Yes - Still Scraping

Hello everyone!

We are still scraping and our hands and arms are aching.

Since my last post we have acquired a nice piece of antique oak furniture. We won it at an auction the Friday before last; let's see, that would be Friday April 23.

Here it is. Some people call it a lowboy with hat box but we've learned it's actually called a 'Cheval Dresser'.

There are only two pieces missing, the drawer on top of the hat box section and the fancy do-dad that sits on top of hat box section.

Over all the dresser is not in bad shape. The top needs to be redone, but other than that it just needs cleaning.

Originally we thought to use it in the upstairs bathroom, but we really like it here in the foyer.

We did find something really cool though. On the back were two shipping labels. One was in great condition and we could read were it was being shipped to - Belle Plaine KS. The name of the person, or perhaps business, is something like A K Barry. I think it's cool that this piece of furniture has been in three auctions that we are aware of and yet it still remains here.

While cleaning the dresser up we removed the hat box section and found the original finish in perfect condition.

Now, the question before us is - "do we return to the original finish color or try to keep the warm, aged, patina"? Either way the piece will look great.






Let's get to the house scraping...

The following picture will take some explaining.

This is the bottom section of the east sidelight of the front door.

Look at all the mess! The window itself is about 1 inch above the cutoff at the top of the picture.

Here is what's so special about this spot.

Do you see the shiny wood work? The paint was popping up somewhat easily without damaging the varnish underneath. The sidelight on the west side of the door is the same way.

So, now we know that the exterior portions of the front door, and sidelights, we stained and varnished. We'll do the same when we refinish them.

On a side note...while working on the front door I've been noticing a family of black, fuzzy spiders with a splash of Azure Blue to them. They seem to be following me around and watching. Seriously. They crawl to within inches and just stare at me. They will also crawl over the areas where I've scraped and try to get close to where I'm scraping. It's quite interesting, it's like they are curious and want to know what's going on.

Tomorrow I'll try to get a good picture of one.

BTW - I found out that white houses draw spiders.

Here we have a new problem.

While scraping I noticed that the rounded part of the porch roof looked like it was sagging.

I took a straightedge and checked...it is.

Now we need to figure out what to do with it.

Okay, do you remember clue number 2 in this post?

No one figured it out - bummer.

Here are three of those things in the clue number 2 picture along with the platform they will support.

My father-n-law helped us out by taking my template and building us two platforms.

This is the second one with the addition of carpet to the wood runners.

The carpet will grip the shingles on the porch roof and keep it from slipping.

And here they are - mobile ladder platforms; a kind of rooftop scaffolding base.

The cleat running down the center is to keep a ladder from slipping.

The platforms are tall enough that most of the 2nd story work can be done standing on them. The 3rd story will require a ladder - and you know how I hate ladders.

I was afraid they'd be a bugger to get up on the roof, but it was quite easy. The father-n-law tied a tow strap to the center runner, climbed up the ladder and pulled as I pushed. Quick and easy and Bob was our uncle.

In this view you can see how level they are.

BTW - that's the father-n-law scraping away.



After a few hours hand scraping.

Sometimes, scraping loose paint can be addictive, and therapeutic for the mind. Another benefit is that it let me take a closer look at the clapboards.

Before I forget... Do you see that divot/cutaway in the molding between the wall and the eave? It's in the section no scraping has been done. The divot is where the original downspout came through the roof.

Anywho...

While scraping, the father-n-law found a patch of original paint. Eventually I found one as well. These patches are better than what we found on the 1st floor.

The color appears to be a very light, and bright, Butter Cream.

Unfortunately, the shadow of the eves, and the proximity of the camera doesn't let it show. However, you can see a color difference!

Bellow are the two spots. Take a look and see if you can see the Butter Cream color.





























Well, that's about it for now.

Till next time...

Cheers!
Larry ~