What I did at my house today...

[Vala]

I'm still working on the basement windows, trying to finish all the ones I need to access from the inside before it warms up - I don't like working down there in the warm season, too many spiders and other creepy crawlies.

[phil]

you could look into running an ozone generator down there for a bit. I tried one a few years ago. I just took any plants outside and borrowed it from a friend. I put it in various areas and it had a timer to set it for maximum one hour. Once home you quickly run in and open all the windows and vacate to let it air out a bit. since than I have noticed a lot less spiders and webs.
the downside is they also kill anything else living in your home like pets or plants. evedently the ozone can rot rubber but I didn't notice any damage. I don't have a wet basement so mainly I just have a lot of dandy long legs ones..
Phil

[phil]

I started scraping. I'm planning to scrape an the painted trim in my living room , baseboards and casings then the windows and frames eventually. I found it all has shellac so that's original and one coat of white paint so it's coming of easy with just the heat gun and Ive been using alcohol to wash off the remnants of paint and any shellac.
a day or two of paint stripping was enough. I have an older volvo 240 that I didnt' drive for 3 years so I started it ( first crank) and washed it and the van. I'm looking forward to just putting the car into shape. it started first time but needs a heater hose fixed and I need to remove the intake manifold to do that.
I was going to start on the back stairs but the full dimension 2x8 wood that I saved for that project is all about 3 inches too short so I'm contemplating either buying new wood or trying to add strips or something to lengthen the boards. or narrow the staircase? there's always a "gotcha"

[Corsetière]

Corcetiere, your learning too many tradesman/woman tricks. Us tradesmen will be out of work soon. extra points if you can tell us what type of file it is? Well done, and thanks for posting that little trick for all to learn.

It really was a super trick! It came out so easily! Yeah it's just a simple 10' tapered file. Mine was made by Kobalt (from Lowe's) and says it's a "mill file". You wouldn't believe the drama I have had here trying to schedule tradesmen here to fix things. Despite getting references, I keep hiring folks that don't seem that interested in working so I just get frustrated and end up doing it myself. But boy if you are in a trade, Columbus is a golden city to be working in these days! Plenty of work!

Oh and did I mention that the plumber put the shower valve about 2 inches too far back in the wall...yeah I fixed that too.

[Corsetière]

This week I also managed to get the front flower bed cleaned up. The bulbs I planted last fall are starting to look good!


And I also made my first run on the ceiling medallion mold I made! Looks pretty clean! I got a couple air bubbles this time but that can be easily fixed!

[phil]

vibration might help the bubbles. If you do more, try setting it on the washing machine for a bit while it's wet. the medallion looks great, now you have an ebay business

[phil]

haha , I was waiting for "bastard file" but she's right it was a mill file;-)
But she could have walked into Lowes and said " I want a flat bastard to get my broken nipple out " lol

[Corsetière]

I would have just flubbed it and asked for a fat bastard! 10 guys would have raised their hands!

Somewhere they said that if you paint the first layer of plaster in , you will get fewer bubbles. I just tried it, so we'll see!

[Mick_VT]

:lol: I would have just flubbed it and asked for a fat bastard! 10 guys would have raised their hands!

Somewhere they said that if you paint the first layer of plaster in , you will get fewer bubbles. I just tried it, so we'll see!

Let us know how it goes. If you need I can ask my relatives in the UK for some tips. They are the ones who have been doing decorative plasterwork for generations. Their website for the current business is here http://www.tomps.com/index.php

[Gothichome]

Well I would have asked for a single cut draw file myself. But a single cut mill file is acceptable.