Piddly Project Day

Too many little things have started to either annoy me or prevent me from checking things off my "honey-do" list.

I'm tired of sliding off this toilet (note that the missing pieces on the bottom of the seat that are supposed to keep it level). Every time I sit down I feel like I'm in one of those episodes of "Mad About You" with the sloping floor. So there's now a fancy, new, unstained seat installed. There's still an unpleasant odor on occasion, so I think think the wax ring is shot. A minor mechanical update of this room may be in the cards soon.

I finished painting the study walls, too. Yeah, I know, supposedly this was done a while ago. Well, some friends stopped over just as I was close to finishing up and I didn't get to the exposed radiator pipes on one wall along with the 6-inch by 10-foot strip behind the pipes where the roller wouldn't fit. Done now.

I also installed the other half of the base shoe in the study. It had been removed when we had the floors refinished and I finally found it.

Also caulked and foamed the threshold in the carriage house. All the rain over the past few days exposed some shortcomings at the bottom of the door frame/jamb.

And re-glazed a storm window for the kids' bathroom. Still needs paint before it can be installed. Of course we're out of that color, so paint and installation will have to wait for another day.

Break time is over! Back to Work!

More Shades

I installed this shade last night. Its mates on the other back hall windows have been installed for quite a while, but this one had to wait. The window frame is an odd shape at the top so I had to make and upholster a piece that fit the top 6-inches of the opening. It also had to provide a place to mount the shade. It's 1/4"x 6 on the face and 1x2 for the cleats around the edges. The fabric on the face is the same as the shade. The back is painted to match the eventual woodwork color.

Of course, the woodwork needs some help...

More Tile Installation

This afternoon I finished grouting the tile in the carriage house entryway. It's the same tile and grout as in the carriage house's kitchen and bath.

You can see the new threshold and door sweep as well. I had to shave a half inch off the bottom of the door, but at least there is a true threshold there now. Before the floor inside and sidewalk outside were at the same level, so there wasn't anything keeping snow/rain from getting inside...

Carriage House Update

Got the carriage house windows painted over the past few weeks (inside; the outside of the windows will have to wait until next year). This morning we installed a bunch of valances and I got prep work done on several projects.

More on those later...

What Else Can I Say?

She received this as a gift from some neighbors, Mary and Mark, and is taking advantage of it this weekend.

Now there is trouble!

More Tile Removal

I finished removing the tile in the entry of the carriage house tonight. At one point She Who Must Be Obeyed came out to check on me and claimed I was "bleeding profusely". I wouldn't call it "profusely", but that's the difference in our personalities. With little shards of the $#%! tile flying everywhere, I'm not surprised I received a few cuts here and there. Safety glasses are a good thing, but they don't protect your forehead...

Some of the tiles came up easily; mostly the ones that were along the left side of the picture. The ones that were in the foreground and along the right side tended to break into a few large pieces - not so bad. But, the ones close to the stairs tended to break into little #$%! pieces. And of course, the concrete under those (close to the stairs) isn't in the greatest shape either...

But that's why I did the demolition before the long weekend - to allow extra time for fixing the stuff you can't see before you start.

I'll also be installing a new threshold. The old one has been removed, but I'm not sure you can tell in the picture. The old wooden one was mostly non-existent!

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.