Bennington Colonial's Blog

Another Before And After

benningtoncolonial — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 01:31:41 +0000

Please allow me to indulge myself… It may not be perfect, but it is so much better!

And To Cap It Off…

benningtoncolonial — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:40:48 +0000

My daughter’s birthday party is this weekend. As a result, I was motivated to cap off the stair wainscot paneling last night. It’s bed moulding, just as the lower portion; a workable alternative to a “real” cap. Over this past weekend, I was able to put on three coats of shellac. One more coat tonight and then the handrail can go back up. My project list continues to shrink; a step in the right direction to be sure.

Wainscot – We Got

benningtoncolonial — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 20:19:05 +0000

I finished up the stair wainscot today, sans cap. I’ve been putting this off waiting for warmer weather so I could set up my chop saw on the front porch, but I decided that it was time regardless. So I did the whole basement-staging-area-thing (up and down the stairs a billion times). I hate doing that because my legs always cramp up during the night (which they did).

This time around, I built a jig to make the severe angled cuts (68 1/2 and 56 1/2 degrees) for the panel moulding. When I did the first section of wainscot I did that all freehand which was really quite stupid; this took all the guess-work out of it. I was actually done with all the trimming yesterday (with the exception of two panel mould pieces) — 10 hours worth of work. Today, I added the bedroom door trim so the last two moulding pieces could go up. The next thing is the cap and a couple coats of shellac. The handrail is already done, it just needs to be installed again as before.

Upstairs Bath Almost Done

benningtoncolonial — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 00:52:46 +0000

With the exception of a couple of small details and a bit more painting, the upstairs bath can be considered finished. I was able to finish off the trim and add the marble shelving in the wainscot. My wife was looking for places to put “stuff” that was cumbersome to store in drawers. We discussed several things but adding a small marble shelf to the wainscot on the north wall seemed like a relatively straightforward solution. I hate putting holes in my new walls and I didn’t want the room to become too cluttered by adding storage over the toilet. So this was my solution. It’s not perfect, but it is workable and different.

In retrospect, the marble should probably have been black… (shrug)

Carpet Tomorrow

benningtoncolonial — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 04:00:53 +0000

The new upstairs carpet is to be put in tomorrow. Last weekend, I stripped the upstairs newel post and the master bedroom door jamb. This week, with a couple days of vacation before the holidays, I finished the baseboard, plinth blocks, and footing for the bannister. I didn’t get all the basecap installed because not all of it has been stripped yet. I also worked a bit on the preparation of the bathroom trim.

At one point, I was having such a miserable time getting the bannister footing installed, I began cursing and yelling. It was at that point that my wife and teenage daughter decided it was time to go shopping. I don’t often have meltdowns like that. I still can’t decide which was worse–the embarrassment or the emotionally drained state it left me in. (shrug)

Downstairs Milestone

benningtoncolonial — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 05:52:37 +0000

The last of the major trim work downstairs is complete… Ugh! ‘Bout darn time! The base shoe in the parlor remains, but it will have to wait until spring. I trimmed out the ceiling next to the stairwell, the landing window, and the remainder of the downstairs bathroom baseboard. Doesn’t sound like much, but the angles on the ceiling trim required numerous trips up and down the steps for fine-tuning. The next major deadline is the carpet install scheduled for the 23rd. All of the baseboard upstairs has to be in in order for that to happen. (Actually, I had palpitations today when I realized that to be the case.)

The Parlor (Mostly) Complete

benningtoncolonial — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 13:55:40 +0000

I was able to finish with the last of the parlor trim this weekend, sans base shoe. That will have to wait until spring when I can stain it outside. Now that it is “done”, I thought a before-and-after retrospective was in order.

Counting Down – Day 0 (Time’s Up)

benningtoncolonial — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 04:44:29 +0000

Last full day to do much of anything. Ready to gorge myself on turkey and all the fixin’s… Finished up the west baseboard, added some more picture rail to the parlor, added an “entablature” to the foyer side doorway, installed the last bit of foyer baseboard, hung the ceiling fan, cleaned everything up, and began furnishing the room. It’s not completely done yet, but we needed stuff out of the dining room for the meal. It is very close, though.

I’m beat! I’m glad that tomorrow is my “day off” from all this work. My job for tomorrow is to take the last of the cardboard off the stairs (yes, it’s been there since the mudders were here) and pick up my remodel area upstairs. Wish I could do some paint touch-up in the downstairs bath, but oh, well. And, just like every year, I’m on board to make homemade Parker House dinner rolls from scratch–my great-aunt’s recipe. Yum… It’s my favorite part of the meal.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

P.S. Anybody out there wondering why those outlets in the corner of the bay are so low and seemingly out-of-place? By code, there has to be an outlet within twelve feet of the next. Without those, I’m technically not compliant. However, the way the corner of the house was built, there is essentially no space not filled by a 2×4. The only place is right there where the outlet is. It looks funny, but one can never have too many outlets in a room. The electrician neighbor actually questioned my sanity because there were so many…

Counting Down – Day 1

benningtoncolonial — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 06:17:37 +0000

Only one more day until Thanksgiving… Another day of less than stellar progress. Shellacked more trim and installed the “entablatures” over the parlor windows. The doors will take more effort so they will not be done for the doin’s. So where did the rest of the day go? Quality shopping time with the wife, for one thing. We picked out blinds for the parlor, placed the order for the upstairs carpet, picked out a new TV, did some bulk buying at Sam’s Club, and had lunch together. Gotta have those days, too, ya know.

Pretty much sat on my tushy until this evening. (The west baseboard (to the left in the photo) still isn’t installed… (sigh)) Hopefully picture rail is in tomorrow’s agenda.

Counting Down – Day 2

benningtoncolonial — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 03:32:00 +0000

This is embarrassing… Less to report today than I would have otherwise expected. But, I did finish nearly all the baseboard trim in the parlor with the exception of the west side. The cold air return needs to be dealt with first. On the foyer side of the room, the wall was repainted and the french door and baseboard trim were installed. Otherwise, I put up a bit of picture rail and then helped my wife and mother-in-law do some preparatory cleaning for Thursday. Exciting, no?