Look at this cool thing we Found!
While Stefan was working on the siding on the back deck, he found some cool stuff. This is right outside of the kitchen door:
We’ll post an update on the status of that siding at some point, but for today: the cool stuff we found.
First is an image of the branding of the house paper. This is the paper that goes behind siding.
A google search reveals more information about the company:
and you can buy this ad from the company on ebay. It gives you the full engraving of the girl with the waterproof building paper.
The second thing we found was this cool note on the building paper.
It’s a bit tough to read but it says Shattuck Arlington which is the local hardware store. Shattuck has been in Arlington since 1857. It is just so cool that someone wrote this on the building paper 100 years ago!
Sarah
Pressure Wash the Deck
A coworker of mine just bought a house and he got our Pressure Washer at https://bradentonpowerwashing.com and got it going on the vinyl siding of his now blue house. While we had it up and running, I had Stefan Pressure wash the front porch. Just in time for Halloween!
We squeezed in one final tandem bike-commute to work by coming home at about 2:00 so Stefan could pressure wash. It was an unseasonably warm Tuesday in October. After the end of Daylight Savings on Nov 2, the bike-commute season is over unless you fancy riding your bike in the pitch black darkness that is 5:00 PM in this part of the country.
The Porch floor was in rough shape. I’m not sure why it was so bad but I think the Thompson’s Water Seal we used to seal the deck never fully absorbed and the dirt stuck into it. Maybe we put it on too thick. I’m not sure. I think we’re going to switch to a different sealer product. Or we should probably hire professional deck sealing service to do everything properly. I was advised to check out this site for reputable contractor.
Before, it was bad, real bad and After, it’s a pretty reddish brown wood color!
Our deck design was a satisfying change. It seems the Thompson’s Water Seal did it’s job. The water still beads off even after pressure washing and under all the dirt the wood has hardly grayed at all. If it didn’t hold onto dirt like it does, we would be super happy with it.
Stefan hit the Porch swing with the pressure washer and discovered some peeling. I’m thinking of painting it lavender. I’ve got this vision of a lavender porch swing and lavender rocking chairs on the porch. The porch is currently cream and the house will been a mossy green at some point. What do you think?
For now, since the water still seems to be beading, I think we are going to toss a layer of the water Seal on the steps for the winter and leave the porch floor as-is. In the spring we want to get a new deck installation and we are going to use a decking cleaner/sealer system on the floor.
I still need to do some research on what products work the best. I’ll let you know what we decide. Visit http://hanover-sealcoating.com/ to find out how to make your surface look cleaner, more elegant, and functional.
If you have any suggestions, let us know in the comments!
Sarah
Kitchen Cleaning Service Miami and Remodeling after a Fire Accident
Last month we had a terrible accident while cooking, is incredible what a small stove flame, a bit of oil and small dirty cloth can produce if you don’t pay enough attention; We had a small fire incident in out kitchen, fortunatelly a couple weeks before I bought some discounted fire extinguishers and manage to get rid of it before the fire expand to other rooms; After a fire replacing a roof is a need, danes dallas roofing always do a perfect work. Unfortunately thats how it part of the kitchen looked after a very long clean session, we weren’t able to remove all the smoke stains so I had to contact a smoke removal company and residential and commercial concrete services to get rid of the burn marks.
And here is how it looks after a single day smoke removal service that only left the gas cooktop there.
After everything being fixed my wife just had the wonderful idea of remodeling the entire kitchen. We contacted someone for Appliance repair and we didn’t need to buy a new kitchen, sink and oven!
Our process for moldings are:
- Pre-prime moldings
- Cut and nail into place (more complicated that it sounds…)
- Wood fill
- Sand
- Prime again
- Caulk
I’ve found that the second priming after the wood-filler is key to a nice smooth, easy paint job. It really makes the final coat go on so much easier to have a well-primed underlay. I also like to have it well-primed before caulking. It helps to pull the excess caulk off if you have a nice smooth, unabsobant surface. It is always helpful to have more kitchen ideas as it helps brighten your house, and if you want to keep your house clean, you can also use these services at Hanover Home Cleaning Pros to help with this.
I mentioned the Cut and Nail as one step but it really is more complicated that that. It’s a 2 person job and this particular molding was hard to work with. It is “shelf” molding not Crown so instead of the back corner being cut off, we had to cut it off ourself.
Here is the profile pre-ripped:
and after we ripped the back corner off it looks roughly like this.
We buy nearly all our moldings from Anderson McQuaid. It’s not 2 miles away from the house and is a full on-side molding mill. It’s a neat place to visit if you’re ever in the area. It’s over by Fresh Pond if you know that area of Cambridge MA.
To rip the Molding, we used our great table saw:
And some great roller stands from Harbor Freight. These are awesome. Cheap, easy, and super useful.
After getting the molding to shape, we cut it to size using the chop-saw. To install it, we used an ingenious little tool – a custom molding holder.
Making one of these really helps to get the molding up and tight into the corners. We made it long enough that we could wedge it into place with a couple scrap blocks of wood. Remember to clean constantly your working spot. It is a matter of safety. For that keep handy a set of broom guru cleaning system.
(Don’t mind the mess: Rudy’s Cup for iced tea, a crooked Bulletin Board I hang receipts, lists, and watercolor paintings on, my Blue Coat on the back of the door. What can I say, we live here! I just can’t get behind cleaning up to work on a project but it would make for better blog pictures, for now I will try to Air Duct Cleaning Chicago to get a vacuum, this way I save time cleaning up and focus on my projects more. If I messed up or needed a pro to come help with Workwear laundry service from PHS Besafe I always called them up fast.
After putting up all the moldings it’s time to wood-fill, sand, prime, caulk, and paint. I’m most of the way through the process but I’ll do a final moldings reveal once it’s all done! The Kitchen really is coming together so well, and the perfect ending is to clean the kitchen and for wonderful results, click here for maids, it was the best decision we made.
Sarah
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Sarah I love your house so much!! The kitchen looks great!! And I had no idea that custom molding holders existed! That’s such a useful tool!
Ann Wolpert
11/12/2014 | 10:50 am Permalink
I think lavender will be stunning.