Primitive Pete

Anyone else remember "Primitive Pete"?  He was a cartoon character that always used the wrong tool or used a tool in the wrong way.  Usually with the expected bad result.

Well, some of Pete's handiwork can be seen in the photo on the right.  Yup, rather than a collar ring there's a nail holding the light's canopy in place.  It's awesome that someone went to the trouble of painting the nail so that it matched the canopy.

All this because...  behind the canopy are the mounting bar and threaded rod.  And they are so corroded that they aren't adjustable.  I have a box full of them.  You get at least one with every light fixture you buy.  And you can get them at any hardware store or home center for less than the loose change in your pocket.  This.  Instant.

Wow.  I'm wishing I had a Tardis so that I could travel back in time to see/hear the decision making that went into this.

The next picture on the right shows the fixture that utilized this wonderful bit of handiwork.

As I've said before with other things around here; it didn't quite fit.

It's too small, so the scale wasn't quite right with the house and the space at the front entry.

The color was all wrong as well.  I don't mind verdigris in general, but it's the only thing that color anywhere on the grounds.

And the style was a little off as well.

The new one, pictured next, came in late last week.  After spending some quality time on the ladder outside today, I'm glad to be sitting by the fire writing this post.

Once again, we'd been looking off-and-on for a long time.  We found one we liked and ordered it.  When we called six weeks later to check if it was in, we were informed that it had been discontinued.  Another salesperson on my naughty list...

This one we found at a different store.  ;-)

The Big Clock

This wall in the study has always needed something.

For a long time we thought that a big, old clock would be interesting.  We'd see some at various shops, but usually they had the wrong look to them; either too casual, country, woodsy, or the wrong scale.

On a whim a few weeks ago I did some internet searching and found a place with a surprisingly clever name, The Big Clock Store.  I'm sure someone paid a marketing consultant a lot of money for that one...

A little customization and, voila, it arrived last night.  Of course, we were having a family party and it arrived just before we opened gifts.

Perfect timing.

Merry Christmas to the Emerson Hadley House.

What's a Demi-Lune Table?

Amazingly, the guy that knows how to re-plumb a bathroom also knows what a demi-lune table is.  And he's been looking for the right one for ages.

Didn't exactly find it, but found something better instead.

We wanted one in the main hall between the doors to the living and dining rooms.  While we we looking, we had a chest we'd brought along from the old house.  It wasn't quite the right size or style, but it was functional while we searched for the right piece (pictured).

Like always, we looked half-heartedly at many places on the off chance we'd find "The One" while we we really looking for something else.

Of course, there's always a story.  Or in this case, starkly contrasting stories of The Search For The Perfect Demi-Lune Table (nice detail on the top, eh?).

One day, SWMBO found a candidate on a website for a company that shall not be named.  It has a store in a lovely town at the center of the furniture world, also known as Becker, MN.  They also have several satellite stores around the metro area.

We went to one of the satellite stores to check if they had the table in stock.  The salesman couldn't find it.  Anywhere.  Even though we had it on our iPad on their website right in front of his face.  It took the help of several sales people (all falling all over themselves volunteering to be our interior design consultant) 30 minutes before they finally found it.  On a different system.  Under a different product code.  And, of course, they only had one in stock. At the main store.

We could purchase it, they said, and they'd ship it free-of-charge to the satellite store where we could pick it up in a few days.  They'd call us when it arrived and we could take it home.  If it didn't work out, we could return it; no questions asked.

A week came and no call.  So we called to check on the status.  They said they'd check into it and call us back.

They didn't.  So we called back a few days later.  They said they'd check into it and call us back.

They didn't.  So we called back a few days later.  They said they'd check into it and call us back.   (Don't worry, my keyboard is not stuck.)  We said we'd wait on the line while they checked.  When they came back, they said it was in and we could pick it up.  Now, I don't know if the dude had to carry it on his back from Becker to Roseville, if 2 days in Becker equals 2 weeks in the real world, or if they have phones that don't dial out.  And I don't care.  But it gets better.

SWMBO picked it up on Wednesday.  I knew as soon as I saw it that it wasn't the right one; the style was fine, but the color was off and it wasn't wide enough.

It wasn't until Saturday that we had time to return it.  I carried it into the store and back to the "customer service" counter.  I waited for the two ladies (who appeared to be doing nothing) to acknowledge my presence. And waited.  And waited.  Finally one looked up from her computer and glanced in my direction (note that I was standing right in front of her).  She looked back down for a bit and then, without raising her gaze asked if she could help.

I waited for her to look at me before saying, "I'd like to return this table.  It didn't quite work in the space the way we'd hoped."  She didn't offer her hand as I reached with the receipt, so I set it on the counter next to her computer.  She looked at it for a bit and said, "Our return policy is seven days. I can't accept this."

I took a deep breath to keep my head from exploding and replied slowly, "If you check, you'll see we picked it up on Wednesday which is 3 days ago by my count and you really don't want to go there."  Without saying another word she finally picked up the receipt and began doing the right thing.  After several minutes of stuff she handed back the receipt and said, "Here you go."

No "I'm sorry it didn't work out"; no "Have a nice day"; nothing.

Contrast that with the experience we had at Pomegranate Designs.

On a Saturday we were out looking for random decorating things for the house.  As soon as we saw the table (pictured) in the shop, we knew it was the right one.  They only had the floor sample and it had a small nick in the finish below the bottom drawer.  The saleswoman said she'd order one for us.  She called first thing Monday morning to say that the table was on back order for 6-8 weeks.  She added that we could have the floor sample - the owner of the shop would have the nick repaired to our satisfaction and we'd get a 10% discount.  In addition, they'd have the repair done so that we could pick it up on Saturday if that worked for us.

Wow!  I couldn't find more opposite experiences if I tried.

Just In Time

The inspector arrived on time to inspect the fireplace gas lines.

The installers arrived on time and finished the installations.

Not quite in time for an evening with some close friends (M, R , TJ, and Z - now you're famous; you got a mention on the blog ;-).

But just in time for a couple of big parties.

The important part is that they got done in time for the big snow storm we're having today.

I think I'll just sit here and scorch the bottoms of my feet.

Jeeves, before you shovel the walk, bring me another cognac my good man!

Fireplace Inserts - part 2

The master fireplace didn't go in as easily.

OK, maybe a better way to say it is that it wasn't as easy to run the gas lines.

What you can see in the top picture looks great (or will once the face plate is installed).

What had to happen behind the scenes in the kitchen is another story...

They had to run the gas line from the basement, inside the kitchen wall against the bask of the chimney, and drill a hole through the back of the chimney into the firebox.

The big hole above the microwave and near the ceiling?  The one above the range and below the microwave?  That's how they got the gas line "inside the wall at the back of the chimney".

It's not that I mind the holes; it's more that there was an inch of dust and junk all over everything once they were done.  And SWMBO had to clean it up.  I suspect that will end up on the comment card when this is done...

The holes aren't a big deal considering that I despise the current kitchen and can't wait to gut it and start over.  The style of the cabinets doesn't fit the house. Nor do the counters and floor.  The work triangle is the nuttiest I've ever seen (note the proximity of the range and sink).  And that cabinet on the right can't be opened because the light fixture is in the way.  And that's a battle for a future day.

Fireplace Inserts - Part 1

The two inserts on the main floor went in fairly easily.  A long time ago we'd removed the plaster from the basement ceiling.  That gave easy access to run the gas lines.

The installers hooked up the living room fireplace so that we could use it prior to the inspection next week.  The photos show before and after the installation of the insert.  There's a roaring fire in the after picture; it raises the temperature on the first floor at least 3 degrees!

Once the inspection passes, the installers can come back and put on the face plates.

If everything works out, they'll all be done just in time for She Who Must Be Obeyeds next big party.

Hopefully this time I won't be installing a chandelier at midnight the night before...

Using The Right Tools?

When you're getting gas fireplace inserts installed, do you expect that this is the special tool that is needed?

The guys had a 20 foot ladder.  It's not long enough to get to the roof to drop the new flues into place.  So they needed this...

When we moved in, we had the chimneys cleaned and inspected.  Not surprisingly, the flues were in bad shape.  So bad that we couldn't use the fireplaces without risking burning the house down.  Enough of the mortar is missing that we'd get "heat transfer" and start the walls on fire.

Of course, the cost to re-line one chimney is about the same as converting 3 fireplaces to gas inserts.  Pretty simple decision there...

We've known we wanted to do this for a long time, so we'd been looking at various options.  It turns out that the fireplaces were originally coal-burners.  For those, the fireboxes are smaller than in a wood-burning fireplace.  The net result is that most inserts are too big to fit, so our choices were somewhat limited.

We finally get enough other things done to prioritize the fireplaces.  It didn't hurt that the timing worked out with a sale at the vendor we'd picked a while back.

The installers showed up today and things went pretty smoothly (other than not having a suitable ladder ;-).

The installation is mostly done.  The new gas lines just need to be inspected before the face-plates can be installed.  All that should be done about this time next week.

Aaaargh!

She Who Must Be Obeyed wanted a mirror above the dining room fireplace.

After the walls have been painted.

Not so bad if you frame the mirror like a picture and hang it like one.

On the other hand...

If you want to attach it directly to the wall without any sort of mechanical fastener...

Then you need some way to hold it in place while the adhesive cures.

I tried many approaches to avoid putting holes in the freshly painted mill work.

But no joy.

So I ended up with this.

Now I get to patch the holes and repaint.

And you can't just touch up the spots because you can never get the sheen to match quite right.  You have to paint the whole surface to a natural edge.

Bleeding Radiators

It's that time of year again.

When it starts getting cold, it's time to bleed the radiators.  Usually you can tell which ones need to be bled by whether they get warm or not.  ;-)

We've been in the house long enough to recognize a pattern.  There are a couple in the attic that get a little air in them.  The rest are typically fine except for one in the kitchen.  For some reason it always has a lot of air in it.  And that means the kitchen is stone cold while the rest of the house is quite comfortable.

If you look closely, you can't find the guilty radiator in this picture.

That's not because it isn't there.

Rather, it's because it's cleverly disguised as a set of kitchen cabinets.

That's right.  It's that little slot underneath the window that lets the hot air escape from the radiator (normally the perforated metal grate on the counter covers the hole; I've removed it to get to the bleed valve).

It's extremely effective at keeping our seldom used baking dishes pre-heated.

It's also effective at taking up lots of cupboard space.

It's not so good at keeping the kitchen warm.

Oh boy am I itching to completely remodel this kitchen...

Carriage House Doors - Part 2

Early in the year we had new carriage house doors installed.

The doors were primed prior to being installed back in January.  Obviously it was a little to cold to paint then, so I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

For no particular reason, I guess.

Last weekend I finally got a round to putting on the finish coat of paint, just in time as it were - overnight lows are expected to be in the 20s over the weekend...

It's the same color as the trim on the house and it works well with the stone.

Boiler Pump

A few weeks ago it started to get a little cool at night.  We haven't had the heating plant "cleaned" since we moved in four years ago, so we figured it was time before we needed to turn on the heat for the winter.  We also received a "Fall Tune-up" special in the mail that happened to be from the same company that installed the new boiler for the previous owners. Things were starting to align.

When I turned on the boiler, the pump started to make an awful racket.  It didn't make that noise last year.

Good timing.

When the service guy came he checked everything out.  Everything on the boiler all looked good, except the pump.  It would run for a while, make an awful racket, and then shut off.  So they ordered a new pump and would come back in 10 days or so to install it.

Meanwhile, it started to get chilly at night so we broke out the blankets.

When the new pump arrived they came to install it.  It took several hours to drain the system before they could remove the old pump.  There's a lot of water in those old pipes.

When they finally could remove the old pump, they discovered that the blades on the impeller were pointed the wrong way.

It's a wonder we got any heat at all...

Scrape and Sand

Once I removed all the old nails and staples, I could start preparing the frames to be re-painted.  I paused halfway through to take this picture.  The one on the bottom/left is already done.  The top/right one is untouched.

The paint had some serious "alligatoring", so it was time to get down to bare wood.  I spent most of the day with a heat gun, orbital sander, and dremel to get into all the nooks and crannies.

I still have a bit of work to do to repair the bottom edge of each door before starting the painting process.

And the screw holes for the hinges are shot so they need the dowel and glue treatment.

Choosing Fasteners

Let's say you were choosing fasteners to attach the small, 3/8-inch thick piece of molding in the center of the picture.  Which do you choose?
a - the 2.5-inch brad at the top
b - the 1.25-inch brad second from top
c - the 3/4-inch brads at the bottom

For some, the correct answer might be c - the 3/4-inch.
Apparently, the right answer is d - all of the above.  Or what ever random fasteners you have lying around.

I'm in the process of re-screening the french doors for the pedimented window.  These are the random mix of nails used to hold this small screen molding in place.  You can see a piece of the molding still attached to the door at the far right of the picture.  You can also catch a glimpse of the small bit of screen that was still in place.

The molding came off in about a million pieces, so it's not salvageable.  What was underneath the molding was equally interesting.

There were bits of at least three different kinds of screen.  Each was attached with different types of fasteners: tacks and at least 3 different types of staples.  Obviously this has been re-screened many times over the life of the house and no one has bothered to removed the remnants of the previous installation(s)...

So I get to do it.

Sweating Pipes

This is the story behind adding the water line for the new fridge.

There is all manner of water lines down in the basement.  It's an impressive historical record of water supply lines throughout history, both galvanized and copper pipe.

And there's some interesting stuff, too.

• Shutoff valves in random places (the one the hot line shuts off the kitchen and the master bath, while the cold one only shuts off the kitchen sink!).
• Shutoff valves that are labelled for gas rather than water...
• Random pipe diameters.  A 1-inch line that randomly chokes down to 3/4-inch for no apparent reason.
• Short bits of pipe soldered together to make a longer run.  It's only a 3-foot run, why not one 3-foot piece rather than 6 6-inch pieces with 5 couplings?
• Lines that are capped-off in odd places.  Not near the last branch, but 10 feet after the last branch.

Someday, when we remodel the kitchen and master bath, I'm going to replace all this junk with PEX.

At any rate, I had to tap into an existing copper water line.  Though I'm getting better at sweating the joints, I'm still not good enough.

Well, good enough to get a joint that doesn't leak, but not good enough to get a pretty one.

Or, apparently, to prevent a little excess molten solder from dropping onto my finger.

Lovely isn't it?

Only a few bad words were spoken...

New Fridge

 One of the last appliances from when we bought the house was the fridge.  It's been a little under the weather since day 1.

The ice maker had something caught in it (looked like an old ziplock bag), so it was all jammed up and wouldn't work.  Naturally, the water line for the ice maker was connected to the back of the fridge, but the other end was just dangling down in the basement.  The was no indication that it had been connected to anything.  No shutoff valve with a missing connection.  No capped-off branch line.  Nothing.

The face plate surrounding the crisper drawers would fall off at the slightest touch.

Things at the back of the fridge would freeze solid while things at the front or in the door would be slightly below room temperature.  Regardless of the temperature setting.  It would be especially bad during hot weather.

And the thing would make more noise than a 727 at takeoff.

The hope was that we could live with it until we gutted the kitchen...  We'd been trying to nurse it for as long as possible so we could avoid getting a temporary one, but...  The hot weather over the past month forcing us to throw out a bunch of 3 day old food that had become a science experiment was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Friday night I pulled out the old fridge (see top photo).  Much amusement and muttering resulted from the science experiment that was exposed.  Note - the only thing we're responsible for in that picture is the stray nerf bullet.

SWMBO spent two hours scraping up the crud that had been beneath the old one.  Good thing she was wearing a hazmat suit.  The results are shown in the bottom photo.  Note the shiny new water line that's properly connected down in the basement.  There's a story behind that, too...

At any rate, the new fridge came Saturday morning.  And we don't have to go to the store to buy bags of ice any more...

Spooky

It's an old house.

It makes noises - radiators tic and pop with temperature changes; floors creak and groan with humidity changes.

Weird things happen - light bulbs flicker; the cook top fan turns on when we boil water and the fan switch doesn't turn it off or on (surprise! something that doesn't work! ;-)

But they've always had reasonable explanations.

Until now...

See the little round makeup mirror?  It's one where you can touch the base to turn it on/off or brighten/dim it.

Well...

We had a couple of instances where it's turned on by itself.

Or off by itself.

Not just when no one is around.

One night I was lying in bed reading a book.  SWMBO was in the bathroom.  The light turned on. I got up, touched the base to turn it off, and climbed back into bed.

A minute or so later, the light turned back on again.  I sat up and looked around, wondering if the dog had brushed by it or something.  Normally, she wears her collar so I hear the jingling of her tags.

So I asked SWMBO, "Where's the dog?"

"In here with me," she replied from the bathroom.  "Why?"

"Your mirror light just turned on by itself."

"No way!"

"Way," I said as she walked into the bedroom.  "See?"

"You did that."

"Nope. I've been lying here the whole time."

She walked over, touched the base to turn it off, climbed into bed, and started to read a book.

Five or ten minutes passed.

The light turned back on.

She turned to me and asked, "How did you do that?"

"I didn't," I grinned back.  "Maybe Emerson did."

Her eyes opened wide as I looked toward the light and said, "If you want us to keep restoring the house back to what it should be, you'll quit messing with that light!"

And the light turned off.

It hasn't happened again...

RHA Garden Tour

Last Night the Ramsey Hill Association had a Garden Tour for members.  Ours was one of the featured gardens on the tour.

The Threadleaf Aborvitae was one of the plants that drew the most attention.  Also of some interest was the Canadian Hemlock "Gentsch White" and the detail of its foliage.  Here's a link to a photo album for the garden with lots of before, during and after photos for each step of the journey.  And we're not done yet, so the journey will continue.

We're hearing rumors that our house will be on the RHA's house tour this fall (link to last year's event).

The Stone Wall - Part 2

Every weekend the MN Historical Society has walking tours that start at the James J Hill House and end up going past our house.  Some stop and emphasize the stone wall around the property.  Usually they focus on the unique feature of the top of the wall; the vertical stones.

As the tour guide mentions, it's modeled after walls in parts of Great Britain.  The idea with the vertical stones is that they keep sheep from jumping over the wall.

As far as we know, none of the previous owners kept sheep on the property and we don't have plans to, either...  And the wall wasn't built until the 1920s.

The second photo was taken near Burford in the Cotswolds in England.  The area is known for its sheep.  Though the walls here are dry-stacked, they have a similar vertical stone arrangement on top of the wall.

Still More Landscaping

We're getting close, but we're not quite done yet.

We planted 49 trees and shrubs and 99 perennials over the past two weekends.

About half the shrubs are the pictured globe arborvitae.  We'd planted a different variety last spring and only one survived the winter.  I transplanted the survivor to a different spot in the yard.  The replacements are a different variety that is supposed to be more winter hardy.

The other new shrubs and trees are foundation plantings along either side of the house.

The perennials are scattered in various places to fill-in thin spots.

Perhaps next spring the landscaping will be all done...

Dining Room Chandelier

When we moved in, the dining room wasn't wired for a chandelier.  We thought that the space called out for one, especially with the curved wall at one end.  So with the first set of work we did, we had the room wired for a chandelier.

And we started to look for a chandelier.  To be fair, it wasn't a high priority and we didn't make any special trips.  But when we were out looking for other stuff, we always kept an eye out for possibilities.

We saw a lot of nice ones, but knew that an all crystal one would get lost in the room.  And, much like the sconces, finding the "Goldilocks Zone" was proving to be hard.

Until we stumbled across this one at H&B last fall.  We didn't buy it right away.  We loved it and it was the right size, but were still a little hesitant because we spent two years not really looking for a chandelier.  So the hunt began in earnest.

Nothing else really "wowed" us.

So we bought it knowing it had a couple of problems:

• it had been installed in a room with 9-foot ceilings (ours are 10-foot) so we'd need another foot of chain
• the canopy was missing (the previous owner had saved it to use with her new chandelier!?)

And off we go to John's to get parts.

Now, this chandelier weighs about 85 pounds, so we quickly take pictures and head down there about 30 minutes before closing time.  He's already turned off most of the lights, but cheerfully greets us, patiently listens to our explanation, and looks at the photos on the digital camera.

He smiles, turns around, opens one of the many drawers lining the wall behind the counter, and pulls out a length of chain.  Right color, but too small; this is a beefy chandelier with thick chain.  Again he turns around opens another couple of drawers and pulls out a length of chain that is exactly the right finish, and so close to the original size that most people will never notice.  "So you need about a foot?", he asks as he pulls out a pair of chain pliers and opens up the correct link.  Then he asks, "You'll need the other end opened up too, right?"

He read my mind.  This chain is too thick to open the "Primitive Pete" way without the proper tool.

Then he opens another drawer and pulls out a canopy that's an amazing match.  I was a little concerned that the opening for the collar was too small.  He replied, "If it is, just bring it back and we'll fix it."  He also threw in the mounting strap and threaded rod saying, "If they aren't the right size, we'll get the bigger ones for you."

Then we talk coordinating sconces.  He has the perfect ones, but they're spoken for.  He has an alternative that's beautiful, but might not be the right size.  He lets us take one home to see if it's right.  "Either way," he says, "bring it back tomorrow and we'll rewire it for you or look for other alternatives."

What a guy.

We get everything home and...

The sconces are beautiful, but the arm is too high, so it doesn't really look right; the canopy's collar opening is too small; and the threaded rod isn't the right diameter.

Of course, the old chain is so thick I can't get a link open to send the collar along.  So we load the chandelier in the car and SWMBO goes down there the next day.

John comes out to the car with his chain pliers and opens a link so he can take the collar into the store.  Within 30 seconds, he has the canopy hole opened up to the right size.  Then finds the right diameter threaded rod and cuts it to length.  And grabs the right mounting strap.  So its all ready for me to install; easy as pie.  All I have to do is close the links; no special tool required.

Then he takes back the sconce and says, "You'll never believe it.  The guy who wanted those other sconces was in and has changed his mind.  Do you want them?  We can re-wire them."

We need them in three days.

In all the commotion, the re-wiring guy has stopped working and says, "I can start on them now and have them done tomorrow."

And it happens.

He's a saint.

The Dining Room

I just finished installing the window treatments in the dining room.

It took a little longer than I expected.  This is a hand-built house and while things look symmetrical, they're not.

You can't assume that measurements for one window are the same on another.  Or that the sill is perfectly level.

But everything is done that's going to get done today and the deadline has arrived. It's time to suit up...

The 1980s

Maybe I should title this post "Still More Sconces"...

Thursday night I installed these in the back halls - upstairs and down.  And it being a really old house, sometimes(!)  you run into really old wiring...  (Like I said, it was a busy day.)

We'd found these sconces a long time ago, but there's nothing like a deadline to force things to get done.

Sorry for that long aside.  The point of the post was that the 1980's were a bad time for a lot of things.

Including this house.

If you look closely around the sconce, you can see the old wall color poking through.

Teal.

Yes.

Teal.

Not a subdued Victorian Teal.

A bright 1980s - TEAL!

A smack in the face like a handful of "Hai Karate"...

Now the image of Olivia Newton-John doing Jazzercize in leg warmers and a headband in this hallway is seared into my brain.

Aaaaaagh!

Sconces, Sconces, and More Sconces

We've been hunting high and low for the right sized sconces for the dining room.

Too Tall.  Too Wide.  Too ornate.  Too simple. Too many arms. Arm(s) too high.  Arm(s) too low.  Too much bling.  Not enough bling.

Finding the "Goldilocks Zone" was proving to be really hard.

While at John's getting parts for the chandelier (another story to come) early this week, we asked about sconces that might coordinate.  He replied, "Unfortunately, these are spoken for, but they'd be perfect."

He was right.  They were perfect.

And when we were back the next day for the chandelier parts he said, "The guy who wanted these was just in.  He's changed his mind."

They converted the sconces from candles to electric and we picked them up the next day.

I installed them that night.

Like I said, Thursday was a busy day.

Stair Runner

Thursday was a busy day.  In addition to the Dining Room fireplace getting done and me installing the living room window treatments, the carpet guys were here to install the runner on the staircase.

It went in amazingly fast.

We're still debating about whether we're going to use any decorative rods.  Thoughts?

Dining Room Fireplace

We got a new tile surround on the Dining Room fireplace today.

The old one looked...

horrible.

The tile guys were here yesterday to remove the old tile (and install the new).

As always, the best-laid plans...

Some concrete had been slapped on the brick to even things out under the old tile.  Problem is, some of it had failed and wouldn't support the new tile.  They were a bit stumped so Bill came to the rescue and got it all fixed this morning so the tile guys could install this afternoon.

The new surround is light years better!

The Living Room is Finally Done

We finished installing the last bits of the window treatments tonight.

When we moved in we didn't really like the tile around the fireplace.  After wiping off the old soot it looked a little better.  Once we change the wall color though, the tile looked completely different.  The new wall color pulls out some other colors from the tile and they look remarkably better.

The old color scheme in here was quite "cold".  The new color scheme is quite a bit "warmer".  It's an amazing change!

Here's a slideshow of the transformation:

On to the Dining Room

Of course, while the woodwork in the hall and living room was getting done, so was the woodwork in the dining room.

Except that the entire dining room is woodwork...

I'm really glad to get rid of the gray stripe on the chair rail! Man, was that a bad decision by someone...

Now I've finished enough touch-up and re-installed enough hardware that we can put the room back together.

We picked up the sideboard yesterday. We'd seen it a while ago at H&B, but kept looking around to see what else might be out there. It was also tough to find something that was the right width and height for this location. Most things were either too low or too wide. We didn't find anything we liked better, so it became ours.

It's a really cool piece, c. 1830. The bottom drawer on the left side is quite deep and is partitioned. The theory is that it was for storing decanters.

I had to fix a hinge on one door and it has the usual wear you'd expect from a piece that's almost 200 years old.

And now that the room is freshly painted, the fireplace tile looks awful. We've never been fond of it and have a change in mind. We're just waiting on the tile guy...

No more candles...

At some point in the house's history, someone had a little too much fun with candles. The matching quarter-inch deep burns were quite entertaining. Whenever this happened, they're lucky the house didn't burn down...

It looks a little better now.

I polished up the outlet cover plates to get all the old paint, stain, wax, and other unidentifiable crud off. This mantle is pretty high, so I'm going to let them age naturally.

Getting Closer

The weekend was spent touching up woodwork here and there along with painting the spindles on the staircase.

Tonight I've been re-installing hardware where the touch-up is done. And we started putting rooms back together.

The living room is nearly done - a little more hardware re-installation, window treatments (on the way), and some accessorizing are all that remain.

Most of the room's contents we've been acquiring in the years since we moved in, though a lot of it showed back up today...

The awesome sconces came with the house and we had them rewired at John's Antiques.

The end tables came from SWMBO's Grandpa Jimmy.

The table lamps from a friend's Aunt Ruthie.

The chairs and striped sofa we had re-upholstered and came from an estate sale.

The other sofa we re-upholstered as well and came from another family friend.

The coffee table is new from Traditions.

On to the Living Room...

I finished the final coat on the Foyer and staircase this morning.

So this afternoon I started on the living room. Though it looks similar here, this color is quite different from the one I've been working with. It looks much better than the previous color in this room.

This is going slowly, too. Cutting in around the panel molding takes a lot of extra time. Leaving the panel molding the same color as the other molding makes a huge difference in the look of the room as well.

Hopefully I can get the first coat on the other three walls tomorrow.

Good Taste?

Tonight I stumbled upon this photo of the staircase in the US Custom House in NYC.  Like our house, it was designed by Cass Gilbert.

I guess we picked a good color combination for our staircase and entry...

Foyer Walls

I spent most of the weekend getting the first coat of paint on the walls. It's going more slowly than I expected. There is a ton of cutting in to do, especially on the first floor. Bill stopped by to check up on me and was nice enough to cut in where I was chicken to.

The new color is "Asian Jute", an historic color that is similar to what we've seen under many coats of paint elsewhere in the house. The space really called for a bolder color; the previous color was too close to the woodwork color and everything was washed out. The new bolder color really accentuates the detail in the woodwork.

Main Stair Handrail

The handrail for the main staircase got stripped and re-stained today. It's going to look fantastic when it's done.

During all of this, the ceilings got a new skim coat. Including where The Leak had been. There were some other spots in the common area on the second floor that really needed it as well. It's obvious that the roof had leaked at some point causing many coats of paint to flake off here and there. And rather than fix it properly, it just got painted over.

There's nothing that another coat of paint (and duct tape) won't cure. ;-)

And its a good thing the place got a new roof before we bought it...

Sprayed Millwork

On Friday, all the millwork got sprayed. We moved out for for the weekend to let the smell subside. There's a little touch-up to do here and there, but it looks really good.

Today, Bill painted the ceilings using this lovely scaffolding.

Now the amateurs (me) can get in and start on the walls. There's a lot of cutting in and some places where a roller won't fit, so it might go a little slowly. It's a good thing I don't pay myself by the hour.

"I Love the smell of napalm in the morning..."

"... It smells like ... victory."

The two big burns in the Dining Room mantle have been filled. The filler has quite a strong odor and I think it's making me go loopy. Perhaps I can use it as an excuse for all the spelling mistakes and poor grammar on the blog. Better living through chemicals and all that...

All the other woodwork prep is nearly done. That's thousands of feet of tape; thousands of square feet of rosin paper; hundreds of pounds of mud (and resulting dust from the sanding); and several cases of painters caulk.

It sounds like woodwork painting will begin tomorrow.

Once that's done the amateurs (me) can begin on the walls.

So I can't quite smell victory.

Yet.

More Treasures

We spent a good part of the day cleaning up so the woodwork can get sprayed this week.

While cleaning one of the radiators, She Who Must Be Obeyed found this thing stuck between the radiator and the wall.

It was jammed in there pretty tight, so it took me a while to find the right tool that would hook the fabric and allow me to pull it out.

It looks like one of those tubes of buckwheat that you can heat up and wrap around your sore neck. And it has a stylish plaid flannel cover. Who knows how it ended up there.

We'll add it to the other treasures we've found and the $1.68 we have in lint-covered change from the laundry room.

They'll make a fabulous prize pool for something. I'm not sure what...

New Carriage House Doors

The new carriage house doors arrived today. Installation is about half done, so they don't open quite yet.

I'm extremely happy with how they look. They are a dead ringer for the old ones.

We ought to be able to get cars in the garage this weekend!!!

Removing Wall Coverings

There were some places in the living room where the cracks in the plaster looked a bit wonky. We were concerned that the plaster was falling apart, but we got lucky.

As we poked around near the cracks, it turned out that the walls were covered in "wall paper". It really appeared to be more of a fabric than paper. And, of course, was covered in many layers of paint.

The plaster underneath is bare, so this may be original. Fortunately in most spots the adhesive had failed, so it came off quite easily. It shouldn't take much prep for painting. We probably can just wipe or sand off the adhesive residue and we're good to go.

The panel molding is in great shape, except for the paint that's on it. It's Peach, just like the walls. And the same sheen as the walls. And has an orange peel texture like they painted it with a roller. In addition, most of the crown is painted in dead-flat ceiling white.

To the right of the door in the picture, all the paper has been removed. Above and left of the door it's still there.

It should look a little better when we're done. ;-)

Priceless

2000 square feet of builder's paper - $40.

2000 yards of masking tape - $150.

Me not having to stand on this scaffolding - Priceless.

Bill is getting a bunch of rooms prepared for painting: the Dining Room, Living Room, Entry, Front Hall, Main Staircase, and upstairs Front Hall (pictured). I'm glad it's him on this scaffolding and not me.

It's not that I'm afraid of heights; I'm just afraid of falling...

Doing the prep for painting the woodwork is my least favorite thing, so I'm more than happy to have someone else do it.

Carriage House Door Headers

The opening and the ceiling are at the same height, so without modification a standard garage door won't work. Nor will the "quick-turn" short radius tracks.

So Johnny was here last week putting in headers that create the necessary clearance. They are all clear cedar, just like the doors and should last at least as long as I do...

The doors have been built and are being primed at the shop. The final coat of paint will go on in the spring. As will the paint on the headers.

The doors should be ready to install next week.

Carriage House Doors

From the time we moved in, only one of the carriage house doors has worked.  The others have various problems and don't open so we can't get all the cars in.  The one pictured opens, but it is in bad shape along the bottom edge.

The doors are traditional carriage house doors.  The rightmost panel swings open like a normal door while the two on the left open into the garage like bi-fold closet doors.

Being a lazy slug, I'd like to not have to open and close the doors manually.  So keeping the existing mechanism isn't going to work.

As we've been looking at different options, a company looking to get back into the midwest market approached us about using their product.  It's a single piece garage door that kicks outward at the bottom before rotating and sliding back at the top.  The reason why it works well in California is because they don't have to shovel the snow out of the way to get the door open.  Needless to say, that style of door isn't an option for us.

We did find a company who can reproduce  the look of these doors, but use a standard multi-panel rolling mechanism.

And the HPC has approved it.

So the project has begun.