The Historic District

...you feel like the crew that paints the George Washington Bridge--once it's done, you've got to go back to the beginning and start again...

GinaC wrote:

A.Fox wrote:I know out-of-square-ness has been discussed many times before, but:

...you find yourself contemplating how crooked everything in your house really is.

Does anyone else do this? If I'm sitting to long looking at something I invariably find myself looking at something like how a window slopes at a different angle than the floor or the ceiling, and wondering how it's even possible that everything is still tight and held together.

I do this every time I look into my living room and see that my floor lamp looks like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

I have levels 48", 36", 24" and 18" they only come out when our contractor is here and he forgot his, otherwise what's the point. Basically nothing is level or square.

The angle stops on your saw are useless for perfect miters.

Gothichome wrote:The angle stops on your saw are useless for perfect miters.

Every cut is a scribed cut in our house. The wavy walls goes along with the wavy glass and we'd have it no other way.

if you shine a laser level through a piece of wavy glass , can that result in a wavy laser line? ok I see now. the square wall is the benchmark, then all others can be off by varying degrees from the reference !

There is no perfect level. a good tip is to spin the level 180 degrees and recheck it. If it is different, your level is out, split the difference.
the glass in a level is sort of U shaped. more accurate ones have less of a U shape. I came upon some old boxes of the glass things for old levels. Machinist levels are a different thing , they have accuracy to about .0001mm to the meter. they are adjustable so they can be calibrated.
at home I have a precision plumb bob. Its filled with mercury so it stops swinging faster. Ive never found use for such accuracy.
I like seeing some of the old levels. I have one at home that I found at a thrift. it wasnt' too cheap but it is black walnut or something similar with brass edging. I admire the way it's made, seldom use it though.
funny piece of useless info, did you know that the moon affects the position of a plumb bob? Its only a minor amount but it does have an effect. so if people complain about things not being plumb, you can blame the moon If they complain they aren't level , blame the level. If things are cut to short, its an error in the pencil , never the guy behind it.

phil wrote:funny piece of useless info, did you know that the moon affects the position of a plumb bob? Its only a minor amount but it does have an effect. so if people complain about things not being plumb, you can blame the moon If they complain they aren't level , blame the level. If things are cut to short, its an error in the pencil , never the guy behind it.

I definitely have to find a better place to buy pencils. Sigh.

You ask for a handful of doornails at the hardware store, just to see the reaction.

phil wrote:You ask for a handful of doornails at the hardware store, just to see the reaction.

I once asked a young worker at a hardware store I hadn't been to before where the decorative tacks were. He looked at me a minute, obviously in thought, and then said, "I don't think we have those. Why don't you try Staples down the street?"

...something's been bugging you, and you eventually realize it's that the house is "too quiet" at night because the slow drip you'd been living with for months was finally silenced after you regretfully replaced your 85 year old kitchen faucet.

The old faucet, of course, was carefully packed and stashed in the cellar since you plan to eventually have it refitted and restored.