Front Entry

I painted the walls in the front entry last weekend. The previous color was very similar to the color of the woodwork and washed out the whole space.

The sage color works well with the rug and really accentuates the woodwork and makes the whole space "pop". Unfortunately it also accentuates that the woodwork is in serious need of new paint as well. But one thing at a time...

Free Mulch!

The county has free mulch at a number of compost sites. Bring your own tools and containers and you can have as much as you want until they run out.

This week I've been making trips periodically with my Dad's pickup. 3 loads down and probably another 8 or so to go. At least I'm getting my exercise and staying out of trouble...

This week's slide show is the island bed between the driveway and the patio. At the beginning of the year it contained a lonely weeping Birch. Later we added Quick Fire Hydrangeas, upright Sedum, Coreopsis, and some annuals. The light-colored mulch is the free stuff from the county; the darker is cocoa mulch for the annual bed. The cocoa mulch smells fantastic when you first put it on!

The Library

The library is finally done.

There really wasn't a lot to do in this room once we refinished the floor, but other things took precedence. ;-)

The woodwork has an interesting aged finish that we wanted to keep. The previous wall color wasn't bad, but it was a bit too orange at certain times of the day. So, last weekend I painted the walls. We picked a color that is in the painting on the bathroom door and coordinates with the furniture we already had. The new color looks a lot better with the mill-work and brings out the colors in the tile around the fireplace. While I was at it, the ceiling needed a little patching and a fresh coat of paint too.

Those with a sharp eye will notice that we have window treatments as well. They came and were installed this afternoon.

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...

Grandpa Al's Tools

Hey, it's an old house without central air. Most of the time that's not a problem - the high ceilings help and the solid brick exterior and plaster walls provide a enough mass that it takes a while to get hot inside. Problem is once it gets hot it stays hot.

We had a window unit in the master bedroom last summer, but the new storm windows we put in last fall have an opening that's a little narrower than the inner sash. And, as it turns out, it's half an inch narrower than the housing of that window air conditioner...

After some searching, I finally found a new AC unit that would fit. Have you ever noticed that the "facets" feature of most websites doesn't let you narrow your search on the thing you're really interested in?

Of course, the bottom edge of the storm window frame is also higher than the sill, so I had to make a shim so that the AC unit would have the proper tilt. And that particular window sill isn't level, so the shim is half an inch thicker on one end. And the sill is bowed up in the middle... :-)

Thanks to Grandpa Al for all the tools that I used to get the shim perfect...

This One's For You

For all the neighbors who have stopped by and said, "Wow! I didn't know grass would grow here."

Thanks. And this one is for you.

For all those who doubted grass seed would grow here.

Patience grasshopper.

And this one is for you, too. ;-)

Completed Master Bedroom

The master bedroom is finally done! The carpet was installed on Wednesday, meaning all the "construction" is done. The master carpet has a subtle pattern, so we needed to move everything out for the installers. This and the sitting room are the only places where we're doing wall to wall carpet. In this room the fir floor was in decent shape, but at some point someone face nailed with common nails to try to stop the squeaks. Ugh!

Smooth-shanked nails won't stop squeaks.

Common framing nails (with large heads) are the wrong "tool" for finish carpentry work.

It feels good to finally have one room complete. Now I can take some time off (sort of) and "relax"...