You Don’t Love It and It Doesn’t Love You, Release It

Moving from a home I had lived in for over twenty years helped me de-junk. Still, I had too much clutter. I was fortunate to get help from a relative and another friend who were naturals at organization; they actually enjoy doing it! I started the daunting task in the storage shed then moved to organizing the house. My master-organizer friend helped me sort items in three categories:
● Trash

● Keep

● Give away

Sorting through my treasures and deciding what items to keep and what items had to go was painful. Fighting the thought “I might need that someday” that was stuck my brain, I waded through “stuff.” My cousin said, “If you don’t love it and it doesn’t love you, its time to release it.” This phrase helped me donate some of my neglected treasures to charity. Out went the comb-binding machine and boxes of binding combs, away to an acquaintance went my oak drafting table, chair and drafting arm, and to EBAY went my drafting templates and supplies. I was surprised and pleased how many others needed the things I had held onto, and I have not missed the clutter. It's amazing how much easier it is to organize when there is less to organize. Now my motto is: If something comes in, another item must leave and this usually works.

I have found the ancient proverb “cleanliness is next to Godliness” has merit. I believe that a tidy home allows positive energy to flow more freely and is not so frustrating to look at. If anyone needs help or ideas for reducing clutter, my daughter clued me to the website http://www.flylady.net/ a great site for packrats or some of us that just need a little help.

Decor: Tell Your Story

I wanted my décor to reflect the era of the house and tell my story. I sorted through things I already had to find like items for grouping. In the living room I started with photographs of ancestors since genealogy and family history are two of my loves. I had them printed in sepia and framed with wooden frames. I had an old fiddle that a grandfather once played and placed some guitar strings in an old package on the front. To help tell about my heritage, I grouped the family momentous together at the corner of two walls.

Because I am an artist, displaying some of my paintings is a must. I find a mirror hung here or there is useful in opening up a room. In the photo above on the right, the mirror on one wall reflects one of my paintings which adds more dimension to the living room. As you walk across the room, the mirror discretely reflects other scenes. On the wooden sconces on either side of the mirror are a few keepsakes.

Since I grew up with the colorful Utah deserts as my playground, I am interested in geology, rocks and crystals. I grouped my fossil/rock/crystal collections in areas around the house intermixed with other keepsakes such as my father’s cribbage board and one of his favorite books. I once found a large commercial antique butter churn with my maiden name printed on the front. Since it had my name on it, I had to buy it. This is where I store my firestarters (see my Helpful Hints and Tips, Tip: Firestarters on the right side of this blog page). I grouped it with crocks, a washboard, my father’s branding iron, and a large antique-looking vase containing a few peacock feathers and some hand-carved walking sticks.

I look to the experts such as Pottery Barn catalogs, decorating magazine and books. Stores like T J Maxx and Pier 1 Imports offer fun decorating items. If you have a treasure, make it the center and decorate around it. In the kitchen I used my Mason jar collection and a few old cook books to add my interests to the décor. See my post Adding Flavor to the Kitchen

Manti has power outages now and then so a kerosene lantern is incorporated in the décor of each room. Too keep the lanterns well supplied, I found wick by the yard at http://www.wickstore.com/

Hold Me Back Before I Jump

I can be impulsive, like buying a hundred-year-old house and jumping into the project. The south balcony was so bad it could have temped me to jump in a bad sort of way. I tried to ignore it because I did not have a clue how to fix it. When I bought my Victorian, I was fortunate that the house had a new roof, but I was not to happy that the roofing material covered the floor of this guest-bedroom balcony. Stepping on it in the summer was like stepping on hot blacktop. The railings were loose and posts were rotting and falling apart. I was stumped on how to repair it. I did not opt for a wood floor, because my other balcony floor takes so much upkeep. I considered plain tile, but I just could not get excited about that idea because I was afraid it would crack or come loose during winter. I found that other people in town had tile on their porches that held up through the cold weather. As I was discussing this option with a friend, he said, “Have fun with it.” That triggered my interest, and I started shopping for tile with a pattern. I chose ceramic tiles with a rough surface so they would not be slick when wet, and drew up the floor plan to scale with a graphics program showing how I wanted them laid. I called my trusty carpenter, gave him the pattern and he went to work. When he pulled off the roofing material, he found the floor was rotting in places and was uneven so it tilted to the side. He repaired the balcony floor and installed white metal sheeting on two sides to stop water from doing damage in the future. The floor dips slightly to the center so the water runs off the balcony in the middle. He did a beautiful job laying the tile I had chosen. I replaced the railing and posts. The colors in the tile pull the gray roof, the red brick and white railings together. I now have balcony I enjoy standing on, especially when the breeze is rustling the leaves of the cottonwood trees and bird are singing or flying about. When I look down I often see butterflies flitting about in the flower bed below. It is a job where money was well spent. The tile made it through this last cold, long winter and has not shown any wear or damage.

Stripping: Not for Entertainment

When renovating an old house you usually need to strip or replace porch railings, doors or moldings. I did a little of each and it was not entertaining. My old house has 5 outside doors with porches or balconies. That is a lot of posts to refinish or replace. As mentioned in the previous blog, I had replacement posts turned by an expert woodturner.

To strip turned posts, I bought a plastic flat storage container just longer than the posts and wide enough to hold several posts. I poured enough Citrisrip (about 1 large bottle) in the container to come 1/2 way up on the sides of the several posts and sealed it with the lid. I soaked the posts for several hours turning them over from time to time. After the paint bubbled and lifted, I took each post and scrapped off as much paint as possible into a separate container then returned the posts to the plastic container to soak again in the stripper. When most of the paint was loosened and wiped or scrapped away, I rinsed off the posts and let them dry. I used a utility knife or any other tool that worked to dig paint out of creases. I sanded the posts with a Makita BO5010 5-inch Hook & Loop Random Orbit Sander (one of my favorite tools). I hand sanded any places that the sander could not touch.

To strip woodwork or doors, I used plastic drop cloths. I folded the drop cloth once and laid the door on it. I then painted the door using Klean-Strip® Strip-X® Stripper. I folded the drop cloth around the door to let the sripper soak into the paint. Every half hour or so, I would rewet the door with another coat of stripper. A couple of hours later the paint lifted as the stripper soaked through the paint to the door’s surface. The plastic helps keep the stripper from drying out. I found Jasco® stripper dried too fast for this method, but works great for a first coat to get the stripping started. Be patient and let the stripper do the work! After a couple of hours, I unfolded the drop cloth and used a 3 or 4-inch spackle knife to scrape off the paint. Sometimes I used a small chisel for hard-to-scrap places. Repeat the process until most of the paint is removed then sand. For woodwork, I painted it with stripper and cut strips of a drop cloth and covered the stripper-covered moldings. The wet stripper held the plastic in place. I would pull back the plastic and rewet the molding with more stripper from time to time until the paint bubbled down to the bare wood.

On to the Outside

I finally moved to working on the outside of the house. Exiting to the outside of the house is easy since I have five outside doors, two upstairs and three downstairs. When I had a locksmith rekey all the deadbolt locks, he had a box of skeleton keys in his van. He let me dig through them until I found a key that fit almost every lock on the inside doors of the house. I went to the fabric store and found small tassels to hang from each key. It is those small details that make renovating so much fun.

My handyman poured and finished new sidewalks that wind up to the dining room and living room porches. The previous sidewalk was made of brick and with time had become uneven, a real ankle buster. I followed the same pattern and kept the winding effect. I had curbing poured on the street sides of the lawn and a automatic sprinkling system installed.

I discovered a wonderful mailbox. I drove up 10600 South in Salt Lake and admired a mailbox by the road near 13th East. By a stroke of luck I found one just like it and had two young men I knew dig the hole, pour the cement and help install it. I used a round cardboard mold made for pouring cement bases to line the hole in the ground and made a cardboard template showing where the bolts should be placed in the cement. After we poured the cement in the hole, I place the cardboard template on top of the cement and pushed the bolts into the cement where they were marked on the cardboard. After the cement hardened and the bolts were set in place, I lifted the mailbox and carefully set the base down right over the bolts. After tightening the nuts on the bolts, the mailbox was solid in place.

In the summer 2005, someone parked in front of my house to visit the Manti pageant. In the process of parking, they backed into the mailbox. The post snapped in two. Fortunately, it is made of cast aluminum, and I was able to find a shop that was skilled in welding aluminum and had it repaired. After touching up some paint, It looks as good as new.

The porch railings and posts needed a lot of work. Some of the posts were rotting while others were in good shape. I did not want to replace all of them so I found a wood craftsman who took one of the posts and turned others like them on his lathe using the original post as a pattern. I had them made out of redwood so they will last longer. I shopped around for porch railings and finally found some I liked at Crossroads Mill in Draper. The railings were surplus from the historical Cove Fort Restoration, and I bought them at a good price. Their employees have been especially helpful in aiding me in finding other moldings I needed from their stock, and the mill also turned rosettes for me. Even though I am not one of their major customers, they still gave me great service.

On the east of the house is weed patch next to the street. I have not decided whether to bring in gravel or to black top the area or look for another option for making the area tidy and still stay useful for parking. I need to get bids on each option and look at pros and cons. Any ideas anyone?