Yes I Have Completely Lost My Mind

Well, its finally happened...I've lost my mind. I've become one of those nutty old house owners who fill their vehicles with random, crazy old stuff....

I'm going to make a pipe organ!!!

We went to visit some family near Grass Valley and a neighbor was semi getting out of the 'pipe organ habit'.

Look at how packed lil' red was by the time we were done....

Good Lord, what did I get myself into.....
Lets take a look, shall we?

First off, A bass drum that plays itself!

Then, of course, a bell that rings itself.

A snare drum that plays itself.

Even the springs can be controlled to give a snare or tom sound I guess. Love the light bulb! Won't you have to take the entire thing apart to change it?

A cymbal that plays itself.

Its an entire (small) rhythm section!

A set of swell shutters with their mechanism.

Don't know what the heck I'm going to do with these but they are clear sugar pine (so I was told) and the wood is beautiful.

And this thing!

I have no idea what it is or what it does....

An organ keyboard.

What cool about this one is that each key can switch 4 different things.

Random electrical doo-dads to help in wiring my organ.

A piano midi converter.

This is very intriguing. It has 88 buttons meant to go under the piano keys. Then its got a midi box with midi in, out, and thru. With this ANYTHING could be turned into a midi musical instrument. Only problem is, I don't know anything about it..anyone have any ideas?

A solid state reverb board.

Cause pipe organs need reverb??

Not one, but two organ benches.

A train whistle.

I think that this is part of the percussion set. It looks like the bottom was glued into a bigger pipe.
Probably something in this box of random percussion parts.

Felt for sealing the pipes.

An oak wine barrel??

I'm totally going to age some cheap tequila in there.

An awesome framed poster!

Wurlitzers For Ever!!!

He INSISTED that I take a tape player and a box of cassette tapes of famous organs....

Wind Chests...lots and lots of wind chests.
Some electric some not.

This last one is the 'big mama'. Its a 4 rank wind chest that he was custom building.
One of the ranks is done and it has its own separate tremulant box.
The other three still need to be electrified...but hey, its made out of mahogany.

This thing is huge and heavy..and I honestly don't know what I'm going to do with it...

Finally The Pipes!
These are called flute pipes and sound like woodwinds.

The biggest bass pipes.

Some of the pipes are open.

Some are stopped.

A stopped pipe.

I just think they look nice, like art.

Look! It all fits in the 'Pipe Organ Room'.

Finally Some Old House Stuff!
Check out these cool tiles he threw in.

Don't know anything about them but I bet they'd look pretty great in a Victorian bathroom. Does anyone have a clue about these?

Up Next: Just what in the heck am I planning on doing with all this stuff anyways???
Here's a hint, think Halloween.....

Okay just so people don't think I'm totally crazy...I got all this stuff for well under $300...

What To Do About Our Dining Room Ceiling?

Okay so, our dining room ceiling has had two really good soakings in the past year....
This winter after the heat was turned on the ceiling started to crack and look horrible...

Check out these pics...

Cracks in the curved plaster ceiling.

The impossible to replace lincrusta wall paper is also cracking?

The Ceiling

It appears that there is a layer of paper on the plaster that is just starting to peel off?

HELP!
I don't know how we can go about stabilizing and saving the plaster and the lincrusta stuff?
Does anybody have any good ideas on how to do this?

Good News
We finally found a china cabinet to match our table and buffet!

Yay cheap Craig's List Antiques!

I got a really cool Xmas present from Santa..

Moon Jellies!!!!! Can't wait to set this thing up.

Next up....I've lost my mind...

Kitchen Is Done...For Real This Time

When I say done I mean of course 'not really done' but five year done.

Which means we've got the kitchen to a point where it is usable and we can live with it for five years until we get everything else done and save up enough cash to do our 'dream kitchen'.

Now Some Pics

Check out this awesome shot of our awesome stove finally after five years hooked up and working!

Closer up shot of my horrible sheet metal work...

We've cooked several meals on the stove so far and the double stick tape holding the stainless steel sheet to the fridge hasn't melted! The gap between the fridge and the wall is because I forgot that our fridge does not sit flush against the back wall....duh...
The hood is pretty amazing..on high we have to crack a window nearby and then it really sucks. No problem bbq'ing in there now.

Mrs. MadMadScientist had a great idea for the giant hole in the back splash thing...

Turn it into an art piece! That's a baby MadMadScientist original.

Horrible epoxy job...

Yep in this pic and the one above you can see my 'invisible repair'....I bought the official epoxy and colorant for granite...and I mixed it up to look just like peanut butter! Then, it kicked off too fast, before I had time to remove the tape and smooth it down...it literally looks like I filled the gaps with peanut butter!

We've got more storage!!!
In the random niche in the kitchen we installed a pull out pantry and a pull out garbage can set.

I screwed this up a bit too...you'll see... The lower door is not inline with the upper...I have to reset it...

Pretty Doors

I was able to buy custom sized doors online made out of cherry. I should of ordered them 2" wider as that would of hidden a lot of flaws....They are stained with a antique chestnut oil stain....I was literally installing these doors and handles on Xmas eve minutes before guests were set to arrive....stressful...

The upper door had to be notched a smidgen...

But look, it holds sooo much stuff.

Its got the great auto close system so you just give it a push and it gently closes itself. Which, now that I think of it probably isn't optional. The cabinet loaded down weighs a ton and if someone where to slam it everything inside would probably go flying.

Trash!

Why they thought making trashcans white was a good idea is beyond me....
The lidded one is the trash and the back can is for the recycling. I did not spring for the fancy slide model on this one as it was a huge increase in price and it didn't seem necessary.

So, its not perfect (of course) but its a waaaaaaay more functional kitchen than it was before we started the redo.