Winter Storm

Solo trip this time so I won’t be tackling the soffit but will keep finishing up the doors. The main door is done with the semi-gloss coats so that will get the first matte coats. The glossy coats look pretty good and I’m almost tempted to just leave it as is. But for consistency with the closet door, I move to the matte coats. Unlike the bathroom door, for the bedroom, I’ve been following the advice on the Waterlox site for a smooth finish. It involves wiping down with mineral spirits and then using that as a lubricant to buff out the finish with steel wool or a 400 grit sandpaper. I go with the steel wool because I think the sandpaper can cut too much. After the steel wool, another wipe down with mineral spirits and then clean that off. I apply the matte finish with a rag and pay special attention to avoid streaks. If I can get away with just using a rag application I’ll go with that.

Semi-gloss.

The closet door is all cured and ready to go, so I move on to hanging that. Before I hang the door, I insert some wood dowels into the holes along with some wood glue. Once that dries the glued dowels will give the screws something to grip. The hinges I bought are replacements so I need to file down the hinge routing on the door to get them to fit. After attaching the hinges to the door and frame, I find that the door doesn’t quite fit. The bottom hinge is out of alignment so I can’t get the hinge knuckles to line up. It takes some more filing of the bottom hinge routing to get that hinge close enough to get the hinge pin in. But the top right of the door is still out of alignment and is brushing against the frame preventing closing. I don’t attach the latch because I’m not sure exactly how this will line up. I get sick of messing with the door so I abandon this until later.

Door is kind of hung.

To get away from the frustration of fine carpentry, I go back to the other bedroom and pound away more scraping paint. I start on the last wall to try and get that clean. No fine technique needed here. Just keep working and changing out blades when they get dull.

Lots of mess.

Bottom layer is calcimine then various layers of latex paint.

A good chunk scraped off.

As a finishing touch I attach the bakelite light switch cover. I’ve been looking for matching brown Art Deco bakelite outlet and switch covers for the room. I went with bakelite and a deco ribbed look because that’s what is used in the attic and I’ve seen this style used in other old homes in the area. I was happy to find this bakelite switch plate for the push buttons. I feel most push button covers were brass so maybe by the time bakelite became popular push buttons were on their way out.

Push button cover.

Besides the scraping and doors, the other event was a pretty large snowstorm blowing through the area. The storm put down a good amount of snow, but then mixed in with the coastal winds there were lots of snow drifts. I spend a good amount of time digging out so I can get my car out of the driveway to return back home.

Snow and lots of drifts.

Big drifts in the backyard.

Pretty evening with snow and all shoveled out.