On Saturday a week ago (I'm either ahead or behind on blog posts, depending upon how you want to spin it), it got to be time to use the pound of Italian sausage chilling in the fridge. I don't yet have a great repertoire of dishes that depend on that protein, so I was basically deciding between sausage and beef manicotti, pasta with mustard and basil, lasagna, and baked ziti. I thought I was headed for the baked ziti on that night but time ran out and I needed something quicker at suppertime.
I've got a couple more quarantine task jar items to report on. On Friday, April 17th, the task slip simply said "Panasonic TV." When the Roediger House got its first flat-panel big screen television back in 2012, all the buzz was about plasma and 3D and I jumped right on board with it. And I suppose for four or five years, it was a perfectly decent television. Initially, it was on the second floor landing/main hallway. Then, it got rotated around the house, while plaster was restored and floors were refinished. Once the attic was finished out and became the entertainment center and man cave in 2015, it was mounted on a swingarm on the wall but, after about a year, we went through a period where that fine plasma 3D Panasonic TV would randomly power off and occasionally be wonky.
Then, in 2018, it fritzed out completely. I moved quickly on replacing it, as noted in this blog post. I'm bringing back a picture from that entry, as shown above. You can see that the new LG went on a stand but the Panasonic TV was still mounted up on the wall. And here we are four years later. So taking down the Panasonic plasma screen was on the to-do list to get me to finally go to the trouble to move everything out of the way, unbolt that puppy, take down the swing arm, and put it aside so that I can take it in for possible repair. That was the task that Friday afternoon.
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| Panasonic TV and mounting bracket removed |
The next day, on Saturday morning, another slip was drawn, but it was a bit of a bear! Let me give the fuller explanation.
The house is overdue for exterior painting. The last coat it got was with the renovation project in 2008/2009 and, not to put too fine a spin on it, I'd say it was done with the cheap stuff. Paint was flaking and peeling within the first year on some of the trim, and of course that's only gotten worse with time. I managed to have an exterior washing done in 2017 but the mildew is starting to reappear this spring. Part of my hold-up on taking care of painting the house has been clinging to the idea of having a historic color consultation done before making color and design choices. The historic consultant can't do his best work if I don't give him as much information and imagery as I can...and I get these ideas in my head about how to put that sort of info together and how to present it and then I can't ever get it done.
Ah, but then came the power of the quarantine task jar. That's where I had to gather the key pictures I'd taken over the years to try to show various sides of the house but also finer architectural and trim details. The historical color consultant would need to see how the house was finished and adorned so that some pretty specific and reasonably accurate period recommendations could be made, right down to small bits of molding and all. I had two ways I wanted to get these pictures up and labeled on the RoedigerHouse.com website: as a slideshow, and as an individualized indexed list, with large pics of the house marked to indicate where some of the finer detail photos are coming from.
The slideshow was very nearly a breeze to assemble. It was done before lunch. But it took most of the afternoon and all the way up until about 9 pm to get the other representation like I wanted it. I'm including a couple of screen shots here but the link is this: http://www.roedigerhouse.com/galleries/paint/.
The idea to seek out an historical colors consult came from Phil Lamachio, the master plaster restorer who did all the work and painting for the plaster restoration during 2014. That's when I looked up some highly-regarded experts and bookmarked those who seemed most qualified and well-regarded. And then I sat on this and never moved on it. Let's not be surprised that one of those consultants closed up shop (or at least let go of his website), and the other one has gone into semi-retirement as of the start of 2020. A professor at the University of Michigan, he was my first choice. And I've missed calling on him by just a matter of months, doggone it.
So back to the search pile to see who might be called upon instead!
In the meantime, I'm mighty glad the quarantine task jar compelled me to get the photographic guide together so that it should be a cinch to share and get feedback from a paint expert!
"Pasta with Sausage, Basil, and Mustard," by Nigel Slater and published in Food & Wine, September 2002.
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