Floors

Last weeks Sedaris Hardwoods sanded, stained, and satin-coated our red pine parquet floors.

These floors hadn't been sanded since their installation over sixty-three years ago.

This is the living room after the stain and finish coats.

Master

These vent boxes come apart.  I spray painted the frame and vent blades with black enamel and, as shown in this photo, used a dark bronze metallic finish for the covers.  Tomorrow I'll put them in place.

I missed the fair, but...

I was excited to return home after two weeks in the United Kingdom and see all the wonderful progress at 301 Grand Avenue.  Tracy and Steve chose some great tile for our bathroom; and Home Quest has been hard at work.

I love these colors...this photo was taken before the grout was completely dry.

Tracy and Steve decided to go with a stretch of color amidst the subway tile, and it looks cool.

Here's a shot of Tracy with our neat living room fixture.  Nice work, T-Bro.

almost there!



tracy here.  with jay in the uk, i have hijacked the blog!  some very exciting changes this week - all the lights and the kitchen and laundry room floors were installed!  we are especially excited about the kitchen lights, above.  we bought 2 red pendant lights with naked bulbs  for the island.  my plan is to use edison style bulbs, like below.  we bought a  halogen pendant chandelier for the kitchen table.  also notice the new floor.  we decided on a vinyl tile floor in solid gray.  this type of flooring is often used for commercial purposes but was popular in home kitchens of the 40's and 50's.  they were often black and white checkerboard.  steve and i shopped for bathroom tile on monday and found a  blue mosaic penny round tile for the floor.  we bought white subway tile for the shower.



we selected this brushed metal ceiling fan for the den and master bedroom.

 

 in order to maintain the character of the exterior, we selected this rustic "onion" style light for the front and back doors.

 



 laundry room with blue and white checkerboard tile!



Interior Carpentry

Bruce and Steve have been hard at work on the interior.  Below are a few examples of their handiwork:

This is the floor between our living room and den.  Bruce and Steve were able to fill in the gap with extracted parquet flooring from another part of the house.

This was the fireplace at 9 a.m. this morning.

Steve's Drawing

Our new mantle at dusk.  This photo is a little dark, but note the cedar board on top.

Countertops

I was excited to enter the house after two days in Birmingham, Alabama, and find new countertops installed.  Here are a couple of pictures.  Kudos to the fine folks from Basix, who did a nice job.

Door Hardware

Today while Tracy shopped online for lighting fixtures, I cleaned the original door hardware for 301 Grand Avenue.  The process took several hours.

You can see the three stages of cleanliness for the escutcheon on the coffee table (L-R): Original condition, after acetone and buffing, and after two grades of steel wool.

Before and after: I took this photo before cleaning the final escutcheon.

The rest of the hardware assembly consists of two door knobs, a spindle, mortise lock box, and corresponding screws.   Most were covered with many layers of paint, as you can see here on the mortise lock face plate.

The antique mortise lock set is really well designed.  I opened more than half of the boxes to improve the functionality of the lock and/or latch.  All but one lock is in working order as a result.

I can't wait to get all of this back on the doors.  I even cleaned the screws, as it was impossible to find replacements on  short notice.