Vacation Update

Here's a quick recap of what happened over vacation:

KITCHEN FLOOR:

When we took out the closet that bumped into the kitchen from the back room, I knew some day I'd have to deal with the floor. The old closet floor was oak, the kitchen was maple. So after 2.5 years I cut the oak off even with the doorway and pulled out that part that had been in the kitchen. I then pulled the existing maple back to a point just past the doorway. I did this carefully so I could re-lay it back down. I managed to get a bundle of new 2 1/4 inch maple at an auction, which along with some other salvaged floor I had I thought would be enough. I barely made it with nothing over a foot long left over. Here is a pic from the door way looking into the kitchen after I'd pulled everything, you may notice the hole in the subfloor where the other side of the nook bench was (prior to being pulled out in 1948) There was a great deal of cutting/holes/cracks in the subfloor there, I replaced a pretty good sized chunk:

I then laid down the old/new floor with help from Pete. I think it looks pretty good. I'll get more shots up soon.

BASEMENT WINDOW

One of the basement windows cracked a pane of glass last summer and I finally got it replaced. The inside of the window was still raw wood, so I gave it a coat of 2 parts boiled linseed oil/ one part turpentine to protect it. I painted the exterior side with enamel like the other windows.

BATHROOM WINDOW

Since I was set up to paint I decided to get rid of the last vestiges of the mustard in the first floor bathroom. I took out the translucent glass lower sash window and repainted it inside and out.

UPSTAIRS RAILING

Lisa stripped a salvaged railing I'd gotten last summer. I dug it out of the garage and varnished it, but now I'll need to do a piece of 1 x 4 casing on the wall to attach the hardware onto it. I boiled off the old paint splatters/yuck from the hardware and then buffed with steel wool. I still didn't like the look, so I took some of my linseed/turpentine mix and coated the hardware. I wiped off the excess after a couple of hours and really like the way they turned out.