Fourteen Months Later....

I got a phone call from my mom after church this morning asking if she could stop by with some sections of baseboard for our living room.  (A mere fourteen months after the last post on this topic here.)  I had no idea my mom had been working on these and the unexpectedness of her surprise made it even more exciting to see the boards against the wall and marked to length.  As I explained in my earlier post, recreating the profile on the upper portion of the baseboards proved to be a challenge.  But I'm lucky enough to have a mother employed at a woodworking shop and in the end her boss recreated the profile by hand - and did an excellent job.  Side by side, the new baseboard is an almost perfect match to the original.  For local readers who need any custom woodwork I highly recommend Brad's Woodworks of Attica (and not just because my mom works there!)

Other projects are progressing as well.  The shed doors are resting in the shop, just waiting for a nice weather day to hang them.  I'm anxious to see the doors and their hardware on the shed.  (But not quite anxious enough to stand outside in late February weather to install them!)

And Cecilia's quilt top is all pieced.  I'm using a darning foot for the first time to quilt it.  It's definitely a learned skill, but I'm having fun with it and I'm pleased with the results to far.

 Lastly, I've been lax in introducing our new house cat.  

Meet Schwartz, the luckiest of Ethel's litter from last spring:

The kids think Schwartz has been a great addition to the family.  

Tiny the Cat is a bit less enthusiastic, though.  : )

But did it land on its feet?

From the British Daily Mail - "Bringing old homes up to scratch is nothing out of the ordinary for property renovators Andrew and George Hartley,

But this professional couple nearly jumped out their skin when greeted by their most recent form of preservation - as a mummified cat fell on them.

The couple got a face full of the ancient feline as they removed ceilings from an 18th century property in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire."

Winter Projects

Since I've been getting some none too subtle hints that I'm long overdue for a post here I decided to share a couple of pictures from two projects I'm currently working on.  The picture of Cecilia at right was taken a few weeks ago when I was just starting to build doors for the shed that dominated most of my posts from last summer.   Both doors are now completely built and only waiting for one last coat of paint before they will be hung.

And below is my other current project, it shows three (of an eventual eleven) rows for a scrap quilt I've been wanting to make for a while now.  I added the fourth row tonight.  There's something about piecing a quilt that's just perfect for chilly winter evenings!

Picky, Picky

I've got a whole list of antique furniture I'd like to bring home to the Einsel House, but I realize it will be years before I could ever find (and afford) all the pieces I want.  The highboy style dressers in our bedroom and Neil's are nice, but I daydream about replacing them with something more Empire style from the mid nineteenth century.   Like the one pictured to the left - it sells on New Year's day at the same auction house where we bought our kitchen island last year.

A couple of blanket chests sell the same day, and I can just see one setting in front of our couch, holding the blankets that for now are just stacked on the floor.

Another piece I can see in the Einsel House is a corner cupboard.  And I've got a few specific requirements for this corner cupboard.  Since it would go next to the open shelves in the dining room, I want the corner cupboard to have solid doors.  The cupboard also will need to be a bit on the small side, as there is only three feet from the corner of the room to the register along the east wall.  In about a year of searching I've only seen a few such cupboards available (and none of those close enough to be convenient).   So imagine my excitement earlier this week when I went on Craigslist and saw this:

And only about 10 miles from us!  I called the phone number listed and arranged to look at the piece after work yesterday.  Charles could tell how excited I was about the cupboard and told me if it was what I wanted to go ahead and get it. 

So a little after five last night I got home, put away my purse and told Charles I had enjoyed chatting with the cupboard's owner for about half an hour, and that he had grudgingly come down to my price.  And that I didn't buy the corner cupboard.   Of course, Charles' first words were, "Why not?".  The answer is that I'm picky.  Walking up to the cupboard I had immediately sensed something was not quite right.  It was made of pine.  And when I opened the upper door and saw the narrow beadboard interior I realized the problem.  A closer look at the hardware confirmed it - the cupboard dates from around 1920, give or take a few years.  It was the right size, the right shape, the right color, just not the right age. 

The cupboard's owner might have just been trying to make me feel better, but when I finally (and apologetically) told him I couldn't take the cupboard he said, "I understand.  I'd think twice myself before putting that cupboard in an 1840's house."   I'm well aware that I'll probably never find a true mid nineteenth century walnut or cherry corner cupboard for the price I was offered yesterday.  But I woke up this morning with no regrets at yesterday's decision.  I suspect this means I'm an antique snob.  If so I can't deny it. 

(And sorry I've been scarce around here.  I've been having fun with some writing of a slightly different sort lately.)
 

Drip Edge

Since Kate asked on my last post - "Is that horizontal strip above the door a drip edge?" - I'll answer here.  Yes - it is a drip edge. 

To the right is a simple profile of how the drip edge fit together.  (Just pretend that the garish bright yellow and red are a more respectable tan and maroon - Homestead Resort Parlor Taupe and Carriage Door to be precise.)  I used my mom's SawStop table saw (and my dad's help) to make the angled cuts and everything fit together pretty easily.

The drip edge is functioning exactly as intended.  I know this because at the end of my last Saturday of outdoor work I spent 40 minutes on a stepladder in the rain wiping Carriage Door-tinted rain splatters off of the Homestead Resort Parlor Taupe drip-edge.  (It had been overcast all day, but the forecast for that Saturday had no mention of "rain" and given my dwindling number of days with temperatures above freezing I figured I would be safe painting on a forecast of "mostly cloudy".)

The hinges and latch for the doors that will go under this drip edge finally arrived last Friday, so I should be moving on to door building soon.

In the Details

There's an old barn just south of here on the county line that rests quietly in a grove of trees.  

I've been known at times to take a slightly longer route than necessary just so I could enjoy the scene pictured above.  Still, I had been driving by this barn for several years before I noticed a little detail near the gable peak.

See it?

This whole summer as I was working on our little Einsel shed I've had the old barn in mind.  So earlier this summer, with camera in tow, I stopped at the old barn. Although I knew there were three stars in the old barn's gable, it was only from inside the barn that I realized the peak was a five point star while the two lower were six point stars.

And so, the south facing gable peak of the Einsel shed:

I am so thrilled with how this turned out.  There's no corresponding interior picture from the shed, though.  Behind my stars are boards painted black with several holes drilled through to provide ventilation.  Secured to the front of the black-painted boards is a layer of screen to hopefully prevent wasps from nesting inside the shed. 

I've really enjoyed my work on this side of the shed, bringing to reality the details I've seen in my mind for so long.

Obviously, I'm not quite finished yet.  The upper right corner will continue out to incorporate the new awning, and I've got two doors to build and install.  With Thanksgiving and December around the corner I figure my outside work is basically done for the year, but I'm hoping my mom won't mind if I use her (heated) shop - and perhaps advice - while building the doors.  The door hardware I ordered is on backorder right now, so I've got a little time anyway.  (Oh, and since I'm guessing some may be curious, the thick wire hanging off of the roof is from the lightning rod.  I'm thinking eventually it will be rerouted to hang over the back of the shed instead of the front.)

I'll have two sides of the shed to finish next summer, but I'm quite pleased with what I've accomplished so far. 

Not too bad considering what the poor little building looked like last May:

: )

South Side of the Shed

Here's a quick pictorial catch-up on the last couple weekends of work on the shed:

My goal is to get this side finished before winter.  If Mother Nature cooperates (and I can keep myself away from Wii Tetris) I think I'll make it.