Re:Building, Volume 19

October 6 I haven't updated since September 29. A lot has happened since then, but not much so far as work on these kitchens.

Last week, Thursday I spent a very pleasurable day up in Wisconsin on an architectural tour. Historian, John Notz organized a tour for the Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest to tour a Frank Lloyd Wright commissioned design up in Delavan Lake call "Penwern. Later we went up to Lake Geneva and had a nice walking tour and dinner afterwards at the Lake Geneva Country Club - an excellent building designed by Robert Spencer, John's particular area of expertise. The weather was just gorgeous!

Main Building (from the rear) - this shows the irregularity of the roof lines and the chimneys. Close up, there are several details, and it is easy to see some transitions between earlier and later structure:

Though it is not anywhere in the documented history of the place, I noted a few things about it. First of all, there are several signs that the main building contains structure from two different periods. (I'm not talking about the smaller kitchen addition in the rear.) It may have been that Wright's commission was to remodel an earlier structure on the site. This seems to be the case with coach house, as well. Further, even though the main building is clearly Wright's design creation, the coach house is strikingly of a different hand, or hands. I strongly suspect Walter Burley Griffin and/or Marion Mahony were responsible for that. I hope to have a more leisurely opportunity to do a detailed exploration of the structures at a later date. I, of course, will need to make a stronger case, as this goes against all the accepted scholarship.

Okay, back to kitchens. I did finish Cassandra's kitchen today. There wasn't much left to do, just the painting and varnishing, and several other details. However, the art glass is not yet installed - actually, I still haven't made it. I'll do that in the next two weeks. They will only take twenty minutes to install. Also the back door needs to be stripped and re-varnished. Cassandra okay'ed me to do that at a later date. That wasn't in our original plan, but it looks so out of place now and kind of dingy with everything else sparkling new. Also, we're waiting for a sconce we ordered. That should be in about a week or so.

October 7 Well here are some pictures from Cassandra's finished kitchen. Phew - that took a while, didn't it! We're both so glad it's finished. I hope Cassandra enjoys it trouble-free for years to come.

These photos show a little as to how the kitchen relates to the dining room. Though the kitchen is "modern", it nicely compliments the original Prairie School interior of this historic building.

Also, even though we didn't change the basic layout, and we lost of few inches of square footage (due to framing), the space looks much larger and more open than before. Success is always sweet.

Monday, Tuesday and today (Wednesday) here's what got done: Pantry cabinets installed, and the rest of the pine woodwork and windows got their first coat of shellac. Picked up glass at Stained Glass Emporium (where I get all my art glass supplies - and, the best how-to advice anywhere) - cut and installed in all cabinets. Did some more wall prep, put the first coat of acrylic varnish on the oak woodwork and drilled all the holes for all the cabinet doors and drawers. Also sanded and varnished first coat of top of cabinet in pantry.

As I sit here at my desk and do this log, I'm seeing these beautiful Autumnal views from my windows -

- just realizing that this is the last season I'll be here to enjoy it. It's kind of sad to have to sell a house you love so much. I'm becoming more heartbroken the closer we get. Many times close to tears when I think about it. Worse yet, we still don't know where we're moving to!

This view looks into our neighbors' yards (no fences between us). Our next-door neighbor is also selling her landmark Prairie School house. Our two houses are part of a unique grouping of three Prairie School houses called the "Blondeel" houses, named for the person who originally commissioned them. They were designed together to take advantage of the open spaces and views - and maximize the daylight throughout the seasons. They are magnificently light inside!

That house next door is not in such good shape - kind of neglected over the years. And It has a very small kitchen, and no first floor bath. That house will probably undergo a major rehab. (as will our completely restored house) with a large addition off the back, which will completely fill and block the view for future owners of our house. Too bad.

I watched the final presidential debate tonight. The Emperor still has no clothes.

October 20 Well, as you can see, this "blog" is winding down. Not finished yet, though! To keep things up-to-date: The tile finally arrived for Rachel and Mikes kitchen. I set the tile yesterday.

Today I grouted and then installed the range hood. It works great - has halogen lights and illuminated the range very well. And it's just really cool! Just for fun, here's a little "before-and-after".

I ordered the wallcovering last week from Paulson's paint - and it arrived in three days. Will start to hang it, probably Monday, after I get the final coat of shellac on all the woodwork.

October 22 At Mike and Rachel's today, I cleaned up the woodwork, puttied the nail holes, etc. and put the last coat of shellac on all the woodwork and windows. It was very enjoyable - - shellacking is so relaxing, especially with some nice music in the background.

Got home around 5:00 and was gung-ho to start on Cassandra's glass. Put together most of a panel, then stopped for dinner ---

After we got back tonight, I finished the rest of the panel. Here's the process in a nutshell:

First I make sure I have all the raw materials; glass and came (in this case, copper). Then I make sure I have all the tools and enough of supplies I need like paper, a fine-tip marker, solder, flux. acid bushes, putty, and so on. It's a REAL PAIN to run out of, say, solder right in the middle of the work.

This is my shop. I have the table on one side (with two strips of wood screwed down on two edges at a right angle) against which I clamp my work with special horse-shoe nails, to keep everything tight and square. If the panels I'm making are small enough, I also have room on this same table to cut my glass. On the other side is a work bench where I keep my diamond wheel glass grinder (which I shouldn't have to use on this project), and a small miter saw for cutting the copper came.

The first step is to draw my pattern or "cartoon" on a large sheet of white paper. In this case, it's a fairly simple Prairie School design - and both panels will be the same. I then tape it to the table and I'm ready to start fabricating my first panel over it.

Now I'm ready to start. I lay two of out my end "U" cames for my first right-angle. Then I start cutting glass and came, as I go, making sure to keep all of my glass pieces oriented in the right direction, and keeping the textured side up. In this case I'm using an all clear glass called "water" - because that's kind of what it looks like.

Once I'm done piecing together the entire panel, I keep it in place and begin to solder. I only flux a few joints at a time, and for copper, I have to use a very hot iron because the copper acts as a very effective heat sink and will cool a smaller iron too quickly and my solder will set before it flows out on the joints.

Once I finish soldering the first side, I unclamp the piece from the table to flip it and then solder the other side. Then I'll fabricate the second panel. The final step will be to putty the came on both sides of the panels - which will really stiffen them up - with a special putty made for art glass Then I have to wash the panels and apply copper sulfate to the solder to give it a copper color to match the came. After I solder a panel, I put it against a white sheet of paper and check to see If I screwed up in the orientation or put a piece in upside-down. I also check for any cracks that might have occurred, or other problems. It's much easier to make a fix now than later when the piece is puttied and ready to install. What can be really embarrassing is to install the panel, and then have the client notice that a piece was put in the wrong way! "Been there -- Done that", as the saying goes.

October 23 Finished both glass panels and puttied them today. I don't know how. I decided to finish the glass today after a futile hour or so trying to practice my violin in peace. Avey was gone for her volunteer work at the zoo, so I thought I would have an uninterrupted four of five hours to get some solid work done. Instead, her f------ dog barked all day. That made it REALLY hard to focus. So I worked on the glass instead. Did I mention the f------ dog?

Avey has always had this thing for animals in the house. First it was cats, then parakeets, then gerbils, then hamsters, then finches*, then guinea pigs, then cockatiels, then parakeets again, and now there are the mice that Rosina brought home. She always said it was "for the kids". Of course the usual always happened. After two weeks or so, they are no longer novel, or cute. Cages get neglected and the house always smells, etc. etc.. Plus the birds always made a racket. Also, the birds always shit all over the house -- when she decided that it would be nice to give them a little freedom and let them roam free. I started our relationship with very little tolerance (my problem, I know) and I never really progressed in that area.

* Zebra Finch: Small bird that shits and breeds. As the population grew exponentially, so did the coating of guano inside and outside the cage. I made a large cage ((for Avey "and the kids") so that the little birdies would have room to fly around. I thought that's what birds liked to do most. I was wrong. Even though the finches were not let outside the cage (except by accident), they did manage to leave their excrement in three-foot radius outside the cage.

Also no pictures today. Sorry. The camera seems to have "lost" its batteries. Probably Rosina. Anyhow, I can't concentrate anymore tonight. My 16-year-old daughter, Rosina has two friends over (it sounds like ten) to watch a Saturday night movie. You see, she's grounded until she's thirty five, on account of arriving home from "homecoming" at about 3:30 A.M., two weeks ago. So her solution is; if she can't go out for the rest of her adolescence, then she'll just have her friends over here all the time. It's not a major issue, I guess, except that...well let me put this way...what is it about the cheap perfume teenage girls put on! And when the several different cheap perfumes mingle, it is unbearable! The house reeks for days after!! Can somebody please invent a cheap perfume that evaporates in 10 minutes...Please??

Did I mention, I love my daughter, and she's a beauty, and a doll! Here's a picture of her doing what she does best (I hope it's not a boy on the other end!):

October 24 So, speaking of animals; This evening, I had my third beaver sighting this year at Thatcher Woods. Three weeks ago I caught sight of one, but only for several seconds. He (she?) was startled from his (her?) hiding place by some other (noisy!) hikers and swam away very quickly. However, today I saw one before it saw me. In fact, I don't think it ever saw me. It was about 5:50 P.M., just before dusk. Maybe they don't see so well.

Anyhow, I was just standing at the Des Plaines riverbank, just to the north of the island. A kind of a small beaver just swam up, (heading down-river on the River Forest side of the island) at a leisurely pace! He would occasionally stop and dive smoothly under water and come up about 5 or 10 seconds later in a different place. Then it would swim over the the bank, checking out something or other, then away from the bank to start swimming again. It seemed more like he was just having a jolly good time than anything else. I was able to stalk him down river for about 10 minutes or so, because the leaves were wet from the rain last night, and I could walk through them pretty quietly without crunching them. I lost sight of him when he came to the south end of the island, and then started back up-river on the Maywood side. I'm pretty sure the local beavers live on the island, but because it's inaccessible (which is why they probably hang out there, I've never explored it. Of course, I didn't have my camera with me - but then that really doesn't matter.

October 25 Well here is the anticlimactic end of Cassandra's project. The glass panels are installed, and the sconce came in, so I installed that this morning as well.

I stopped for a junk food lunch with Avey, who was having just a crappy day at work and left "sick" for the rest of the day. If anyone reading this is a nurse, you will need no explanations. For others: The pay is crap, the benefits nil, the treatment is...well still pretty much how working and professional women have been treated forever...the working conditions close to appalling, and the respect they get in our culture is minimal. The result: Tens of thousands beautiful and for the most part, selfless women with low self-esteem, bad backs, and nearly working poor.

And staying off track; An e-mail I received yesterday stated that that person didn't understand this "blog" and wished I would explain more of the technical things. My reply is that, yes I know that I am meandering. My excuse is this: usually when I'm making these entries I'm tired at the end of the day, and I usually still have more stuff to do, and sometimes technical things are tedious to explain. Anyhow, I don't want to give all the "secrets" away. Even though I really don't want it, I still need the employment.

Several e-mailers also didn't like my mingling of politics into the site. Here is one of the most concise:

I don't appreciate being attacked by the blatant advertisement for the Kerry campaign when one first logs on to the site. Please remove it. The message is all over the place already. I will check back periodically to see if it has been removed. Until then, I will not be perusing the site.

Respectfully,

William ------- (followed by several military initials)

--------, IL.

Here is my response to William and all others who don't seem to be offended by all the "pop-up" advertising and the "adware" that self installs itself onto their computers without their permission -- all protected, so the courts say, by the First Amendment, thanks to the lobbying by corporations who profit millions by hijacking your internet browser and than charging you for the software to try to eliminate it! But somehow, these people believe that my puny little web site is THE BIG PROBLEM!:

William,

You use of the word "attacked" is interesting. Do you mean "attacked" like the Bush administration "attacking" Iraq? Or do you mean "attacked" like the Bush administration's attacks on the Constitution and civil rights? Or do you mean "attacked" like the Bush administration's rape of the economy - or the environment - or the working class - etc., etc., etc.?

As for "blatant", do you mean "blatant" like those huge five-by-ten foot "Bush/Cheney" signs planted on lawns all over my neighborhood? Or do you mean "blatant" like you actually having the nerve to dictate to me what I should do with my web site? I know the Bush administration and the money powers have their eye on "attacking" the First Amendment further. Is this some sort of pet cause of yours as well?

Marty

And, by the way, via my own kind of "pop-ups", on my own web site THAT I PAY FOR, these are the very words that I used to "attack" William:

VOTE KERRY 2004

And back on track -- this afternoon at Mike and Rachel's I finished preparation for hanging the wall-covering tomorrow. It will probably take me two or three days.

October 27 Hung most of the canvas wall-covering, yesterday and today. Here are some pictures of that work in progress:

October 28 Finished the wall covering today. Nothing much else to tell except that we watched the total lunar eclipse last night. It was awesome -- and humbling. I know I need that. Things like that are also still inspiring, like when I was a kid! I used to always love looking up at the sky at night. The difference is, it used to be darker, and you could actually see lots of stars --- now, in the city, you see only a handful. And back then it was quieter too, which made it easier to contemplate the universe (and listen to music). I hope we can move someplace soon where it is quieter and darker at night.

October 29 Well this "blog" is just about finished. I'll have a few more pictures of Rachel and Mike's house when I tie up a few loose ends. I think I'll make this my last "editorial" entry. Please keep re:visiting the site for future newsletter and other rantings.

I'll end with this music. It expresses the many feelings and emotions I have tonight, and at so many other times - - so many of which I cannot, or am not willing to put into words. Some people who know me best will understand, I think. It is music by my beloved Beethoven. Of all composers, it is him only that I understand so very well. Some of the only remaining of my early childhood memories are of sitting in the room with my father, each of us reading - him usually the newspaper, and me, whatever - with his favorite Toscanini recordings of the Beethoven Symphonies, playing constantly in the background. He wore those records out, and I wore them out further. I still have them.

Here are some final detail pictures of the kitchen. You can see that it is already being well used and enjoyed (I hope!) by the family. The under-counter heaters need some adjustment. One is putting out much more heat then the other. They are connected in series, which may be the problem. Meeting the heating guy to look over the problem tomorrow.

Well, the election is over and now the real battles begin. There is no time for mourning because the real "Axis Of Evil" - Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld - is already preparing to fuck up the country (and the world) even more. If they use the last four years as just a jumping off point, we're in for some real messes ahead. Officially, this will be my last entry in this "blog". Time to go try to help change the world.

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