We(lding) Solved a Problem!

If you ever have a difficult problem to solve (like, let's say, a lot of deteriorated wood windows), and you just *need* some motivation to get started solving it, the only reasonable thing to do is shop. 

Usually I start my motivational shopping with books, but I've already got half a dozen window restoration books - the Scott Sidler, the John Leeke, the Steve Jordan, the Scott Hansen. (If you know who they are, you have old windows, too!  Hi, Friend!) 

I needed something else.

And that's why I now own a pair of beautiful bright blue leather welding gloves. 

No. You don't weld wood windows. (Silly Rabbit!) 

You put wood windows in the Steam Stripper. 

And after the steam has done some stripping, you have to get the windows out again. 

Without stripping anything else - like your skin. 

And that's why I have these welding gloves. They solve a (hypothetical) sub-problem of the larger problem!

How motivational!

Sleeping Dogs

The dogs are sleeping.  

It's 7:30 and I accept that I'm not going to accomplish anything else today.  Which has left me time to read back through blog posts of yore.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Because of hip dysplasia, Little Man no longer always feels like tackling the stairs to the backyard, and so I am taking him out on the leash.  This week it has been a good excuse to walk around the house to check in with the roofers who are lining my new wooden gutter with copper.

The gutter seem to be doing its job.  I can tell, because it's currently raining.

I would like to say that in the five years since my last post I have discovered that I have an aptitude for DIY and home management and the house has been transformed into a thing of wonderous historic beauty.  But I respect you too much to lie to you, Reader.  I am the least qualified old house owner on the planet.

In fact, my current "project" is to perform a full inventory of all the care and investments that the house needs so I can rank each item by urgency and cost and see what I can reasonably afford to pay other more qualified people to do over the next five to ten years.  This is a disheartening project.  The scope of my ignorance and the sheer quantity of peeling paint and water stains overwhelms me.  

"Nevertheless, she persisted."

The first inventory task is windows.  A full review of each window, its current condition and the relative urgency of repairs.

At this point, anyone who knows me in real life will be saying..... "Wait, what?  Still?  With the windows?"

Yes, dear Reader.  Still, with the windows.  There are, after all, about 65 of them, in various states of disrepair.  And several of them have been disassembled and then abandoned by repair men and the sashes are now just laying uselessly about the house (like the dogs).   

So I have resolved to tackle the windows myself.

For the next 6 weeks, except for hours spent working, eating, sleeping, walking the dogs and generally procrastinating, the next 6 weeks of my life are dedicated to window restoration and general planning.

What can I accomplish, now that I have set my mind to it?

Oh look.  It's time for bed.