Renovation

I made this tuteur as a surprise birthday present for Cynthia in 2005. It was easy to keep it secret since she was working in Seattle during the week.

I started by building two sides in my shop. Fortunately, I realized that it would be too big to pass through the door if I completed the assembly inside. The glue I was using had to be protected from the below-freezing temperature outdoors, so I swaddled the tuteur in towels and plastic (extra #1), and placed my 60W inspection lamp inside to provide some heat overnight. It worked, and C was very pleased!

The tuteur had been neglected and was in a sorry state, with lichen all over it after lying on its side for a while (extra #2). C decided she wanted to use it again to grow runner beans and asked me to put it back on its feet. I thought I would just use a wire brush to remove the lichen, but after working at it for an hour, I decided that sterner measures were called for. Out came the oscillating multi-tool and it was a lot easier -- except that I couldn't stop at just removing the lichen. My perfectionist urge kicked in until I was able to restrain myself after several hours of sanding. I wire-brushed the bird poop off the copper pyramid, taking care not to remove the dark patina, and replaced the wooden base.

Finally, I added wooden shelves inside each corner, near the base, for lead weights to prevent it from being blown over. In the past I'd used stakes and ropes, but we were always tripping over the ropes.

I'm looking forward to those runner beans!

Now I have to get back to preparing our tax return.