YOU’VE BEEN FRAMED

I like to spoil the other half by trying his patience as well as his DIY skills to the limit but he’d never expect anything less so it’s just as well he’s risen to the challenge of making small wooden frames to sit inside our recessed panels. 

We’re using pine door stop mouldings (B&Q £4.34 for a 2.4m length) which will be stuck into position inside the wood panel squares with wood glue. 

Pine door stop mouldings - B&Q

I’m hoping these frames will transform the panels from the current plain ‘Shaker’ style and give them more of a semi Victorian look, neatening the edges whilst hiding a multitude of assembly defects.

Panels with and without bead frame

Measuring up the pine strips

So it’s sand, prime, paint, yet again for each individual strip as we’re sticking each piece into place separately rather than making up the whole square frame.  Crazy?  Yes this probably looks like the long winded way of doing things but as our recess panels are not all the same size then to us it makes more sense to build things up bit by bit in case our measurements are not all plumb.

Shop floor supervision of the furry kind

FURRY GUSTAV KLIMT

Tempus fugit and lord knows my temper has ‘fuged’ on more than one occasion since we began making our wood panels.  Hand on heart when I say that the other half’s pyrotechnic pirate fireworks display had explosions of a lesser magnitude. 

Pirate Pyrotechnics

Avast me hearties - this ship has sailed

However, all that is about to change as we enter what I hope will be the final project push before time really runs away with us. Yep it’s time for the big one; it's that hold-your-breath-and-squeeze-with-all-your-might push that will bring about the end of this wretched saga.  Aaaah, the relief!

Adding the top rail and verticals

Now when I say that the end is nigh, what I really mean is the end of the first phase as there’s still the recess framework and dado rail to be added.  In George Lucas’s world that’s at least another 5 sequels, 3 prequels and a couple of spin offs for coving and wallpapering.  No doubt he'd have merchandising that would include a collectable set of tradesmen figures such as Pete the Plasterer, Bert the Brickie and Wendy the Wallpaperer, all with movable joints.  Bequeath them to your kids or sell them on Ebay for a zillion bitcoins as in a few years’ time they’d be worth a small fortune.

But let’s not spend the evening chewing the cud over panels or prequels, let’s talk about cats instead.

We haven’t seen hide nor hair of the ginger menace for the past 3 weeks which can only mean several things – run over, moved house or curfewed because he’s been spotted on this blog.  But God (and cats) move in mysterious ways and it seems that when one moggy departs, another magically appears to take its place. 

Enter the tortoiseshell.  It’s adorable, a furry Gustav Klimt with a chequered coat of gold and black that reminds me of ‘The Kiss’.  As you can see from these photos, it’s wasted no time at all in making itself right at home.

Anyone at home?

Purrfect place for a puss

I'm so cute!

Just a quick 40 winks ...