The Historic District

Yeah, I thought about one as well, but my issue is that I'm pretty sure my backyard is just too small.

I am, however, considering a small labyrinth for meditation.

GinaC wrote:Yeah, I thought about one as well, but my issue is that I'm pretty sure my backyard is just too small.

Look at some of the smaller pondless basins (ours is on the larger side). Also look on You Tube by searching for "DIY fountain". There are some videos where people just used a decorative pot as the water feature. Maybe it will spark some ideas that might work in your space.

I'm trying to get a few things done before it gets too cold.

I managed to get the back screen door re-screened, along with a new more appropriated latch.

And stripped and refinished the back door, along with new spring-bronze weatherstripping that should prevent those crisp Minnesota nights in January from getting in the back hall (part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4).

Here is the end result:

MJ, once again great work. You will have to bring guests in threw the back door now just to show it off. You mentioned you are getting your hardware from a local hardware store, they had the brass screen and the weather strip? Your latches look like House of Antique Hardware products?

The four slotted brass screws for the escutcheons came from my local Ace Hardware (Frattalone's). They are good, but I still deeply miss Seven Corners Hardware which was in a class by itself. Now that it's gone, local sources for some things are harder to come by. The local salvage places are good but sometimes hit-and-miss. I looked for ~3 years for the small crystal doorknobs for the French doors into the music room because I didn't want new ones from HoAH.

The screen, screen door latch, and spring bronze came from Kilian Hardware. The deadbolt came from House of Antique Hardware. The varnish I found locally at a marine shop in the western suburbs (Lake Minnetonka). There are a lot of people out that way who are into old mahogany boats...

This was practice so that I can do the front door in the spring. It's a little more involved...

That front door is quite impressive, the carvings look really nice. For the refinishing are you trying to get down to bare wood? I have a front door to with a very similar finish and I'm debating as to how far down I want to take the existing finish.

Much of the exposed parts of the screen door, sidelights, and transom are already bare wood. The inside face of the screen door isn't all that bad, but while I'm there I might as well go all the way.

The finish has failed on the jambs and exterior face of the main door, so I'll need to go all the way to bare wood there, too. It's quite badly alligatored. The inside face of the main door is in excellent condition, so I might just leave that side alone.

MJT, that front door will look spectacular once you have it finished.

If anyone has ideas about how to get the carvings cleaned up, I'm all ears.

I have a Dremel oscillating tool, but it's too big to get into the smaller areas. My Dremel rotary with a small sanding drum will probably work on the sides of the small circles above the dentil.

Some options I've been thinking about:
- using round and square dowels of the appropriate size wrapped in sandpaper for the dentil and circles. 3M has a newish abrasive on a flexible backing that might be handy. (Basically try to reproduce a smaller version of these sanding sticks...)
- Rockler has some detail sanders that might work for the carvings.
- MicroMark has a MicroSander, but I can't seem to find information about the head sizes. If the heads are small enough, it might be my silver bullet...

I hadn't seen that small sander, it looks like a useful tool. One thought I had to do my door and some of the parts on my mantels is to get a sandblasting gun, then it's just about finding the right media to remove the finish without damaging the wood. Your post got me looking into it a little more and I think I'm going to try it out, you can get a gun for $50 and I already have a compressor.