More on the Wainscoating

Okay...before you ask - NO - the wainscoating is not done; but I can explain.

It was a long night last night and I was dragging today. I'm beginning to wonder if a cold is in the immediate future for me.

Since I was dragging I had to take extra care to make sure I didn't screw up. Didn't help though.

Anyway, lets get to the pictures and I'll tell you the saga as we go.

As you can see, the wainscoating is all installed.

Well...as installed as it's going to get until the new cabinets are installed. The wainscoating does wrap around the half wall and continues on the other side by one slat.

The most important thing about this picture is the OSB used to give a flush surface for the mop-board and it's top molding.

Speaking of the mop-board and it's top molding... I did a lot of thinking about it. Remember the one that shattered? It dawned on me that this will be a high traffic area and I'm not sure if the repair would hold up to the abuse. To fix the problem I recycled a few pieces from another spot.

Here are the new pieces of the top molding ready for instillation.

I'm jumping ahead a bit, so lets back up.


Here is a picture of the first problem of the day. Can you tell what it is?

Remember the piece that was cut off the very first slat? The piece that was going to work perfectly between the wall and the run of slats?

Well, it did fit perfectly until the very bottom. I had to trim the sliver by about 2mm at a time until it fit correctly. If you look close at the picture you will see a red line. That was added to make it easier for everyone to see the shape of the cut-off piece. I had to make sure the profile stayed as true to this as possible. Do you have any idea how hard it is to shave off about 2mm at a time with a table saw? I would have to shave a bit, check fit, shave a bit more, and check again. All-n-all it took about 12 trips to the woodshop to get it cut just right.

Also, in case you are wondering, the nails you see in the pic have not been set yet. This portion of the wainscoating will be covered by the top cap and molding, so it won't show.

Next is the second problem to pop up.

Here you can see the corner do-dad. Remember, I had to remove it to make room for the wainscoating.

I wanted it to be a perfect fit, so, once again trips had to be made to the woodshop. This time extremely small slivers, less than 1mm, had to be made.

As you can see it fits. However, if you look real close you can see a small gap between the do-dad and the mop-board. This is due to the added width on the end cap because of the OSB. This problem will be fixed tomorrow.

You can also see some paint residue I didn't quite get. It had seeped up into the crack where the top mold sets on the mop-board. I started removing that today and it took time as well.

Here's a picture of another problem that was unexpected.

The picture shows the mop-board after it was fixed.

The original mop-board turned out to have a nasty, horizontal, crack running all the way through it. When I went to remove one of those monster nails it just broke in half. Again, a replacement had to be made.

What you see in the picture is the replacement. I have saved the pieces of the broken one. It can can be mended and used in a less high profile/traffic area.

Tomorrow all I need to do is fix that gap I mentioned and attach the mop-boards top molding. I also need to put in a temp mop-board on the sink side of the wall. I'll talk more about that later and get some pics as well.

Before I forget...we have decided to just shellac the wainscoating with amber shellac. We decided to do this for a couple of reasons; 1) the wood has a rich quality about it, & 2) we want to set off the wainscoating from the rest of the molding and future cabinets. The shellac will high-lite the color of the slats and will be a bit lighter than the molding.

Before I sign off you might like to see a picture of one of my 'helpers' that were hanging around.

This is Boo-Boo our tailless cat. Sorry about the haziness of the pic but sometimes you get a bad one.

Aren't his eyes creepy?!











Well, till next time...

Cheers!
Larry

Just a Strippin'.....

Well, it has been a slow, yet busy, week.

So far all I've been doing is final little bits of stripping and sanding as well as filling large holes, and nail holes, with filler.

As I've said before, I removed the top part of the mopboards to make it easier to finish out.

Here you can one of them stripped, but not quite finished. You can still see some of the stripping residue on it.




Don't look too shabby does it?


















You know, it dawned on me once I finished for the day that I hadn't shown a "before" pic. Well here's one for you.

This is actually a good one. It shows the original stain as well as the paint. If you look real hard you will even see the light beige paint that was under the green paint.

In case you’re wondering, this piece is part of the molding found behind the old plumbing chase.

Here is a better view that allows you to see the residue left behind.

And here it is finished!

Can't wait to see the finished project!

Well, like I said, didn't do much but strip and sand this week so there isn't much to report on. So, I will sign off for the time being.

Cheers!
Larry ~

Kitchen Details

Following are several shoots of various details in the kitchen.

This is part of the 'egg-n-dart' crown molding that can be found above every-single-window-and-door of the house.

At first we thought that the kitchen only had this above the door leading into the foyer. However, once we started striping the wood work we found the evidence that shows it was above all the doors and windows in the kitchen as well. Unfortunately we have not found the extra pieces.

The pic here is the paint in the process of bubbling up from the chemical stripper.

Progress is being made with the stripper.

Now all we need to do is finish it off with a dental pick and it will be ready for staining.

What is frustrating is that we can not find this exact pattern. We find molding that is close, but not quite. So now we need to decide on whether or not to replace the molding with something similar or just not put any of it up except for the piece we have.

This is one of the pair of brass wall sconces. We have no idea when they were installed, but they match all the chandeliers in the rest of the house. From what we have been told, they were installed in the 50s.

We are kind of torn between these a original lighting. Everyone loves these lights and the matching chandeliers; and for most these are the only lights they remember in the house. You should see them at night from the street!!

On the other hand we would like to replace the light fixtures with the type we know where in the house when it was built - the dual gas / electric kind.

What to do, what to do......

They are stunning when turned on at night.

This is one of a pair of blown glass lights from the 20s, or 30s, we got for $25 dollars at a yard sale.

They don't go with the house either but are better than what WAS up there. The light in the eating area had been a lantern type light that looked like it came off a covered wagon (the kind that was popular in the 50s). The one that was in the prep area was the typical, ceiling hugging 'cake' type fixture. What was most bizarre about the two were not only their dissimilarities but the fact that they were only about 10' from each other.

Again, we are not sure what we will do with them; everyone seems to love them.

Another view.

Here is the right hand end cap of one of the original cupboards that had been in the kitchen when it was built.

The shear size indicates that it might have been located along the wall that the sconces are on now.

Close up of the top.

One of the first things people ask when they visit is "where is all the stuff that was in the kitchen?".

Well, the simple answer is "just about everywhere"!

So here are a couple pics that are rather embarrassing. Both are of all the junk from the kitchen that we have tossed in the dinning room.

Another wonderful view of our 'junk'.

They wife will probably kill me for posting these!! LOL