Grandma Maggie's Rocking Chair

The old black color
after last month's test removal

For many years now I've been staring at Grandma Hennessey's  old rocking chair thickly coated with black enamel. It was on the porch for a long time, but it made me feel guilty so I demoted it to the basement, where it has been piled with junk for a couple of decades. I felt reproached every time I did laundry but I had no experience with furniture stripping and knew a refinishing project would be more challenging than rewarding, at least at first.



After removing many layers,
the seat is looking better

About a month ago I was bored and Bob gave me the go-ahead to investigate stripping the chair. He suggested the basement as a workplace and I started some preliminary work on the rocker. The basement was a BAD idea because it was too cold to open a window, but I did just enough work to realize that I had to take the job outside and approach it in phases. Once again, I got away with a stupid choice and neither succumbed to fumes from the stripper nor set the house on fire.

The rocker is very comfortable

This morning I took the rocking chair to the concrete pad near the trash and covered it with an old sheet, a good enough dropcloth. The morning was cool after the debilitating heat of the last few days, and I set myself the modest goal of removing most of the paint from the visible side of the seat. I used only stripper which I removed with a soft cloth rather than the putty knife and steel wool recommended by the instructions.
I was amazed and was surprisingly emotional when I saw the results, after only 90 minutes or so.  I felt channeled and cheered on by Maggie's spirit as the gooey paint came off, revealing the wood and craftsmanship of old. I never met Grandma but now the rocker has bridged time and space to connect us.

I've given myself a week or so to finish the job and have stored the rocker in the garage beside our bikes, for easy access to my work. I'm already looking forward to some winter knitting in my new chair.

Bastille Day on Selby Avenue




 

Bastille Day poster in a store window

The morning was nice and cool so an early out seemed in order before the heat of the day set in. I thought about driving to this first ever Bastille Day Block Party on Selby Avenue, but I figured I'd need to park far away so I decided to walk.
I hadn't realized that it would get really hot as fast as it did. By the time I'd covered about three-quarters of a mile, half the distance to my destination, I knew it would be impossibly hot on the way home. My head was already wet and I could feel my hair curling near the roots.

Parking was obviously not going to be a problem so I should probably have turned back to get my car, but common sense isn't my strong suite so I pressed on. Fortunately, I took some good photos along the way, so I told myself I'd done the right thing.

Maybe not. I arrived at the block party before noon. Publicity in Twin Cities media suggested that this would be one hell of a big party, so I was quite disappointed when I saw that it wasn't more than the very local block party promised by the poster.

There may have been a French flag somewhere but I didn't see one. The usual street vendors were absent so I had to rethink my vague plan of lunch at the fair. By this time the sun was beating down on me through the overcast sky and I briefly considered walking across the street for a light lunch and beer at O'Gara's, but instead settled for a macaroon at the Whole Foods tent. It was so good that I got back in line and had one more.

Most of the people milling around were about my own age, some in vintage clothing popular in the   1970s. Some of them looked a little familiar, including a woman who used to ride my 94H bus to Minneapolis back in the late 1980s. Only a few merchants had any merchandise on display, and most of it looked like yard sale material. The whole thing seemed like a half-hearted effort unworthy of the seductive event poster.

Feeling a little disappointed, I walked home on different streets, stopping to take photos of some of the lovely gardens on my route. By the time I reached Grand and Fairview I was only a half mile or so from home, a good thing because the temperature was now approaching 90F and climbing. Enough outdoor activity for the afternoon. Instead, I sat in "air conditioned comfort" and watched the Twins trounce the Tigers 7-1.

Summer pics, including photos from Bastille Day on Selby.

Summer Heat

 



The new boiler

There's something a little disheartening about installing a new furnace in the middle of July, especially on an unseasonably chilly morning when winter doesn't seem impossibly far away.

The old gravity feed boiler -- in the house when Bob moved in 50 years ago -- made me feel a little uneasy, especially when we were away for a month in the winter. In the winter months, our Xcel Energy bills reminded me that the furnace was inefficient and used more gas than our neighbors, even though we keep the house fairly cool. It was time.

The guys from Boehm, an old St. Paul company, arrived early this morning and soon the old furnace and pipes were dumped in a junker's truck, along with scraps left over from last week's window job. The job was done by mid-afternoon and the mysteries of the new device were unveiled to Bob and me in the basement at the end of the day.

84% efficiency

The energy efficiency rating of 84% refers to the boiler's ability to squeeze heat from each therm of gas. That meant absolutely nothing to me without comparing it to the non-existent rating of the previous boiler.

One of the installers estimated that rating to be between 50% and 55%, so a rough calculation suggests that the new furnace is at least 53% "more efficient" than the old, a number I hope to see reflected in gas usage once October ushers in the heating season. However, I suspect the guy picked that number out of nowhere so the impact of a more efficient boiler will be a surprise.

Last week, a few naysayers unhesitatingly told us we should simply have kept the old furnace, since it would have gone one forever and the new one will need replacement in a decade or so. I felt a wave of doubt until I saw the completed conversion and realized we can forget about winter heat until the leaves begin to turn.