PURPLE SINK!!!

So it's been a while.  No major new developments... Until today!

(Well, unless you count my roof springing a leak in a crazy storm and the retractor on my screen door screen unspringing.  Um.)

My neighbor is renovating his bathroom, all new fixtures.  As luck would have it, he has the original purple sink that mine once had!  And because he is a generous, generous dude, he offered it to me(!)
Today, he got his new fixtures.  So I got mine!


PURPLE SINK!!!, a photo by sarameg on Flickr.
It's sitting in my livingroom at the moment.  As you can see, it needs some patching up.  I want to get the rust sanded down and recoated, and then reglaze the whole thing before I install it.

Original Fixtures, a photo by sarameg on Flickr.


Fixtures are original and match the shower's.

Closeup on bowl and fixtures, a photo by sarameg on Flickr.


Drain might need redoing as well.  In any case, I was having a hard time finding one  for a) cheap or b) both the bowl and pedestal or c) in purple to match the tub and tilework.   


This picture is from when I looked at the house, so the faucet covers were off.

Bathroom tile and tub, a photo by sarameg on Flickr.

It's cast iron.  Very heavy, but I can carry the pedestal (dunno about the bowl, B carried it in for me.)
I'm very very pleased.  Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go pet my sink.

Note regarding the sick cat mentioned previously...

HOME!!, a photo by sarameg on Flickr.

Mister Kitty came home today, with an adjusted insulin dose, insulin kind and antibiotics. I moved him from the ER to my regular vet and once again, Village Vet of Mount Washington conspired to execute a near miracle. I love that they're on the same page as me regarding treatment. We go with stabilizing and maintaining Mister Kitty's quality of life. I don't need to know what caused this, just find something that stops it and returns my cuddly old man cat to relative health.

I mean, this is a near 20 year old cat who has had diabetes for at least 8 years. His problem? It's called age and a chronic condition. Anything can knock him off kilter. So we just try to knock him back on track and hope I get a few more comfortable months from him.

Sometimes, it just doesn't go according to plan.

So I got up and painted the door for a second time

Second coat, still taped, a photo by sarameg on Flickr.

Door after second coat, a photo by sarameg on Flickr.

Turned out pretty well, just a few spots that need a third coat.

Then I planted four pots of flowers.

Pretty pot, a photo by sarameg on Flickr.

Salvia, snapdragons and marigol, a photo by sarameg on Flickr.

Salvia, dianthus, something, something else, a photo by sarameg on Flickr.

Normal ones, a photo by sarameg on Flickr.

Malevolent ones, a photo by sarameg on Flickr.

As I started cleaning house, I noticed my diabetic, geriatric cat, Mister Kitty was staggering.  After administering some Karo syrup, and him now acting disoriented and trying to hide under the bed (he never does this) it was off to the emergency vet.

And then it started to storm.  Nothing I could do from the hospital.  Good news is old man just was having a blood sugar crash, though who knows what caused it.  He's staying overnight to get him stable.

Bad news:  it was a torrential storm.  Water was (apparently) running down the door.  On the bottom half of the door, several places where it is bubbling, so I'll have to wait until it is completly dry, sand it off and start over.  Including the bottom of the window trim.  Ahrg.  Had my cat not been, you know, trying to die on me, I would've put plastic over the door (as I've done now.)

2nd coat, door, a photo by sarameg on Flickr.

Water damage, a photo by sarameg on Flickr.

Ah well.  It's just paint, right?

Exterior started! Weather foiled! NEWS AT 11!

  Or something like that.

Weather looked like it was going to hold long enough for me to work on it tonight.  Nevermind the $50 of flowers and dirt I'd just bought.  I can plant those in the rain if I must.

So I taped up and primed.

Primer, a photo by sarameg on Flickr.

The cats LOVED this state of affairs, since it meant they could come and go to the deck at their discretion.  For hours.

My audience, a photo by sarameg on Flickr.


Mister Kitty, Loki and Devi, left to right.  And all those flowers I bought.  Doesn't the deep plum/purple one look freakish?  It's a salvia, which I always like for their weirdness.  They look like a flower elegantly puking up its insides.  AWESOME.  And the purple-black and yellow petunias just looked malevolent, so I had to get them too.


Alright then...there is a problem with this state of kittendom.  My cats don't listen to me.  Twice I had to drop the brush to remove Devi from the rail, and once I had to go fetch her from my neighbor's deck.


And then at some point, when I was in the thick of trim work (and it was dark out,)  Loki's war cry starts.  Now Loki is a big cat with a kitten head, and likewise kitten voice.  Very high pitched.  But the war cry...ok, Devi's is deeper, but still.  He was truly warning anyone and everyone that they were going to DIE if they dared encroach on his turf!  He was fully inflated and pacing madly along the side of the deck, rubbing the slats  and staring intently at something beneath my neighbor's deck, hissing and growling between the caterwauls.


I couldn't see anything. He was completely bottle-brushed and if there was a flat hair on him, it was only on his ears.  He can inflate like WHOA.

There are rats in the alley, but he usually goes predator over those.  This was the Defender and Chief Bowel-Ripper.

I tried shutting him in the bedroom upstairs.  Since none of the doors latch, he escaped and went back to the raaaaage.

 I thought I could take it, but then he started acting like he might consider jumping off the deck, and so, paintbrush firmly gripped in teeth and hoping I wasn't accidentally painting him or the deck, grabbed and threw him in the basement.  Which doesn't latch either, but I have a U-security lock to, uh, keep the cats out.  Point:  Sara But I was at my wits' end and little man needed a reboot, since I'm pretty sure our dangerous intruder was long gone.

And then I finished the first coat.  In all its glory below.

First coat, a photo by sarameg on Flickr.


Loki was clearly confused by the basement visit, but forgot the marauders from hell.  And is now chilling on the deck while I wait until it is safe to shut the door without gluing it to the seal.

One side painted!

Deck door, a photo by sarameg on Flickr.

Put a coat of semi-gloss on this morning. Was able to remove the tape and paper from the windows. Only peeled on the window trim in a couple of places, which I'll repair tomorrow. Put a coat of primer across the jamb where it was a) faded and b) I spilled a few drips...

Still have to do the exterior now.

Today's work...

I epoxied up the holes, then once that set, sanded them down with my handy electric hand sander.  It was AMAZING.  You could hardly tell there were holes there!

Here is is, pre-sanding.  I forgot to take a picture post.


Epoxied and ready for sanding., a photo by sarameg on Flickr.


Then I primed.  And added some tape.




And here we have the first coat.  As you can tell, it needs another.



What you can't tell is that I need to sand it in places.  Beginner's stupidity.  Have some drips and, since this is a high gloss (I probably should have gone semi...sigh,) places where my brush work was lacking.  That's tomorrow morning, I guess.  Still have to do the exterior.  MAYBE it'll get done tomorrow.  But I have evening plans, so....

I love the color.

eta:  looking at it, I think I'll go out and get semi-gloss tomorrow for the last coat.  Live and learn.  At least I have another $10 off coupon!

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.