Will the Real Glaser Please Stand Up?

Although Steve and Tammy are Glasers by name, Tammy's dad has proved himself to be the real "glaser"--German for glazier. Her dad has an unlikely background for cleaning trim and glazing windows. He started out working on tobacco farms as a youth and spent twenty years in the Navy, cooking and running galleys, before retiring as a civil servant working in Army supply. He was not the handiest father: we kids lived with things like pencil sharpeners set up for lefties! Once dad retired and bought a Victorian house, he became so handy that he restored the porch that wraps around the house. He did everything from fixing up and remaking the columns and railings to replacing the wood on the porch floor. He is now known for having one of the most beautiful porches in town! He has even built wooden flowerpots, shelves, and headboards.

Tammy's dad likes to keep busy and now, that he has finally completed refinishing his porch for the second time, he has time on his hands to try his hand at glazing. He is stripping the windows of layers of paint, repainting them, cleaning up the glass, and glazing them. Judging the difference between the before and after pictures, he is doing a fine job--a true craftsman. Two windows have missing panes, and several are cracked. The window in David's bathroom has some kind of wallpaper stuck to it. We have decided to cover the windows with storm windows to lower the electric bill. In lieu of screened storm windows, they are thinking about buying some adjustable screens that you pop into the window whenever you desire fresh air. They are fairly inexpensive and much easier to maintain.

Even though work on the house has continued, Tammy has been on hiatus from blogging because life gets in the way. Now that the kids are fully back in the homeschool mode, she plans to blog about the nearly finished rooms upstairs, the front walk, and the floors, which are getting restored starting tomorrow. She finds it relaxing to take a break from algebra, biology experiments (did you know a tiny sample of pond culture on a microscope still reeks), writing assignments, and many books, not to mention Pamela's speech therapy and astronomy class.