*Please excuse bad iPhone photos. Forgot the camera.
I take it you all enjoyed your holiday. We didn’t have any major plans so we just ended up working most of the weekend. Got some stuff accomplished, at least.
Yeah, we’re still on the living room in Bed Stuy. Let’s see, what did we get done?
Finished stripping the wainscoting. Yeah! Break out the champagne!
Demolition of the window surround at the front of the house. Years of water damage lead to rotted wood and loss of brick mortar. There’s much to take care of in this little area, just like the back of the house, which had the same problem on all 4 floors.
There were actually two ongoing problems that caused damage to the house. The gutters were full, causing water to flow directly down the building. We haven’t fixed the second issue yet, but we must before our new work gets destroyed too. The ground pitch in both the front and back of the house leads rainwater to the basement instead of away from the house. Not a fun job, but then none of this is.
Anyway, back to the interior. So, hubby was repointing bricks this weekend. He’ll then replace rotted wood, including old termite damage. Oh yeah, and all the molding, etc. around the windows. All rot. We saved the shutters though. My job is to paint them.
My other job is to paint the “sink cabinet”. It’s going to be gold. Totally against the husband’s wishes, but that’s what happens when he doesn’t pay attention. I told him months ago what my plan was. Now he’s acting shocked. I primed it with an oil base because I want it to last. I also added a yellow tint to the primer because that gold paint takes about a thousand coats. I just learned recently that orange paint or primer under gold is the way to go since it will glow from underneath. The hardware store around the corner only had a peachy orange, so yellow it was.
Since most of this is pretty much stripped and sanded now, my job will be to paint as the husband closes off areas. I know it doesn’t look like it from the photos, but we’re getting there! No, really…we are!
3 Comments
That’s amazing progress! You must feel quite happy.
We are in the midst of getting estimates for helper bees to redo a bad redo of the shore house attic. I’m astounded – in this economy – by how difficult it still is to get contactors to call you back, and even more astounded by the price estimates!!
We haven’t had much luck with contractors in the past, which is why we do everything ourselves. Get to work, Laura!
[…] have been some baby steps made since I last posted about it before the New Year. Most of the pointing is done and he’s got some new joists in. There’s still plenty of […]