Our Comely Winch

Back to the ceilings! Tammy's brother and co-worker spent the day with the painfully tedious task of detailing the ceilings: adding small amounts of mud, letting it dry, and sanding all the crevices between molding and wall. Old houses settle, so nothing is truly square: from door frames to the air intake vent mentioned in the last post. To get a smooth look, mud and caulking are the way to go. Three rooms upstairs have wooden ceilings, never covered by sheet rock. We are keeping them even if covered in several layers of paint. As you can see in the picture, the ceiling has many gaps, which the contractors are covering with caulking and mud, depending upon how wide. We thought Michelangelo had it bad!


















Tammy, her father, and the electrician discovered a leak when we were down in the "basement" with the electrician yesterday. It must be new because the very thorough home inspector did not find it, nor did we notice it last Friday when we were trying to trace back the old wiring. Tammy's brother crawled under the house (a dusty, dirty job) and found a leaky elbow pipe--an easy fix. (Steve is missing all the fun--he is on a business trip.)

The thing that most amuses us about our "basement" is the door. The basement is really only big enough for the family (plus a few friends and neighbors) to duck and cover in case of a tornado. The door to the basement is very heavy, but one person can open it easily. Holding it up without getting a head concussion is another matter. We use a winch *not wench* to hold the door for us. You can see the winch in the upper left corner of the picture, which brings back fond memories of when the Glasers were "haze gray and underway." That's Navalese for sailing. Mmmm . . . block and tackle . . .