Introducing Tappan Talk

A few of you have already discovered the link I added to the side bar. I've created a page on my blog specifically dedicated to vintage Tappan stoves.

Not a week goes by that I don't receive at least one email from a Tappan owner looking for information, advice, or just someone to share their Tappan enthusiasm. My record in responding to emails is admittedly spotty. I just don't have the time to reply with info. to each email, and often I don't know the answer to the question asked.

So, I decided to create a page where Tappan owners that end up on my blog can exchange info. & discuss Tappan Deluxe stoves. Selfishly, I also hope to learn a lot about my own stove :-)

Please keep in mind that the Tappan Talk page is very much in it's preliminary stages. I hope to put up posts by category so they are easily searchable and comments are limited to one topic.

I hope you enjoy.

Place Your Orders

Just a very quick post. I'm dealing with both a busy work life and an ocean of leaves in my yard.

But, I promised last year to let you know when the Epworth United Methodist Church was taking orders for pasties. Consider this your notice.  Orders for pasties must be paced by Thursday, Nov. 5th.  (ordering done for this sale - next sale is Feb 6, 2010 cost will be $5.00). The cost is $4.50 - specify either meat or vegetarian.

Orders are then picked up at the church on November 7th - 3207 37th Ave. S., Minneapolis.

Another intriguing dinner will be held at the Minnehaha Communion Lutheran Church. Their lutefisk dinner will also be taking place on November 7th - 4101 37th Ave S., Minneapolis.  Reservations are required for this one. Call the church at 612-722-9527.

If you attend the lutefisk dinner: 1) let me know how it was; and 2) you are braver than me :-)

Seven Year Itch

Seven years ago today I moved into StuccoHouse.  Some days it seems like it was yesterday, others like it was 15 years ago.

How did I celebrate the anniversary? By hanging some glow-in-the-dark fake spiderwebs on my front door overhang.  Yes, I splurged the extra dollar for the glow-in-the-dark version.  I hope the added expense was worth it.

Honestly, the spider web looks a whole lot better in real life when the wind isn't blowing.

At any rate, Happy Halloween to all!

Painted Red

Not much, but the new shelves for my chimney cabinet are now painted red. This is the same red that one day you will see below the chair rail in my kitchen.

I have the bulk of the old paint off of the chimney cabinet itself. But, since my last post on the topic things have become cold here and open window ventilation is no longer possible.  I have a fear of working with chemical stripper inside with my gravity furnace.

That said, I'm sure in a few weeks boredom, stupidity & ambition will drive me to come up with some way to get the remaining paint off of the cabinet. Of course, removing the tiny remains of paint in the crevices usually take the most time.

The Change Out

Pulled my screens out and replaced them with storms this afternoon. I probably won't be so fond of this task when I'm 90, but I enjoy it now.  I only change out 6 smaller windows, so it's not overwhelming.

Shown in the photo is the wood trim I'll be stripping and repainting next summer.

Here are the three stages: storm in, screen out, screen in.

Drying Paint and Fake Storm Windows

Under the gun yesterday, I was able to get my kitchen window exterior trim primed and painted.  As predicted, it snowed last night and today it's cold, cold, cold (30's) and windy.

The kitchen windows don't have storms.  I took off the awful aluminum triple track storms two summers ago.  I have wood screens (salvaged) and the plan was to promptly find wood frame screens.  But, I've been waffling between traditional wood storms and Marvin wood frame combination storms (pricey as my windows are non-standard sizes).

As I look back at my posts, I see I wrote another full-of-angst-because-winter-is-coming-and-I-don't-have-kitchen-storms post last year at about this same time. Oh well.

Last year I survived the winter without kitchen storms. I left in the wood frame screens.  This wasn't very good on the double hung sashes. So, this year I got a little more ambitious.



This afternoon, I first painted the old screen black. The screen wood frames were originally green and the metal screening was still painted green....and a little rusty. It was time to make them black.  (I apologize for the blurry picture - it looked in focus when I took it.)

Then  I put on some of that exterior grade winter sheet plastic on the exterior of the wood frames. I was able to pull it pretty tight, so you can't see it from the street unless you look closely.

I waited as long as I could today to let the paint from yesterday dry as much as possible. When the sun started going down, I put in the fake "storms." I like the pale yellow & gray combination.

We're set for another winter...well, kitchen window-wise at least.

In the Nick of Time

We have had two days of sun with temperatures on the 50's. So, I've had time to prime and paint my exterior kitchen wood trim. I stripped the trim down to bare wood, so the trim details are nice and crisp (not to mention lead free). I've included some close ups of the repaired rot.

You can see that I stripped the exterior paint off of the sashes (and sash channel) - I'll be removing this from the inside, reglazing them, repainting them, and putting in a new rope. But, that's a whole other project for another day.

It never ceases to surprise me at how yellow that paint it once it's on. It looks like a very light creamy yellow in the can (BM Barley).

I'm writing this post as I wait for the first coat to dry. Then it will get a second coat of paint. I also need to run down to the hardware store to buy some exterior plastic to put under the wood framed screens (not in these photos)...as I still don't have wood storms for these windows.

The final photo is what the trim originally looked like.  Ugh.

Snow is in the forcast for tomorrow.

The Clock is Ticking

It was not supposed to rain today. I had plans to put a coat or two of primer on the exterior trim of my kitchen windows. I started stripping & repairing this trim last fall and finished up a few weekends ago. Now I have my fingers crossed that it will stop raining long enough for the wood to dry before we get hit with snow. Stress.

The New Kitchen Light

As big of a hassle as it was to install, I am totally in love with my new kitchen ceiling light.  I finally got the thing installed and working this morning.

Because the light electrical box was kind of sunk into the plaster ceiling...and the ceiling tiles exacerbated this....I had originally installed an extender box.  But when the light was installed, this caused it to hang down 1/2 inch from the ceiling.

It finally dawned on me that a better approach would be to remove the extender box and use really long screws to attach the light to the existing box. School House Electric was kind enough to send me some longer screws.  It worked, the light sits flat against the ceiling with a tight and solid fit.

You can see the new cabinet in the background. I still need to paint half of the ceiling tiles - if you look closely you can see some of them to the far right are still white.

And just so you remember what the old light looked like.....