Month: November 2009

slowing down

lists_20091124Now that Popo has moved in, we have slowed down a lot. It’s been over two years of working nonstop on the house. The photo shows a few of the checklists we made — with everything checked off. Feels a bit like I am climbing out of a hole that I’ve dug for myself! Hmm. Mole references…

Over the past couple of weeks, we finished up the back door and put it back on. The laundry room and ‘tear-off’ room leak a lot of cold air, so the kitchen had been rather drafty. The hardware for the original door was some of the nicest decorative brass on all the doors (below left). This is the original brass hardware for the back door after Janeen and I polished it up and removed all the old paint.

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The door was stripped, carefully sanded, stained with “Early American” oil based stain and then two coats of integrally colored polyurethane “Natural Cherry”. I sanded the polyurethane between coats with a very fine grit (220) sand paper to help the polyurethane adhere better, and also remove any dust or roughness that got into the first coat of urethane. The doors all have an aged but cared-for look to them now, and the color polyurethane helps to unify the color of the door, filling, and any blemishes.

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Above right, you can see the door installed in the background.

I also made some built-in shelves for the living room. In the space where there used to be a door between the living room and the bedroom, we now have built-in shelves for photo albums. I found pieces of wood for the shelves in the rather extensive pile of wood I’ve built up. Also the trim that holds them up is recycled:

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To make the front edge of the trim look finished and more decorative, I cut off and bevelled the trim, and added a piece of the same trim to return it to the face of the wall. Below right is a matching pair (left and right side).

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Above are the shelves as they are being installed. I had a bit of a dilemma: when in an old house where the floors, ceiling, doors (everything) slopes at various angles, do you install shelves so they slope the same as the floor? the tops of the doors? the ceiling? or ignore all that, and make them horizontal? I decided to make them slope the same as the top of the old doorway, so the shelves and the trim will at least both have the same slope…

While Janeen was out of town (she went to visit her “sisters” up in Seattle), I put insulation and gyp board on the ceiling of what used to be a bit of a scary little room in the garage. The photo below left shows it as it was a couple of years ago. Below right is with the gyp board on the ceiling, all the piping and wiring are now hidden.

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The kitchen is quite moved in. Popo is doing her ‘homework’ (as she calls it). In the background you can see the outdoor steps in the back yard that go up to our unit and still need much work…

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turtle + mole + mole

it was a stressful, tiring, crazy weekend…

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(left) mathew doing some last minute work on the kitchen (right) while my parents, older brother jason and uncle winston helped move boxes from my grandmother’s house to our house. we tried to get others to help but because it was halloween, no one else was able to…

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(left) as the moving continued throughout the day (right) mathew worked his way around the kitchen finishing things up.

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(left) they put in a long hard day but you wouldn’t know it from their smiles. i think because they were ready to go home! they left before it got dark and made it home in time for trick-or-treaters. (right) mathew and i worked that night. mathew is very proud of this cable/telephone junction box he created and organized in the garage.

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(left) the butcher block my mom refinished, how nice it looks in place. (right) mathew scrubbed the kitchen floor until it was reflective.

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on sunday mathew and i joined my parents for another day of moving. (left) here is a view from my grandmother’s old apartment. (right) that night we went back to work finishing projects. here is my grandmother’s bathroom with a new mirror above the sink and a medicine cabinet to the right. we worked as late was we needed to then had dinner at midnight.

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monday was another day of moving. my parents helped move more stuff over and professional movers brought the large furniture. it was a challenge trying to fit furniture from a 2 bedroom apartment into a 1 bedroom apartment, especially after all the boxes had been moved in! i did not take photos of any of the mess or chaos. even my office was completely filled and climbing was required to find things. (above) my auntie em, my grandmother and my mom unpacking in the kitchen. for anyone who questioned the bright pink we painted the bedroom, notice what color my grandmother is wearing…

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i was worried because my grandmother’s first night was also the night of the annual day of the dead (dia de los muertos) parade. (left) it consists of hundreds (thousands?) of people dressed as dead people holding candles, dancing, music and drumming till after 11pm. it’s a celebration of those we have lost and our street becomes completely filled with adults and children in costumes. everyone ends up in the park one block away, where there are altars and photos remembering the dead. we have a great view from our front steps. we wandered around a little bit but it was so crowded. this was the first year where we weren’t working during the parade, we enjoyed being able to sit outside on such a warm night and take it all in. (right) our neighbor created this dead light sculpture, a woman in costume poses beside it.

“Don’t just cry mournfully over the individuals, dreams and influences that have helped make you what you are. Dance for them; sing for them; honor them; leap into the air and kiss the sky for them.”

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(left) during a really great musical portion of the parade i went inside to check on the noise level. my grandmother was talking on the phone, sharing her new phone number with relatives. she had no idea anything was happening outside. those new windows were expensive, but worth it! (right) my auntie em unpacked and organized all day and continued that night. we are so thankful that she could stay for a few days to help unpack and ease the transition for my grandmother.

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on day 2 my parents were back to move more of my grandmother’s things and my uncle gilbert stopped by for a visit. i expect to enjoy many more family visits in this new kitchen.

oh, i almost forgot to explain the title: turtle + mole + mole. my grandmother, like me, doesn’t enjoy the sun either, but she is more extreme, she likes curtains closed during the day and rarely leaves the house. but she loves visitors so let us know if you’d like to drop by, we’d love to see you!