In addition to determining how many boards are needed for the trim in a given room, we’re also trying to carry this across multiple rooms. If we need 7′ 2″ in the living room, and 4′ 10″… then a 12′ board would actually work to handle that.
Our current task: re-measuring all the first floor rooms, and determining how much lumber we need in terms of linear feet (converted to standard 10′, 12′, 14′, and 16′ boards).
I hauled up a hammer, and a small shovel, to get rid of the snow. I worked pretty slowly, afraid that my motions would end up tilting me or pulling me off the ladder. I’ve had a not great track history with keeping my balance on ladders, and so doing all this two stories up was… daunting.
Liz, moments after saying “Come over here for a second.” And then failing to pull me into the snowbank.
While I was working on winterizing the first floor a bit more, Liz was down in the basement reviving a cedar chest she had purchased via Facebook.
While I was in the kitchen doing dishes, Liz called me in to the dining room (where she’s set up her light fixing shop area). She had finished up her cleaning, repair, and rewiring of the light that used to hang in our vestibule.
Spent today working in the main hall – sanding down spots that Liz patched, identifying newer spots that need more patching, then cleaning and wiping everything down with a damp sponge.
When she’s not in the basement working on trim, or cleaning the heating registers out on the grill or with wire brushes… she’s been taking apart an small, old chandelier and bringing it back to life.
Liz has expressed some frustration, not with the work but with the outcome: there’s no “finishing” of anything, at least not yet. There’s so much to do, so many pieces involved, that it’s just a gradual slog – chipping away, bit by bit, piece by piece.
Liz and I are both on vacation, and we’ve been doing this one day on one day off kind of thing. One day focusing on the house, another day relaxing and doing our own stuff.
Several hours in the bath is just the start of the work. After each grate is taken out of the bath it’s scrubbed clean in the sink, brushed again in the basement with a steel brush (in all the nooks and crannies), then given some oil, then the whole grate is heated on the grill, then brought back inside brushedit’s heated (out on the grill), then brought inside to have a layer of wax applied, and then baked again.
he whole process for prepping and cleaning each grate is actually incredibly time-intensive.
It was a tough decision for us, but Liz and I decided to visit Valparaiso for a brief Christmas evening with Bob and Julie.
I was upstairs working on work work today (catching up a bit from the week), but she spent her time in the basement doing a ton of stuff: clearing away debris, reorganizing, and also building these bad boys. Which involved some angled cuts and a bit of table saw work.
Continued work tonight in the dining room. With the ceiling and walls patched with mud, sanded, and wiped clean (all by hand)… the actual priming of the walls was going a lot easier.
It may be hard to prove, but the room actually looks smoother and cleaner, after we worked on it. Things are definitely in a better state for primer, after us taking the time to wipe down the ceiling and walls.