My Walls Whispered Today

IF WALLS COULD TALK-
Maybe it wasn't outright talking but my walls said something today. I was cleaning the kitchen cabinets (see pic) and on the front ledge I found a 2-inch wide indented area that immediately made me think of the old meat grinder my mother used so long ago. It would clamp on like a vise grip to the edge of a table or counter. We have lived here 7 years now and I never noticed it before. These little things become a bit exciting to those of us who would have loved to live in the years before our time. I can now picture that meat grinder working away with the old-fashioned wood stove burning and the smell of yeast bread in the oven.

Keep It Original, But I Want That!

I am a person that totally appreciates keeping things original in an old house unless it can't be repaired or brought back to life. For about 6 years I have posted comments on different message boards and blogs how I feel about it.

The first time I had to eat my words was when we decided we had to put in a patio door and deck in order to have access to the back yard, as small as it is.

Second, is when I had to strip the old finish off of the woodwork because the top layer was peeling like dried egg whites (previous owner top coated shellac with old wax on it with water-based I conclude). I replaced it with the same original material, shellac, but went darker.

Our upstairs has original heart pine woodwork, never painted in all of its 90 years (except the bathroom). I want to redecorate the bedroom into a cottage style but the yellowish, brown color of the woodwork, though beautiful, doesn't look good with the whites, creams and blues I want. The woodwork would look really nice a cream color.

The woodwork needs to be sanded down because of the same egg-white peeling problem the downstairs had. Being it has to be stripped someday anyway because of this peeling, I'm thinking I may become the person I despise the most, the person that paints over original wood (heart pine, am I crazy?).  I'm not having too much problem with this, because there is shellac underneath that would make stripping the paint off later with a heat gun quite easy.  If I do this, I'll be such a hypocrite.

Victorian Mansion Gone Bad

I was going through some vacation photos from a few years ago and came across this one from Williamsport, PA. They had wonderful Victorian mansions everywhere. It was wonderful to walk along the streets. Then we came upon this monstrosity. What the heck! Bungled, bungled, bungled. Yes, that front is attached to the back house. Whoever did this should be tarred and feathered, in my humbled opinion.

Answering Shellac Question-pics

I received this comment regarding this post. (partial comment)

I have a 100 year old house that has Mahogany woodwork throughout. I am trying to replicate the finish which was shellac. I am not sure if is was tinted or garnet or just age. It has a very deep red wine look to it, similar to your oak.

I'm working on some woodwork now using the dewaxed, garnet shellac and I'll try to post video of my process. I'm not an expert but I've learned to do it with good results. If I could find free videos of the process, I'd link to them but I can't find any. They all want you to buy their videos or books. Mine won't be expertly produced but for the beginner who just want to see how it can be done, it will serve that purpose (and they are free.)

To start, I'm posting a photo of my mixed garnet shellac in a plastic jar with true daylight (and snow) behind it. [Also is the color of the shellac on my white oak woodwork in normal daylight lighting in the room. The wood has no dyes or stains, just garnet shellac.] I tilted the jar (see photo) and took the picture. As you can see, the color looks very yellow in the lighter areas. As it gets down to the heavier areas it turns a color with more red tones (garnet). When you apply the first coats, it looks yellowish. But if you keep applying coats, you can build up to the garnet color. How many coats? It depends on the color of your wood and how thick you made the shellac. You'll probably have to order the garnet shellac over the internet in flake form and mix your own. They have shellac dyes, also that can achieve similar colors with less coats. But the multiple coats builds the beautiful depth. If the color you are looking for is one of the shades in the jar, then garnet shellac may be what you are looking for. It will take multiple posts to explain working with shellac.

Video-Around Erie

I took this video last weekend. For those of you from the Houseblogs.net that may be viewing this, I just wanted you to see what it is like during winter in our little city. It can be fun if you like winter sports. Erie has many Victorian and Crafstman houses. The older houses sell pretty cheap but the taxes are pretty high in the City of Erie. But if you want to find an otherwise cheap area to live and restore a house, Erie is it!
Video below has no sound.


Blip.tv

Picture of Medium Sheen Waterlox on Oak

Here is a picture of how shiny the "medium sheen" Original Waterlox turned out on my white oak woodwork. I have multiple coats of the dewaxed, garnet shellac first to build up the color and then 3 hand rubbed coats of the Waterlox Original. It was still too shiny, I thought. So I have added another coat with some flattening agent added to it that I haven't taken a picture of yet. I'll take pictures of the finished product when I'm done.

Finishing Wood

I have been pondering what finish to put on the oak floors. I bought a can of Waterlox back in 2005 and it has been sitting in the back of the refrigerator
since then. It has been opened and a little of it used so I must have
tested it on something but I don't remember it (so many projects going
on at once!) I'm lucky it is still good and didn't gel up. Maybe keeping
it in the refrigerator and that it had its metal plug replaced under
the cap has kept it fresh.

I have half my living room oak woodwork finished in several coatings of dewaxed garnet shellac. I decided to go over the top of it with the Waterlox
I have. I have the Original "medium sheen". I took extra fine steel
wool over the shellac to make sure it will get a good bond. It is so
easy to put on. It is just like rubbing baby oil on the wood! But is
does smell and doesn't dry for several hours. I had gotten used to the
smell but when my husband came home he immediately asked what that smell was.

The "medium sheen" was too shiny for oak to suit my taste. I added a little Shellac Flatt to the Waterlox on the final coat and am pleased. In a few days when it's cured, I'm going to rub some "dark oak" Black Bison Wax on it to give that satin sheen (not shine).

The problem with doing the floors with Waterlox will be
the dry time. I'm going to have to do small sections of the floor at a
time so we can step around it. Shellac would have been so much easier
but it has its drawbacks. Occasional cat accidents (hairballs) ruins
the finish. An area rug over the shellac would probably stick to it in
the summer humidity. You can see what a mess the shellac turned into when the old carpet was pulled up. The foam pad had melted into it so I had to
strip it. See pictures here.
So Waterlox it will be, one small section at a time.