaced with a French door. R and I agreed that the door was not original to this location once we were able to look at the jamb up close. The deciding factor was when we removed the door stop from the jamb and saw old nail holes and paint witness marks from the door stop's previous location.

Here is a photo of the bottom portion of the Dutch door. The front and back are different styles. The side showing in this photo is the side that could be seen from the hall which is a recessed panel door like the doors in the rest of the house.The next photo is of the top portion and shows the side that faced the knotty pine kitchen.
The knotty pine was attached to the door making the door about 4 inches thick.

We do have a theory about this door. We think that possibly the panel door is original to the location but not the Dutch style nor the knotty pine. We have a hunch that the door was cut in half and knotty pine added to it when they installed the knotty pine in the kitchen. The knotty pine is not original because we can see the painted plaster wall behind the knotty pine panels.

We hope at sometime in the distant future to completely gut the kitchen and return it to a 1930 style cabinets but until then we will make do with what we have. Also the hallway is dark and having a French door will allow natural light to filter into the hallway.

When R was removing the door he said it reminded him of the old TV show Mr. Ed. R said that every time he walked by the closed Dutch door he expected Mr. Ed to throw open the top portion of the door and say, "Wilbur, I need some carrots."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSsuohepbVk

Now try and get that song out of your head. You will be singing "......a horse is a horse, of course of course....." all day long. No need to thank me......I do what I can.

Back to the house. "...a house is a house, of course of course...." Good grief.

Well anyways. Today we will move along the hallway sanding the base board, stripping the old clothes chute, and sanding this cool built in cabinet. After that we will strip the trim on the doorway leading into what will be the game room. This doorway also had a door on it at one time evident by the remaining door stop and hinge witness marks. Our plan is to install both the kitchen door and this door at the same time, probably mid week.

I had better get ready and go to Home Depot and see if they have any 80 grit sandpaper for a 5 inch round orbital sander. We will need the coarser grit to remove the paint from the built in cabinet. It appears that it was always painted and never varnished. The paint is harder to remove with the heat gun when the paint is not over varnish and always leaves paint that needs sanding.

"...a horse is a horse, of course of course.."

Will the Dust Ever Settle?

We're stripping and sanding up a storm......a dust storm. Every day I sweep up large piles of hardened paint chips and wood dust.

Today R sanded the wood trim around the opening that leads into the dining room from the foyer. While he sanded, I drove to Home Depot for more sandpaper.

When I returned home, I retrieved the Silent Paint Remover from the pile of tools in the game room. It had been awhile since I used it last. I find it is only useful when working on horizontal projects such as the exterior French doors that we purchased just before Christmas.I stripped one side of one door today. Since I was slightly bent over while I was scraping I now have a sore back. I have decided this is a project that I will need to work on for an hour a day until both exterior French doors and the matching wood storm doors are completely stripped.

I moved on to finishing the small doors that are on the cabinets in the living room. R re installed the doors once I finished stripping and sanding them.

The photo below shows the cabinet doors before the hinges were installed. You can see where we removed the wood shelves. We are installing glass shelves because the wood shelves were warped and cracked. The shelves were also not evenly spaced and did not match the shelves on the other side of the room.
Tomorrow we move on to the kitchen door that is in the main hallway. It is currently a Dutch style door that we will replace with another French door. I don't believe this Dutch door is original to this location because the door jamb looks like it was reworked. Also the door handle is too close to the edge of the door. When you close the door your knuckles hit the door jamb. I believe the door is original to the house but just not in this location. My best guess is that when they enlarged the kitchen it was removed from it's original location and installed here. We will use the Dutch door elsewhere. Where I do not have a clue but we will find a place for it.

The main hallway also needs another French door installed at the opening to the game room. You can see the witness marks of where the door hinges from a long ago removed door were located. They also left the door stop so it's just a matter of hanging another door. We purchased replacement French doors several years ago. But I still need to find door handles to match all our other doors.

The guest powder room is also off this hallway. The door has already been stripped so essentially it's a repeat of what we did to the 2 closets and basement door.

Our plan is to get this hallway stripped and sanded before all the snow melts. Once the snow melts we need to go back outside to pick up all the piles of logs and branches from the two trees we cut down several weeks ago. R also needs to cut up the two big tree trunks from the trees we had cut down last spring. His old chainsaw was not big enough to cut through the large trunks. His new chainsaw should do the job nicely. It will be nice to get outside again but I have a hunch that winter is not over just yet.

A friend asked me "when are you going to paint?" Our plan is to strip and sand the trim and do all the plaster repair on the first floor before we do any painting. The floor plan is too open to try and contain any dust that is generated from sanding. So that is why you haven't seen any painting.

I guess I will have to wait until tomorrow to tell you how we made the replacement pieces for the bevel glass French door. I am about ready to fall asleep on my keyboard. Night.

Another Curb Side Treasure

Before I get to the curb side treasure, I will catch everyone up on what I did today. Today I stripped. OK, now that I got that out of the way...onto the curb side treasure.

Several months ago R and I were driving to somewhere and found this chair out to the curb. I yelled "STOP"! R said "Why?" I said "I want that chair." He said "You've got to be kidding me?" I said "No, I want it."Once we got it home and in a better light he agreed it was worth saving. Now on first glimpse you might think......ewwwwww.....but look closer. The wood is in great shape although it could use a coat of paint. The cushions, at one time, were very cool. They appear to be a pearlized (is that a word?) leather.I think this chair will end up in my bedroom.Let's do a little prognosticating.

prog·nos·ti·cate v. prog·nos·ti·cat·ed, prog·nos·ti·cat·ing, prog·nos·ti·cates

1. To predict according to present indications or signs; foretell.

2. To foreshadow; portend:

Tomorrow I will be stripping.

Odds & Ends plus the 'To Do' List

R continued to putter around in the barn redoing his barn windows. Tonight he bought hinges, 1/4 round, and sash locks. One of the sashes needed 2 panes replaced so it was off to Ace Hardware to get glass and glazing points. As he drove by the front door I yelled to him and he stopped. I realized I had a $5.00 off certificate earned with Ace Rewards. Generally Ace is a little higher than Home Depot but it is close and if you are in the middle of a job sometimes it is better to pay more than drive 7 miles and shoot a whole hour of your time.

I, on the other hand, inoculated my ash trees one last time before winter. I have had good luck with the Bayer brand. I use it on all my ash trees whether or not I see infestation. The last 2 years I have spent approximately $600 each year to protect my ash trees. We currently have a huge ash tree that is 80% dead. It was already too infected by the time we bought 'The Gear'. It's sad because this tree is at least 100 years old which predates the house by 20 years.

Stripping continues in the living room. The built in cabinets are now free of paint. I am dreading the job of stripping the fireplace, so I think I will do the baseboard next.

Onto the 'To Do' list. Once I complete the living room I am moving into the foyer, then the vestibule, and then the dining room. The dining room will take some time because there are two built in corner cabinets, 3 large double hung windows, a large wooden bay window ledge, 3 entry ways, 1 door, and baseboard. The paint in the dining room will not come off as easy as in the living room because it is a different wood. The paint comes off in little gobs. Plus it smells like pine tar which makes me think it is clear pine.You can just catch a glimpse of the built in cabinet on the right side of the photo. Also the photo above shows the 3 windows with the bottom sashes removed.

On to the truth is stranger than fiction....look at the photos of my recent visitors. You will find them located on the right side of my blog. I am thinking that it must be the recent blog posts about stripping. I hope they were not disappointed. I checked my pockets for $5.00 bills and found none, so obviously this stripping does not pay as well as some other types of stripping.

Stripping Progress

I got a late start on stripping today. An early morning doctor appointment and a nap were the the reason for the late start.

When the doctor's office called yesterday to remind me that I had an appointment at 8AM, I thought to myself "who was the idiot that made that appointment?" I got up at 6AM, which is totally against my biorhythm. Holy cow, even when I was operating daily on 4-5 hours...I was never under any circumstances awake at 6AM. So needless to say when I returned home....I took a nap.

Fast forward to 2PM. Remember I said I needed to get the dwarf irises and day lilies planted? Job completed. Now on to stripping.....no wait...R decides today is the day he wishes to fix the barn windows. We confer on what needs to be done i.e. which windows need replacing, which windows just need a pane or two, and which windows are fine and just need to be realigned to eliminate air infiltration.

This brings me to a question I was asked awhile back....do you and your husband like doing projects together? The answer is "NO!" We tend to only work well together on meaningless projects like digging a hole or planting a tree. When it comes to anything that is remotely complicated.....well....let me give you an example.

About 5 years ago we bought a grill. We had the option of paying 50 bucks for them to assemble it or take it home and to it ourselves. The box said in large letters....."EASY ASSEMBLY 30 MINS". Well let me tell you it was not 30 minutes it was 3 hours. Even though both R and I are card carrying journeymen who's trades require assembly and dis assembly, we have two totally different methods. R is left handed. I am right handed. R would rather poke his eye out than read the manual. I like to peruse the photos. R retrieves tools as needed. I like to get all my tools ahead of time. R always sets his tools on the ground. I like to set my tools on a table etc. When G (engineer) lived at home it was a third totally different approach. He likes to read the manual and research everything to death!

It took us 3 hours of arguing, assembly, dis assembly, re assembly before we were done with that grill. So for mental health reasons we take on separate projects. I decide on all decorating issues, he can suggest but he really doesn't care so that is good. He's good with demo. I prefer non demo work. He's the worst painter. He's best with a spray can so I deal with all painting issues. I decide which plants to plant and where....he likes to water and tend to them.

So that takes us to today...he was in the barn and I was in the living room. I completed my task of stripping the woodwork and casing around the door that leads to the sun room. I haven't a clue what he got done because 1 hour into his project he was off to pick up the large band saw we had in storage.

B & G's Deck Update Before the Rain

R and I stopped by B & G's to do a little deck work. The 'To Do' list is getting small but the threat of rain is large. We knew we would be lucky to get the remaining spindles installed before the deluge. We were lucky. The spindle gods were smiling upon us today. We finished installing the spindles at 4:30PM. I started to snap a few photos at 4:39PM. The rain began at 4:35PM.The 'To Do' list includes installing railing cap on the hand rails, cut railing cap ends to correct overhang length, screw down the railing cap, fill screw holes, and touch up paint.Deck work was done for the day so it was back to 'The Gear' for more woodwork stripping. Both sets of windows in the living have been stripped (except for muntin bars). Tomorrow I start on the door casing, jamb, and woodwork that opens into the sun room. The door has already been stripped.

I think the woodwork stripping in the living room will go like this.....

Windows (2 sets) DONE
Door casing, jamb, and woodwork around door to sun room
Door to sun room DONE
Inset cabinets (2)
Inset cabinet doors (4) DONE
Baseboards
Fireplace

I conducted a test spot on the top of the mantle and it appears to be popular or birch, never stained, and the first paint color was olive green. Door to sun room is to the right in the photo.
If by chance it decides not to rain sometime in the near future I need to transplant some blue dwarf irises and a light yellow spider day lily that came from R's mother's house. I would also like to strip the paint from the exterior of the second set of living room windows. But I don't have any faith in the weather and if I can just get these plants into the ground...somewhere....I'll be happy.

Back to Stripping Windows

It rained.....no wait...it drizzled all day so that means inside today.

I am still working on stripping the windows on the outside but with todays weather I figured I would just start stripping those same windows inside the house.

Who ever painted the interior the last time it was painted, painted every surface flat white. They not only painted everything flat white but they did so by spray painting. Needless to say all the trim has to be stripped if we are to achieve a nice semi gloss finish.

While taking a closer look at the window I noticed that calamine pink color. Look closely in the area by the sash rope. I started stripping the paint on the sill using my lighter duty heat gun. Immediately the paint started coming off in large sheets leaving little residue behind. Then I remembered I didn't take a before photo.....so I stopped and snapped a quick photo.
I removed the sash stops once I had removed all the paint from the trim on each side of the window. I now could easily move the sash up and down. This also allowed me to get to some of the harder to reach areas on the outside. Then it was on to scraping the paint off the sashes.I realized the wood was different than the wood in the dining room when I stopped to snap another photo. Notice how the wood is dark........now moving to the dining roomThe window on the right has some of the paint removed from the left side. Notice how it is lighter?

Hmmmm.....the dining room wood appears to be birch or popular. The living room wood is maybe redwood, fir, or ???? The grain is very tight and hardly noticeable. I lightly and quickly sanded just to see the results and wow I think it will paint up beautifully.

Now I know some of you will say....."It's blasphemous to paint wood trim." I believe this trim was always painted since it does not have a coat of shellac or varnish present. So by painting the trim I will be restoring the trim to it's original condition. That condition of course will not be calamine pink but semi gloss white.

Tomorrow we will be back at B & G's for more post and top cap work. Let's keep our fingers crossed that when we leave their house tomorrow the only remaining work will be the spindles.

The Holy Grail of paint removal

Lately all I do is strip. Not that kind of strip....geeeeees. You know paint stripping. I strip strip strip and all I have to show for it is a very sore shoulder and a pile of paint chips. So I bit the bullet and bought a Silent Paint Remover. The only saving grace was that I bought it on eBay for $400.00. Had I known that I needed one I would have bought one in the winter when I could have gotten one for about $350.00.

Here it is in all it's glory. The Holy Grail of paint removing...The Silent Paint Remover.

I was leaving for work when it arrived, but from what I can tell it looks like it's hardly been used. I'll try it tomorrow if it doesn't rain.

I was reading the house blog Ocean Manor House. He made his own infrared remover. Very clever. If we decide that we need a second unit, it might be advantageous for us to build one. But for now....I needed one like last week.

The nectarine trees were planted today. A variety called Fantasia. I also trimmed all the fruit trees today. Only one looks iffy. But I'm not jumping the gun. It could just be that the early warm weather we had followed by the single digit cold snap might have damaged the buds. I can replace it in the fall with another peach tree. All the rest looked good and several smelled wonderful.

I also trimmed all the climbing rosebushes. Lots of dead canes but also a lot of new growth. Only one bush looked bad and again I am not going to panic just yet. I could see that most of the bushes had frost damage to the new growth.

My nearly black tulips are at their peak right now. In just the right light, they do look black.

I really need to get my landscaping rocks down before the weeds start to grow. But then I need to strip, mow, paint, got to work, make more shutters, hang shingles, and fertile the lawn and put down grub control. I wonder if I can get that all done this weekend????? this summer??? this year???

Stripping paint...oh so much fun...

On Sunday, I started stripping the paint around the exterior of the windows. I am using a heat gun and as long as the wind stays below gale force and the air temp is above 55 degrees, I can make pretty good time.

So far I have stripped 3 complete windows and 3 additional bottom sashes. I have, so far,only found one damaged/rotted part. It is in the middle of the bottom rail and is 1 inch by 3 inches and about 1/2 inch deep. Should be a fairly easy patch, I hope.

I am amazed at the thickness of the paint is some areas. Overall I'd say the paint is 1/16th of an inch with areas as thick as 1/8th of an inch. The original shingle color, as well as the trim color appears to be a medium to light grey. We will be painting a darker grey with white trim.

The original roof was cedar shakes painted a dark emerald green. When I stripped the front door (40" v groove 2 1/2" thick), I found it to have been painted white, tan, turquoise, red, and dark green. The body of the house, as best as I can tell, was originally grey, then white, tan, white, and light yellow. It also appears that they painted the trim more often than the body of the house.


Here are the windows before I started paint removal using a heat gun.





Here are the windows, 2 1/2 hrs later.

Approximately 5 hours of scraping to finish this set of windows. Hopefully, on Sunday, they will be sanded and primed....weather permitting.

Here is a photo of the first flowers to bloom in my yard this spring.

They are very tiny. For reference, those stones are the size of quarters, nickels, and dimes. But they are still purdy!!!!!!! Real purdy!!!!

Here they are 2 days later. Even more purdy.