: Stages of a window restoration…

: The work continues…

: The work continues.

: The work continues…

: Done and done and I’m on to the next one.

: Stages of window restoration.

: Trim painting has begun on the 2nd floor bedroom windows.

: Repair of a cracked window sill.

: The work continues…

: Restoration Pro Tip: After removing the old paint and cleaning up your hardware, you may find some …

: Built to Maintain We often champion things that are built to last; as we should. But we should also recognize those …

: 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.

: The good stuff.

: 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 …

: Small progress is progress.

: Proof of Life...

: 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 …

: The scraping continues…

: 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 …

: Installed the range hood.

: 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 progress…

: 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 …

: Mudroom floor installed!

: Back storm door complete.

: 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 …

: Well, this is useful…

: 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. …

: More railing cleanup today.

: 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 …

: Scenes from wiring…

: 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.

: Raising the roof.

: 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 …

: Making choices.

: 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.

: Making progress…

: 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 …

: Getting hammered.

: 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 …

: Drywall progress…

: 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 …

: The Radiators.

: 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 …

: Always. Be. Knowling

: Always Be Knowling

: 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 …

: Wet final coat is wet.

: 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 …