Scattelogical ramblings and desultory humor - It's spring!

Louise, I have to agree with everyone else.....BEAUTIFUL!!

My DMIL use to make baskets, beautiful hand woven ones. Then she would sometimes tole paint Loons or Blueberries on them and give them for gifts, never realizing people pay big bucks for that stuff. Finally we told her to make as many baskets as she could befroe Nov. and we would sell them for her at the school fair. She made enough money to pay for her oil the entire winter that year.

A true artist indeed

It took about 2hours to read down to here even pressing the skip to new. loved how MPLaurel said she deserved a diploma for getting to the bottom-(that was a long way back) i'm waiting for mine now too! just to catch up on unanswered questions..
WC2- the 'A' word you mentioned concerning drugs and artists was Absinthe... (see i really do deserve the diploma)
And DonnieB your painted pots are painted so well! so colorful ! Victor.. oh never mind...
Hi everybody- It was a great day, huh- though I was in the car a bunch.. but DID hear a quick old Monty Python bit on Spam- and had a good laugh but i STILL don't know what happened to gloria's porch. Sarah

Sorry. Scammer. The scammers are the people who pretend to be construction experts. They see 'little ol' lady with gray hair' + house with columns on the front = home equity loan.

Yes. Mam. We are "restorers" we will save you money and we know how to fix old houses. We are EXPERTS at fixing old houses. Not.

I will not tell you the rest. The case is in court. It is called "theft by deception" and the penalty is ten years in prison in Alabama.

Working now on a "settlement" but it doesn't appear to settle anything.

They destroyed my porch. It is not now what you see in the photo.
They also stole some important Indian Jewelry -- a 1926 squash blossom Navajo coin silver necklace and other priceless pieces as well.

Yes. Scammers. Not spammers. At least you can delete spam.

(Yes. VG. Or eat it on a sandwich).

My house was built in 1943. It just takes me forever to do anything - so it seems like I'm doing a lot more than really is being done. But the good news is that I finally finished my office. Now I just have to make the curtains and decide what to put back in it - I might make it an office / sewing room.

I myself do woodworking and basic carpentry....been doing so for nearly 20 years.....and I will tell you, in this day and age of Home Improvement Mecka Wharehouses ( menards, lowes, Home Depot ) Any fool that goes out and purchases a tool belt thinks he is Ty Pennington or Bob Villa,and I am telling ya...90% in my opinion are nothing more than JackLeggers.

There sure are a lot of incompetents in the construction business here.

This guy was claiming to be an "old house" officionado.

I started to suspect when he wanted to use bondo to fill the checks in the columns (they are made out of real trees, not peiced as some are.)

I know as a woodworker myself and as curator of an 1830s historic house here that you don't make repairs on old wood with materials that are harder than the original fabric. Bondo does not hold in old wood.

Oh My God!...lol

What? You don't believe me?

You let in little patches, and save shavings bonded with hide glue to fill voids.

I was laughing about the Bondo.....I buy what you are saying....makes sense.

The local school had columns that someone filled in with bondo. The bondo just pops right out leaving splinters along the filled edges.

One of our restoration carpenters tried to use bondo on an old window ledge. The ledge just melted away under the repair.

If you look at old old furniture - especially chairs you will see a lot of patches let in to move with the original piece of wood.

When I took cabinet making, there was a lot about wood grain and how wood shrinks and expands and is really "alive". When you design a piece of furniture all of this activity has be be taken into consideration.

Very very interesting......I would dig a course on that.

I think there is a Tage Frid video at Fine Woodworking. Also the guy who makes Windsor chairs. Make a chair from a Tree.
Also green wood working.

I thought bondo was supposed to work as a good filler on old wood if you primed the area really well BEFORE you applied the bondo. A supposed "expert" told me that...and that the priming ahead of time is what prevents the bondo from popping out later.

Oh no...I just bought 2 gallons of bondo to repair old window sills on a 1928 house...and that stuff isn't cheap !

Hi JD...where you been??

scraping and sanding window sills !

I loathe scraping window sills.....tis the bane of my existence.....

am going to start using a heat gun on the really bad ones tomorrow.

Never tried that before....good idea.

Good morning Jo Ann here lurking at the door. This sounds like a whole forum you could "chair" yourself Gloria.
I love old houses and lived in a 1927 Craftsman until last july.
I loved that house ,gumwood,sunporch, frontdoor overhang. It got to be too much ,Laundry in the basement.
Sounds like you respect the integrity of old things. Havn't read Tae Frid's book but have seen his work. I went to "The School for American Craftsmen" at Roch. Ins. Tech. and know what it takes to make anything out of wood altho my major was clay. I love your house and you are smart to keep ahead of the restorers .
Maybe they need a website like DG, to help find the rotten ones.

lot is small 40X120 Entry is at the side , Driveway took all the garden space and big cars couldn't fit the garage so I used containers.

New thread!

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/833194/

JD. Our restoration carpenters use an epoxy wood repair. Its not cheap either.

The Fein multipurpose tool has an automated scraper, as well as a variety of sanding grits. Its not cheap either, but I thought it was a good investment for working on an old house.

A scraper needs to be super sharp. Then it even gets mesmerizing.
Plug in some music and its off to scraper land!

http://www.vandykes.com/product/70046452/

Here's the Wood Epox.

http://www.tylertool.com/feinfmm250.html

Here's the Fein Multimaster.

http://www.tylertool.com/flscbl2pa.html

Here is the flexible scraper blade. There is also a rigid scraper blade.



This message was edited Apr 11, 2008 9:58 AM

Thanks Gloria, I'll definitely ck. out those links.

The scammer stole my heat gun. I just got another one, this time with multiple heat settings. There have been some fires in old buildings from heat guns used on high heat. Especially on stair cases where the heat builds up behind the surface and then ignites after youve stopped working on it.

Nothing worse than seeing 100 or 150 year old wood on fire .. or charred ... or left with the swirl marks of a circular sander.

yaaaak!

This is the very best paint scraper ever made!!!!
http://cgi.ebay.com/Paint-Scraper-Vintage-Stanley-82-Wood-and-metal_W0QQitemZ380014982572QQihZ025QQcategoryZ42337QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I borrowed my neighbors and loved it so much that I bought my own. When the blades get dull - he sharpens them for me.

YC does it have a hook on the front edge?

The blade makes a 90 degree angle at the front - but no hook. The angle adjustment with the wing nut allows for various degrees of pressure. I don't know how I ever lived without one! LOL

Gotta get one of those asap.

From an ergonomic standpoint, it looks like it would work better.....less stress on the hand and wrist, therefore more pressure can be applied.

I bought mine on eBay and "regular" blades from the hardware work with it.