Lots of Details

At this point a lot of detailed things are happening, and it's a little subtle. We are working towards getting the upstairs ready for painting, because the painters basically want to be given an entire floor to go to town on.

Let's see.

The glass partition was installed in the back bathroom.

As was the mirror.

The glass partition was also installed in the middle bathroom:

This partition is only half width and folds back against the wall, which works well in a bathroom that is designed as a wet room (with waterproofing all the way up the walls on every wall, rather than just in the shower).

The Accordion Room bathroom has really taken shape. The clawfoot tub is installed:

And so are the lavatory and toilet.

When we were there this afternoon, Noel remarked that as a bedroom, this was a ridiculously small room, just too small to be workable even for a child. But as a bathroom it is gigantic. Which is great.

Another small detail is that the contractor installed some new attic stairs. I'm still not sure why the old stairs we had didn't work, but for some reason the stupid things just did not want to open and close easily enough for a person my size to use them.

So we replaced them with a new set, and they are trimmed out and ready to use.

In addition, a bunch of extra details have been installed, such as the window latches:

The idea is to have the hardware installed before painting, but then remove it, so the holes get painted without chips or scratching, but the hardware isn't there to make extra work.

The carpenters have been working their way through the house installing doorknobs, too.

For the most part they are working out OK, though there are a few snags I need to handle.

One issue I didn't consider carefully enough is that a lot of the antique hardware I got was designed for thicker doors than we have. Which means a bunch of it won't actually work.

This plain pocket door hardware works fine, but the privacy version -- the version that actually locks -- is too thick to fit in the door properly. Arg. Have I mentioned how much of a pain the door hardware has been?

In better news, the guys bought a lathe and have been painstakingly copying one of the stair balusters to replace the missing one. I think it looks like they are getting pretty close. For some reason UPS decided to get all weird about delivering the package containing the knives for the lathe, so this is still the rough cut (you can see it's larger then the reference baluster).

Finally, look at this adorable door they made for the Harry Potter Room:

I mean, seriously.

This is Isidro and the door he and his brother Juan made. Note that the mini door has the same proportions as the front door. Perfect!

Tomorrow I plan to go climb around on the scaffolding and take some photos of the restoration of the exterior: the restorationist doesn't work Mondays so I can do that without having to wear a mask.

posted by ayse on 07/02/17