Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Closet Doors

Well, hmmph.  The door vendor I was talking about earlier doesn't do custom bi-fold doors, "too hard", so that will make getting closet doors that fit an interesting challenge.  I suspect that now I know why there weren't doors to start with.

That leaves three choices, 1) batwings, 2) sliding doors - still would have to be custom made, or 3) the accordion pleated doors.  None of those would have been my first choice but they're all better than a curtain.  It does make me wonder what was in place originally.  It appears that there were straightforward hinge mounts but with no doors in place it's hard to tell.

I completed the rough sanding and started the finish sanding today but the difference doesn't show in photos so no new pictures.  Tomorrow I'll finish the fine sanding and lay down the stain, finish should go on Thursday as our predicted temperatures should be very good for stain and finish to dry.

It's coming right along and looking good, it's going to be a great house when we're done.

Refinishing Hardwood Floors

The moment of truth has arrived, I've started stripping the floors down to bare wood.


You can see the heavy finish and staining in spots.  This is the room with the most damage to the floor and will be the most challenging to refinish.

As the time goes by, the work starts to accumulate and I get closer to bare floor.

This image is of the north bedroom, down to bare wood and ready for fine sanding.  Now, to get the living room and dining room stripped. The gloss is actually light from the window, not finish on the floor.  The tones and patina are gorgeous and are the reward for the hard work.

I continue to have staining on the south bedroom floor but tried bleaching it with hydrogen peroxide last night, we'll see what it looks like today.  One more day should see the heavy sanding done, then I'll switch to a pad sander and start the finish work.

We've had a minor setback in that the closet doors are going to have to be custom made but we have a great vendor that does that so it should just be a few days.  I'm looking forward to the finished product!



Thursday, March 25, 2010

Finished Painting...

Finished with everything except the kitchen, because that's where all my tools and gear were stored while I painted the rest of the house.  I am scheduled to get the drum sander and start stripping the old finish off the floors tomorrow.  I'll know a lot more about about the floor condition after getting started, it's simply impossible to tell what will happen with these old floors until then.

This is a much better photo showing the finished paint job in the north bedroom...


And on a completely unrelated note, a picture of a Cedar Waxwing I saw when I was running errands yesterday...


They're just beautiful birds and not commonly seen around here.

Today I'm mostly doing maintenance at other locations, I'll update more on the stone house when I get an idea about the floor.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

What a difference a day makes...

So after all the slow, patient work of masking, patching, getting ready for paint, the actual paint goes on in a relative hurry. I started on the walls yesterday morning, you can see the overlap from the fresh ceiling paint, I like to drop that down so I have a nice edge when finished.

By the afternoon, there were two coats on most of the interior, unfortunately by early evening the light was shot so the camera flash is distorting the finished look.  I'll try for a better image today.


So today, I'll finish the walls, pull down the masking, open the windows, do any needed touch ups and  I might even get the new light fixture back up in the bathroom! I don't know if I'll make April 1st but it will be close.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Update on Available Houses

Just wanted to let readers know that we have no vacancies at this time.  thank you for all the inquiries, I appreciate your interest.

The stone house is coming along nicely and should be ready soon but as of today, everything available is rented.

I am painting ceilings today, 7 gallons of paint into the job, everything is looking bright and a whole lot lighter.  Next, I'll paint the walls then get to re-installing fixtures.  With this beautiful weather coming on, it will be nice to un-mask and open the windows.

Next week... the floors.

Deborah

Deborah

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Return to the Stone House

Well, I got 26th completely painted and I think I've solved the 19" mini-blind problem so back to the Stone House.  This week I've been masking everything in preparation for painting, which is the time to make a few more design decisions...  I've decided it's possible to be vintage yet NOT charming so the Dining Room light fixture has to go...



Even if it does have one of those nifty fabric rope pulls that makes it go up and down...

Now I'm off to the store for ceiling paint and a new light fixture.  I plan to have the major painting done by Friday.  As much as he'd like to help, the dog's tail and wet paint are a bad combination so he's ready for me to be done and let him come back to work with me.

Now that I'm at the putting-back-together stage, things should go quickly.  Watch here for updates.

Deborah

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Utility Services Page

Just a quick note to let readers know that I have been updating the Utilities page.  I have added Cox Communication and AT&T.

If there are other services you would find useful here, please just let me know and I'll see about adding those as well.

Deborah

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Update on 26th Street

Almost finished with the painting, it has brightened the house up beautifully...

  

And it's just a perfect day for painting, with the sun pouring in the windows plus I can have both doors open and let the fresh air clear out the paint odor...



I really like the built-ins in these older homes and this bookcase in the living room is classic.

So... one more day to finish the interior painting and this house will be in move-in condition. 

Two beds, one bath, fenced yard with detached garage. It has a stove, refrigerator and dishwasher.
Pets are ok, no Section 8

You can contact me at blcllc@yahoo.com for a private showing.

Deborah