An October Surprise

Have you ever looked at a recipe and thought to yourself, "That sounds delicious, but it uses 68 different ingredients; I only have 35 of them, and would have to drive to a specialty store to find at least a dozen others, so... never mind."

That is how I felt about the latest project. I knew I was going to have to use ALL of the tools, which meant humping them up from the basement. I knew there was no way I was getting the back door down (and then up) from the basement, what with the bathroom door still in the way down there.

I'd gotten used to being able to leave the back door open this past summer though, and as a result, I got used to the light in the laundry/fridge room. I had an idea in my head to fix this, but dragged my feet, because like I mentioned, it was going to take ALL of the tools.

This past weekend all the stars lined up. My latest window was on it's way to NY so Ian could make sure it fit. (It did!)

The leaded side is fixed. The other side swings in as far as I know.
There's two windows with this setup, so I have to make 1 more fixed at this size and then 2 slightly smaller for the swinging side.

I'd removed trim from a 2nd window in the living room, but I wasn't in any hurry to spend what might be the last beautiful day of the fall in the basement. I decided it was time to tackle the back door.
There's projects that you do, and you get 95% of the way there, and then for whatever reason it stalls. I'm sort of there right now with the chimney upstairs - I'm going to put a skim coat of joint compound on it, but I need to wait for the InsulStick to really, truly cure. I was there on the stair way for a long time, unable to get the railing up (it's up now!). That is the deal with this door - I redid the back porch/mudroom a long while ago now, and it looks great. but I left the door, because at the time it was so cold out I didn't want to take it off to refinish it.

Saturday was a the day.

Before (from the inside). The whole room used to be painted this dirty light blue color.
It didn't clash too badly with the new paint color, so I let it go. But it had to be updated.

Like I said - all the tools. Drill with hole saw, jigsaw, orbital sander. Manual sanders. What a circus.

Just a note - I hate the hole saw. It's great at what it does, but sometimes if you force it ever so slightly, the blade stops dead and rips the drill out of your hands.

Luckily, there were only two holes to be made.

Very Carefully cut two parallel diagonal cuts to the corners, being Very Careful not to hit the molded edge.
At this point, I still didn't know if this was a floating panel door. If it was glued together, I was going to be... in for a very long project.

The clouds parted, and the panels fell out - It wasn't glued!

At this point I had an idea. If I could very carefully score the molding and cut it away from the door, I could reuse it when I put the glass in. Time for a fresh box cutter blade.

SUCCESS! Then remember to label all the little fiddly bits.
The funniest ones are labeled "Inside Left Left" and Inside Right Right"
(As seen from the inside, left panel, left side)

At this point, I sanded the crap out of the door. No pictures, but you can imagine the dust flying. It's why I wanted to make sure I did it outside if I could. It didn't need to be stripped (it's not that old); only maybe 2 other coats of paint on it. Thank goodness. I have 3.5 more full sized doors to strip, and it's just not a good time. At this point I dragged the door into the dining room.

I measured and cut the glass out of some old heavy-weight glass someone had given me that came out of an old curio cabinet. I can't use this significantly thicker stuff for the leaded windows, but for this it was perfect.

Photographing clear glass stinks. But trust me, when I dry-fit the glass in there, it fit.

 

After cutting the glass, I primed and panted both sides of the door. In this case I used PGG Gripper primer and Benjamin Moore "Advanced" Super White High Gloss (to match the rest of the painted doors and trim.) Gripper works fine for inside projects, and Advanced is great but for 2 things -
1) it has a Very Short Workability Window. It works like oil paint (which it is intended to replace) So you lay it down and move on. There's no touching it up or you're gong to lift the paint and it will look overworked. It is self-leveling on a horizontal surface, which is nice, and when left alone to cure out completely, it's a great finish. However, that cure time?
2) 6 hours to dry-to-the-touch, but can be days before it's fully cured, during which time you can easily leave dings, imprints, smudges, and palm prints. I know this, and I STILL mass up the surface because I get impatient, and it feels dry.
Anyway, at this point I'm done priming and painting.

All of my Sarco window glazing putty is dried out and full of goobers, so I made do with the black stained glass cement. It's not that this needs to be weatherproof, I just didn't want the glass to eventually rattle the door. It's sort of the same thing - an oil base with calcium powder, and in this case, colorant. Smooshed in a super-thin bed of putty and placed the glass.

I used push points for this one. Normally I use old-fashioned triangle points, but the weight of the glass + this being the primary door made me think that these more robust points were the way to go.

I placed the painted trim bits back in, and drilled pilot holes. There was no way I was going to get to this point and screw it up by not drilling pilot holes and splitting the tiny pieces of wood. Cardboard to make me feel better about being that close to glass with a drill and then a hammer.

Tapped in the tiny little finish nails with my tiny little carpet tack hammer. This was so nerve wracking. Thought about going and getting the nail set and really burying them, but then I got to thinking- they aren't obtrusive, and if (God Forbid) I ever have to get back under there, I'm going to need something for the needle nose pliers to grab onto. I'm going to leave them just a little proud of the surface.

This is the finish issue I mentioned earlier. It's hard to see in the photo (and in real life if the light isn't right) but you can see where I flipped the door over too soon to work on the other side. Even though I had cardboard and wax paper down to pad it, it still left a mark in the polish. I don't know if it's enough to warrant me going back and trying to brush another coat over this area.

As you can tell from the above picture, there was door hanging. But not before there was hinge shinnanigans. I wanted roil rubbed (or black) hinges to match the rest of the door hardware. and $10 wasn't a huge deal to replace the painted over bright brass ones. Off to Koopman's I went, got the 3.5" black hinges with the correct radius corners, can home and opened the package only to discover that they were all fixed. Meaning, I couldn't take the pin out. Meaning, as a person working alone there's no way on this green marble I was going to be able to mount the door myself. So I went to Lowe's. All of their hinges were fixed too. So I wound up at Home Depot, where thankfully they still stocked black, 3.5, "loose" hinges.

I got the fancy no-squeek ones.

And the door went up! With only a little fussing!

Inside facing out.

Open!

I really could not, in my wildest dreams, expect this project to go so well. To the point where I didn't want to talk about it, lest I jink it. The only thing that wasn't 100% was that stupid finish issue, and I'll probably be the only one who ever notices it. The panels came out like they wanted to. The glass mounted in like it was it's mission in life. The hardware all went back on with no fight. It cleaned up beautifully.

Before, from the original listing photos

After - lived in (obviously not staged), but I think nicer.

Tiny Progress

I always make a list headed into weekends, and I never actually complete the list of to-dos; what's left over simply rolls to the next weekend's list.

This was a fairly productive one though:
• cleaned out 90% of the perennial flower beds,
• caulked the 2nd floor windows,
• discovered that my ladder is not tall enough and I am not brave enough to get all the way up to the peak of the roof to wrestle the vent covers off and put mouse bait in, but I tried,
• repotted 3 house plants,
• killed a bunch of worms,
• cleaned up and relocated a bunch of worm castings that have been washing down a slope to back up on top of the slope,
• trimmed the privet, (I don't care if it's the wrong time of year, they were out of control),
• cut back the brush that grows up every summer,
• took the screens off,
• cleaned out 90% of the annual strip beds. The only thing left are the marigolds and zinnias, which are colorful and make me happy. (And are easy enough to pull up in the spring if we suddenly get 6" of snow.)

I dragged the door I'm working on out to the driveway just in time for it to start sprinkling, so I rushed it back into the house. Maybe I can finish that tonight. Crossing my fingers that that the weather clears up.

I didn't take many pictures because this is all so very... boring, really... but I did also start one of Ian's tall windows. This is the biggest one I've done so far, and I've learned a few things along the way - mainly that I don't have enough bench space to both lay out the window and cut the glass at the same time if I don't plan very carefully.

Typically, 4x6" panels are traditional for this era/location of window. There are 24 full 4x6's in this, and then it will be padded out with a narrow strip up the middle and across the top. You'll never be able to tell (and it might be difficult even in person,) but I've mixed in some vintage Victorian era glass in with the modern glass for character. There might not be much "wave" or movement in the glass, but it should present as a slightly different color in daylight. I *mangled* one sheet of Victorian glass cutting it down to 4x6's, but salvaged a number of pieces out of it.

I do wonder now if I should be using a beefier edge came for a window this size. I probably should have stepped it up to 1/2" for these. It will definitely need horizontal support bars.
Hrm.

Small putterings

It's time!

The Fall Shed Square

The foliage is not cooperating for a nice picture, but I put the new Shed Square up on the first day of Autumn. Now I have to start contemplating the Winter one. I think there will be a winter specific big square, with little holiday specific side panels. We'll see how much free time I have.

I'm still waiting on Bathroom Guy to be able to start. Living with a half-demo'd bathroom is starting to get old. A large spider had to be evicted earlier in the week before I could shower. I'm also starting to get a little worried because part of this requires the roof to come off over the bathroom.

One night a few weeks ago I started to feel restless, so I ripped the trim off from around one of the windows in the living room to see what I was dealing with. It's SO mush easier to take the trim down to strip it, rather than trying to strip it up on the wall.

Before.
(Actually the window right next to it, I forgot to take a real "Before" picture.)

After.

Someone was cutting corners.

You might have noticed in "After" that there's big weird patches of brown paper now exposed. That's because someone decided to caulk down Every. Stinking. Edge. of the trim. Not to original walls - this has been replaced with drywall. (see in the cutting corners picture.) At some point, someone gutted this room. Sort of. And then put the trim back up, without stripping it, but not before painting it with incompatible paint and basically gluing it to the wall. Which I've now ripped off.
I'm grateful they kept the trim.

Ian helped me out big time by cutting me a new window sill to match the existing one, since the old one was sort of beyond saving. I might wind up having him cut new ones for the other 4 windows in this room, depending on how much they fight me and what sort of shape they wind up being.

This weekend - Big plans!:
• Going to try to finish sanding that first Office door, so I can bring it in the house to prime/paint it.
• I've stripped the trim, now I have to sand the trim from this window, get it in the house to be primed and painted.
• Pull trim from Window #2 and strip it.

As well as:
• Pull the majority of the screens off the house and store them.
• Kill more worms (377 yesterday!)
• Repot a few plants that are coming back inside for the winter and get them upstairs, beyond the reach of the cat.
• Clean out the flower beds (may wait a few weeks for things to really go to seed)
• Start Tall Window #1 for Ian's shop

This girl knows how to have a Good Time.

The Chimney - A conclusion, of sorts. And doors.

 Last I wrote, I was knee-deep in in parging the chimney.
I had Friday off, so I swung over to the masonry supply place, grabbed two more buckets, and got it done. This time however, I:
1) Dumped the mix into my trusty kitty-litter pan to mix rather than try to mix it in the bucket, and
2) Added more water. Instead of 3ish cups, I went for a solid 4.5. I probably could have gotten away with 4.25, but it worked.

I had juuuuust enough to finish the 2 exposed sides of the chimney.

Where I left off. The raking light from the lamp on didn't help matters.

One side done - under natural light, it doesn't look half bad.

The second side done. It's not very smooth, but it's encased.

I'm curious to see how well this holds up. It seems very secure now that it's complete and curing. After talking with Ian, once it's good and cured in a month or two I'm going to top dress it with drywall compound. (The surface is certainly rough enough for it to stick now, where it wouldn't have stuck to the smooth painted/plastered finish that was still hanging around on the old surface.) I'll be able to sand the drywall compound down for a smoother finish that will mimic more closely what was there. Then I can paint it to match the room.
I still need to get out my fine sandpaper and scrapers out try to get the paint off the trim that was left over from when previous owners had boxed in this area. A little oil and a coat of shellac should blend it ok. It's behind the door, so it's not super noticeable, but I'm a completest.

After the chimney on Friday, I pulled one of the doors off in the office and started stripping it. Back when I flipped the office in the depths of the pandemic, I did the room, but didn't have time to get to the doors. Now that it's not stinking hot out, I can strip stuff outside instead of having to have a freind come help me get it down to the basement.

The set up. I figured out how to make my sawhorses taller (!) and reused the plastic from solarizing my worms as a drop cloth so I didn't get paint chips everywhere. It worked out really well.

6.5 hours and some really sore muscles later, I have one entirely heat stripped door. Having it higher did help. Next step, sanding.

This is the door that is closest to the front door in my office. Like every other door in the house, I'm fairly certain it started life somewhere else and was repurposed.

Two strips have been added to the top of the door to make it taller. (Not just one!)

The are under the knob plate is a hot mess. They are little circular iron rounds, with 3 pricks, ostensibly for stability - they would stab the wood, and with the help of 2 tiny screws hold it down. Can't have longer screws because the metal housing of the mortise lock is right behind it, only 3/16" away. Decades of use and repositioning turned those pricks into saw teeth. The other side of the door is worse. *Edit - I talked about this 2 years ago!

The other side of the door (which you can't see well) and the mortise lock pocket. You can see on the bottom of the close edge corner where the wood started to blow out a long time ago. I'm certain there's a complicated right way to fix this. I think it's going to involve glue and filler in my case, and maybe different style plates to cover up the knob mess - even if I hit the area with wood filler, those little teeth are just going to keep grinding away.

That's where I got on Saturday. Sunday I trimmed back some brush that had grown up along my driveway and killed another 400+ worms. I'm hoping I have time this week and the weather holds out so I can drag the door back out side to sand it.

Attempt at the chimney; I'm not a mason.

One things that's been bugging me is the back chimney upstairs. It's one of the last things that really needs to be done on the second floor, and I just wanted to get it done. I had done a bunch of research and talked to Ian about how to deal with a plastered chimney. Heck, I even emailed  "This Old House" about it. I never heard back. I guess my head shot didn't do it for them (Yes, you need to submit a head shot when you submit your project.)

I went around the corner to the local masonry supply place. I won't disparage them online, but once this project is done I will never patronize them again. I walked in (masked, it's still a pandemic despite everyone's hopeful wishes), and got an exasperated and annoyed look from the older man behind the counter. There was a younger man and a younger woman also behind the counter, but they were busy with other customers. I wound up with the Unmasked Grumpy Old Man Who Didn't Have Time for a Home Owning Dilettante Middle Aged Woman.

I politely introduced myself and explained what I was looking for. "I'm looking to fix my chimney, and I'm told I should use a product called Structolite". I said. "We don't carry that," he replied, in the annoyed "you're wasting my time, girly" tone every woman knows.
I should have politely left at this point, but I wanted to just deal with the damned chimney, and this guy was between me and that goal.
I switched tactics and decided to beat him up with my brain, which is not a thing I like doing, but I dislike condescending Old Men more.

"Ok, look. I'm looking to repair a parged chimney, installed in the house when it was renovated sometime around 1860, capped off last year. It was always a coal-fired fuel source, and leaches residual scents. It's exposed on 4 sides in a 2nd floor bedroom. At some point suffered water damage, probably from a leaking roof. As a result the brown coat and the fine coat have deteriorated and have let go in some sections, leading to a patchy look and possible lead exposure that I would like to encapsulate."
He had the good grace to loose a little of the attitude. Certainly not all, but some.
"Oh. Well. I guess we have this stuff over here you can use." And he took me over to a shelf that held little 1 gallon buckets of something called "InsulStick". I looked mildly doubious. "Is it trowelable? Can it be smoothed? Is it paintable?"
"Yes, yes, it's similar to the other stuff you wanted." he muttered.

It was at this moment I hit the point that other women also know. The "Let's Throw Money At This Situation So I Can Get the Eff Out of Here and Away From This Jackass" point. It's a weird place where you're tired of trying to remain steadfast in your needs, are trying to salvage your time and still move the project forward. This very point of frustration is also how I wound up with a fridge and washer/dryer that I wasn't in love with.

I bought the dubious bucket of stuff, got the heck out, and set it aside where it mocked me.
I now had $30 invested in this fiasco. The situation stung, but here I was.

This past weekend I got the bucket out and read it carefully.
Bush existing Masonry well. Check.
Moisten the existing masonry surface. Check.
Mix 3-4 cups of water with product for handpacking. Ok.... Well, this is a vertical surface, so I wanted it stiffer and not liquidy. I started with 3. I quickly added another 1/2 cup. Mixing in the bucket provided was difficult, and in the end it didn't wind up mixing consistently.
I had my trowel and a float - I find the hawk is too big and my wrist strength is pitiful, so I use a float as a hawk. I loaded up my little float-hawk and start smooshing it on. I mean, really, I'm smooshing mud on a surface, this shouldn't be all that difficult.
Except it was. This mud was full of largish particulates. It did not want to work. It was super rough and could not be smoothed. I persevered, and toward the end added more water to what was left. That made it a little better, but I'm left with a finish that looks exactly like what the jackass at the masonry store would expect out of middle-aged-white-woman me, and that chaps my... butt.

Also, the tiny bucket only did about a 1/4 of the job. So now I have to go back to a place I never want to go back to and get more.

Where the plaster has been falling off. The top is where I've already moistened it.

Halfway through moistening one side. I only intend to do the two sides facing out into the room, though technically it's exposed on all four. I can't get my arm in that 4th side.

I started applying it from the top down, when maybe I should have applied from the bottom up.
This is as flat as I could get the finish. It resisted feathering.

Here we are the next morning - you can see where I had to stop because I ran out. It's drying very dark, which leads me to think there's a TON of portland cement in it.

So there's where I'm at. I won't be surprised at all if this whole thing falls right off the chimney in one big cementy slab. There's no bonding agent as far as I can tell, so the old brown coat behind it is likely to just let go at some point. 

It looks... better? Sort of? If you like unintentionally rustic?

My next step is to get a couple more buckets of the stuff, mix it thinner in my kitty-litter pan, not the bucket, and give it another go. Maybe a thin coat will smooth it out some.

Let's talk a little more about worms.

I know, this is the most boring topic to everyone except me, but I'm working hard to try to get more people to take it seriously.

Last we talked, I'd solarized a bunch of dirt and was on the look out for worms. Since then, I've come to the conclusion that they probably came in on the mulch I'd gotten last year as well as the topsoil I'd gotten this year. I've joined an online group of homeowners overrun with these things, trying experiments in control. I've done a lot of reading, and a lot of worm killing. It's not fun. I don't have exact numbers, but I've probably killed about a 750 worms since figuring out I had a problem, and that's just from the 3/4 acres I maintain around the house.

An average sized Jumping worm.

 

Because no one was really paying attention, these wriggly *ssholes have spread pretty far, pretty fast. Popular for fishing (because of their thrashing) they've gotten into the waterways and floated around. They've hitched rides in soil, mulch, on landscaper's machines, in shared and purchased plants; some people even wonder if they've tracked the cocoons in on the treads of their shoes. (The eggs, or cocoons, are only 2mm big, and look like dirt.) Some folks thought they were safe because they bought bagged products - but if they were stored on the ground, and there are worms on the ground and holes in the bags, there's worms in the bags. Note: Grab your bags from the tops of the stack, and ask if they've been treated to over 104*. If you can't find out that info, leave your bags out on the blacktop for a few really good sunny days. Clear bags work better than black for solarizing, come to find out.

The first batch of worms I hand picked out of my property (north of 300 worms) I tried to drown in water. It took over 24 hours for them to die. It was disturbing. Now I have a bucket into which I put 2" of icemelt and then layers of worms. They self-generated their own poisonous brew as they decomposed. This kills them in about a minute, but I'll warm you, it's gross. It doesn't stink so bad as the bucket of water, but it still has a smell.

A pile of worm castings (poop).

The "coffee ground/taco meat" effect of their castings en mass.

The crumbly results. This is washing down from above my house where I had a mulch bed.
This could be very bad news of the embankment behind my house lets go - the soil is already very shallow over the ledge.
The crumbling mess is a nightmare for shallow rooted plants. It also doesn't hold water. It's like pebbly silt.

I haven't done anything beyond solarizing where I could and hand-picking the adults where I find them. I've set up "worm traps"  - flat rocks in contact with the dirt with a little organic matter under it, or small sheets of cardboard with a rock on top to weigh it down. They seems to be drawn to glass clippings. I hate it - it makes my yard look like a mess. I've also tried "grunting" or "fiddling" for worms - where you take a notched stick and run another stick over it, sending vibrations into the ground. It drives the worms up, thinking they are escaping from moles.
Other folks are experimenting with just about everything you can imagine - diatomaceous earth, bio-char, alfalfa pellets, spent tea leaves, Irish Springs soap, funguses. Some folks are trying to limp their plants along by deep-mulching them in compost, but that also feeds the worms. Some people think it's best to try to starve them out. Other folks like me are just trying to pick them by hand, but it's a loosing battle. Some feed them to chickens - some chickens are freaked out by the snake-like movements and won't touch them, others love them. There's a lot of concern that the worms collect heavy minerals though, and that can be passed along to whatever eats the worms. (At this point only some chickens, moles and opossums appear to enjoy the worms.)
Folks are finally starting to pay more attention because this could directly impact the maple industry. Sugar maples are already at risk from the warming climate, and they do NOT like their roots exposed. People start to get serious when you threaten their pancakes. I know Cornell, UMASS and at least one school in Wisconsin are studying them in earnest.

So what can you do so that creatures from a horror movie don't invade your soil? You have to be careful. If you buy material/plants, ask if they know about jumping worms. Look at the top of the soil for the "Taco meat" castings. Knock off the dirt and wash the roots if you suspect worms. Wash off any equipment that had contact with soil. Wipe your feet. Wash your tools. Heck, I might get a deep boot tray and put a light bleach wash out on my porch for my shoes. Leave bagged material in the sun for a few days to solarize to over 104*.

Hope the smart folks come up with some sort of control for them soon.

Here's a short video about me scratching for worms. I'd already gone through and pulled 200+ worms out of this section a few weeks ago. (Sorry, it's hard to film with your left and grab worms with your right.) Toward the 50 second mark you'll see their creepy flippy maneuver - if they feel lightly threatened, they will poke their heads out and slither away. If they feel acutely threatened, they poke their butts out, and then do this flippy thing before slithering away. I think it's because they can detach their tail sections and use it as "bait".

Not much is new

 The weather got hot, and things around here slowed to a crawl. The bathroom guy, last I heard from him, is delayed (no big shock there.) I cut a few more holes in the ceiling of the bathroom before deciding to let the hired guns take care of the rest. I got the trim and door finished, and most of the hardware installed.

The first time they shipped my toilet. This is exactly how it looked when I opened the box.

The second time they shipped it. Crazy what an inner pack and some padding will do.
The second one was fine.

 

Other than that, it's just be a march of mowing the yard, picking bugs off my plants, and murdering jumping worms.
Oh yes, they are everywhere now.
I'm not 100% convinced that they only came in on the dirt. I'm now finding them everywhere I had spread mulch last year. The soil right below the mulch is grainy, like coffee grounds. Nothing wants to grow in it except other invasives.

In no particular order:

Chandos got a new sack of catnip.
She was thrilled.

I wound up working from my Sister's place for about a week.
I had had supervision.

We celebrated Mr Horse's birthday with a jelly donut. He loves jelly donuts.
He only gets one on his birthday.

Jewel weed, North America's native impatient, is in full bloom

Found some Ghost Pipes up in the woods.

Pulled some of the early potatoes. They did ok, considering the crappy July we had.

Jumping worm castings. All that pebbly poo is not a good sign.

It's a little hard to see here, but a big limb came off my Big Oak tree.

My tiny Zinnias are doing ok.

String beans are about the only thing I've gotten out of the garden in any quantity.

I went out to a public event, which was Super Weird. (And super geeky.)

I've played with my bees quite a bit. They seem to be doing well, but I don't know how much honey there will be for us humans. July was rough on them.

And I found a stick bug on my marigold. That was pretty neat.
I've seen a couple around here in the last few years.

My hope is that the bathroom guy can start soon. The roof stuff sort of needs to be done when it's not snowing.