Thornewood Antics

[1918ColonialRevival]

One thing I would recommend regarding the bronze. It will cost a little bit in the beginning, but it will save you headache down the road. I would order one of every size you think is close to what you need in the house. Write on the back of each one with a sharpie what it is, then use the marked pieces as a templates to see what gives you the best fit. I'm lucky that I'm only a couple hours' drive from Kilian's, so I took a piece up there and matched it up, but if I wasn't a close, that would have been my backup plan.

[aislinn]

Excited to have someone doing restoration alongside me . I actually emailed with Jade because she’s about an hour away from me and in the fall I’m hoping she can make it to my house to give me a quote on a few windows I don’t think I can handle and need to be done sooner than later. And she’s going to help me assess my other windows and answer some questions. I’m so thankful for her as a resource! I’ll add that I recently joint the national window restorers association Facebook group and they will accept you into it if you’re a homeowner with lots of windows to do. I haven’t asked any questions there yet, but it’s a great resource to search and Jade is on there!

[Gothichome]

Aislinn, Jad is a great advocate of restoration rather than replacement, as well as one who freely gives of her time and insight Into window restoration. Old home folks like us need more old home folks like Jade.

[phil]

building a 2x2 frame with some thin plywood might be worthwhile. feed it with a kettle and leave it an hour or so?

[Manalto]

This week I put down a gravel driveway (of sorts) because the plain-dirt driveway that had been there was suffering from erosion. Even though the slope is gentle, in heavy rains sand and soil would wash down onto the sidewalk and into the street. The surface had become uneven with exposed roots and was a bit of a trip hazard, particularly at night.



(Sorry, I was too lazy to remove the screen for the photo.) I used a material known as slag or A-base, a mixture used mostly for filling potholes. The guy at the gravel place recommended it because once it settles, it tends to stay put, unlike pea gravel. It's not pretty, but I can top-dress it later with something more attractive - or it may just darken and blend in. I borrowed a trailer from my 90 year-old roofer buddy (he's still working!) and, because he had nothing going on that day, he came along with me to pick up the stone. This remarkable man helped me shovel 2.7 tons of gravel onto my driveway, and pretty much kept up with my pace. At one point, he directed me to sit in his truck, with the air-conditioning running, to cool down. He said that it's not good to get too hot. (If anyone knows about hot work, it's a roofer in Alabama.) When we were done, I went into the house (no air conditioning) and thought, "Gee, it feels cool in here." I glanced at my phone; the temperature outside was 97F. Total cost of project: $106.00

This morning, I banked up the soil slightly on the side of the newly-surfaced driveway, amended it with some compost and manure, and planted some rooted cuttings of firespike (Odontonema cuspidata). Last year I noticed that someone in town had a mass planting of this previously-unknown-to-me plant and it looked terrific, so I identified it and found it for sale at a local nursery. Too stingy to buy more than one, I propagated four more from cuttings. Transplanting in August is OK as long as you're diligent about watering.



Here's what firespike looks like in bloom. As I recall, the neighbor's planting was about 3-4' tall, and the effect is much more dramatic en masse. It's a favorite of hummingbirds.



This is the time of year that the longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) sheds its old needles. Longleaf pine is a magnificent tree, native to the Southeast US. It's the state tree of Alabama. This is its native range:



I went down the street this morning with a tarp and a rake and collected enough "pinestraw" for this project in about five minutes. By the way, in Connecticut I've also used the shorter, more delicate needles from the native northern white pine (Pinus strobus) as mulch and it works just as well. In fact, it's a little easier to handle, and stays fluffy longer.

Garden Project #2 was the container on the front porch. An aloe had sat on my front steps for the past couple of years, but temperatures plunged into the 20s last winter and no one was there to throw a blanket over it. The damaged aloe survived but I decided to change to something a little tougher.



The variegated plant is Yucca filamentosa 'Color Guard' with a groundcover juniper (Juniperus horizontalis) that was on the discount rack at Lowe's for $3 because one small branch was dead. (I trimmed it off.) It looks a little goofy right now, but I think it will look nice when it fills out. These are indeed tough, drought-tolerant plants, as hardy in Mobile as they are in Montreal.

[Gothichome]

James, the pine needles, first time I have heard them being used as a mulch. The pine resins leaching out won’t kill the plants obviously.

[Manalto]

It's a logical thought but no, they're harmless.

Pinestraw is a common mulch in this part of the US but I haven't seen it used elsewhere although pine trees grow throughout North America. I used to pay for it but now I get it for free because I know where I can go and rake it. The property owners are happy and I'm happy.

PS - I just walked the dog and picked up a random longleaf pine needle cluster (they grow in threes) off of the sidewalk where I got pine straw earlier this week. I took it home and measured it and the needles are 12 in long.

[Manalto]

This past weekend, I removed the original tile (I removed a top layer of white 12" tile about a year ago) and concrete from the bathroom floor. In 1919, they poured 4" of concrete between the joists, with 3" wide tongue-in-groove boards at the bottom to contain it. On top of that was some kind of mortar mix (1/2") with 5" square tiles set into it. The tiles themselves are 3/4" thick. That's a lot of weight, particularly for a floor whose joists had been mostly consumed by termites. It's a miracle it didn't collapse to the floor below.



Next step: reconstruct the bathroom floor (serving pantry ceiling) and move plumbing to accommodate replacement fixtures.

[PaulJohnson]

Paul, I gave your vids a watch, interesting see how others are doing things. I do not use heat to soften the putty but work with the putties hardness and brittleness. I try to get a pointed scraper behind the putty and gently pry against the sash frame. I find I can often get one to two inch chunks to pop off. Just work my way around the sash keeping an eye out for the points. I pull the points out as I go around, one thing I have learned over the years is, there’s always one more point than you think here should be. This is almost a law when trying to coax a piece of precious wavy glass out of the frame.

Sorry for the delay responding. Thank you for watching the videos - I am definitely not a youtube star

Your method proves there is more than one way to get a job done. I plan to do quite a few windows this winter. My plan is to build a steam box and give that method a try.

[Manalto]

Just an update on the firespike (Odontonema sp.) cuttings that I rooted and transplanted in August:



Here they are today, four months later:



I was pleasantly surprised to see them bloom this year (and so late in the year). The mother plant is much larger, almost 4' tall. The blooms are very long-lasting and attractive to pollinators. I'm hoping to establish a mass planting at the end of the driveway.

Note: That's a fresh application of pinestraw; it holds up well, but not that well.