I'll dedicate today's entry to the late JD Salinger, whose Glass family I first met in Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenter . Since I was tackling the roofbeam it seemed appropriate. Of course the roofbeam didn't want to go where it was supposed to, even with help from Merck's Manual (I knew my nursing reference books would come in handy after I retired B) ). I have a slightly different configuration that involved lots more glue & the Stanley stapler and the aforementioned manual, and in the AM we'll see if it worked. This after three tries to get the splice to hold until the glue dried so I could sand the bottom edge even.

Then there were Walls O & P, which I found next-to-last mini session in the camper. They needed wainscots & Wall O also needed spackle above the wainscot, and I needed to do another shortie strip of panelling to go under the upstairs windowseat, so while the glue dried on my various roofbeam splice & installation attempts I measured, cut, stained & installed the rest of the wainscotting. I installed Walls O & P and covered the back of the Wall O tab in the bathroom with some of the godawful "stainable" woodglue I bought on trial & will use until it's gone because if I'm careful to get it all wiped up it eventually sticks things together but oozes a disgusting brownish color where I wasn't going to stain anyway (like on nice, white spackle...). It worked as well as spackle or wood filler with a lot smoother fill that took the touch-up paint job nicely.

While all that dried I tried something I wanted to borrow from a posting of Tracy's some time ago on another forum. I masked off the rectangular space under the middle of the front left upstairs window and spread a smooth layer of spackle over it. When it was nearly dry I brushed a little green paint on it and dabbed it with a damp towel to blot the brush strokes & then removed the masking tape. When my green rectagle was completely dry I masked off the parts of a holly wreath brass embossing stencil I wanted to use and centered the design over the rectangle and taped it into place and spread another layer of spackle, then untaped the stencil and removed it. When the design was nearly dry I cleaned it up with a toothpick & drew a "vein" on each leaf. DH had suggested calling my pub "The Sprig of Holly", and no one came up with a better suggestion, so that's what it is. If I get really carried away I'll try my hand at a signboard, but if not, there it is.

I think the roof is next, but I have a pile of sandpaper and some pastels and I may need to stop and think "bricks". Stay tuned...

complements of havanaholly