Ongoing Porch Repairs

Alright, so this is the first you guys hear about this in a while, but this evening, I just finished-up the second (of 3) side of the porch t-g.

Some of you will remember this mess from earlier this summer:



The two sides in the above photo are the ones that are now done. I've done just the woodwork portion, and puttying/silicone. I'm hoping to finish-up the other side and start painting next weekend. In the meantime it's going to be raining (figures), so I had to put plastic over it to help keep it dry.

Sorry, no photos yet. YEAH I KNOW, I SUCK, but I just haven't got the time. It's 8:45pm and I'm just now eating supper.

"Stained Glass" First Piece Done

Alright, for my first attempt, and using only painted glass rather than the real thing, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

The part that I thought would be the easiest for me, was actually the part that gave me the most trouble: the soldering.

First off, I didn't have the right solder, and of course no one in Cornwall sells lead-bearing solder anymore, so I had to use old lead solder that I had on hand, but with rosin core (which I will NEVER use again for this). With the combination of heat and flux, I ended up getting a whole bunch of sputters of little bits of rosin, which left ugly brown spots everywhere. Some can be flaked off, but most are stuck in place pretty well. I tried a few solvents on them, but they don't really come off easily.

The other problem I had, was that I didn't have the right kind of tip on my iron, and the heat setting kept fluctuating on me randomly. This left me with ugly joints. I ended up cheating and using a mini-torch to make the joints flow nicely.

HOWEVER, using the torch is risky, and I ended up shattering one of my glass pieces. I had to re-cut, re-paint, and re-bake a new one. I also scorched the paint in one small spot.

In this close-up you can see the brown dots and a bit of residual rosin near the joints that I couldn't completely remove (after heavy cleaning):



Despite all the issues, the finished piece shows well.



In other related news, I was able to flatten-out the old stained glass panel, and take a tracing of it.



In the meantime, I've been working on the "shop hutch" some more.

Learning Something New

I've wanted to teach myself how to do traditional stained glass for a while. After I picked up that beautiful old panel, I decided I'd go ahead and invest in the basic tools to get started.

I just recently came back from a trip to Ottawa, where I bought some coloured and textured glass to repair the panel, but I will need to go back for more lead came (the lead strips that hold all the pieces together), and possibly for a few extra tools.

For now, I bought only:
- Good quality glass cutter
- Running pliers (used to snap a scored piece of glass)
- Dyke (lead nippers)

- Lead came (to make some practice pieces)
- Coloured glass (mentioned above)

This afternoon I dug-out some old sheets of glass from storage (just plain new glass) to start on a practice piece.

I looked on the web through hundreds of photos, and I decided to copy this panel, with just a few small modifications:



I decided on 10" x 10", since I didn't want the panel too big, nor too small. I might end up hanging it in a window.

The first step was to quickly sketch out my pattern, which is just one strip 1 1/4" around, and another at 3/4" around, leaving a 6" square in the centre. I decided to add small corner blocks to the design after playing around on the computer to see how it might look.

Here I have all my pieces cut, leaving just a small allowance around the edges for the lead came. Start to finish, probably 30-40 minutes.



A few random freehand (somewhat complicated) practice curves. I can already tell that cutting the pieces won't be the issue, it will be about learning to control the cutter to get it to follow a line. It tends to want to do its own thing, or slide.



Here the pieces (including the centre square) have been painted with some of those glass paints I picked up last summer at a yard sale. I really like how the red turned out. The centre is supposed to be frosted glass, but it turned out pretty clear. These will need to be baked in the oven after 24hrs drying time (even though they are touch dry after a few hours). I'm hoping that the baking process will enhance the frosted look.



This part was rather fun. I just printed a life-sized pattern of the design above, and then painted it freehand (over the pattern) with a custom mixed light grey. Black was used for the highlights. This took less time than you might think.



Painting done, and left to dry.





Once it was dry enough to handle, I decided to do the leading. I don't have a lead stretcher, so I made do with my vice and a pair of pliers, which worked fine. For those who don't know, the lead came needs to be slightly stretched out before you use it. They come in 6' lengths, and generally you stretch it about an inch.

90% done:



I'm pretty proud of my joints. I actually really enjoy working with the lead. It cuts like butter, and intricate joints/mitres are easy to snip.



The panel is pretty much done and ready to be soldered, but I will need to take it all apart and bake the glass paint before I can do the soldering. I also don't have any solid-core solder, so I'll have to go pick some up. Seriously, I have about every other type of solder you can imagine.



That's it for today, but I'll have dozens of new photos to add soon.

Vanity & Cornwall Homes 4

Alright, as promised, and since I have a few spare minutes I can claw out of my schedule, here we go. Photos are pretty self-explanatory.



This is the board that will make-up the baseboard (toe-kick) and it will have a fancy cut-out in it on the front.



I wish I had this much space to work at home.





Main part of the case is sanded and ready for finishing (I'll also be adding a top Roman ogee moulding, and most of the bottom trim). The doors aren't sanded yet, but I started fitting some hardware (bullet catches).



Cornwall Homes (Update)

Some of you might remember this wonderful old house that I posted about a while back. The one where I picked up the beautiful solid wood front door that was thrown out:



Here's what it looks like now. I suppose the siding isn't THAT bad, but I hate that new front door with the beveled glass, the new vinyl windows, that awful plastic or aluminum railing that's WAY too high, and the icing on the cake is the absolutely AWFUL shutters that are TOO TALL for the windows. I was so pissed when they installed those shutters.



Then there's this formerly wonderful old house near my Mom's place. I had posted about it a while back:





Well, Mom told me a "by the way" side note last week that they were ripping all the bricks off of it! I was like: 'O_O'??? W-T-F? So now it looks like this:





I have NO IDEA what the hell they're doing to the back part.



The sad part is that it doesn't really look like they're keeping/saving/reusing the bricks. What kind of moron gets rid of brick?

Also, the inside is gutted completely. Only studs left. I had walked by a few years ago when it was rented, and I know there is/was a wonderful decorative archway between the living room/dining room but I have a feeling it's gone now.

Another side note: this is the house where I picked up the busted-up stained glass panel. It used to belong on this side going up the stairs. It's been capped over with painted plywood for many years though, since it shows up like this on Google Maps watermarked from 2006.

It's Late...

Ok this is just a quick heads-up that I'll be making an update post shortly (maybe tomorrow). I got a bunch more work done on the vanity last Friday, and a bit today, so I have photos coming soon. But for now, it's late and I'm headed to bed. I seem to have so little free time these days... I also worked a bit in the garage, since I want to build a large storage cabinet.

Dining Room Floor

Soooooo... Yesterday (day off for Canada Day), I decided I *had* to do a bit of work on the house. I didn't feel like working on anything on the to-do list (ugh), so I did one of those projects that's really not that important yet, but still needs to be done at some point.

I decided to tear out the crappy new laminate/plywood(s) to expose the original hardwood.

So this is how that went...

Before. I don't think I can fully express in words how much I can't stand cheap laminate flooring. And these were the cheapest of the cheap. Popped joints, chipped edges, scratches, dings, scuffs, and the awful installation didn't help it either.





Don't you love the nice transition strip(s)? Painted wood with silicone on one side (which is grimy and impossible to clean properly), and a nice metal strip, held in place with dozens of THREE INCH screws.



Not only did they not stagger the plywood, they also installed it over the same seams as the previous 1/4" layer. WHY?



The plywood came up easily because they nailed it down with DRYWALL NAILS. Yup. And you can tell by this one sheet how much of a crappy job they did by the location and quantity of nails used. Some sheets had a ridiculous amount (like 9 nails for a 12" square), and others had just a handful for a 4x8 sheet. They also randomly threw-in a few screws here and there.



The first peek at the floor shows off a few issues...



Floor stripped and swept:



And yes it looks exactly like this in person. It looks BAD. There's all kinds of carpet pad residue (who on Earth would want a carpet in the dining room??? Eww). Tons of large gaps (some that are nearly 1/4"), and a generally sickly looking colour. HOWEVER, under that, the wood looks to be fairly decent. I will refinish it providing that I can find a way to putty the cracks with something.





I will also have to get creative with some patching in several (at least 8) places.





In this room they made no effort to rewire in a non-destructive way (unlike the office, where they passed the wires just far enough to hide it with the baseboards).

Nature Shots

Alright, sadly, still no progress on the house. I've either been too busy on weekends, or the heat has been insufferable.

To pass the time, I thought I would share some recent photos I took while at work. As most of you know, I work at a high-end custom kitchen/cabinetry shop. The shop is on the same property as my boss' home, and the property is several acres. He keeps the vast majority of it in very good shape, and I decided to walk down to the woods the other day on my lunch break (since the heat was not too bad that afternoon).

I purposefully avoided photos that included the shop or house.


The main "lawn" closer to the back of the property:





The first little section of trees are all trimmed low, then there's a stream with a metal bridge to cross it.







Past the bridge, the small shrubbery is all trimmed (quite far in), but the ground has full coverage in low plants, mostly ferns, and a ton of spotted jewelweed (see lower).



Jewelweed (not yet in flower). The juice from these can be used to counteract poison ivy/poison oak.





My favourite shot. It looks like light is shining up onto the branches (like with a mirror or something reflective), but it's coming from the top, and through the leaves.







I have Monday off (for Canada Day), so hopefully I'll do something productive.