A Tale of Two Mirrors

I mentioned the other day that I purchased an antique mirror that was a twin to one I already owned. Why would I buy a second identical mirror, I hear you asking? Well, a few reasons. First, for some unexplained reason, I always like to have sets of things (not all the time). I like symmetry, and I also think it's neat to have a pair of unusual items rather than just the one. These, however, are large mirrors, and I don't think I would pair them together in the same room. The primary reason for me was the condition, and the price. I did not even think I would buy this second mirror, because I assumed they would be asking too much for it, but I asked anyways, and the owner said he'd take 25$ for it. SOLD!

I fancy myself to be quite an antiques buff (clocks, mirrors, lamps, and furniture), and condition is always very important. The first mirror that I bought (several years ago at a yard sale, for probably no more than 10-15$) had been stripped and sanded. I have thought about refinishing it with a stain and varnish many times, but now that I have the second mirror, I'm glad I waited.

This second mirror still has a wonderful original shellac finish on it. I plan to eventually copy this finish on the other mirror (the other mirror is bare wood).



Both mirrors are made of solid walnut (a very beautiful and expensive wood), and are in the Eastlake style. I would also guess that they date to this time period (1880-1890). They both have the same kind of thick cut glass. I avoid using the term "beveled" for these, since they are actually not cut on a bevel.



The cut on these mirrors is actually quite unusual, and difficult to photograph. They basically have a shallow concave (scoop) cut along the edges, which gives an interesting "tube" style reflection on the edges. These criss-cross at the corners, creating an X. Another nice thing to note is how WIDE the cut is. Generally, when you buy beveled glass from a glass shop, you pay by the square inch. The deeper the cut, the more expensive it will be. The standard is about 3/4" and sometimes a bit wider at 1". The cut on these mirrors is 1 1/2".

Both mirrors have damage to their silvering, but the second mirror is a bit worst. I should note, however, that I *LOVE* mirrors with imperfect silvering. The large mirror (last photo) is actually my least favourite because it looks too perfect. The glass is definitely old, and there are distortions in it, but it's not as interesting as a spotty dull old mirror.



The backs both have the same t-g pine planks screwed in place with slot screws.



For years at my old apartment, I used the mirror over my diamond panel bookcase, until it got replaced with an even larger mirror (another yard sale find). You can see the setup in these two photos. One was at Christmas time (with white-tipped pine cones and candles).





The current (larger) mirror (which was also a whole other restoration story on its own) works better with the scale of the bookcase:



I have plenty of other smaller mirrors (some very plain, some very ornate), which I will eventually be digging out of boxes and putting up once I'm closer to the decorating stage in my renovations. I also have a number of beautiful old lamps, like the Aladdin in the above photo.

Antique Table, L Room Ceiling, & Cornwall Homes 4

Antique Table:

Alright, so I took a closer look at the table. While it doesn't have hand forged hinges, it still has plenty of quirks. One of the first things I looked at, was to compare the turned legs. Often, on older pieces, they will be hand turned. On later pieces they would be done on a copy lathe, or by very skilled craftsmen who could duplicate them very precisely. This set, however, is mind bogglingly (and charmingly) inaccurate. I am not the best at making matched sets by hand, but even I can't understand how they messed this up THIS much.

One leg in particular is quite a bit "off". So much so, that if the leaf is down on that side, the legs look mismatched. See here:



Three of the legs are done like the one on the right, but the one on the left is the "bad" one. The reason I can't understand why they messed it up so bad, is that usually when you make multiples of a pattern, you make yourself a "story stick", which is sort of a pattern that marks all the start/stop locations of each major element on your turned item. Obviously they didn't do this. But like I said: it's a bit charming this way.

L Room Ceiling:

Alright. I've been dreading this job for months, and I wasn't sure which way I was going to do it, and I finally bit the bullet and did it the "better but unsafe" way, which was to remove the "bad" sheet of drywall and replace it. If you want a refresher as to what was going on with this ceiling, go to this post: . Basically, 90% of the ceiling was scraped of the putty easily (haha not really), except for one section about 4x8. On this section, the mud that they smeared on was completely cemented in place. The reason for this, is that they changed the drywall in this 4x8 section, and they added the textured mud directly over the paper. I had 2 choices for fixing this:

1. Carefully remove the 4x8 section, while trying not to fill the house with hundreds of thousands of possibly asbestos-contaminated dust particles from the attic above.

2. Shim-up the entire ceiling to match-up with the uneven thickness of the replaced sheet and leave it alone since it will all be covered up anyways.

As I just mentioned, I went with option 1.

I was nervous as hell, and I did end up dropping a bunch of insulation dust/particles/crumbs all over the floor, but luckily the 4x8 section had been put up in two 4x4 sections, and I was able to contain most of the mess. For reasons unknown, when they removed/replaced the sheet, they also removed the protective layer of thin cardboard that would have PREVENTED the old insulation from trickling down through the cracks in the t-g ceiling. So as soon as I had the sheet off, and the floor vacuumed, I capped it with vapour barrier plastic and sealed all the seams.

Here's what the open ceiling looks like. It's very wide (7") t-g face-nailed to the attic/ceiling joists (which run the whole length of the house).



All those little white crumbs are particles of the vermiculite insulation.



I only felt safe at this point:



The second section went even better, since I was able to loosen 90% of the sheet, and then lean it down just a bit. Then I was able to just vacuum-up all the loose bits on the sheet before taking it down off the edge of the wall (where the corner tape was holding it like a hinge).





Don't even ask me HOW I got this 4x8 sheet of 3/8" drywall up BY MYSELF without breaking it or killing myself. I'll just say that it was a huge PITA.



I still need a narrow strip to fill that gap where the tape is visible. When it comes to installing the new (1/2") drywall over this mess, I'll be getting some friends to help out.

Cornwall Homes 4:

These were taken this afternoon. We'll start with what I consider to be the nicest foursquare in Cornwall. It is in immaculate condition, and boasts ALL of its original windows, original storm windows, original exterior doors, and even the wooden fascia and trim around the roof line. I love that they accented all the storm windows and secondary doors in a classic forest green.





Just next door (2 houses down) is this fine Victorian with a beautiful enclosed circular porch. This house also has all of its original windows, and beautiful (red) arched front doors (not pictured). I love how this photo looks vintage. It was purely caused by the late afternoon sun.



This is another very nice foursquare. I want to make a door for my porch that is similar to theirs, to complement my porch windows (which are also 4 over 2).



Lastly, this is the grand entrance of a gorgeous apartment building not too far away on one of the main roads. The building has massive fluted columns that span the whole building (3 storeys), and the centre windows are all art deco styled stained glass. The balconies also have nicely detailed wooden railings (which you can partially see on the sides of the photo).

SCORE!

Alright, so the first yard sale I went to (I only had one I wanted to go to since I'm on foot) was a total bust. Nothing. I had brought my cheque with me so since I was near the bank, I went and dropped that off. I took a different route home, and I saw that the neighbours down the street (who are sadly muddling-up their foursquare) were having a yard sale. This is the first one I see them do, and it didn't look like they had much, but I popped over and saw a nice antique table & chairs.

I asked her how much, and she said 30$ for the set. I knew I was going to buy it, and I was just thinking about how I'd get it home (if I wanted to come back and pick it up with my Mom), and then the husband says 20$ and it's yours. So I said yes. And I decided I'd just walk it down the street right away.

What a steal! The set is in TERRIBLE condition, and it will take HOURS of labour/stripping/disassembling/patching/regluing to bring it back, but it's gorgeous.

Have a look!





The chairs are in the worst shape. One has been painted with one of those textured marble spray paints (ewwww). There's only 3 chairs, but they seem to closely match the table both in style, and the type/colour of the wood under the paint. I think it's birch with a dark stain. Birch is a beautiful wood.



What's fun about this table is that it's built very similar to another antique table that I am halfway done restoring. That table had been given to me by my great aunt (I think... It's my grandmother's sister) and it was in worst shape than this table since it was covered in about 10 layers of glossy oil paint, the top has been chopped down, one of the aprons is damaged, and one leaf is missing. But that one was free.

The table from my aunt has the same kind of "pocket screw" setup under the top, and hers had HAND FORGED leaf hinges(!) and old style wood screws (I can't remember if they were hand cut, flat tip screws or not). Either way it was a VERY old table. So I won't know until I take it apart, but this new table looks nearly as old. I'd guess at least 1880, perhaps even older, but definitely pre-1900.

It looks like most of the paint on this table will flake off easily, since it's separating from the shellac. I have no idea when I'll start working on it, since I have so many other projects, but for 20$ I couldn't pass it up.

For comparison, here was my aunt's table (as received):





I also bought an antique mirror on Thursday after my dentist appointment. It's actually a twin to another mirror I already have, but I'll post about those later, since I have to go pick up this second mirror later (today/tomorrow). It was much too heavy to carry around.

***

I finished the attic door last weekend, but I was waiting for a day with nice natural sunlight to photograph it, so I did it just a while ago after I photographed the table set.



I like how it turned out. It looks like a traditional opening with mouldings, but it's recessed into the ceiling, which I prefer. I also like that the glossy/matte difference between the door and ceiling paint isn't really noticeable.

***

Since I just posted about work, I thought I would share a recent, and somewhat nice project we did for a client. This is a custom kitchen island on wheels. It has 6 drawers (full ext soft-close), and the two side panels open up to some narrow cabinets (like a spice cabinet with a few shelves). The back side has 3 panels. It is mostly made in MDF (which is why I said "somewhat nice" since I'd prefer solid wood doors/panels), and custom 1/4 fluted columns (wood). The finish is a sprayed-on opaque lacquer (that's fancy talk for: white coloured lacquer - we can have it tinted ANY colour). The top is curved on the ends, with a laminate top, and Corian edge (which we made at the shop). Don't ask the price, since I honestly haven't got a clue. I almost never see the invoices.





So yeah, that's the kind of stuff I make at work. The projects are not always this nice, but the quality is always there. This island was insanely heavy.

Also, as a side note, this was going in a gorgeous old house out of town. Look at that BEAUTIFUL floor!!! *envy*

OMG This Was Funny!

I decided this morning (since I'm up so early) to look for yard sale postings on my local web pages, and I ran across an add for a house for sale. It came with a link to a YouTube video, and when the video got to the shot(s) of the basement I immediately recognized this as one of the jobs we installed last year. This was a rather huge (custom) entertainment centre, with turned columns, a very custom (oddly shaped) wine rack cabinet (to hide plumbing), and a fireplace mantel (which I mostly made myself).

Check it out!

Edit: The video thumbnail is actually the basement room I'm talking about.

Update For The Past Few Weeks (Part 2)

Bathroom Mirror

I think I already mentioned this, but I decided that I will use the antique mirror that I posted about a while back. Before I could just hang it up and enjoy it, I had to make sure it was sturdy and stable. This mirror is INSANELY HEAVY. I would guess that it weighs close to 20lbs. Most of the weight is in the mirror, which is about 3/8" thick (it's 1/4" thick at the edge before the bevel starts). This is one of the thickest mirrors I've seen (I have a handful of heavy antique mirrors, but most are about 1/4" thick.

Anyways, the mirror only had a flimsy old cardboard on the back holding the mirror. The frame is maple, and seems strong and stable, but I was afraid that the mirror may slip out the back, so I decided the replace the backing with an 1/8" hardboard (only a few bucks at HD). So I cut a piece to size, stained it an old brown to match, and tacked it in place with many nails (some of the originals that were still good, and many extras). I also decided to beef-up the hanging wire with a 14/2 copper electrical wire (with the black cover left on). The eye-screws on the mirror were very strong so they stayed there. I also added two felt squares to the bottom corners to keep from scuffing the wall.

While taking the mirror out to clean it and change the back, I found a 2 sheet spread (8 pages) from the Montreal Gazette dated to Sept 2 1922! This was a cool find, but nothing too exciting in the articles. There is an ad for a cruise from "White Star Line" (same company as the Titanic).

First, if you don't already know this, I ***LOVE*** antique mirrors. I have dozens. So you will excuse the excessive amount of photos of this mirror.

Cleaned:



The mirror is near perfect as far as flatness/reflection with the exception of this one spot near the lower third:



Another odd thing about this mirror is that the entire edge around it is chipped and ground. My only guess as to why, is that they cut it too tight for the frame? The grey patches look like finger prints, but they are in the silvering. I love this kind of character in old mirrors.





Here is one page of the newspaper:



View from the hallway (note that the mirror has a small lean away from the wall):





Office Outlet

No photo for this one, but it was still a job that took over an hour to do. I installed a new outlet for the phone/cable on the wall where the desk will be once this is officially the office.

L Room Closet Door Jamb

I milled, cut, sanded, assembled, and installed the door jamb for the closet in the L Room. Notice the top of the door in the photo. This is because of the slope in the floor.



Hallway Light Fixture

Lastly, some better photos of the upstairs hallway light fixture.

Update For The Past Few Weeks (Part 1)

First off, I want to thank my slowly increasing number of followers! I noticed the other day that I'm now up to 21. If you guys have renovation questions or photo requests, I'm happy to oblige. Just a few weeks back, when I posted photos of the upstairs hallway on Old House Web, I had a lady who wanted to see a better photo of the antique shade in the upstairs hallway, and I realized I didn't have a good shot of it, so I'm including one in this post (and over on OHW).

This will be a long post. My followers will know that it's been TWO WEEKS since I posted any photos, so this will be a collection of photos from all the ongoing projects I've been working on since then. As much as possible, these are listed in chronological-ish order.

I'm not sure how to cut a post with a "keep reading" type link, so if anyone knows how, let me know.

Bathroom Threshold

At work we call these a "transition moulding" but it's basically a length of wood with a taper on it. In my case, I needed to transition between the tiled bathroom floor to the old wood floor, which is a 1 1/4" difference. We have several tricks to make these, but they are fairly easy to make. I actually recently made one that was about 2 1/4" tall and 8" deep (and something like 3 feet long). That one was a monster.



Attic Door

The next project I started was the attic door. This is a project that I wanted to get done last year before winter, and I never got around to it until now. I had already remade the entire attic opening over a year ago, which I never posted about. Basically, like I did in the bathroom, I wanted the door to blend into the ceiling as much as possible, without any mouldings sticking out. I decided that to help keep the insulation in the attic from falling into the house, I'd also add basically a box around the opening, so I started with that. I bought some relatively inexpensive rough cedar (otherwise I would have gotten pine), about 8" wide, and made a simple box, screwed together.

This was actually done in Oct 2010! I specifically took step-by-step photos since I knew I'd be posting it, but I didn't think it would take this long!

With the box assembled, I fitted it into the opening, making sure it was square. It was installed high enough from the drywall to allow for a 4 piece wooden frame to act as the door support ledge around the hole.



The frame pieces were screwed in place, and then the gaps were stuffed with insulation, covered in mesh tape, and mudded.









And that's where the project ended. I just cut down the old (thin and warped) plywood door to fit, and then I went on to other projects. So this past 2 weeks, I finally finished this up.

Basically, I just had to cut a new 3/4" thick fir plywood to fit the opening, and to that, I attached some insulation, held in place with spare pieces of vapour barrier. Voila!



It sat as a flat panel like so, until yesterday:



Originally, I wanted to make just a flat, flush panel that would look invisible, but I thought that this would be impractical (since it would end up getting dented, scratched, etc. So I decided to go with something a bit more decorative. I was going to reuse some old scrap mouldings (on hand) but I didn't like the profiles that I had, and they were far too thin.

So I milled some pine, and routed them to look the same as the Roman Ogee detail trim pieces that I added around the windows.

I made those pieces into a frame, which I glued together using biscuits. This is the first time I get to use my biscuit joiner too!

Here's the frame in the clamps:



And sanded, glued/nailed to the door, and siliconed:



It's currently being painted (I just primed it about an hour ago).

Drywall / Corners

I finally went and picked up some drywall corners from HD to start finishing the boxes around the repaired duct work columns. I have kind of a funny side note to add here: It's pretty awkward to get into a Tim Horton's while carrying a bunch of these (which are 8 feet long), and even harder to leave, realizing that both your hands are full. Yeah. I'm pretty smart, but I definitely have my dumb moments. I managed to get out by just pushing the door with my arm.

I won't bore you with 10 photos of drywall. Everyone know what that looks like. But I'll include a few to show some interesting bits.

The office column had to have an access door, simply because they decided that this corner would be an awesome place to have 2 cable lines and the main phone line come into the house. Ugh. Whatever. I plan to make a cute mini door with casings around it, so I used plywood for sturdiness here.





Then in the dining room, you can see some mismatched drywall (I'm using any scraps I have on hand, which is why half is blue). The reason for these is to show off the arch mouldings that I installed in the dining room. This was the upper casing that used to be on the opposite side.





Colour Samples - Dining Room

Yellow is a bitch. I actually have about 6 different photos, and it's nearly impossible to get them to look right on camera. I only have one decent photo of the yellows. This photo shows samples of a brown (matched a while back off a light fixture - a failed project but I already had the sample), and two samples of some yellows that I liked on the swatches I've had up on the wall for a while.



Basically, I don't like any of them. The brown is too... brown (not gold enough and too dark), and both yellows are too bright (for me). They are very flashy in person, and they won't go well with my rather mellow colour palette so far. If I can't find the right golden shade, then I might just pick another colour altogether.

Also remember that I am planning wainscotting/a plate rail in this room. I want something along the lines of this:





Upstairs Window Openings

Nothing too exciting here, but I decided that both upstairs window openings will be sealed-up, insulated, and drywalled over. Sure the built-ins would be fun, but the way that the rooms are laid out makes furniture placement very awkward and impractical, so it will be flat wall. Both window openings (L Room and Guest Bed) are the same so I only photographed one.





Ok this is getting way too long so I'm making a Part 2.

Update

I know you guys want photos, and I do want to post some soon, but no promises (probably next weekend).

I went for a "supply run" to HD over the weekend, so I should be able to work on a few projects during the week (mainly drywall and insulation).

I also picked up 2 colour samples of some yellows for the dining room. Both are so-so, but we'll see how they look once I prop them up in the room and see them in daylight. One looks a bit pale and wimpy, and the other one might be too bright and flashy. Dunno. Glad I only got samples. I might even get a third sample (a darker one).

Edit: Also, I finally ordered the parts that I need to finish-up the downstairs hall light fixture, and the one in the Master Bedroom.

Edit 2: Also, I took apart that antique beveled glass mirror (green one) to clean it and reinforce the back, since I'll be hanging it up in the bathroom to see if I like it. I basically made a whole new back for it from some 1/8" hardboard instead of the rather flimsy old cardboard that was there. In the process, I found a full 2 page spread (8 pages) from the Montreal Gazette dated Sept 1922 behind the mirror.

Ugh.

Sorry for being such an absentee blogger lately. I've been busy helping out my friends with their bathroom in most of my free time for the past 2 weeks. The tiles are installed, grouted, and sealed. Dev kind of wanted help installing the new window, too, but I won't have time this weekend.

I did find a bit of time to do some work on MY house. I bought and installed some drywall corners for the repaired duct work columns on the main floor (4 so far - one that I haven't decided how to fix yet, and one will be a plumbing stack in the kitchen to do later). I did end up putting-up drywall and a spot for an access door on the stack in the Office. I plan to make a miniature panel door with smaller scale casings around it. I need access to this one since the main phone line comes into the house from this corner, as well as two cable lines.

I also (today) FINALLY made the new attic door, which has been on my to-do list since last year. It's just a piece of 3/4" Fir plywood with some insulation on one side. I changed my mind about how I want to finish it. Originally I wanted just a flat panel, flush with the ceiling (mostly invisible), but I decided that I want to do a recessed frame with mouldings.

I also patched-up the two upstairs window openings with some vapour barrier (in prep for insulation, then studs, and drywall). I also nailed down and puttied the transition trip for the bathroom threshold.

That's about all I got done, other than a bit of cleaning in the garage, and more patching on the dining room casings (arch).

I am really hoping that I can go for a supply run with Mom to pick up some insulation, mud, and other supplies.