people are always telling mathew to take a break from working on the house. this frustrates mathew, because to him it isn’t work, it’s FUN. he’d rather work on the house than relax, socialize or even eat or sleep.
(left) pieces of wood recycled to make trim for the cabinet. mathew cut then routed them, sanded, stained and polyurethaned them to match. (right) here he’s trimming out a complicated notch so the trim can fit around the picture rail (see below right.)
now that my grandmother has moved out we need to make some changes to the downstairs unit to make it rent-able for someone new. this includes adding a new lockable door (recycled from upstairs) leading from the entrance. mathew cut out the top half and will add tempered glass to let light through.
during one of the heat waves we had recently, mathew realized the skylight installed by ‘professionals’ was still not done correctly. part of the flashing was getting in the way and bending the metal of the skylight making it impossible to close. mathew got his ladder, tools and flashlight and was determined to fix it. this is what happens after 11pm at our house, when most people are sleeping…
mathew doing a load test on the cabinets!
last weekend mathew and i started adding crown molding to the office. i’m realizing these aren’t the best photos to show what’s happening… but the main molding is like a “C” shape, called cove, and when two pieces join in the corners you have to cut the second piece at an angle then cut and file the backside so that they fit together perfectly at the corner. it’s quite complicated but of course mathew knows what he’s doing. there will be a second smaller piece of molding that will go above the cove molding next to the ceiling. and eventually it will be painted white.
it was a 3 day weekend so the other days were spent prepping for the new center window which we finally received. mathew used a heat gun to remove old paint from frame. and there was a weird bump of old wood on the sill so mathew planed it off…
…then chiseled it out and added a new piece which will match the new stained sill.
(left) late on monday night as the sun went down, we got the new window in! (right) and then wednesday we received a delivery in a wooden crate that managed to scratch the floor in the entry really badly. i know these delivery guys are always trying to be helpful but no one seems to realize how damaging it is to drop a heavy box on a wood floor then push or drag it! i was pretty upset about this all day but mathew says he can probably fix it.
the windows are finally in!