Tin, Trim and TSP

after more than a week of torrential rains here, work resumed on the roof at 10. the guys had spent the wet days attacking the Drifwood color oil stain a previous tenant had slathered all over the first floor and some of he second. (yes, they ran out and just left a line on nothing on an upstairs wall.) So, my big contribution to the work has been attempting to choose a shade of green for the trim on the grey siding and logs. The printer who does the color chips for Lowe's Stores Valspar paint and stain is useless. I don't think a single chip was true to the actual tint. I'd hoped to match the green trim on the little cabin next door i stay in, but the color was discontinued after i got it in 2006 and isn't really mixing up right. I hope today's effort got it right. It's sort of a long shot though, as two out of the 3 handy 8 oz sample cans brought home bore a "matte" label and contained gloss paint. The color on the left hand window's upper right side here is the front runner so far and best match yet to the old green on the little house. We'll see how it looks dry.

the good news around finishes on the place is that Matt and Zack have succeeded at removing the buld of the dated driftwood wal color on the whole cabin. The best part was that i had feared we'd turn the house into a tinder box taking off that stain. We all bet that only soaking wall in mineral spirits would get it off. Not so: 1/2 cup Trisdium Phosphate to a 2.5 gallon spray tank and ten percent bleach lifted it off like magic in one application or the most part. A day after it was hosed away and left to dy, the stair corner has a coating of that greeny grey mold like like a big country ham. Not sure why the bleach didnt knock all those spores out.the wood is fresh and clean with some sort of light pickled effect where the stain was real thick but those vestigal bits are part of the house's story and i can live with it sealed up under a lot of tung oil. The best part of the walls on log i think is the handiwork on them: adze marks, old thin holes from cut nails, different tree species stand in sharp relief the grain now liberated from the stain. We will add our own chapter soon and replace four lower logs where we seal an old doorway at foot of the stair with what I am told will be seasoned oak. And all of the old cement chink is out of the walls. Its now working like a poor man's rip rap on an unseen stream bank. A friend from town who does preservation and restoration contracting came out today and helped me come up with a rough in for the bath upstairs and using his great knowledge of the NC Building code and we are ready to roll. any one who sees this know where i can get two 12' and two 17' long sections of salvaged 4" half round guttering with brackets? I need it quick.

and the little cabin is no longer topless. Tomorrow morning it will gain the last section of ridge, made out of section of the terne roofing. just in time for cool wet weather that is October in the south-- even here.