Day Off…Sort Of…Not Really

I woke up this morning feeling like someone had worked me over with a rubber hose. I was just out of it. Pulling up that floor is really tough, and it was the end of a tough week. I decided I would take the day off from working on the house and it almost worked. I did go down to Sherwin Williams and pick up paint chips to look at. I’m still having trouble deciding on colors for the kitchen. I posted a question in the Old House Web Forum, so maybe I’ll get some more insight from the good folks over there.

I took a nice long walk around town and took care of some business. I’m still trying to track down the origin of the architectural term “arrowsmith” (sp?). There are dozens, if not hundreds of these stylized floral carvings on the frieze around the top of my house. They are about a foot in diameter and are butted together one after the other all the way around the house. There are 3 or 4 other houses in town that have them as well. Someone told me they were called arrowsmiths but I’ve never been able to confirm it and I want to use the term in the paperwork for the National Register of Historic Places.

I finally found the local origin of the term. It comes form a man named Eric Hollenbeck. He is a local master carpenter and runs the Blue Ox Mill. I’ve done business with him on many occasions. I called down to his mill but he wasn’t in so I spoke with his wife. She told me Eric heard the term from an architect “Back East”. The plot thickens. Eric is going to be getting back to me next week on this.

After lunch I flopped on the couch and contemplated a little nap. Just as I started to doze off I heard something calling to me. It was faint at first and then it got louder and louder. It was the kitchen floor. Calling to me. Pleading with me to come in the kitchen and do some more work. I could not resist the siren song of the floor. I put on my work close and pulled up some more floor. So much for my day off.