For the record...

This is the new, non-deathy deck at the end of the summer 2009. With Loki, the youngest kitty.  All those pretty flowers are dead now.  Will plant more soon.


I restain and lindseed-oil the bistro set every winter.  It stays indoors until planting season.




My deck, floral, a photo by sarameg on Flickr.

Gonna paint the door.

So it's been a while.... I've been taking a break from the great banister project. (Avoiding sanding!) 

I'll get back to blogging my experience with that, but in the meantime....

Spring has sprung!! And with it, wild hair to paint doors. So, step 1, remove peeling latex paint from door. Next step, buy paint, primer and prime and paint!  It's gonna be blue.  A brilliant, vibrant blue.


Here you can see most of the paint removed.  Need to do some scraping around the edges, but FNL is on (final season!) so I'm done for the night.  

Gonna paint the door., a photo by sarameg on Flickr.

So the backstory, sort of.

Back in January 2009, I got a brilliant idea (you'll sense a theme): the next year of my life is going to be crazy busy at work and I'm going to the other side of the planet in July, why don't I try to buy my first house, too? Just because things aren't exciting and stressful enough?

What followed was an insane whirlwind in which I fell in love with the second house I saw, and somehow, come April, I was a first time homeowner. And yes, I was still flying to the other side of the planet in July and yes, work was still insane.

This house...

Oh, there were issues. It needed a new roof about a decade ago (got one before closing.)

The back deck was...well, it scared me.

I don't think a single interior door shuts and latches.

The refinishing job on the floors is...interesting. But the floors are in moderately ok shape and so pretty. Even if the stain is uneven in places and top coat sloshed on the baseboards.

And then there is the thing that eventually made me start this, the banister with 80 years of paint topped with a latex paint applied without primer. As is all the trim. Peels if you look at it funny. Or if your psycho kitten (named Loki) decides to try to scramble up the banister.

Well, that's a start. I'll blather on later on how much I love the neighborhood, the Snowmaggedapocalypse of 2010 and how every project starts with WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING?!

Or IT COST HOW MUCH?!

But I have a fabulous deck now, I no longer lock my basement door with a shotbolt, I know baths cause rain on the first floor, a stormdoor solved my leak in the kitchen, and I love lavender and seafoam green bathrooms. And radiators, noisy though they be, rock.

This is Bob's fault.

Starting July 2010, I got this stupid idea. I was going to strip 80 years of paint off my banister, down to original wood, and refinish it myself. Nevermind, I had no clue how to do this, I'd figure it out.

I documented my tediously slow progress on facebook, but a friend of mine kept nagging me about starting a blog. Not only is the banister project not complete, there will be plenty more. It is a 1931 rowhouse that suffered some neglect in the 20 years or so prior to me buying it. Backstory on the house coming soon.

Damn you, Bob.