forge.

Meet our newest addition; the coal forge. Now technically, I shouldn't be posting this here, but I just couldn't help it.  It's really my husbands toy; I've never forged anything in my life, (though I'm hoping to learn now...) but it's such a neat thing, and it's a part of my family history.  

Since we moved in October, my husband has been talking about the forge.  It was sitting among my grandpa's clutter, that my grandma just adores, might I add, and I'm sure it was just calling out to him "please, please, take me home!" A couple of weeks ago he finally got his wish.  We now have added to the rest of our creative endeavors a Champion Blower & Forge Co. Model # 400 coal forge. It's pretty old... what I'm assuming are the patent dates read "April 15, 1902 and July 30, 1901." I believe it was probably my great-grandfathers, if not my great-great-grandfathers. Neat, right?!  But despite it's age, it still works like a dream.  When he really got it cranking, I got some pretty great pictures of the sparks flying.  So far, he's been experimenting with flattening a railroad spike, to get the feel of things, and hammering on an old piece of i-beam.  If you've got an anvil just lying around, or know someone who does, we'd be happy to take it off their hands! 

sit.

New project: Chairs!

If you remember, a while back, I posted about the two part-er table project.  Step one was the napkin rings, while step two was fixing up the set of 4 chairs that goes with the table.  I'm finally getting around to the second part.

Since there are 4 chairs, all in different stages of being, we'll separate them.  A and B used to be finished, until the puppy decided to teethe all over B's legs. So, A gets a few touch-ups and B gets all kinds of sanding, and a few more touch-ups.  C is half-way there.  Once upon a time, when I was home from school, I decided that I wanted four chairs in my efficiency apartment rather than just two.  So I dragged C down from the attic, and sanded away.  Then I got tired and abandoned it. Now C just looks like a molted green and yellow mess. And D.  D is officially in "before" state. So there's your comparison...

So far, A and B are touched up, re-glued and happy, and after a long afternoon of work, C only needs one or two more coats of fresh paint.  D is re-glued and slightly stripped.  D needs some help. 

Hopefully this will be just a two-update process.  We'll see!

stain.

After forever, the desk is finally finished! Thank goodness, because I really don't get anything done with my computer set up in the living room; I'm ready to move back to my kitchen corner! 

All that's lacking now is the hardware, which I'll add in the morning when the top coat has completely dried.  After all of the hard work, I'm really proud of myself.  For anyone out there who has qualms about re-finishing furniture, don't worry! It's really not as scary as I thought it would be, though you should be ready to put in a lot of hours with some sand paper if the finish is in bad shape.  The staining went very smoothly, I used a rag to rub the stain into the wood and just let it dry.  For the varnish, I used a foam brush (grand total of 96 cents at home depot) and made very long strokes. 

I think, in review, that the color was a good choice, even though it still doesn't match much of our furniture.  It was a cleaner version of the original color, and it stays true to the natural wood, which I believe is pecan.  I can't wait to get my hands on the other pieces in the set someday so that I can clean them up too! What a great bedroom set it will make!

grind.

Just checking in... It's job hunting week and that means that from about 6:30 am 'till I fall asleep I'm scouring the web for my new home.  As an update, we're looking to get out of Texas (fingers crossed) just for the fun of it.  We're really (really) hoping for Boulder/ Denver area.  We'd settle for Phoenix / Dallas / Austin, or gee, if we had to, San Francisco / Portland / Seattle or overseas. (:  It's a fun time in life where the doors are wide open, we have no ties and we can just see what happens.  Or, worst case scenario, doesn't happen.  Then we end up right where we're at now moving just a hop down the street. Ugh. Please no.  So, shameless plea, if you know of anything even remotely interesting going on in these areas job-wise for an architect or a ceramic artist please contact me! Thanks!

For now, back to the grind......

strip.

Since my bike is nearly finished, it's time for a new project! 

My husband and I are just starting out, and there are times (with much thanks to our families!) that our hodgepodge of donated furniture feels a little like a goodwill showroom.  So, my plan of attack is to re-finish a lot of the big stuff to match, such as the bookshelves, a desk, a drafting table we've acquired, and a set of chairs.  First up: the desk.  My husband had this desk in his bedroom in the "bachelor pad" when he lived with roommates.  It's a great piece of furniture, and recently I learned that on top of that, it's a family heirloom!!! Since I found out, I've been trying to learn a little more of the history of the piece, since their family has a few more pieces belonging to the set that I'd like to try and clean up.  

But it's really much much more than that... "Olive & Myers Manufacturing Company" was a mattress and furniture manufacturer founded in downtown Dallas in, I believe, 1900. At that time, one of the founders, also the vice president of the company, was Horace Elton (aka H. E.) Spalti.  This guy was my husband's great-great-grandfather!! The company in itself has an amazing history.  The headquarters were located in a very prominent building located in downtown Dallas; today it is know as 2220 Canton Lofts.  H. E. Spalti later became the president of the company, and in the mid-50's Olive & Myers officially merged with a Houston manufacturing company, Myers & Spalti, to become Olive, Myers, & Spalti. My husband's great-grandfather, Horace Duncan (aka H. D.) Spalti became president.  Vera B. Spalti, H. D.'s wife,  was a name that I was already familiar with; my husband proposed with her engagement ring, and I wear it every day. (:

Here are a couple of pictures of the historic part, and a bunch of the beginnings of the project:

Also, here are some of the links that I found during my "google-fest" on Olive & Myers:

Texas Historical Markers- Myers & Spalti Manufacturing Plant, Harris County, Tx

Looking for answers- Forum discussion

A Dallas firm, Selzer Associates, renovates one of the warehouse buildings of Olive & Myers

Location of the old warehouse complex in Dallas, Tx:

build.

Here it is! The bike is back together! Not by any means ride-able yet, but not too much left before it will be!  Re-greased/ oiled the parts, got everything back on the way it came off, and I think that everything works.... List of things to do before I can ride: new tubes and tires, new chain, and a little work on the shifters, also need some handlebar tape; I'm thinking yellow to match. Take a look:

shift.

One step closer, and if things go right I'll be putting the bike back together in the morning! Even though I finished the shifters and the brakes last Thursday, we've been away again and I'm just now getting the chance to post...

Both systems went smoothly, even though they were the parts I was most nervous about.  I've never done much mechanical work, and I thought a bike was a better place to start than leaving pieces of my truck all over the place. Turns out I was probably right.  With a little help from Zinn, I was able to navigate both systems pretty easily and really, they're both fairly self-evident once you get the covers off and the basic nuts and bolts out of the way.  I was proud to unravel their mysteries. Hah. A few pictures here:

clean.

Today, I cleaned. And scrubbed. And brushed. Anything and everything to get all of the pieces and parts ready to toss back onto the frame.  I started with a daunting box full of non-sense, and ended with two very shiny wheels, very shiny handlebars, "like new" pedals, and a clean bottom bracket. Not to mention that I survived a rear wheel crisis.  I think it was a pretty productive day...

The crisis was the moment when I realized that trying to take the freewheel off to clean it was a mistake. Little did I know that A. removing the freewheel just about always ends in a complete overhaul of the rear component, and B. you need a special tool to even remove a freewheel. One that I do not possess. Loosening the nuts on the ends will only result in a really cool long piece sliding out of the middle of the entire wheel, and *hey* a neat little handful of ball bearings that no matter how you balance the bike, smash your fingers, or poke with needle nose pliers, will absolutely NOT fit back in the way they seem to have started. So, about an hour, and lots of panicking later, the crisis was averted with only two little ball bearings left over... Who needed those two anyways??

[note: this will probably be one of those "hindsight" moments later. And no, you can't say "I told you so," because I already beat you to it.]

At the end of the day I was left with things to do: figure out the brakes and shifting systems, clean the seat and kickstand, and things to get: A new chain (mine's shot...) and new tubes and tires. The (very) old ones seem to have been whitewall.... What do you think? Should I go for it? I got a funny feeling thinking about cruising around with the whitewalls and chrome popping against the purple frame, I'm just not too sure. 

unwrap.

The painting is finally finished!!  There was nothing more satisfying (except maybe when I take that first cruise) than peeling all of the tape off for the last time.  (: After taping off yellow... then white... then black... then the text... then all of it... Hah. It felt great to spray the last coat of gloss on wildly.

The solid color stripes and bands were actually pretty easy...  I covered the entire bike with newspaper to keep from making a mess, then just adjusted the taped off parts as I needed to.  The only part I ran into a bit of trouble with was the text.  I had printed stencils onto card stock, and I never even thought about the rigidity of the paper.  The little bits inside the letters wouldn't conform to the bike... duh. So, my solution was to trace the text onto layered painter's tape and then cut out the letters with an exacto.  Worked like a charm! See??

sort.

On another note, this the box of stuff that I have to sort through to get the "project portfolio" portion of my site going... dating from fall 2003... yep. The goal is one project a day until they're all finished.  Maybe. I'm having trouble finding any documentation from a couple of projects (and, no, it doesn't matter that they drilled it into us to document EVERYTHING and save it all in at least two places.....) but I know it's out there. Sigh.  [ If anyone needs something from project, let me know... Pretty sure I keep everything.]