About those 3 deadlines

I think I’m giving up on the non-mandatory ones. Which doesn’t mean I got nothing done. First of all, this is the only memory left of that crap I couldn’t get rid of. Now kindly tell the IRS that it’s worth my entire income and I don’t owe any tax this year.

But at this point it looks like it may be a strain to get the baseboards painted in a week. Which doesn’t mean nothing happened this week. I just decided to make the front bedroom actually clean and empty the closet. To accomplish this, put a shelving unit in the basement for all the paint stuff.

This is not a joke. I filled an entire shelving unit with paint. I also put my old kitchen cabinets next to the stationary tub. The entire cabinet to the left with all the drawers is now filled with screws, nails, and drill bits. The whole thing.

But this is a huge step forward. I had a lot of boxes filled with a mix of random crap and nothing. And now, 2 out of my 4 closets are empty!

So doing that organizing wasn’t part of the plan. Neither was repairing the radiator pipes. Several of them have been cut and I don’t remember why. It’s an easy fix at least.

For now, all my woodwork is back in the basement. But the pile is getting smaller. And the basement somehow has more (useful) stuff in it and looks saner at the same time. The living room is empty again. My floor guy is coming tomorrow because there are drips in the poly. Hopefully third time’s a charm.

And not only is its closet empty and clean, but the front bedroom is clean and sorta furnished!

And the bathroom is partially cleaned up. Now it looks like something normal slobs would use.

So the old plan was that the baseboards would be prepped to paint this weekend. Now it’s pretty obvious that I’m running behind and so I don’t think I want my grandmother’s big super heavy maple sideboard in my back bedroom just yet. Which is all the better because my dad has it full of his stuff.

The couch is still coming next weekend. And I’m hoping to get started with the painting. But now I want the front bedroom and linen closets all painted, too. I want some door strikes and stops installed. I want the house to actually start functioning like a house, at least upstairs. Can I get the heat on in 1 extra week, by the 13th? Or am I still delusional?

Casing the Joint

The DIY trim installation is off to a good start. First, those baseboards on solid brick walls that sagged before the glue dried? Well I figured out a solution. Bro, do you even lift? (Yes, I lifted those weights up the stairs and leaned them against my baseboards.)

The down side is that the glue is taking several days to dry so I didn’t get back into this room to finish the job. But it’s not like I was short on things to do. Meanwhile, the back bedroom was ready to go. So I had a scary adventure scribing base cap with the coping saw. My first try wasn’t so great – I ended up redoing this cut – but the second try I got pretty decent at it. Had to do some filing and will still have to caulk a little.

But here’s how it looks installed!

And the wall with the doors!

I mostly did trim work the whole time while my parents cleaned like crazy. My dad returned the basement to sanity, though not yet to cleanliness. This is important because I want to store tools and stuff down here soon.

And he took out the bags of sawdust and stuff the floor guys left out back and swept up the pile of brick debris from when the Irishman put in the kitchen exhaust fan in September. Yes I left it there that long. And do any contractors take their trash with them ever?

Meanwhile, I think I’m done using saws upstairs. Forever! OK, maybe for the rest of Phase 1. So my mom vacuumed with glee. First the floors, then everything else that could possibly catch dust. And she was INTO IT.

“Don’t take photos of me in this goofy sweater!”

Then she wiped down the doors. Which brought us the line of the year.

“What did you finish these doors with? They’re silky smooth! I love cleaning them!”

(Answer, if you didn’t read it before: General Finishes High Performance acrylic topcoat. And no, they didn’t pay me to write this. But I am totally willing to take money if they want to give it to me.)

She wiped down the metal bed frame after a year in the basement. And civility began to creep in. My mom asked if I had a second green pillow case.

“Oh, if you’re going to the bathroom, let me get this before we go.” That’s right, she just can’t stop vacuuming.

And then we loaded up the (borrowed) truck with random crap to get rid of. 3 surplus doors, the boob lights, and a hand-me-down bed that my mom took for me but I won’t be using.

And on my triumphant lap through the metro area to get rid of this stuff, I struck out. The ReStore was closed and Philadelphia Salvage has too much stuff and doesn’t want mine. It looks like my old oak floors are getting burned, and everything else is back in my living room. Which is annoying because I don’t like moving backwards. But it should be gone for real soon.

Another Delay, What’s New?

Last week, the Irishman made me a big request and a big promise. Could I hire him all week? And if so, I’d have all the woodwork in the house installed along with all the kitchen cabinets, the countertops, the sink, the vestibule door, and strike plates for all the doorknobs by today. How much did he actually do? Nothing.

Mind you, he has had some difficult things happening lately. So I knew that there was a reasonable chance that this promise was outrageously unrealistic. But “Kitchen Friday” was also a powerful drug. The high was magnificent, but 3 days of it clouded my judgment. Meaning, it made me believe that this thing was actually happening and that I should stay away and not work on the place myself. Needless to say, coming down from this high made me irritable.

So the old plan from last week was to have 2 weeks to paint baseboards and make other finishing touches at a not-too-frantic pace, furnish the bedrooms as the get finished, and bring the sofa into a nearly complete house on the 5^th. That last part is still happening. My sofa can stay where it is until my parents get ready to decorate for Christmas. The major adjustments are the not-too-frantic part and the nearly complete part.

The old plan was that I was going to prep and get rid of random crap tomorrow and Sunday my parents would join me and do lots of cleaning and start painting trim. The new plan is I’m installing baseboards and other trim all day tomorrow, my dad will prep and touch-up-paint Sunday, my mom will do all the cleaning by herself, and I’ll focus on getting rid of random crap. That’s right, my way of coping with all this is to dump more work on my parents. Son of the year I am.

So the goal is shrinking. I still hope to paint all the trim in the back bedroom except the windows. They can wait until it’s warm next year. I want to at least get the front bedroom’s trim in but could wait till Phase 2 when the room gets major rework to paint it. And in the living room, one radiator is going in without baseboards behind it. Which is sad, but I can’t get the baseboards in until after the kitchen is done and bringing the electric radiators back would be even sadder.

So now I’m back on the stick. In 2 weeks I should have sorta finished bedrooms, a thoroughly unfinished kitchen, and a really pretty wood shop with a nice couch in it. I still hope to have a Christmas party, but I’m giving myself till the 12^th Night.

The Archaeological Dig Begins

Having all the floors done at once may have saved me money, but I also had to plan ahead for years to have the house empty now. And then I was ridiculously late with everything and now it’s time to stop doing this to my poor parents.

 

So even though I can’t really furnish the house yet, I’ve started to bring things in. I also brought things up from my own basement. What, did you think my living room was done being a wood shop? But it’s better than it was.

I thought my sofa had to go first because when we couldn’t get it into the basement or any of the bedrooms it invaded the holy of holies. But my mom’s friends were impressed and now she says let it stay till the Christmas tree is going up.

But in their basement where the hoard is really bad, I borrowed a friend’s Suburban and loaded it up with bedroom furniture. Nothing to big to move around.

And the basement already looks a little better! That secretary desk didn’t fit in the truck, but Moving Day number 2 is this weekend again.

 

Getting that first round of stuff out was like working with a puzzle. The next round, when I’ll want some things from the back, should hopefully make it look like a real room.

So then there’s the real work. I had a snag with the baseboards. Back up in the front bedroom where it was impossible to attach anything to the wall. No surprises here.

I tried driving trim head screws into the brick but none of them held. So then I tried screwing them down into the floors, but the screws sucked the boards in so much at the bottom the tops pulled out. Then I tried a whacky idea of shimming out the bottoms with little pieces of dowel to prevent them from sucking in too far. This sorta almost worked.

I’m also getting geared up for the rest of my kitchen! So I mapped out the rest of the cabinet layout and picked them up! And I got a pleasant surprise. At IKEA, you put the drawer fittings in after the cabinet frames. This was really, really fantastic news because I can’t afford the drawers. So for now I’m going to have a copy room look with stacks of boxes in open cabinets with no shelves or drawers. It’s gonna be awesome.

Then I went to the ReStore and picked up some inoffensive Formica countertops for 50 bucks. I’m gonna have to cut them up to make them fit so they’re probably not gonna look quite right. But they’ll be usable!

And anyways, it looks like I’m getting some more Irishman help soon. I think. One can never be certain. But if he does come, I’m really, really almost there!

My Old Floors – Before, After, and a Whole Lot of Delerium

I was going to let this wait until after I have a real-world reveal tomorrow but I can’t contain my excitement. (Shoot me a comment if you want to come.) I’ve known what I was doing with these floors for more than 2 years and you have no idea what it’s like to see it finally happen!

So let’s go through it all. I knew the living room had nice floors, but they had (just) been refinished really badly. Like wavy, coins stuck in the poly, and they didn’t sand the corners or under the radiators. And ridiculous drips. I knew these had potential but was a little scared there wasn’t enough material left to redo them again. I think these floors were added in the 30’s when the house was about 40 years old.

Living room, front

And what do I have now? Drumroll please…

Then, did you see the pink marble tile in the vestibule? It was poorly installed and also (I think) 12×12 tiles were totally wrong for the space. Luckily, under a vinyl floor there was wood. And a lot of black glue.

And now? (You can also see that the water damaged area at the front isn’t perfect, but perfect wasn’t what I wanted anyway)

And how about all those carpet tacks in the stairs?

Well…

Then there’s the kitchen.

That vinyl floor was one of 7

And under it was this. This pine is not original to the house so I assume they needed a flatter subfloor for linoleum sometime between the 1930’s and the 50’s.

And now? (It’s not quite as yellow as it looks here.)

And the same angle as the February 2013 Before, just for fun.

Then we’ll go upstairs. Starting in the front bedroom. This room was the only place in the house where I could see the original random width pine subflooring. It was intriguing, but also painted purple. And yes, that’s a traditional South Philly master bedroom closet.

Front bedroom closet

There were some bad patches at one end of the room, so I redid them with other original wood. (That process took several posts in 2014, starting here.)

And?

I was expecting them to come out lighter. Not that I don’t love the color, but now that white paint between the floorboards shows more than expected. I might color it in with a marker.

It’s also fun that you can see where walls came out. There used to be a door connecting the front and middle bedrooms (this is a thing in Philly) that I enlarged when that part of the old middle bedroom became a closet. Here’s the scar.

And the upstairs hall might finally look better than when I bought the place. Tell me what you think. Also, this floor is fun because you can see the shadows of where the oak floorboards used to be. Also the crazy contrast between the oak and this old pine. Both just have clear water based poly on them.

Upstairs hall

Then with the oak out:

And now!

Then there’s the back bedroom.

Back bedroom

I pulled out the original floors, enlarged and rebuilt the room, and put the old floors back in, plus some salvaged material mixed in. (This post shows the floors done, 6 weeks after starting in the other room.)

The floorboards in this room are lighter and more varied in color, which I assume is just because my installation as uneven and they had to sand harder.

And that threshold the Irishman built is really light because he cut the original patina all the way off.

There may be a few tweaks yet, but you get the idea for now. I’m pretty ecstatic.

One last look at my beat up floors

That’s right, I made it. Whew! The floor finisher said he’ll be here between 7 and 7:30 tomorrow. I’m on the floor where my bed used to be writing this now. So here’s a quick look at what I accomplished this week.

The scotia under the stairs that I wrote about before but forgot to photograph:

Then there were these holes in the kitchen floor.

I patched them the same way as I did upstairs about a year ago, except didn’t try to make these patches look good since they’ll be covered.

And the radiator alcoves, stained just like the doors. Everything took the stain a little differently but it all looks great. Those vertical lines are saw marks that are original to the wood, not horrible runs from me applying the stain badly.

And a crazy amount of cleaning. My dad came down today and helped a lot with this. It’s weird to see the house empty. Full of stuff it’s hard to really see the house for what it is. So here it is, cleared out for the first time in 2 1/2 years, with a few minor alterations here and there. The downside is it kind of looks newer than I wanted it too. I think more woodwork will help though.

And you remember all that effort to have a paneled wall that’s secretly removable? Here it is taken off!

You probably guessed by now that I’m not a magician, so there is a very ugly side to all this clearing out. You guessed right.

So, I’ve got a key laid out for my floor guy. But for now, let’s bid farewell botched sanding jobs, old mastic, paint overspray, and mismatched patches. They won’t be missed. But to the inlays we’ll say hello.

Let’s talk décor, or how I wound up with my mom’s decor

I haven’t talked much at all about décor. Why would I? I’ve had enough to do building the house that it wasn’t really worth thinking about. So I’ve thought about it in some vague future land, but locking myself into any plans (or spending money) didn’t seem fun at all. And also, the two things I loathe most are poorly made things that break after 10 years, and replacing stuff in the service of fashion trends. Rebuilding the house and attempting to preserve its original look seemed like a good way to avoid both of these things. And remember that bathroom tile? I was trying really hard not to be trendy there.

So when it comes to décor, let’s talk about how I felt about it from the beginning. I grew up in a house filled mostly with formal brown mahogany Colonial style furniture. Some of my friends growing up found this forbidding and of course my first plan was to run as far away from this look as I possibly could.

So the first ideas in my head were to have very stripped down modern décor. So I wanted an older house filled with charming details, but the plan was a lot of white paint. I’m still totally cool with doing this as long as everything you’re painting was painted before. But I decided that not only would it be cold, but you’d see every smudge and splatter if they were the most decorative things I had. And plus I inherited a lot of nice things that I don’t need to get rid of. So the new plan was to keep the antiques and traditional pieces my grandmother gave me and mix them with mid-century modern pieces. And I’m still rebelling because I’m making nothing match.

But there’s a problem. Mid-century modern furniture is in style. And that means that the plan sofas with slim proportions I wanted are expensive even used on Craigslist. I’ve glanced at the local listings now and then and found pieces that I thought would kind of work, mostly just to predict what I’ll end up being able to get. And then I landed upon this.

It’s as simple and slimmed down as everything I wanted, it’s Kittinger’s Williamsburg line (a very good make), and the cushions are filled with down. I could barely afford to look at something modern and this well made, let alone take it home. But this was $400. And let’s be honest, I decided I could trust the taste of a seller in that kind of an awesome old house.

I sent the listing to my mom and she said BUY IT IMMEDIATELY. A couple friends who are my age agreed so I decided this wasn’t crazy, so I went and got it. It’s a really nice shade of green, I love the soft but rustic fabric on it, and the color matches my rug perfectly. And authentic 18^th Century furniture designs are clearly sleeker than the cheesed up skirted versions that were popular in my childhood. So I’ve come full circle and just might have ended up furnishing my mom’s second house. But really, it’s better to rebel against fashion than my mom. She loves me and fashion just wants to sell me stuff I don’t need.

There was just one catch. It doesn’t fit through any of their interior doors, all of which are wider than my front door. It’s not allowed to stay here for too long even though you’d probably never notice that it doesn’t blong here. Anyways, the next step on its journey should be fun.

All by myself!

The plan was that I was gonna bring in the Irishman to do some pre-flooring repairs, but he’s not well. This was scary, but I actually did totally fine without him and was even sorta fast… I think. So what all had to be done?

One kinda straightforward job was that the cove molding under my steps was missing. The carpet installers took it out many years ago. And they put about 5000000000000000 staples in with some sort of military style machine staple gun. I hate whoever did this.

But I got to the Home Depot and to my horror, the oak cove molding wasn’t the same size as what’s on my nosing! That piece that still has the cove on the end of the step is all one piece of wood. So then with 40 minutes until they closed, I drove a half hour to Tague. And I found out that what I actually need is called scotia. Which looks just like cove except it isn’t.

I bought it, got it home, and found out that it wasn’t quite the right size either! But luckily, the Irishman’s table saw is in my living room. So I did this.

Can you see the difference? Probably not. But it shows on the steps I promise.

Then I installed it and forgot to take a photo. Stupid, but I’ll get one later.

And then I moved on to the the threshold at the back door. I have weird slopy things and holes all along this end of the room. I thought building something to cover both would be hard.

I set the Irishman’s table saw at a 10 degree angle and put a nice bevel into the end floorboards, ripped the boards down to the same widths (because I’m using whatever was left from upstairs), notched one of the boards on the end where the wall is thicker, and glued them down. I had to trim away a bit of the kitchen floor and found that it is in fact made of the good solid pine, so I’m glad I never went through with ripping it out. It looks like this now. The asymmetrical bevel to take out the cross slope is a little crude, but the floor finisher will even it all out.

And then I had enough time left over to burn paint off of the bit of baseboard and casing that I never got to before. This paint job was a thing of beauty. And the baseboard had poly from the floors slopped up about an inch and a half. I don’t miss it, obviously.

So it all came out well, except that the outlet in my baseboard has a plastic box and I melted it with the heat gun! One more small job for the punch list, but I’m moving forward with the critical work first.

I told the floor finisher to confirm me for the 9th, so it’s on! Before then, I have some more flooring repairs in the kitchen, a little more staining and finishing, and a whole lot of cleaning and emptying the house. It’ll be a fun week.

When are you going to get everything out of the basement?

“I mean including the things from Nana that aren’t even going to be yours?”

That’s a loaded question, Mom. I might be ready to answer it, but the answer is long. She’s talking about the things that we boxed up both times my grandmother moved in the last 5 years. Moving her was chaotic enough so we wound up with some of her stuff to deal with, well you know… half past never.

The plan is to start going through all that stuff in their basement… but first I have to make room by taking the things I do want. Which means that it’s all tied to my schedule and I think someone’s had enough. I’ve been wrong about my move in date so many times it’s become a sore subject, but it looks like I might have the skeleton of a realistic timeline.

To start, the floor finisher penciled me in for the 9^th! I’m getting help from the Irishman this weekend and banging out the remaining bigger jobs. That means the threshold at the back door and the cove molding under the stairs. Plus as many smaller jobs as we can fit in. And then I’ll have 8 more days to finish odds and ends. 8 days!!!

So what next? I think I’ll be allowed in my own house again by the 11^th or 12^th. I’ll have through the 13^th to unpack the basement and procure the 1×6’es I need for my baseboards. (The other trim work used more wood than I accounted for, unsurprisingly.) And I can set the Irishman loose on the house the 14^th and 15^th do do as much trim work as humanly possible outside the kitchen. That means that Monday the 16^th I should in theory be able to bring the first round of furniture into the bedrooms. This dresser is down there but it’s in the back.

So back to my parents’ basement. Right now there’s a path to the laundry room. So the plan will be to fill our friends’ Suburban with as much as we can take in one trip of things I definitely want that are cluttering their house now. That means mostly furniture but I might take cookware and some other stuff too. I don’t know what I have or where anymore.

Then we can start to plan for the second round of stuff. This piece was in my grandmother’s dining room, but can go in my back bedroom… once my dad transfers his random crap to the matching hutch.

Which brings us to somewhere around Thanksgiving. At this point, I’m hoping there’s room to open the table and use the basement to go through Christmas ornaments while my sister is home. Neither of us needs to buy any. Will I have a tree this year? We’ll figure that one out later. I’m also hoping that the Irishman will be up for spending Thanksgiving weekend fitting out my kitchen. Because he doesn’t like to sit still and I want a kitchen like you wouldn’t believe.

So back to my mom’s question: we might have my clutter out and be ready to go through the rest in December, but I can’t see starting in earnest until January. Let’s cross our fingers that we can have a spring yard sale. Or is that crazy talk?

The big reveal – all 7 refinished antique doors

What a weekend! Meaning it sucked. I got 3 coats of finish onto all 7 doors that need it. Plus 2 on the banister. The doors are a little bit shiny. I wasn’t sure of this at first because they have a distinctly rustic look, but now I like it just fine. I’m also super excited about seeing hardware on them! Like, you have no idea. I think the white porcelain knobs could be historically accurate for the house, but there’s no way to know for sure.

And then there are the front bedroom closet doors. These took the stain differently and remain a little lighter than the other doors. Also, I had trouble with the finish drying before I could wipe it off, so there are a few noticeable streaks. I think I’m ok with. It’s all just character now right?

And don’t forget the giant fancy pocket door pulls I put on them. You can also see how I tried to faux paint over the old patch where there once was a lock.

And in the back bedroom I’m using these Georgian brass knobs because the closet doors came with one and I was able to trade in the porcelain knob I had for another one. There was a dent in the rose, which you might be able to see in this photo. I ground it off with the Dremel so it wouldn’t scratch the door when I put it on. And made sure the bad spot would face down. There is no wood behind the screw holes for the escutcheon, so that’s something to figure out later.

And the smaller pocket door in the upstairs hall coat closet got this darling little window sash lift. One small problem with this door though. The stile running through the middle of the door to the right of the pull never cured right – the finish is sticky. I think the devil might be trapped in this particular piece of wood. While I was stripping it I kept thinking one of my neighbors was cooking with fish sauce. The third time I realized it was the door. And then that one spot on this door didn’t take finish right. I’m hoping if I let it cure for a little while it’ll either cure right or I can put an extra thin coat on and take the tackiness out.

I noticed that the window alcoves were not completely stripped so just skipped them. They need to be stained before the floors are redone, but the other doors were all I could stand to do anyway. They’re up soon though. And yes, they’re getting stained.

And that sweet little pan light that shorted out all the lights on my second floor? Down it came. Womp womp.

I’ll get a pigtail up when I get a chance, but at least the other lights on the second floor work now. This isn’t going back up until it’s really fixed, and I couldn’t tell you when that will be. Maybe I’ll be motivated to do it in January. Maybe.

(And a quick shout out to my major sources for this hardware. The giant fancy pocket door pulls came from Charleston Hardware. One of the porcelain knobs came from my mom’s old house (before my dad) and the rim lock came from eBay, but all the doors and most of the other hardware came from Philadelphia Salvage.)