New Sash Cord

I finished putting the window together last night.

If the window wasn't 40 inches wide, you could open it with one finger.  That's a testament to the way they were built originally (including the proper sash weights), not the way they've been maintained over the years.

I still have a little work to to to get the bottom sash to close completely.  Looks like the last time the window was apart, somebody didn't get the weather strip along the bottom installed in quite the right place...

Broken Sash Ribbon

One of the windows in the Music Room has a broken sash ribbon.  After doing some research, I've discovered that these metal ribbons were used in place of cord on higher-end windows of the period.  It's amazing that these have lasted over 115 years...

One had broken previously  and been replaced by some stranded metal cable.  Ugh.

Some of the window stop screws were stripped so they nailed the window stops in place.  Double ughh.

They were blind as a bat and missed the nail (see hammer indentation next to the nail hole in the top photo - putty knife blade is against the nail and under the hammer mark).  Triple ughhh.

They used gigantic nails (bottom photo).  There's a special place in my heart for these people  ;-(

Because I can't find sash ribbon any more, I'll have to use sash cord.  And, of course, I over-estimated the weight of the windows and bought the wrong sash cord - it's too large for the pulley.  So I'm heading back to the hardware store.

That's OK though, I drilled & doweled the old holes for the stop-screws and the glue needs time to dry.

The Music Room

My next project is the Music Room. The slideshow will get updated with new photos as things progress. Right now it contains the (almost) before pictures - there are a few things we've already done.  Originally there was no ceiling fixture in this room; we had the electrician wire for one and move the chandelier in here from the main hall. You can also see some sample paint colors on the wall. And, of course, we had the floors refinished when we first moved in. Mostly, this room just needs paint, but there are a few other things as well...

Those with a sharp eye will notice that the walls at either end of the room are curved. According to a local architect, Gilbert did it for acoustical reasons.

This is the room where callers were brought to wait for the lady of the house (assuming she was receiving visitors). We're going to decorate it in line with it's original purpose, so this room will have a much different feel to it than the more masculine Library.

Done?

Almost done.  Again this year we planted to polka music from Deutsche Tage across the street.

All the shrubs and most of the trees are in.  Two trees have to wait until the utilities are marked tomorrow - I'm not interested in cutting the gas line...

We'll also have to re-position some perennials and fill-in more perennials in a few spots in this front garden.

The foundation plantings on the sides of the house will still have to wait until the tuck-pointing is finished.

More Landscaping

More landscaping is on the way.  These are just the "before" and "during" photos for the preparation phase.

The hedge was a bit past its prime.  I didn't bother trimming the hedge this spring knowing that we'd be removing it anyway.  When I trimmed it last year, there wasn't must foliage left and it looked pretty sad...

The new plants are coming this weekend.  I'm gonna be digging some holes...

Antique Leather

Here's a close-up of the final coat in the Study Bathroom. It's an antique leather treatment.

The base coat is the lighter color (same as the color in the study). The top coat is a darker brown mixed with 3 parts glaze. The glaze mixture is rolled on the wall and then covered with a thin plastic sheet. The plastic sheet has been pre-crumpled and then laid out mostly flat on the wall. When the plastic is removed, some of the glaze mixture is removed with it. The creases and folds in the plastic cause different amounts of glaze to be removed, giving this effect.

Study Bathroom Re-Plumbing - Part 4

I finally got it all put back together tonight.  Yesterday I checked with Gopher Plumbing Supply for the new toilet parts.  Unfortunately, they didn't have the right parts for this brand.  Kudos to them, though; they recommended a competitor just down the road that carries parts for that brand.

Star Supply had one of each in stock, I picked them up this morning, and installed them tonight.  Everything works like a champ!

Study Bathroom Re-Plumbing - Part 3

After some distractions, I finally got back to this project. I took Super Bowl morning to paint the room. The color is an historical color, Audubon Russet, that's the same as the study. And it is one of the colors in the painting on the door.

Though this picture is after the second coat (compare with a before photo), we're not done. Which is why drop cloths are on the floor and nothing is re-installed, yet...

Study Bathroom Re-Plumbing - Part 2

Sunday I started removing the supply line for the toilet. To get access, I had to remove the toilet. And I suspected the foul odor was coming from the wax ring under the toilet. Sure enough I was right...

The supply lines came out with a little coaxing and the new PEX ones are already installed. Now I'm just patching the holes during the week.

All the valves and seals were shot on the toilet so I'm replacing them, too. Including the tank-to-bowl seals you can see in the picture.

The picture shows what was on the wall behind the toilet tank. It's a cool historical record of the decorating in this room.

I have no idea why the wall was initially painted black. Next is some very dark floral wall paper - slate gray with dark green and burgundy. Over that is some light green and cream floral wallpaper. After that, the walls were apparently painted a taupe/cream. And, finally, white.

If you look closely at the previous entry's photo, you can see some places on the wall where almost all of the wallpaper was removed before painting. We'll get that cleaned up before we decorate in here. We have something interesting in mind...

Study Bath Re-Plumbing - Part 1

The water pressure has been a bit low in the study bathroom. And every once in a while we get a foul odor from near the toilet. So, it's time to do some re-plumbing...

I'd already replaced the old galvanized supply trunk with PEX when I'd re-done the laundry, so this isn't going to be that hard.

Saturday, I punched a couple of holes in the wall to remove the old galvanized supply lines for the sink and toilet. Note that the valve on the hot supply line is starting to fall apart between the shaft and the housing (top shut-off valve in the picture). It's too bad the old lines are badly corroded on the inside; these old shut-off valve are cool looking.

I had only a couple of hours between other commitments so was glad to get the sink's lines removed and the hole punched for the toilet.