We keep a few frayed white shirts on hand, primarily as beach wear. On the tension rods I picked up this afternoon, they serve as temporary window treatments, anticipating the sheers that'll go in their place (soon).
...well not completely done, but I can fake it with this photo!
With the help of our dear friend Jordan we got the entire shelving apparatus installed in the dining room today. The four upright metal poles have adjustable posts with feet that are screwed into the ceiling and floor (4 screws per foot). Meaning, it's not going anywhere. The oak planks and cleats match the installation of the open riser stair treads (jut off to the left in this photo). They feel tight as a drum and strong enough to be building support rather than shelving.
Oh, and we finished installing all of the low voltage tech lighting. Hard to see the fixtures in the photo. They have a lovely crackle white glass finish.
Yesterday the redesigned table pedestal came back from the fabricator. Here it is featuring the small table top. The apron of that top still needs to be finished, but in general that's what it's going to look like. I put the large table top on it this morning and the stability issues of before have been totally resolved. Varnishing the large mahogany top begins today. As many coats as we want to get in, and with Thanksgiving only a week away, we're sort of down to the wire.
Final pieces of molding in the dining room are going in-- the crown molding to be exact. Well, craown molding is a pretty fanciful term in this case. It's really 3/4" MDF cut into 8" strips to match the soffit drops on the second floor.
Not nearly as hard cutting around the beams as we had expected. We decided not to trim out where the chimney juts out. We liked the implied line that passes through without a ton of fussy molding.
What were you thinking of!? I've been, um, thinking to myself for the past week as I failed day after day to remove the close nipple on our dining room radiator (to center it better on the wall). WD40 to the rescue, plus lots of patience. I'd spray the seam and exposed threads every day, give it a push with the beater bar -- and strip the nipple to shiny steel. Then I'd give it another spray and prop it against the wall to seep. The first day I tried to twist this rusty-stuck nipple I watched the WD40 in the hope I would see evidence of it penetrating the threads. Yesterday there was reference to calling a plumber to work some additional torque on the problem. This morning I asked myself. Where does the clinging pool of WD40 go? Is it working some slow alchemy or is it evaporating? Can it evaporate? Just what the hell IS WD40?
This evening I held the radiator on edge and took a seat before spraying the threads. Where does the WD40 go? And the meniscus of light... fluxed? I watched on with re-doubled attention. It pulsed again. What else could it be but the wonderous WD40 sleekly seeping. I lay the radiator down, assembled my pipe-wrench lever, and gave it a pull. I've been stripping that nipple for over a week so believe me when I say this felt somehow the same but different. I reset the wrench and pulled again, this time closely watching the nipple's threads. They turned. See the impossible happen.
All of the remaining trim material has been primed and Michael's finishing up the last bit of sanding now (I can hear the orbital whine from where I sit). Tomorrow morning we break out the router table (in the back yard) and fabricate the various notched pieces we need. After that, chocolate brown paint is applied, cut them to length, and nail them up.
With the exception of the crown trim in the dining room this entire house could be finally trimmed out by the end of the weekend!
This little point and shoot digital camera I got recently has a time lapse mode. I hoping to document something good with that tomorrow.
Love the color. Really enjoy the pleasure of painting new construction. Absence of molding is such a relief. Remarklably clean experience.
Looking forward through the stairs at split view of 1st and 2nd floors is going to be so hot when we're done. Very exciting.
Toby found a metal manufacture and is discussing specs and cost estimate for the dining table frame.
Ideas are popping. Toby has a great design for shelving that integrates the chimney-sides both upstairs and downstairs: floor-to-ceiling poles that will likely be ordered from same shop that makes the table. Assuming that order goes well.
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