What I did at my house today...

[Manalto]

Thanks, Bonnie. I have commitments in Connecticut, so I'm stuck here for now.

I like the "before" photo better, too (which is what you're probably thinking) of the oak area but it really was a tangled mess of weeds. This way, when the perimeter shrubs grow to their mature size (it doesn't take long in Mobile, with its 70"/175 cm of rain per year), there will be shrubs, rather than tree trunks and vines, providing privacy. It's a wee city lot (122X85'/37X26m) so I can't afford the luxury of letting things grow wild, as I would out in the country. I've chosen a big shrub, Osmanthus fragrans, AKA Sweet Olive, for the back-door-to-back-door sightline, where the low stumps of the trees that were removed are visible. Dense and evergreen, it gets 8-10' (3m) tall. Its flowers are visually insignificant but, as the name suggests, have a fresh, clean fragrance that carries quite a distance, especially at night.

[Corsetière]

Well in case you were wondering how many door jambs you could strip with a 5 gallon bucket of stripper, the answer is 5 door jambs. lol! Oh, thank god that is done! It did however make me really long to finish stripping and refinishing all the trim. That woodwork is going to be so beautiful! Even just the jambs are so pretty that I feel reassured that I am making the right decision by fighting replacing them entirely.

[Willa]

Hey Corsetiere, I've been wondering where you've been !

The stripping sounds arduous, but worthwhile. Do you have a deadline for a re-inspection, etc. by the city ?

[Corsetière]

Ha ! Just sent you a PM!

[Corsetière]

This forum is so odd with its delayed outgoing mail! Maybe we're due for a catch up phone call on another evening at more decent hour? lol!

[awomanwithahammer]

It's been very quiet here lately. Not sure where everyone is. I've been working on window restoration for the last 3 weeks, so it doesn't seem like anything exciting to look at, like Gothichome's kitchen (the slab looks awesome, by the way!)

I did, however, get almost all my upper cabinets installed a couple weeks ago. Very pleased with the way they turned out.


I'm trying to get everything that's above my reach (backsplash, crown moulding, windows restored) finished before I install the lower cabinets. I use a rolling scaffold to work above my head and I can't use that with the lowers in place. Don't want to be standing on them!

Corsetiere, how long did it take you to strip those 5 jambs?

[Mick_VT]

This forum is so odd with its delayed outgoing mail! Maybe we're due for a catch up phone call on another evening at more decent hour? lol!

It's just the weird way the software works - less like email and more like old fashioned internal office memo systems. It sits in your outbox until it is picked up by the recipient. I guess it does add the benefit that you know if it has been read, and can edit or delete it before it is

[Willa]

I made a new address number. I used a bevelled pane of glass from an old french door, and back painted it. There are a few surviving old number signs with the black paint and foil here and there. City bylaw dictates that the numbers must be a particular size to be legible for EMS, etc. I painted some mirror clips black, glued down my foil and it was done. The antique signs often have glue chipped (?) ruffled edges and a sort of crude metal frame/holder. The numbers are usually sort of block-y. Since I wasn't intent on historical replication, this was my nod to it:

_DSC0011.jpg (1.27 MiB) Viewed 162 times

A family member was coming for a visit from far away, so that made all the undone (or Not Yet Done) stuff acutely visible. I decided I couldn't stand the chocolate milk colored living room any more (aka BM "Jackson Tan"). The walls and ceilings were the best in the house, so I foolishly thought that I could do about 20 minutes of patching and be done with it. Attached is a photo of what a typical wall looked like, after all the dings and holes had been patched. The ceiling was terrible, too. Then I had to sand it, then prime over the dark color, then two coats of paint on the ceiling and walls. It is now BM "Castleton Mist" (a very light chartreuse) and is so much brighter. I still need a get a photo of the finished room.

_DSC0001.jpg (1.18 MiB) Viewed 162 times

(More properly : this is what I did last week.)

[Gothichome]

Willa, aren’t you the crafty sort. You sign looks great. And you’ve been busy on inside work as well. Look forward to the new look parlour. We’ll have to take a drive for another visit.

[Gothichome]

Pumped water out of the basement today. Our river has overflowed its banks. Gothichome is in no danger of flooding but to the rising water has forced the water table well above our bacement floor, in particular the old coal room closest to the bank.
Went out a bought a sump pump and dug a small sump, been pumping all day. Pumps been keeping up with no issues. As I type the river is cresting, or so they tell us. Going to be a long night.