And the Fat Man lived through most of the winter.....

.....if winter ever ends I could say there was another one behind me. No outside progress. None; I hate the cold and dank weather so I hibernate. Managed to scrounge a lot of lumber from the old man's and a pretty nice tool bench for down cellar. Now I can get all the tools in one place to keep them from underfoot here. The kitchen is getting leveled next. It will happen. Will. I am done fooling with it.

Pictures as soon as I can.

No posts, but plenty going on!

Busy! The north half of the roof was replaced in late July. My homeowners' insurance had excluded it from coverage and it looked like hell so now was the time to do it. Here it was, in all of its patched up glory.

Rather than strip all the way to the sheeting, because the sheeting is spaced for cedar shingles, we elected to try an idea out on the porch roof, where we did strip to the wood roof, which was still pretty good, replace the lowest four feet with new sheeting to match the level of the wood shakes, and roof over that. It worked very well.

The fascia board and soffits were given a little attention about then, too.

The old roofing took up one full sized dumpster, and the place immediately became a good deal more palatable for the three houses worth of neighbours that I care about to live with.

I also put some Florentine glass in my lower bathroom sash, because the window goes almost to the floor and I don't have a plan in hell of replacing it. This was a little more involved than it sounds because I had to refinish the sash, repair the corners, and replace the manky old weight cords.

More as I do it!

Chaz

Making Lemonade!

So the inside door between the house and the porch is the original one, beveled window and all. The only thing I changed was putting porcelain knobs on to keep the long-snouted hound from opening it with his big mouth, which he could do with the old metal knobs. The wood screen door was salvaged from my grandma's old place. My cousin gave it to me when it became obvious he wasn't going to use it.

The door that goes from the porch outside is the original storm door off the house, from the days before the porch was enclosed.
Even though that door is trimmed off funny, manky looking and that, I want to keep it, warts and all. And it has good bones. It also had the original wavy glass.
Had. I took the thing off last week to heat gun paint off, to either stain or repaint it, and was coming along just fine. Then I hear a "whapp" and feel a sting, and come to find out I put my fat elbow clear through the window. (*&^%$!




Enter Lee Beem, from the Glass Shop, in Emmetsburg. He could have cut me a piece of regular glass for not much money, but nooooo. I have to cause trouble all up and down the line. I stopped in down there and he had a chunk of blue stained glass pretty close to the right size. It was still under ten dollars.
The pattern is Florentine, which has been around for a long time. Here it is, in all of its teal glory, enough to make the woman across the corner's head explode. see clear from the street.

In slightly-related vein, I have an acquaintance who doesn't knock, but barges in and once in bellows out "knock-knock!" at the top of his voice. Well, he will get corrected right quick. You see, I took the door knobs off  to work on the door, and leaving them off will fix his little red wagon!

Soon as the heat lets up I'll finish heat gunning the door and decide if I ought to paint or stain it.

Hot Diggity! I got something done!

This is the place right after I got it. The PO did all she could to keep it nice but just didn't have the wherewithal to keep up with the upkeep. Another year and it would have been past saving. The most recent big project around here is getting the old gal painted and the pile of rotten or otherwise scurvy wood replaced before it falls in the hole. Of particular concern are the a) fascia boards and the b) front porch windows. The fascia boards are half done. Remaining are the two six-footers on the front porch and the two foot section on the southeast corner. The windows on the porch are another pot of socks. On the main house the storms took the brunt of punishment for the house, and the windows turned out pretty good, but the porch has no storms, or rather the windows are all storms, and used as the regular window. There are three that are needing help like yesterday.

Each time I do work on this place I gain more respect for whomever built it. The porch windows came out easily, and looked as though they were designed to replace with a minimum of fight and fuss. My neighbour and I had all three windows out in five minutes. Two are repairable, one had the pickle. When a local glass man sold his shop I snagged some old wood storms from him, and one fit, with the addition of a chunk of 5/8" to the bottom. Primed and in, you wouldn't ever know it was replaced. The other two will get the bottom inch cut off and a piece added to combat the decay in their corners. The sill is 1 5/8" thick and 8" deep, and had some rot in it. We couldn't get it removed without a pile of misery, and the bad spot didn't have to bear any weight, so we primed hell out of it and put an aluminum skin over it.

The sash were then glazed and primed, and put back in. The glazing was soupy and wanted to stick to the putty knife-we had a hell of a time keeping it on the window and off of the blade. Next time I am putting the tub in the ice box a few hours before I start in glazing.

Next up, staining and refinishing the porch door. Yippie.

I ain't dead, I swear!

Since it seems that houseblogs is no more, I find I have not kept up on the blogs I used to follow. Since I can't easily keep up on anyone else's, I don't post on mine as much. Ugh! I sort of notice a few others are the same. If you want to, I found a place at http://www.homeownerslike.us/. I am pretty sure www.brooklynrowhouse.com has some part in it, I have actually belonged forever but forgot about it till houseblogs went down. If you like it, can you spread the word? I have no vested interest except reading about house projects. Also, can someone tell me if a site like thhe old houseblogs site is around someplace?

Cheers!

Chaz

3rd Annual Bungalow Blog Tour

Previous Tour Stop: http://bungalow23.com/2011/05/14/3rd-annual-bungalow-blog-tour/

Thanks to Stucco House, the tour commences! Well, it's that time again! A lot has happened, some big, and some not so big.



I still miss my hound. I haven't gotten another dog-I may not, it's too soon to tell. The new one'll have some big paw prints to fill if I do. I am thinking I'll look into a rescue shelter dog. Probably another long-snouted hound. Why change a known ticket, eh?

Before any dogs, though, the yard has to be fenced in and the house gotten a little farther than I have it now. For the time being, I'll just borrow the neighbors' dogs when one needs petting or such.


I came across a little wooden grainery that is going to be the clock shop eventually. It takes forteen by sixteen feet, and has plenty of room for a loft up above for keeping junk that may actually get used in repairs. Building Savers in Emmetsburg brought it up by truck, and set it on the blocks, and now the rest is up to me. It needed a roof as it was, and will need siding help too. I bought steel for the roof before this latest asininity with fuel prices, so I didn't get clipped too hard on that. The rest of the lumber is second-hand going into its revitalization. This is in keeping with my no debt-no waste policy of living here.

The plan it to leave it twenty four inches off the ground, so I can use the space under it for ladders and that. There are to be lean-to's on each side, one for the mower and that, and the other for odds and ends that aren't going to be inside. The siding on it now it pretty well had it. My cousin had a storm hit his farm, and the insurance company made him replace all the tin on the barn, so he gave me the old, which was still good. There's my siding! My dad has friends that always want wood gone from their place. There's the framing and that! Three old storm doors from the trash? There the walls for the lean to. Got the windows and everything already in!

Ever wish you could pick your neighbors? Well, I got to! Here's how it happened: My little red shed is slated to become the clock shop as soon as the roof and windows are made sound. I hired a friend to come tin the roof, and he liked the house north of me. It was empty, and frankly I had little hope of it ever being lived in again, but he and his wife bought it! Let me tell you, I lucked out in this neighborhood!


Grannie's cupboard turns out to be ideal for pianola rolls, along with a few other parlor-y odds and ends. Some son of a snake weaseled me out of the colonnades I had lined up, so I get to find another set. Oh, well. Sucks to be him. I got to get on the stick and get the pianola or the organ working now. Either one will play rolls, and wither one would be nice to have when I want to play something. It doesn't look like there are that many rolls, but the whole bottom is full too, and there are a whole pile of the things.

The old clock from my first shop wound up over the ice box in the kitchen. I can see the thing from a mile off, and it doesn't make any noise on the hours. In a fit of creative zeal, I reverse painted that lower glass. The cat frightens little children.


See my pretty new plumbing, replacing all of the old galvanized? I was so tired of that old mess I got a mad on one day and tore out the whole pile and we ran new lines. We sold all the old en masse to a local scrap dealer, who was more than happy to make it dissapear, and from there it is has passed into dim memory. I am so happy I could grow a tail to wag it! Now onto the shower ring!

Here is another, showing the old in the background and new in the foreground. Dispite the putrid-looking ducts the furnace is new.

Here's the back bedroom, where my den is at. See how nice and settled in it is? Note the peeling paper and scrody looking walls! Settled in. Ayup.....life is good, here on the bungaloo route.

Next Tour Stop: http://ittybittybungalow.wordpress.com/2011/05/12/3rd-annual-bungalow-blog-tour/

No More Dog in the Dog House

My poor old doggie died.

He started slowing down this last fall, and by last Wednesday it was plain he was in more misery than he deserved. We took him to the vet, and it turned out he got arthritis in his back, and two of the bones near his tail broke. That meant he couldn't use his back legs without lots pain. The vet said this condition would rapidly become worse, and even in humans meant a wheelchair and lots of narcotic painkiller.

Two shot syringes and five minutes later it was all done, and we buried him out by his doghouse with his long snout pointed to the road like he always lay.

He's out of his suffering, but it's too quiet around here now. No clicking toenails or sniffing snout makes for one still damn house. No living furnace on the bed means I am up earlier because it's too damn cold to linger.



Work at the house goes on....If the basement door ever thaws out we got the kitchen floors to level.