Happy Holidays

The Year in Pictures

We accomplished a lot this year, especially on the exterior of the house. Follow this link to see a number of before, during, and after photos. Many more than will fit on the blog.

Enjoy!

Study Chandelier

Life got in the way a bit today, so I didn't make as much progress as I'd hoped. Got some of the plaster patches primed and that's it other than installing a new chandelier in the study. It's much more in keeping with the style/purpose of the room and throws better, warmer light.

Once again, you're never sure what you'll get when you get under the canopy. Every once in a while I have to channel MacGyver...

What should have been a five minute job took quite a bit longer and a bit of fabricating. Cut a little off this, thread it through that, and find that lock washer and nut that I saved from 3 projects ago. I've learned to save everything. I know I'll find a use for it somewhere else in the house.

And because the old chandelier's canopy wasn't removed for painting the last time, I know what color the ceiling used to be in this room... Nothing surprises me anymore. ;-)

Chair Rail - II

May dad came over to finish the chair rail this morning. We finished about noon. The chair rail has an "egg and dart" pattern above a bead. Getting the joints to mach up was a chore - we averaged about six trips to the saw for each cut. We got everything to match up and it looks really nice. The old plaster walls are a bit wavy, so the painter will have to fill the gaps to the wall in some places. That will be one of the next jobs. ;-)

Chair Rail

I took the day off yesterday to make a little more progress on stuff around the house. My dad came over to help install a chair rail in one of the kid's room. We have more than half of it installed, but we'll have to finish it today. In the picture you can see the chair rail on the right side of the window - none on the left side, yet.

I also made a little more progress on fixing the holes in the plaster from both the electrician and me; installed new light fixtures in the "family room" and laundry; and experimented with paint samples in a few rooms.

Tree Removal

Last fall we noticed...

OK, not really "noticed" so much as it was impossible to walk on the sidewalk in front of the house because of the stench. There are two female Ginkgo Biloba trees on the boulevard. They are beautiful trees, but the females bear fruit. You can see them on the sidewalk in the picture.

The fruit falls and stinks.

No, it really stinks. People out walking their dogs would cross the street when they got to our house.

It smells like a cross between vomit and dog feces.

Change that to: there were two Ginkgo trees on the boulevard. ;-)

Thanks to the guys from the city who did the tree removal. They did a great job.

Cass Gilbert's 150th Birthday

Cass Gilbert was the architect for our house and several less famous buildings, including the Minnesota State Capitol, the Woolworth Building, and the US Supreme Court Building.

The Cass Gilbert Society and Minnesota Historical Society are hosting several events next weekend, November 21 and 22, including a birthday celebration at the capitol and a champagne reception at the Gilbert Building.

Happy Birthday Mr. Gilbert.

Towel Bars

I can't believe we waited this long to put towel bars in the main floor bathroom. It doesn't look like there's ever been towel bars or paper holders in here. Has everyone always acted like a five-year-old and wiped their hands on their shirt?

Both pictures are of the main floor bathroom - one showing the new towel bar, ring, and TP holder; the other showing it's cool leaded-glass window on the curved wall.

I finally finished the conduit to protect the phone lines and CATV - I needed to get that done before winter. And I did a little more in the garage with hooks for the ladders, hoses, etc. The brick walls were a good excuse to get some more power tools (hammer-drill this time). By the time we're done, I'll have one of everything.

I also threw a few bones to She Who Must Be Obeyed by hanging some mirrors and pictures. We'll have to take them down to paint, but harmony is an admirable goal...

Clean Garage?

Well, mostly...

Now that the major construction is done for the summer, we can get the garage back. Up to this point it has been full of tools, equipment, and supplies.

We spent much of the weekend sorting through and cleaning stuff up out there so that we can get a car in there this winter. The nice heavy-duty shelves I picked up at Menards are already full of stuff. As you can see we're close - we have only a few things left to sort through. I still have to move some of the old hooks around and probably get some others so we can more stuff up off the floor. A bunch of this will end up in the house, too. This house is almost the opposite of our old house - here we have plenty of storage space in the basement but little in the garage.

Patios

Several folks have asked for pictures of the completed patios. Here you go!

One of our projects yesterday was to cut off the posts that extended well above the back wall (see previous post). According to the neighbors, these used to be part of a very tall privacy screen along the back and south side. Apparently the screen was put in two owners ago, but only the posts remain.

She Who Must Be Obeyed held the top part of the post while I did the cutting (the family Sawzall is getting a lot of use!). Everything was going well until... the blade made the the final cut. She was surprised by the weight and how top-heavy it was, and then lost the piece over the wall into the neighbor's yard. No one got hurt, but she looked puzzled and asked, "Now what?" I just grinned back and said, "You walk around and get it."

On the second post I gave her the opportunity to make the final cut while I held the post. No problems, but power tools are now back into my domain ("You hold it like a toooy"...) and the remaining posts went without incident.