Harvest Time!

Over the summer we got a TON! Of produce from the garden, it was great but honestly it was way way more then we could eat. We still have a freezer full of tomato sauce and veggies.

For our first full season here, we got an amazing garden going and I can't wait till next spring. Everything was so lush.

 

This shows some of our harvest rewards!

We planted a lot and I mean a lot! We planted a blueberry bush, Arkansas Black Apple, peach, mint, Rose of Sharon, Azaleas, Lilies, roses and a ton more.

The grape we rescues really sprouted out this year and I am so happy it came back. I really hope we get some grapes on it so we will know what type it is.

And we made a lot of flower arrangements this summer too.

Door Restoration Project!

Let me tell you a crazy learning process! Building a door frame from scratch to fit an unsquare door! Since I believe that both of the front doors on the parsonage are original, I want to save them but it is no easy task!

Now how to get a door that looks like this to look like that

 

It wasn't easy at all! Clues on the door, told me that originally it was shellacked but over a century the outside of the door weathered really bad and then it was painted. This meant the paint got stuck in the grain and the wood was super super hard. I pretty much just kept slathering walnut stain on the door till everything blended together, its a bit darker then I wanted it but it shows as a wood door and not painted. I also didn't pay to much attention to the trim around the glass. One day I will pull the glass replace it and the trim. I founded out awhile ago, the original glass in the door was broken and a new piece put in its place.

The interior side of the door had to be done too, this like a lot of the wood work was painted brown over the shellac and had to be cleaned off. Under all that was a gorgeous pine that just glows.

Then it was time to build a frame, oh what a pain! I have never done this! But it turned out great. 

Adding the hardware back. All the hardware looked to be copper or japanned but it appeared that none of the hardware matched and there were signs that everything was just painted black and so I just opted to repaint all the hardware back.

Once the door was rehang, I had a big problem! There was a huge gap down to 3/4inch on the bottom. I guess the door not being square from multiple trims over time, lead to this :( 

Here was the answer a door stop with built in weather stripping and a window stop from the church. It works and doesn't stand out to bad.

Finally the door is done! But here's the kicker! I have a mirrored set of front doors, so I have to recreate this one plus I have the back door too...ugh!

Window Sash Restoration...

Getting a window to go from this to this. Is a lot of work and through the spring/summer I managed to get four of the seven windows in the parsonage fully restored. 

 You have to completely remove the sash, strip the inside and outside of the sash, repair any damage and then you can glaze.

Reinstalling the glass, fully clean and then you can glaze. Now the glaze takes about two weeks to cure.

Then you can rehang them, of course with new rope for the weights.

Though lets not forget about the interior trim, that needs to be stripped and cleaned...then repaired...

In the end though, it is worth it. But you will notice, you still need to use a safety scrapper to scrape the over paint on the glass but leaving just a hair to protect the glaze.

Time to tear off the front....

 

Yes that is a hole in the front of the parsonage. We started at the worst corner first. Everything from the windows to joist need to be touched in one way or another. After we replaced the front rim joist/mud seal with a beam we never really replaced in of the rot in the front wall. We need to replace every stud, some of the top plate and pull the window out to relevel it on this corner. Hints to all the salvage we did on the one addition on that home.

Remnants of one of the vines.

Forgot to mention, we drug out another large old beam from the crawl space. There were/are four of these that were added to hold up the floors after the joist rotted away from the rim joist/sills.

Slowly adding new studs.

Window missing now..

AH! Window frame in and some new old siding showing up!

More siding but now the left door is out for rebuilding.

More wood siding replacing the temporary vinyl...

All the siding up and slowly adding the lower fascia back!

In June the sashes started to make a return...

And in July a almost fully restored door....