Staining the Front Door

9-13-08
Staining wood is a very difficult process at best, complicated by the fact that I have not done any significant quality staining in many years, and you only get one chance to get it right. Armed with this knowledge, I am attempting to do just that to the single most important feature of a home, the entrance.

I have done many color samples on the outside edge of the door frame over the last two months. Kelley and I have compared the look, color, and texture of our dining room table to the samples (see earlier posts' picture), and I have finally come up with the proper custom blend of color and finish.

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

9-1-08

Imagine this; my petite wife Kelley and I, a 420 pound deep-soak, cast-iron tub, and a lot of hemp.

If you ever read the book in the title of this posting, there is a scene where a couch is permanently stuck in a stairwell with no way to get it in or out. People have been climbing over it for years. Kelley and I found ourselves in this very situation on Labor day. It all started when "I" had the brilliant idea that we could move this behemoth of enameled iron 10' up a stairway with a 6-to-1 block and tackle system and a few ratchet straps. I was right, Mostly. It took us all day. We turned the stairs into ramps with 1/2" plywood, and I put a large eye-screw into the framing for the block to hook into. I used a hydraulic car jack to get the tub up on blocks and onto the dolly. We heave-hoed it up the first flight of stairs, only to find that it could not make the corner (even though I had checked the measurements). I ended up loosening the leading stair-rail support, and carefully tweaking it back out of the way. The second set of stairs didn't go as well. The dolly couldn't make the corner and stay on the ramp, so as we were maneuvering it, the tub slipped off the 4X8 blocks and we ended up dragging it up the stairs. The edge of the tub came millimeters close to the window, one false move and we would of been bathing in our back yard. Our neighbor came over to check out the commotion, and helped Kelley and I haul the tub up the last part of the stairs, back onto the dolly, and into it's resting place in the bathroom.

Preston and Nathaniel were home with us, so we had alot of 10 minute breaks. We also took an hour for lunch and a swim. I didn't get video, because I was either straining my back, or my brain.