Lori’s Stained Glass Window
When we were planning the guest bathroom redo, I though it would be nice to add a stained glass window like we did in our 1914 Bungalow in San Jose. I kind of handed that project over to Lori, letting … Continue reading →
Category Archives: House
The Parlor is Finally Finished!
When we bought our 1888 Victorian home in 2000, we knew we wanted to tackle the parlor as our first interior project. Parlors were the room Victorians use to entertain, and so they were the fanciest room in the house. … Continue reading →
The Back Bathroom is Back
For the first 12 years we owned our Ferndale Victorian, the back bathroom was used more as a closet than anything else. With the lack of closet space typical in Victorians, there wasn’t a good place to store things like … Continue reading →
The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of Our Rose Arbor
One of the first things Lori and I did upon moving into our 1888 Victorian on Rose Ave was to plant some roses along the avenue. Logical right? We went to Miller’s Farm Nursery and selected enough Cécile Brünner and … Continue reading →
The Bedroom is Finished!
Today was a momentous occasion at the Knowles house. While we have done lots of work on our 1888 Victorian in the 17 years that we’ve lived here, I can finally say one room, our bedroom, is completed. We have … Continue reading →
Goodbye Facebook, Hello Toilet
Well I’ve had it. With the latest revelations about Facebook’s involvement with Trump’s campaign, I find I can no longer support their business, and I certainly can’t trust them with my personal information. So I’m going to delete my Facebook … Continue reading →
In My Own Backyard
It’s often true that people don’t discover their nearby attractions until relatives or friends visit from out of town and they become the tour guide. People travel all over seeking out the new and interesting, when sometimes the best places … Continue reading →
The Kitchenaid Bank
This afternoon I finally got around to tackling the biggest project on my honey-do list. I had to. I was running out of clothes to wear. For the last few months our clothes dryer has been making an increasingly loud … Continue reading →
How I Spent My Summer Vacation
One of the problems of having a camera that you can tuck just about anywhere, is that it can get tucked just about anywhere. So for a couple of months I’ve been without my take it with me camera, my … Continue reading →
The Front is Finally Done!
In May of 2008 I started the long process of painting the house. I decided to tackle the front first, because it is of course the most interesting side of the house, but also the porch was new construction and … Continue reading →
Repairing an Antique Rim Lock
Since we’re going to be hosting some out of town guests this weekend for the Bionic Woman Variety Show, Lori’s been hard at work cleaning the guest bathroom. Calling it the guest bathroom is a bit of a misnomer. It’s … Continue reading →
Honey Do List From Hell
This weekend Lori and I didn’t have to go anywhere, and the weather was really nice. I was very tempted to take one of the motorcycles out for a spin, especially since this is one of my favorite times to … Continue reading →
Painting Season Has Arrived
Growing up with San Jose’s dry weather presented some challenges when it came time to adapt to the humid coastal climate of Ferndale. Many of them emotional, but some practical as well, such as painting one’s house. Our house in … Continue reading →
And More Paint
The right bay window is nearing completion and the scaffolding came away. Next on the list is reparing the panels under the windows. The trim that is still green isn’t original. I’m guessing that after the earthquake the trim on … Continue reading →
Paint, Paint, Paint
ost recreational activities other than bocce have been postponed as I’ve really been trying to make some progress on the paint job. As you can see from this photo, we’re finally getting out of the endless fog pattern we see … Continue reading →
Blue Squares
As I’m making my way down the bay window, one more element of the new color scheme became evident. Another touch of blue showed up on the squares above the windows. In designing the color scheme, I have reversed the … Continue reading →
Wallpaper Border
Lori’s hearing problem has caused many changes in our household, and we’ve figured out ways to work around most of the problems that it causes. Hanging wallpaper isn’t one of them. It’s very hard to do sign language when both … Continue reading →
Painting the Porch
Finally got around to paining the porch and steps. It was really nice to see the water beading off of the steps the next morning. A few years ago when we redid the porch, the steps weren’t even primed and … Continue reading →
A few steps closer
I’ve been waiting for several weeks for a day to paint the porch. It’s been so foggy lately that the steps had been too wet to paint. So this afternoon when the sun came out I quickly got to work. … Continue reading →
Oops
I was stripping paint today with a heat gun, something I have a lot of practice with. Still I realize that it does have the potential to set your house on fire, which is what I did today. The piece … Continue reading →
Next Step
Some paint went on, some came off. With the balls in place, the right gable is officially done, so the top level of scaffolding was removed and work was begun under the eaves. I’m finding that there is one real … Continue reading →
Phil’s Gold
These little spindles above the porch have been a real pain in the butt. Originally I was going to have them tan and blue. So that meant painting them once with primer, then twice with tan, and then the middle … Continue reading →
Gable Balls
Each of our gables feature 11 half balls and the old ones are pretty rotten. I figured it would be expensive to have them remilled so I started looking around for replacements. I found the perfect sized half balls online, … Continue reading →
Spindles
With all five colors finished, the porch spindles are looking great. I would have had more photos from late last month and early this month if I had been able to find my little camera. That’s one problem with making … Continue reading →
Friday The 13th
Probably not a good day numerically to be up on ladders and scaffolding, but we had the best weather all week so again I took most of the day off to paint. In addition to finishing the first coat of … Continue reading →
The colors of our house
Mostly the house is using the same colors as the barn, with a few additions, although the body and accent colors have been switched between the two buildings. One addition to the house is a blue, which you can see … Continue reading →
What’s with the Temperature?
The last few days have been nice and clear, most likely because the wind has been keeping the fog out. But it’s been a cold wind. Temps have been getting down into the 30s at night, and barely getting above … Continue reading →
Painting the Fish Scales
Like many Victorians, our bay window gables feature fish scale shingles. I tell you, these are a real pain to paint. If there were any more of them on our house I’d be breaking out the paint sprayer instead of … Continue reading →
Cooperative Effort
Today Lori and I started in on woodgraining the office woodwork. This was one of those rare painting projects that I enjoyed her help. Not only did it add variety having two different people painting, we also learned tricks from … Continue reading →
Prime Location
With the prep work done on the gable, and a new gallon of primer, it was time to start painting the gable. While it was white I used the opportunity to play around with the color scheme in Photoshop. You’ll … Continue reading →
The Final Four
A sunny workday for a change, so while waiting for paint coats on the house to dry I put up the last four brackets, and did some painting on the fence until I ran out of primer. So I went … Continue reading →