Riding the Rails

As we anticipate the arrival of Baby 2, most of the prep work involves getting Bert into his big boy room and making the nursery available for his little brother. We already had the furniture (it was mine as a kid), and the room had been functioning as a guest room. Because the furniture is dark green, we opted to work with what he had and go for a woodland/rustic look. We aren't totally finished, but Bert has already moved in.

The first step was replacing this beauty of a light fixture. Not only was it ugly, it only operated by the pull chain. Not the most ideal function in a child's room.

So after much cutting, climbing in and out of the attic crawlspace, and grumbling,

we had a light switch,

This is what happens when Keith does home decor shopping at Cabela's.

 and a working light.

The new fixture looks kind of funky here, but it actually has a really nice aged copper look in person.

Now, on to painting. We went back and forth on color a bit, but finally settled on a light tan called "Blonde Wood." I washed the walls and taped off the room one day while Keith was at work, then we edged the room together and he rolled it on a weekend. For the second coat, I edged during the day and he rolled it in the evening when he got home.

Next up was blinds. Like almost every other room in the house, the were old roller blinds that were really grimy and brittle. I found some room-darkening cordless blinds online from JC Penney, and they were really simple to install: just screw two brackets into the window frame, and snap the blinds in.

They really do darken the room and the color almost exactly matches the walls.

Here's a sneak peek at the art that will go on the walls. It is all in frames but we haven't hung them yet. Keith and I are in agreement that we both really hate hanging pictures, mostly because of our old plaster walls. That and one of us must have one leg shorter than the other because we can't agree on what looks level.

All of that leads me to my now-it's-funny story. We had everything done in the room that needed to be done prior to Bert moving in, except for one thing: bed rails. Since the bed doesn't push up tight against the wall, we wanted a set that had a rail for each side. So last weekend, we headed off on a shopping trip for a bunch of things, one of which was the rails. We found a double-rail at Babies R Us and though I was a bit vexed that I couldn't find the 20% coupon that I knew came in the mail just days before, we went ahead and got them. We planned on putting Bert in the bed that night so later that afternoon, we opened up the box and deciphered the confusing assembly instructions, only to find that they wouldn't work on the bed. Because it is a "captain's" bed, with drawers underneath, there is no box spring. Which means sandwiching the rails between the mattress and box spring is impossible. We tried every configuration we could think of, contemplated buying a box spring or building something to allow the rails to fit below the mattress before finally calling it a day and putting Bert to bed in the crib.

After the little man was settled in for the night, I started searching online for a different bed rail option. On Amazon, I saw some foam bumpers that went under the fitted sheet. Then a lightbulb went off: in one of those forwarded emails about household tricks you wished you had thought of, I had seen pool noodles used as bed bumpers. I told Keith and he looked a bit skeptical at first, concerned that a single pool noodle wouldn't be enough to keep Bert from rolling out of bed. Then we hit on the idea of putting three together in a sort of pyramid formation to create a higher bumper. At this point, it was after 9:00, but we were so anxious to see if this would work. Keith called the first of our town's two grocery stores to see if they had pool noodles. We were cracking up as he waited on hold, picturing the guy who answered the phone searching the pasta aisle for pool noodles. Strike one, they didn't have any. So he called the next store. Yes, the girl said, the did have them, 2 for $4. Score. So Keith went out and got an armload of them. He said the women working were very intrigued as to what kind of fun he was going to have that late at night with a bunch of pool noodles, and the bed rail idea was kind of a let down.

But here's the thing: they absolutely work. A little duct tape, a half dozen pool noodles, 5 minutes, and we had bed bumpers for a fraction of the cost.

Bert has two nights and three naps under his belt and they stay put just fine and he hasn't rolled out. He has climbed out, but that's to be expected. The only disappointing thing is this morning on our walk, I saw pool noodles out front of the dollar store. It could have been a $6 project instead of $12.

All that's left for this room is painting the inside of the closet, hanging art, figuring out some curtains, and putting his quilt on the bed.

I got a little teary on Monday afternoon, laying him down in his big bed for the first time. He's our baby, and he's growing up.

Old St. Nick Gets New Life

I never met my father’s father.  Pappy died from cancer in 1975, long before I was born.  My father, being the sentimental man that he is, has saved a lot of Pappy’s things and I always enjoyed hearing stories about them. There are three particular items of Pappy’s that my father not only saved, but also continues to use to this day.

1. A traditional stained, leaded glass Tiffany lamp.  It was a prized possession of Pappy’s and my father has taken good care of it since his death.  When my parents were moving several years ago, a gentleman driving by stopped and offered my father $500 for the lamp.  Now, I honestly don’t know what the lamp is worth but, I do know that it wouldn’t have mattered what price the gentleman offered; that lamp wasn’t going anywhere, period.  About two years ago, I repaired a light socket on the lamp that had been broken for years – a job that brought my father and I (and hopefully Pappy) a lot of joy.

2. In 1938, Pappy built a platform with trains and a village (a putz for those PA Dutch out there).  He built it for a set of Lionel trains and my father continues to put up the display and run those very same 1938 era trains.  They have taken a beating and have gone through countless repairs.  Nevertheless, every Christmas without fail, that display is up and running.  And it’s something I look forward to every year more than I can explain.

3. Finally, number three, also Christmas related and the basis for this post.  Pappy bought a molded plastic Santa figure, about three feet tall, to display on their front porch at Christmas.  He wanted it to be perched on a raised section of the brick wall of the porch, where a square piece of concrete rounded out the top of the wall.  But, how to attach the Santa to the wall?  Well, he built a wooden base that exactly matched the dimensions of the top of the wall.  That way, he could tie the base to the wall and Santa wouldn’t move.

The best I can figure, Pappy did this in the late ‘60s, and Santa remained on his perch every Christmas until Pappy passed away, at which point my father began using the Santa at our house.  We didn’t have a brick wall so Santa moved to different locations, but he always appeared at Christmas.

After years of wear and tear, the base began to deteriorate, the light socket was corroded and the electrical cord finally broke in half.  So, last summer I removed Pappy’s base and replaced it with an identical wooden base.  Same size, same bright red color.  I also replaced the light socket and wire.  Santa was ready for another forty years.  Again, it brought my father and I great joy.  It was so neat to work on something that my grandfather, a man whom I have never met, worked on with his own hands over four decades ago.  Wow.  But, it gets better.

A few months ago, Tara and I (and Bert, of course) were at our local farmer’s market and we decided to take a walk through the flea market section while Bert napped.  We stumbled upon a miniature (about 18 inches tall) Santa figure – nearly identical to Pappy’s. The only difference was that this Santa had a black toy bag (Pappy’s is blue) and was holding a bell (Pappy’s holds a gift). I couldn’t believe it and, with only a $5 price tag, we couldn’t resist.  But, I couldn’t stop there, oh no.

The Santa had no light so my next trip was to the hardware store for a plug, some wire, a light socket and a bulb.  All the same materials I used to repair Pappy’s Santa, except his required a larger bulb.

I wired the plug and socket together and screwed in the bulb (it is a very small bulb because I was afraid a larger bulb either wouldn’t fit or would get too hot and melt the plastic.  But, when tested, it gave plenty of light).

Next, I had to find a way to attach the light socket to the inside of the Santa figure.  Hmmm….  I decided on a thin piece of metal that would attach to the exterior of the Santa (in the back) and hold the socket in place.

I plugged in Santa and flipped (well, turned) the switch...

Now, all that was needed was a bright red wooden base.  Yes, I know the point of the original was to fit neatly on the porch wall – which we don’t have.  But, that doesn’t matter.  Santa needed a base.  And, not just any base either.  Since I had already taken Pappy’s base apart, I had seen exactly how it was attached.  So, I followed Pappy’s unwritten directions and attached a base to my Santa the exact same way.

Square nuts hammered into the wood so they won’t turn when screwed into.  The nails hold the nuts to the block of wood because this block sits inside Santa’s feet where you can’t reach it when putting on the base.

I cut the base out of plywood into a 12” x 12” square.  Then I painted it red (I even used the same can of paint I used to build the new base for Pappy’s Santa last summer).  To attach the base, I used flat heat screws set into the wood so that the base sits flat and won’t wobble or scratch any surfaces.

Finally, the base was attached and…

… The final product is a very nice replica of Pappy’s, only smaller.  I hope that, in some small way, I made Pappy smile somewhere, even without ever having met him.  I look forward to displaying Santa next Christmas and I hope Bert finds as much joy in my Santa as I found in Pappy’s.  Thanks Pappy.

Light to Work By

When we first saw our house, the garage had some fantastic work lights hanging from the ceiling. When we moved in, they were gone. In the two years since, Keith has grumbled about the lack of good lighting to work on projects out there but we hadn't jumped on doing anything about the situation.

Then he was scrolling through the employee "classifieds" at work where people from the company can list things they are selling, renting, or would like to buy. He came across a listing for fluorescent work lights for $5 each. Mr. Fast Fingers was dialing the number in no time. Turns out the woman had been using them for starting seedlings but was no longer gardening so Keith came home with three work lights for $15. What a steal! Lucky for him, all he had to do was install some hooks to hang them from and plug them in because they were pretty much identical to the ones the previous owners were using that just plug into outlets in the rafters, which are all connected to the main light switch. So for $15 and an hour's worth of work, Keith just lost his "There's not enough good light out there to work on that now" excuse. (Bet you didn't consider that, did you dear?)

And just because Keith likes you all to have visual proof that he actually does work around here (no matter what I say), here are the thrilling action shots of light hanging:

Once again, the man lights up my life.

Let There Be Light

So while Mocha's been doing this:

Keith's been pretty busy. Last Friday, we headed to the Home Depot in search of a new light for Bert's room. Because the existing one was, to be nice, dated. And kind of naked looking. We pretty quickly found one that we both liked, was a reasonable price, and had the same aged-bronze look as the curtain rod we bought for the room. So we pulled it off the shelf, bought it, and brought it home.

On Saturday, Keith began the tedious process of installing the new fixture. Normally, this wouldn't be so difficult (at least it doesn't seem like it should) but because the house was built in 1923, the metal ceiling mount and junction box don't fit standard modern light fixtures. We ran into this with the new lights we installed in the kitchen, dining room, and living room shortly after moving in and it can be done with a little creative engineering.

After several hours of tinkering and a trip to the hardware store, Keith came downstairs. And here's how that conversation went:

K: We can't use this light.
T: Why, did you break it?
K: No, it doesn't have a chain.
T: I know. Why would we want a chain?
K: No, not a chain to hang it from, a pull chain.
T: Oooohhhh. Well that was stupid.

In our excitement over our next home project, we had completely forgotten that all the bedroom lights upstairs turn on and off with a pull chain. No light switches in the bedrooms. (Envision much fumbling in the dark, hand outstretched, looking for small dangling chains.) So, our choices either became head back out and shop for a light with a pull chain (do they even still make them?) or  Keith could install a light switch. We opted for the switch. Two reasons behind this: who wants to fumble around looking for the pull chain with a baby in hand, and if we ever sell the house, light switches might be appreciated.

At this point, the project had to be put on hold until Sunday because the hardware store was already closed and we had plans to go to dinner with friends that night. We were telling them this story and they had a great suggestion: a dimmer switch. They have a new baby and said it was really nice to have that dimmer for checking on him in the middle of the night and not have bright lights (thanks guys!).

Like a trooper, Keith went out Sunday for conduit and brackets, junction boxes, dimmer switch, and non-metallic Romex wire. Luckily, the wall where we wanted the switch is shared with a closet so instead of having to run wire down inside our plaster-and-lathe walls, he was able to install a junction box in the attic crawlspace,

run the wire down inside the closet (inside the conduit), drill through the wall and cut out for the switch box,

put in the switch box,

and install a dimmer switch.

He did reference the handy Reader's Digest Complete Do-It-Yourself Manual for some drawings that described how his switches needed to be wired (page 143 if you really want to know). His only other electric experience is working for the electric company. Well, that's not quite true. He did help my dad install an outlet for our freezer in the basement. 

Here's the final results:

I have to tell you, neither of us can keep our hands of that fancy little dimmer switch.

My honey's no dim bulb, now is he?