Sanding the Woodwork

Chemical strippers didn't touch the stain, so the paint stripping crew has resorted to sanding. They're starting to get to the bare wood now.

Past Uncovered

In this remodel project we've learned our house once had more classic Craftsman details. The French Doors on the living room and dining room are not original! (Now Sharon doesn't feel so bad for disliking them!) There used to be pocket doors! When the team was demo-ing the kitchen, they uncovered tracks for pocket doors. The Leonard's must have wanted to open up the living space so they expanded both doorways and removed the pocket doors and instead installed the French Doors.

The Leonards also pulled collonades out of the front of the living room. Sharon discovered the evidence of floor patching and then we realized they had left one of the bookcases in the garage. Unfortunately, with how much the garage leaks, it's pretty far gone to save at this point. Maybe someday we'll put new ones in, but not this year. We've definitely more than exhausted our budget.

We also found evidence there was a bench seat in the entryway. Maybe they pulled it to put in the new HVAC in the 70's when they converted to gas. We're trying to figure out how to put one back, but we may just have to build a bench over the air intake that is open in the front, more like a pew.

On the bright side, Mr. Leonard seemed to have a habit of putting newspapers into spaces before he closed them up. He apparently redid the kitchen in the early 1940's. We've now got quite the collection of newspapers from during WW2. It's neat to get the snapshot into the past. (Though, some of those headlines are astonishing: "Foe Tanks, Dead Litter Battlefield.")

Remodel Progress

The woodwork is emerging!We think there was a bench seat here in the entryway. We're going to look into putting one back, but we'll have to move an air intake.This is the new wall in the kitchen, dividing it from the bathroom and pantry.They've torn up the floor of the basement, presumably to move the plumbing.The back door is starting to take shape.

Houck's Almost Paint Stripping

We got our French doors back from Houck's today. We're not thrilled with the paint removal job they did. We brought in these 4 doors and they charged us $735 for "stripping" them. They said the extra cost was due to the fine details in the wood, but then they didn't actually strip out those fine details.

Unfortunately, we didn't get a good look at the doors until they were home because they helped load them and they loaded them with the other side up, which does look nice. Not sure if I should complain, or simply try the other dipping place in town. (Do any of my fellow Portland bloggers know if this is the best you can expect from dipping?)

So far, we can't really recommend their services. However, we've already brought in another batch of stuff, when we picked up these doors. They get one more chance to make good before we move on.

Stenciling Project

Sharon made pretty speedy progress on her At-Home Stencil class. She really only has one project left—stenciling a design onto the wall—before she finishes up her original objectives. Obviously, she set the expectations too low. =)
This small project went quite fast, as she just started the embroidered outlining on Sunday afternoon. This is actually a relief, as there will likely be miles of embroidery to do on the living room curtains.

Lots of Activity

There's usually 2 to 3 projects going on the house at one time. It's amazing how much is getting done right now.

The paint stripping has started; this is a once over with heat guns and no chemicals yet. The woodwork in the living room is stained very dark. There is likely to be some bleaching in our future.
The back door has been cut into the foundation and they're working on putting in the forms for the stairs into the yard.
The front steps into the house are gone.
There is still another team working on the fine demo of the kitchen, preparing for removing walls.

Chimney GONE!

Today they pulled the chimney. We now have a hole that runs all the way from the basement through the roof of the house.

Our furnace vented out of this old chimney, so we are now without heat. We hope it doesn't get too cold again.

We kept a lot of the bricks that we're too damaged from the removal to use for paths in the yard. We have quite a large pile on our driveway to deal with later.
















The hole in the backyard is huge now. They'll be cutting in the door on Monday and no doubt starting to build stairs soon.