This Old House

Brent Beach has an article in FineWoodworking #184 about sharpening planes and chisels with sandpaper. I've been doing this for a while, with mixed results.

The article had some tips I'm going to try, and also a link to Brent's website for more information.

And man, is there more information. Tons of information. More than you'd ever need to know about sharpening.

It's a great resource.

A series of photos of Gosford Castle in Northern Ireland. One of the largest castles ever built in Ireland in the unique style of Normandic revival, which sadly has lain empty for nearly ten years now. It is slowly but surely turning into a ruin.

Flickr Image Gallery

Wish I had billions of dollars. I'd restore this gem.

There is an old fortress for sale off the coast of England. Only £150,000.

And I thought my house needed work.

Here is the listing for it.

Here are more pictures.

Did some stuff this weekend - worked on the house a bit.

About three years ago there was a big project in our neighborhood to replace a storm drain that runs down the street. So they tore up the street and drove a bunch of pilings into the ground. All the vibration caused this huge crack to form in our bedroom wall.

So Saturday we thought we would patch it. Hahahaha.

The crack started in the corner about 6 feet off the floor and ran diagionally down behind a dresser. We thought we could just pull the dresser out of the way, drive in some plaster washers and plaster over the crack.

Then we moved the dresser. The crack ran down the wall into this huge circular area where the plaster was pulled at least three inches away from the lath. No way was I going to anchor and mud that.

So I ended up pulling off an area about three feet by five feet and putting in a piece of sheetrock. Then I anchored all the edges and started mudding.

I put more mud on it Sunday and should be able to put the final coat on this week or weekend.

It turned into a bigger project than we expected (of course) but I think it will turn out okay when it's done.

I took some digital photos and will add them to the house section of my website tonight (maybe.) I didn't think of it soon enough to get a photo of the huge crack before I started.

Update: The photos are up.

We have decided to get the floor refinished in the dining room and the kitchen. It's probably about time as the finish is mostly gone in parts of the dining room and in most of the kitchen.

Anyway, there was a section of the inlayed border in the dining room that needed work. So this weekend I worked on it.

There is an entry on the House Page about it.

Let's see, what did I do this weekend?

I'm taking Fridays off for a few weeks to get some work done on the house.

This weekend I replaced more siding, finished up two new storm windows and finished up the flashing on the small roof that I redid last week.

Nothing but fun at my house.

Did more work on the house this weekend. Tore off and replaced the roof over the little bay that juts out for the stairs.

The roofers that we had replace the roof about 10 years ago didn't repair the roof decking correctly so that the trim didn't fit right.

It took a little thinking, but I figured out the right way to deck it and rebuilt it.

Unfortunately, it's wrong all over the house. I guess that we will have to fix it when we get the roof done again.

Gah.

Sunday was wet, so I cleaned the basement and started making some storm windows.

Then on Monday I discovered that the reason the MiniVan was shuddering so much at speed was the dried mud packed in the rims from our vacation.

Now it only shudders a little bit.

After fixing the MiniVan, I scraped a bit more paint off the house and replaced some siding.

Busy weekend. I'm glad to be at work so I can relax.

Spent all day today stripping paint off the side of my house. Whee...

I have this tool called a SpeedHeater 1100, it's an 1100W infrared heater. It heats the wood under the paint and actually works pretty well.

Stripping paint is still a pain in the ass though.