Happy Holidays

We took a break from living through our personal episodes of This Old House over Christmas to enjoy some time with our herd of cats and dogs (which recently expanded to a total of 2 dogs and 2 cats). The cats enjoyed Christmas morning by spending much of it in present boxes. The dogs, not content to be lazy like the cats, helped with the dishes after Christmas dinner.



We are spending a good portion of New Year's weekend back at the money pit. Despite having used about 20 gallons of joint compound in the past couple of months, we still have plenty of cracks left to repair.

Stained Glass Update No. 481

The repaired stained glass window has made its way back to Lexington. For the time being, it will live in our garage in Lexington. There's no sense in putting it back in the money pit and taking the risk that it will be damaged while we finish renovations.

The repaired window is absolutely beautiful, and Joe and Mitsy were able to reuse the majority of the antique glass. The pictures below do not do it justice.

Stained Glass Window Update #2

Here are several pictures of the completed stained glass window. It will be installed later in the restoration project when the rest of the window work is being done.




Thanks to Joe & Mitsy Yager for doing such a great job on it.

Rear bedroom

This is the rear guest bedroom. This first two photos show the room as it looked before we closed on the house. The third photo (of the fireplace) shows the room after it was cleaned out and we began removing wallpaper and the wall (not original) that divided the room. The last picture shows the room in its present state....awaiting more joint compound, sanding, primer, etc.

Stairwell

The marathon of applying joint compound to the cracked plaster at the money pit continued this weekend. We finally started on the stairwell. The first picture above shows the stairwell as it looked when the tenant was still in the house. The middle picture shows the wall with the paper removed and drywall screws installed to secure loose plaster to the lath. The last picture shows the wall after the initial application of joint compound. We have a lot of work to do to finish the wall, but it already looks so much better after the first layer!!

Brrrrrrr!!!!

Brrrrrr!!! The temperature has dropped from the sixties (very pleasant) to the thirties (not so pleasant). This means a couple of things for the money pit project....
1. It's too cold for Wife to apply joint compound.
2. It's too cold to apply joint compound since it will not set/dry properly.
3. Scout's designation as "barn cat" changes to "house cat". (We don't want her to freeze!!!). And, she seems to be enjoying naps in our spare bedroom.

We have made a great deal of progress repairing cracks at the money pit. We've used a lot of joint compound so far...probably 15 gallons....and have just about finished 2 rooms and the upstairs foyer (see below). The upstairs looks so much better with the wall repairs. Fortunately, the ghastly odor lingering from tender love and care provided the former tenants has also vastly improved.