Building Stuff (in my house and online)

Today was the beginning of the end for a couple of big projects that I have been working one. On Wednesday we are getting a fireplace insert put in a spot where I had taken down a mantle (see previous post) and I have prepping the spot for about a month. Today it was replacing floors near where the new mantle will be. First I had to cut out the old floor and get it cut nice and straight for the faux hearth.

Luckily Addy and my Wife are at Grammy's house tonight. Rach would not be too happy with the extreme mess that is going on in our house today. But, the long day of work felt good when the floors actually turned out great.

Now that I have some aches from my "This Old House" day. It's time to finish something up that I have also been working on for a little over a month. Time to hit the computer to build the new Sometimes Sweet Blog. I have everything designed and approved and ready to go up, so this may be a long night. I want to get it totally live tonight. I am really stoked to get this up and have all of you check it out. For now I'll give you a tiny taste.

Repurposed Old Ladder Pot Rack

So, Rach has been busting my chops to get a ton of projects done around the house. Hey Mommy, I have some design work to do too : ). This wasn't even on the list, but I just had the idea yesterday. We have an old industrial workbench as an island in our kitchen, so I thought "Hey, that old ladder would kinda tie in nicely with the island... maybe as a pot rack". SO... I went to the hardware store and wandered aimlessly while I thought in my head how I was going to make it work. I left with $13 in hardware (6 feet of chain, 8 "L" brackets,  and some "S" hooks), and headed home to get Manly... and this is where I ended up. The kitchen is almost done, thank god, but a Daddy's work is never done...

Couldn't pass it up...

A couple of days ago my wife mentioned our recent antique hunt on her blog. It's going to take some time to get all of our finds integrated with their new home, but when I got home, I instantly found a home for something that I couldn't pass up.

At first glance at the antiques center, it was just another interesting old time poster type print. But as I walked over to it to see more. I began to see an interesting theme. There was much reference to advertising and design and what I began to realize was done for a retirement present for someone that worked in the Con Edison building in NYC, I'm thinking this was done in the 30's? . If you are in the field of graphic design or advertising (or many other fields), that homage to the deadline ("sweet dead o' line) is a classic timeless stress that predates computers, email or smart phones... but will live on long after they are obsolete. Alright, now you have my attention...

I'm really liking the classic advertising type artwork, the subject matter, the historic nature, and reference to a field similar what I do, but in a time when things were done much differently... but wait.... what is this rhyming line at the bottom...

It has an interesting, cute old time writing style to it. It so cool to see that the person that was retiring always wanted to play the accordion, which is not common these days besides in some hipster music scenes, or maybe a VFW hall polka night. BUT WAIT... reference to the classic early 1900's barber shop standard that has my daughters name in it... SOLD!

And that, kids, is how it made it's way to our home. Good Night.

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Let's Tear Down a Wall...

Last week, I realized that I have taken a decent amount of time off from destroying things in the house and fixing them again (My wife's words). So, I recently decided that I'm going to work through my whole house one room at a time. Yesterday, I decided that the Mantle that Rachel and I have gotten sick of, is getting gone along with the plaster behind it, exposing a nice brick area... and why not repaint the room while I'm at it. We love historic architecture, but the mantles in our home are a little deep in color, and almost have a vibe that they were made in the 60's??? (even though they are from 1890).

Let's start tearing things down!!! arrrrrr!!!

It was cool to take the mantle down and see the guts of how they anchored it to the brick, there was a surprise hole that I had to fill in with some old bricks that I had in the basement. Let the real mess begin...

At this point, I'm sweatin' buckets. But I really needed to finish this whole project in one day because Addy and Rach are out of the house all day, and I don't want to risk any debris and dust getting in my girls' lungs.

The cleanup and painting took forever, and I am beat... but by the magic of the internet it only takes you a matter of seconds to see where I ended up. I'm going to call Rach now and let her know this post is up, she hasn't seen the room yet... these photos will have to do until she get's home.

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