Whoa to Wow

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Today, removed the purple screen door and started scraping, sanding, and prepping the exterior door trim for paint.

→ 4:25 PM, Oct 19

Productive day today. Painted the “baubles” on the columns and did some other trim coats and touch ups. Plus for the newly painted kitchen radiator back into place in prep for reinstalling. Plus, the sign for the package box arrived.

→ 9:03 PM, Oct 18

Second coat of paint on the columns and looking good. Next up is painting the baubles on the columns the same “Dignity Blue” as the baubles on the railings to tie it all together.

→ 3:50 PM, Oct 11

First coat of paint on the columns done.

→ 8:22 PM, Oct 7

We primed the columns and facing boards today. A little additional touch will be needed but then it’ll be ready for paint.

→ 4:55 PM, Oct 5

Spent the day prepping the columns for painting. Started by repairing a half missing base that was only being held by two rotting sides. I had slipped a 4x4 piece underneath last week to make sure it had something under it. Today, I cut new sections and hammered them into place.

→ 6:32 PM, Oct 4

All the railings restored and installed at The Hague House. Seriously could not be happier with how it has turned out.

→ 1:27 PM, Sep 30

In case you’re wondering what the the blue we are using as accent on the porch was inspired by… It’s the blue from the fireplace tiles. We plan to hint at that blue throughout the house.

→ 6:59 PM, Sep 28

The second of the railings is now installed and touch-ups done. Really excited about how this is all turning out.

→ 2:41 PM, Sep 28

The first of the three porch railings, with package delivery box, painted and installed. There’s some touch-ups and trim work still to be done but this is close to final.

→ 3:24 PM, Sep 27

Painting the “baubles” (which is what I call them not knowing the right name) on the spindles. This is slow tedious work and I’m sloppy at it and it fills me with self doubt but I’m sure it will be great when it’s done.

→ 10:01 PM, Sep 17

We continue to make progress on The Hague House porch, despite being waylaid by needing to rebuild a section of the fence at The Summit House.

We got primer and the first layer of base paint on the railings over the past few days. Here’s how that looks so far.

→ 9:40 PM, Sep 9

Jason's Box

One of the problems one can run into with a restoration project such as this is that not everything can be saved. Plaster crumbles. Bricks deteriorate. Wood rots.

Such was the case with one of the side railings for the porch. A large section of the top rail was rotted away. The only solution was going to be to cut that section shorter. The problem, of course, was that then it would not have bee long enough to fill the space needed. So, what to do?

After some thinking about it. Jason came up with an innovative solution. Build a box that was similar in size and scale to the base of the column.

Jason sketched out a rough idea…

But, what is the box for? It’s a package box. What’s a package box? Well, you know when you get packages delivered that are too big for the mailbox from the Post or Amazon? Normally, they just leave it on the porch — thus inviting curious eyes and porch pirates. Well, with a package box, there’s a place for those to go. With a rainy week ahead and projects at other houses to keep me busy, Jason got to work:

Using some of the scrap from the porch floring and some new green-treated plywood, he put everthing togather…

Once together we were able to put it in place, measure the railing against it, and put it all together…

And here’s how it will look all together…

I couldn’t be happier with the results. He took what could have been an unsolvable problem and came up with a solution that may just be one of the major “Wow!” features of the house. One of those things that a buyer will see right away before even going inside and, upon realizing what it is, wonder why all houses these days don’t have such a thing.

I know I want to build one for my house now that’s for sure.

→ 9:00 AM, Sep 1

Stained the porch floor today. Here’s some shots with some before and afters…

→ 3:03 PM, Aug 19

More porch work today. We cut custom front trim from leftover flooring board. Curve routed edges and a drip edge cut underneath. Turned out beautifully.

→ 5:41 PM, Aug 18

More work done on the porch railing today. The main one is now together. Nothing is bolted down final yet (need to stain the floor first and complete some detail work) but two of three are ready for install at least.

→ 4:58 PM, Aug 16

Well, this is useful…

→ 10:39 AM, Aug 16

Amongst all of the crazy busy of the least few weeks that had me distracted away from Hague House project, I got Jon The Floor Guy by to sand the porch at Hague. Looks fantastic and is ready for finishing.

→ 7:44 AM, Aug 16

Refinished/Repaired/Resealed the concrete kitchen countertops at Ashland for Bethany’s Birthday. Here’s a before and after side by side.

→ 7:41 AM, Aug 16

More railing cleanup today.

→ 5:34 PM, Aug 4

Today, we started the process of rebuilding the railings. We are using the original to the 1890’s house cap, base, and spindles attached to new posts that have been routed to blend in. A lot of clean up and work but well worth it.

→ 4:34 PM, Aug 3

More progress on the porch floor today. Will likely need one more run to Bauer Bros to see if we can find the rest.

→ 5:25 PM, Jul 14

We had run out of usable flooring from the batch that came out of the kitchen. Therefore, I had to hunt for more of a similar size and age. Found some at Bauer Bros. We’ll need even more but here’s where we’re at so far…

→ 2:51 PM, Jul 13

Began installing the porch floor, which used to be the original kitchen floor.

Pretty sure there will not be enough wood to do the whole thing but we will use what we have.

→ 4:39 PM, Jul 1

More progress on the porch in the past couple of days. The frame and joists are now complete. Start installing the floor tomorrow. Here’s some shots from start to finish on the entry section.

→ 3:36 PM, Jun 29