eMpTy Bungalow

Wall Register Project Complete

2011-03-06T18:49:00.000-08:00

When I started this project, I thought it would take me a day or two. Buy some salvaged registers, strip them, repaint them, and swap out the cheap ones. As usual, it didn't turn out to be nearly that simple.

The big problem was the position of the mounting screws. Wall registers for old forced air systems were inserts in larger metal housings, and the mounting screws were designed to fit this housing, versus being screwed directly into the wall.

Once I had cut 4, 10X8 inch holes in the walls, I realized that I really didn't have a feasible way of installing the registers. This meant about 5 trips to Ace Hardware to try a variety of creative solutions.

I actually started going to multiple Ace stores, because I figured I was going to the same one too often and it was becoming embarrassing. After a few failures, the folks at Diamond Lake Ace helped me come up with a plan. The key was to use a J-hook to grab against the lath, plus a coupling to screw into. I used gel epoxy to secure the J-hook and coupling to the top and bottom of each wall opening. You can see how the J-hook wraps around the opening and grabs the lath in the picture below. In the end, I am really pleased with how these turned out. They look infinitely better than the ones the contractors used when the installed the AC. They just look right with the house and they actually work.

Winter Projects Update

2011-01-23T07:33:00.000-08:00

When winter rolls around, it becomes obvious that I am not a native Minnesotan. I have absolutely no outdoor winter hobbies, unless you count angry shoveling. No skiing, no ice skating, no snowshoeing, no hockey, no broomball (which is a strange sport played by Minnesotans, and I suspect Canadians). The closest things I have to hobbies right now are coffee drinking and going insane, which usually happens by mid-February.

In an effort to delay insanity, I am still working on slowly peeling the paint off the downstairs doors. It is coming along slowly, but surely.I have also decided to upgrade the wall returns for our air conditioning system. About a year ago, my desire for air conditioning trumped my old-house puristness and we invested in a Unico system. While we like the system, the Menard's style air returns really leave something to be desired. The system required 4 of these and we tried to hide them as best we could.

I have decided to replace them with salvaged cast iron wall register inserts. Originally, a register like this would have fit inside a larger metal housing and would have been positioned through the baseboard, closer to the floor. So, even though it isn't really accurate, it will still look a heck of a lot better than the current one.

Fumeless Indoor Paint Removal

2010-12-28T08:07:00.001-08:00

The interior doors of our house are birch and were originally finished in a dark color to look like mahogany. At some point, they were all painted white. I had planned on stripping and restoring all of them this winter, but it struggled to figure out how to do so without creating fumes or using chemicals.

I started by taking one of the closet doors to the garage and attacking it with a heat gun, followed by soy gel in stubborn spots. I noticed that the paint would flake offs next to where the heat was directly applied.

I realized that the paint would peel away if I passed the heat gun over it at low temperature, leaving the original finish completely intact. The process also creates no fumes and the paint itself comes off in large strips. I use Gorilla Tape to pull off any stubborn spots that the peeling process leaves behind.

My disclaimer is that this process works because the surface was originally finished and no prep work was done before the doors were painted. If the doors had been scuff sanded, this probably would not work. That said, he are the results so far.
The rings you see in the dark area are reflections in the finish that each strip leaves behind. Once I add a top coat of shellac, these will disappear.

Looking for Lamps

2010-11-15T16:28:00.001-08:00

Whenever I see period style bungalow interiors in books or magazines, it seems like there are always a bunch of perfectly placed antique lamps in every scene.

Given our lack of furniture/decor, I decided to start looking for some antique lamps for our place like the ones in the pictures. I soon realized that all the antique lamps I liked were ridiculously out of my price range. I really had no idea that authentic antique lamps sell for thousands of dollars in many cases. I just can't justify spending that much of a lamp, no matter how cool it is.

So, I realized I would have to get creative. Sadly, craigslist is pretty much the extent of my creativity. Luckily, I was able to find a posting from a great local antique store that was looking to clear out some extra inventory. Among this inventory were two lamp bases I liked. One was a student lamp from the 30's or so, and the other was a reproduction cast bronze arts and crafts base. The two bases cost me just under $100.

I then learned that finding shades is trickier than finding bases. The student lamp has a 2.25" shade fitter, so that was the easy one. For that, I started watching art glass shades on eBay. After about a week of watching, I found an antique Quezal shade I liked for a fair price ($120). This was considerably lower than similar antique art glass shades at local salvage stores. The finished product is shown below. I think it looks pretty cool and fits nicely on my wife's desk.

I thought I had done pretty well to keep it under $200, but then I saw this on craigslist. Dang.
http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/ram/atq/2057536340.html

The picture below shows the second base I bought. It isn't antique, but I really like the look of it. Finding a shade for it is proving to be painful though. I wanted to get a tiffany style stained glass shade, but I am finding those are very pricey. I have been looking at mica shades as well, but am not entirely sold on those either. If anyone has any ideas on where I could find an authentic looking arts and crafts lampshade for a reasonable price, please let me know.

Living Room: Before and After

2010-10-24T18:23:00.000-07:00

The living room is finally "done". I use the quotes because I still have to refinish the door, clean the windows, and remove the horrible 80's door-thingee from the front of the fireplace.

I also realized that I started this project in fall of 2009, which is ridiculous. I used the same process as the dining room: 2 coats of dye stain, 2 coats of shellac (50:50 mix of amber shellac and alcohol), glaze with Old Masters Dark Walnut Gel stain, 1 more coat of shellac, and finally a layer of dark brown Briwax.

Here are a couple things I learned during this project

If you decide to use an alcohol based dye stain, you have to be very careful with the first coat of shellac to avoid pulling up the dye and causing streaks. The best advice I can give is to start with an extremely light coat of shellac so the alcohol flashes off quickly to avoid pulling up the dye.
Taping windows for refinishing is a waste of time.

BeforeAfter

BeforeAfter
Before (note the popcorn ceiling)After

Exterior Update

2010-09-28T18:19:00.001-07:00

I actually tore the aluminum off the 'ol bungalow at the start of the summer, but realized I never posted anything. As you can see by the precarious position of my ladder in the second picture, this work had to be done while my wife was not at home. As she just pointed out, I didn't actually tear it all off. I had some handymen help me with the high stuff.Since the aluminum was added in 1971, there were at least 4 pigeon nests, 3 hornet's nests and half a dozen dead sparrows in the soffits. Maintenance free my a%&.Check out this triumphant heap of aluminum.

The painters will be coming out soon. Hopefully that will prevent the neighbors from calling the city on us.

Impulse Porch Furniture

2010-07-04T05:44:00.000-07:00

My wife and I went out to buy a chair we found on Craigslist yesterday and somehow wound up buying an antique 3 piece wicker set (loveseat, rocker, and chair) for our front porch. We got them from a great antique shop that is not far from our house. Here is their website - http://oddsnendsonline.com/. It is a fantastic store with great furniture, rugs, and very reasonable prices.

While each piece will need to be reupholstered and painted, they are all really solid structurally. I also think they have really great lines despite their current nursing home look.
Here is the rocker
Given the sad state of the upholstery, I started removing it from the chair and rocker after we got them home. This resulted in a number of cool finds. In the picture below, you can see that the chair was originally a blue color and also where the original cushion was as the blue outline on the back of the chair shows.
The underside of the seat cushion was also very interesting. It was clear that both chairs had been reupholstered numerous times and the previous upholstery was actually just covered up or reused in some way. The final layer was the embroidered piece you see on the seat. By the looks of it, I would say this dates from pre 1930 and may have been the original seat cushion or back piece.
The coolest find was in the padding on the back of the arm chair. There was a piece of cardboard with the words "Glen Lake Sanatorium" written on it.
From some internet research, I found that the Glen Lake Sanatorium was a tuberculosis sanatorium that opened in 1916. My bet is that this is where the chairs came from and that the note was put there by whomever reupholstered the chair. It was a huge complex and the top story of the building had a huge open air porch because fresh air was believed the help tuberculosis. It was converted to a nursing home in 1961 (which explains the nursing home look of the furniture) and was eventually torn down. I think a lot of people would be creeped out by this, but I think its great. I also think it is great the tuberculosis cannot survive in a chair after 50+ years.

Overanalyzing Paint Options

2010-06-13T09:19:00.000-07:00

Now that a significant amount of the aluminum soffits and fascia are down, we have started to try to figure out how we are going to paint the exterior.

I also now have a pretty good idea of how the exterior was originally painted. The aluminum was put on the soffits in 1971, and underneath there were about 3 layers of slightly varying shades of cream. The green trim the house has now is a recent addition. The stucco was painted white some time ago and it is tough to tell what color it originally was. I am thinking it has probably always been a lighter color and there was never a ton of contrast between the trim and the stucco. The windows and storms appear to have been painted a bright, kelly green based on what is under the current white on the windows and the few remaining storms I have. We have waffled between about 100 color options at this point and the people at Sherwin Williams are starting to make fun of us for all the samples we have purchased. We also have one window in the back of the house with about 20 color samples on it. We have gone back and forth a ridiculous number of times between light trim, dark trim, light storms, dark storms, etc. The current frontrunner is a light green/olive color for the stucco, a light cream color for the trim, and a dark brown/olive for the storms and accents. One thing that is a bit tricky is that we need to make sure that we factor the color of the bricks and roof into our decision. In reality, this is probably a good thing because it helps narrow down our options somewhat. I also like this look because it is kind of a combination of how the house was originally painted and our own taste.
I think the possibility above looks pretty decent. We are trying to be very careful with the green so that our house doesn't end up looking like a giant tic tac.

Also, if anyone knows a reliable handyman in the Twin Cities to help me remove the remaining aluminum (specifically the high parts), please let me know. So far my handyman search is going very poorly. Thanks.

Behind Door #2

2010-04-25T12:22:00.000-07:00

I decided it was finally time to deal with the aluminum soffits on the house. From building permits, I know the soffits were added in 1971, so I am a little apprehensive to see what they are hiding.

I started with the small side entry of the house to get an idea of how much effort this will take. Here is the before picture.It took a whopping 15 minutes to get the aluminum and all the nails down. I was extremely pleased to find the molding and beadboard underneath to be completely intact and in remarkably good shape. The after picture is below.
The wood is solid, but most of the paint has peeled off. I actually think this is great because it is going to make it easier to prep for repainting. I can only hope the rest of the soffit work goes this well (unfortunately I know better).

Close up after
By the way, if anyone knows where I can take aluminum scrap in Minneapolis (and hopefully get money for it), please let me know. Thanks.

Let there be Light!

2010-03-14T09:13:00.000-07:00

The living room ceiling light is up and functional. It wasn't even that bad to install. I think it is interesting that the old mounting hardware on the fixture fit the old electrical box perfectly. While I have no way of knowing what fixture was originally there, I believe this one has got to be pretty close. I wonder how long the electrical box was covered up or how long it has been since this fixture lit anything.
The ceiling itself is also now painted (except for the edges near the trim). For the ceiling, we went with a Sherwin Williams color called Jersey Cream. We are usually awful at picking colors, but this one actually turned out well.

The other nice thing about having an adequate light fixture in this room is I can now work on the trim refinishing in the evening. Hopefully that will accelerate the process from its current 200 year pace.

Installing a Vintage Medicine Cabinet

2010-02-22T17:56:00.000-08:00

The bathroom in our house has been remodeled numerous times over the years. Probably the thing I liked least about it when we bought the house was the cheap, tiny medicine cabinet. It was also ridiculously off center with the sink for no apparent reason. I forgot to take a picture of the wall before I took it out, so here it is on the guest bed in all its glory.Luckily, we were able to find a 1920's birch medicine cabinet on craigslist for a great price. It needed a new mirror and the hardware didn't really work anymore, but it was otherwise in amazing shape. Once I got it ready to install, I took out the old one which was held in by about 3 screws. Here is the sad looking hole it left in the wall. Once I cleared out the spacing boards, the opening looked like it does in the picture below. I got really lucky that the studs in this wall were 24" apart. The new medicine cabinet is huge compared to the old one so I was really concerned it would take significant demolition to get it to fit.
Once the space was empty, I just needed to add a couple boards to one side and two shims to the bottom so the cabinet would be level. It turned out better than expected. The only problem is that it is making the other remodeled features of the bathroom look worse. The antique nickel t-bar latch is from Guilded Salvage in Minneapolis. I just have to cut a couple tiles and put them back in place to complete the project (it will probably take me way too long to do this).

Progress on the living room ceiling

2010-01-23T16:24:00.000-08:00

We finally dealt with the popcorn ceiling in the living room last weekend. It was the messiest, most exhausting project to date. We started by covering all the walls in 3 mil poly and the floor in 4 mil. We then sprayed the entire ceiling with water using a hand pump garden sprayer. While we let it soak in for about 20 minutes, we put on tyvek suits, goggles, and respirators. We then started scraping. It took 7.5 hours, and many gallons of water. In the end, we wound up with a giant dropcloth full of popcorn ceiling debris that looked like a giant haggis and weighed about 200 lbs. For anyone thinking about attempting to remove a popcorn ceiling, here are a couple things that will help. 1. Have a small sample of the texture tested for asbestos. I have read online that some popcorn ceiling texture contains asbestos and some doesn't. We had ours tested and it did not. 2. Fill up garbage bags with the popcorn material as you go. The popcorn texture soaks up an insane amount of water and becomes extremely heavy.

Before - popcorn texture with no central fixture (beautiful 80's track lighting though)
With most of the popcorn texture gone, we noticed a suspicious looking patch in the center of the ceiling.
As hoped, it turned out to be the original electrical box for the central fixture. The whole thing was just filled with plaster, including the wires.
Once the plaster was gone, I had to figure out how to get power back to the fixture. My hope was that the mystery switch that did nothing near our front door was the answer. This is the inside of the mystery switch. I found that the disconnected black and white rubber/cloth wiring in the lower left of the picture below led to the ceiling box. Incidentally, I still have no idea what the red wire in this box does. I was able to reconnect the old wires and found that they did go to the ceiling box and that it had power! I still find it bizarre that someone would plaster over a central electrical box in their living room, but I guess I find the track lighting pretty strange too. I am looking forward to putting the fixture up. It is the one on the left in the picture below. We got really lucky and found it on craigslist. It exactly matches the original dining room fixture. If anyone is looking for similar polychrome fixtures, this website has a great selection, though they aren't cheap.

Small Projects over the Holiday Break

2009-12-24T09:11:00.000-08:00

I am really tired of working on the living room woodwork, so I decided to work on a couple small projects instead. The first was to strip and restore the upstairs door hardware. The hardware is nickel and most of it was coated in multiple layers of paint.
I started by boiling the hardware in a solution of water and dishwashing liquid for about an hour or so. I have this technique is even more effective if you soak the hardware longer, but I am not that patient.

Next, I used a little bit of Zip strip to get any stubborn bits of paint, and cleaned the surfaces with furniture refinisher. Unfortunately, the hardware really didn't have a nice patina underneath the paint, It actually looked like someone had stripped the hardware previously and removed the tarnish in the recessed areas of the pattern.

To restore the hardware, I used Brass Darkening Solution (bought at Rockler for under $5). This stuff works on nickel and steel in addition to brass. Once the nickel was sufficiently darkened, I used Maas polish to even out the finish, leaving the recessed areas dark.

It actually turned out better than I expected and the nickel hardware really stands out on the white doors.
After that, I decided to try the brass darkening solution on one of the unlacquered brass switchplate covers in the dining room. While you can still tell it isn't original, I like the darkened look better, and it definitely beats the hole in the wall that was there before.

Help with Missing Weatherstripping

2009-11-06T05:45:00.000-08:00

I am trying to find a piece of galvanized steel weatherstripping that is missing from one of the casement windows in the dining room. Not sure why it was removed, but you can see daylight through the bottom of the window where it is missing. The window itself has a strip of bronze weatherstripping which locks under a steel flange the comes up a little more than a quarter inch. The back of the weatherstripping is a vertical steel piece that extends up about 1/2 inch and fits against the front of the window. Any thoughts on where I could find a replacement for such a thing? I check all the easy options (Ace, Menard's, Home Depot, etc) with absolutely no luck.

With weatherstripping

Without

Taking on the living room

2009-10-16T11:53:00.000-07:00

The living room is not a pretty sight. The contrast against the recently finished dining room makes it look even worse. I can't put off dealing with it any longer. Here are the before shots.

The woodwork was painted at one time. It looks like someone tried stripping it, but gave up. Given how sloppy it looks up close, I am amazed I didn't notice this before. Check out the sweet mid 80's track lighting. Honestly, these are the world's dimmest lights. Given that I don't have any art on the wall, the only thing they light is a 4 foot section of plaster with a nice big crack in it.
I really think this is going to look great when it is done. I would just like to skip the many steps it takes to get there. The dining room took me a ridiculous 8 months, so I have to do better than that this time.

Paint and Something for the Wall

2009-09-11T17:51:00.000-07:00

We finished painting the dining room last week. I was a little nervous as the paint was going up, but I really liked the way it turned out. The color is Benjamin Moore Forest Moss.

We also added a vintage map of our neighborhood to the wall. Actually using the picture moulding as opposed to the 30 nail holes I patched in the wall worked out very nicely. The map is from Althea Maps and Prints which can be found in the Coe and Channell Antique shop at 2727 Hennepin Ave S. The frame was custom made by Dard Hunter Studios.

Finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-08-16T18:50:00.000-07:00

The dining room woodwork is finally all refinished. I was determined that I wouldn't post anything until it was done. It took me 10 months and who knows how many hours (definitely in the hundreds), but I am extremely happy with the results. While incredibly tedious, the 5 step refinishing technique worked very well. Here are some before and after shots.

Column header before

Same header after - none of the wood grain was visible with the old finish.
Built-in before
Built-in after
Bank of windows

Close-up of the board shown in a previous post

Another close up

Unfortunately, there is a little bit of bad news. We still need to repaint the dining room and I have the entire living room left to refinish. It better take less than 10 months this time. I am going to work on some other projects before I get up the motivation to go after that one. Here is what the refinished woodwork looks like next to the living room woodwork.

Woodwork Update

2009-06-27T19:57:00.000-07:00

I have finally removed all the old finish from the dining room woodwork and have started the almost equally painful process of refinishing it. Normally, I think refinishing would be much easier, but I am using the same 5 step process I used on the crown molding. So far, I am almost done with step 1, which is the dye stain. I am using Transtint Golden Brown. I make up 8 ounces at a time: 1/4 ounce dye, 4 ounces denatured alcohol, 4 ounces lacquer thinner. You can see the difference between with dye (on the right), and without.
When I took the hardware off the windows, I was surprised to find the original finish. This is the color I am trying to match. In the course of stripping the woodwork, I realized it was previously painted, then stripped, bleached, and refinished (poorly, I might add). Somehow, through all of that, it appears the window hardware was never removed.

The Future Projects Tour

2009-05-17T09:43:00.000-07:00

This future project/online house tour is an excellent diversion from my never ending woodwork project. My wife and I moved into our house a little less than 1 year ago. It seems like most of my projects since moving in involve removing paint.

One of the things we like best about our house is that it has all of its original windows. The front door opens to a large sun porch, which is one of our favorite rooms. We only plan to make a couple changes to this room before we call it done, namely an upgrade to the ceiling fan and the current flooring, neither of which are original. I am amused by the shear number of Phillips head screws in the ceiling fan every time I look at it. I have been checking out www.vintagefans.com for a replacement.

In the living and dining rooms, we are lucky enough to have the original quartersawn oak woodwork and unpainted, wood burning fireplace. We are unlucky enough that the woodwork has been painted, stripped, and poorly refinished over the course of 85 years. See my previous posts for more fun with woodwork.

Several of the rooms still have their original, bare bulb light fixtures. From the tiny chip in the picture below, you can see that these are brass underneath. I am betting there is some polychrome coloring as well. Stripping the paint off these will be the subject of a future post. The popcorn ceiling pictured below will be dealt with at some point as well.Working on the side entry is another project I have in the works. You can see where I have picked off some of the paint near the lock. The old linoleum floor has oak underneath, but I am worried that it might be in pretty poor shape from all the water that has gotten tracked in on people's shoes over the years. I am also in need of two new storm doors. The current aluminum ones are terrible. I have been checking every salvage store for a vintage one, but I am thinking I may need to go the reproduction route. Any suggestions on a good place to find an authentic looking wood storm door? Creating a full bathroom upstairs is another long term goal. The room pictured below is the nursery off our master bedroom. Our bungalow has a lot of headroom upstairs and this room is actually the rear dormer. Right now I think the trickiest part is going to be fitting a shower stall in this room somehow given the angled ceilings.

Slow Going

2009-04-23T18:55:00.000-07:00

I will be really happy when I am working on a project that doesn't involve stripping paint or finish. That said, I am making slow, but steady progress on the woodwork. The great news is that the wood underneath looks awesome. With the weird glaze finish removed, you can really see the rays in the quartersawn oak. At least now that the weather is improving, I can actually work with adequate ventilation, which is nice.

Push Button Switches

2009-04-05T18:07:00.000-07:00

Since we moved in last summer I have been meaning to replace the light switches on the first floor. At some point, one or more of the previous owners clearly fell in love with dimmer switches. Literally every switch was a dimmer. I guess I just don't see the need for that much dimming. I finally got up the motivation this weekend to switch all the first floor lights back to non-dimming push button switches.

I started by ordering 6 single reproduction switches from Classic Accents. Normally I try to get original versions of everything, but starting a quest for 6 matching, antique, functioning push button switches sounded pretty painful.

Once I had the switches I made a trip to Guilded Salvage in North Minneapolis. This is my favorite of the salvage places in Minneapolis because their stuff is well organized and the service is great. I was able to find 5 matching switchplates including 4 singles ones and 1 double. All 5 are solid brass, but the double one has a great copperish patina on it. The 4 single ones needed a little work. They really didn't have a lot of patina to begin with, so I decided to fake it. I used lacquer thinner to take off the remaining paint, lacquer and grime. I then used 0000 steel wool to even out the color a little. I followed that with the cleaning instructions on this blog. I used the "baking method" to age the brass.

I baked the switchplates for a little over an hour and am very pleased with how they turned out. They still don't have the patina of the double one, but I am going to let time do the rest.

Momentarily Done

2009-03-21T09:20:00.000-07:00

It only took me 4.5 months and who knows how many hours, but the crown molding project is done. Some pics and my refinishing technique are below.

Just after the popcorn texture was removed.
Same corner after

Close up before

No more popcorn No more paint

Close up after. We still need to paint the walls.

Once I was ready to actually refinish, I used the following process.

Applied Transtint Golden Brown dye stain. Diluted according to the directions with equal parts denatured alcohol and lacquer thinner.
Brushed on 2 coats of Zinsser Amber Shellac. I read a lot of different things about making your own shellac from flakes versus using the premade stuff. The amber Zinsser stuff contains wax which supposedly makes the finish less transparent. The bigger issue is finding premade stuff that is actually fresh. The date of manufacture is printed on the top of the cans. Based on books I have read, I try to make sure the shellac is less than 6 months old. This usually means going on a wild goose chase to find the freshest stuff.
Applied Old Masters dark walnut gel stain. I spent a disturbing amount of time and money trying to find the right glaze. In my opinion, Old Masters dark walnut looks like a mix of Van Dyke Brown and Black. It has a fairly long drying time. Basically, I painted the gel stain on section of molding at a time, and then wiped off as much excess as I could. Abbott Paint in St. Paul and Lathrop Paint in Minneapolis carry Old Masters.
Applied one layer of shellac to seal in the glaze.
Applied a final coat of dark brown Briwax to give the molding a satin finish.

In the end, I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out. Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg and I have all the remaining woodwork in the dining and living rooms left to do.

Great Bungalow for Sale

2009-03-13T20:29:00.001-07:00

This bungalow just went on the market this week. It is MLS#: 3656594. I am willing to bet it was built by the same people who built mine; same windows, same doors, same chimney, same brickwork including original brick planter box. This one appears to have most of the original windows as well as no aluminum soffits. Unfortunately, I have no idea how intact the inside is or isn't and the MLS listing has very few pictures. I just think it is cool house with a lot of curb appeal. I am really hoping whomever buys it appreciates it for what it is.Check out the original real estate photo from just after the house was built in 1924. I would kill to have an original picture of my house like this. You can see that not a whole lot has changed on the exterior. I can only think of 2 houses I have seen in Minneapolis that still have the original roof caps. I just made up that term since I have no idea what they are really called.

Non-tree obscured view

Salvaged Fixtures

2009-03-08T14:25:00.000-07:00

We are lucky enough to still have most of the original light fixtures. Unfortunately, this doesn't apply to the track lighting in the corner of our living room. This is currently the only overhead light in the living room. One thing I have always found odd is that there are 2 light switches by the front door, one that works the porch light and one that seems to do nothing. The living room ceiling has received the popcorn treatment, so I can't tell if there ever was an overhead fixture in the center of the room. Regardless, the plan is now to remove the track lighting and install a central overhead fixture. So far, the tricky part has been finding the right fixture since I have been trying to find one to complement the original bare bulb fixture in the dining room (pictured below). It is very elaborate for a bungalow, but I really like it.

Before this weekend, I had checked every salvage and antique store from here to Duluth without any luck. Amazingly, I found the 2 perfectly matching fixtures pictured below on craigslist this past week. Also pictured is a rare image of my wife performing manual labor. The 4 bulb fixture will go at the top of the stairs and the 5 bulb one will go in the living room. Now I just have to them rewired.

If anyone has any electrician recommendations or tips for installing the electrical box for the living room fixture, please let me know.

No more paint

2009-02-22T08:56:00.000-08:00

The paint is no more. It took a ridiculous amount of time, but the molding is finally ready for refinishing. I wish I could say the same for the rest of the wood in the room. By the way, the light fixture is original to the house. It is a 1920's polychrome fixture. I think the only reason it survived all these years is that it appears to be impossible to remove. When we were working on the ceiling, I tried removing it to clean underneath it, but had absolutely no success. If anyone knows where I can get another like it, please let me know.
The picture below shows the various tools I used to remove the paint. I really liked using Soygel because it was really good at removing the final layer of wax and glaze without affecting the original color of the wood itself. I would apply a coat of soygel, let it sit for about 1.5 hours, then I would scrub it with the red bristled stripping brush. I would then wait another hour or so and start removing the residue with the black hard rubber potter's rib. The pottery tools in the upper right corner of the picture were great for getting into tough to reach spots. The blue brush is actually a denture brush that came in really handy for getting into corners. Once I got almost all the residue off, I used furniture refinisher to get anything that was left.
Now if I could just decide on a final finish.

Office Chair Refinished

2009-02-01T14:54:00.001-08:00

I actually finished a project. Unfortunately, it was the office chair and not the dining room crown molding. Still, I think the chair turned out pretty good. Here are the before and after pictures.

Before

After

Before

After
I used the following process to refinish it. I decided not to use an initial dye on the wood since I liked the dark orangish color it already was. I started by cleaning it up with "furniture restorer", followed by 2 coats of shellac. I just use Zinsser Amber Shellac and mix it with an equal amount of denatured alcohol. The 50/50 mix keeps the coats thin. I then used a gel stain as a glaze. This time I used Old Masters brand dark walnut. Basically, I just paint it on, wait a few minutes, and then wipe off all the excess with t-shirt material rags. I follow that up with another coat of shellac. Lastly, I applied dark brown Briwax and buffed it with a t-shirt type rag. Obviously, I am no expert on mission style finishes, but I think it turned out pretty good.

Mission Finish Testing and Random Chair Purchase

2009-01-18T13:53:00.000-08:00

Since I am assuming that the woodwork will be ready to finish at some point in the distant future, I have been testing different mission finishes in an attempt to find one that is close to the original. So far, I have been using the following basic formula: Transtint dye, followed by two coats of amber shellac, followed by a gel stain glaze, another coat of shellac, and finally a coat of dark brown wax. I am testing 4 different dye colors, and 2 different glaze colors, giving me 8 finished samples. The picture below shows my first 4. The dyes are (from left to right) dark mission brown, golden brown, brown mahogany, and medium brown. I used a dark mahogany gel stain as the glaze on all 4 of these. My other gel stain option is a dark walnut, which I will use on the next 4.

My wife has also been looking for a desk chair, so I convinced her to let me find an antique quartersawn oak one so I could practice my finishing skills. Being incredibly cheap, I bought the swivel chair pictured below on Craigslist. It needs a little rehab as you can see, but I think it will look great when all is said and done.

I really don't know much about the history of this chair, other than the label that says "Sperry Office Furniture, St Paul" on the back of the seat. Has anyone heard of, or know anything about this company? Please comment if you have.

Resorting to Chemicals

2008-12-22T14:10:00.000-08:00

I think I have removed about as much paint from the crown molding as I can with the Silent Paint Remover.
I really wish they made a smaller version that I could fit into corners. I am now resorting to chemicals. Last time I used a less toxic chemical stripper I tried Ready Strip. Unfortunately, I wasn't thrilled with it, so this time I am giving Soy Gel a shot. I am starting with a less toxic stripper since the room has pretty much no ventilation right now. I am starting in one corner just to see how it does. If it fails, I may just put it off until spring and resort to Zip Strip. Once I get most of the paint off, I am going to go back through with "furniture restorer" (thanks to Shane for his suggestion in an earlier post). One thing that makes stripping the woodwork easier is that it all seems to have been originally finished in Shellac, which is really easy to remove. I will be refinishing it in shellac if I ever make it to that point.

In the meantime, I have been messing with something that has bugged me since we moved in, the gouges in the floor in the doorway to one of our bedrooms. My theory is that the whole house was carpeted at some point and that it wasn't removed all at once. As a result, the floor was sanded and refinished at different times. The other option is that someone really half-assed it. Regardless, I started sanding it to see if I could just get it to be less obvious. In the end, the stain proved tough to match (I probably should have cleaned up the sanding dust around it before taking the picture as well). I think the issue was that the floors are just the natural oak and the surface finish has darkened over time. My best guess is that it is polyurethane of some sort. It's not perfect, but at least it isn't an obvious gouge any more.

Generous definition of progress

2008-12-07T18:44:00.000-08:00

The popcorn ceiling in the dining room is officially no more. Unfortunately, the paint on the crown molding is another story. The Silent Paint Remover and scraper is working nicely on the flat section, but pretty poorly everywhere else. The biggest problem is that I can't focus the Silent Paint Remover on small enough areas. You can see the "progress" I have made so far. At this point, I am going to get as much as I can and then use some sort of chemical stripper to clean up the rest. The good news is that the wood underneath is in excellent shape and I am guessing is also the original finish. It is quite a bit darker than the woodwork that isn't painted. My goal is to refinish all the woodwork eventually.

Belated Preparation for Winter

2008-11-26T08:45:00.000-08:00

We are lucky enough that our house has all of its original windows, and most of the original wavy glass still intact. They were a big part of why we bought the house in the first place.

Unfortunately, we are not lucky enough to have the original wood storms, with the exception of the basement ones. After we moved in and I had a chance to really look at these, it became painfully obvious how bad of shape they were in. The glazing had deteriorated so much on one that a pane of glass had fallen out and was slimply set on the ground and leaned against the window.

My goal was to repair and reglaze all of them before winter. I figured I would have them done in about a week. Unfortunately, it seems to be taking about 10 times longer than that. The process of removing the old glazing, getting the glass out, repairing the rot, and prepping the window for new glazing is taking a lot longer than anticipated. The pictures show the progress thus far. Given that these are only basement storms, I am probably being way to much of a perfectionist about this.

One of the pathetic 2 that have been reglazed and are actually ready for paint.

Rebuilding missing and rotted pieces with WoodEpox.

By the way, the floor under the windows is the alleged asbestos flooring in our basement. It is a lovely combination of dirty green and equally dirty tan. For some reason though, I still kind of like it.

Fun with refinishing

2008-10-24T08:33:00.000-07:00

I have decided it is time to stop putting off working on the woodwork in the dining room. I started picking at the popcorn texture on the crown molding and was pleased that it did come off with hot water alone. Unfortunately, removing the popcorn texture just revealed about 4 layers of paint beneath it. The only good news is that I think the oak beneath that still has the original finish. I can't say the same for the rest of the woodwork in the dining and living rooms. It is all quartersawn oak as far as I can tell, but it was refinished in this weird scummy glaze who knows how long ago. At first I really couldn't tell if it was original or not since it was such a thorough refinishing job. Eventually I found a spot they missed though, the underside of the built in just above the mirror. You can see it was never an especially dark stain, which we saw in nearly all of the houses we toured when we moved to Minneapolis. My intention is simply to remove the scum and get the finish as close to original as possible. Any tips on how to gently remove this glaze without damaging what is underneath would be greatly appreciated. I was planning on attacking it with the silent paint remover, but I don't know if that will be too harsh.

Finally done

2008-10-12T11:52:00.000-07:00

The linen closet project took much longer than anticipated. I think I set a personal record for swearing on this one. Despite the frustration, I think it turned out well. The stain is original, touched up with a little bit of Watco Danish Oil in black walnut and finished with amber shellac. I am guessing that the wood itself is birch based on the grain pattern. In case anyone is wondering why the doors are stained but the trim is white, it turns out that was how it was originally. I started stripping the trim, only to realize there was just a coat of primer and many layers of white paint. Given my experience with the upstairs medicine cabinet, I decided that if it was originally white, than white it is. Here are the after pictures. Unfortunately, my camera was having some focusing issues.

My next project promises to be the project from hell. During the great popcorn ceiling craze in Minnesota, someone decided it was a great idea to popcorn over the crown molding in the dining room. We have matching (unpopcorned) molding in the living room, which is quartersawn oak. Also, we will be painting the room something other than the teal green shown in the picture.

New Old Hardware

2008-09-16T19:17:00.001-07:00

My wife bought me the Silent Paint Remover for my birthday recently. I immediately tested it out on the linen closet in our hallway (shown below). The paint is coming off nicely, but it forced me to go look for new hardware. The hardware that is currently on it is definitely not original. The entire hallway is as white as possible, white walls, white trim, white hardware. The laundry chute in the second picture is on the opposite side of the hallway.
For some unknown reason, I decided I wanted octagonal crystal knobs with brass bases. Also, I needed 9 that matched, and they had to be antique. My first stop was at Guilded Salvage, which I think is a great store. I found a set of 9 yellow-green uranium glass (actually made with uranium, type it into google) that would have been great. Unfortunately, they were $65...a knob. I decided to pass.

After searching dozens of salvage websites, I came across www.coolstuffiscoolstuff.com, aka Architectural Artifacts in Toledo, OH. Incredibly, they had exactly the hardware I was looking for, 6 larger glass knobs for the drawers and 3 smaller ones (2 for the linen closet and 1 for the laundry chute). They were extremely helpful and significantly less than $65 a knob. Hopefully I will actually finish stripping the paint so I can install them.

26 Extra Windows

2008-09-10T16:26:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, one of our neighbors decided to replace their original windows with vinyl shortly after we moved in. Not wanting to see the original 1924 windows head to the landfill, I asked if I could have them. The house is very similar to mine and the windows are identical. After my wife yelled at me for about 5 minutes, we picked up all 26 windows and walked them back over to our house. They now reside in our basement. I am not sure what I am going to do with them. It would be ideal if they could wind up on an actual house again someday. If anyone needs 26 windows, let me know.

Project #1

2008-09-09T15:34:00.000-07:00

Before

After

When we bought the house, the tiny half bath off the master bedroom needed some immediate help. The brass drain pipe under the sink was so corroded I could poke a hole in it with my finger. It was also patched with duct tape...seriously. The original sink and mirror were also in rough shape. The sink was badly corroded and the mirror had a crack through it.
I honestly thought the sink was beyond repair so I started looking at every salvage store I could find in Minneapolis and on the internet for an exact replacement. It is a "Standard" so I figured it would be pretty easy. Fortunately, I couldn't find one and became determined to restore the original one. After cleaning and removing the rust, I used an epoxy called loctite hysol 1C which worked amazingly well. I finished it with a product called "Surface Repair" in plumbing white, which blended extremely well with the original color. I also found they don't really make drains for this size drain anymore, so I had to use a dremel to expand the drain until something would fit. The first time I reassembled it, it leaked in no less than 4 places. After some swearing, I regrouped and fixed the leaks.
Fixing the medicine cabinet was equally painful. I used Ready Strip to remove the six layers of paint it was covered in, which took seemingly forever. Once I got it down to bare wood (pine), I used Watco Danish Oil in Natural and Amber Shellac. Thankfully the shellac part of this went really well thanks to some tips I got at 3121 Park Ave during the Park Ave walking tour.

The name and exterior pictures

2008-09-09T15:20:00.000-07:00

The name is based on our complete lack of furniture, or at least decent furniture. The house is a 1924 bungalow my wife and I bought when we moved to Minneapolis a few months ago. You can see from the picture of the outside there is a lot to do. We are putting off the major exterior stuff until next Spring, but it will theoretically consist of removing aluminum soffits (and restoring who knows what is underneath), replacing the horrible storm doors, repainting, etc. I think the spots of primer you can see on the window sills in the picture really add something.