Saturday, November 24, 2007

Snowy Days Ahead

Not much to report, last week of mega hours at work. Poor old Bogie had another bout with FUS which put a nice hit in the house funds....but oh well, he's doing good at least. Floors are scheduled to get done this week, and chimney I hope to finish next weekend. I built the scaffolding on turkey day morning. A grandson of Norris's sister (Bertha) contacted me today, having stumbled upon this site! Hopefully this part of the family may have some hidden goodies to share.... we'll see. Feels like time to dust off the snow blower again. I'll leave you with a photo of Hall house winter's past......


Hall children in front yard - about 1920

Saturday, November 10, 2007

The Last Light Fixture

I'm finally finished restoring the last of the brass light fixtures for the first floor. This dining room was the biggie and I definitely put in a few hours on this one, but it was worth the effort. It's an original gas/electric that is the centerpiece of the room.



Also x-mas came early this year and the 37" LCD flat screen is installed in the parlor. Due to the height of the screen I had to rearrange the seating a bit, but now are ready to kick back by the fire and watch "This Old House" in hi def.....



The 70 hour work week continues so this is all I got accomplished - 2 weeks till floors get done!

Friday, November 2, 2007

Buffin Brass

Not much progress lately while working 10hr days 7 days a week. Next day off will be Thanksgiving then back to normal again. I've been working on the dining room chandelier each evening and it's just about ready to be assembled. I got smart and borrowed my dad's buffing stand which he uses for restoring stainless trim on old cars. I found brass compound which is a bit softer than stainless and it worked really well - and much much faster than by hand.




Also got an estimate for having the floors sanded and finished downstairs. The estimate was too good to pass up, especially with my limited time this fall, so they will be getting done the week after Thanksgiving. This will be the first project farmed out to a contractor in the two years working on the Hall house. The floors need some serious sanding and I figure the most visible rooms in the house is not the place to learn how to use a drum sander!


The chimney is getting real close to poking through the roof, just waiting for some days off to finish.



18 inches to go...