Last smalls projects before we get married...

 Yes, you read that right, I kept busy till the end,  needed the distractions.

Because of last minutes paper work snafu, waited anxiously for some papers to arrived from Quebec, just to find out, need another??   Wedding is supposed to be on Wednesday, Monday is a holiday (Thanksgiving), Tuesday AM we will be at the door of the Vital Statistic office for the province to get the final piece of the puzzle.  Note to readers, when you die, make sure your estate fill all the required paperwork's please.   :-(

Besides lots of re-arranging , clean ups, the only two big undertaking I took on was to install the chandelier medallion (only had it for about 8 years now :-), and moved the TV Flat screens around.

The current TV in the living room is a Panasonic 32 In, we often talked about upgrading it.  In the mean time it has been wall mounted in that corner for over a year now, and the biggest this space would accommodate is around 40 ish inches.  So the biggest and best screen in the house, in the Man cave, is coming upstairs to replace it. 

Which meant some small repair on the wall were the wall mount was for the 32 incher, going down to the gym.

A few small (big) holes to take care of.

Prime plus two coats of paint, it disappeared

Between waiting for drying, mud coats, primer, paint coats, took a few days

In the mean time the 50 incher was removed from its wall mount in the Man cave and installed on its pedestal upstairs.  Had to run temporary cable connections, would need to change it later.  I am closer to antenna, but using extension from former TV corner to here.  Waste of Dbm if you ask me :-)

One of the many furniture combinations we went thru in the last few weeks ;-)

We also steam washed the carpet .

Which Rudy always takes it as a challenge after I put away all his toys, 

to re-arrange his decor to his liking :-)

The chandelier was awaiting all that time, what we were going to do with our textured ceiling.  We long thought it would be best to scrape it flat, but that for sure would entail some scraping, sanding, purging, sanding and etc.  Which would have meant living in a cloud of plaster dust for a while, not happening.  We even considered drywalling over, but to make it look straight would required furring strips or knocking the stalactites flat all over the ceiling.  

Years ago Heather experimented on one of the hallways end some scraping techniques, we just knocked it down flattish, not trying to remove it all.  Jean and I finished the job by finishing the hallways first before tackling the living room, dining room.  Happy with the results, looks a lot better to us, but still had the chandelier with a loose hanging cover cap (left room for medallion).

So, time to finished the job :-)

I installed it a year or so after we moved in, 

left some space on the rod for the medallion.

 

Which is a tad dusty after all these years :-)

Used my trammel points to score a circle the diameter 

I have to scrape clean to install my medallion 

Used a spare electrical box cover, draws lines to indicate center, 

did same on a small piece of wood, used those lines to lined them in the center, hot glued.

Poke a hole in the middle I have a good solid point to swing my trammels points around.

The outside line represent how big my medallion is.  

While scraping, I try to stay close to my line to help me centered the medallion

But first it had to come down.

It is a tad on the heavy side, so it is solidly attached to the electrical box which is in turn, securely attached to the rafters.  Yah, won't go anywhere :-)  But it is no fun for your partner (not married yet :-) to hold it while I disconnect power and detached it from the ceiling.  

You wanna test a relationship? 

Do some renovations together :-)

Finally down on the table, getting ready to install medallion after ...

...my scrapped area has dried .  

Fortunately, the textured ceiling was never painted, 

so spritzing water softened it to scrape it easily (?)

Ready for gluing.  I installed a longer rod, 4 inches versus my original 2 inches.

Going to use it as a clamp to hold medallion.

There you go Dear, all Done! :-)

Using another screw bar on the rod to screw tight the medallion to the ceiling.

Temporary light, because its gonna take a few days of scraping, mudding, sanding etc.

Days later it is starting to look good.

A couple more touch ups and I'll be be happy 

So after I was done prepping the ceiling and had the medallion secured to the ceiling, I came up with a better plan to re-install it...

NO pics, since we were both a tad busy :-)

 I had slide the dining room table close to the medallion under it (still need room for ladder), put on a coffee table on it (Ducan Phyfe), then a smaller side table on top (pie crest) to finally deposit my prepared chandelier on top of it all.  That OSHA's approved apparatus (Hey, you guys lowered most of your standards so it should be approved :-)  held the chandelier high enough to enable me to work on passing the wires up the tube after taking time to line up all my required hardware in the right order... 

Meanwhile, all she had to do was to put a hand on it to make sure nothing is going anywhere.  A lot easier on her than holding the whole thing.   Oups sorry Babe should had thought of it sooner.

By then I had figured out that I would need a three inch rod, but I only have a two and four inch rods. 

So cut, filed the rod then screw the mounting plate and rod securely, locked in place 

During this time, our youngest grand daughter's got dropped off here for a short time, and kept asking me if I was done... If you know me, you know I have lots of patience while I am busy working :-)

Put it all together just to realized, I forgot to unscrew the final nut from the fitting before installing it before the cover.  Which meant, cannot screw cover, it has to all come down and re do it all over again, fishing wires and all.  At that point the chandelier was still on top of the tables, so thankfully it was not a biggie but... Ohh annoying miss-steak, if I ever had one :-)

The hardest was to refrain to swear in both official language while she asked again: Are you done yet :-)

Gave her my best smile, Soon sweeties :-)

Why her rush?  She was anxious to play on Gramma's phone, she knows better than ask Grampa for his phone :-)

Second time went without a hitch, cleanup my messes, re-arranged some furniture...while my Fiancée  went shopping with the grand peanut.  Thanks Sweeties :-)

Almost done, covers need a good clean up

 and I broke one, somehow, oups.

OK now I'm done.  Tag you're it Babe, 

I do not know which table covers you want :-)

In between all of these still managed to find a marking gauge in my bureaucratic travels, which I gave a quick clean up before storing it.

As found.  Look pitiful, hence low price.  

There was another one on another table for $20, in much better condition.

Yes, it is a Stanley No 65, one of my favorite design, 

Because of the beam shape it locks better and straighter than most.

Having its patent date still, makes it an early one.

Brass plate is sticking out, brass plated steel screw is badly rusted,

the point is ... something like a finish nail??

The all important brass shoe is present.  

Earlier models were cast, later thinner and stamped.

It is oxidizing, the green stuff you see.

That little screw at the end of the beam is what kept that brass shoe in place all along.  

The head cannot be removed unless you first unscrew it..

As long as head is on beam, brass shoe is safe from going MIA.

A few rust stains, here and there, brass plated steel screw is in rough shape

Screw holding the cutting bit is about to be lost to rust

All the metal bits are soaking in fresh Evaporust.

Yes, even the brass parts.

Got another 4 Ltr of the stuff in my bureaucratic related travels :-)

24 hrs or so later, rinsed under water, brushed with a brass brush

A tad small for the wire wheel...

See the round spot in the middle of the Brass shoe?

That is the Achille heel of this design.  The cast brass shoe is supposed to prevent damages to the beam from the screw, but being brass plated steel, not brass, it is harder than the cast brass and will invariably drill a hole, deflect the shoe so it is now scratching and binding on the beam etc.

On the stamped brass one they can really get damaged badly.  Always check the shoe condition.

Which you cannot do without removing a screw, but

you can get a reasonable idea by feeling how the head slide on the beam.

Now, if it wasn't for Ham fisted people, these should not see much damages, that design lock solid without Gorilla strength... Honest. 

  

That shiny but heavily eroded surface is what remains of the good metal, 

all the rust is gone, leaving pits.  Will make a new scribing pin later.

After some file works on head, re-installed screw.

Plates were pressed in the steel vice, you can see why one end of the brass shoe 

always had an opening in order for the pin to lay flush at zero on the head.

All put back together, de- rusted, cleaned, lubricated (oil and wax, metal and wood)

Done, put it in storage in the Basket - O - Gauge 

Yeah, I know, I am overdue for a gauge till :-)

A project for later in my married years ahead...

Bob, awaiting Tuesday anxiously...