Today's Special: Quick Projects.

Today was pretty productive considering how little time I had to be messing around with the house. After staying my first night in my bedroom (as opposed to the living room for the last 2 months) I went to my first class... a difficult feat for this sleeper-inner. Afterwards, I came home for a couple work hours before my second class.

During that two hour span I changed out the light fixture in my bedroom and replaced the lightswitch. The lightswitch was dirty and yellowed, so I replaced it with a nice new white one that looks ten times better with the crisp white trim and coverplates. The fixture that was hanging in the room was pretty small and generic; it looked like this:



I decided that I would prefer something more like this:The old one is still in usable condition so I'll donate it to the ReStore this week. I'm actually pretty excited about that because most of the things I've removed from the house are in such terrible condition that nobody could use them.
This little quick task also had one bonus; I know which breaker turns off the second floor now! It only took about four tries, but I got it! Is it weird that the whole second floor is on one breaker? I guess I don't know too much about electrical systems, but I think that's kind of unusual.

After my second class, but before my dinner engagement at 5:30pm I removed the thick plastic covering the exterior of a couple windows. This was found on the north window in the dining room, the window on the stairway landing, and the little window to the right of the fireplace. I'm sure the reason it was on the windows was because the storm windows leak cold air like crazy in the winter, so I removed them so I can re-glaze and repaint them before it gets too cold out.

I'm gunna bust out the 'flame thrower' tomorrow and take 'em down to bare wood and pull out the old glazing compound so I can redo the glazing after work tomorrow night. That's of course if I can hold off on firing up that heat gun that I love! Here are the two from the fireplace wall. When finished they'll be the new trim color, so I couldn't just do the bad one, they wouldn't match and I'd freak out. Anyhoo, here they are (can you spot the rot?):
THEN, after I finished supper I came back and installed a storm window I salvaged off a demolished house onto the window on the landing. I finished that before my 7:00 meeting! Woo hoo! Now you can actually see out of the window, whereas before the plastic was so thick all you could see was a blur. You can kind of make out the stained glass landing window of the neighboring house/apartment conversion. (which should be restored... another story altogether)Upon further thought, I think I might just start stripping paint tonight. Is it weird that I love it so much? I'm such a loser!

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!

I figured out how to use my camera, even though the LCD screen is broken. That one was a little alcohol+game involving movement+pavement+camera issue... I learned my lesson.

The good news is that I took pictures of everything I've written about but been unable to show you. I'll start off with the salvaged basement window I cleaned up, put new glazing compound on, and painted green.

I'll have to go the house and prop it up on the porch so you can see what the color looks like in it's proper application. Taking pictures from the middle of the street I guess; just more weird behavior in front of the neighbors. They'll have to start expecting it at some point.

Here's a photo of the one of the doorknobs I got from my 'parts house' (Rest In Pieces!). Check it out, 3 bags full! They've just been riding around in my trunk with me for the last couple weeks.

I read that if you put hardware like this in a crock pot full of water overnight, the paint comes right off. I'll try it sometime before we start working on the house, just in case these get called into play

I worked for three more hours on the first salvaged door, removing all of the paint with the heat gun. I'll probably use a chemical stripper to remove the stubborn paint from from the cracks and crevaces. That should take care of the rest of the varnish too. I'm a little concerned about the stripper because I've never tried anything like it before. I should be able to manage if everyone else can. Anyone have any suggestions on which one to use?

Before I get to that I need to attack the second door. Oh, picture provided! Yes! We have door #1 on the left and door #2 on the right. We also have about five hours of heat gun and scraper on the right. Boo!

Did I fail to mention that Fargo hit 100 degrees today and is really humid? Just the perfect temperature to spend a few hours with a gun blasting out 950 degree air. Fantastic idea. Ranks right up there with wearing shorts and flip-flops with searing-hot sticky paint chips dropping to the ground. I felt the heat on that one a couple times! I also inadvertantly bumped the hot tip of the gun with my thimb. Ouch! It was quick enough though that I didn't burn it really. No blister at least! It's still my favorite tool.

That's about it for now.

Salvaged Supplies = Hours of Restoration

Well, I finally got around to paining the basement window I salvaged and reglazed. As I was applying the green color to the sash, my friend Andy walked out of the house and commented on how he can create that color after a long night of drinking. Thanks. Luckily, once it dried, it looked less like pea soup and came closer to the sage green I was hoping for. As an Architecture student I like to think I can make a good color selection, but this trim color made me second guess my skills! So far so good though.

I drove over to the house and leaned the newly painted window against the siding so I could stand in the street like a crazy person and evaluate the color choice I made for the house I don't even own yet. I think the neighbors must already think I'm crazy. I walked around the house with my little window and looked at it in different lighting conditions and in different areas of the house. How's it work with the brick? How about the shingles? How's it in the shade vs. in the light?

Last night I had my buddy Andy help me pick up two doors from my 'parts house' that's going down today. They match my house's doors EXACTLY! I whipped out my heat gun last night and got to work stripping off layers of white paint. I only finished the one side of one door, but I'll be doing some more work tonight. The original finish of the door I started last night must have had some sort of waxy varnish because the paint was barely bubbling under the heat, but this varnish became the consistancy of honey (just as sticky) and smelled like crayons. If anyone has any ideas about what this is, let me know! It worked out well because the varnish liquified and the paint just came off in sheets (after I got my technique down). I'm not sure what kind of wood the door's made of, but I think it may be oak. All of the upstairs trim is painted right now anyways, so I don't have much to compare it to. As long as I can get the stain to match across the board, I'll be fine!

My camera is broken, so I unfortunatelly don't have any pictures to share, but hopefully I can get it fixed soon so those who read blogs like I do (skimming through pictures, reading where the pictures are interesting) will have more to look at! I definatelly will have a camera by the time I close!

Take care, fellow bloggers