In the garden, and RAIN!!! (2)
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Monday, September 7, 2026 11:50
VIEWED: 338648
PAGE 796 of 834
Picture Time. 
First is easy stuff that I finally got around to. Like cleaning those gross shades. Like I said, I got the burn marks off the bad one, but then I realized it was clear and the other two were nicotine stain yellow.
And now that the kitchen is all clean, I figured I'd snap an after shot for one of the before pics I put up last week.
And the finished bookcase...
I put some caulk on it where it needed it. Obviously not a pro job with that top left hack job, but I know the thing is built like a tank and you can hardly notice it. All that's left is putting down contact paper on the surfaces when I've given it a few days to cure.
Before/After of the master bedroom closet and entry. You can see the louvered linen closet door in the after shot.
Before/After of the small bedroom closet that I just installed today.
I had to add length to the right door, so I used the smallest part of a piece of window/door trim since it was the perfect height to cap off the ends, then I put my trim on that. For the door that was the right size, I just put the trim flush with the bottom.
And the chest...
I'm wrecked. 
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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
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I'm REALLY having fun with that chest.
I've actually never restored a piece of furniture from start to finish, even though that's what my mom and step-dad did after they retired. Whenever I did go over there and worked, I was either the sanding grunt, or I was gluing and clamping pieces that had broke but could be repaired. I don't blame him. The money is in the finish, and he had a spray booth that would have that box finished in no time with a perfectly even sheen and no brush marks at all.
I had a chat with Google AI about the best way to go about doing a lot of the stuff here. Made sure to go with water poly inside and out. At first it said to use the wipe on poly I had inside because it would be much easier to use than brushing on the water based poly, but I had asked it if there would be any problems with that if somebody stored clothes or linens in there and it then said to use the water based stuff to lock everything in so the smells and oils won't contaminate the clothes.
It recommended starting with the inside first since I was doing two colors. I'm glad that I did. I know for sure I have to spend a lot more time sanding the outside smooth. I thought I was thourough, but I know I wasn't. Just a week ago I was really feeling under the gun with all the projects that I took on all at once and I didn't give this piece the time it deserved. I like how that looks on the inside though, along with that black gunk and other abuses and imperfections it had from just being like 100 years old. Stuff that I could have removed with another 4 hours of sanding if I wanted to. When she opens it up, she can remember where it came from. But on the outside? I want that stain to look perfect and I want to get a gloss so high on that it looks like a brand new bowling ball.
Too bad pieces like this don't just fall in your lap all the time. I could probably make what I need to keep my health insurance just doing 1 or 2 pieces like this every month.
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That is some fine looking work there SIX. 
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Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
That is some fine looking work there SIX.
Thanks, Brenda.
Don't mind the tight angle in the after shot of the small bedroom. Had to get in pretty tight to hide all the hoard that I have to go through in there.
I'll have pics of inside the closet too. There was just a lot of stuff in there right now. I've got to take that all out so I can clean it and do a few paint touchups. I had my hard shell guitar case up against the wall and it ruined the paint job behind it for some reason.
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Great work, SIX!
It's great to see the results of all that work! I remember you deciding what to use for that opening in the kitchen to the lower level. For the longest time I had no idea what you were talking about. It was an architectural feature I've never heard of.
Bifold doors. Closet renovation. New trim. HORRIBLE wallpaper and paint job gone! Restored flooring. Nice, nicely proportioned furniture and beautiful light fixtures. New kitchen floor. Plus the stuff we can't see: Major repairs. Repaired sump drain pipe. Improved grading. New windows. Hole in floor fixed.
It used to be dark, busy, almost oppressive. Now it's light and calm and classy.
SIX, you've done an impressive job.
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
That is some fine looking work there SIX.
Thanks, Brenda.
Don't mind the tight angle in the after shot of the small bedroom. Had to get in pretty tight to hide all the hoard that I have to go through in there.
I'll have pics of inside the closet too. There was just a lot of stuff in there right now. I've got to take that all out so I can clean it and do a few paint touchups. I had my hard shell guitar case up against the wall and it ruined the paint job behind it for some reason.
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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
Don't worry SIX. I found the angles were fine to see what you did.
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Great work, SIX!
It's great to see the results of all that work! I remember you deciding what to use for that opening in the kitchen to the lower level. For the longest time I had no idea what you were talking about. It was an architectural feature I've never heard of.
Bifold doors. Closet renovation. New trim. HORRIBLE wallpaper and paint job gone! Restored flooring. Nice, nicely proportioned furniture and beautiful light fixtures. New kitchen floor. Plus the stuff we can't see: Major repairs. Repaired sump drain pipe. Improved grading. New windows. Hole in floor fixed.
It used to be dark, busy, almost oppressive. Now it's light and calm and classy.
SIX, you've done an impressive job.
Thank you, Sigs.
Yeah... I learned a lot doing all of it along the way. I tended not to want much to do with actual finish work outside of painting when doing this stuff with other people over the years. I always liked doing the demolition because nobody I ever worked with was going to complain about my speed doing that. So I either had to draw from memory of seeing other people finishing stuff or rely on YouTube University.
The really cool part is just how little I've actually paid in cash to get all this work done. Not going to claim it was anything close to free overall. I've probably spent $600 on paint alone. But that 2/3 bathroom remodel was only about $50 so far (I did have things like new knobs and the paint purchased back when the kitchen was done years ago).
The kitchen is all original outside of the new flooring which I got on the cheap because they had a "remenant" that was big enough to do the kitchen floor and both the coat closet and pantry with more to spare. That was something like $89 instead of over $125. And those poles for the overlook were BEEFY oak coat closet hangers that are about double the width of any of my actual closet poles. Normally $22 each but I got them on sale for $10 each. So probably add about $300 for paint and another $100 for caulk, knobs and hinges and the hinge jig. (I did have to buy that drill press and the forstner bit set for the overlook, but I generally don't count the purchase of tools as a cost of a job unless they were single use or rentals... but technically that was another $75 or so).
And all the trim in the house basically was free after the clearance prices and me taking out that new card to pay with it that gave me $250 signup bonus for spending $1,000 in 90 days (I used that as an excuse to load up on stuff I know I would be using eventually).
So far, that kitchen remodel was probably $600 and the bathroom was about $50.
I would like to get a nice jet black countertop to replace that awful Menard's special that's sitting on top of them now though. It's why I haven't caulked any of that to the wall yet.
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Out in a bit on what should be a cooler day. Got some rain where I am over night. Outside of the library not totally sure what I am doing.
SIX if you didn't get my message in tags. I did the restart before I went to bed last night. Everything is working this morning. Turning into a two finger typist because of my hands as I don't know what is going on. Going to look at another store about laptops.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
SIX if you didn't get my message in tags. I did the restart before I went to bed last night. Everything is working this morning. Turning into a two finger typist because of my hands as I don't know what is going on. Going to look at another store about laptops.
I did, Brenda. And I posted a new reply in your thread.
I thought you said after the restart you were still having problems, no?
If not, disregard the last message that I put in Your thread about the next step. If everything is working fine now, we're all good.
Don't slow your typing down because you're worried about your hands shaking. I really don't think you did anything wrong and most of this was coincidental, based off of your descriptions.
Windows really does need somewhat regular restarts, and I've gleaned from our conversations in the past that you hardly ever give it a proper restart and it's usually just in sleep mode when you're not using it.
I would try to make it a habit on the 1st of every month to do a restart on your computer and you shouldn't run into issues like this anymore. This might just have happened because you've been running that computer since the monitor situation without ever giving it a proper restart.
And the best part is when you finally get around to upgrading the computer it's almost certainly going to have an SSD hard drive which is lightning fast compared to the cheaper/older mechanical hard drives. We're talking like 30 to 60 second restart times instead of 5 or 6 minutes.
Yeah... Get yourself a laptop when you can and we'll get everything you use on there too so you'll have a legit backup and way to get online so we can troubleshoot the other computer. I bought my laptop about 6 years ago, and except for offloading some of my project work onto it a few months ago, I've only ever fired the thing up 2 or 3 times since I got it. But it's always there in case of an emergency.
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ULTRA BRIGHT WHITE PAINT MY ASS!!!
Instead of opening one of my 3 unopened cans of flat white paint I've been using for all the ceilings and some closet walls, I spotted a half gallon of ultra bright white flat Behr paint that I got from my buddy.
It went on white, that's for sure. You can see that in the photos below (or more accurately, you can't see anything). I thought the problem was solved. But after I snapped some pictures and got them ready to post I went back in and it all dried freakin' BEIGE!!!
Dammit.
The inside of the can looked good, but some of that rust on the outside along the rim must have gotten into the paint at some point. Not enough for me to notice it when it was in the can.
Throwing that shit paint out. I guess I've got to bite the bullet and open a brand new gallon of paint just to do about 10 touch ups. Stupid. Oh well... I remember getting the flat on an insane rebate sail for only $8 each years back. Wish I bought more of the high-gloss stuff since that was only like $15 at the time of that sale and now goes for about $35 when it's not on sale. But I've got 1.5 gallons left and that should probably get me through most everything left to do in the house when I get to it all, I would think.
This just pisses me off, especially since I used up all the rest of my flat paint last week and would have easily had enough left on my brush and the bottom of that can to do what I need to do now.
Anywho.... Here's a better look at the closet, and the little trap door I need to start work on soon.
Ain't nobody got closets like Jack because Jack is crazy.
Oh... and that hole definitely was cut out to hide something. There's literally nothing under there. I am very intimate with that hole since, if you don't remember, that's the hole I literally fell through and put my foot right through the basement ceiling when I was taking a video of work to show my mom. My gonads hurt me for a week after that and I was pretty worried I ripped something and gave myself a hernia.
It's about 3 feet away from the tub, and there is nothing there at all. No plumbing, no electric, nada...
I wonder what they were hiding in there?
It was all carpeted over like everything else and it was covered with some nasty plywood.
I've got some scraps from a nice hardwood floor still out in my garage for this very project. I ended up using most of them as faces and support beams on all those shelves I built for the garage, but I've got plenty left to do this. I think what I'm going to do is notch out enough on both the floor and the top that I create so I can lay hinges in there backwards, flat and flush with the surface. Maybe put a little hole in the front of it for you to put your finger in there and lift it.
It would never be a good place to really hide anything unless somebody carpeted the entire upstairs again, including the closets, but what a fun little thing for a kid to have in their closet one day.
I haven't come up with a solid plan yet, but I've got a vision. I need to make sure that I build a proper base in there that will take any and all weight of anything you put in there off of the basement ceiling drywall first, then I want to build some nice walls for it to so everything is safe and looks great.
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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
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