4.16: Happy Birthday, Ali

Yep, it’s Ali’s birthday today! A cake will be delivered this afternoon & we’ll have a nice celebration with the family. We’re taking her out for a nice dinner on Saturday night, too.

I spent a little time at her new house over the past few days, and there’s still plenty more of that. It’s pretty rough, but thought I’d share some progress photos (click any to embiggen).

The refinished floors are amazing. They even did the hall/cubby under the stairs — the girls, especially, love hanging out under there. The little entry into the enclosed front porch (originally an open porch, and that was the front door) was covered with black tar/gunky stuff, so that’s a vast improvement!

This wall of plumbing is pretty impressive in the upstairs bath/laundry. The washer & dryer will be on the left, double-sink vanity on the right.

As I’ve done for 40+ years, I helped Rusty rip some wood. There was a pile o’ pine that’s destined to be simple baseboards throughout — except for in the (future) foyer (where the stairs are), where there’s enough of the fancy old woodwork to patch.

Kate finished painting the girls’ room yesterday, and except for the floor, that’s a wrap!

This is the doorway to the stairs under the hall. It had a cheap, accordion-fold plastic door on it, which we tore off (literally) and threw into the dump trailer. There were a bunch of little clips holding it all on & they were kind of a pain — the screw slots were really thin — but I persevered & it’s ready for patching & painting!

I saw a great tip somewhere recently about cleaning ceiling fan blades by putting an old pillowcase over them to enclose the dust/dirt, instead of spewing it out into the air with a cloth or Swiffer. These blades needed it SO BADLY, and I’m happy to report that the pillowcase tip worked great! I then wiped off each blade with a damp cloth and gave her a spin!

That horrid shell of an air conditioner has presented a problem. There’s a big (falling-off) wooden box over it on the outside, and Ali started pulling it all apart to remove the unit & close the window. EXCEPT, that the genius who installed it CUT & MODIFIED BOTH THE WINDOW & THE STORM, so there’s no closing it. It’s an odd shape, different from any other that I’ve measured in the house (except for it’s intact counterpart on the other side of the room), so it’s going to have to be replaced. Who knows how long that a/c unit’s been there — I’m guessing decades — and there’s probably some damage inside the wall due to moisture, so there’ll likely be some structure work, too.

I’m reminded (as was Ann), of the time Brian was replacing a window or two on the east side of their old house in Madison and had to call in reinforcements & take emergency time off of work because it was basically the windows that were holding everything together!

The other thing I did yesterday — after my third trip to the hardware store — was to finish replacing the hardware in the kitchen! The false drawer fronts at the kitchen sink had been fitted with tip-out hardware. One of them wouldn’t close properly, so I affixed a magnet closure (that took way too many tries to get lined up). I discovered that a rivet in the tip-out mechanism had failed, so it can’t be fixed… though I just had a thought to try for rigging it. (Not a priority!) Anyway, those fronts needed extra washers so there wasn’t a gap, and a stubby screwdriver.