Some people should never touch power tools. Ever.

Why do I say this? Because some idiot with a staple gun did this to our living room window:Since you can't really tell see the staples in question, here's a better look:


See all the brown spots? That's where the guy that rented our house before we bought it borrowed a staple gun from our neighbor and violated the beautiful wood work with well over a hundred staples to hold plastic sheeting and with a cardboard frame to the window to "winterize" the window. In some places there were clusters of up to 10 staples! And a lot of them only had one side of the staple in the wood, which is good for us, but makes me wonder what the point was in the first place. And this is not the only one he did it too...there are 5 other windows that he did it to and on 3 of them he not only did the inside, but also the OUTSIDE!

It took LOTS of work and patience, but I finally got the window to this condition, which is not great, but a HUGE improvement (and I tried like hell to get that bracket out, but the nails just wouldn't give so James is going to have to handle it)
To get the window to look that nice again it took a pair of needle nose pliers and a lot of cleaning. The cleaning part was because in my whole I-don't-care-what-the-house-looks-like-I-have-homework attitude towards housekeeping over the last 2 years, I did not clean the windows. Which was really, really, really stupid cause the 5 minutes I would've spent every month would have saved me the 2 hours with a shop vac, Murphy's Oil Soap, and glass cleaner.

Speaking of glass cleaner, this is the most awesome glass cleaner. Ever. And I'm being serious. Sprayway Glass Cleaner...it's in an aerosol can, sprays as a mist or foam (depending on how fast you move when spraying), it's super clingy & never runs, will remove ANYTHING from glass, the can lasts forever, and it's cheap (about $2!). And when I say it'll remove anything, I mean it removed dried, rock hard barbecue sauce from my glass cutting board in one swipe using it as foam!
Ok, back to the window. Here's the pile of staples I removed from the window, and there's way more than it look like there is. I counted a hundred before I lost interest in counting them, and there were still more!
This is probably going to get me in trouble with my hubby. It's a pile of rotting caulk that I accidentally removed from the bottom of the storm window with the shop vac. But in my defense, if it came out with a shop vac, and it was almost unrecognizable as being caulking, then it probably needed to go anyway. Right?

And in case you're wondering how we know that the renter borrowed a staple gun from one of our neighbors to do this, the neighbor told us! We were talking to him one day and I don't remember what brought it up, but the neighbor told us that the renter borrowed a staple gun one time, but didn't say what it was for. The neighbor had no idea that he used it to staple plastic to the window frames. And the people we bought the house from said that if the renter would've said something to them about the windows being drafty, they would've taken care of it for him, and it would not have involved staples!

So now that I have this taken care of, the window is ready for new glaze and caulk, and the frame and trim are ready to be refinished. I really didn't want to do it because I love the patina of the old varnish, but due to the high visibility of all the staple holes, it will have to be done. So that will be coming up soon!


***Edit:  I thought this was done with a power tool.  It wasn't.  It was a basic hand held staple gun.  So the title is totally wrong.  My bad.

First Refinishing Project Done!!

The mirror is finally done!

Before:
During:
After:

I think it came out amazing for having no idea what I was doing! I used Citristrip, cleaned it with mineral spirits, let it dry for a couple of days, then sanded it with an industrial strength scotch pad, used an attachment on the air compressor to blast the dust away, and stained it with Minwax Red Mahogany and finished with a coat of poly.

It's now ready for it's new home. It's going to go above the couch in the living room. That's really the only place where it'll look right because of it's size. It's about 4'x3'. I'll post pictures once it's been hung.

Stripper Supplies

HaHa...not that kind of stripper. But hopefully that got my google hits up a little. I just got (hopefully) everything I need to start stripping the woodwork. I wasn't sure what will work the best so I got 2 different kinds of stripper and a bunch of different tools. I already have a heat gun, mask, and glasses.

I'm going to start small though and refinish this mirror and a bookcase before I start on the woodwork in the house.
This mirror is huge. It's like 3 feet high and about 2 and a half feet wide and it came with the house. It has a stamp on the back that says the glass was plated on 9/25/59 and packed on 2/17/60. When it's done it's going to go in the living room over the couch. And anchored really, really good in case of another earthquake. I'm going to stain it dark like all the other wood in the house but maybe with a reddish tint.

I figured I'd start small so I can figure out what I'm doing and not ruin any of the original wood baseboards, doorframes, doors, or floors. I am hoping to do the mirror tomorrow and I'll post pics if I do.

And I figured out how useless people who work at Lowes are. I had a $10 off $50 purchase so I got all the stripping stuff there. They were friendly, but when I asked about something specific they led me to the area and said "there they are" and then left me to search for about 20 minutes for what I needed (it was in a box that had been pushed back on the bottom shelf). Now I see why so many people get frustrated there.

A temporary solution

I was getting really tired of picking CD's up off the floor everytime we watched a movie (they were piled on the amp) so I did this...
I have had this bookcase since I was probably about 10 years old. It has always hung on the wall. Eventually, when the dining room is done, it will go back on the wall and hold pretty stuff again. For right now though I think its working well as media storage. And it got some of the candles off the end tables so now we may be able to actually use them again. James says its really ugly and wants to junk it or at least put it where it can't be seen. I told him absolutely not...even though he said please. As for the bookcase that was here, it found a new home...

Right around the corner in the dining room. For now an way. I really hate this bookcase. It looks cheap and doesn't look right any where I put it. But it has held up good...3 moves and still going strong. Not bad for $7.99 at K Mart, right? And yeah, that was the regular price. I bought it when I got my first apartment and never expected it to still be standing now (7 years later)

While this is working for now, I am looking into something more permanent to hold everything in one place. I just haven't found one yet that I like. And by hold everything in one place I mean this is only the over flow of stuff. There's more in the drawers of the entertainment stand and hidden on a rack in a corner. And I am also trying to find a new bookcase because this one isn't big enough. I have two boxes of books that just won't fit.

A Pappy Moment

The best thing about this couch? It not hand-me-down! We actually bought our first piece of NEW furniture! It's microfiber, reclines, and was CHEAP!! We have been looking for a new couch for a while and were mainly looking at used because we thought we couldn't afford new. I went to Value City Furniture and found this "damaged" couch. The damage is so small you can't even see it unless you are looking for it and it saved us $400! I saw it, took a pic, sent it to James and he said take it. There were 2 other people lookingat it so I planted myself on the couch and waited for a salesman! I had to wait about 15 minutes, but the other people finally left. Now I have to decide on a color for the walls because what I wanted is actually pretty close to the color of the couch, and that won't work very well. Oh, and the black spot on the wall is where the plaster is crumbling.



About the Pappy thing for the people who read this and aren't family...Pappy was my Grandpa. He always looked for the best deals on everything. He found a lot of nice things for really cheap, especially furniture. When Grandma wanted something new Pappy would start looking for deals. I pretty much did the same thing. My Uncle Bill called me while I was getting the living room ready for the new couch and I told him all about it and and he said I "pulled a Pappy"

Time for a change!

This is the current state of our entertainment center (please excuse the fact that I forgot to rotate the picture) and its really annoying. It doesn't fit the house in any way. I bought the entertainment center when I had my first apartment and we have outgrown it.
So we upgraded to this...
I love this! It fits better with the house and while there isn't room for all the movies and CD's it will hold the DVD player, VCR, XBox, and a stereo (I'm switching out the big one). I got the media situation under control though. I am going to mount a victorianish (is that a word?) bookcase above it to hold all the movies and stuff. I just have to refinish it first. And I got a shelf to hold the unity and memorial candles until we find something more appropriate to put them in (they shouldn't be on the t.v. any way)

In other news:

This is Lucky. He was a rescue kitty. I love how big and fluffy he is and he's so sweet. (BTW...he's going to get fluffier as it gets colder, this is his summer coat) He also likes to get into trouble...
Thats right...one paw is orange! I had to post this cause its just too funny! I had canned ravioli last night. I forgot to put the can in the trash and left it on the stove. Lucky helped himself to it and now his paw is dyed orange! He's been cleaning on it all morning and it won't go away! I figured out it is ravioli sauce because the can was in the dining room when I woke up. Maybe he learned something from this...probably not though.

I hate this wall!

I just realized I didn't post a picture showing why the wall needs new plaster. Here it is. I had to take the picture in sepia because the damn walls are so bright white it didn't show anything on the regular setting. This is the only wall in the whole house that needs any work. The paper plate looking thing is to cover the hole from where the botbellied coal stove vented. The original heat in this house came from 3 botbellied coal stoves...one in here, one in the kitchen, and one in the front bedroom. I have no idea what the little eye hooks are for. You can also see the wall is rippling, its like that all the way across and down. You can't really see it, but there is also a hole on the ceiling (above the cover) that has been plastered over. It looks like a flaw in the plaster in this picture. The PO's said that after the stoves and before the central heat they had some kind of wall heat. I don't know if that hole had something to do with that, or if it came from somewhere else. Oh, and those are cobwebs...I really need to take care of that!

And about the stoves...I wish they were still here. Even if we never used them, I think it'd be great just to have them. And eventually we are going to add period appropriate wood burning stoves where all the coal stoves used to be. But we have a teeny tiny (virtually nonexistent) budget right now so it's going to be a while.

Look at all that beautiful woodwork

I decided to post some pictures of our living room today. This is one room that really doesn't need too much work, but I love all the woodwork so I thought I'd share. Just ignore the mismatched hand me down furniture and all the clutter (I'm working on it)
The door on the left goes to the front bedroom, and the door on the right goes outside (obviously) and has the original doorbell. Both have the transoms with original hardware and are fully functioning. The ceiling fan is going to be traded for something more appropriate.

The door on the left is for the bathroom (used to be a porch thats why the door has a window), the middle door goes to the dining room, and the door on the right goes to the bedroom. Again, all transoms work and have original hardware. You can also see the tall baseboards with spindles.
This is going to be the biggest project in this room (besides redoing the plaster on the wall behind that couch). The wood is 2 colors because the floor was stained a deep brown to match the door and window framing, but there was a linoleum rug in here (actually in all the rooms) and the stain is faded in a huge square in the middle of the room. All the scratches are thanks to Cledus and Socks (Lab and Shih-Tzu) running through the house.

I really can't get a picture of the entire room because the ceilings are about 12' and the doors are about 10'...and the room is about 15'x15'. There is also a window on the only wall not shown and it matches the rest of the framing and is nearly floor to ceiling. I didn't take a picture of that wall because of the t.v., kennel, and chair...you can't really see anything but that. And it is annoying to have 5 doors off one room...it really limits the furniture placement and there is only 1 outlet so that doesn't help much either.

The plans for this room are to refinish floors, redo the plaster on 1 wall, replace ceiling fan, and add at least 2 more outlets. And maybe paint it something other than bright white. Also, down the road the window is going to be restored (stripped, glazed, and stained...we are keeping all the original windows but they need a LOT of work)

Ding dong...the door bell's broken

I have absolutely no idea how to make this thing work. In an attempt to do something productive today I tried to work on the door bell. This is a real old school doorbell and the only one I have ever seen up close. I have no idea when these were common, but I'm pretty sure its been there for a long time. Its in the doorframe in our living room. I unscrewed it, but can't get the cover off. I don't want to hurt the wood or the bell, so I have no idea what to do. I don't know why, but it's driving me crazy that it doesn't work! We don't even use that door because of this

Those are skeleton keys. Which puts this door out of commision, but is one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I have never been in a house that has these...at least a house that still had the keys. I haven't seen a mention about it in any other blog either.

Oh...the wood was stained and beautiful when we bought the house. Those scratch marks are courtesy of our black lab Cledus trying to see whats going on when any one pulls in our driveway. Our floors and one window also look like this now :(

Once I get something figured out about this I'll share