EPA De-crudification Continues

Though I had two college students (one of whom was my son) armed with TSP, microfiber cloths and rinse water, the walls in the master bathroom of FD home project still were a dirty, and the ceiling was horrible.  More TSP, rinse and repeat a few more times to includes some steaming in between finally erase most of the nicotine stains.  Nevertheless, there were still three areas where there was double-sided tape that was holding fast.  I used some paint stripper which managed to loosen it enough to scrape away, but it was not a clean scrape.

I have  big roll of fiberglass wall repair fabric sourced from the local salvage store. It is easy to cut and apply for non-professionals such as myself.  This fabric plus the metal/mesh patch kits are a life saver. I'm hurriedly getting ready for painters who will come on Monday.  Since some of the holes are large or the areas wide, I need to make a couple or three passes to get it in ship-shape.  Yes, they can do this stuff, but I'd much rather them prime and paint.  Unfortunately, the last time the house was painted, there were some super-sloppy repairs made.  So sloppy that we've had to cut away large sections of wall.  That requires re-insertion of drywall sheets and taping.  I'll let my contractor take care of that.

My son was not much interested in helping me clean the ceilings in the great room.   Note that I'm paying him.  He just is not interested and has squirreled away some money,  thus not motivated to do this work.  I'll get the crew on Monday to wash the ceilings so they can be primed and painting.

My contractor removed the wobbly deck.  Here are some pics.  I marvelled at their efficiency and elegance. Here's a pic after they removed the rails. Essential tools:  chainsaw, tunes and sawzall. Now you see it; now you don't!.

There needs to be some painting of the exterior of the windows, currently brown.  The white replacement windows are quite "stark" and my transition color will soften this look considerably. The basement area is wonderful.  It has a 'great room', a huge laundry room and two other room that would make nice bedrooms.  There is also a full bath with a shower.   This house will have alot of appeal to a larger family as there can be 5 bedrooms.  With the downstairs, there is also a super secondary communal space, complete with a thimble, woodstove and brick firebox.  With the addition of a wood stove upstairs, this home could be very, very energy efficient.

 My contractor very neatly stacked the waste and placed it carefully into this 30 yard dumpster.  This is the second 'filling'.  We'll keep this until the job's end.  We'll just have trash from the job, rather than all-out debris!  We did reclaim the shower door to make a hot house.

Here is the neighbor on the left (right if facing home).  This home is so beautiful, and the people are just delightful, as are the neighbors on the other side. This neighborhood is spectacular in every sense.

 Here is the house across the street, nestled in the landscaping.  I've not met these folks.  The folks before moved away because of all of the wild-assing that was going on in the home that I'm rehabbing.

I have finished sourcing everything for the house with my finalizing the tile for the bathroom floor downstairs, the tile for the two foyers.  I found $.99/sqf (from $6) porcelain tile that I will use for the foyer upstairs and downstairs.

With the arrival of the painters, we will now go from 0-60 on the interior pretty quickly.  Though I'm doing so much LESS work than on the SR project, sourcing and coordinating (combined with LEARNING) is still taking up lots of time.

On another foraging front:

Though I did find and purchased a beautiful cherry drop leaf table (rectangular when opened up) in Bedford, touring a Richmond antiques area, I made a find.  I'm still in table/chair mode as not only do you need to sit, you need to serve!  I found 4 oak chairs with cane cum upholstered (ugh!) seats. I plan to make new seats that will cover the previous caning holes AND to accept new upholstery.  I found these on a Monday when the store that I had planned to go to came up closed on a Monday.  I'll take Queen Anne oak chairs in a similar finish to my Stickley cherry table.   I do not care to have matching furniture, but rather prefer to have interesting pieces that stand on their own.

While doing a recon through the antique place that was closed on the Monday of my initial visit, I saw a lovely cherry drop leaf table with turned legs.  Looked at the tag:  far too much.  I went to the back room.  There was a Queen Anne style,  beaten up, solid cherry gate-leg table.  I expected it to be at least $100.  It was $30 with 20% off.  So for $25.20 (including tax). I have acquired something that I can easily refinish (or not), and use for seating or food staging. When not in use, it will be a functional sofa or library table.  Outside of the finish issues (dings, scratches), there is a small sliver taken out of one of the edges of the leaf drops.  I call those character markings.  While I plan to refinish, to be serviceable and beautiful, it needs not a thing.

Now to fix dinner and rest from the day's activities.....