Stamina

Not a bad day again – productivity wise.  I spent the morning preparing for tomorrow’s labour (building a work bench), taking delivery of the toilet, and further organizing the construction supply container to make room for the panelling I took off from the hall.  I was able to get all the panelling off before my 1:30 Blood donation appointment.

Technically I was not supposed to do anything further that day as you are not supposed to do anything strenuous for 8 hours after, but by 6:00 I felt I had waited long enough and went back to do some more destruction.  This was also when the person who was going to pull up the hardwood floors was to arrive.  I spent the evening stripping off some of the hallway planking that was behind the panelling.  I was going to try and save the planking but it is probably only 1/2″ thick and typically had at least 3 nails into each stud.  It was just too brittle to pull without shattering. So shattering we did, in about 3 minutes I was able to clear off a wall.

Time Elapsed – 3 minutes – 20 seconds – Starting to look pretty bare

The wife of the person who was to take up the oak floors then arrived.  She lasted about 5 minutes and packed it in and said she would come back the next day with her husband.  I had to laugh as I felt the same way about 5 minutes into the floor I was doing but fortunately had the stamina to stick to it, and it ended up getting a lot easier as I progressed.

I spent the rest of the evening cleaning up including moving the hallway panels into the storage container.  One of the site visitors sent me a note asking why was I bothering to save wood panelling – ‘so 70’s’.  The truth is that this is not just any wood panelling.  It was imported from Japan and is called Japanese Sen Sen (species Acanthopanax ricinifolius of the Family Araliaceae). In Japan, sen is used for a wide range of applications, including furniture, chests, interior joinery, panelling, construction, piano cases, baseball bats, carving and turnery. As it is such an uncommon wood hear (especially a plywood panel of it) and because it is so beautiful, I am saving it in the hopes of creating a possible feature wall or ceiling somewhere in the house.  I have an idea to cut it into segments that are each stained slightly different and make an pattern of some form.  AT the very least, I will use to to panel a wall in the shop or something.

While stripping the panelling from the entrance hall closet I found this little surprise.

 

There has been some discussion amongst the neighbours as to the age of the house.  I have always been under the impression that it was 1954 but this opinion was not shared by some neighbours.  Well, this is pretty concrete proof!  I will save and display with the previously found sign from the builder (Patsy’s former husband).

Finally I wanted to show you a photo of the interlaced corner I forced the installers to do when I was having hardwood put in when we moved in.  To this day, I have not see another house with this feature and really love the look.

As always – thanks for stopping by.