2019 - A year in review

I had grand intentions of putting together Christmas/New Home cards back at the beginning of December. Things got away from me, and they never happened, for many reasons. I don't have cute kids and puppies to photograph. Instead, I have Buzz the Electrical Box and Robby the Radon Unit.

Template courtesy of Minted.

But! It is the time of the year where you should bask, a little bit, on the thing you did get done. Looking back, it's not inconsiderable.

January:
• (Technically December) Got the electrical updated.
• Moved in.
• Insulated a lot of little things
• Cleaned a lot of hardware and did some research into it.
• Painted a lot of closets
• Cut some brush
• Started to make some internal storm windows
• Discovered I had mold in the attic

February:
• Made more storms
• Got some roofer quotes to deal with moisture issue
• Didn't get laid off
• Washed a bunch of rooms
• Researched salvage places
• Thought about what to do with the dining room

March:
• Painted more closets
• Contracted with A&G Gutters for gutters
• Fixed the chimney clean out door

April:
• Cut more brush
• Gutters went on!
• Flowers and snakes came out
• Pulled a LOT of poison ivy
• Got the screens rescreened and weatherstripped

May:
• More weatherstripping
• More plants woke up
• Put in the flower bed at the top of the driveway
• Patched holes in the basement cement
• Did a shotgun day of brush hauling to the brush dump

June:
• Edged the front foundation
• Accidentally blew a hole in my foundation via the old coal chute
• More things bloomed
• Hacked back the lilacs near the back door/edged the bed
• Replaced the kitchen sink fixture (*Still isn't quite right. Harumph.)
• Replaced the GFCI outlet in the kitchen

July:
• Uncovered the back wood line and long lost rose bed
• Went on a poison ivy rampage that would last the rest of the summer
• Installed a de-humidifer/pump and started to dry out the basement
• Painted the basement steps

August:
• Edged the driveway
• Uncovered/Painted the shed door (*Lower putty already failing, will need to be readdressed.)
• Fixed basement stairwell walls/ceiling

September:
• Painted Front door/replaced weatherstripping
• Got the driveway sealed
• Cleaned the shutters
• Painted the bulkhead doors
• Got the mold remediated

October:
• Fixed ventilation in roof
• Started uncovering front flower bed
• Confirmed NO KNOB AND TUBE.
• Got the house insulated! yay MassSave!
• Cleaned tape off hardwood floors
• Continued gutting mudroom
• Spackled Bedroom #1

November:
• Fixed toilet feed line
• Leveled mudroom
• Finished spackling/painting Bedroom #1
• Replaced derelict "flowerbed" with gravel alongside the house
• Continued reclaiming the front flower bed
• Got the septic emptied and the chimneys cleaned
• Filled in coal chute
• Got tile for Mudroom/Porch

December:
• Continued working on mudroom and porch
• Started working on Bedroom #2. So much spackle.
• Tarped shed roof
• Made a few more storms
• Chipped brush

Shortly, very very shortly, I hope to have the tile down in the mudroom and porch. Then I can start to put things back where they belong. I've been working on a pretty new coat rack for the porch out of a piece of cherry Ian picked up for me. Also, I can finally get an adult sized refrigerator to replace the one that died back in September.
I'm almost to the point of being able to paint bedroom #2, but the spackle process has been long and tedious in that room. there's a large rolling ceder-lined closet that was left behind (which is great!) but it's very large in a very small space and has been difficult to maneuver around.

So much spackle. The plate (where the roof meets the ceiling) what badly encased in plaster and drywall.
I've basically coated the thing in drywall compound and now I'll sculpt a clean line out of it.

Spackle isn't much fun. Or fun to photograph.

The trim has been painted over at least 4 times. It's not in terrific shape.

Enter the Speedheater!

Trim is stripped.

Hardware off the closet door.

Cleaned hardware.

Trying to pick a paint color for the kitchen.
The more I think about it, the more I think I might stick with the Revere Pewter from the mudroom,
though I do like the far top left Russet color.

About one year ago, I deployed this long acting radon test to check on the work I had done.
The day before Christmas I sent it back. Hopefully I hear back soon that the great Radon Rodeo was a success.

Santa Ian brought me workbenches!
Now I have space to do all the messy things inside!

So I stripped the bedroom closet door.

This was under all the paint. A wonderfully swoopy capitol A. Was probably the maker, since it was on the bare wood?

Starting to fit up my fancy coat rack/shelf. One minor hitch...

The brackets came with top ears. I don't need them for what I'm doing, so I very carefully hack-sawed them off
and then hit the bare metal with some black paint I had around.

I'm doing the cherry in tung oil. Which means lots and lots of light coats of oil.

And lots and lots of light sanding between the coats of oil.
This is not a job for my sander though - this part I'll do by hand.

I also primed the closet door while I was at it.
The wood was so dry, I had to treat it with a mixture of 50% linseed oil/50% turpentine.
Which meant I had to prime it with this oil based primer.
For the record, I hate this primer. It will give me a headache in 3 minutes flat if
I don't wear a respirator when I'm using it *outside*.
I should probably change out the cartridges on the respirator.

Wishing you all a very happy holiday and a healthy new year!