UPDATES
The staircase in the Carriage House has been long abused and looks terrible. In talking with The Other Justin I learned something astonishing. It comes apart! Justin easily pulled off the nosing, which revealed…
…that the balustrades are just mortised in place. This will make refinishing the stair vastly easier. Who knew?
Two years ago I removed a transom window from the second floor to refinish it. I assumed it had been shellacked originally. It had not been. It had been painted white (all the above is from the circa-1921 conversion). Nonetheless, I decided to shellac it while leaving all the other trim painted. The 5-panel door will also be shellacked. I also removed…oh, the horror…paint from the transom hinges.
The BIG focus this week was getting the water turned back on. I had it turned off two winters ago so I didn’t have to pay for heating an empty house. All the pipes were drained and winterized.
I’m now though back working on the interior and having sinks/toilers would be very helpful. And then I can kinda sorta mothball the Cross House by turning the heat down very low (like 35-degrees), and shutting off the water heater and refrigerator for the winter. This will save me a nice amount of money.
On Wednesday, turning the water back on did not…yikes…go easily. There prove numerous leaks and, while NOT the other Justin and I were talking, a coupling gave way and we were showered with water at high pressure. Well…fuck.
Justin worked on Thursday to get All In Order but this also proved…YIKES. He fixed all this but was reluctant to turn the water back on as he would not be there to assure all was well over the ensuing hours.
Today he left for a cruise. I do not understand why he did not invite me as his valet.
So, no water. For now.
Poo.
It was 15-degrees today. It will be 0 on Sunday.
Yikes.
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As some who had to replace a pressure tank unexpectedly here at the farm in the middle of the winter storm this week, I can commiserate. Leaving the water off for the coming week is a blessing in disguise with the brutal low temperatures coming over the next few days! Stay warm (and dry!)!!
Oh no, just what you needed. Before we moved into our house, the previous owners were from down South. They asked what to do for the winter. My husband told them to flush the toilet twice and then turn off the water. They only flushed it once, when we came in May and turned on the water and used the toilet, it had cracked, we had water all over. The worst part was we lost a very cool 1920’s toilet. Darn
Wow. Just goes to show that whoever designed and built that stairway was a genius.
I love you shellacked the transom and are going to do the same with the door.
I took removed the paint from one spot of window trim in my house when when I discovered it had never been varnished but was paint on raw wood I stopped and have painted the trims ever since. I really wish it was beautiful Douglas Fir or Mahogany or something but alas, it was not. The house is 1922 so maybe it wasn’t fashionable by then, Mrs Bishop didn’t like it or Mr Bishop was cutting costs. Pity as all of the Craftsman’s had all that beautiful natural wood. Mine isn’t a Craftsman or any other sort of style. I have two short columns on the porch and that is it.
Is 35 really enough to keep the pipes from freezing? Here we get into the upper 30s for maybe an hour or two in the early morning, then it climbs back up to a high of at least the low 60s during the day so have never had to deal with frozen pipes. I’m going to assume you’ve got galvanized? While replacing it with copper is expensive it can be a DIY job. Cutting and sweating copper isn’t that difficult, it is just time consuming and tedious. You’ve got much more important projects in the queue but it might be something to consider once the Carriage House is almost ready to hire out just to avoid any future surprises. Unless you have another major blowout leak. Then you might consider replacement a bit sooner.
Oh nooo…
Better talk to the Carriage House’s guardians to keep it in working order so that the renovation will be finished sooner, and the house will look and feel better. And request the Cross House guardians to talk to the Carriage House guardians too.
On a lighter note, the mortised balustrade reminded me of the Japanese sashimono, the building without nails.
If the heat fails in the Cross House you may not have a lot of time before you hit the danger zone! I would maybe bump up the temp to 40? I don’t know if you have a “smart” thermostat you can access from your phone. It can give you the heads up if the temp starts to drop. All the best with the restoration Ross! I’m getting close to finishing my 6500 sq ft Victorian! BTW watched a young you on the Trump doc. from the early 90’s last night. Hell of a mullet!