Befores and Afters

One year ago, I was cleaning hardware. And here I am, still cleaning hardware.

Since last year, I've discovered the joy of a good long hot soak in a pan with some dish soap, and lots of elbow grease.

Barrel lift-off hinge before it's bath

Barrel lift-off hinge after a soak and a scrub.

Turnbuckle latch before

Turnbuckle latch after. The house has slumped a little,
resulting in these latches not lining up exactly.
At least it's consistent in that nothing lines up.

Finished refurbished closet door with nice clean hardware.
After scrubbing it, I got all the metal parts good and hot and gave it a good oiling, like a cast iron pan.

I started on the Master Bedroom (#3). Got most of the furniture moved out,
the drop cloths down and the window frames stripped (I could open the windows, it was 70*.
This room might be blue.

According to the window frames, it's been dark brown, light brown, pale yellow, light green, dark green and white.

Ian came over and there was grout time!
Now the tile in the mudroom and porch is so close to done I can smell it.

I also played with the coat rack over the weekend. Here's a piece of raw cherry (in front) against the oiled cherry.
(The oiled looks like it's two different colors, but it's had the same # of coats. Just natural variation.)
The oiled cherry has since gotten 3 coats of shellac.

That was my weekend. Also cleaned the house, filled the bird feeders, and made a big batch of oatmeal. Had a hard time getting moving each day - I'm pretty sure my allergies were in full swing since nothing is frozen.
This week I really want to try to get the first part of the coat rack up and the door to Bedroom #2 done and rehung. Those are my goals.

I would really like this hardware to go live on it's door again, and not on my kitchen counter.