2024-04-19 00:41
Something Different━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━1976 Glenfield MarlinModel 30A3… Read More
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173 Our Old House Blog
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Realistically remodeling our old house.
2024-04-07 23:26
Tool CleanupSometimes a minor project comes up out of nowhere. This little project came about because I was cleaning the tools out of my tool bucket before putting them away after a recent… Read More
2024-03-25 01:18
Back YardA Firm FoundationFinally, nearly three full months into 2024, we have our first outdoor project of the year. The last outdoor project way back in October when we cleaned up the back… Read More
2024-03-17 14:58
RamblingsSometimes Life's About TimingThe thing about not having a project going on the house is that I find myself looking for little projects to tinker with over the winter. Such was… Read More
2024-02-25 01:08
Tool Restoration1380-8 (8 Inch)Sometimes things just happen out of the blue. Take for instance, those times you might have gone to the market just to grab some chips, but on the way th… Read More
2024-02-17 02:59
Tool RestorationAnother Hammer for the Stable!Piggy backing on the No Name Needle Nose pliers restoration from last month, I have another little tool to show you. And, although you pro… Read More
2024-02-04 05:21
Tool RestorationChisels and GougesCan you believe January is over already? It feels like Christmas and New Year's were a couple days ago, but now we're in February! I guess that'… Read More
2024-01-22 04:25
Tool RestorationI get it. Sometimes it seems I post about every single tool I pick up and even slighty clean up. While that's not exactly true, I do share a bunch of… Read More
2024-01-19 03:06
Tool Restoration12-19-1911 PatentBack in mid-December I posted about some Trimont wrenches I cleaned up. They were pretty simple cleanups and turned out nice - and it seems I really li… Read More
2023-12-31 02:44
Hand Tools━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━My First Metric SetChristmas Gift from m… Read More
2023-12-15 19:02
Tool RestorationA Couple Old Wrenches Good As NewI think I say this with every post but - this should be a short post. Today's offering is the cleanup of two pipe wrenches, one I picke… Read More
2023-11-27 00:08
DecorA New VignetteThe great bathroom update of 2023 began in spring and finally came to an end in the fall of 2023. However it wasn't until Thanksgiving that the final touch of the up… Read More
2023-11-23 03:23
WorkshopAskew /adjective/ - not in a straight or level position.This is one of those goofy little posts that I do from time to time... you know - some seemingly insignificant little pro… Read More
2023-11-19 00:46
Tool RestorationH.D. Smith & Co.I haven't done a tool restoration since the Wiss snips back in September. Not that I have to do them all the time but they sure are fun. So no… Read More
2023-11-12 02:14
My ToolsA Non-Collection CollectionWhat can be simpler than a drill? I mean besides a hammer, a screw driver. the square, a plum bob... okay, so there's a few things simpler than a dri… Read More
2023-10-29 02:32
Pressure WashOne Thing Leads To AnotherI'm going to try and keep this short. The facts are simple:The siding on the back porch has been dirty for a long timeIt needed cleaningI cleaned… Read More
2023-10-14 04:06
RemodelDone!Well, it's been a little while, but the bathroom refresh is finally complete. In the last post, we had finished the wallpapering, and were putting the accessories back in p… Read More
2023-10-01 00:03
DetailsWorking Through The Punch ListThis is one of my favorite parts of a project. The heavy work is done and all that's left is the myriad of details. At this point we're finis… Read More
2023-09-24 00:18
InstallationWallpaper!When we last we met, the bathroom had been completely prepped for wallpaper installation. Here's the thing, with as much wallpaper as we've hung here at 173… Read More
2023-09-18 00:08
Prep WorkCorners, Stanchions & SizingI'm a little tardy writing this post. As a matter of fact, the tasks covered in this post were actually completed back in May or June. But it's… Read More
2023-09-17 21:17
Tool RestorationA Thoughtful GiftOver the last year or two I've restored a few pairs of tin snips, and just so you know as you read this - sometimes I call them metal shears or just shears… Read More
2023-09-10 22:39
EquipmentThe Troy-Bilt 2600With summer wrapping up and Halloween stuff having been in the stores for a few weeks already, I got to thinking, maybe I should consider prepping the snow blower… Read More
2023-09-06 23:51
Primary CategoryThe Way Things HappenThis is another one of those projects that sat in my "Drafts" folder for some time...since March of 2022 to be exact! But I have endeavored to clea… Read More
2023-09-04 18:47
My ToolsA Simple RestorationOver the years my dad gave me a number of tools, with his classic Stanley plane, and the Gerstner tool chest being the prizes. He's also given me some other… Read More
2023-09-04 01:45
RestorationAnother Inherited ToolLetting you know from the start, this should be a pretty short post. As the title suggests, it's about the restoration (really just a cleanup) of what… Read More
2023-09-03 00:59
RepurposingA Piece for Holding PlantersThis little project stems from a stool I picked up at an estate sale probably no less than ten years ago. I don't really remember much about the… Read More
2023-08-23 21:13
RestorationThere's something to be said about that recently-fashionable idiom, "I was today years old when I learned (insert seemingly obvious or surprising piece of knowledge)." About… Read More
2023-08-17 20:38
Made at 173Much like the post wrapping up the fence replacements from 2022, this post is about another project that was completed during that same time period. This is the quick story… Read More
2023-08-15 18:51
ShortsA couple weeks ago I noticed that when I'd start up the steps from the basement the light over the landing sometimes flickered. This went on for a little bit of time because I di… Read More
2023-08-14 02:03
FencesIt's been almost a year since the last post on the great fence replacement of 2022. I think this has been one of the most eventful years of my life, filled with both joy and sadn… Read More
2023-08-06 01:28
A 173 ShortThere is peace in the simplest of things. - meIf you're anything like me, you sometimes find the greatest joy in doing some of the simplest things. Maybe it's sitting in the porch… Read More
2023-08-02 03:20
A 173 Short173's Grotesque (Gargoyle)The yards here at 173 have a lot going on, lots of bushes, trees, flowers and planters all over the yards. But it wasn't always that way. Bac… Read More
2023-07-19 01:13
Front PorchIf I do say so myself - 173 has a beautiful front porch. Knowing the Moshers, I would imagine it has always been a great spot! Since 1997, the front porch has been through two r… Read More
2023-07-15 02:40
Legacy Project Did you ever notice that sometimes you walk by something several times a day, day in and day out, and it comes to a point that you forget, or don't even notice that somet… Read More
2023-07-04 13:30
Short PostFair warning - this is one of those less-than-exciting posts. Okay, let's be real - it's gonna be pretty boring. But - write I must! Even if it is just about clea… Read More
2023-06-05 02:51
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━FROM A MISGUIDED TREE PLANTING TO A SIMPLE ST… Read More
2023-05-25 02:35
Vintage Tools━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━VINTAGE 14" RIGIDSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE… Read More
2023-05-07 23:36
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Sheetrock doneMudding doneSanding done (mostly) … Read More
2023-04-23 20:22
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━First update since 2002 - good start!Nice electric… Read More
2023-04-03 01:15
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Taking a look back at one of ourFirst major projec… Read More
2023-03-18 20:09
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━THE 16 OUNCE STANLEY STHT51456TOTALLY UNNECESSARY… Read More
2023-03-12 22:52
Hand Planes━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Buck Bros. 7"Block planeA simple cleanu… Read More
2023-03-05 18:46
Hand Tools━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Dad's saws need sharpeningWelcome Sargen… Read More
2023-02-08 02:31
Planes━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Another Stanley plane1874 Type 4 No. 7A trea… Read More
2023-01-30 03:42
The Workshop━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Craftsman 2000 Series26" Wide x 36.5"… Read More
2023-01-21 05:33
My ToolsCentral Forge 15 PoundCan you believe it? A man, of a certain age, and this is my first anvil. To be sure, I've never had a tremendous need for an anvil until recently.&n&hell…Read More
2023-01-17 03:27
Back in the day (don't ask - I don't know what day) most packages that were sent to your house was sent in a crate - you know - no boxes back then. I can't find much on them, but the way I… Read More
2023-01-16 01:41
Lakeside ToolsModel 84-20I suppose there's no need to add the word "vintage" to the title, not when it comes to "Lakeside" tools. That's because Montgomery Ward is another of those dep… Read More
2022-12-29 02:23
Tool Restoration━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Nearly a Century OldLikely Homemad… Read More
2022-12-17 01:46
The Workshop━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━A Couple New ShelvesTwo New Tool Board… Read More
2022-11-20 20:22
Sargent - Tools Of The Master Craftsman━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━My first Sa… Read More
2022-11-20 03:50
For Me - A Unique Tool!Back in September, dad kinda gave me some of his tools. Over time I'm sure most of them will hit the blog, but today I want to talk about this lamp. Yeah… Read More
2022-11-05 02:17
A 173 ShortHere's a quick post for you. As I've mentioned a few weeks ago, I inherited a colleague's grandfather's tool boxes. It's been a treasure trove of quality, old-school t… Read More
2022-10-29 03:49
A Hundred Years OldWelcome, or welcome back, whichever may be the case! In this edition I just want to tell you about my quick cleanup of a marking gauge I found in one of the toolboxe… Read More
2022-10-25 00:52
My Inherited 1918 StanleyWhen last we met, the Stanley Bailey #5 plane had been cleaned (it was an incredible mess) and paint (japaning) removal had begun. It's taken quite some time… Read More
2022-10-10 03:51
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━STANLEY BAILEY NO. 5 TYPE 11MADE BETWEEN 1910 AND… Read More
2022-10-09 03:55
A House 173 Short━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━FORMER BOSS' GRANDFATHER'S TOOLSI… Read More
2022-10-03 01:19
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━JP FLEMING CO. WORCESTER, MAEGGBEATER STYLE BREAST… Read More
2022-08-29 03:17
The Whole Story in One Place━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━REMODEL NEARLY 20 YEAR… Read More
2022-08-26 01:57
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━VINTAGE 10" RIGIDSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE MADE IN… Read More
2022-08-17 03:25
A Stanley Classic Since 1936I'm not sure this can be called a restoration. After all, Meriam-Webster defines restoration as, "bringing back to a former position or condition" and this… Read More
2022-08-15 03:23
A Fine Yard Sale FindAbout a year ago I stopped at a rummage sale and picked up three saws for $1 each, and two 4 1/2" C clamps for $1 - what a deal! At least - it was a great deal if you c… Read More
2022-08-06 21:31
The Back FenceFirst - a little disclaimer: This part of the fence was actually completed as far back as June. Just getting around to posting about it now. Anyway, the back… Read More
2022-08-06 01:42
Made at 173━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ANA WHITE DESIGNTWO FEET BY FOUR FEETAB… Read More
2022-07-11 00:23
The Flexio 590I don't like painting. At all. But, when you own a house, painting just becomes a necessity - more often than one would think. And I try to avoid whenever I c… Read More
2022-07-09 19:15
The South Fence By the end of May (oh how fast the months roll on!) the east, west and north side fences were done. And while I hadn't mentioned the south fence, somewhere in ther… Read More
2022-06-13 00:27
Just a Little RamblingDo you remember being eight? Nine, maybe 10? Of course you do. At least I do. I always look back at my childhood as halcyon days - days of tossi… Read More
2022-05-30 21:31
Significant Progress!When we left off a couple weeks ago, the front yard fence was up and a lot of staining and prep had been done. Since then, with an hour here, two there, a good bit… Read More
2022-04-30 23:57
At long last, 173 is undergoing an actual project! And you know - it's an amazing reminder of how quickly time flies. All the way back in 2001 we took out the old chain link, put… Read More
2022-04-17 18:24
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━RELEGATED TO SHED 20-SOME YEARSJUST USED FOR YARDS… Read More
2022-03-02 05:30
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━THE STANLEY NO.993 WITH TEN-INCH SWEEPHANDLES AND… Read More
2022-02-07 00:13
New Lights and Tool RacksSo, here we are - the first month of the new year has already zipped on by, and February is well under way. I have a new vintage tool restoration happening on… Read More
2022-01-14 02:50
No Brand Found - But HeyIn my last post I talked about having picked up a second tool when I got the Stanley Defiance plane at The Tool Box. As a matter-of-fact, I referred to this too… Read More
2021-12-31 01:01
An Early Stanley DIY'er ToolI don't know where it ends. At what point does one say - I have enough tools, I'm not getting any more? Maybe, just maybe, that point doesn't exist.&n&hell…Read More
2021-12-05 19:06
A 2019 Project━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━UNKNOWN MANUFACTURER WITH AN OR… Read More
2021-12-01 03:15
A Trademark of Crescent Tool Co.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━CLEANUP OF A $1.50… Read More
2021-10-29 01:36
Renewal Long Past DueThere has always been a board on the south wall of the workshop. I say "always" although I don't know that for a fact. You see, the house was built for the M… Read More
2021-10-18 01:13
From the Chicago Specialty Mfg CoTwo of the earliest "projects" I did here at 173 was replacing the kitchen sink faucet, and the bathroom sink altogether - faucet and all. As a matter… Read More
2021-10-11 03:39
How Many Tool Lines Did They Have?━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━MONTGOMERY WARDS… Read More
2021-10-06 21:50
First New One in Nearly 24 YearsThis is one of those posts that's essentially for keeping track of products and "the whens" for replacing stuff. It isn't exciting, but you might find i… Read More
2021-09-26 21:16
A Full Seven Years LaterI've had this megapost in mind for at least a year or so, not that five or six years later is much better! Nonetheless, here we are. The basement remodel… Read More
2021-09-19 20:54
Wards Master Quality Pliers━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━MONTGOMERY WARDS MASTER… Read More
2021-08-27 03:36
Salvage, Mergers and AcquisitionsFor some nearly 25 years now I've had exactly two nut drivers. I've used them fairly regularly, but it never occurred to me th… Read More
2021-08-24 04:17
A Great Rummage Sale Find!A few weeks ago I stopped at a rummage sale and picked up three saws for $1 each, and two 4 1/2" C clamps for $1 - what a deal! At least - it was a great deal… Read More
2021-08-16 01:39
One Man's Trash...If you remember, a week ago I posted about the rip saw I salvaged from my neighbor's trash pile created as he was cleaning out his basement for the first time in at least 2… Read More
2021-08-14 03:22
The Second of my New Ball PeensRemember last week when I posted about my stubby workbench hammer and I mentioned that I got two ball peen hammers off Amazon? Well, this is about t… Read More
2021-08-08 22:30
From Trash to Treasure!It seems I'm suddenly on a run of hand saws. Last weekend I stopped at a yard sale and picked up three saws for $1 each - I'll get into those in future posts.&nb&hell…Read More
2021-08-07 01:25
A Stubby Hammer from a $4 Ball Peen━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━16 OZ BALL PEEN… Read More
2021-07-07 03:42
Craftsman 506-51865No matter how many tools someone has, there's always one or two (maybe more) that's your favorite, you know - those tools that bring you satisfaction and/or some level of… Read More
2021-07-03 01:17
A Slick RestoGuess I'm feeling a bit punny (dad joke)! Okay, let's face it - there's really nothing exciting about an oil can. I mean, there are all kinds of these cans, pumpers… Read More
2021-06-27 20:24
This time Crescent and Lakeside Back in April I posted about the Red Devil tin snips I restored. April...and it's now getting kinda late in June - time flies. I think I did… Read More
2021-06-14 03:20
My 1963 New-Old No. 420Probably just about everyone reading this post has heard of Channellock pliers. Much like Kleenex, Xerox, and Band-Aid, the name Channellock has become synonymou… Read More
2021-05-31 02:22
Kinda Like Dad's Old HammerBut not quite. This hammer was another find at The Tool Shed. I saw it a on a few visits to the store, and on the last visit I figured - why not? … Read More
2021-04-22 17:45
Red Devil No. 271This is one of those very satisfying little projects. Pick up an old rust bucket and restore it to almost new-ish condition. You like my double qualifier? … Read More
2021-04-07 00:54
Some Vices Never LeaveRemember those kids on the block that always seemed to have the coolest toys? You know - the ones you didn't have. If I had the GI Joe with lifelike hair an… Read More
2021-04-01 01:10
Serving 173 for more than 20 years!I know it seems odd to write about something so commonplace and seemingly insignificant as a pair of pliers, but you know me - sometimes I see the signific… Read More
2021-03-23 03:12
Central Machinery 1/2 HPEarlier this month, when writing about restoring my paring chisel, I wrote that I couldn't remember when it was that I bought my bench grinder. But the other da… Read More
2021-03-17 01:33
Wire, Cats, French Mice and MincemeatFor the last year or so, I've enjoyed watching YouTube videos of people restoring old tools. It's amazing how talented people can be! I… Read More
2021-03-14 20:18
Sometimes Even the Simplest ThingsI think it's cool to see how professionals store their jobsite tools. Most have a pickup or a trailer which are in varying degrees of organization , d… Read More
2021-03-01 01:13
This Time Suede Up━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━FIRST STROP NOT EXACTLY A… Read More
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