Well well well, what do you know. Steve and I both have Covid! We have been so very careful, but this Delta variant has worked its way into our bodies. Fortunately, we both have been vaxxed so it has given us just mild symptoms with the vaccine protection. I fortunately qualified for an immediate Regeneron monoclonal antibody infusion. Within 48 hours I was feeling pretty good, mostly back up to snuff. We still have some slight symptoms yet that come and go. We are treating with over the counter meds, mainly Mucinex D and Tylenol. We are quarantining for 14 days. Our wonderful son-in-law has been keeping us stocked up and supplied with what we need from the store.
Since we are basically "trapped" here at home, which is a perfect time to get another thing done on our house projects, right?
It is finally time to put the second window to good use. If you recall, earlier this spring Steve managed to find two of these windows on Facebook Marketplace. A contractor had evidently mis-measured and they weren't the correct ones for someone's cabin. But they used them for six weeks until the new windows came in. So technically they were used, but they were like brand new. We pick them both up and installed one of them in the corner nook in the kitchen this past spring. Now it's time to install the other one. It is 6 feet wide and 4 feet high.
Where you might ask? On this last section of wall that we have not finished the siding yet. This is exactly why we didn't finish putting on the siding. With my magic little glowing yellow finger on my cell phone, I managed to draw in this beautiful window right into place. How perfect is that? Well, not really perfect. But you get the idea. It's the same type of window that we put over on the side of that breakfast nook to the right.
Here is my magical glowing yellow finger drawing it now on the inside. This is our master bedroom on the wall facing to the east. We don't get much daylight in the room at all. We only have one regular window on the side of the bed to the south. So this big expanse of glass is really going to add to the room. Plus, we will have more cross-ventilation with the little windows that open on each side of the large picture pane.
This is the view that we're going to be able to see (approximately) from that window. This is taken from the bathroom window. So it's going to be a beautiful view out at night with the backyard illuminated from the flag pole lights, or in the morning as the sun comes up in the East.
At the same time, because we're going to be tearing apart the room and making a mess, we are also going to add new drywall to the ceiling. The patched up ceiling configuration still has the support boards from the original two closets before the bedroom was enlarged. There are also the holes from the old light fixtures before all of the electrical was updated. Time to get rid of all of that and have a new smooth ceiling. Then we will put my leaded glass light fixture back up again.
Steve got started yesterday making plans and figuring his lists of things we have on hand in the garage to do this project. We are glad we are prepared with all of the stuff to do this project. Armed with his laser level, he drew the lines on the wall where he would be cutting the plaster and lathe from the inside out. Not only does he have to cut out a 6 ft wide by 4 ft high section for the window, he has to cut an additional 12 inches above all of the way across, for the big header and the side support studs.
This morning we were both feeling pretty well so it was time to get to it. Steve started with removing the 11 inch tall mop boards along that wall. They were put in with huge long nails a hundred plus years ago. Fortunately, he was able to get them off in their entirety so they can be reused again once we are finished with the wall.
Look at that beautiful clear yellow pine. These boards are from a long time ago and you don't see that type of wood being used for a basic mop board in a house anymore. Steve admired the grain as we carried it out to keep it safe and sound until it's time to install it back into place.
Next we both donned our N95 respirator masks and safety glasses. Using his electric oscillating tool, he worked his way across the horizontal line through the old plaster and lathe. I picked up stuff, moved cords out of the way, and covered the bed with a sheet of plastic.
Last month, we picked up an extremely fine filtered Shop-Vac, it's made for actually cleaning ashes out of fireplaces. While Steve used the Sawzall on the two vertical sections of plaster, I held the nozzle of the special shop vac to keep down the dust. We also had a large fan blowing outwards through the open window in the bedroom. Our goal was to keep the dust down, so we didn't have to seal everything up and prevent it from getting in the rest of the house.
It worked very well
and the dust was kept to a minimum.
Now it was time to start peeling off the plaster. I could feel the excitement of HGTV shows when they shout DEMO DAY!!!! Bit by bit, we pulled off the chunks of plaster. It even had horse hair mixed in as a bonding agent.
It actually had wallpaper behind it too. There were two layers of wallpaper underneath and a couple layers of paint. I had the little pry bar and Steve had the larger pry bar to reach up higher. We filled up a tote at a time and carried it out immediately, rather than letting a pile up too much on the floor. We kept an old carpet along the wall that could help protect the hardwood flooring. It was easy to just take that rug outdoors and shake it out from time to time.
After we started peeling off the inside plaster wall and the lathe wood, we could see the inner layer called "wall pugging". We knew this was already there when we worked on installing the new electrical on the house. This is the type of construction that was used on European homes back in the late 1800's and early 1900's and also by immigrant settlers here in our country. The purpose of pugging is to create an extra layer of wall between the inner and outer walls. This allows an additional air chamber to flow up to the attic and allows the house to cool with air movement in the summer. The opposite effect is obtained in the winter, as it creates an extra barrier pocket of air, rather than the inner wall getting cold by contact directly to the outside. Old houses never have insulation in them. They were heated by wood and that was usually free.
The smooth white plaster inner wall
called "wall pugging"
Basically, it's a wall within a wall, with air spaces on each side of it.
During this process, I happened to look down... and saw a piece of paper float out of the wall! It appears to have been the detailed figuring and ciphering of someone who was building this house over a hundred years ago! How amazing is that? It had all different calculations and some figures about costs and figuring out square footage ect.!
On the backside it appeared to be calculations of how many board feet to get out of logs and maybe some lumber calculations. Perhaps the person building this home was swapping some trees out with somebody down at the lumber mill? Maybe he was figuring out how much wood was still needed to complete the job? We will never know. In the meantime, I preserved it in a plastic page protector for now. It will go in the scrapbook.
Back to the wall pugging. Steve started removing it and it was coming out pretty easily. He would crack away the layer of extra plaster and then pull away the vertical strips of lathe that was holding it into place. I grabbed each section of wood and stacked them in a tall trash can so they wouldn't scratch the hardwood floor. You can see the wide boards of the outside wall in the background.
Here's a little video segment I shot to explain the wall pugging:
That was enough work for today. We cleaned up and put away the tools. I Swiffer'ed around and took care of all of the extra dust. I pulled the plastic off the bed, so we can still sleep in the room tonight. It may get down in the low 50s tonight, so we will have to kick on the furnace a bit. When we get around to doing the sheetrock and plaster on the ceiling, we will remove the bed completely, and sleep out in the motorhome in the driveway.
Yesterday, after Steve was done driving his old fart party bus, we decided to finish up the very last two storm windows in the guest bedroom.
This side of the house faces South. There's no convenient porch roof, or bay window roof, to stand on like when doing the other four windows. Steve could have borrowed the neighbors tall ladder to get up high to the second story. I had a better idea.
How about we change it from the inside? I know that our beautiful old wooden windows not only lift up on the bottom pane, but the top pane will lower down so you can access the window frame by just reaching through from the inside to the outside!!!
Steve agreed, instead of dangerously balancing up on the ladder with an awkward window in his arm. This is going up 2+ stories high. Remember, it takes five steps to get up to the main floor of our house, plus we have 9' high ceilings. I would imagine it's about 20+ feet to the top of those windows.
We removed the interior lower windows and at the same time we replaced the sash cords like we did on the other windows. The cords were quite worn and beaten, but not quite broken through. Refer to the previous blog about how we did that in case you have old windows with broken sash cords.
Steve could easily lean out and unscrew the old storm frames. Some of the screws were so old and painted over, again he had to screw them out with the tip of a pliers, or snap them off completely.
Once we got the old aluminum storm window frames off, he cleaned up the edges of the window sashing.
Now it was time to put a nice thick bead of silicone on all around the sides and top. I stuck my phone out of the window and took a photo of him from the bottom window up!
Now that we've done those first four storm windows on the other bedrooms, these went pretty well. I guess we are "experienced" now?
Soon they were all done, and the interior windows put back in the frame, adjusted the window weights, and everything back into place.
The curtains were back up
and things are back to normal in our guest room.
For now.
In the winter months I pull back the curtains and line up four tables along these windows that face the South. I put plastic lids from Rubbermaid bins on top of the tables and set in pots of all of my coleus plants. I winter them over every year, as I've been doing for over 20 years. They are dug up from outside and also new shoots started to make smaller plants as well. I keep 8 to 10 pots of coleus going all winter long and bring them back out in the spring.
They are originally from my friend Connie, who shared them with me. I, in turn, have shared them with others over the years. When we go away in the winter months on vacation, I have my house sitting friend Sarah to care for them.
Here is what they look like this time of year alongside of the house...
I just love the colorful foliage,
and the blend of the fuschia and dark greens.
They are wonderful plants that don't have to wait to bloom to add color
to a flowerbed.... you get instant color in the
Spring, Summer and Fall.
In my case, in Winter too
because I bring them into the guest room!
I put some into two pots flanking each side of our garage door.
They grow well in shade or sun,
and take a LOT of water.
These 2 pots take about a gallon each per day.
Steve is gone this morning hauling a glass display cabinet for the museum. They bought it from a place over in Manitowoc and now it needs to get to Chilton. Another volunteer and Steve are hoisting it and hopefully not breaking it.
Tomorrow we are helping with the museum, as hosts at the door to greet people, answer questions and lock up when we are all done. Here is my blog post about the museum....
If you have been reading our blog here for any length of time, you know we love this 104 year old home we fondly refer to as "Our Old House".
Of course, old homes need updates, repairs and maintenance. We try to keep things as original as possible, but comfortable for modern day living.
One of the features on Our Old House is called a "Shaker Porch" off the upstairs back hallway. Two years ago we replaced the horizontal railings to get them up to code by raising the upper rail height per code and putting in vertical spindles. At that time, we knew the two corners posts were firmly attached, but the center post was not tall enough to support the raised upper rail. We only use it to air out a quilt or comforter from time to time, or just open up the door to let fresh air in upstairs.
Two months ago, our son Dan and soninlaw Waylen moved a king sized mattress over the railing of the back shaker porch ---and we noticed that the railing was a tiny bit loose. Last weekend I had the grandkids out on the porch for a look-see... (they had never been out on it before) and I noticed that center post was top not only loose, but also rotten! That can be dangerous!
Time for Steveio and I to do a little "Our Old House Task" ---- we happened to have ONE extra 4x4 post leftover from doing our big backyard fencing project. It was already stained white and ready to be used.
First Steve had to measure and cut away a notch from the other post... the base and bottom portion was still good, only the top was rotting. He drew lines and got out his tools. I held the post.
He made a notch part way up and then took measurements to make corresponding notch on the new post. This would be better than trying to remove the whole post, which is mounted and sealed to the rubber roof material, and enclosed with an aluminum surround. Who wants to make leaks on the flat rooftop to the porch ceiling below? He could use what is there and make the repair. What a smart guy!
He started with the skil saw,
but had to swap over to the sawzall to get through the post.
Here are the two cuts off the post. Yup.. that is some rotting wood. But for 104 years old, it's not so bad afterall.
Before we attached the new section, I coated it liberally with a solution called Wood Hardener from Minwax. It makes a firm solid surface of soft wood, and hardens up to a resin like texture. We used this on a doorway tread and also on the subfloor boards when we replaced the bathroom flooring in our motorhome.
It dried up while we were having lunch... and Steve prepared the post to go on the new base. Measure three times, cut once. It worked out and he brought up the piece to put into place.
I held the top while he drilled a big hole right through both pieces. I didn't have a lot to do so far except hold things and take pictures. LOL But my part comes next after he runs a big thick bolt through the whole thing....
I got out some spackle to cover the cracks while he drilled the top section to the horizontal board. Then I filled those holes too with some spackle. Now I got out my brush and some white solid color stain to cover the repair areas. I touched up a bit here and there.....
(now I just have to sweep off the sawdust)
There ya have it (as Steve is prone to say) Now the railing is not only safe, but also looks good again. Another project completed around Our Old House!
~~~~~~~
On a fiber note:
Here is my quilt I made.
It is now worth $2,759.00 !!!!
I sold this quilt to a lady who donated it to a raffle fundraiser for her local dog rescue in Nevada.
And it has a week to go yet and will most likely go higher!!!!
I am so thrilled to be inadvertently connected to this, by selling her my quilt. I am so pleased that people are finding it pretty enough to donate to their cause.
~~~~~~~~
On a family note:
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY
to our oldest daughter Erin and husband Waylen!
Two years ago, Waylen joined our family
and we so happy to have new addition of new baby Claire
to join sister Chelsea and brother Clayton.
Well, Steveio is chomping at the bit here to get things done. Time to get some stuff done before it rains!
Today my Steveio was off work so he had a WHOLE list of things he wanted to get done. It was zoom zoom zoom right from 7 a.m. That guy don't let any moss grow under his feet. Not that any moss is growing right now in Wisconsin. We are due to get down to 10 below again tonight....brrrrrrr
It was snowing today so I shot this little video
for those of you who don't get snow....
First up, he installed four new florescent light fixtures in the garage. Our daughter Erin and husband Mark bought him new ones for Christmas, as the old ones' ballasts were getting worn and not working as well in the cold temps. They took a long time to flicker and get going, and even longer to get brighter. Usually whatever he was going out in the garage to get or do was done before the lights got bright enough. Time for new ones! So he was out there wiring and screwing and hanging those new lights. A quick trip to the hardware store was necessary for some extra wire and a few more junction boxes, and he was done. Good thing it's only a block away. Another thing to like about living in a small town!
Next up on his list ... in preparation for the cold weather again, he decided our laundry room was too cold. There is a heat duct in the wall with a register to the opposite side in my loom room, and had at one time been open into the laundry room when it was the kitchen/pantry. We saw the marks on the wall when the other cabinets had been removed. He opened up that portion of the wall again ..... it just happened to be located right under the laundry sink!
The job went well, as he cut through from the other side... and of course he had two supervisors on the job making sure he did it right!
The next job on his list was to add a door sweep to the bottom of the front wooden door. During the last cold spell that went below zero, we had frost building up on the door sill. It was on the inside from the cold air coming in. He had put a door sweep on the back door last month, so now he got one for the front door. The only thing, those danged canine supervisors promoted little Finnegan up to a Puppy Director! He had to make sure Steve lined it up perfectly....
So Puppy Director Finnegan told Steveio to go get a level. While Steve was gone out to the garage, that stinker puppy STOLE the plastic bag full of screws and ran off with them, hiding them under the dining room table! LOL LOL!
Of course, in between jobs, we did normal every day stuff like laundry, dishes, grocery shopping, and made BBQ ribs for supper. It was a full day! I gave Duke a bath because he had a poopy butt (stealing all the rich puppy food caught up with his digestion!) Finnegan got some leash training and is doing better with his "Come" "Sit" and "Stay" commands.... and is heeling well and thinking this is all a fun game.
This evening, I had my weaving guild meeting in Menasha to go to. We shared some projects we had brought in. One gal brought in a lovely three dimensional woven structure that will be mounted upright for display.
She wove in pieces of natural items found around the area...
pieces of birch bark, feathers, pine cones, dried grasses and twigs!
She envisions it standing upright along on a shelf and was determining different methods
to help the structure stand upright for display.
We were all very interested in her piece.... as most of us weave normal textiles
and household items like rugs, towels, scarves, and mats.
This gentleman is a newer weaver who has recently joined our guild.
He brought in a number of pieces he has woven that were very bright & colorful.
We examined his various colorful gamp pieces
and the precise weaving of evenly spaced twill structure blocks on the three pink/purple mats.
After we all shared our ideas and projects,
we then turned to the third part of a video series
The DVD is very informative and has wonderful coverage of all aspects of weaving a rug. I wish something like this had been out long ago when I started weaving rugs. With all the tips and tricks he shows in the DVD, I would have avoided a lot of mistakes I had made as I learned along the way.
Once the meeting was done, I drove on home to my cozy house with my sweet man and two stinker dogs waiting for me. Temps were already down to 5 degrees, and dropping into the night. It sure felt good to be home again.
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