Outside Work

Along with priming and nailing up shingles to the front of the house, we had to do something about the soffit, which had about 4 thick layers of cracked and peeling paint, exposing the wood under it to the elements. We are in the process of painting any areas of exposed wood on the outside of the house. We hired three guys to work for 1 Saturday scraping the entire soffit while Joe and I shingled. The following weekend we borrowed a big paint sprayer and Joe set to work spraying the soffit. I was his ladder-mover and spotter. We roasted in the excessive heat, and Joe got completely covered in white paint, some of which he is still finding on him some 2 weeks later (but we got it done!) Here is the before and after:

Shingles

We had planned to finish the outside of the house over time, but it turns out the insurance company doesn't like that idea. They have asked us to paint the house before we can get a homeowners policy. Bugger! The first part of the process is to cover the front with cedar shingles to add texture to the house in contrast to the clean lines of the columns.


We almost got the third gable finished yesterday, but we ran out of light. Next we will finish the area under the porch and the two areas under the biggest front windows. Then we will paint the fascia boards and rafters on the two smaller gables, leaving all of the cedar 1 x 6's and 1 x 4's, which we will seal rather than paint. One of our neighbors generously offered to buy us a pizza as we worked on the roof last night--this project is making us adored on Oak Avenue.

We've Moved In!

Dear Friends,
There has been a great deal of time between posts as we worked to finish the house, Joe going to work full time every day, and me working on a painting show that opened yesterday. We got the house to move-in condition, and will complete the trim and painting and some wall tile while we live in the house. So here are some photos of where we are now:
Dining Room (w/ view into LR where Joe made built-in bookcases).
The French doors were given to us by friends who also gave us an
amazing mantle (several photos down)

Half Bath (off of the office/studio)

Master bedroom: it's a mess as we don't have closets ready,
but I wanted to show the color--kind of a midnight blue

We refinished the original Butler's pantry and made it into a bar.

A sitting area in the front entry--this is Pip's favorite chair
and he was happy to be reunited with it.

Guest Bedroom: again, a mess, but we went out on a limb with the color and I really like it

Kitchen: no pulls or knobs on yet, but we're cookin' with gas.
An island will go in the center under the schoolhouse lights.

Living Room: the mantle was generously given to us by friends and we will refinish it before installing it. Gas logs are in the fireplace but hidden by the artwork at the moment.

Master bath: we're still under construction a bit here. We need to sand and paint the patch near the light, install a white tile backs plash, and figure out how to install the shower part of the claw foot tub. The laundry is hidden in a closet off camera to the right. Pip is relieved the hardest part is over. The bookcases make a great
lookout for birds and squirrels in the front yard.

New Columns

It might be too soon for before and after photos, but the new columns Joe built for the gable over the front steps does finish the last of the construction on the outside of the house and so it feels like a turning point worth highlighting. The first photo is the house nearly a year ago when we were first considering the project, and the
second and third photos show
the house with the new
tapered columns--
that's right, no more 2" x 6"s
propping up the smallest gable.

Inside the house has come
very far. All the walls are painted, some of the switch plates installed, floor finished, kitchen mostly installed, and all of the new windows installed. The plumbing is finished and electric will be finished early in the week. This weekend we are focusing on all of the trim work-scraping what we have decided to salvage, and building what is missing. We will start with cased openings, then plinths and baseboard, then windows and doorways.

We've not been active with the blog for a while, but lots of things are happening as we wearily enter the last stage of this renovation. I keep trying to remind myself how lucky we are to have this opportunity, when the truth is that many days I want to bang my head against a wall. I think I'm just really tired. But no matter--we're almost there.

Stained Floors

We have stained the floors! We went with Sherwin Williams stain (Ranch Oak) cut with the same brand of mineral spirits. We went dark to help blend in the burn marks that could not be sanded out of the dining room floor. The first photo shows the heart pine in the kitchen and the 2nd photo shows the entryway which has very
narrow white oak--this is the
flooring in the majority of the
house. Last night I applied Pro
Finish gloss Poly (Home
Depot)--no photos of that yet.
The next step is to sand lightly with some worn down screens using a buffing machine, vacuum dust and wipe down all the floors with mineral spirits, then apply a coat of satin Poly, sand again, clean again, and a third coat of satin Poly. We're getting there . . . Thanks to Chris Finley for getting us this far. He is the local hardwood
refinishing guru and we find
ourselves often asking: "WWCD?"
(or, What would Chris do?).

Floors and Windows

Just a quick update:

Here is one of many patches we made to our hardwood, and a look at one of the new windows. Bye bye drafty, beat-up, lead-painted windows. We actually tried
to save them but it became clear that salvaging them in the state they were in was going to be a whole lot of work with no payoff . . . however, we kept the casing and just ordered new sashes and the tracks they slide in. We are recycling the old window weights. The old sashes will be used as stationary windows in the garage that will become a studio. When we have time to scrape and paint them they will be installed around the top of the garage walls near the ceiling to provide light while maintaining lots of usable wall space. That's all for now!

Laundry List

Dear friends,
I hope to keep up better with the blog as we are starting to get close to the really exciting part--the finish! Lots of things are happening in a simultaneous frenzy, so this will feel a bit like a laundry list. The first photo shows the handsome attic vent Joe built. The second image shows the school house fixtures and globes
my Mom and Wes sent us--we love
them! They are from a 100+ year old
school in Bangor, Maine and we are
so happy they have a new home in
Jonesboro. The third photo is of
our primed shingles--right now it is
all shingles all the time for me. My
neck and back hurt and my hand is
bruised from the handle of the paintbrush
pressing against it. I have been doing this
monotonous task while Joe and his dad have
been installing windows (which is pure
torture). We ordered the sashes and tracks
they lock into (rather than order an entire
window in it's casing)--but of course,
the angle of the bottom plates didn't
match the angle of the tracks, and
many of the windows are out of square.
So instead of putting them in in a jiff,
they had to do surgery to the house to square the casing up. While this was happening I wondered if this is what it's sometimes like being a surgeon? Opening someone up and then finding a COMPLETELY different problem to deal with. It made me feel better to think of it in these terms because we are just dealing with windows. I'll post photos of them in another
blog entry. The fourth photo is of one of our
cleaned original hinges with probably six layers
of paint removed. We have lots
of door hardware yet to strip.
The last photo is of a part of the entryway paneling. The little strips of trim that have curves in them were impossible to scrape paint from without damaging the wood, so I bought trim as close to the original as I could find and am installing it throughout the entryway. Before signing off tonight I want to thanks our wonderful, thoughtful friends John, Missy and Joe who came by on Saturday to take part in the shingle-painting detail. And really, thinking back a bit further, I need to thank everyone who has helped us get this far: Joe's Dad and Mom, sister Denise and her husband Barry, nephews Ryan and Logan, and niece McKenzie and nephew-in-law Jake who have all been in the trenches at some
point or another with us during demo or when
something incredibly heavy needed to
be lifted--like say, a boiler in the
basement. I will not blame any of
them if they have put our cell
numbers on an alternate ring tone
so they know when not to answer.
Thanks one and all!