1936 house painting invoice

All that talk of lead in house paint is exaggerated, right?  Here's a copy of a 1936 invoice from Ansonia, CT that sheds some light on the practices of the day.  Yes, that's five hundred pounds of white lead to be mixed with the 24 gallons of oil, along with gasoline (to clean brushes, I'm guessing), lamp black and raw sienna in pigment form as well as a gallon of green paint - interesting that the green came pre-mixed.
We also find "metal roof strips" (zinc strips to inhibit moss growth? or replacement flashing to accompany the "cement & sand" on the previous line?) and two gallons of "roof paint" - maybe some sort of asphalt-based mix for recoating a metal roof on a bay window or other projection.
Mr. Wilson doesn't specify how many panes of glass he replaced, but the 38 pounds of putty suggests that the windows weren't in great shape, which, along with the three days spent repairing the blinds (shutters) gives the impression of a house that might not have been painted for some time....

CT carriage shed truss

This is a neat little truss in a small ca. 1875 Connecticut carriage shed (approx. 18' x 22' - I'll have a chance to get a better look & measurements later in the year).  A simple & well thought out frame, one where it seems that the builders were quite comfortable mixing traditional timber joinery with small sawn/nailed members: many of the rafters are 2x6s run on on the flat!

Looking north from a later addition - the original structure has two bays/three bents, with the clear-span tie/girt of the center bent supported by the iron rod visible here.  The top of the rod sits at the apex of two 4x4 members that run parallel to the rafters approx. 6" below the roof boards.

Another view in the same direction.  The three bents are framed identically, with the center tie supported by an iron rod and the exterior two held in place by their vertical boarding and a door stud.  The white-painted piece of scrap at the top of the iron rod (and its double on the other side) hold the top of the truss vertical.

The west side of the center bent.  Both eaves walls are framed identically: one bay a full-size door w/header (the farther bay here and below), the other with two braces up to the plate and two horizontal nailers.  The square wooden "washers" to the left mark the ends of the bolts holding the rail for the sliding door.

The east side of the center bent.  Note here & above that the angled supports for the tie rod appear to rest on a nailed-on piece of 1" scrap.  The eaves post in this bent is an older hewn hardwood timber, one of only a few reused pieces in the building.