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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Last night Larry Martin came over to give us a quick demonstration of his graining technique. He makes it look so easy. We’ll find out this weekend when we try it outselves. As Lori noted though we have a nice …
This weekend may be the last time I ever sleep in this house, the house that was my home for the first 18 years of my life and one that I’ve always been able to return to ever since. I …
I was hoping to continue working on the house today, but while having breakfast I noticed that it was extremely wet outside. So the little window for painting is closed for now. This is the reason I expect it to …
Yesterday I got the first bit of the new color up on the house. Looking great so far. Today, we picked up some scaffolding from some neighbors so I can start working on the gables. We had some trouble getting …
I primed the areas I had spent the last two days prepping. The house is going to take a lot of prep work so it’s going to have to be done in small sections, much like I did the house …
When the porch was restored, it got a coat of primer. Which fell off after a couple of winters. It got another coat of primer. Which fell off after a couple of more winters. So now I’m getting ready to …
I received the graining tools I recently ordered, so I guess this weekend I’m going to have to start the graining project. I’m a bit nervous about it, but I can always paint over it and try again if I …
The last bit of pink has finally been banished from my office. I still need to do a second coat on the trim and then let that dry for several weeks before I can start doing the graining. But that …
I was playing around on Google Earth today and cruising through San Jose I see that they’ve updated the imagery for our old neighborhood. It’s pretty outstanding resolution now, with the garden layout and other details clearly visible. We also …
Larry Martin, who grained our parlor and the Main Street Studio, has been busy so I’m going to take a stab at doing the woodgraining myself. First step is to paint the woodwork with the undercoat, which in this room …
After a couple of coats of the Clay Pot, it was time to paint the bottom section which is getting treated with a darker terra cotta they call School House Brick. The picture rail has also received it’s touch of …
Those of you who have visited my childhood room know I had a thing for orange back then. I guess in some ways I still do. Although this orange is more subdued than the bright orange the 70s were famous …
Bit by bit my office at home is becoming less pink. That’s a very good thing. Finally got all the walls fixed after removing the old wallpaper so it was time to prime.
Tom of Celtic Construction installed this casement window for us which replaced one more source of leaks in our house. Now we just have the front door, the back door, and a mysterious leak in the office. On those rare …
We pulled up the old carpet in the office room today and found a layer of particle board under that. As we pulled up the particle board, we found that the original flooring was in pretty good shape, which was …
Even with all the work we did this fall trying to prevent this from happening again, we were greeted this morning with a totally flooded yard. Power was off when we awoke, and when it finally got light enough to …
“Lori and I spent the weekend putting in our latest flood control project. Since the last flood came in from the side we added some protection by using 1×12 boards at the bottom of what will eventually be a deer …
Last night I was changing one of the light bulbs in the antique fixture in the dining room and since it was dark I had the fixture on so I could see what I was doing. I’ve done this countless …
The biggest chore I had for today was redoing some of the electrical in my office at home. Like the garage, I’m finding that the electrical in the house must have been done by an amateur, with no knowledge of …
Just in time for the rainy season the house and barn are getting new gutters. The house never had any when we bought it and it looks nicer having them on, and I’m sure it will help preserve the siding …
The day started out cold and wet, with even a short hailstorm, but the practice burn went down as scheduled. My plan for the day was to run the engine most of the day, and take one trip into the …
I was thinking there wouldn’t be much to redoing the office because it was pretty much cosmetic. However, when we got the old wallpaper off it was obvious we had had some water damage under the window. It was hard …
Phil came back today to put the finishing touches on the ceiling. We were trying to decide what paper to put in the cove when his wife Diane suggested the fill we used in the bay window. Not only did …
Once they finished putting up the borders, it was very apparent that the light fixture is going to have to be moved so that it will be visually centered with the wallpaper, even if that means it won’t really be …
In addition to the ugly pink walls, the office also had a very ugly green ceiling. About half of it was covered by paint last month, but today the fun part started. Phil and Diane came over and started putting …
