Piddly Project Day

Too many little things have started to either annoy me or prevent me from checking things off my "honey-do" list.

I'm tired of sliding off this toilet (note that the missing pieces on the bottom of the seat that are supposed to keep it level). Every time I sit down I feel like I'm in one of those episodes of "Mad About You" with the sloping floor. So there's now a fancy, new, unstained seat installed. There's still an unpleasant odor on occasion, so I think think the wax ring is shot. A minor mechanical update of this room may be in the cards soon.

I finished painting the study walls, too. Yeah, I know, supposedly this was done a while ago. Well, some friends stopped over just as I was close to finishing up and I didn't get to the exposed radiator pipes on one wall along with the 6-inch by 10-foot strip behind the pipes where the roller wouldn't fit. Done now.

I also installed the other half of the base shoe in the study. It had been removed when we had the floors refinished and I finally found it.

Also caulked and foamed the threshold in the carriage house. All the rain over the past few days exposed some shortcomings at the bottom of the door frame/jamb.

And re-glazed a storm window for the kids' bathroom. Still needs paint before it can be installed. Of course we're out of that color, so paint and installation will have to wait for another day.

Break time is over! Back to Work!

More Shades

I installed this shade last night. Its mates on the other back hall windows have been installed for quite a while, but this one had to wait. The window frame is an odd shape at the top so I had to make and upholster a piece that fit the top 6-inches of the opening. It also had to provide a place to mount the shade. It's 1/4"x 6 on the face and 1x2 for the cleats around the edges. The fabric on the face is the same as the shade. The back is painted to match the eventual woodwork color.

Of course, the woodwork needs some help...

More Tile Installation

This afternoon I finished grouting the tile in the carriage house entryway. It's the same tile and grout as in the carriage house's kitchen and bath.

You can see the new threshold and door sweep as well. I had to shave a half inch off the bottom of the door, but at least there is a true threshold there now. Before the floor inside and sidewalk outside were at the same level, so there wasn't anything keeping snow/rain from getting inside...

Carriage House Update

Got the carriage house windows painted over the past few weeks (inside; the outside of the windows will have to wait until next year). This morning we installed a bunch of valances and I got prep work done on several projects.

More on those later...

What Else Can I Say?

She received this as a gift from some neighbors, Mary and Mark, and is taking advantage of it this weekend.

Now there is trouble!

More Tile Removal

I finished removing the tile in the entry of the carriage house tonight. At one point She Who Must Be Obeyed came out to check on me and claimed I was "bleeding profusely". I wouldn't call it "profusely", but that's the difference in our personalities. With little shards of the $#%! tile flying everywhere, I'm not surprised I received a few cuts here and there. Safety glasses are a good thing, but they don't protect your forehead...

Some of the tiles came up easily; mostly the ones that were along the left side of the picture. The ones that were in the foreground and along the right side tended to break into a few large pieces - not so bad. But, the ones close to the stairs tended to break into little #$%! pieces. And of course, the concrete under those (close to the stairs) isn't in the greatest shape either...

But that's why I did the demolition before the long weekend - to allow extra time for fixing the stuff you can't see before you start.

I'll also be installing a new threshold. The old one has been removed, but I'm not sure you can tell in the picture. The old wooden one was mostly non-existent!