Back to the Beginning

Like the game "Sorry", just when you're nearing the end you get sent back to the beginning.

Once upon a time this bedroom was painted pink and lavender.

Not any more...

Above the chair rail the new color is "Rainforest Dew", which looked like key lime pie filling in the can. This is what I was doing the day after Christmas.

And below the chair rail is "Split Pea", which looked like you would expect. And this is what I was doing yesterday...

The new colors are a lot more sophisticated and work better now that this room will double as a guest bedroom on occasion.

Toasty 2

Or too, as the case may be.

Earlier in the week I spent a little time burping the air out of the lines where ever I could. A little came out at each bleed valve, but not much.

Then I started playing with the fancy manifold that's now behind a base cabinet.

First, I reset the flow meters at the bottom to make sure that they were fully open.

Then I adjusted the balance valves at the top of the manifold. As it turns out, what are described as "dust caps" for the valves (blue caps) also adjust the balance valves. A couple of turns and...

The sound of water rushing...

And then...

Heat.

Now all the little piggies are happy!

Toasty

Even though it was -20F over the weekend, this still felt toasty.

Not because I'm always hot, but because the in-floor heat is now working in the master bath.

Woohoo!

It's not quite working as designed in the kitchen yet, but I'm fiddling with it...

Interesting that the room with my crude hand-made manifold is working well when the room with the fancy store-bought one is not...

Ha!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

We always buy the tallest tree on the lot.

This one is still 9 feet tall, but it looks shorter because of the scale of the space...

These two always seem to enjoy the poinsettia forest...

The Twelve Days of Christmas...

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

Where I might settle down for a mid-winter nap...

Back To Painting

This one's for Rhonda since she lives vicariously through this blog... I know this entry isn't long enough to occupy your entire lunch break, but I'm all talked out this week due to other factors... ;-)

Lot's of what's happening now are little tasks to really finish projects that were started earlier or re-do things that have since gone backwards.

An example of the latter is today's project.

Avid readers will recall the attempt to get the old fridge up to the attic and what ended up happening as a result.

The original attempt to get the fridge up the attic stairs caused some damage to the walls and chipped paint on the moldings.

As I've been mudding other things over the summer and fall, I've hit the necessary areas on the attic stairs as well.

A week or so ago, I did the final sanding and was happy with the results.

Today, in between other things, I painted the walls. Two coats are on and it's nearly dry already.

I still have to touch up the woodwork, though that will wait until I have all the woodwork prepared in the back hall on the second floor.  I'll use oil-based paint and there's no sense in having to clean the brush multiple times.