Something Different with Landscaping

In years past we've done a bunch of landscaping on the first weekend in June.  That's usually the weekend of Deutsche Tage across the street at The Germanic-American Institute.  So I've usually spent all day digging holes while listening to polka music.  This year the plants didn't get delivered until after the festival, so I spent the weekend re-wiring the attic to polka music.

It was a long tough winter so we lost a few plants and shrubs.  We also had a serious rabbit explosion in the neighborhood and they've caused havoc all over the neighborhood.  The Little Man got a bow for Christmas and has been fighting back though...  ;-)  The dog has been doing her best, but with a torn ACL she's had less success.  :-(

So this year, landscaping has been a combination of replacing dead things as well as filling in the last few holes.  The overall plan isn't quite implemented yet, but it's really close.

Tuesday night, Little Man helped me get 95 perennials and half a dozen 5-gallon shrubs planted.  Offering him a dollar a plant kept his motivation up.  In years past he's gotten bored after the second or third hole...

I was on my own Thursday night and got three 7-gallon trees planted after work. This morning I finished the remaining nine before it started to get hot.

I'm ready to switch gears back some other type of work...

Leaded Glass

Way back, I mentioned that we had a problem with broken glass in the front door's side-lights.

You can see where the glass is supposed to be just to the right of the doorbell.

You can see where it actually is down by the object that broke it.

Sadly, this is a fact that had to be established by the court...

Nevertheless, we finally got a response from one of the two craftsman in town who do this sort of repair.

More accurately...  SWMBO got a response from his wife!

Back when the window was broken he stopped by to give an estimate so the responsible party knew what the cost would be.  Fast forward a couple of years (there's no need to re-live the painful, two-year process) and we're ready to have the repair done.  We leave messages but don't hear back.  We don't consider it a huge problem because there aren't any critical needs for this to be fixed.

Fast forward to this Spring.  We know we're going to be on the RHA  house tour in the fall.  Further, the Cass Gilbert Society has asked for a tour of the house later in the summer.  Having a broken window at the front door is clearly not acceptable...

SWMBO makes another call.  This time the craftsman's wife answers.  Within minutes he calls back.  Within hours he arrives to re-survey the situation.  The next week he comes back and removes the leaded glass sidelights.  And six weeks later... restored sidelights are re-installed.

Now the problem is the front door looks like cr*p and I have to restore it before the tours.  I guess I better quit typing and get the attic electrical finished...

The Old Master Bath - Part 3

There has been a lot of good progress since the last post.

Drywall has been installed and the first couple coats of mud are on.  The cabinets are installed along with the base and crown molding.  The rightmost one will receive an end panel that has raised-panel details matching the recycled cabinet across the room (next picture).  Near the window is a shallower and narrower cabinet with fixed shelves for folded items.  We also have some trick lighting planed for the two wardrobe cabinets.

On the other side of the room, close to the window, is a similar fixed-shelf cabinet.  Closest to the camera is the cabinet recycled from the back hall.  The old wavy glass in the upper doors is awesome.  Once other interesting find is that the drawers all have roller bearings let into the supports.  That's not something you see often.

At the edge of both pictures you can see that the door casings have been installed as well.

Won't be long and it will be ready for paint.

The Old Master Bath - Part 2

Slow progress continues.  "Real" demolition has been complete for a while.  I've been chipping away at removing what I can of the knob-and-tube wiring.

The rough framing is complete and the room's new purpose is starting to become evident.  This wall was where the toilet, pedestal sink, and tub used to be.  These large plywood boxes are the carcasses of new cabinetry.  Once the framing and electrical inspections are complete, the walls can be insulated and the drywall installed.  Then the carcasses can be permanently installed.

This picture shows the wall where the radiator used to be.  The short cabinet closer to the camera was salvaged from the back hall.  It has an upper section with glass doors that it will be re-united with as construction continues.  It was way too cool to dispose of.

If it's not obvious yet, this room is no longer going to be the master bath.

It's going to be the closet for SWMBO...

More photos can be found in this album.