Some Furniture Projects

Because I don't have a TV, I have alot of free time. So I do things like this.

First up, a heat lamp (?) thing that I found in my basement after the Great Flood of the Spring. Hence the crud.

Pow! Cleaning ninja strikes again. Scrubby + plenty of hose action and a dash of Brasso and it's super shiny and lovely.

Detail shot of rusty crud

Now it just has "patina"

Second project, a craigslist dresser scored for 30 bucks. I didn't really need a dresser. At all. But I could not pass it up. So I remembered a dresser from Chelsea Textiles Ltd. that I really liked and decided to actually paint a piece of furniture. 

Inspiration

It took alot. But, the drawer faces were laminate and the top/sides were covered in poly, so no "original finish" was harmed during the production of this project.


Start: Wash it down and lightly sand the surfaces. Go to Home Depot and get a sample of  Behr Premium Ultra interior flat in "Manuscript".

 

Chicken out and just paint the drawer fronts. Contemplate just the gray for a while. Wonder how hard it would be to remove the integral handles. Look for long drawer pulls on the interwebs. Gasp at the prices.

Proceed to buy some of that new Martha Stewart paint in "Antique Gold". Paint integral wood handles. (I'm still on the fence as to painting the rest of the dresser. I am leaning towards just going for it. I can always un-paint it. I'm really good at that by now.)

Hunt around for more things to paint "Antique Gold". Bingo! Antique plant stand that's been in my family forever. It's inlaid wood veneer top was ruined years ago by water, and the top has been ugly ever since. Martha to the rescue! 

So I don't have a better picture than this, but the whole top and cross braces and interior face of the legs were painted, and now it's gorgeous again. Win.

I've been a terrible blogger, part 2 of 1027764959

Hurricane Irene!


Disclaimer:
Let me just say that I know that this is barely a pinprick, considering 20 miles away from me, whole towns were washed away, and I count my lucky stars to come out so unscathed.


Project 2: The front door  to the vestibule finally got so water logged that it started to come apart. So off it came!

Psssshhh. Who needs a door with pieces that align?

80 years of paint had to come off the front. Peel Away 7, the environmentally friendly kind, got the paint off where the wood was really soft. Then I just heat gunned (at low temp) the rest of it. So a week full of nights was spent in my basement just removing paint.

It got to this stage and then we had another hurricane dump a bunch more water on us. So, of course, the basement flooded. Just a baby flood though. Still enough to deter me for a while. And then I needed to use epoxy and wood hardener. I couldn't find the good stuff (Liquidwood) so I picked up some nonsense from Minwax. It's so flammable I couldn't use it near any pilots lights, aka the water heaters I was 5ft away from. So I had to wait for a dry sunny weekend in September... Which never came. So we finally got nice weather the first weekend in October. I hauled the door outside. I promptly found a place to purchase the Liquidwood in Saratoga. Fabulous. Happy that I found the good stuff, not so happy that I wasted three weeks waiting to use the crap that would blow me up.

Braces on the bottom corner. Not pretty, but there were already two bolts attempting to hold the piece in place. Obviously that was not working anymore. These are on the inside and will be painted over so hopefully no one will really notice them. Unless you read this blog (ha!).  I straightened it all out the best it was going to be and then leveled off the bottom 1/8th inch with the jigsaw. It's currently primed and waiting in the basement for me to paint it this evening. What a way to spend Friday night!

Project 3: Ceiling in Vestibule caves in due to water from hurricane. 

At this point I'm pretty sure I'll never name one of my future children Irene. Note the menacing cracks. These correspond nicely to the panel of the porch floor that was cut out and put back in without any sealant around it. Workmanship abounds in this place... 

Fast forward two days. A chunk falls out.  So then I spend an evening ripping out the rest of the left side of the ceiling, which was also about to drop. Good thing that pesky front door already had to be removed so it wouldn't get in my way. Gaaaaa. It's still all tore up. Hopefully I'll get to that this weekend.

Project 4: Roof at chimneys starts leaking during hurricanes. Starts to ruin plaster in dining room.  Surprise! Both chimneys need new counter flashing! No pics, mainly because no way am I going on my roof. Hello vertigo. Still trying to get this done before we are dealing with snow.  They were quickly repaired with silicone caulking, but that's far from a permanent solution. It's holding for now at least...

I've been a terrible blogger, part 1 of 1027764959

I SWEAR I've been working on the house all summer. So in no particular order, I present various projects, also known as "why I don't have a social life" or my favorite, "my first gray hair".


Project 1: Ongoing Backyard Shenanigans.


Backyard Cleanup: Dead Tree is gone and no longer threatening to toppled over on my car!

Garden Time: Cleaned out bramble, roots, rocks, and debris for vegetable garden.

Bricks found throughout the yard and the house were used as a border.

Hard to see, but on the sloped part below the brick, we planted "Mojito Mile" - about 10 mint plants, to stabilize the soil and support our lifestyle. Which requires alot of mojitos in the summertime.

Old clay drainage tile and pieces of rock made nice little steps.

I used organic fertilizer on the plants about a week after they were planted. This stuff was plant crack, because they started growing and never stopped. It's October 21st right now, and I have to go pick green beans tonight. And I live in upstate NY! 

We used cut down saplings to "build" a bean trellis and tomato plant supports. Tomato plants which easily reached 6ft tall. I told you. Plant. Crack.

Also, I planted far too much basil. 24 plants. We're only two girls! It now resides in the freezer as pesto for those days in February and March when the weather makes you want to smother yourself with a pillow, so maybe not a terrible outcome.

Backyard Beat Down, Part 3

 Old rusty eye sore of a fence:

After! 

We ripped it out with a truck, which took about 2 seconds, as opposed to my plan of digging it out by hand, which would have taken two days.  I cheered, the neighbors cheered, it was a great moment.  There was, of course, a ton of branches and vines and tree parts and broken windows intermingled and stuffed behind the lovely fence that I'm still going through.  I separated it by size and started bundling it all so I don't get another sticker from the city saying "We're weenies, and need all this brush neatly bundled so we can lift it two feet into the truck, even though we're huge men and you're only 5'6" and carried it all the way from the back of your property," or something to that effect.  


We also ripped out the metal electrical conduit, stump, and cmu that had marked the corner of the veg garden.  Everyone knows that the fewer tripping hazards I have around, the better...


My neighbor saw deer behind our houses Sunday morning! I know we have some overgrown backyards near us and a couple of pocket parks, but I didn't think they'd be in the middle of a city? Guess I should watch out for ticks and perhaps invest in some fencing for the garden so the deer don't think it's a buffet laid out just for them.

Backyard Jungle Meets Its Demise

The backyard jungle the day I bought the house.  Pretty, ya?

 When the first warm week in April hit, I went to town on the backyard.  I love my enormous clippers.  Also found out I am dangerous to plant life when given a pick-ax. Basically I've removed every living thing in the back except for rose bushes I found in the bramble.  Below is a fun panorama showing the 3rd world flavor of the backyard.  I don't know what the gray smear is, that's photoshop for you, but I promise it's just more dirt.  Note the lovely disintegrating pavement and concrete pad from the old garage.  Add in the fact that we have clay soils, and it's a stormwater infiltration nightmare back here.  My car almost got eaten by the mud a month back, but my awesome neighbors helped me dislodge it, thank goodness!

The aftermath of jungle removal, day one.  Rinse, repeat for 3 days.  Start to see the fear in the eyes of the city workers who remove the debris everyday. What the hell else can this chick have back there? they wonder. Don't worry boys, there's still more where that came from!

Here's the backyard as of last night, after my soon to be roommate and I put in our vegetable/herb/flower garden.  The dead tree / stick will be removed soon as will the ever-so-charming, rusting, falling down, tetanus nightmare fence.  Which reminds me, I should probably have a booster shot before I take that down...  The plan is to replace it with forsythia and lilac bushes, mainly because I can take cuttings from my mother's yard for free, which is my favorite price point.

Three rose bushes were left where they were in the garden, seeing as they were mostly along the side.  One was smack in the middle so I dug it out and planted 5 stalks along the front side of the house. At first I was sure they would all die, but I have some new growth surprisingly enough.  I mean, like four tiny leaves, but I'll take it.

We're planning a huge swath of mint to hold onto the side of the garden hill, so that it doesn't slowly slide down and disintegrate.  Also, we like mojitos.

Front Yard Before:

(yes, I had my camera on the wrong light setting. Deal)

Front Yard 1/3 done:

  The urn has plants again, yey.  I need some mulch to help smother all the grass - I hate grass! Next year I'll put in a brick patio circle around the urn and some more bushes.  But the walkway and stairs might have to be replaced next year, so I can't plant anything close or I'll just have to rip it out.

Painting Projects

My bedroom, light gray/green/blue.

Workout/Guest room, egg yolk yellow.

Hallway, a deep gold for dramatic effect.

Living Room progress shots.  Same color as bedroom, but with a light blue ceiling.

What I did over winter vacation

Second week of February I took time off from work to install the kitchen.  It just wasn't going to happen in after-work two hour segments in the evening.  Also, I had committed myself to having a Valentine's Day party, so the threat of all those house guests really lit a fire under the bum-bum!