our (1921) foursquare

Ok I really did not get too terrible much accomplished this weekend. The holiday was nice however, with family and extended family there sometimes is not alot of time left over for "projects". I did however take care of a few small items.

The closet doors are back on in the master br. with rejuvinated hinges :-D So far that is Melissa's favorite task I have done. The molding is out of the bathroom and before pictures (important) are all taken. More shoemolding repair / stripping. I also did some organization down stairs. It was sad but the wonderful fishnet finaly had to go.

Neet Huh?

This weekend I also met with our electrician again and we went over the final plans and talked more about the schedule and different phazes of this project. We are set to begin in a week with phaze one of this project.

Posted by kpf at 11:00 PM | Permalink

Ok, well the third coat of polyurethane is on the floor in the master br / hall area of the second floor.

Glad to see that in place now to just watch it dry. Other happenings this weekend involved small scale removal of the 2nd floor bathroom (B's) fixtures. The bath room project is appraoching front burner now with our ideas starting to be formailzed.

Ahhh! The look.

Posted by kpf at 11:27 PM | Permalink

Last night we were able to get one coat of polyurethane on the Master BR/Hall area of the 2nd floor. We finished up this area within about 45 minutes.

This was much faster and less daunting than the entire first floor project. We still have two more coats of polyurethane to put on but it feels much faster than our last go with this stuff. We actually decided to apply all three coats with brushes this time.

The heart pine looks great but kevin is still an entirely weak on the brush ammount. We had to for-go applying another coat this evening. We went to the "It's a Wonderful Life Festival and Parade" downtown to kick off the beginnings of the holiday rush.

Posted by kpf at 11:10 PM | Permalink

Is this really plastic tile?

Re-tile with traditional colors for that era. I think I will do some hunting around for wall mount sinks of that vintage and get some color ideas.

Finaly got the floor squeek fixed in the master br (the really annoying one) so I was able to finish up the sanding for that room.

Matthew got to help a bit with the hand sander and then the vacuum a bit on this project, as well as dump out the box of nails. Once all that was done I was able to wipe down the floor with the stinky mineral spirits in prep for the polyurethane.

Posted by kpf at 11:24 PM | Permalink

Over the past week and a half Matthew and I have been working on rounding up all the leaves and bringing them out front for the "Get-er-Done" truck to come by and pick them up. Tomorrow should be our big day. I am hopeful as our pile is quite big and wind and leaves don't usually mix.

Posted by kpf at 11:20 PM | Permalink

I have been monitoring the radiator valve in the MBR for the past few days much like I was the one down in the dining room earlier in the month. I happened to turn the valve 3 or so nights ago and what do you know the bonnet-nut started to leak.

Knowing that another bonnet-nut fix was due for today nothing much was planned. So the day brought on various tasks for finishing up the painting project in the Master bedroom. We folded and did drop cloth / tape clean up with Matthew helping out a bunch early on. I was able to hang the Bali blackout shades we purchased for this room. The fit was not quite like the look in the book. We did expect some "factory allowances" but they were alittle to large in our opinion. Over all though the blinds look great and we are pleased with the fit (we now know the "factory allowance" to account for in our next measurements).

I was able to do an idetical repair job on the bonnet-nut for this radiator as I did for the last. What I am finding is that once the valve is turned (open or closed) the packing is not able to account for a movement of the valve stem. When removed the packing inside these bonnet-nuts is rock hard and usually there is enough packing in there that adding just one wrap of additional packing is not an option. So out comes the old packing, in goes kevins combination of O-ring and packing.

Posted by kpf at 11:15 PM | Permalink

We all got some needed work done in the MBR today. Painting will wrap up tomorrow with any touchups and remaining trim spots that need to be done. We all worked together on this and has some fun in the process. Also learned some stuff about painting in an old house.

We made a semi-early run to pickup some last minute paint supplies before we got started. The best of which was the edging tool!! This little gadget works wonders. We were crushed when our traditional system of using tape to protect completed trim sections failed yesterday. This system ripped up about ten layers of paint (I think we were back to circa 1940) when trying to move the tape.

For the rest of the day we did a mix of painting and being with Matthew. Matthew helped out a bunch in "cleaning" the lower walls with his roller. While Mel and I worked on the top. We were able to get one coat on then once nap was over I spent some time out with Matthew raking and playing in the yard. Once Matthew was asleep for the night we did the other coat.

Before

After

Posted by kpf at 11:20 PM | Permalink

First coat is on the majority of the trim in the MBR. With the help from Mel again we were able to get the closets painted and I continued on with the trim.

After the primer last night and the one coat of trim color (soft white) tonight the closets are good to go for now. We just wanted something clean and looking diecent. I will be eventually building closet organizers down the road but for now this will work. It sure was a bugger covering up that 192x? 194x vintage paint in the closet. The trim is done around the windows and the door trim and base board has one coat. I only have the top 2in on the bottom base board done due to the floor project next week (crossing my fingers).

Seperate note. While painting the door faces It got me really thinking about stripping each door one at a time. Not yet of course but this is a project that I think would make things look much better.

Posted by kpf at 11:05 PM | Permalink

With the help of Mel we were able to get the majority of the prep done for panting the closets and trim. I also deviated and added some work for the MBR but it is all needed and I'm sure the couple new additons will be approved in the morning.

We both got to work on applying the primer in the closets for the MBR. We have never used primer before in our painting but decided these areas needed primer to speed things up. After that was done I taped off the door hardware and wiped both closet doors down. For now the closets and our MBR door will go back with the original (brass or copper) ? hardware. But I will be looking into finding old glass or better working brass knobs. I also wiped down the remainder of the baseboard which led to the removal of the non hidden phone jack and wire. Tomorrow I need to finish up the removal of the phone line and clean the radiator in that room. YUCK!

On another project note. I think Florentz did the trick with that nut. It held once the system was working and pressuredup. I think it might be safe to remove the towles from the radiator valve. With Florentz's fix on the nut and my O-ring and graphite packing combo we are not leaking anymore.

Posted by kpf at 11:35 PM | Permalink

Ok I made a very lame mistake this morning which cost me lots on the work end.

I ran out of time to call Florentz this morning, to tell him to just leave the nut in the mail box if we were not around, and told my self I would do it once I got to work - yea right. Some where between the front door and my office chair that thought vanished. That cost me my time to primer the closets and trim this evening. I ended up driving out to Florentz's to pick up the nut.

The bonnet-nut is in place and I think we will have a permatemp fix shortly. Of course I have to let the system cycle through and get to the max pressure (20-24) before we can be sure it is going to hold. The fix job looks good now I just have to get a packing combination in there that will work.

Posted by kpf at 11:16 PM | Permalink

Up early like normal around here. Directly after breakfast I had a desire to see progress on the MBR.

This lead to me jumping right in to my paint the trim portion of the room re-do. I got one coat of paint on both windows before needing to change for Mass. Once back from Mass I started to do small stuff to include Matthew. When Mel and Matthew took a nap I got right back to the MBR. I decided to prep the closets which lead me to decide to peal the paint off the brass hinges because with the white trim and green walls it would look nice.
Ok that led to doors coming off and more paint pealing and vaccuming than I would have liked. I finished the pealing and cleaning of the trim and both closets are clean. MBR is fully preped for primer and the remaing trim paint.

The Bali blinds arrived on Sat for that room we did a quick hold up measure test. They seem bit small Mel will call tomorrow and find out more about the "factory adjustments" that are made.

Posted by kpf at 11:49 PM | Permalink

This morning Dad's cousin Florentz gave me an unexpected call they would be stopping by in the early afternoon to try out a few spare parts that might fix / replace the broken bonnet-nut on my radiator valve.

Florentz brought a large assortment of bonnet-nuts. None fit (of course). There are no markings on this valve to indicate a particular manufacturer and the thread is not seeming to be of any standard. Florentz went home with the nut and will make reparis and reinforce the current nut. I went and grabbed an assortment of O rings and am anctiously awaiting the arrival of the repaired bonnet-nut on Monday. Needless to say the heating system will be off for the night. Luckily this weather is rather nice lately. I just have to be on rag change out duty for the time being.

Today was mostly small get stuff moved / arranged day. I have been pulling nails and sanding the shoe molding that was pulled up during the refinishing project. Some of the shoe molding is in place but will look rather bad untill we get to the painting of this floor. Today I met with the electrician again. I haven't chosen a contractor yet but this guy seems good.

Posted by kpf at 12:31 AM | Permalink

Before we get started too deeply in this Diary I thought I should upload the original picture from the MLS listing.

Posted by kpf at 8:49 PM | Permalink

Well we've been in our "new" house for one month now. What next?? The progress is not as quick as we had hoped, of course. We are still getting a handle on what we have to do and what actually was done to this place over the years. All good work takes time and planning and we are doing alot of the planning. :-)

To date we have completed some of our projects. First off we have a 3/4in correctly installed water main which feeds the house. That in itself is peace-of-mind after discovering the old watter main was 1/2in and only burried 18in in the ground. "WOW" The floor project worked out nicely. Thanks to Melissa's cousin Ken and Clymer Rentals. What a lifesaver!!

I also wanted to note that it is about time I got something online about how / what we are doing during our time here in this house. We have many plans and thoughts so I thought it would be good to keep them in one centralized place. Also this medium allows familyto keep tabs on us too.

Posted by MT-Administrator at 8:15 PM | Permalink