I haven’t posted in a while.

There honestly hasn’t been too much renovation progress going on. I’ve been taking care of lots of admin work, but this past week, I made some progress. Last time I wrote, I had just discovered that the laundry chute in the bathroom(s) was made of beautiful lumber. I thought about leaving the lumber and just installing some shelves, but there are some gaps and not enough lumber to do the shelving in both bathrooms unless it’s removed and reinstalled (I lose lots of materials between the levels of the house). The lumber is in four solid pieces and spans from the second floor to the basement. The pieces are way too long to get out without making a cut. I spent a lot of time figuring out exactly where I wanted my cuts. What material will be the back of the shelving unit? The sides? I want more depth…and on and on. As soon as I had thought it through, I determined I would make my cuts at the 107” mark…now what tool to use. The space was a bit confined for a circular saw. I thought I would slice through the other pieces of wood, or worse, joists or electrical. I got a jigsaw, but had a hard time controlling it since the lumber is upright and unstable. I pretty much use my feet to brace it and hope for the best. Yay for safety. I got an oscillating tool and it did the trick! This tool is so amazing! It is God’s gift to man! And me!

Since I’ve written, I stained the windows that I’d removed the paint from. The wood was raw under about a dozen layers of paint and in rough shape. The paint had penetrated deep into the grain. After some sanding, I gave it a go and had some terrible results. The stain just wouldn’t take. I was okay with the window looking distressed, but this looked sad. I did some research and found that General Finishes stain supposedly works well, and gel stain can work more like a paint than a stain.

I’ve always turned my nose up at gel stain, but maybe it’s my answer. And it came out like a dream! In the first photo, the single pane window has had one coat and the six pane window hasn’t been stained yet. You can see how awful it looks. The lumber on the right is the color I was trying to match. In the second photo, you can see the windows after two coats. It looks fantastic and was an exact match, which I didn’t expect! Score!

You’ll remember that Wolverine broke down on me and I had to be towed twice to get her home. I posted her for sale to see what hits I might get and didn’t have much success. I finally called my friend Willy (painted the soffit at The Maple House and dry walled the bathroom at The 1885 House) and he is also very auto savvy. He changed my alternator for me and I once again have transportation! I feel so free and love driving around with my windows rolled down (the windows on the truck actually roll down, no power anything in my old girl).

I also took a little time this week to reorganize my office and clean up a vintage chair I had found. I meant this to be my office chair, but it sits really low and far back…my arms don’t reach my desktop when I’m sitting in it, but it sure looks cool! I love funky things!

Also, last time I was at Target, I found this pitcher for $3! This will hold all the staples I painstakingly pulled from the kitchen floor in the downstairs unit. I will never throw these away. I seriously love this house so much.