Three Doors Down

No, not the band... that's how many doors have been constructed and installed on the 2nd floor. I already went into how I make a prehung door assembly using a salvaged door when I did the kitchen, so I won't go into detail again about that. The only difference here is with 5 doors being so close together in a hallway, making sure that I match up the door heights and other details as best I can is critical. An inch difference in height or a lockset that was installed much lower than another door would stand out much more here. So all these issues were considered when I picked a set of 5 doors to make these particular door assemblies. So far, so good...

These doors will still need to be stripped and prepped for painting. Meanwhile I'm prepping for an appraisal for a refi... fingers crossed. I was supposed to get a streamlined refi which didn't need one, but long story short it didn't pan out and Bank of America will never see my business again after they are paid off! Outage season came early this year at work, so super busy with work for the next few weeks. Hopefully I'll get another door or two done in that time..... oh and it's almost time to start the veggies for the garden!

Auction Finds

I've been hitting the auctions again after a few years lapse and I did pretty good at the last one. First is a mission oak chair that I've been looking for to use in the living room. It's all original and very clean. The original upholstery needs replacing which I'll have done in leather along with the oak rocker I already have. At $60 it was much cheaper than the candidates I've been finding on EBAY or at some antique dealers.

Next is a real nice working Victrola VV-50. It works great and just needed a little cleaning. This was the first portable model Victor made starting in 1921. The serial number dates this to 1923. There are spring clips inside to hold the arm and the crank from moving around. It locks close and includes a handle for easy carrying.... perfect for the beach or picnic! I'm sure this was quite a novelty back in the early 1920s! At $50 this was a no brainer bid for me.

Finally I picked up a Federal Orthosonic radio from 1925. These were a high end set in it's day and well built. It would have been powered by several batteries of different voltages. All the tubes are present which is a plus. This one required a bit of cleanup and I repainted the front panel. This was a decent buy at $90 and should do well on EBAY.

before

after cleanup

I picked up a nice Remmington shot gun ammo box for a friend of mine too. He was thrilled I was able to get him a $70 box for only $20... the nice thing about these new fangled picture taking phones!

Dropping Dropped Ceilings

I'm going to slowly start doing the demo on the bedrooms so I can slowly get rid of the trash without getting overwhelmed. I'm starting with the ceiling. It's a 1 ft square tile system with a tongue and groove system that locks into the metal channels. So 4 trash bags of tiles later and a pile of tracks that I scrapped and the ceilings in the front bedrooms are gone....

and look what I found in the ceiling circa 1971....