House Improvements, paint, mantels, clocks and candles

Shiny grimy walls and dark dinged up trim

Dinged up trim with mismatched paint

 And so the house project continues.  We are nearly done with the first room, or at least as done as we want to be for now.  The front room, which we're using as a living room was dingy, dark and all sorts of cracked.  The wall paint was a semigloss, probably ot one point white, but now a dingy and greasy gray.  The trim was dark, and not especially pretty.  We have ordered new double paned windows for the room, and they'll be a cream color, but for now, we're stuck with the single pane, wavy glass.

Filled in holes from too many sets of blinds

Painting the trim to match the eventual windows.

We decided to lighten the room up by painting all of the trim the cream color that will match the windows. We also purchased insulating honeycomb blinds and installed them on the window

T

Taped walls and ceiling

here were some big cracks in the plaster. Some experts suggested that with plaster and lath, the only way to assure that it's repaired is to drill holes, and insert glue in between the plaster and lath, and then clamp it, so it's reattached firmly.  That was more than I wanted to do, so instead, I went with the other advice I'd seen which was to tape the cracks, and then mud and sand them.  So, that's what I did. There was one big hole in the ceiling that is the result of a leak we haven't yet stopped, so we left the big hole and we'll repair it once we figure out the water. 

Gap between mantel and plaster

There were also cracks between the plaster and the really neat mantel that contains the built-in clock.  Those were spackled and sanded.

Taped and mudded ceiling cracks

Painting begins.  Ceiling white, and a yellowish green. 

Meanwhile, we have this beautiful mantel with a clock built in. The clock didn't work, and the face of the clock was dingy and parts of the numbers were missing. We found an antique clock repair man who came out to our house, took the inside of the clock out, and for $250 will return a clock that works. Either it will be repaired with its springs and keys, or if he can't get it working, he'll install a quartz time mechanism and a battery for the pendulum. Either way, it will again work. 

Broken 7

While he's working on the inside of the clock, I worked on repairing the outside. I went to a local craft store, and purchased some gold paint, an exacto knife, and a thin wooden Christmas ornament. 

Broken 3

Cut pattern for the three

I traced the missing pieces of the seven and the three and cut them out of the ornament. Then I glued them on to the face of the clock, and very carefully, repaired all of the numbers with shiny gold   

And now the clock outsides are  ready to join with the clock insides.  

One interesting thing about the mantel is that it had these interesting places on either side of the clock that had nice detail, but the previous owners had covered the plaster with contact paper, that had long since gotten brittle and yellowed, We took the contact paper off, and were left with sooty, dingy plaster walls, and we couldn't get in to paint it to match the walls.  We thought about nailing something against the plaster, but it's an outside wall and it's not plaster, but rather cement. Our fancy nail gun couldn't do the job so we were left with plan b.  We glued little pieces of wood below the trim, so if we slipped something down, it wouldn't fall behind the mantel.  Then I took two pieces of thin finish plywood and cut them down to the size of the spaces previously covered in contact paper, and painted them the same color as the walls. Finally, we slipped them in the spaces, and voila, it looks finished.  

I'm finally done, or 99% done with the door to the bathroom.  After discovering bring that the beautiful wood grain was fake and painted on, I tried my hand at fake, painted grain. I used gel stain, and before it was dried, I used fingers, q-tips, and a cloth covered screw driver to make patterns. When I look at it, I see finger-painting.  But when I look at the other woodwork, I see finger-painting, where I used to see beautiful wood grain.  Once I realized it's fake, it's hard to unsee the fairness. Hopefully my door will not look any faker than the rest. I painted the side of the door that will be in the bathroom to match the bathroom trim. The fixtures on the stained side were cleaned up to their original shiny brass, and the figures on the painted side, I spray painted to match the bathroom fixtures, satin nickel. 

So the living room is nearly done.  Here are a few views.  

One final crafty thing I did that I'm pleased about again involves the fancy fireplace. I believe these were all gas fireplaces, as they're too shallow for a wood box, and there's an abandoned gas pipe in the middle of the firebox.  In any case, until we figure out the chimneys, we aren't likely to have real fire in these beauties, all six of them.  Starting with this fireplace, though I decided to purchase a bunch of remote-controlled LED candles, the kind where you can't see the fake flame, but they still flicker.  Then I made the rounds to the various thrift stores around, and bought things that either were originally intended to be candlestick holders, or could serve as one. I spray painted them all a metallic iron color, which sort of matches the inside of the firebox.  I've got them all ready for the arrival of my candles.  My plan is to set up the candles in the fireplace, on the mis-matched, but painted to match holders, and push a button, and have light.