Month: September 2010

here’s what’s new

(left) a couple weeks ago my “little sister” wylie was visiting from seattle. i forgot to take photos, we were so busy running around the city, cooking, baking and watching twilight movies, so this is a photo from may, but we still look pretty much the same… (right) mathew bought an old brass strike plate from building resources. he cut off the amount he needed then cleaned and polished it up. pretty cool, huh? he drilled a couple more holes and it’s now a new, smaller strike plate for a door. and in case you didn’t know what a strike plate was (i didn’t) it’s a protective metal plate that goes in the door jamb that receives the latch when the door is closed.

CORRECTION: the strike plate was actually used as a receptor for the deadbolt, not the latch (which is connected to the doorknob.) above are photos of the strike plate and the deadbolt (which is vintage, purchased from building resources. pretty, huh?)

(left) here is mathew wiring cable and internet hook ups, having a much easier time than he did in the pink room last year… (right) while i paint the crown molding.

mathew playing with his new tools in the garage. (left) a drill press and (right) a big dust collection thingy. it’s like christmas down there.

(left) and new green gloves that make him look like some weird super hero. (right) staining the top of the window trim.

(left) the chandelier in the office had decades of dust that needed cleaning… (right) while mathew polished up a brass lock knob that he bought from building resources.

(left) i cut the hole for the medallion to fit over the light in the office. (right) mathew used what he calls “janeen’s technique” to apply the medallion to the ceiling with adhesive and allow it to dry.

the last medallion. as much as mathew loves medallions, this is the last one we will buy and install. there are no more rooms that need medallions! i am not as medallion-crazy as mathew and i was hesitant about adding a medallion to a tin ceiling, but we picked a simple one that doesn’t compete too much and mathew says it hides the fact that the light junction box didn’t fall exactly centered between the tiles. he was right, it worked!

looking up

we’re making some real progress on the office, so that means time for…

(left) dumpy’s glamor shot. (right) and here’s my new brass light switch.

(left) here’s the cove crown molding detail shot i should have taken last weekend. see the “c” shape? it’s made from lots of pieces of poplar wood, finger jointed together. pre-made from the lumber yard, mathew did NOT make these! (right) see that dark gap between the small primed molding and the tin ceiling? i’m filling it with caulk. it started out as a really frustrating project but then i finally got the hang of it just about when i finished my last wall.

(left) mathew doing some trigonometry to figure out tricky angles for the crown molding that will go in the little alcove above the bay windows. (right) his calcs. when was the last time you worked with sines and cosines? ack.

(left) taking a little break. (right) towards the right in the photo above, you can see why those angles were tricky…

here we are trying to decide whether to add the 3rd piece of molding below the cove. in the end we liked the clean lines of the cove and left off the 3rd molding even though we already purchased it. it also meant less measuring, cutting, filing, installing, filling and painting…

as mathew is working his way around the room filling the nail holes in the trim, i am priming the cove molding. here is how the ceiling looked at the end of the evening.

turtle work/play

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!

festivals of the mission

as you may have noticed, we have a lot of festivals here in the mission district, often just blocks from our house. the weekend i came home from southern california we had the sf street food festival.

it had a huge turn out and was a fun (yet ridiculously overpriced) way to sample food from new local businesses.

i thought it was strange that people would pay too much to drink mediocre canned beer in a caged pen…

there was live music…

and lots of bicycles,… the best way to get around in the city, especially when they close the streets for festivals.

and our local ice cream shop (with the blue awning) mobbed as usual.

when i returned from southern california it was quite an adjustment to go from 100 degree weather to wearing long pants and sweaters. and i think because i complained just a little bit, we’ve had 3 (?) crazy heat waves in the past few weeks… be careful what you wish for!

the lost weekend?

a few weeks ago i went down to southern california to spend a week with my friend, margaret and her family. mathew stayed home and worked on the house.

here’s a photo from the week before i left, of the giant stained cabinets.

while i was gone mathew added brass window handles in the office…

…and put up shelf hangers for the giant cabinets.

mathew said that my uncle ken was visiting and saw mathew in the process of putting these heavy cabinets up. he came running in to help and then realized mathew had the whole process under control. the shelf hangers cleverly held the shelves up and in place so that mathew could then screw them to the wall studs.

and all around the ceiling he installed angled crown molding backing for the crown molding to fit against.

meanwhile, my week in southern california looked completely different… (left) me and walker doing some grocery shopping. (right) max hanging out in his jumpy chair.

on one of the sweltering days during my visit, margaret, max and i went to visit the warner bros studio lot. margaret used to work here and some of her former co-workers were kind enough to give us a tour. (above right) the fictional connecticut star’s hollow town square from the show ‘gilmore girls.’

more ‘gilmore girls’ buildings: (left) lorelei and rory’s house, (right) luke’s diner.

(left) the star’s hollow high school was also the courthouse from ‘dukes of hazzard.’ this town square set has been used many times for different shows over the years including ‘seinfeld’ and ‘the waltons.’ (right) we also took a cart ride around the studio and got to see merlotte’s bar from the HBO vampire series ‘true blood.’

back at home after a long, hot day. max looking tired and then sleeping while mommy cooks dinner.

finally a photo of me and margaret! the week went by too fast. (right) me riding the train home…