The Big Weekend

Big weekend at The Petch House. It is just going to be a beehive of activity. Here is the plan:

1) Finish painting in the Kitchen (the goal to be finished on Wednesday was a little too ambitious).

2) Rewire the last of three light fixtures and get them hung. Logically I should wait until the floor is sanded, but I don’t care. I’ve been staring at them for more than a year now and I want to see them up. Plus, they’ll look good for the BIG GUEST on Monday.



3) Put up all the light switch and outlet covers. I may have to order a few more due to some last minute changes in the kitchen. Two years ago when I rewired the house I put in push-button light switches in every room and bought these nice cast brass covers from House of Antique Hardware. At that time, I tried to anticipate what was going to be in the kitchen and I bought all the cover plates for that room as well. Some where in this feculent hell-hole (This is my new favorite term. From now one when someone asks where I live I will tell them, “Oh, you know, its that feculent hell-hole at 9th and M. Yes, that’s the one.”) is a box of outlet and switch covers for the kitchen. I don’t think I’ve seen them in over a year.



4) Put un the cast iron thing-a-ma-jig for the stove vent on the wall.



5) Sunday I’m going to clean, clean, clean, clean, clean. I’m hoping by Monday the house will just be a hell-hole and no longer feculent.

There are 2 big events happening on Monday. First, the flooring is arriving. There was a last minute snag with shipping from the mill. The freight company wanted to add a surcharge due to the length of the boards. The owner of the mill had already quoted me a price, and I have already paid him, so rather than come back and ask for more money he is going to deliver the wood himself!! Talk about service! He and his wife have wanted to get away for a weekend anyway so they are going to drive up here (about 300 miles), stay the weekend and see the sights, and then deliver the flooring Monday morning.

Of course, also on Monday the BIG GUEST is arriving in the afternoon about 2:30. As I write this, it is a little more than 48 hours until the BIG GUEST arrives. I’m a little nervous. It is all so exciting. I’m normally kind of a private person (except on my blog) so this is a big deal to me.

Here is another shot of the kitchen. The sink will go under that window. The window used to be taller. It went down to about 18-inches off the floor. It was raised in 1926 when a bathroom was added. Just about a year ago there was a toilet under the window, a claw foot tub to the right, and there was a wall between where I’m standing now and that window. I thought about keeping the toilet in the kitchen. I mean, think of the convenience! But, at the last minute I changed my mind. I’m slowly working away from the whole feculent hell-hole theme that previous owners had instilled in the home. You have to make compromises.



The door on the left leads to small alcove. Immediately to the right, in the alcove, is the back door, and to the left is the door to the scullery. The scullery will become the downstairs bath. The little alcove was opened up to the back porch in 1926 to add additional back doors. I had to re-enclose the porch by building 2 small walls to create the alcove. I added the little stained glass window you see in there. I bought 2 matching stained glass sashes as a local salvage yard. There is the one in the alcove, and the other will go in the scullery/bathroom.