Otherwise known as - Baja's doors part 1.
So Baja's room had no door. In fact, it had a vaguely middle-eastern look, with its pointed top, and no frame. Therefore, hanging a door in the opening was not going to be a joy. I concocted a brilliant plan - I would find double doors, like closet doors, put some wood around the outside of the doorway, and hang the doors from the wood.
The first phase went beautifully - I found lovely solid wood doors on Craigslist, for free! It was the actual hanging that began the difficulties... First, when hanging the wood, I didn't measure correctly and the cross piece was too high for the doors - it would show and the doors would not sit flush with it. Remove, recut, replace. Result - five extra holes I must now patch. The doors were too wide. No fear, I bought a new saw blade, and cut them. Door 1 cut beautifully. Door 2 did not. There was some burning. And curving of the cut. And general annoyance. Door 2 is no longer quite so beautiful.
Then to the hanging - Door 1 again went nicely. Door 2 is just plain evil. Firstly, because the radiator is too close to the door, it won't swing open all the way (that's ok, I knew that), and in order to put the door on, we had to chisel gouges in the wood of the "frame". Luckily Erin is good at that. However, I then went on to display a large inability to line the hinges up, resulting in the bottom hinge deciding to pull out of the (not solid wood, particle board) door. And there's not really enough room to attach the hinges, since the door won't open all the way. Can't get the pin in if we take the hinges apart, and can't get the drill in straight if we don't. So the screw heads will stick out. But at that point it had been a very long day, and Max sensibly suggested we finish that door later, once we figure out how to reattach the hinge.
It occurred to me today that I should really look to see how many hinges I should actually use, after assuming that two per door is fine. In a (not) shocking turn of events - I should be using three for these heavy doors. And I didn't place them on the door correctly, having assumed that they should be equidistant from the top and bottom. Not so much. It won't be too much of a big deal to add a hinge per door, but the placement will stay. But now I have to go get more hinges before we can finish. Buying them all at once on Sun would have been much easier. Hence the post title... And really, at this point I should know better!
Pics and results coming soon...
Yeah, ok, so I've totally slacked on the posting. But that's because despite working diligently on the house, I really haven't done anything of note. I really really want to (the dining room is just begging for new drywall and some floor removal), but somehow all the little jobs just take too damn long.
So what have I done since last post?
1. Hung a shelf in the bathroom. Expected completion time: 15 min (counting the time to get the tools from the basement). Actual completion time: 1 hr and 15 min, after discovering that I couldn't drill into the wall I originally chose because there is SOMETHING impermeable back there...
2. Worked on Erin's wall. Expected completion time: 1 day. Actual completion time: you think I'm done? Let's not be silly. I managed to put up the last coat of compound on the drywall, attach one piece of molding, discover that the other really wouldn't fit, decide not to scream, and sand part of the floor where the cabinet was. It may never be done. In fact, I may rip it down in a year when I'm less frustrated and re-do it. Because I can see the crookedness and gaps, and I haven't managed to cover them in an aesthetically pleasing fashion. I am REALLY not up to cabinetry level yet. Yes, I know, practice practice, but perhaps I should have started with a small table or something.
3. Set up the new Hoosier cabinet in the kitchen. Ok, that actually worked out quite well. It looks very nice, especially with all the orphaned plants I keep acquiring on top of it. I may remember to take a photo.
4. Work on Mom's porch. Expected results: finish one wall. Actual results: put up 3 new studs. Sigh.
Also, the damn bugs won't go away. I called the super expensive exterminators back for a follow up visit, and they essentially told me to live with the bugs. And to stop killing the ones I see (!!!!!!!!) so that they can carry the poison back to the nest to kill the ones I don't see. Um - yuck. I mean, we only see one every now and then, they aren't everywhere, but it's still a little embarrassing when I turn the basement light on and then wait at the top of the stairs for 45 sec to make sure the bugs have time to flee...
The rugby season starts for real next weekend, so I've no free weekends until November. Hopefully I'll be able to get some real work going on some Sundays though, because I am determined to "finish" the dining room by Thanksgiving! I mean, the stove works now and everything! And I am so very tired of looking at its unfinished-ness. (I rather imagine Erin feels the same way about her wall.) And so the challenge is out there - finish the dining room by Thanksgiving or bust!
It's been rather crazy for the past couple weeks. We've had quite the flurry of work, with the goal of making the room previously known as the scary room fit for human habitation by yesterday, and fixing some other long standing appliance issues. The work went down to the wire, but I think it happened. As per usual, there were some ups and downs.
Ups -
--Most of the tin ceiling is in good condition.
--The subfloor under the linoleum is also mostly in good condition - and even the wood stain isn't that bad.
--New washing machine! It's very pretty. And my clothes came out quite clean! A Frigidaire front-loader.
--Finally the stove is fixed, courtesy of an appliance repair man. I have learned that it's about 40 years old, and is in solid shape. There's a screw that can turn the pilot light off, and it was off. The pilot assembly was also quite gunky. But he cleaned it and all is well. It's kind of cool - it takes 45 seconds to a minute to actually start once you turn it on, as it has to heat open a valve.
--We put some plants in the window guards. We look a little prettier :)
Downs -
--Part of the tin ceiling is not in good condition. And whatever the tin is covering is also not happy (i.e. falling on my head as I tacked up some aluminum flashing as a temporary fix). This will not be a fun repair, I suspect. And my interim repair job was super frustrating and very unattractive.
--There are no straight lines in my house. Seriously, I swear it. The small job of replacing a dropped ceiling panel in the hallway closet turned into a couple hours of swearing and attempts to make do, as everything was off-square and not the current standard size.
--More frightening large bugs were seen in the basement. Yes, I screamed. And chased them with Raid. Today I had a new (and much more expensive) exterminator come - they were really really thorough, and he seems pretty confident the bugs will be gone in a week. And he even left me some glue traps for future, though I'm pretty unexcited about having to pick up a piece of cardboard with bugs stuck all over it...
--Those brand new window guards are rusty already. So not amused. I will call the company, but really.
--Polyurethane is nearly impossible to remove from your skin. Damn stuff is clear, light (so it just feels like sweat when it gets on you), and I am still finding spots of it days later.
--Sneezing while wearing a respirator is only funny to spectators. Yick.
Neither here nor there yet -
--I had another plumber come and give me an estimate for the oil to gas conversion. His was much lower than my original guy. On the one hand that's really nice, but on the other hand now I have to figure out why...
All came over yesterday. And all were late! Really it was the insulation estimate guy, the window bar installers, and the plumber. The insulation guy said that his company didn't do my kind of attic and referred me to the group I had already spoken to. The window guys did a great job (pictures soon), though I kind of wish the bars had been painted with a matte finish. Should I have tipped them? I hope not. But I did give them water. And the plumber guy was really nice and really thorough (it turns out my chimney is clay lined, yay! - though the seams aren't perfect - not so yay), and will give me multiple quotes for my oil to gas conversion in a week.
And there was an uninvited bug guest. A big one in the basement. I missed it with the Raid (b/c I refused to go down there without Erin backing me up - yes, I know I'm a wuss), but did spray it where I thought he might be, causing my clean laundry to smell like Raid. Apparently to no avail, since Erin spotted him the next morning in the kitchen. At least, I hope it was him. One is enough. Ew. Think it might be time to call the exterminators again, and then put down some bait traps in the basement...
A couple pics -
The closet is finally finished, and has cleaning supplies back in it - yay for something off the list!
Floor: 
Max showing how he hung the clothes rod: 
And last weekend we did a lot to Erin's wall. She finished sanding the drywall tape, and I managed to put up the top part of the cabinet, the baseboards, and some trim. Now you may laugh, but that actually took 5 hours. It was fraught with crookedness, inexpert tool use (me), poor planning (so what if I did the math wrong and the new piece of oak was too small?), and lots of decision making. Another trip to Lowe's and Dyke's Lumber (they have the best moldings) will be necessary. And for all of that, I actually think it went quite well. Erin is very happy that she can no longer see into the ceiling through her cabinet!
This weekend I'm off to Dad's for his pig roast, so there will be no work done by me. But I suspect there will be lots of planning and discussions ;)
When you're just plain busy! Last weekend I finished the closet (with some timely help from Max!), and worked a bit in the backyard. Max set up the composter, and we discovered there were actually some flowers growing in all those weeds. We also discovered that Dad brought some water in that dishwasher - which is really kind of impressive, all the way from Rochester! ;)
Pictures soon, I promise.
This weekend - I will make more progress on Erin's wall. With the goal of completion in the foreseeable future...
The roof is silvered! And I think it's really helped - don't get me wrong, it's still hot upstairs, but significantly cooler than before the silvering.
As per usual, it took much longer than I predicted, so of course we were up there in the hottest part of the day. That paint was impossible to stir! Stirring by hand = 30 minutes. Stirring with drill attachment = 5 minutes. Having a friend with enough smarts to make me go back to Lowe's for the attachment = priceless. Many thanks to said smart friend, who brought muscles and cheerfulness to the process in addition to brains.
The paint was also quite difficult to work with. Despite all attempts, we did manage to get it all over our shoes, on us, all over the painting poles. And all over the ladder to the roof, and a couple drips on the hallway floor (it's getting removed at some point anyway). We tried really hard to be neat! It's really tarry and hard to remove as well. Ick.
One silver roof:
Erin and I hung the window treatments too! Not having towels taped over my windows is a lovely thing. Now I just have to buy the curtain rods for the living room, and they'll be all done!
Slideshow:
