Minor setback

And we mean setBACK. My back has some sort of a messed up ligament, according to the good ol' doctor. Not from anything specific, it's just irritated with any number of insults. So, I have to lay low for a while. And though the paint stripping is tantalizingly close to being done, no progress till I'm fixed (which should be soon now that we know what's up and have a doctor working on it all week!). However, Ken has fixed a large section of wall where the previous owner appeared to have just smeared some joint compound and maybe a tiny bit of paper across the partially broken out lath. Amazingly nobody had fallen through the totally un-structural wall, tumbling to their death down the chimney chase. Now it's a real wall! That's a before-after photo montage below. A bit of our fancy JC + sand trick to make it look like plaster, and we'll be ready to paint (oh, and then paint stripping too).

So, less progress working on house = more progress shopping for house, right? Those who can't do, shop. Fortunately, I had to be in Portland recently and stopped by the Portland Architectural Salvage, in their new location. The store is restorer's heaven. There are SO MANY drawers full of doorknobs, pulls, hinges, etc. AND a whole downstairs full of windows, moulding, railing, doors...I'm hyperventilating. Heather knew just what I was looking for and we quickly rounded up a mission-style doorknocker in antique brass that's small enough to fit on our front door. Score! It's missing its little strike plate, but having noticed that a lot of doorknockers are using clavos, it's off to Van Dykes to find the perfect decorative nail. By the way, free shipping right now from Van Dykes if you order >$25. And I get to raid my vintage baby food jar containing my fiercely-guarded stash of oval head vintage brass screws (from a variety of yard sales) to attach it to the door. Sweet!

Second, thank goodness for JC Penney, where you can still custom-order shades to 1/8th of an inch, including good old roller shades, the only kind I can deal with. I mean, what's with all the chains, strings, pulleys and what not? Roller shades=clean and easy. We got a cut-to-width one in sage green (it arrived within 48 hours of ordering, which was awesome) for $15 (it was on sale, it looks not to be now!), and it's light-filtering fabric so the hallway is very bright. I have vague recollections of going with mom to get roller shades and having them cut in the store, not sure which store but apparently the process stuck in my head! Now bear in mind that I HATE window treatments, so it's saying something when one makes me happy - heck, it's even saying something when one makes me not want to barf. Also sweet!

Third, in hopes of a better back soon, I got a couple of decent paintbrushes for cutting in in the hall. We totally trashed all our brushes in the kitchen project, with the gazillion things we had to paint, and because we used some strong paint types that weren't water soluble. They needed to go after the kitchen got done. Those paintbrushes can stare at me all week & be motivation.

OK, back to the heat pad. Don't worry Mom & Dad, it's no biggie and the doctors are taking good care!