More Plexiglass Updates!

It's genuinely impressive to me how much space I take up when I'm working

It's another short Monday afternoon with the Haish house--this time, though, I spent a good chunk of my day in communication with the Haish family! Through some mutual connections, I have been put in contact with a relative of the Haish family, and I'm very excited to see where our discussions go.

I finally bought the plexiglass I've been talking about for approximately a month, although it is much thicker than I thought it was going to be. I spent a portion of my afternoon learning how to cut plexiglass, which is simultaneously easier and more challenging than I imagined it would be. In the absence of any sort of vise or stabilizing implements, I really marked up one edge of my sheet, but I eventually broke off a couple of usable pieces. After cutting them into the size I thought I needed, I realized they were barely 1/16" too big for the windows. Rather than being able to score them then break them down to size, I had to cut all new pieces--which gave me more practice! I've got some great blisters forming on my fingers, but I've also got eight beautiful and clear pieces of plexiglass that I cut all by myself!

This is easily about 80x thicker than the original gazebo top glass

When I come back Friday morning, I want to glue them into the gazebo.

Hooray for learning new skills via YouTube!

Hours today: 3:30

Total hours: 49:00

Porch-Related Progress

Advances have been made today. In the morning, I worked with another RHC intern to honeycomb the lower floor of the Haish house.

Essentially, the hope is now that the museum board will support the weight of the upper floors instead of the walls supporting that weight. My morning was abbreviated because of an appointment, but I returned in the afternoon to put the finishing touches on the honeycombing and start another aspect of the house. Today, I worked with one of the porches and re-glued the columns in the configuration that I managed to deduce as correct. Each of the columns had broken off in a unique way, so I was able to match them back together. 

I was also able to glue back some house trim that was associated with the porch. I'm looking forward to officially reuniting the porch roof and floor next week, as well as finally getting to cut some glass!

Hours Today: 5:00

Total Hours: 45:30

The First Time I've Done Real Math in Almost a Year

Today was another short-ish day at the RHC, so rather than do any gluing or hands-on work with the model, I decided to get my questions answered and do some geometry.

I had a conversation today about reinforcing the upper windows of the gazebo with plexiglass, and I think we're going to go ahead with that plan. I'll have to run to Lowe's this weekend and buy some glass cutters, as well. This will serve a dual purpose. I'll have nice shiny glass that will look nice, and it will help reinforce and stabilize the roof of the gazebo, which is currently resting on water-damaged card stock, essentially. Not the most sturdy of materials.

Cindy and I also talked more about the case that she's buying for the model, which I will need to build a base for. The base will not hold the case, but rather the model inside it... I'm almost positive I talked about this in an earlier post. Essentially, rather than having this base be plain foam and museum board, we want to cover it in some sort of felt or fabric that will simulate grass. I went looking for that material today and had to calculate the surface area of the base to figure out how much we needed. I know! I'm finally using my 8th-grade Geometry! Forgive me for not having my graphing calculator at the ready, but I think I do actually know how much felt we need now... If we use that case.

I also kept writing/editing those newsletter articles from last week. I think I'm going to use the same information for both since I don't have very much to say that I can write in a journalistic style. I still don't have deadlines for them, but when I do at least they'll both be ready.

Hours Today: 3:30

Total Hours: 40:30

Honeycombs and Plexiglass

After an abbreviated Monday, I came to the Regional History Center today ready to get things done. Granted, I did wake up a little late, but by the time I arrived--only 15 minutes late--it was time to get down to business.

After a series of conversations with an art major that works with me, I have a gameplan in place regarding the gazebo, I think. It's the part of this whole structure that is in the worst shape, and there was a real danger that I would need to rebuild part of it. Instead, I am going to reinforce it from the inside and try to cut new plexiglass for the upper windows, which should also go a ways toward reinforcing the upper structure. I've got to ask Cindy if the plexiglass is an avenue I should pursue, but if it is I'll be visiting Lowe's in the near future for a glass cutter! I'm learning new things every day...

While I'm planning big things, I also decided that today would be more of a detail day. I did manage to place the plexiglass back into the roof of the gazebo and glue down all the loose bits there. I also undertook the stabilization of the lower level today. That was a bit of a challenge since each wall piece didn't have any sort of lip to glue one to the other, but between some archival tape and my trusty glue, we closed the gaps!

Someone also suggested today that I honeycomb the lower level and take the weight of the upper floors off the walls of the lower altogether. I enthusiastically agreed, since there is no support structure inside right now at all. Honeycombing means interlocking pieces of rigid board in a sort of tic-tac-toe board inside, so the entire base of the upper surface is resting on the board, and not the card stock walls of the model. Next Friday, she and I will put all that together (hopefully) and take another step toward stability!

The future is bright, and even though my shoulders hurt I am very excited.

Hours Today: 6:00

Total Hours: 37:00

A Day on the Fourth Floor (Instead of the Basement)

Today I was feeling a little under the weather, so I decided to take a different approach to my time at the Regional History Center. Instead of going downstairs to work on the model, I stayed up in the Regional History Center offices and wrote some articles.

Last week, Cindy told me that I could write short features on my work for both Founder's Keepers and Founder's Type, two different newsletters that are published by the NIU libraries. As an English major, I do not do a lot of journalistic writing, so it took more effort than I care to admit to whip up a first draft of the two articles. (But hey! I'm learning a new skill...) I'll come back to them next week, hopefully when I am feeling healthier, and turn them into something I can really be proud of.

Sorry this was such a short post--today was a short workday and there isn't much to report.

See y'all Friday!

Hours Today: 2:15

Total Hours: 25:00 (plus approximately 6 hours of prep time)

Visible and Measurable Progress!

Today as I worked on the Haish house I realized that after today I will have logged almost 30 hours of work on this little model. Quite honestly, just by looking at it you wouldn't be able to tell. I'm only now starting to make the visible changes/improvements that seem to mark my progress, and I am more excited about this project than ever.

Today, I tackled a couple of different sections of the model. First, I reattached the pieces of the roof that had fallen off in the past. I figured I would work from the top down so I:

1. don't lose any of the tiny fiddly bits that go on the roof
2. minimize the chance that my sleeves/tools get caught on things I've already completed as I'm working on the roof
3. can tackle a manageably-sized project without having to put it down over the weekend before I come back on Monday. 

And I did indeed finish the roof today! The thin metal trim around the roof, the spire on top of the tower, the unsteady chimneys, and the other random trim/decorative bits have all been restored, and I am very pleased.

It's a little hard to see, but the small floral-ish motif along the top of the roof was all falling off. I fixed that today.

 In addition to my work on the roof, I also did some repairs on the tower. In my last post, I explained (probably badly) how the tower is supposed to be connected to the rest of the house—by a strip of sandpaper which had since fallen off on one side. Today, I replaced that strip of sandpaper.

I haven't yet connected the tower to the main house, or the floors of the main house to each other, but I think I might wait a little longer for that anyway, to make some of the porch repairs a little easier.

In the process of replacing the tower, I had to get rid of the scourge of my existence, this terrible paper tape/glue/stuff. It's not very sticky and doesn't hold things together very well generally, but when I want to take it off the model I swear it actively tries to spite me. It also ends up leaving a disgusting film that has to be removed and will take bits of paper along with it if you're not careful.

Me removing the Tape From Hell

Finally, a quick update on the last window I need to replace. I precariously glued it in on Monday, but when I came back today I wasn't happy with it, so I removed it and cleaned off the glue. I'm going to try and place it again next week. 

On an entirely different note, some of the details regarding displaying the model are falling into place. I looked at cases today with Cindy, and we talked about how to make sure the model has a steady base on which to place all the pieces. Once the gazebo and porte-cochere are glued onto the model, it has to be placed on a very steady base, so we looked at different placement/display options. We've settled on a base of sturdy, archive-quality foam with a top layer of acid-free cardboard sheets. Ideally, we can cover it with green paper or felt to make it look like a lawn, even though we don't have the original plans or space to recreate the Haish House's landscaping.

It goes without saying that I am very excited about this whole process. 

Hours Today: 6:30

Total Hours: 22:45 (plus approximately 6 hours of prep time)

Another Day, Another Bizarre and Unreasonably Exciting Discovery

In my first Monday afternoon at the Regional History Center, I shored up a significant problem I was having with my lovely B72 Paraloid acetone-based glue. The containers that held it were plastic, and therefore deteriorating pretty quickly. I had some glass nail polish bottles sent to me through Amazon, and all my glue has been safely transferred there, hopefully for good.

As I waited for a little more glue to finish dissolving, I began to ponder the pieces of the model that I had not yet placed--namely, a small strip of rough sandpaper and some white card stock cut in a trim-like pattern. After a longer period of contemplation than I care to admit, I realized that they layered on top of each other! Then, I realized that a matching sandpaper-and-trim strip was placed in one side of the gap between the tower and the main body of the wall. Rather than having to twist the tower in a strange way to close the gap, I simply needed to re-glue this strip in place!

At this point, I think I have finally identified every loose part of this model.

The piece in the plastic bag is effectively identical to the piece between the tower window and the wall of the mansion.

I have also rigged up a system to put the final window's glass back into place. I'll glue a wooden dowel onto the center of the glass, then, using the dowel to hold the glass, I will maneuver it through the window and pull it against the frame. After the glue is dry, I will remove the excess glue that I used to hold the dowel.

As the week continues, I hope to add this sandpaper trim to the tower, finish replacing and cleaning the final window, and re-glue many of the roof elements that have fallen off.

Hours Today: 3:30

Total Hours: 16:15 (plus approximately 6 hours of prep)

Already 12 Hours In?

Okay, so maybe I was a little premature in declaring the cleaning process "done."

I spent my day at the Regional History Center today cleaning the glue remnants off the porte-cochere, making sure my glue was properly formulated and stressing out a little bit about the state of my glue/acetone containers. They're made of plastic, and I think that keeping acetone-based products in them was actually a really bad idea. Now I need to find some glass containers that are small enough for this purpose, but I am not particularly optimistic.

The acetone container I've been using for a week is already pretty severely cracked... I don't think that's Rubbermaid's fault.

In other news, I'm now almost 1/4 of the way through my project, and I can "confidently" say this is going to turn out hopefully-pretty-okay.

I'm hoping that I can make it back next Monday and that I will be able to glue the final piece of loose glass (by far the trickiest, since I have no way of getting to it from the interior, for some reason) and properly realign the floors over the course of next week.

This isn't the trickiest window, but one of the few that posed limited problems for me, actually.

Hours Today: 4:30

Total Hours: 12:45 of work, roughly 6 of prep