Homemaking as Art

While folding laundry I was thinking about how to build some shelves for the towels. Then I imagined all the different nooks and crannies in which I could build some custom shelves, And I start to imagine the whole house fitted with structures to hold all of the physical memories of our growing children; clay sculptures, pinewood derby cars, soccer trophies, class photos, valentines day cards, favorite sea shells, etc... and in the kids room, shelves everywhere filled with toys, books, puzzles. What a wonderful place this house could be if I could just start adding some shelving.. Sometimes you visit a house, and it really has that lived-in beautiful family feel. It may not be the cleanest place, but it is full of life, happening now. Happening every moment it is filled with growing children. There are pets, toys, and half-completed projects all over the place. The kitchen is like a big pantry, full of stuff at arms-reach for the cook of the house. And sets are gathered around the kitchen with homework books on the counter with the splattered cookbooks. Recently, a former classmate had his house published in an architectural magazine, and when my wife and I saw this, we laughed, because in our mixed up confused life, it seems so empty it was absurd:

I may not want a house that is spare and white as this, but I do think it can be purposely built and continually improved much more than we have done so far. Our house now is more of a jumble of backround thoughts that were never completed. I want to do better in this regard. I think a good home, whether an apartment, a condor or a house, needs constant attention. Never-ending repair, rebuilding, and improving, similar to the constant attention a child demands... or your spouse. And I guess what I am making peace with is that this is a worthy project. Worthy of just as much attention and respect as a career. Home-making is an art, like any other. So give it the attention and hard work that it deserves. That is why,even though it has just turned midnight, and I could expand on these thoughts for another hour, I will now stop this writing and go give some love and attention to some shelves in the bathroom. BTW; below are two images of the Soane Museum in London. This was the personal house of Sir John Soane. He was an avid collector of antiquities and he was continually rebuilding and improving his house to display his incredible collection:  

 

Drip Drip

After the dryest autumn in memory, we are in the midst of 2 days of solid rain. I love to hear the rain on the roof and the tinkle on the window panes. I even enjoy a walk in the rain now and then, but this is only enjoyable if we have a warm dry home to which we return. And tonight our house is warm and moist from the stock pot which is bubbling on the stovetop.

In 2002, we put a new roof on our house. Before that, it was vacant and the water had infiltrated and done much damage. The wood softened, plaster crumbled, bricks eroded. One interesting thing about the bricks in Over-the-Rhine is that the bricks were made at local kilns from local clay, and the bricks that sat closer to the center fire, got harder. When the masons built these walls, they could tell the hardness of each brick with their hammer, and they placed the harder bricks on the exterior wythe so as to repel the elements. The softer bricks were used on the inner wythes and on interior brick walls. And these softer bricks can last centuries... until they get wet. If the water gets the soft bricks, they can just melt away back into the mud from which they were made.

For a few years in the 1990s I had a job in which I was responsible for the stability of some vacant buildings down here. And nights like this I would go crazy thinking of the damage that was occuring with every drop of rain. I would go in these buildings and the water would be pouring down the inside. Each rain washed small particles of the buildings down into the basements and into the sand floors, until.. sometimes they would collapse. And today, that process is still happening all over this city, but especially in the northern reaches of Over-the-Rhine, and it just breaks my heart.

Anyway, this was all going through my head this evening as our eight year old roof sprang it's first leak. The water is dripping down in the attic, over wood rafters that have been in place for 135 years. This is dry, dry old growth wood. And the water is trickling in, and soaking into that rough hewn wood, and marking it and washing away small particles. For now, the stained water is collecting in buckets I have arranged up there.

Hopefully the Roofer's Wholesale will be open tomorrow, and I can get some seal coat.

ps: as I finish this at midnight, I notice that the rain just changed to a beautiful snow.

Wood Floors and Gorilla Glue

I have an ongoing struggle with old floor boards that I am sure many readers also share. The problem in many of these old Cincinnati buildings is that the floor boards are a soft wood like pine or fir, maybe poplar, and they dent easily and sometimes they splinter. But the really annoying thing about them is the gaps between some of the boards.

I have noticed several ways these gaps have been repaired around the neighborhood. Some people use Bondo. This seems to work, but the Bondo is harder than the wood, and it certainly does not stain. Another method is to use a product called "part 50". This is a clear epoxy wherein you mix equal parts and pour it into the holes and it solidifies so that it looks like glass. They sell the stuff at Cincinnati Color. This is pretty cool, but can be very expensive and is really only appropriate for small dents and depressions.

Years ago, I experimented with wood epoxies like Abatron. These worked pretty well when repairing window sash, but again, it was pretty expensive not to mention time-consuming. I found out later that if the wood was that rotten, it was better to just get some new sash made to match. And that is an approach that some people take with the wood floors: cover them with new wood. However, I prefer to keep the old wood floors whenever possible. A new floor just doesn't have the character IMO.

Lately, I have been experimenting with Gorilla Glue. Gorilla glue is the duct tape of the modern handy man. To my wife's delight, I use it to fix everything from kid's shoes to broken dolls. The cool thing about Gorilla glue is that it expands into the recesses of the cracks and bonds very strongly to the wood, and seems to have the same flexibility of the wood. It also sands easily. The big negative is that when it expands, it leaves lots of air bubbles, which are not so good when trying to refinish a smooth floor. Below are some photos I took this week, while trying to repair a crack. I think the Gorilla Glue is great at solidifying the old loose boards, but I need something that is better for the final finish coat. Anyone have ideas?

staining the fill

wiping excess stain off

final look: