Normandy Park Restoration

In the process of painting the ceiling beams and the framing around the back window.  Normally I would like the wood look, but in this house it's dark and making it look a bit dated.  However I'm finding that this wood really soaks up the paint.  3 coats minimum, and I'm not even close to done.  Here is what the ceiling looks like now: Here is what the back wall looked like: Here it is part way done: I haven't trimmed the paint on several windows, or finished scraping the paint off the outside from the original exterior painting.  I found that there was little to no transition seal between the glass and frame, so I had to build up paint on that and do a clean cut with a razor to get a good looking window frame.

Finally using the garage for its intended purpose.  Now that the furnace is installed I put the stair covers back in place and moved the bench to that side of the garage.  Lots of cleanup work, and now the car fits in with room to spare. And yes, lots of trash on the side of the garage, mostly old garage siding.  Need to remove that.

Old oil furnace Out with the old In with the new

Turns out the cabinet doors from the shelves I removed fit very well over the exposed wall on the kitchen, so I slapped them on, and had a junky old shelf in the basement that I wasn't using so I popped that on. I need to finish up the corner, and probably paint the shelf, but this makes for a livable bar area.  I'll probably leave it like this until I do the full kitchen remodel.

Have a 4-day weekend because I need to be here Mon-Tues for the furnace install, so I decided I couldn't stand it and needed to tear down that kitchen wall.  Here is the before: Here is the in-process: For now that plumbing vent pipe will have to stay, but I'll clean it up enough to be usable like this for a while. I don't plan to do the full renovation of the kitchen anytime soon, but just couldn't stand those walls anymore.  Here it is cleaned up.  I've put a little paint on the pipe, and covered the back of the cabinet with a temporary cover to prevent the dog from getting in there and chewing on the wiring.  For now I'm not removing the wall to the left, but might do that soon. Here it is cleaned up and with the last bit of framing removed. Here is a reverse shot.

Finally got some good weather and painted the garage.  Not quite done in this picture, need to touch up the paint where the colors meet, but 2 good solid coats are on it.  Still need to work on the back and get the wiring done, opener installed, etc... You can also see some fresh paint on the base of the front of the house where I moved the cable wire so that it wasn't running across the whole front of the house, but never got around to fixing the paint.

Doing mostly wiring in the garage this weekend.  Ended up playing with the color I was using on the ceiling in the basement as a trim color and I really like it.  Too cold to paint much, but I did a test patch by redoing the trim above the garage. Looks nicer than the blue I think.  Once it warms up I'll finish the paint on the garage, and update the trim (and finish the paint job on the house).  You can also see the lighting fixture that I added.  I converted this to use a 12v MR16 bulb, same as my landscape lighting, and tied it into that system.