Carbuncle Beautification Project

It's been some time since I've posted, and some time since this project was completed, and an even longer time since the tropical storm necessitating the project in the first place.

As you may recall from earlier posts, much debate centered around the fate of the carbuncle of a push-out window in the living room. Finally, frugality won the day, and the push-out stayed. But last September, Tropical Storm Hermine came through Austin. (Typing those words feels funny, since rain is pretty much a foreign concept here, these days.) And Ms. Hermine's waters poured through the push-out window and into the living room.

See the buckets? Not good.



Another fierce debate ensued over the carbuncle's fate. But again, frugality won the day. Fixing the push-out window is less expensive by a factor of ten. And factors of ten count. So, trusty handyman Kevin installed some new fiber board in the interior and fixed the push-out window's roof, which, it turns out, was never properly shingled in the first place (shocking, I know). And so, for a couple of months, the window awaited its finish-out and looked like this:



And finally, after my painting and Chad's carpentry:

One Door Down...

Chad and I decided to take advantage of (what was supposed to be) a sunny weekend to finally paint the front door. Others were taking advantage of a sunny Saturday, too. The oak trees were getting all sexy and dropping a fine mist of pollen on the wet paint. The owners of the lot across the street were clearing and chipping wood in preparation of putting the lot on the market, depositing a fine mist of sawdust on the paint. And the birds were hanging out in the nearby bird feeder getting ready to leave, well, you get the picture. At least Olive kept the birds at bay.

The door, mid-painting.
Turns out orange is a four to five coat color... Annoying.











Olive, vigilantly keeping birds at bay.

Independence from Painting?

Chad and I have been painting since mid-May, but still painting chores abound!

Saving a cool five grand sounded like a good idea, so we decided to sock that money away for the day we'll inevitably need new siding. That means painting the exterior on our own.

It's the weekend project that keeps giving: three weekends to prep and prime; weekend after interminable weekend to paint, paint, paint. We've learned that paint stops working after 90 degrees, so we've been getting up at the crack of dawn to get in as many hours in as possible. Luckily, on a (rare) under-90-degree June weekend, we took an Amish barn-raising approach, and Chrissy, Jose, Layla, Sarah, Marco, Cynthia, Dan, and Steve all lifted a brush in honor of Roosterhaus.

Primed:


Chad did all the high bits.


Almost finished!



What's left? The doors (orange!). The push-out window. The eaves. The carport. But we're closer to finish than start, and that's a good feeling.

More upholstery projects!

Christina was in town and craved a project. So we re-upholstered two dining room chairs. Cynthia helped with the cording, and Chad helped with re-assemblage.

Before:





After:

CHAIR!

This weekend I took an upholstery class.

I started with this chair, Sneezy. The ladies of Spruce Upholstery (where we took the class) found it in an old asylum in Brady, TX. Spooky. Dusty.



Day One:

First I stripped the chair. With the help of ultimate-mini-pry, a very small upholstery staple remover, and a mallet, I removed the many tacks and staples that held the vinyl onto the frame of the chair. Then all of the vinyl, nasty worn-out foam, and burlap came out. After that, I re-burlaped the seat and put new foam and dacron down. Class was over, but I had less then twenty-four hours to re-finish the wood. So Chad devised a wire-hanger hanging system for me to poly the wood after he sanded everything down. We were up until one in the morning re-finishing the wood, but were pleased with the results.



Day Two:

Stretched and stapled the fabric and cording on the seat and began work on the back, which involved a lot of the same materials (burlap, foam, dacron and STAPLES!) and similar work (stretching until hands, wrists and shoulders could take no more). Then the legs and arms went back together and I finished up the back of the back (more burlap, foam, dacron, STAPLES! and stretching, stretching, stretching). The back of the back also involved some fancy metal clamps and the register - pushing the fabric into the metal so that none of the frayed edges show. The last step was the dust cover on the bottom.

Voila! Here's the finished product. So excited for Sneezy to join the Roosterhaus living room!



My friend Cynthia took the class with me. Her chair, Doc, was different - involving more glue and spray paint and a staggering number of staples. I think the result was equally awesome.

Another contender.

Chad and I were fond of the light blue but felt that it was, perhaps, too light. Since we were so fond of the blue we found for barn door #2, we decided to try one step down in an exterior satin. Here is the result.

Olive Helenscat Mysteriosa Smith

We were hoping to be productive enough this weekend to have a new home improvement-type post, but that just didn't happen. Then Chad realized there was no post for the newest friend of Roosterhaus, Olive.

We first encountered Olive living under the house in July of last year. She would hang out on the porch and wait for us to come home. Then she would talk to us and ask for food. We decided that we would take her to get spayed and try to find a home for her, because we are both allergic to cats. But, while she convalesced with us after her spaying, we realized that neither one of us so much as sneezed due to her presence. So she is our new house pet. She is slowly getting used to the idea of being an indoor kitty... but there seems to have been no adjustment period necessary for the idea of regular meals.