Confidence

I recently had a conversation with a lovely woman I met while out shopping for mid-century furniture in Berkley, MI. Somehow we got on the conversation of renovation and we quickly connected about our feelings of confidence when it came to approaching a project. She had painted a brownstone. I had painted a church. The bottom line was that after doing a large project, we felt able to snap our fingers at the small stuff. Like scraping and painting the garage, for example.

Snap!

During the week, I stay downstate to keep Mike company and to take care of issues around the house. And he "lets" me. He's very supportive in this! A few years ago (pre-church, namely!) he might not have felt comfortable leaving me alone with a power washer, a scraper and gallons of primer and paint. Anything could go wrong in the hands of a rookie. Now, he dashes off to work with barely a twitch when I tell him I'll be re-landscaping the yard and painting the garage this week.

Ain't no big thang!

Now, the landscaping did cause a few scrapes, especially when I got my finger literally caught between a rock and a hard place (cement!) That brought a little mist to my eyes, but I walked it off and carried on like a big girl.

Mother Nature at work.

The battle ensues.

Casualty: one purple fingernail that will probably not realize old age.

But totally worth it!

Who's in charge? Me!

OK, maybe I'm feeling a little over-confident, but it's better than sitting on my butt afraid to dig in. BTW, that green thing is a rain barrel. It's not the most attractive thing but it sure is handy if you have flowers and a garden.

So what has all this to do with the church? Well, it's been over two and a half years of work, and there's more to go.

Time to Rrrrr-enovate!

Every Friday, with few exceptions, we hop in our cars and head north. We get there with some project in mind. Most of the projects are things that neither of us had done before, at least on this scale. Mike owned a former department store turned studio/living space in Flint so he had some experience with heavy renovation, but I had none. The only thing I had going for me was ignorance and a sense of adventure...and the fact that both Mike and I have lifted weights and done yoga since we were young. Keeping our bodies strong certainly has helped, though age and gravity have taken a toll on our comfort levels.

No mount of yoga can prepare you for awkward repetitive motions!

So here I am, glazing a window in situ. I had spent a few hours scraping the window with a brush and a metal scraper, and I had painted the window frame and the outside frame white. Mike had calculated that we spent over 60 HPW (hours per window!) on the front windows by taking them out, sanding them to remove the paint, carefully picking out all the hardened brittle glazing, gingerly taking out the glass, painting, reinstalling the glass and re-pointing it, re-glazing and painting more coats. Meanwhile Mike had to cut out plywood "windows" to install over the hole while the real windows were out, and they had to be screwed in and caulked, and then deinstalled, etc. It was VERY time consuming. 

Glazing a window!

That's a lot of HPW! So we decided to do the windows a different way. I was able to scrape, paint and reglaze this window in one afternoon. An hour into the scraping, I was doubtful, mainly because my shoulders were sassing me about the fact that I had been scraping paint all week at the garage and they could use a break from awkward repetitive motions. But after a spell of listening to Jimmie Rogers (think cowboy yodeling!) I gave my body a stern talking to and it settled down into a more peaceful place. I actually was able to enjoy the process, and my doubts vanished. Meanwhile, Mike was working inside and had sanded, filled holes and painted TWO windows in the same amount of time. He had no doubts!

I know - it's hard to tell.

Mike did a beautiful job, but it's really hard to see, both in photography and in person, since there is so much light coming in through the windows. I should have gotten an evening shot, but we were too pooped by then! 

Our in situ methods saved us approximately 50 hpw, since we both spent about five hours on our respective projects. Sure, it's not quite as thorough as the other method, but there are seven more windows to do, and other projects that are a-waiting. I think it's a great trade off, since the windows are weather-tight and look great. 

So what's the moral of the story? I guess I'm trying to convey a little of what I've learned from this adventure; mainly that there's no sense in being afraid to try things. This church had gone back to nature when we found it. It's amazing how one little hole in a roof can open the door to nature's full fury in the guise of rotted wood, raccoon shanty towns, cracked and crumbling plaster and more. We really couldn't have harmed it more than neglect had already done. Step by step, with a lot of help, but also with a lot of work ethic, we have gutted and scraped and sanded and painted and installed our way into a sense of confidence. Perhaps it comes naturally for men; how else could the Brooklyn Bridge and the Pyramids have been built? But for me, it's been a great learning experience and a great confidence builder. I didn't foresee this aspect of our adventure, but I'm very grateful for it. I think Mike is too, especially when he sees the fruits of my labor! 

What's this mess?

OK, that's better!

Now I just have to stain those front steps... no problem!

(P.S. - he still is the MAN! Where man = 2x woman!)
I'm good with it!

He's twice as strong, but I eat 1/3 less!

Glazing Over

The Church has had its eyes shut for a few months. We took in the windows for repair and reglazing. We started by sanding down the old wood and giving them a few new coats of paint.

Red on the Outside,

Brown on the Inside.

To keep the inside weather separate from the outside weather, we needed to glaze the windows. Glazing is when you put a special glazing putty on the inside edges and smooth it down.

I got the job!

I've got the gloves for it!

But I had to be schooled first. Dr. Paul Fisher of the Institute for Glazing Old Windows gave me a tutorial. First take a glob of glaze. Then roll it out like a long snake. Then stuff it in the corners with your big Polish fingers.

Well I don't have big Polish fingers, so I had to use several smaller fingers.

Roll and Stuff.

It looks a bit like someone stuffed their old gum into the windows. But there is a tool that takes the lumps and bumps out and gives it an edge.

De-lumped

I used it. 

Of course, if the edges of the window aren't smooth and sharp,  the tool that uses the edge as a guide isn't able to make a nice straight line. 

Uhh...maybe some paint will help!

Yes, the paint did help. After I painted, I had to scrape the excess paint off the glass and clean the glass. 

At last, we were finally able to install a window! 

New wood inserts to keep it all snug.

Of course there were some adventures along the way.

Whups.

Pilot holes had been drilled, but the wood was pretty dry, so it cracked. But practice makes perfect, and we did practice! 

Perfect!

And the Mastermind behind it all...

Pilot holes, baby.

...had a very special event to go to, so time to get cleaned up!

Cleaned up!

Patent #4, and counting. Fancy-schmancy dinner in Rochester, MI. Mr. Zaitz receives his patent plaque and some very nice words. Mrs. Zaitz receives a delicious dinner and a big helping of gratefulness that she hitched her horse to this guy's post. 

Uncovering the Window

For as many years as can be remembered by the living, there has been a red circle with a white cross in the front of the Church.

Here's the story of the uncovering of the Quatrefoil window.

First light was quite exciting!

Now you see it,

Now you don't!

 I couldn't take pictures of bringing the window down since I was holding the lowering rope! But she is down, and ready to be loved. It's not clear yet whether she will be restored or will become a museum piece. She's in rough shape.

Most of the glass was intact, but in order to repair the window, all the glass had to come out. That meant all the brittle glazing had to be picked out. I did the best I could, but it became apparent that the glass was really not worth saving in this case. Yes, it was old and original, but we think the reason it was covered it because it's too fragile for the westerly weather it had to take. So new glass will have to be made for it.

Antique brittle glazing + dry rotted wood = bye bye glass.

I did manage to remove the center glass without mishap. And never fear, I saved most of the pieces for the future. I'm sure a project will arise that will call for antique warbly glass.

The bones.

Exciting!

Meanwhile, the other window is coming along...

Primer

Nice sanding job!

We're still debating colors, so stay tuned...