The Nichol House Experience - Part 1

Hello, blog fans! I am glad to announce that I have reached a monumental moment in the Nichol Street Experience. As you know, I have been working on remodelling a house to be used as a rental property at the request of my husband. Today, I begin on the final week of work on the Nichol house. Mark has painted all the walls and installed a floor in the room I called the rough room. Now we have to touch up the paint, scrub and wax the floors, paint the stairway to the upstairs and add on the detail stuff like electric plate covers. The people who are to begin renting the house on March 1, dropped off some light fixtures for installation. They have asked that something be done to cover the pipes in the downstairs bathroom. And everything needs cleaning.

      Some of you may wonder why I have posted such an austere photo of myself. I took this myself, sometime early in the process. Later as I looked at it, I couldn't help but see my father's face. He was a carpenter. He built much of our house....slowly...over years.  He was always adding something on. I thought of him often as I slugged away at this project. I thought of my brothers too. Especially the two brothers who are carpenters. I remember going to the new North Cove Elementary School in the Woodlawn community  in Marion, North Carolina with my brother Doug. He showed me the trim work he did on the school gym. A facility that will be around for years. I was amazed at how the wood looked as if it was one form. Tight to perfection. And my brother Elihu with his wonderful wood shop just a few feet from his back door. Neat as a pin.

    My sister Marlene told me not to cry too much at the end of the week. It struck me as funny because I have been feeling kind of maudlin about the house. It was built in 1884. The people who built the house were craftsmen. I can see it in the house. I stayed late the other day to paint the stairway to the upstairs. I mixed brown and black paint and discovered that I had gray/purple steps...so I will be repainting the steps brown. As I got to the bottom of the steps, the steps make a curve around. As I painted the curve around, I noticed a piece of concave moulding trim underneath the step. I've watched enough home repair / wood working shows to know that this curved trim would've had to have been steamed or soaked in water to limber up the wood. I loved discovering this hidden detail because detail use to matter. The house was quiet. And in this instant, I felt connected to those spirits from 100 years ago.

    Stay tuned... It's gonna be a busy week.

Painting Has Begun

    On Monday, Mark and I started painting the Nichol house - interior. He  was using the paint sprayer and I spent my time washing down the wood work. I have to admit that I have been dreading this portion of the remodel project. I can't explain why I feel this way. I guess that I see it as another mountain. And it feels like there have been many mountains to climb in this project.

    We spent 2 or 3 days taping windows, fixtures and floors to get ready. At some point, with blue masking tape and newsprint on the windows,  the house began to look like the inside of a cathedral complete with stained glass . Philip found us a fine sprayer. It churns the paint out at an amazing rate. In 2 days the entire inside of the house was painted. Sure, now we have to touch up the straggling points but it is amazing to see such progress in a short time.  By Friday, we hope to have all the painting and touch up finished. Next job, the floors. We have a deadline as renters are moving in on March 1st. "Damn the torpedos! Full speed ahead!"

  

Winter Musings

Progress is continuing on the Nichol house. Many of you may not be able to believe that it has been a year of trudging work but I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. As you can see from the picture, a new front door has been added to the house and that is the excellent work of  Dr. Mark. I call him that as he may not want his name used on the internet. Mark is a guy that Philip hired to help us finish up with the house. And the guy is a God send. Everytime I turn around he has fixed something else. And done it with a great - no problem attitude.

It's snowing again in Indiana. It has been the "deep freeze winter." I call it the deep freeze because most of the time in winter, we'll get a couple of  35 - 40 degree days. Not this year - so far. It's been difficult at times - like the other morning when I opened my car door and it popped when I pulled on the handle and then wouldn't close and then I tried the door lock and the door closed so I crawled in on the passenger side because I was afraid that if I opened the door, I would never get it to close again.
     We had a pipe freeze up in the Lincoln building at the end of a really tiring day and I thought I would just lose it fortunately my son, Barnaby was working in Anderson and worked without complaint to save the day.
   But Phil and I have started trying to walk at least 30 minutes each day and it has made all the difference. Something about turning off the tv, the computer, the business, etc. and bundling up to go out there into the world of nature, does something to a person. It invigorates. To be out in this God given world, with all it's sounds of wind, snow falling, dogs barking in the distance, birds singing out from their hidden places, the water trickling in the creek through Rash Ditch, calls to something inside a person. One day we saw a red fox running across the northern most pasture, along the creek. It was a sight to behold as it's flame orange body made it's way through the snow! We've seen squirrels fighting/mating/playing in the trees. A sort of high wire, trapeze, clown act. One day, I saw about 6 or 8 of our black cows running/dancing in a field full of snow as more snow poured down. They were throwing their feet up in a beautiful, bovine conga line. It is undescribable just how that looked!  And the experience of just walking along with my best buddy in the whole world is gravy on top!