Featured Blog Posts – May 2011 Archive (5)

I mentioned in a previous blog that I had ordered new, unfinished kitchen cabinets for my house. It was the only way I could afford to replace the existing cabinets, which were old and filthy. I would have had to do some major work to get them clean enough to even use, and they were built in place at some point after the house was built, I believe. The back…

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So the real estate record indicated my house was built in 1880, as I mentioned in my previous entry...  and I found evidence that the house already existed in 1875, since a local map surveyed that year clearly shows my house at that time.  After speaking to some historians and experts in this particular architectural style, we concluded that the best guess was that the house was probably built in 1874.  Hence, I have always used the notation "c.1874" thus far in describing the…

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I have a circa 1895 wing and gable home with yellow pine floors. The floors in all the rooms are bare where the original owners had a rug then the rest of the hardwood floors were painted brown around the rug. I would like to have all the paint removed so that the whole wood floor can be seen and then have the whole floor finished. There are remnants of a reddish stain under the brown paint so I know that part of the floors where stained. I have heard not to sand yellow pine floors. Stripping… Continue

As we were putting the finish on the bedroom cabinets, I reminded my dad, who is about as bad a perfectionist as I am, that it's supposed to look kinda crappy, but when it's all done, it will look incredible. OK, well, I was hoping for incredible, but would have settled for 'not bad.'

To review from my previous blog, the finish is done in layers of acrylic 'milk paint'. The first coat was a dark brown. Then we clear coated it to create separation between that color and the next color…

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I live in a 1901-02 built house that has a Queen Anne exterior, but  strongly colonial revival, large 1st and 2nd floor foyers.  So you could call it an eclectic house.  Because of the date of construction and the foyer style, I'm not sure if the strong colors of the high victorian era would be appropriate for it's exterior.  Can anyone make  suggestions or give opinions on this?  It's a 3-story house, set back from the street with lots of mature trees, and a brick carriage house in the rear.… Continue