The Garage and The Stink

First the stink...
For a month or two now, we have been aware of a strange smell that intermittently emanates from the closet of the master bedroom. We have pondered every conceivable hypothesis and tried to find the source/cause with no success. We eventually developed a strong suspicion that the smell was only present when the closet light was turned on, so we had our electrician look at it. He said the electrical connections were okay and didn't show any evidence of being too hot, but that the light fixture itself looked like it had been getting very hot; he pointed out a place on the fixture where its paint appeared to have bubbled up because of extreme heat. So we're going to replace the light fixture and see if that leaves the closet stink-free.

The garage had been a complete wreck since the week one of this whole thing, and yesterday we finally did something about it. We started at around 9:30 by taking almost everything out of the garage and lining it up in the driveway. Then, after giving the floor a good sweeping, we brought things back in one by one, placing them deliberately and strategically in drawers and on shelves, ensuring firstly that we would be able to call the garage "organized" when we were done, and secondly that we would never be able to find anything again. Things used to be scattered all over, so we thoroughly came to know the location of a particular object by using a crude latitude/longitude scheme, but now things are so neatly stowed away that you really have to know exactly where to look. (Putting things on shelves was particularly detrimental, as it suddenly introduced a third dimension into the tool-inhabitable space that we already spend so much time searching.) Alas, it's for the best, and it certainly feels good to have the clutter gone. We finished at around 4:30.


And, for the first time ever, we were able to park the Jeep in the garage instead of in the driveway:



Things have slowed down a lot (hence the plummeting frequency of blog posts), but I'm glad to say that's because there simply isn't that much left to do. I lack a wall and a half of quarter-round, and we still need to paint the back door. Those are probably the biggest things on the radar. I'm going to start putting together a collection of pictures (not sure what sort of format...maybe a PowerPoint presentation?) showcasing the work that's been done since March--essentially a bunch of before/after pictures. I'll make sure that becomes available here. The next time you hear from me, we may well have a new roof!

Shingles, etc.

I am not disillusioned about the fact that my blog posts about my projects are never going to be as awesome as Nathan’s. So, let me wow you this way. Last Saturday we ate lunch at the PF Chang’s in Knoxville when toward the middle of my meal I am alerted to the fact that the god of football, Phil Fulmer, has chosen to take a seat right next to ME! As you may suspect if you know me well, I did indeed pick up the phone and call my father to share my warm tingly feeling with him. I so wanted to tell him that at the Orange and White game in Chattanooga, when I was eight, I had my picture taken with him and he told me that he had a daughter my age. However, my husband implored me not to “bother” him. I know, you’re thinking “How could he possibly be bothered by you, Jessica?” My thoughts, exactly.

The end of the summer is already here. I wanted to get a few projects done before I started teaching this year. Nathan and I have been finishing up the quarter round. We finished the office last week, and tonight, he’s finishing our bedroom. My most recent project was working on door knobs. After a closer look, I decided that I would try to polish the door knobs before we went ahead and replaced them. I am very glad I did. They have turned out beautifully. Some look better than others because the tarnish was extreme in places. I am much happier with these knobs than I would be with new ones because they look so interesting and because they were original to the house. They don’t make knobs that look like these 60-year-old ones anymore.

Today Nathan and I came home early to meet a roofer. He measured our roof and talked to us about our options for shingles. Nathan and I decided that it would be a wise move to proceed with the roof now (we were considering replacing my truck, which we sold Wednesday). I think were going to get another estimate from a roofer that my mom knows before we hire someone. Until then, I am trying to pick the shingles I want. I know I want architectural shingles. These are the three colors I have narrowed it down to:

"Moire Black"

"Graphite"

"Slate Stone"

I want the attractiveness of the shingles to show, and it seems that the darker the roof, the less you can appreciate the shingles.

Kitchen Floor Complete

After far too long, the kitchen floor is finally done. Jessica swept the floor first, then I wiped it down with a sponge and water. After the slate was completely dry, I applied a simple penetrating grout/tile sealer. Then I mowed the front yard. The slate had completely absorbed the sealer after I finished mowing, so I went ahead and applied the final product, a "stone enhancer/sealer". This product brings out the colors in the stone, makes it darker, and gives it a slight glossy look (at least until it gets dirty). Have a look-see:






We're going to avoid walking on it tomorrow; hopefully it'll be dry and pedestrian-friendly by Saturday. It does feel nice to have this done, but now I must move on to other tasks which, I'm afraid, will seem very foreign to me, as I've done almost nothing but lay tile/slate since March.

Slate-Grouting Progress

I've slowly been chipping away at the time-consuming project that is grouting the slate in the kitchen. It's quite an ordeal, but I've finally got the process memorized and streamlined. Here's what I've been doing:

1. Use a sponge and a bucket of water to clean off the slate to be grouted.
2. Empty the bucket of its now-dirty water, refill it, and repeat step 1.
3. Repeat step 2.
4. Wait 15 minutes or so for the slate to dry.
5. Apply a coat of sealer.
6. Wait 15 minutes or so for slate to absorb the sealer.
7. Apply another coat of sealer.
8. Wait 30 minutes or so for slate to absorb the sealer.
9. Mix grout.
10. Use a grout float to scoop a tiny bit of grout out of the bucket.
11. Using the grout float, squish the grout into the grout joints a few inches at a time.
12. After grouting about 4 slates' worth of grout joints, stop to clean grout off of slate surface.
13. Fill a 5-gallon bucket with water, use a sponge to clean off excess grout, rinsing the sponge every minute or so.
14. Empty the bucket of its now-dirty water, rinse the sponge out, and refill the bucket.
15. Sponge off slate two or three more times to ensure removal of grout "haze".
16. Repeat steps 10-15 until knee- and back-ache become debilitating.

It's painstaking, but it's working well, and I'm probably about 75% done. I've done a little illustration to show some of what I've grouted so far. The green lines in the picture represent grout lines that are done (the lines hidden on the left continue all the way to the door and into that corner):


(And of course there's the part under the stove and dishwasher that I did a few weeks ago.)

After it's all grouted, I'll wipe it down a couple more times, apply one more coat of sealer, then apply a final coat of "Stone Enhancer/Sealer". We'll see how that holds up; I may end up sealing it again a few weeks after that.

Not a whole lot more has been going on lately. After the floor is done, I'll move onto projects like installing quarter-round, cleaning/organizing the garage, and installing thresholds for the two kitchen doorways.

Refrigerator

We finally had the refrigerator delivered today. It was put in place and hooked up with little fuss. I wasn't there when Jessica picked it out, so it was the first time I'd seen it in person. It's gargantuan! I love it.

When we were living at the duplex, I was always whining about the amount of space in the fridge. I foresee no such problem with this one. The refrigerator is so imposing, in fact, that it changes the feel of the kitchen dramatically. Jessica says that once we get a table and chairs in the kitchen, the fridge won't seem so strangely oversized. Either way, it won't bother me; I look forward to going spelunking for milk each morning. ;-)