A Mystery

Before I unpainted it with the missing piece still unknowingly out in the shed.


temporarily set in place to see what it would look like.



So we had a warm day last week and I spent it cleaning out the old shed in the back of the yard. After I finished cleaning and the shed was completely empty of junk, I looked in the back against the wall and there was a lone piece of iron about three feet tall. I immediately realized that it must go to the stairs, but where? I had never noticed any missing posts even though I spent quality time with that stair rail. It was rusty, as if it had been outside, but other than that I could find no defect, and as a bonus it was still black. I brought it in and immediately made the connection. It goes at the top of the stair, right up against the newel. The questions remain, however about why it was out there? Did they take it away so they could paint the newel and just decide it was too much trouble to put back? Were they so tired of painting (what I just unpainted) they just gave up before they got to the last one?
I doubt I will ever solve that mystery, but one thing's for sure. It definitely looks better with the mystery piece installed and I intend to put it back first chance I get.

Back to the Old Grind

Detail of the chandelier crystals




Years and years of paint buildup on the door. There were at least four different colors, the most hideous of which was this ugly green.



The view before and after of the door featuring the neighbor's house across the street. I stained the wood a Bombay Mahogany, which I LOVE. I also finally got around to adding to my chandalier the rest of crystal tiers that I won on EBAY two Christmas's ago. Somebody was breaking up a set of crystals and selling them in lots of twenty. I couldn't believe I ran across an exact match for mine. I bid an exorbitant amount (and found out that EBAY is like gambling for me, I have to stay away) and lost. I was really pumped up, with heart racing and sweating and hands shaking, and ticked off when I lost the bid. I thought about nothing else all week until the following week I saw the second lot for sale. I got pumped up again and was high as a kite on adrenalin when I outbid somebody and got them for a third of what I would have paid for the others. After that I decided to stay away from EBAY because it could be dangerous for my health.


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After quite a long hiatus from any reno work I resumed working on the front door yesterday. It has been quite a long journey from start to finish, and I still have to apply just one more coat of stain to the frames around the window panes, but I am finally close to completion. Here are a few before/after photos to compare. True the door now makes the room appear darker but I wouldn't trade the results for anything. I wish I had better photos, but I am still relying on my camera phone for pics. *sigh*. In the process of reclaiming the original door I discovered that the hinges are made of copper. This was a happy coincidence for me, as I had already replaced all of the light switch plates and outlet covers with copper.

Drowning in Junk

The weather for the last couple of weeks has been jumping up and down like a Mexican jumping bean. We have a couple of really warm seventy degree days and then we will have a couple of frigid 23 degree days. On the cold days I huddle up in my bedroom and thank God for central heat. On the warm days I try to catch up on the housecleaning and do small projects around the house.
One of these small projects was bringing back my "coffee lounge". A couple of years ago I had the idea of turning my breakfast nook, a square area about ten by ten right off the kitchen, into a lounge. It seemed ideal because two of the three sides are entirely windows and the light is phenomenal in there. So I dragged in my big easy chair that had previously been in the living room and brought in a table and a bookshelf and a red rug for the floor, and presto, it was a cozy little nook. I was happy with this arrangement right up until Christmas when I began the yearly debate with myself about where to put the tree this year. I finally decided that this year I wanted to have a "Christmas room". So I took everything out, except the bookshelf, because it weighs about a million pounds, and set up the tree. Problem. I bought a huge tree for a room with huge ceilings. Originally the tree went in the living room, where we have twelve foot ceilings. This was a seven and a half foot tree and I was trying to cram it into a room with a seven foot ceiling. So I put in on the edge of the coffee lounge, not in it, where the ceiling is about nine feet high.
With Christmas over I decided to redo the whole lounge thing. You know, really do it up. One of those warm days I went out to the shed in search of my "Black Stallion" book collection that I had as a teenager. As I opened up the shed door I was once again amazed at all the junk I have been carrying around all these years. The shed is full of it. I began going through the boxes looking for the books, but was soon distracted by things I had once treasured but were now forgotten. Oh, there was my half of the chess set that my BFF and I bought to share. Many of the pieces were broken and chipped. I dug them out of the bottom of a box of discarded papers and put them in a pile to bring in the house. Papers, there were so many of them. Boxes and boxes of papers. I have been keeping bill boxes since I got married almost seventeen years ago. Also kids school papers, year by year. And books. Cartons and cartons of books. I stood back and surveyed all the stuff. All the "junk in my trunk", you might say. I am thinking that this new year is going to start off with a purge of sorts. I am going to go through all that stuff and ditch out the things that are not valued anymore, like the large mirror the movers broke on the trip over. Why do I still have that? After I finish cleaning out the shed I am going to purge my closets. The closets have been a sore spot of mine for several years. I have offered to pay my kids to clean them for me, but they took one look at the job and wanted more pay than I was willing to give. I just didn't have the heart to make them do it just because I said so. I have grown weary of opening the door and having stuff fall out on the floor. Of not being able to walk inside without stepping on something and breaking it. (was that a VHS of Barney, I just stepped on? The question is not why do I still have that, it's why did I EVER have that. Not to mention my youngest child is almost eleven. There hasn't been any Barney watching in this house in about eight years.)
In the same way that our physical lives need purging from time to time, our spiritual lives need it too. I get so caught up in TV (CSI four hours a day on SPIKE TV) and the Internet and just everyday stuff that God's still small voice is shouted down by the loud stuff going on in my little world.
So this month I am taking time off. I can't believe I'm saying this, but no TV for me til the end of the month. I'm cleaning out the "junk" in my spiritual trunk. Hopefully it will make me less stressed and frantic about how out of control my life has become and get me back where I need to be.
Oh and the coffee lounge looks great. And now that I've put TV on the side, I have time for all the art projects I have been wanting to do, but not doing, because "there just isn't enough time in the world to do it all" (said in an annoying whiny voice). Correction: There is all the time in the world for the things we really value.

Pretending

The window on the right is now clean. Tomorrow I will clean its twin and eventually I will get around to its forty two other brother and sisters.

Hello folks, it's been a long time, almost six weeks since I have written anything new. With Christmas and then being sick for over a week after Christmas, this is the first day I have felt energetic enough to do anything more than lay in bed all day and feel sorry for myself while honing my computer scrabble skills.
So today I woke up feeling pretty good. The sun was shining which probably accounted for about 90% percent of my mood change. That SADD syndrome really gets to me in the winter time.
I decided that it was time to put away the tree and reclaim my house from all the Christmas finery.
Trotting from the house to the shed with the tree parts and all the various boxes, I could almost pretend it was spring already. The wind was blowing and the air was balmy. The sun was shining and there were big fluffy clouds in the sky. I cleaned up all the needles left behind by my ever shedding tree and then caught sight of that broken window left behind from a birthday party we had in October. My son turned fourteen and about fifteen boys spent the weekend. I lost a window pane and a curtain rod before it was all said and done. Because the glass was firmly set into the putty, I had put off removing it, until now. As I worked the broken glass out of the old window, I dropped a piece down in between the window and the storm window. Problem: This particular window, as many of the windows are in my forty four window house, was completely painted shut. Sealed off. Unassailable. Well, unopenable, anyway. I uttered an oath or two. I knew I would have to get the window open to get the glass out, as it wasn't just a little piece that fell, it was half the pane. Maybe I should say it was half the "pain".
Anyway, I have done this a few times, so I gathered the tools. Putty knife, hammer, screwdriver. I applied the knife to the painted areas, separating the window from the window sash and sides, and used the screwdriver to remove the caulk from around the ropes on the sides. I used the hammer to drive the putty knife down the sides of the window, through all the years and layers of caked on paint. Then I applied all my strength into pulling upward on the window to get it open. Nothing. Not even close. Again with the putty knife, hammer, and screwdriver. Again, it wouldn't even begin to budge. Again and again I went over it. I almost gave up. Finally after over an hour, I felt it pop free. I raised the window, slowly, as all the accumulated dirt between the storm window and the sash became apparent. Then I removed the storm window and the screen and cleaned the window with Windex, something I have been wanting to do for a long, long time. It really bothers me to look at the outside world through dirty windows. The problem is that there are so many windows. Each one is a project in itself, in that they all have to be unsealed, and all the storms have to be disassembled to be cleaned properly. It seems crazy that the thing which attracted me most about this house, the many windows, is the thing that bothers me the most, because of the maintenence involved.
I have thought several times that I don't have forty four windows, I actually have eighty eight windows.
That's a lot of Windex, folks.
Oh, and as far as the pretending goes, I'm also pretending that I'm rich and that I'm not fat, as well.
I'll get back to reality tomorrow.