Sill Repairs

The window sills on the house all have been in excellent shape minus the two that were hacked up.... except for one. About 1/2 to 3/4 inch depth seems to be rotted or worn away on the one bedroom window where I'm siding now. My guess is that a window AC unit was in this window for a long time and dripped on the sill, slowly rotting it down. Had this been new growth wood, it probably would be gone! But this old pine is rock solid, dense wood so repairing seemed to be a better option than replacing the entire sill.

After stripping the window trim, I cleaned out any loose wood and dirt. Using Minwax wood epoxy filler I smoothed everything over with about 1/8 inch of epoxy. Then to avoid using several can of filler, I installed some filler pieces of wood. Then two more coats of epoxy to get things up to finish level and blended in to the undamaged surface. Finally some sanding with 60 grit followed by 120 grit and the sill was as good as new.

Next a prime coat and it's ready for a finish coat.

And a shot of the next section finally finished. This section went faster with out any soffit to replace other than just the crown moulding. Now I'll set up scaffold and catch the other outside and inside corners of the bump out. Should add to the learning curve!

Century Plaque

I finally received the Century Plaque for the house and installed it above the plaque I had made awhile back. The plaques are made available for houses that reach the century mark in Ridley Park. The research submitted with the application is kept in the archives to help document the houses in the area.

In restoration news, I finished the final coats of paint on the back and have set up the scaffold for the first half of the driveway side of the house. I finally have some new inspiration to look at and keep me painting MORE shingles....

And once again the sparrows built a nest under the shingles that I had to remove..... this time no eggs but actual kiddies. Boy they're quick family makers! So I managed to get them into a hanging basket and put a shake on top for sheltering - and so far ma and pa seem to be tending to them in between my time up on the scaffolding.

Feed me!

Soffit Solution

Well I was able to find a crown moulding made from a composite PVC that closely resembled the design and size of the original. I was also able to find some tongue/groove bead board also from the same material to reconstruct the soffit. Yes it's not authentic, but this a trouble spot for moisture that I care not to revisit. And unless you get up close and feel it, it looks like the real thing - especially from the ground! I also used a small trim piece to hide the edges of the soffit where it meets the crown and the shingles.

The demo work finished

I installed a 2x3 along the wall and between the rafter tails to have as a nailer for the soffit. I wish the crown was a little less wavy, but the original was too that I removed so that's how it originally was... and there ain't much I can do about it at this point without tearing into the roof. And once again - it look great from the ground!

Crown fascia added and soffit started

Check out the corner too - first one is finished. Not too bad for my first try. I'll have four more to do (yep - there's an extra one). Next is to strip and clean up the window trim. I don't think these windows will be getting replaced till next year. Except for maybe the kitchen one if I can get the upstairs kitchen demoed before winter and return the window to original size. Then it'll be caulking and second coat everything before moving on to the next side of the house.