Oliver’s Bungalow Blog

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The Continuing Story of the Screen and Storm Windows

Christine

With winter fast approaching, mom and I took advantage of the mild temperatures on Wednesday to do a staining project we have put off since… oh, April? Wow. We’re really good at procrastination. These are the frames for the screen and storm windows for the small, square (-ish) windows in the living room, on the landing, the upstairs bathroom, and all three closets. Seven windows in all, with a screen and a storm for each makes fourteen frames. And the trim that goes with them.

We put in three solid hours, and I’m convinced we’ll need a second coat of stain because the pine is so thirsty. Mom disagrees. I think she’s just anxious to get them done. We ran out of daylight, plus we were tired, so the second coat and the poly finish will have to be done another day. It’ll have to be outside again, though, because I got a wicked headache from the smell. I can’t imagine doing this in the basement with just the windows open. I seem to mind this stuff more lately. I guess the fall allergies don’t help, either.

We did our best to keep Oliver out of the staining process, but I’m sure there a few golden retriever hairs in there somewhere. As you can see in the top picture, he was close by for the whole project.
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House Tour: Back Bedroom After

Christine

Oh, boy. I am embarrassed to show you all this room. It is baaaaad. But everyone has a junk room, right? Right? Someday I’ll get this organized. Really, I will. If you can believe it, there was twice as much stuff in here about a year ago, so that’s progress. And there is a wide path from the door to the closet on the left, both dressers are accessible, as well as the window on the left. Can’t quite get to the window on the right just now, even though there is a large empty space in front of it. You just can’t get there.

And if you can imagine it, three years ago, pretty much the whole house was in this state. Or worse. So if you look at it like that, we’ve made progress. We’ve just stalled here. This was the landing spot for everything we didn’t know what to do with.

You may notice that this room is slightly less peach than before, but it was supposed to be a lovely light mushroom color. But our less-than-fab painter, who shall go unnamed, decided he’s a one-coat-Joe. So, some day we’ll need to paint in here again. The color isn’t as deep as I had wanted, and because walls are not perfectly smooth, peach paint shows through where the roller skipped over the concave spots. Idiot.

Also, the this is the only room in the house with painted trim. I’m happy with it, I think it looks nice painted a nice white. Really, it was the only way to go here because both windows were later additions, as well as most of the baseboard, so they weren’t chestnut, and it was all already painted, so… I don’t feel bad.

Carpet is another only-in-this-room. Some stupid P.O. had glued carpet down to the floor at some point, and while, maybe, maybe the glue may have come up, it would have cost a fortune and been very labor intensive. Besides, only half of the room had hardwood floor, the other half now has new plywood that replaced the rotten sleeping porch floor.

Another someday we’ll get the walls painted to match the carpet. It’ll look nice with the white trim. The doors themselves were refinished, though, in keeping with the rest of the house.

The closet is reasonably organized……do I at least get points for that?

Okay, so, remember that space behind the door I told you to make note of in the before pictures? Well, here is the final result:That second “cubby” door was built by Bill, and it leads to the plumbing access. That bump out? Well, that is just small space lost in a large room, a small price to pay for much gained elbow room in the bathroom…

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House Tour: Back Bedroom Before

Christine

Oh, my, folks. Here we are, nearly at the end of our house tour, and we find ourselves in the room where it all began. This is the back bedroom. It fills the back dormer of the bungalow. Once upon a time this was a rather small bedroom, with a sleeping porch. Somewhere along the line, a P.O. (a stupid P.O.) enclosed the sleeping porch to make a larger bedroom. Okay idea in theory. In practice, however…

Porch floors are meant to be sloped away from the house, so that rainwater will drain off the floor, much like a roof. Well, this particularly lazy P.O. couldn’t even be bothered to level the floor, or replace what were most likely already rotten floor boards. Nah, let’s just glue cheap office carpet over the whole shebang. And never mind the drop in ceiling height. Doesn’t that look ridiculous? Unfortunately, at this juncture, there is nothing reasonable that I can do to fix this. It would cost an arm and a leg to do what I’d really like to do: recreate the roof over this section so that it blends seamlessly with the rest of the house. Oh, well. Maybe if I win the lottery.

So this section of roof and ceiling is more problematic than just aesthetically displeasing. It had also been leaking for a very, very long time when I got the house. In fact, before Jeff the electrician had put one tiny hole in the wall, this ceiling came a-tumblin‘ down.

I wasn’t even living at the bungalow yet, but stopped in daily to check on progress. One evening, late, I popped in just to see if Jeff had gotten started yet. As I was looking around the upstairs bathroom, I kept hearing this dripping sound. I followed it to the back bedroom, where a great sheet of drywall from the ceiling had come down from the center, almost like it was on a hinge. I couldn’t even comprehend what had happened at first.

As it turns out, my P.O.’s P.O.s had known the roof over this section was bad more than a decade before. My dad and grandfather actually submitted a bid to do the repairs, but when the owners saw the price tag, the balked. Apparently they decided no action was the route to take.

Fast forward to November of 2003. So I see this huge section of drywall hanging onto the ceiling by nothing more than drywall tape at one end, and I hear the sound of dripping water, the carpet is saturated. Then I look up. The insulation is all wet, dripping. And dark. Really dark. Oh my God. Black with mold. Panic. Frantic call to mom, cutting up large trash bags to cover the floor, as if that would protect it. Little did I know, that floor was way beyond saving.

Over the following few weeks, all the rotten and moldy stuff was torn out by Bill, who then replaced the rotten floor with one that is solid and mostly level. It is an old house after all, and while Bill is great, there is only so much one can do in some situations. Bill also tore out all the wet drywall and moldy insulation, swabbed the remaining structure down with Clorox, allowed it to dry, then replaced the insulation and installed blueboard. Many months later the plaster guys gave that blueboard a nice skim coat.

Notice that little door there? Well that leads to a storage cubby under the eaves. The other three eaves are utilized by bedroom closets, but this one is next to the bathroom. It is a pretty cool feature, kids seem to think it is cool, and Oli always insists on following me in there, even though it is a small space.Take note of that dead space behind the door. When we get to the after pictures, you’ll notice a change. And of course, another giant closet, complete with loose, real linoleum.

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A Fine Day to be an American

Christine

This election is different from any other since I’ve begun voting. Normally, I feel as though I’m making a choice between the lesser of two evils. But not this year. With this election, I believe we Americans had a really tough decision between two good, strong candidates. I’ve cast my vote at the poll this morning, but I truly believe whomever wins will be a fine president. This American is looking forward to the next four years.

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Lilacs and Vines

Christine

I just loved the variegated thread so much, I decided to use it again on my next project.This is the Lilacs and Vine pattern from Dimensions.I used DMC #8 cotton perle thread in variegated purple 52 on the flowers, and butterflies and green 49 on the vines.The vines went very quickly, but the teeny butterflies and the small, singular flowers seemed to take forever. I think I like patterns where I can just keep stitching, and not have to stop to change thread or positions so often.

Oli had a close run in with a ball of embroidery thread during this project. You’d think this golden retriever is a kitten the way he wants to play with string. Unfortunately, being a golden retriever, he wants to eat everything he can get into his mouth.

One evening, I’m quietly stitching away in my granny-recliner, and Oliver decides he is bored. I keep my current project in a little plastic bin I can carry with me, and I had it sitting on the floor next to me. Handy, right? Oli thought so too. Sneaky-like, he flipped the lid back with his nose and in one quick swipe he stole the ball of purple thread. I jumped up to grab it from him, and I don’t know how he did it so fast, but he managed to swallow several yards in just seconds. Here’s where it gets gross, be warned. I didn’ realize just how much he had, or even that he had swallowed it, I only thought he was chewing on it, so I started to pull the thread out of his mouth. And he started gagging. I kept pulling, and he coughed up a sizeable wad of purple thread. Close call. Now I’m much more careful about all of my embroidery supplies.