Day 13 The crooked door and Master carpenter.

The roofer was there today clearing some last minute things up. I went to check out doorknobs since I didn't get that done yesterday. On a whim, I made a phone call to uncle Benny's and he gave me the name of a local master carpenter to fix the pantry door. Someone had put cardboard into one of the panels and painted it. Only In a small town can you find a retired master carpenter working out of his garage on a Saturday, willing to repair a hundred year old door. And for $45 bucks. I know a new door is cheap but this old door is so crooked that just the labor to try and fit a new door would cost more. And besides its more fun finding a gem like Dean than the trouble and cursing to fit an old crooked door.

Day 12 4:00 Friday

To do list, get a mailbox, numbers for house, outdoor light fixture and evaluate doorknobs.

I'm happy to just get involved in little projects at the house, so the above list is mine for today.

Day 12 Progress; dumpster full, roof demo done, inside demo done and clean, bids in from plumbers, electricians, and tree trimmers.

Weekly meeting; new dumpster coming Monday 20yd, roof inspection Monday, roof done this week and ready for hard money 2nd draw inspection next Friday, tree trimmer to get all dead branches and two trees down, mulch from trees for landscaping, plumbers bid a bit high but re-evaluate and negotiate a couple items, home depot bulk bid reviewed and discussed for changes, new doors in kitchen?, master shower plan, garage plan. Ahead of schedule and moving fast!

Day 10 Ghost Stories

So Brooke heard that one of the workers arrived first yesterday to open the house and heard someone upstairs.  Nobody was up there.  The doors were locked, I know because I was the last one in the house and locked it up last night.

Now this is the same worker who heard some stuff in the last house.  Only Brooke heard something too one night.  She went there alone to clean up and when she opened the door she heard some sweeping.  We joked that Bessy, the old owner was just helping her out.

I plan on doing some research to find who lived in the house.  Brooke plans on saging the place.  Not a bad idea.  We should make it a practice to clean the energy out of all the houses for a fresh start.

But ghost stories are right up my alley.  I went to the house last night to take some pictures.  I was hoping to hear or see something, but I didn't.

Day 10 Progress:  Roof shingles completely gone, half of roof re-tarped, basement door trim finished, house cabinets, bath fixtures dumped.

Below is my inspiration for the barn and house.  Dark Brown with white trim.  But with a orange-red door. for the garage and front door.    

Day 9 Shingles are everywhere!

Don't worry it's not contagious.  Just messy.  Many OLD houses out here in CO have these wooden shake shingles.  They are just messy to remove, hard to upkeep and ugly after 100 years.   The old wooden shakes were typically western red cedar and possess a low ignition temperature of approximately 378 degrees.  Cigarettes are about 550 degrees!  

Don't get me wrong, I love shake and today's manufacturers of shake shingles for siding and roofs are fire rated, R rated, impact rated and just architecturally pleasing. The new roofs of today are clean and easy to repair while certainly functional.  

Day 9 Progress: more roof down, garage secured, kitchen cabinets out, bulk order to HD for bid

Below garage before........................and garage now!

 

FYI some light reading....Quirky little word detective says this about shingles:

Perhaps Santa will bring us some chips.

Dear Word Detective: I cannot find the origin of the word "shingles" as it is used in the medical sense. It is the zoster virus, and called "chicken pox" in children. In adults, they call it "shingles," and I am crazy to know how that came to be. Help! -- Ivy.

Good question. And what, if anything, does the disease "shingles" have to do with the sort of shingles on your roof? And why, while we're at it, did the guys who fixed our roof last week replace gray shingles with lime green shingles, making our roof look as though it had been hit by a large guacamole meteorite?  OK, that's probably one of those unanswerable puzzles, but we can start with the other two.

There are actually three separate "shingle" words in English ("shingles," the disease, occurs only in the plural form).

The "roof tile" sort of "shingle" derives from the Latin "scindula," a late form of "scandula," which meant "roof tile." That's not a terribly exciting derivation, but "scandula" did probably come from the verb "scandere," meaning "to ascend" and from which, in fact, we also got "ascend" and "descend." Roof shingles, if properly installed (ahem), appear to "ascend" the roof in neat little rows.

The second sort of "shingle" is less often heard and means "loose pebbles or small stones on a seashore or beach." This "shingle" is a collective noun, the singular form referring to an aggregation of such stones, not the individual stones themselves. This "shingle" is also sometimes used to mean just "pebbly beach," and is thought to derive from one of the Scandinavian languages, possibly the Norwegian "singl," meaning "gravel."

"Shingles," the disease, is indeed caused by the zoster virus, which also causes chicken pox, and "shingles" is usually caused by reactivation of the virus in someone, usually an adult who has already had chicken pox as a child. Shingles is an extremely painful disease, causing a blistering rash, usually on the chest and/or back, and can last for months. The name "shingles" derives from the Latin "cingulum," meaning "girdle," referring to the fact that the painful rash of shingles can encircle the sufferer's torso like a girdle.

While we're on the subject, "chicken pox" has nothing to do with chickens, although there is some uncertainty about the origin of the name. It may be that "chicken" was meant in the sense of "mild or harmless" as compared to deadly smallpox, but some sources posit that the resemblance of the bumpy rash to chickpeas under the skin gave the disease its name

Day 8 Monday morning...

 Monday is back and the work is progressing.  A new door to the basement is a preview to the barn style doors for the garage/carport.  These will really add character to the outside of the house. 


 Day 8 Progress: new basement door, porch finished, awning down, closet framed this weekend! 

Pink it is!

Sunday my girls started sanding the kitchen cabinet doors.  Don't cha know that under 2 layers of paint was of course pink paint.  Pink certainly isn't a popular choice today for kitchen designs.  But I wonder, was that the only choice?  Kinda like the olive green or goldenrod kitchen appliance choices or blue bathroom toilets? 

About.com writes, The right feng shui color use can bring a strong shift of energy into your environment. Pink color is the universal color of Love, which makes it a perfect feng shui color to soothe the energy. Its gentle and delicate feng shui vibrations have a proven soothing effect on one's behavior. You could almost say that, as a feng shui color, Pink literally soothes the heart and fills it with love!
The first house we were going to buy had exterior pink paint.  I don't have an old picture of it, I don't think but here it is newly painted.  The owners have done a great job.  We named PinkHouseGirls after this house and the fact the every house we look at seems to have incorporated the color pink in some way.

If pink truely is the color of love, I know we put alot of pink back into the houses we fix.

Day 6 Sorry Grandma

I would say that most old styles are pretty cool, except this one.  I have never seen this, but apparently everyone that's been in the house so far has said, oh yeah, my grandma's house had that, or I used to live in a house with one of those.  The web is pretty resourceful except when it comes to finding what this is.  I'll just call it what it is, an ugly plastic dirty plate that covered a hole in the wall.  Sorry grandma.
Day 6 Progress:  I didn't go to the house today, but someone was definitely at work!  The master bedroom closet is now framed.  It is so big, any woman would love it, the closet that is.