a most tedious undertaking

we live in an old house. old houses come with "old house things" - doors that stick, stairs that creak, weird night-time noises, and hidden quirks from previous owners. and layers upon layers upon layers of paint. this house has 85 years of paint. on EVERYTHING. including the door hardware.

yuck. and the doors between our den and kitchen / dining room have old metal weather stripping, since our den used to be a porch. the metal has paint all over it, too. well, one day, phil got tired of looking at it and started to rip off the metal. and he took off the door.

gorgeous. ha! luckily, the gaps that the weather stripping had been covering weren't huge. all he had to do was use some wood filler and then paint. okay, LOTS of wood filler. and LOTS of paint. 

five zillion times better, right??!? so then we had nicely painted, significantly cleaner-looking door frame. then the bad part started.

we had been researching ways to clean old hardware (the usual suspects: design sponge, apartment therapy, this old house), but didn't have a crock pot. well, we actually had TWO crock pots, thanks to a great wedding shower at phil's parents' church. but one we took back when we moved to DC. and the other we actually gave to phil's friend when he was in law school up at NYU (they took it back on the bus!!). i just didn't use it. i like crispy food : ) any who... we looked on craigslist for a cheap crock pot, because no one wants to use the same crock pot you use for food (as my friend alison said, "killer queso!"); but, didn't get any immediate hits. so we did the boiling water / baking soda method. 

we pulled a couple of mop buckets from the garage and started boiling water in the electric kettle. sidebar: i had a roommate in college with a british mom who introduced me to the electric kettle concept. they are AMAZING! thanks, becky! i use it way more than i ever thought possible. okay, i'm back. so we used a bucket per hinge and filled it with boiling water and baking soda. then it soaked for at least 30 minutes, so the hardware was cool enough to handle. then phil scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed. the first layer of paint would peel, then he would use a toothbrush and brillo pad to get the next layer. and then we'd boil more water and start the process over again. each hinge took, oh, about five cycles of that. the scrubbing was brutal. 

 

one of the coolest things about the process was taking apart the door hardware. he even took apart the lock. since this used to be a back door, it has a locking mechanism - although we don't have a key. the soak and scrub got rid of more than just the paint: the rust came off, too. 

look how pretty! i can't even describe how clean the finished look is compared to the old. the patina is still there, you still know it's old hardware. i think it's brass-plated, judging by the color (and we did a magnet test), and i love it. the glass doorknob is cleaner, too. before we do the rest of the doors - there are TEN more (!!!!!) - we are continuing the crock pot search. i'll let you know if it speeds things up. man, i hope so!

ps - throughout most of this tedious process, this lucky lady was sitting at the dining room table working on a deadline for work. phil is amazing. he would let me know good times to jump up and take a photo. seriously, all you single ladies, the best traits in a husband (to me, at least!) are an outrageous sense of humor and an incredible work ethic. nothing better than knowing my good-looking guy is working hard all day and coming home to crack me up : ) 

magic carpet ride

have you ever bought a rug? a really big rug. oh my, they're expensive. but they can totally make a room.

i found a modern rug for our bedroom. it's large, but i found it in a cyber monday sale and it's a really popular pattern right now. i'm sure i'll think it's dated in a few years, but most of it is covered by our bed, so i'm kind of okay with that. downstairs in our front living room, however, is a different story...

we really want an antique rug. we thought "oh, let's get one of those cool overdyed rugs." so i looked online and couldn't find one that we loved. well, i found some beautiful rugs, but they were either too expensive, too bright, or too small. i was looking for an 8 foot-ish by 10 foot-ish rug in a muted green, gray, or blue. nothing. so we decided to wait until the annual bloomingdale's tent sale, which happens early every summer. it was overwhelmingly full of rugs. and pushy salesmen. we went earlier in the morning, to beat the heat (it's literally in a tent) and any crowd. failed on both accounts: miserably stuffy and there is apparently never a crowd. whatever.

we assumed our typical bargaining dynamic. i kindly explained what we were looking for (size, colors, prefer overdyed) while phil looked as bored as possible and said he hated everything we saw. the salesman, along with a team of helpers to pull back the heavy stacks of rugs, eventually helped me find two absolutely gorgeous rugs.

rug one - overdyed simple pattern

rug two - overdyed more ornate pattern, tad bit brighter

i would have been happy to take either home [the salesmen try to get you to buy 2-4 rugs, so you can "try it in your room and then bring back the ones you don't want" - yeah, right!], until we saw the price. each one was over $4000!!!!! ummmm what?? isn't this supposed to be a sale? oh, it was on sale. the original price was over $15,000 on one of them. who buys a $15,000 rug? not this couple. this couple was not buying a $4000 rug, either. oh, i considered it. i always do. in the heat of the moment i get really excited about how beautiful it will look and all the new furniture that will go with it... and then phil drags me back to earth.

the next tactic for a giant rug was the big box stores. i checked all the usuals: west elm, pottery barn, crate and barrel, cb2, ikea, macy's, etc. same problems. wrong color, wrong size, wrong price. or wrong quality - i found some interesting options on overstock, but they just looked so cheap. i mean, they are cheap. but i don't want it to look that way! : )

i wish this story had a happy ending. not yet. one day my prince rug will come. until then, it's back to the internets. i've found some amazing resources. esalerugs is my current haunt. there are some real beauties, the price is right, and the shipping is free. then i've been searching ebay and etsy. i typically follow the guidelines put forth by one of my favorite users-of-oriental-rugs-in-amazing-ways: little green notebook. she shares her tips for small rugs on ebay here, turkish kilims here, and success with esalerugs here. hopefully i find something soon!

there's a mouse in the basement!

well, the dc curse is upon our house. we have mice. georgetown is notorious for rats, and apparently glover park has mice.

we have a roommate in our basement, with a separate kitchen and laundry. we got an email several weeks ago that she had heard some "squeaking." no droppings, no chewed through food, no sighting. traps were set, but nothing. then she saw droppings and heard something behind the refrigerator. yikes!

we called the exterminator. per usual with house services, i searched on angie's list for a company that is highly rated and has coupons. i also prefer to go with a local company - you can usually bargain and build relationships with the staff (less turnover than a large chain like orkin). what a nice man! he explained the habits of the mice, which (naturally) i found fascinating and helpful. apparently, they can fit through a hole the size of a dime. *shudder* they run around when people aren't out and about - so night or while we're at work - and they run a similar route repeatedly. so he looked for droppings and "mapped" the route. there was a distinct circular route from the bathroom through a hole in the wall around the perimeter of the room (the basement is set up like a little studio apartment). he set up mostly snap traps (warning: people posted dead mouse photos in the user photos section of the amazon listing - ewww) all along the route. snap traps are more humane because they instantly kill the mouse, rather than letting them squirm and suffer in a glue trap. then he tried to plug any holes he found that were suspect.

he explained some important concepts for preventing and dealing with mice:
- they can't see very well, but their sense of smell is strong. use gloves when placing or moving traps so they can't smell your "human" smell. they will avoid the trap area if they smell you.
- don't change everything around along their normal track. for instance, if people see droppings in the cabinet under their sink, their first instinct is to clean everything out of the cabinet and leave a trap. the mouse will notice the drastic difference in the space and avoid the area (and your trap). try to place a trap in their route without disturbing it.
- use steel wool to block small holes. mice can eat through drywall, but not steel wool. he stuffed into gaps around pipes all over the basement bathroom.
- keep things clean and food in tightly sealed containers (like glass). luckily, he said our space was not to blame. it's normal for mice to seek warmth in the winter and having a vacant house next door is not helping; the direction they are all coming is the wall we share with the vacant house. problems will persist until that house also takes care of any issues (emails to the owner go unanswered).

unfortunately, we've found three dead mice in two weeks. i don't know if this is a lot or a little. the exterminator said we are not an "infestation" situation. we just don't want them to have babies! maybe it's just the joys of living in an old house with a basement in a city. and near a large field. my aunt works at a school built in a field in colorado and they have lots of field mice. she said the teachers use bounce fabric softener sheets in their drawers and cabinets because the mice hate it. so when i get home from holiday travel, you better believe i'm running to safeway to give it a try!

so thankful for a helpful exterminator that took the time to explain what he was doing and why so we can tackle this on our own. also thankful that he said the mice don't appear to be in the garage or on other floors. and the concrete, tile, and brick meet up without holes where the floors meet the walls so mice can't get in that way! it's the little victories... : )

update: phil came home from christmas vacation to find a dead mouse in our den. ugh. very upset right now.