Housiversary 2016, Text Version

Truly vintage Bethlehem Steel wire brads used in this year's project

Today is Housiversary meaning that it was seven years ago that I got the keys to the house and met Scott here after work to look over the place as its, well, indentured servants. We had Doritos and cheap sparkling. I decided "just to see" how hard it would be to rip out the carpets and some hours later we were lugging the nasty old things down to the garage. Scott had, as I recall, managed to get a couple of windows that had been painted shut for decades to open. I may have solved the mystery of the sconces by the time we left as well. It was an auspicious start to our happy years of seemingly endless labor and unending reward chez Aurora.

 This year, lamentably, I had to spend most of the day at work and I need to be there bright and early tomorrow so Scott did most of the work on this year's project on his own and we aren't staying up late doing anything. (Some years back it was already getting dark when one of us, most likely me, said, "Hey, what do you think about starting to install all this used cork flooring we've had sitting around for the last couple of years?" I'm sure the neighbors appreciated when we stopped hammering in the wee sma's.) The 2016 project was/is window screens. After spending far too much on crappy screen kits from the hardware store, Scott figured out how to make fabulous old-fashioned screens for our fabulous old-fashioned sash windows. A fancy new dowelling jig was required, as well as a few other bits and bobs, but we were able to reuse the old screen material and of course the newly purchased wood was painted in the house green. We painted the wood over the weekend, and while I was at work today, Scott assembled the frames (the dowelling jig is his new favorite toy, I do believe), and put in some washers to hold the frames in place. (He's a darned clever craftsman, is our Scott.)

After I got home, we got down to adding the screen material, covering up the staples with some cosmetic strips of wood, adding hooks and eyes, and installing them in the window frames. (When I say "we," of course, I mostly mean Scott.) We've done only two thus far, and they need some caulking and touch-up, but I swear I heard Aurora breathe, "Finally . . ." as I looked at the first one in place. They look like they belong on an old beach bungalow. What higher praise can there be?

 

The final installation