I know a bedroom door. It's a miracle. These have taken me nearly two years to complete, so terrible. One of those long standing projects that just get pushed aside. I told Bj I didn't want to strip any more of the doors. It took so long, and so many chemicals. I did try to get the orange natural stripper, but you can't fight fifty layers of paint with butterflies, and it did nothing. We ended up taking the four remaining doors to a place in Portland called the Big Dipper where they dip the items and strip the paint responsibly, recycling and properly disposing of the waste (which in this case certainly is lead based paint). The doors came back insanely beautiful, as if they had just been made. You could see the clear wood used, and there were only the tiniest flecks of paint (like a mm square max). Once that was done I had little excuse not to paint them and have been working on that when ever it got nice enough outside (rare, it's still raining here daily). Bj cleaned up the hardware and installed the bedroom door and closet door in the bedroom this weekend. I hate that closet door. It's so in the way, ugh.
The room really is too tiny to be a master bedroom, but we make it work. The bookshelf (where I keep most of my folded clothes and things) is out in the bedroom instead of the closet because you can't get to the attic with it in front of the ladder. So ignore it please. If we were going to put on the door than I had to get my act together and finish the windows in here. The only ones in the house with vestiges of the nasty cream that the whole house used to be. Plus I had broken the window pane on one of the windows last fall. The sash broke and the window slammed shut unexpectedly shattering a piece. We've had duct tape on it for months, oh so classy. Even classier still, the new glass I had cut for it was leaning against the wall in here for a month or more. Next to a box of glazing points and little container of glaze.
The process of working on these were the same as the living room and craft room that I did... when did I do those. Oh ya February, if I didn't have this blog I think months and years would run together. Anyway it was all sanding and painting and hardware replacement. Fixing the top hung window. Partway through this project Bj said we should just get new windows if we are going to be getting a loan to work on the upstairs. I looked at him like he had two heads. That is not something you tell someone covered in paint. Replacing the pane of glass was a little trickier than I remembered. I did it once with my dad on a rental (it was broken when I moved in, and that was just one of the updates I did to the house and the landlord didn't give me my deposit back. Different rant for a different day). I found it really hard to get the glaze to look right. I doubt anyone will ever see it. These windows are actually high off the ground, so you'd have to be on a ladder to get a good look. But still I like things to be perfect (surprised?). I love how newly painted things look so clean.
Unfortunate placement of closet door. Mmm my wedding shoes. I want to wear those again.
Meanwhile Bj was perfecting things in the garage.
It's all done! He has the project going out there of cleaning door hardware. See how there is actually room to have a project going?
We got all the rest of our camping/backpacking/sporting/Christmas stuff up here. And there are still empty bins. Heaven. :)
Now those two leaded glass cabinet doors are the only things I have left to paint! I might paint the inside of that door too, just because it's so dirty it can't be cleaned and I have extra exterior paint. We got a tool holder for the corner which is so nice. And Bj built this:
A workbench. It's extra tall for his extra tall self. We managed to fit all our firewood under it.
Bj said he is going to spend all next weekend playing Xbox. We are so sick of working around the house. In addition to all this he conquered our backyard, which was thick with grass over three feet tall. We really let it go. Once you stop mowing it's impossible to start back up with our push mower if it gets above a certain height. That happened sometime last summer and it had been wild kingdom back there ever since. Bj has some allergy issues with grass (I think because he wasn't born here. Is that how it works?). The whole time he was weed whacking the thing no problem. And I was all, hmmm maybe it's a mental thing. Then he stopped. And sneezed, and sneezed, and sneezed. Yuck poor guy. So we'll see if we get anything done on the house or if we do take a break. One things for certain. We have to take care of these visitors:
The sugar ants finally found the kitchen (took them long enough). Quick someone tell me six good things ants do because I'm not seeing their value right now. Also they seem really stupid. One side of kitchen dirty dishes in the sink. Other side super tidy and clean cupboard of food all packaged, no crumbs, nothing open. They are in the cupboard, just dancing around canned food. Idiots.
