Finally the pool is sandblasted, mended, painted, dried, and full! We're in the process of filtering and chlorinating it now. In just a few short days it will be ready for swimmers. Whew!
I can't wait to be able to take advantage of it!
With Love,
~Brande N.
Showing posts with label rennovations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rennovations. Show all posts
Friday, June 5, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
No Pain, No Cane
Dan and I were recently given the assignment to recane a few of our chairs. You have no idea what I'm talking about, huh? That's ok, when we were given the assignment we didn't know what it meant either.
In short, that lattice-like wooden screen that you often see on chairs is called "cane" or "caning". It's actually not wood at all, but the skin of the nonporous rattan vine. Its impermeability makes it ideal for furniture because it won't stain or react to humidity.
Behold the odd and strangely useful things you learn as an innkeeper...
We have a few chairs that feature a lovely woven cane backing. They had unfortunately taken a bit of a beating over the years though, and two out of three chairs had holes ripped through the cane. Rather than replace the whole chair, John opted for Dan and I to re-cane it ourselves. One benefit being that it's significantly less expensive, but another being that it's the greener decision because fixing an old chair instead of buying a brand new one means less resources are used. It's a win-win!
Anyway, this is how the process looks currently:
Kind of a mess. You'd think that throwing a screen into a panel would be easy, right? Not so much... First off, the directions are really vague and don't have any pictures.
Through process of elimination [and some pieces being kind of obvious] we determined that these two pieces are the spline and the cane.
See how they fit into the finished product? (By the way, that's an old, unbroken chair, not one that we've finished.)
Aside from the spline and cane, the wedge, chisel, and hammer were pretty easy to identify...
One line in the directions mentions using "4 wedges to hold the spline in place, and the fifth to pound it into the groove". How do I hold 4 wedges in one place, a fifth in another, AND somehow manage to hammer at the same time? And why in the world do I need 4 wedges to do what two of my fingers are doing in the photo above?? What kind of crazy person invented this process???
As much of a pain as this is, it's going to be neat to be able to proudly say when it's done, "Hey Bob. I caned a chair once. Did you know that?" And he'll be confused and have no idea what I'm talking about. Then I'll be able to rant on about rattan vines and permeability and spline chisels and prewoven cane and...
...I'm doing that right now, aren't I?
With Love,
~Brande N.
In short, that lattice-like wooden screen that you often see on chairs is called "cane" or "caning". It's actually not wood at all, but the skin of the nonporous rattan vine. Its impermeability makes it ideal for furniture because it won't stain or react to humidity.
Behold the odd and strangely useful things you learn as an innkeeper...
We have a few chairs that feature a lovely woven cane backing. They had unfortunately taken a bit of a beating over the years though, and two out of three chairs had holes ripped through the cane. Rather than replace the whole chair, John opted for Dan and I to re-cane it ourselves. One benefit being that it's significantly less expensive, but another being that it's the greener decision because fixing an old chair instead of buying a brand new one means less resources are used. It's a win-win!
Anyway, this is how the process looks currently:
Kind of a mess. You'd think that throwing a screen into a panel would be easy, right? Not so much... First off, the directions are really vague and don't have any pictures.
Through process of elimination [and some pieces being kind of obvious] we determined that these two pieces are the spline and the cane.
See how they fit into the finished product? (By the way, that's an old, unbroken chair, not one that we've finished.)Aside from the spline and cane, the wedge, chisel, and hammer were pretty easy to identify...
One line in the directions mentions using "4 wedges to hold the spline in place, and the fifth to pound it into the groove". How do I hold 4 wedges in one place, a fifth in another, AND somehow manage to hammer at the same time? And why in the world do I need 4 wedges to do what two of my fingers are doing in the photo above?? What kind of crazy person invented this process???
As much of a pain as this is, it's going to be neat to be able to proudly say when it's done, "Hey Bob. I caned a chair once. Did you know that?" And he'll be confused and have no idea what I'm talking about. Then I'll be able to rant on about rattan vines and permeability and spline chisels and prewoven cane and...
...I'm doing that right now, aren't I?
With Love,
~Brande N.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Regarding my love for Technology
Please, dear readers, forgive me for my unexcused absence. It's been a whirlwind of craziness here at the Inn. Summer preparation is in full swing and BOY is there a lot to do! In addition to all the usual summer prep, miscellaneous this-and-thats [broken lamps, clogged showerheads, order placements and pick-ups, new bed deliveries and set-ups, power outages, and the pool situation, just to name a few] keep coming up here and there that need to be attended to. So unfortunately, there isn't a whole lot of time for blogging in between all the chaos!
But I haven't forgot about you, I promise. In fact, for the last week or so, I've been working on a neat little slideshow about the aforementioned pool. As we've been repairing and painting it, we've also been setting out the pool furniture and putting in an entirely brand new fence. In short, we're getting it prepped for the big opening this weekend. Each day there's a bit more paint, a few more chairs, and a couple feet more fence. It's fun to watch the transformation. The pool is still on schedule to open this weekend (knock on wood!), so as of this morning I was almost done with my photo set and it was going to be a great post.
Also on the camera with the pool pictures were photos of the aforementioned dining guide, and photos of my birthday and the day that Dan and I spent with friends and family who visited us from NY. I wanted to upload the pictures of the dining guide so that I could [finally] blog about it, so I put the memory card in my computer and get ready to start the post. Then I realized that I had only taken pictures of the construction of the book and not the final product. So I took the memory card out of my computer (being very certain to use the "Safely Remove Hardware" feature), and put it back in my camera. I went out to the Guest Pantry, took a few pictures of the Dining Guide and a few more of the pool, and went back to my computer.
When I put the memory card in, however, all of the photos had somehow been corrupted. Everything was lost. The pool photos, the making-of-the-dining-guide photos, all of the pictures from my birthday, everything. It was all gone. Ugh.
I'll still do a post about both the pool and the dining guide, but unfortunately they won't be as complete.
Isn't Technology just grand?
With Love,
~Brande N.
But I haven't forgot about you, I promise. In fact, for the last week or so, I've been working on a neat little slideshow about the aforementioned pool. As we've been repairing and painting it, we've also been setting out the pool furniture and putting in an entirely brand new fence. In short, we're getting it prepped for the big opening this weekend. Each day there's a bit more paint, a few more chairs, and a couple feet more fence. It's fun to watch the transformation. The pool is still on schedule to open this weekend (knock on wood!), so as of this morning I was almost done with my photo set and it was going to be a great post.
Also on the camera with the pool pictures were photos of the aforementioned dining guide, and photos of my birthday and the day that Dan and I spent with friends and family who visited us from NY. I wanted to upload the pictures of the dining guide so that I could [finally] blog about it, so I put the memory card in my computer and get ready to start the post. Then I realized that I had only taken pictures of the construction of the book and not the final product. So I took the memory card out of my computer (being very certain to use the "Safely Remove Hardware" feature), and put it back in my camera. I went out to the Guest Pantry, took a few pictures of the Dining Guide and a few more of the pool, and went back to my computer.
When I put the memory card in, however, all of the photos had somehow been corrupted. Everything was lost. The pool photos, the making-of-the-dining-guide photos, all of the pictures from my birthday, everything. It was all gone. Ugh.
I'll still do a post about both the pool and the dining guide, but unfortunately they won't be as complete.
Isn't Technology just grand?
With Love,
~Brande N.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Prepping for Summer
The sun is shining, the flowers are blooming, the grass is green and lush, and the air is warm. What does that all mean? It means summer is coming up on our heels and we're working on a million little projects to get ready for it.
The biggest project right now is our pool. It didn't start out as a big project, though. It needed to be repainted and have a bit of masonry work done, but nothing too major.
Wrong! It turns out that the three layers of paint on it right now are all different varieties; two layers are epoxy, one layer is water-based, and the paint we bought is low VOC rubber-based! In an effort to prevent the paint from chipping (which would mean draining, repainting, refilling, and retreating all the water), we're in the process of sandblasting off all of the paint so we can start with a blank slate.
Therefore, our pool, which looked like this last summer:
Currently looks like this:
"AHHHH!!!"
That's what you were thinking, right? Have no fear, however, because regardless of how scary the pool looks now, we're still on schedule to be up and running by Memorial Weekend.
Whew!
With Love,
~Brande N.
PS: Since I'm a history nerd and I like sharing these things, I think you should check out our History page if you're curious to know more about our pool. For example, did you know that it's almost 100 years old?
The biggest project right now is our pool. It didn't start out as a big project, though. It needed to be repainted and have a bit of masonry work done, but nothing too major.
Wrong! It turns out that the three layers of paint on it right now are all different varieties; two layers are epoxy, one layer is water-based, and the paint we bought is low VOC rubber-based! In an effort to prevent the paint from chipping (which would mean draining, repainting, refilling, and retreating all the water), we're in the process of sandblasting off all of the paint so we can start with a blank slate.
Therefore, our pool, which looked like this last summer:
Currently looks like this:
"AHHHH!!!"
That's what you were thinking, right? Have no fear, however, because regardless of how scary the pool looks now, we're still on schedule to be up and running by Memorial Weekend.
Whew!
With Love,
~Brande N.
PS: Since I'm a history nerd and I like sharing these things, I think you should check out our History page if you're curious to know more about our pool. For example, did you know that it's almost 100 years old?
Saturday, March 28, 2009
What VOCs?
Approximately three weeks ago, this is what our Sherry Room looked like:
(Please forgive the terrible photography. The lighting was bad! I couldn't find the right angle! My batteries were almost dead! I hadn't slept in a month! ...Alright, I have no excuse.)
(Please forgive the terrible photography. The lighting was bad! I couldn't find the right angle! My batteries were almost dead! I hadn't slept in a month! ...Alright, I have no excuse.)It's a little tough to see in this photograph, but the wallpaper had a very fine, pink floral print on it. (click to enlarge, if you please)
Here is the Sherry Room now:
(Yup, photography is still bad. Told you I didn't have an excuse.)
What a difference! The red is striking, vibrant, lively, and absolutely gorgeous. And you know what else?
That's right, it's totally VOC*** free. In fact, after the paint was applied I asked our painting crew how they liked it. You can't even imagine how excited I was when they said that not only did it go on well, but it dried quickly and it didn't make them loopy at all. Hooray!
The funniest and most memorable thing about this paint (in my opinion) was how instead of the room having that "paint" smell for days afterward, it only had the slightest scent of vinegar for about 24 hours. Vinegar! How odd is that?
So because the paint is good for the environment, worked well, looks great, and didn't stink up the Inn for a month, we'll be using No-VOC paints for all of our paint projects from now on. Hooray!
With Love,
~Brande N.
***As much as I hate to use Wikipedia as a source, in this case it's the best choice because it's the most concise and it's references are pretty reputable. Here are a few more useful links:
About VOCs and Indoor Air Quality - Via Treehugger
About Indoor Air Quality - Via the Environmental Protection Agency
Where to find affordable low or no VOC paint - Via Treehugger
Feel free to Google "Volatile Organic Compounds" if you want to know more.
Here is the Sherry Room now:
(Yup, photography is still bad. Told you I didn't have an excuse.)What a difference! The red is striking, vibrant, lively, and absolutely gorgeous. And you know what else?
That's right, it's totally VOC*** free. In fact, after the paint was applied I asked our painting crew how they liked it. You can't even imagine how excited I was when they said that not only did it go on well, but it dried quickly and it didn't make them loopy at all. Hooray!The funniest and most memorable thing about this paint (in my opinion) was how instead of the room having that "paint" smell for days afterward, it only had the slightest scent of vinegar for about 24 hours. Vinegar! How odd is that?
So because the paint is good for the environment, worked well, looks great, and didn't stink up the Inn for a month, we'll be using No-VOC paints for all of our paint projects from now on. Hooray!
With Love,
~Brande N.
***As much as I hate to use Wikipedia as a source, in this case it's the best choice because it's the most concise and it's references are pretty reputable. Here are a few more useful links:
About VOCs and Indoor Air Quality - Via Treehugger
About Indoor Air Quality - Via the Environmental Protection Agency
Where to find affordable low or no VOC paint - Via Treehugger
Feel free to Google "Volatile Organic Compounds" if you want to know more.
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