We Have Walls!

The workers have been busy today and got the garage walls assembled and up. The building looks so big. =)

Too bad we couldn't change the size without meeting the current city outbuilding rules; we probably would have made it longer and narrower. All we were allowed to do was make it a bit taller. Oh well.

Trusses go up tomorrow!

Period Bedrooms

I guess I'll do a few posts over the next couple of weeks where I share some of the best pictures I've collected over the years showing room interiors from the early 1900's.

Since I'm getting ready to finish a bedroom, I thought I would share some bedrooms today. (Unfortunately, in the early days of collecting pictures, I wasn't always good about noting the original source.)

Craftsman Magazine, Jun 1904

Craftsman Magazine, Jul 1903

Craftsman Magazine, Jun 1905

Craftsman Magazine, Feb 1906

Craftsman Magazine, Sep 1906

Craftsman Magazine, Oct 1910

Museum of the City of New York, 1907

Period Living Rooms

I've been collecting images of early 1900's living rooms for a couple years now. I have literally dozens of them, but I thought it would be nice if I posted some of my favorites here for folks who would like to recreate a period look for their bungalow living room. Most of the images are from The Craftsman Magazine, but I don't have the source for every single picture.

Eberson Paint Catalog, ?1912

Craftsman Magazine, Dec 1904

Craftsman Magazine, Oct 1904

Craftsman Magazine, May 1905

Sherwin Williams catalog, 1910

Specifications for above picture:  Ceiling - S-W Flat-tone Cream 832. Wall - S-W Flat-tone Aurora Yellow 825, followed with S-W Flat-tone Glaze Colors. Burnt Sienna,...........1 part. Olive Lake,............2/3 part. Greatly reduced with Flat-tone Glazing Liquid. Woodwork - Birch - S-W Handcraft Stain, Mahogany, Light, followed with S-W Mission-lac and S-W Durable Wood Finish Interior. Specification No. 15 or No. 16. Floors - Oak - Natural, S-W Transparent Filler and S-W Mar-not Varnish. Specification No. 21. Curtains - White Net. Over-curtains - Plain Venetian Silk. Upholstery - Wool Tapestry. Rug - Velvet Wilton. Furniture - Same as woodwork. Fireplace - Cinder Flecked Brick.

From Houses and Gardens, by M.H. Baillie Scott, 1906.

Craftsman Magazine, Dec 1906

Home Building & Decoration, 1912

Ready for Sanding

Thanks to today's cool weather, I have finally finished stripping the paint in the guest bedroom. There are still little bits of paint at some of the edges, but really this is about as clean as I can get the wood for staining without actually damaging it too much. Though, based on our experience staining the master bedroom, the stain should cover these small white lines without any problem. And, if not, we have touch-up paint.

Stripped window crown moulding

It was good to have a deadline. Since we've got an appointment with the plasterer to come out on July 24 to resurface the plaster in this room, I've been working steadily to get this room ready in time.

Our plan for the rest of the week is to fill the holes in the woodwork with stainable wood filler and then get started on sanding.  Though, really, the woodwork doesn't need much sanding; the steel scrubbies have worked quite well at smoothing the wood as I've worked on the chemical stripping.

In addition to cleaning up the woodwork, we've also been slowly scraping off the thick, rubbery layer of paint layers on top of the plaster.

Dining Room Curtains Hung

I decided I needed a day off paint stripping. So, instead, I spent a leisurely day hand sewing while listening to my current audio book.

By this evening, I finished sewing the rings along the top edge of the dining room curtains and now they're hung up. I still don't feel comfortable starting the embroidery on the design—the embroidery hoop may smear paint if it isn't thoroughly dry.

I'm not 100% happy with the way the panels turned out, but they're probably not so bad for my first effort making my own stencils.

I guess now I should probably start thinking about what I should make for the guest bedroom. Maybe I'll try some appliqué...

New Garage Foundation

The new garage foundation is in! This gets to dry through the weekend and on Monday work will begin on the garage framing.

We had quite the crowd working on this slab this morning.

Paint Stripping Progress

One of the funny things about paint stripping is it always takes so much longer than you think it should. More than a week ago I thought I was almost done, but here it is—eleven days later—and I'm still only almost done. Sigh.

I spent something like four hours a day over the last several days and I do feel like I made good progress. I have mostly cleaned up all the crowns, which is the most difficult task, and I have cleaned up the woodwork around the linen cabinet.

I'm still working on cleaning up the baseboards, which isn't particularly difficult to do, but it's unpleasant because I end up sitting on the floor, which has by now gotten pretty gross.

Yesterday afternoon, I finished the second dining room curtain—the last curtain I plan to make for the main floor. I'm pretty excited to get this project finished!

Once the oil paint dries in several days, I'll start embroidering the panels.