Friday at the Wood's New Secret Garden - It was a Magical Day!

Waiting at the light at Sunrise & Zinfindal - Starbucks in hand - 6:45 a.m.!

We found a wonderful contractor named Don to do a few of the "Out of our League" projects.  Today the team showed up (His friend Bill "the plumber" and his son Ryan "the Hulk")

Wonderful thing #1:  New water heater installed! It took approximately 5 hours to install!  Why?  Because 1964  Mobile Homes are not normal.  In other words, a lay person cannot just go down to Home Depot, purchase a water heater and think they can just install it.  Bill was a seasoned plumber who has installed more water heaters than you can count and yet he had to do some creative stuff to make everything fit.  Thanks Bill!

Wonderful thing #2:  Don fixed the dry rot in the window seal!  The damage had not gone very far and for that we were really relieved.  We were also really encouraged to see that our little home has been constructed with 2 by 4's!  Most moble home have 2 by 2's!   This is a really well built, sturdy little home.

Don working on the dry rot reconstruction! - Look at those 2 by 4's and that insulation!

Wonderful thing #3:  The old "WedgeWood" built-in oven had to go.  This was a real challenge!  It was as if the house had been built around the oven!   Seriously!  Ryan had to use the "jaws of life" to get this monster out!

Ryan - "The Hulk" carrying out the 1960 Wedgewood oven!  Look at those guns!

This is why people who paint over hardware should be shot.  Today we were finishing the bedroom with all the hardwood built-ins and had to soak the drawer pulls and cabinet hinges in JASCO for several hours with the hope to remove the three layers of white "clumped on" paint so that we could actually use the original 1964 hardware.  This was a very time consuming and perhaps stupid project.  I suppose we could have simply bought new drawer pulls and hinges.  But, have you priced them out lately?  My goodness! They want $6.85 a piece for some cheaply made "coated" metal.  When you need 21 drawer pulls that would be another $145.95 for the least expensive.

So after soaking them for 2 hours and then scrubbing them.  Dang that JASCO paint stripper is ALIVE!  My hands were on fire even while wearing gloves.  Michael took over for most of this project and I did the final cleanup after the chemical was deactivated.  Well here is what we ended up with.  Solid Copper, incrediable drawer pulls.  You cannot buy these anywhere!

Wonderful Thing #4: My best friend "Deni" (Denise McCool) devoted 8 hours of her time to help us. She is amazing! Her task was to prime the bathroom closet. The shelves are built in and not removable and she wanted to cover every inch. With the limited space, and the hardwood paneling that soaked up primer like a sponge, this would be a time consuming task which would also require some creative gymnastics. As far as we know she is still stuck! We told her we would check on her in the morning.

A truly magical day. On Tuesday we will have the range top installed and a several other "contractor" required projects accomplished. After 13 hours on my feet. I am tired, but, feeling so very encouraged by this "Magical Day"

More to come.........