I Made a Hole in the Wall!

I made a nail hole in my freshly repaired and painted wall. For some, this would be horrifying, but not for me. I plan to put dozens of holes in the walls of this room.

The first was for this stunning Vienna wall clock.



Many of you will remember that I already had a similar clock in this same spot. The previous clock is a miniature, and it didn't fit the space that well. It was also off-centred on the wall because of the rebuilt drywall duct wall. I had just reused an existing nail hole in the wall, and I was able to enjoy the clock since then.

It's starting to be a bit of a shock to see some of these old photos now...



But now that the walls are done, I had planned for a larger clock for this spot.

This particular clock was a MASSIVE restoration effort. The case was infested with live woodworm beetles, and it was missing 2 pieces of moulding, the top, and all 3 finials. It took over a year to restore it, fill all the thousands of insect holes (after treating the case with a penetrating chemical insecticide), and rebuilding all the missing pieces. In the end, it has become one of my "showiest" clocks, and one that I'm happy to have in this room (where I spend most of my spare time).





For fun, here are a few "before" photos:









A lot of other clockmakers/collectors would have saved the movement and used the case as firewood, but I knew it could be beautiful again (with a lot of effort).

The parts had to be kept in my freezer until I could deal with the insects.