#694 Trimming the House

We have a lot of different wood trim in our 102-year-old house.

Here's a selection:

 We started in fall 2014 by removing nearly all the first floor trim.

And lately, we've begun putting it back in.

We prefer a wide trim, about 4 inches around windows and doors and about 6 inches along the baseboard.

 Kelly measures, cuts, stains, and finishes each section of the 2-piece oak trim.

Here the new wide oak trim can be seen around the window and door in the foreground while the older trim in the bedroom wing can be seen in the background.

We believe the house originally had wide oak trim that was replaced in the 1950s with the more modern narrow trim.  The 42-inch front door which is original to the house is now trimmed to our liking.   

Yours in trimming,
Mary

#693 Rebuilding the Fence

The east section of our fence (along the top of a brick wall) is leaning about 20 degrees!  Aye yi yi!

Leaning east fence with 'new' south fence in background

We replaced the south section in April 2015 thinking that we'd replace the east section in April 2016.  Aren't we lucky that winter has passed us by this year?  We can work outside in February and replace this section before it falls down.  

Kelly is standing straight.  It's the fence that leans.

At the corner, the 'new' section is on the left.  The old leaning section is on the right.

Kelly begins by removing the old fence boards to be re-used in the new fence.

The east section on the right will match the three-over-one pattern on the left.

Kelly goes into his magic workshop and builds four new sections, each 5-feet wide.

The first section on the east is up.  The three windows at the top of each fence panel mimic the three-over-one sunroom windows in the background.

Two sections are up.

Four sections are up.  A 5th section is under discussion.  Also, now that the fence looks better, we need to pay some attention to those cracks in that concrete wall.  If it's not one thing...

Yours in fencing,
Mary

#692 Chip Boys on Madison Avenue

Lunch at the Madison Avenue Bistro with my two friends is always entertaining, but today's roast beef sandwich lunch is especially fun. It includes chips! 

Sam is the first to try a chip.

 

Soon, though, he thinks of his friend Kelly and offers him one.

Kelly gladly accepts and the boys share a chip-munching moment.

 

They seem proud of their chip-sharing routine.

And they share some kind of coded chip message between them.

The next step appears to be all arranged.

That's when Sam hands Kelly another chip and it all begins again.

Yours in enjoying the chip boys,
Mary

#691 Shopping at Auctions

We've been shopping at auctions.

During our first month in Missouri, we purchased a bedroom dresser at an Amish auction.

About a year later, we purchased a 1987 Wheel Horse at auction. 

In between, we discovered the items we needed for our home projects could be found for a fair price at auction, such as this cool oscillating multi-tool,

and this RotoZip, so important during our floor work,

the Rockwell jawstand (still not really sure what this does),  
 the carry-everything trailer (which can also be parked in the garage and serve as a workbench),

and this classic gardening tool.

We love the fun of recycling others' tools for a good price and meeting the neighbors.

Yours in scouring the countryside,

Mary

#690 Top reads in 2015

Retirement is good for reading!

Here are my 2015 favorites.  And now that you know what I like, what shall I read in 2016?




Yours in reading,
Mary

#689 Where does light come from?

Light comes from family and friends.

And that includes the lamps in our bungalow.

In August, we wrote about our two gently used chandeliers found by our friend Matthew at the Charlottesville Habitat Store.  We love them to pieces and they hang in our two front rooms.

And now we have received three more antique lamps for our bungalow.  These come from our Uncle Bob in Texas who has a bursting-at-the-seams shop where he stores his flea market finds. 

The first gift from Uncle Bob is a lamp much like Matthew's chandeliers.  It has the same geometric form with four square horizontal arms each supporting a glass shade.  But the shades on Uncle Bob's lamp are hand-painted.  You can see two of the shades in the photo below.  We have the third shade and are looking for a fourth.  Once we find a 3-1/4" fitter with a similar shade, we will ask a local artist to paint a matching scene.  

The second gift of light from Uncle Bob is in the style of a medieval gothic chandelier of hammered and riveted metal that appears more handmade and less industrial.  We love it and it hangs in our library.  

And last but not least, or maybe it is the least, the lamp below is installed in an upstairs bedroom that is still awaiting renovation. Our plans are to remove that ceiling and improve the background for that beautiful lamp.    

Yours bathed in light,
Mary

#688 Wood Splitting for Relaxation

When Kelly wants to take a day off from home renovation projects, he likes to relax.

A couple of decades ago, Kelly and I were relaxing at the Peterson Lake Cabin in Alaska's Tongass National Forest, the country's largest national forest.

And before our relaxing was over, Kelly had filled the wood bin.

Again about a decade ago, Kelly and I were relaxing with friends in a much more comfy cabin at Minnesota's beautiful Ten Mile Lake.

Before our departure, the wood pile was high.   

 Again this weekend, Kelly relaxed with some good wood splitting.  Ahh. 

Yours in watching Kelly relax,
Mary