Whoa to Wow

I want to say, up front, that Jason is the real artist of this part of the project. I helped provide some ideas but all the work you are about to see is his…

Sometimes, a journey down the path of a plan does not end up where you hoped but sometimes leads to something better. That’s the story here with the case of the risers on the main staircase.

The original plan was to evoke the pattern on the tiles found on the fireplace…

At first, we planned to do that as a stamp, carved out of linoleum…

But, after doing that and testing it, we found the results to be less than ideal. But, doing the stamp was not in vain because that gave us the idea, and the pattern, for a stencil instead.

The first few that have been done so far are beyond what I had even hoped for…

Stay tuned for the completed results.

Current Thought Pattern: There is a difference between those that own a house and those that live in a home. House owners see investment, profit. Home livers feel themselves as stewards, part of a continuum of caretakers for a place for a time in its history.

Not to say one or the other is bad. Nor am I saying they are mutually exclusive. Just to say that one ideas/sense usually takes priority over the other and drives the choices one makes about a place.

For instance, if I chose to view the Hague House as simply an owner, it’d be done and back on the market right now. Instead, I’m restoring a home, a place with history and built to house generations (as homes of that time were).

This drives the choices we’re making about it and the time we’re spending on it and, hopefully, we will sell it to folks that will have a similar sense (though we can’t control that, but we can hope). So the money and time become secondary to making it feel like a home.

So, I guess the current wrap up thought is this: Are you an owner or a steward? Not just with a house/home but with what you have in general? Because how you view/position yourself will ultimately drive your choices/actions.

To better get to the paint that needed scraping on the more difficult areas of the inside front door trim, I drove around to many places trying to find a 1 inch carbide scraper. I checked a few of the big box hardware stores and came up empty. I checked a couple of the mom and pop hardware stores — nada.

I then went to the specialty paint store. The one the true pros use. I figured if they didn’t have it, no one would. They didn’t.

But, just as I was about to walk away dejected the young man there asked what I needed it for. I explained the trim section I needed to get to. Even whipped out my phone and showed him a picture. That’s when he suggested this.

He said he uses it himself and that it is the best on the market. Says it works like a charm.

He only had it in gallon size buckets because that’s what the pros buy. But he said I could likely find the quart size pretty easily and even suggested some places he knows carries it.

I painted some on the trim today. The first test worked well enough. We’ll see how it goes.

This is why it pays off to go to the specialty store and talk to the people that work there. They know things.