Square or Level?

This is an old house.

It's had 115 years to settle and go out of square and level.

Before we had the carpet installed in the master and sitting room, I noticed that the sitting room door wasn't level with the floor when it was open. The latch end of the door appeared to be closer to the floor than the hinge end.

When the carpet was installed, it was confirmed. The latch end of the door dragged pretty badly on the carpet. So badly that you could get the door only a third of the way open. As a result, the carpet installers removed the door and set it aside for me to fix later.

I assumed it was the floor that was uneven. While the floor is uneven, the bottom edge of the door wasn't square with the hinge edge. At the latch end, the bottom was half an inch longer.

Seriously.

Using the edges of the raised panels on the front of the door as a guide, it was obvious to the naked eye.

Because this door has a large mirror on the back, it weighs a ton. It's too heavy to easily carry down the stairs and outside to square-off the bottom edge of the door. So I had to do it in the room. A tarp and tenting the work area with some plastic sheeting kept the sawdust to a minimum.

So tonight I was the boy in the bubble for a few minutes.

Rebuild the Hose Bib

Well, the list of no-longer-broken things continues to grow.

Some day it might even be longer than the list of still-broken things.

The hose bib on the carriage house leaked just behind the handle. OK, I shouldn't really say "leaked" - more water came out the "freezeless" drain holes than into the hose!

After some research I found that this is actually a decent outdoor faucet and the manufacturer, Woodford, makes a repair kit. The kit contains all new internals, except the operating rod, and a new handle. The operating rod is threaded at each end and can be re-used. The plunger (top) threads onto one end and the drain valve (2nd from top) threads onto the other. The old parts are on the right of the rod; new ones on the left. It's nice to see that the right new parts, including the handle, are brass/metal. They should last longer than the old plastic ones.

Removal was relatively easy - I was nervous about applying too much force to the old plastic head nut, but it came out without breaking. Dis-assembly was a snap an re-installation was smooth. I just wish I had longer, thinner fingers to get the head nut gasket (left side, 4th from top) in place more easily.

Works great now and we're no longer watering the carriage house foundation needlessly.

New Closet - Part X

Finally.

I didn't get time to finish the mudding inside the closet earlier. I finally finished it last week and painted the ceiling. While painting the walls, I ran out of paint. The interior of the closet is the same color as the top half of the walls in the rest of the room and I came up short by less than half a quart...

It's always something.

Over the weekend and between other jobs, I installed the shelving.

The closet is finally done. OK, except that I have to find the missing latch and door knob.

Newcomers 92 - Transplants 26

I spent Memorial Day remembering what it was like to sit around and do nothing. In reality the score was much closer than it looked. Because the transplants had to be dug up first, I'm doubling their score to 52.

The transplants put up a good fight. The 26 of them had to be moved to their proper locations - we'd just stuck them next to the carriage house when we moved in. They're divisions of perennials that we brought from our old house. Some of them are divisions that can be traced back to plants that my grandfather had...

The newcomers were dropped off by Boyd late yesterday morning. I planted 78 of them yesterday; the rest tonight. There were a variety of sizes, including 1, 2, 3, and 5-gallon containers and a great mixture of small trees, shrubs, and perennials.

I need to put my feet up now...