Entry Door Restoration

While the photo on the left is admittedly a little rough, its good enough to give an accurate idea of the horrible, horrible door that greeted you when you entered our house when we first moved in. The image on the right is what we’ve replaced it with.

I’d say that the first obstacle you have to overcome is finding a door the correct size. It is only relatively recently that doors and windows started to come in standard sizes. That means that you are rarely able to buy a door right of the floor and install it in an old house.

We were lucky to find an original door to our street that a neighbor was willing to part with. Of course, they were willing to sell the door because it was in rough shape. With a lot of work — which included repairing broken and missing wood, having the leaded glass rebuilt, and replacing the larger panes with security glass — the door was finally able to be installed.

I know its a lot more work than most folks would do, but having a door that is appropriate to the house was worth it.
You can see some in process shots after the jump

Historic House Colors

Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, the cart comes before the horse. We were well into painting the trim colors of our house before I ever discovered this 1917 paint sample from the Old House Colors Web site.

Ironically, most of the colors we’d already chosen were either on this chart, or close to it. Since our house was also built in 1917 I found that fortunate.

Still, finding the sample did save the day. We needed to pick a color for the porch ceiling and just couldn’t find the right blue. After finding this sample, we ended up choosing a yellow ochre … a color I otherwise would not even have considered.

New Additions to Historic Structures

The alley facades of many Capitol Hill homes do not look like the historic fronts

Here’s a debate I’ve been having with a neighbor of mine: When you add on to a building that’s  90+ years old, do you have to keep the style of the older structure or are you allowed to depart from that style?

Historical Districts and codes aside, I’d like to know what people think from a personal perspective.

I view is that there should be truth in architecture and that construction should be of its time. If that means you meticulously restore a historic house and then put a modern addition on it, to me that’s acceptable. Unify styles with form, scale, and color.

My neighbor thinks that any construction connected to an older building should look like the older building. While I can see where some MAY want to go that route, I don’t agree that it is the only correct way to proceed.

Visit to Smoot Lumber

I finally got around to getting supplies for the balustrade I need to rebuild. Because my goal is to restore it rather than just build one, I was limited on where I could go for my lumber.

I opted to go to Smoot Lumber located on Edsel Road in Alexandria. They’ve been in business since 1858 and if you are undertaking a restoration project the chances are always good that they’ll be able to get you what you need. Depending upon how fussy you are and how much money you want to spend, they’ll even mill what you want.

I was able to find stock that matched the remnant from the old balustrade. That was great. Now, I just need to set the time aside to set up the miter saw, get the nail gun, and have at it.

Great Stone Wall Restoration

As I may have mentioned, I’m heavily involved in trying to dig up information on Kennedy Brothers builders, so last weekend I decided to visit the Kennedy homes located around 6th Street, Maryland Ave., and Lexington Street, NE. One of the nice things I saw was this restored stone wall. I think they did a great job, and its nice to know that someone still knows how to do this kind of work. When I find out who did the work, I’ll pass that along.

There’s also a home on 7th Street, NW, in Petworth that also has a great restored wall too. I wonder if its the same mason.

The Things You See … When Going to Open Houses

My partner and I went to an open house yesterday that was a train wreck. All in all, it didn’t look too bad on the surface, but the more you allowed what you were seeing sink it, the worse it got.

One of the things that jumped out to me as a HUGE red flag was this little sink which was probably no more than 9″ x 12″. There were two of them, one in each condo of this former single family and store structure.

The first bathroom that had this was a bit odd. This small sink is designed to be attached directly to the wall without any support from below. The stand that the builder decided to install is from a much larger sink set, and it forced them to get really creative in connecting the two pieces. It was filled in with … I don’t know what the gap was filled in with. It wasn’t porcelain like the basin or pedestal. It was some mystery product.

The second bathroom that had this basin at first appeared better, until I remembered that it is not a drop in basin. So as I looked around the counter top it looked like it was cut to fit the shape of the sink. Ok, wacky, but not completely horrible … until I looked underneath.

When I viewed underneath I quickly saw that the sink was not attached to the wall. It was not attached to anything. The only thing holding it up was the plumbing and the trap. There was also a lot of goop (mastic, mystery adhesive, who knows) just glopped on to keep the sink in place.

I gotta tell you. If a builder can’t handle getting a couple of sinks installed correctly, I really question everything else they’ve done and would not be comfortable living there. See images below.

Transom Restoration Project

Every time I start a project in the house it never ceases to amaze me what previous owners did to the poor girl. Upstairs the house has four transoms, and the first one is finally done and installed again. The image below shows it in the open position.
You may get an idea from the transom on the right on how bad they were … but in case you can’t fully see it, let me describe their state when we moved in. Each of them were painted shut by several coats of paint. In addition to that, the transom I just removed had every gap caulked and painted. And if that isn’t bad enough, the transom above to the right is also nailed shut.

This is going to take a while.

Ivolved Door Squaring Project

Here’s a project I wouldn’t wish on many people. We had one doorway in the house that was really off with regards to being square.

We were really lucky when we bought that the house was really level and square … with the exception of the bathroom door. In talking over options to fix it, one of our friends even suggested we cut the door at an angle to match (option died at conception as far as we were concerned).

So, to solve the problem, I carefully removed the millwork are the two side that were off, used a reciprocating saw with a metal blade to cut through the nails of the millwork and door frame, and then lowered the right half of the frame to level.

Now, I just have to finish stripping the paint of the door frame, reinstall the millwork, and put the door back together (although … I’ll be refinishing the door while its off).

From the two photos below you’ll get a sense of just how much paint is on the woodwork (and how much detail is lost), and something I think is particularly special. on the back of on piece of millwork is KE (?) Bros. This was especialy fun for me to find. Our house was built by Kennedy Brothers, and it was kind of cool to see millwork marked for their use.

Things That Help Date a House

One of the many projects that we need to do is redo the original bathroom. In tearing up one of the walls, we were able to save the soap dish in the tub area.While our house broke ground in January of 1916, its listed in the tax records as being a 1917 house. Based on the markings on the back of this porcelain soap dish, it would seem that it was finished early in 1917.

Second Pocket Door Finished and Installed

I’ve finally finished and installed my second … and last … pocket door project. This door was originally painted white, and I was lucky that the paint came off as well as it did.

Its a pine door, so I had to be careful to strip, stand, and varnish with the grain because pine scratches easily. Once I got it cleaned up, I found that there was some really good color to the grain.

To finish it up I gave it two coats of polyurithane and put in the hardware (I’d previously cut the hole). What was nice about the hardware set I bought from the House of Antique Hardware was that I was able to call and get a split set.

This door is for a half bathroom, so I wanted antique brass on the outside, and polished chrome on the inside. They were perfectly happy to do that for me.

So, time for another project on my ever growing list. More photos after the jump