: The sinks and various related appliances were all connected today. So we now have a fully …
: Gotta love weather stripping that is rated for 100 years.
: Next set of sashes restored. Once again, stops screwed in, not nailed, so easy to remove to clean or …
: Slow progress is still progress.
: To try to give a better visual explanation of what I’m working on right now… Having already …
: Window stops that are decoratively screwed in versus nailed in so one can easily remove the sashes …
: Meet Olivia There’s so much I could say about Olivia. She is such an old soul full of stories. Yet, she tells …
: Some stair details. Added coving to cover up gaps and imperfections. Also, adds some visual …
: Work continues on repairing the front bedroom windows including re-roping and re-glazing.
: All the tape and paper off of the stairs now so you can really see how the final product looks.
: The stair trim and window took a big leap forward today. Here’s some before and after splits.
: Progress has been slow of late. The holidays and other impediments to the work. That said, I believe …
: While plaster repair is being performed in other areas of the house by my friends at Tiger Ox …
: Work continues up the stairs as we scrape away the paint on the wall side trim. It is a bit of work …
: Really hard to capture how brilliant and beautiful the copper is in person but I’m trying.
: Kitchen faucet is installed…
: Kitchen faucet install before and after…
: Some before and afters of the Powder Room…
: With the exception of the radiator (it’s a bit cold here to drain the system to do that right now), …
: Back to work on The Hague House today. Did some finishing touch-ups on the powder room window …
: Most Restoration Is Boring There’ve not been a ton of updates lately. That’s because so much of what we’ve …
: More finishing touches in the Powder Room today. Installed a new sink/cabinet unit (ended up not …
: Some progress on the Powder Room today. Before and after…
: Oh, Hi! Did you say you needed a convenient yet decorative place to hang stuff over the sink? Yes? …
: Tile backsplash installed in kitchen today. Still needs grout but already looking beautiful.
: Just a small detail but makes a big difference. The top of the range hood looked unfinished. We made …
: And here’s the new light light in use.
: Kitchen light before and after…
: Because a friend asked, here’s a sneak peek at the kitchen faucet.
: Kitchen really is down to small details now. Seeing the end of the punch list.
: The copper hardware really pops against the cabinetry and shelving.
: I love it when a plan comes together…
: Powder room door cleaned up , painted, and reinstalled.
: Restoration is spending a hour and a half cleaning up door and window hardware.
: Light fixtures in the Powder Room installed. The one on the ceiling is the one that originally came …
: Just because things have been quiet does not mean we’ve not been busy. Hard at work on the powder …
: The mudroom cabinet/bench unit was also completed recently. Doors built and added. Painted. And …
: Put a door on the small skinny cabinet to the left of the dishwasher today. Here’s a before and a …
: Plan the work. Work the plan…
: Came up with a solution to fill the space above the refrigerator. We built this shelf to fit the …
: I encountered this Hoosier Cabinet at the home of a friend near our family cabin and was struck by …
: More progress. Custom backsplash on the “Hoosier Canbinet” coming along really nicely…
: More Hague Kitchen work today. Another wainscoting detail added to cover the awkward jut out due to …
: Some thoughts on the good stuff... While working on the Hague House Project today, these thoughts arose as I opened the above can to …
: Today, we began installing some details to take this from a standard IKEA kitchen to something that …
: The progress today may be a little hard to see. It’s in the details. Trim work and side cover …
: More progress on the kitchen today. Things are coming together even more now.
: Things in the kitchen are really starting to come together now…
: Amazed at the progress we (and by “we” I mean “mostly Jason”) made on putting together and …
: One thing I forgot to mention that has happened in the past 48 hours is the brand new roof that was …
: Not a lot of time to do too much today. I did get all the lighting hooked up for the big cabinet …
: Good progress on first kitchen cabinet unit. Not quite done. Still some details needed but getting …
: More cabinets installed and hung today. Including what will become a massive Hoosier cabinet style …
: Work is still progressing, albeit slowly. Yesterday, we started assembling and placing the kitchen …
: Not much has gotten done on the house lately. Covid, vacations, and other obligations have slowed …
: Even though I remain in isolation with this plague, Jason has continued work on the custom …
: More movement on mudroom bench and step. While Jason builds the cabinet portion of the bench unit, I …
: I know it’s been a while since the last update. Trust me, work has been happening. Just at a slower …
: Some days, getting one small thing done is all you can do. Today I measured, cut, and installed this …
: Painted the trim for the mudroom, completed prep around the floating floor, and began installation …
: Rebuilding the outside frame in prep for installing a storm door. First shot is the before. Second …
: Powder room floor is now grouted and sealed.
: We laid tile in the powder room today. Will let the mortar set over the weekend and grout next.
: Today’s task was to lay out the tile to get the angles right and make the needed cuts to fit …
: Got the powder room painted today. Turns out, the color that wasn’t quite right for the kitchen is …
: Some progress today on the powder room. Taped and mortared the cement board seams, found a tile that …
: Got the cement board installed in the powder room so it’s ready for tile. But first, we have to …
: Can’t quite decide if this color for the mudroom is more “lemon” or “sunny” but I sure do think …
: This past weekend, our friends at Rethos organized a class at Hague on repairing and re-roping old …
: With the drywall finally done in the mud room and powder room, we can finally get back to a regular …
: In today’s “waiting for the drywall to get done project, I’m cleaning up some of the remaining …
: Drywall is near complete in the Powder and Mud rooms. Tape and mud are next.
: Our friend and local hero Anders Christensen, in coordination with Rethos, used the Hague house to …
: My Dad reminded me that it has been a while since I’ve posted progress on Hague House. …
: Today, vapor barrier went up in the Mudroom so the drywall can begin.
: Here’s a shot of it going up (but not all of the protective tape/paper is removed yet).
: A sneak peak at what the front stairs look like with the stencil work on the risers complete and the …
: The top two will need some touch up but the stair risers are coming along stunningly.
: If at first you don't succeed... I want to say, up front, that Jason is the real artist of this part of the project. I helped provide …
: A few clues about our plans for the risers…
: The base paint for the risers on the front stairs is coming along nicely. Here’s some before and …
: Todays fun project, besides touch ups on the staining, was some dry brush of metallic paint on the …
: Stained the treads today. Some touch up areas but otherwise they are looking great!
: Stain on the stair railings complete. Treads are next.
: The staining of the front staircase has begun…
: A preview of how the rest of the stair treads will look.
: Color test of the stain on the staircase. Trying to match the other trim.
: How to make a multi-piece stair tread stronger? Dowels, that’s how.
: Removed a front stair tread that was severely broken. It was built originally in three pieces and …
: The sad part is that after the hours and hours of work to remove all the layers of paint and sanding …
: These stairs used to be covered with layers of paint. The tip layer black. And, at some point, there …
: First pass of new stain on the door trim. This trim used to be covered by several parts of paint. …
: I suck at taking before pictures (which I’ve established previously) so I failed to get a before …
: Just because things have been quiet here does not mean we haven’t been active on Hague. The work is …
: Owners and Stewards Current Thought Pattern: There is a difference between those that own a house and those that live in …
: The Specialist To better get to the paint that needed scraping on the more difficult areas of the inside front door …
: The front door trim is almost entirely cleaned up.
: Front door cleanup continues today. More scraping of paint by Jason while I cleaned up the hinges. …
: The trim is now installed on the out side of the transom. And, we’ve begun scraping the paint from …
: And here’s how it looks on the approach.
: Today we began the installation of the transom window. Mainly just added some framing to allow it to …
: Today, on the basement stairs we replaced the treads and riser that were removed in order to tie the …
: Finished painting the door trim today. Next up is to put the transom window in but not sure we’ll …
: Today, we scraped and cleaned up the front door trim, removed the board covering the transom to …
: Today, removed the purple screen door and started scraping, sanding, and prepping the exterior door …
: Productive day today. Painted the “baubles” on the columns and did some other trim coats and touch …
: Second coat of paint on the columns and looking good. Next up is painting the baubles on the columns …
: First coat of paint on the columns done.
: We primed the columns and facing boards today. A little additional touch will be needed but then …
: Spent the day prepping the columns for painting. Started by repairing a half missing base that was …
: All the railings restored and installed at The Hague House. Seriously could not be happier with how …
: In case you’re wondering what the the blue we are using as accent on the porch was inspired by… It’s …
: The second of the railings is now installed and touch-ups done. Really excited about how this is all …
: The first of the three porch railings, with package delivery box, painted and installed. There’s …
: Painting the “baubles” (which is what I call them not knowing the right name) on the spindles. This …
: We continue to make progress on The Hague House porch, despite being waylaid by needing to rebuild a …
: Jason's Box One of the problems one can run into with a restoration project such as this is that not everything …
: Stained the porch floor today. Here’s some shots with some before and afters…
: More porch work today. We cut custom front trim from leftover flooring board. Curve routed edges and …
: More work done on the porch railing today. The main one is now together. Nothing is bolted down …
: Amongst all of the crazy busy of the least few weeks that had me distracted away from Hague House …
: Refinished/Repaired/Resealed the concrete kitchen countertops at Ashland for Bethany’s Birthday. …
: Today, we started the process of rebuilding the railings. We are using the original to the 1890’s …
: More progress on the porch floor today. Will likely need one more run to Bauer Bros to see if we can …
: We had run out of usable flooring from the batch that came out of the kitchen. Therefore, I had to …
: Began installing the porch floor, which used to be the original kitchen floor. Pretty sure there …
: More progress on the porch in the past couple of days. The frame and joists are now complete. Start …
: Another thing I should mention regarding the porch rebuild: With the exception of the new green …
: More porch progress from yesterday and today. Yesterday, more work done on the main frame and …
: It’s been a while since I’ve posted an update. Things have been moving but it’s been small stuff not …
: That thing where you find beautiful spindles they have been covered up by painted over but perfectly …
: “Trash Day” today. Of course I picked the hottest day so far this year (temps in the 90s) to …
: Please trust me when I say I really am hammering in a new subfloor and not about to attempt a test …
: The mudroom got a new roof today. The first of many roof, flashing, siding projects that need to get …
: Shots of the new plumbing in the Powder Room and Mudroom…
: Rebuilding The Powder Room - Part 1 With the Mudroom at a place where we are waiting for other work to happen before our work can …
: Electric In The Mudroom It’s been a bit quiet around here the past few days but that doesn’t mean we …
: New mudroom back door has an internal blind system. The kind of security you want for a back door …
: Mudroom exterior wall now framed out and new door installed.
: Put in new header beam in the mudroom today. Two sistered 2x6 boards. It’s nice, straight, and …
: Flooring in the kitchen is installed. Just need to do the transitions.
: Kitchen floor going in. Gonna look good with the cabinetry too!
: Kitchen flooring started today with some prep work. Sanding the seems to make sure everything is …
: Had to pull out the big old guns (table saw pictured, sliding miter saw not pictured) for today’s …
: Making good mudroom progress. Floor is now insulated and installed. We cut, chiseled, and installed …
: Mudroom floor joists complete.
: Hanging the joists for the mudroom floor continues…
: It doesn’t look like much but a lot of important work on the mudroom floor got done today.
: Rebuilding The Mudroom Today’s work focused on begining the repair/rebuld of the mudroom. As you may recall, this …
: Meet Jason You may have noticed I use “we” a lot when talking about the various projects here, …
: Pro tip: Not all boards in the stack at the lumber yard are created equal. Check each one to make …
: Here’s the mudroom demo complete. Now the work of fixing the roof and support problems and making …
: Demo of the mudroom continued today. We pulled up the floor in order to make it level and also …
: Update 03.30.2021 Things are moving along. Like any large project, everything has dependencies… The Kitchen has …
: Kitchen entry frame before and after.
: Matching new trim to old. Here the trick — ignore the directions. Forget everything you know about …
: I’m pretty proud of how adept I’ve become at using a piece of scrap lathe to cover door henge and …
: All full. Bye bye helpful little dumpster. See you next time.
: I picked a bad day to load up a dumpster. #Thunderstorms
: Beacuse, whats the point of wearing workwear unless you are doing real work?
: Powder Room now gutted. Now to figure out the tangle town that is the current plumbing and replace …
: Well, this subfloor on top of tile on top of subfloor on top of ??? Is a hot friggin mess.
: Today I learned how to cut a pipe and sweat and sided on a shutoff valve from my friend Jason.
: Starting a new sub-project at Hague House: Beginning demo of the powder room (small half bath off of …
: Today’s fun project: Matching radiator service pipes in the kitchen to the copper fireplace in the …
: First coat of primer on the walls. Also notice paint is now completely stripped from the radiator …
: Cleaning off the paint on the radiator feed pipes in the kitchen. We will actually be repainting …
: Painting trim and listening to Mardi Gras music. Happy Fat Tuesday y’all. Laissez les bons temps …
: Yes. Weeks later and we are finally done cleaning up the trim and have begun to prime it. No longer …
: To Bauer Brothers today in search of trim to replace a mismatched piece in the kitchen. Did not find …
: I’ve not posted much in the past week or so because the work we’re focusing on right now is slow and …
: Property, Price, and Purpose We suffered a big loss this past fall. Our longtime friend and realtor Kevin O’Brien passed …
: My friend and drywall virtuoso John getting the mudding done. I love watching him do this work …
: More shots of the drywall in progress…
: The drywall installation in the kitchen started today. Should be taped, mudded, and ready for prime …
: Scraping paint off of the trim. From left to right: After, before, and during.
: The work this week wasn’t sexy but it was satisfying. Installed all the electrical in the kitchen. …
: Subfloor done. Flat and level. Ready for the flooring.
: The laying of the subfloor has begun.
: Sometimes, off the shelf is not an option for what you need to do. Sometimes, you have to make it …
: Pandemic Projects - Saving Money on Water with the Flume My wife writes about installing a Flume …
: Today I’m thankful for fresh plumbing that makes a lot more sense.
: Boots and tools ready for a day of action.
: Today we pulled up the kitchen floor. Here it is in progress.
: Figuring out if some of the flooring we have in our stash will work for the kitchen at Hague. (The …
: Mapping out where the new switch’s and outlets are going to go in the kitchen by marking out where …
: Kitchen wall demo today. Here’s a before and after of one portion.
: Kitchen floor is raised and as close to level as I’m going to get it for now. Leaving the temporary …
: Today’s effort: Sistering the support beam and installing in prep for raising the kitchen floor. …
: Today, dug hole 1 (of 2), mixed concrete, and poured a footing for a new post to go below the …
: Four different places to get only half of what I need to raise the kitchen floor. Enough to get …
: Finally got through all 6 layers of flooring to get to the original floor. Still needs a lot of …
: Draining the radiator system today so we can remove a couple of them in the kitchen off The Hague …
: Getting to the bottom of the kitchen floor at Hague. I think we’ve figured out what’s what for the …
: Today’s lesson: A tiny problem, unseen and undetected until too late, can cause major damage. …
: Often times, it’s not the big projects that provide the most consistent regular satisfaction. It’s …
: More detail of the framed wallpaper. Oh, did I mention I’m painting the imperfections gold (Kintsugi …
: Framing around the original wallpaper in the 2nd floor hallway at Ashland.
: The hardest part of installing base trim in this particular house? There are curves.
: Still Life: Nail gun and shoe molding.
: For those who’ve been following along with our flooring project in the Ashland House, my wifedid a …
: Base shoe ready for painting.
: Floors installed and finished. Next up: Paint and install shoe molding. Then, sand and paint the …
: Ashland reclaimed flooring: First coat.
: Sanding the reclaimed flooring at Ashland.
: Floor installed. Next up: Sanding and finishing in natural. Expecting lots of character to shine …
: Reclaimed flooring installation is moving along at the Ashland house. The plan is, once it’s …
: New (reclaimed) flooring to go into the second floor at the Ashland house. This is only half of it. …
: Also, finding things like this underneath which gives us some idea as to when the subfloor was put …
: Today’s whoa to wow: Removing tile and subfloor from 2nd floor hallway at our main house (Ashland).
: I use this for just about every project I do. I call it my secret weapon.
: Today: Painting the stairwell and hallway.
: Today’s stay at home activity: Ceiling paint in the stairwell and hallway.
: Pantry cleaned out and reorganized at Ashland House.
: Final design of The Hague House kitchen.
: Paint testing in the hallway at Ashland.
: Today’s social distancing activity: Removed the last bit of wallpaper from the stairwell/hallway at …
: Demo in the kitchen at Hague House continues. Cabinets and Countertops removed today clearing the …
: We are not flippers... As we’ve been telling people about our plans for The Hague House, a common response has been, …
: Found the hard wood. Turns out, there is a layer of tile on top of that. So, for those keeping …
: After some cleanup, this will be the new dining room light.
: Free courses on anger management. DM me for details. :-). #HagueHouse
: It is entirely possible we bought The Hague House just for the fireplace.
: Well, how did we get here? You may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife You may ask yourself, “Well, …
: Right now, the #HagueHouse is what I like to call the planning and investigation stage. Trying to …
: What did you do over the Christmas holidays? We bought a house. We’re calling this one …