New Foyer Windows Unveiled

After a lot of thought, debate, and planning (and a little luck), I've been able to put the foyer window back to it's original design. By a stroke of luck and coincidence the seller of the garage door I bought on EBAY was also a master woodworker down in Cape May and offered to remake the pair of windows from a picture I obtained from the Hall family.

They are stain grade pine as original, with salvaged old (wavy) glass used. Originally these were casement style and would have been hinged on the side, but I opted to seal them in permanently which will be a bit more efficient, and I already have plenty of ventilation.

Once nailed and caulked from the outside I turned my attention to the inside replacing the old sills. After a little tweaking they fit like a glove. Then replaced jamb pieces temporarily (they still need stripping) and finally some of few remaining original casing. The final result looks better than I could have hoped and definitely ties the foyer together much better than those aluminum double hung windows ever could.

closeup of new sill and windows

The windows were hand made by John Hassay of Cape Island Woodwork, just outside of Cape May, NJ. He is restoring an old Quaker meetinghouse dating back to the late 1700's. He just finished working on this year's 2007 Cape May Designer Showhouse and has been involved with several other high profile restorations including Congress Hall in Cape May a few years back. I highly recommend him. I decided to have him make the 3rd floor dormer windows as well which have the same design as the main staircase landing window. One window survived being used to fill a busted sash in the garage, so at least this time he has an example to copy from.

windows with trim reinstalled

First Wood Shop Assignment - New Sills

The first creation from my new wood shop was making new interior sills for the foyer windows that were lovingly made into a chew toy by a PO's dog. My first step was taking some basic measurements of the sills so that I could make an oak board to cut them from. From my red oak pile I planed down a board to 1 inch thick and then joined the edges. Even though I am making two sills - I made one large board to cut from so that they would be guaranteed the same dimensions rather than make a board for each sill. My new board ended up about half an inch narrower than the original 6 inch deep sill - but would still work no problem. Next I cut this board in half - one for each window. Then I needed to make the edge bead detail that is on much of the woodwork (that's left!) in the house. I used a router table with an 1/8 inch edge bead bit and ran the boards through.

old and new left sill

After removing the sides of the window jamb, I was able to remove the old sills so they could be traced onto the new boards and cut out. They turned out pretty good. Next time will show the windows and sills installed.

closeup showing edge bead detail

Porch Gable Finished

Finished up the cedar installation and added the crown detail along the roof line. The angle at the top is 105 degrees, not 90, so all I can say is lots of trial and error to get the crown right. Final painting and admire the results.... this is now pretty close to what was original.

Porch Gable Progress

I finished stripping down the original cedar shingle siding on the gable over the front steps of the porch. Once down to the sheathing I could see some nesting remnants inside so I pulled one of the planks off and found one monster of a nest from who knows when - a couple square feet worth. I pulled it out for good measure and replaced the sheathing, then it was time to fix the hidden issues. You can certainly cover a lot of sins with vinyl unfortunately. Apparently neither flashing nor tar paper for that matter was installed under the row of shingles in front of the gable. Plus originally it just saw paint instead of tin roofing so it was in not the best condition. But it wasn't too far gone so I left in place verses the headache it would have been to replace it. I added some galvanized flashing, then everything got a layer of 30# tar paper I had laying around. On top of that I laid a roll of roofing starter strip and then was ready to the starter coarse for new cedar shingles.

closeup of starter row and bead board soffet

Next came some new bead board that I mounted under the original soffet - which were just the gable roof sheathing planks that were exposed with a coat of paint. The new bead board made this look a bit better than what was original, plus the planks were not in the best of condition after 100 years. Before I could install any siding I had to prime another batch of shingles. The siding installation was almost as tedious due to the many angle cuts to be made, but the end result is looking quite good.




I managed to squeeze in a morning on the back of the house when it's shady and did the first coat on the remaining siding - Let there be GREEN! What a difference a little color makes....




Tomorrow I pick up the foyer windows. I got a sneak peak pic and they look perfect.

Yep - Still Painting

I've mostly been working in the porch area of the house since the back is only shady in the mornings and I'm in night work mode right now. So I don't even have coffee time till about 1pm. I managed to sand down the the bead board that the PO installed on the porch and salvaged it which saved a good bit of work. I did have to replace the trim but no big deal there. Some primer and two coats later - what a difference.

I also did the insides of the bead board section which were left bare too. I painted these section the same green and this helped break up all the white of the porch. Things are looking much better up front now. I still have to sand down and finish the outside bead board on the back side of the porch, but this is in the sun so will get to it later. You can also see in the foreground I painted the railing tops the darker shade of green that the garage door will painted. I figured this will help tie things in better and change up the same green a bit which there will be a lot of. This will also be on the bands on each column and also on the frames of the lattice skirt under the porch.

Next I've staged scaffolding on the front steps to do the pitched roof detail that sits on the main porch roof (I'm sure it has a fancy architectural term for it - but I don't know it). The PO redid this with scalloped vinyl and looked OK, but I have to go the extra effort and tear this down and do cedar as was original. The crown detail was doubled up when they redid this and the scale is way off for the structure. Fortunately with the old pics I can restore this all back to original - or at least very close. I'm sure some neighbors think I've lost my mind watching me tearing apart one of the few things on the house that was already "finished" by the PO!

The layers of vinyl, plywood, and shims are removed yielding the original cedar shakes. The original crown is long gone. Below you can see part of this structure from a photo of Marian and Sarah Hall taken around 1936

The Cat Days of Summer

"Hey Mike.... will you install some central AC already!!"

North By Northwest

That's what I finally finished painting today. Plus the kitchen window is finished with paint, so this side of the house is done minus porch work.






I started setting up to work on the front porch (always have at least one project in the shade available!). Here the bead board and trim was replaced by the PO but never was painted. The trim is finger jointed pine and coming apart and the bead board is really dried out and low grade with plenty of knots. I may try to sand it down some and see how it comes up, but I may just replace it so I can all the tongues/grooves primed to hopefully add some longevity to the paint job. Still working on the south side of the back and then will do the back wall. There's still a bunch of tedious caulking to do on the siding - what fun.

Some Noteworthy Painting Begins

I'm finally starting to paint the fiber cement siding I installed on the back of the house last year. It's been long overdue and fortunately the factory prime coat has held up really well so I shouldn't need to do a re-prime, except for where the cuts are. Also needing to be done is caulking along the edges where the clapboards meet trim work. I put one coat on the wall behind the basement entrance and on the north end wall. This stuff certainly soaks up the paint and two coats is a minimum. Getting the color up though is finally giving some visualization of what the final results will look like with the colors - and we like it.

I also started repairing the original vertical trim on the back corner and replacing the drip trim along the skirt boarding (not yet there). I had one piece remaining that I was able to use to get my sizing and angles. With the recently acquired tools I was able to make new pieces from old yellow pine that was removed from the loft of the garage - which will be original materials and hold up much better than new pine. I'm starting to get the hang of using the planer and the jointer works great. Now just some fill work and can do final prime and paint to finish this corner. Then I can set up to finish the back and finally start working on a deck so I can use the back door.

... I'm still picking at the kitchen window, finally stripped and about ready for paint. Driveway side of house painting (1st floor) is just about done 2 coats. And the foyer windows should be ready to be picked up this weekend!

More Goodies From Lancaster

Another trip to Lancaster and another full pickup truck back home! I went with a friend from work to pick up the jointer I won on EBAY and we decided to make a few stops on the way back. And I managed to make some great finds.

First was a great piece of slate. I've been pondering the parlor fireplace I'm building for some time trying to figure just how to finish it. I want this to look like a fireplace that was always in the house, so using any modern tile is just out of the question. I thought about the stone veneer products, but that's not quite the look I'm going for and not sure how well it would work in this house (though the outside is stone...). I finally concluded just the day before that a one piece slate hearth would look really well and hold up to the wood stove and started researching places to find and have cut locally. The sides will be trimmed in oak instead of the brick veneer and the front will hopefully be some kind of salvaged tile. I think instead of finishing the inside to look like a firebox, I will instead make sheet metal cover to hide this incorporating the heat deflector I will need (experience from other house). It sounds crude, but I think I can make it work and look nice. The metal will also help reflect heat back into the room. Here is what I found. It even has one corner cut already! The width is perfect, but it's about 6 inches shorter than I would like for depth. If I wasn't using the stove it would be perfect, but I will probably need a 6 inch wide piece to fill in the back. Still will look much better than 12 inch squares. At $95 I thought it was a good buy and much cheaper than having one made. Now too figure how i'll cut the other corner.

At the same place I found this pressure gauge that I hope to use on the original heater/boiler I restored last year. Hopefully it should still work. The scale is marked for where to fill based on 1&2 stories, 3 story, and 4 story houses.

And here is the Craftsman 6 inch jointer. It's about 1960 vintage (quite new for my collection!) and in excellent shape. It has a nice sharp set of knives on it and after a good cleaning and a paint job will be ready for service. I tried it out with a piece of scrap oak I've been playing with from my pile that will hopefully become woodwork for the house. It work great and made a nice clean square edge.



Once I run my board though this then I can run them though my planer and this is the results I should have.... a nice 1x6 red oak board ready to become baseboard. Use my newly restored radial arm and take it down to a 1x4 and I'm ready to mill some new casement mouldings (as soon as I get the knives made). I tested a few stain colors to see just how this oak is going to finish out - I think I'll be happy!

Happy 4th

Happy 4th from the Hall House

Ready For Windows... Almost

The wood repairs are done on the outside of the foyer windows and one coat of paint. Outside is now ready for when I get the new windows. Inside however has an issue I haven't dealt with yet. The inside sill, especially on one side was really chewed/clawed by a PO or renter's dog. Some issues I cough up to 100 years of use and call it "character" or part of the house's history - but these are really bad and must be replaced. So begins the project in bringing back the inside woodwork and I get to start using some of my "new" toys.

The side pieces should come out pretty easy and then I can remove the sills and install replacements. I still need to get a router table and so I can make the beading detail that is common to all the sills in the house as well as on the seats, shelves, and other trim in the house. So looks like I will have to finally cash in my accumulated Sears gift cards I've been hoarding for a rainy day.

Dodging the Sun

The sun and I play a little game throughout the day.... I work in the shade on the driveway side of the house till the sun finds me. Then to the other side that is now shady until once again in the evening the driveway side is shady again. So I've been working between prepping and installing the kitchen window and continuing the foyer window project. The kitchen window was the largest of the new Pella's I ordered and a little more than I wanted to man-handle myself, so I stripped just enough around the opening since I was gonna have some help for a few hours. This time I prepped and added the top filler piece as usual due to the miscommunication in sizing - yet this time the oddball window was dead on what it was supposed to be??! So I had to remove the filler piece and then finally got the window in. It's mounted, caulked and ready for the rest of the outside woodwork to be stripped/primed/painted and that will wrap up the new windows on the first floor.

The foyer window project continues and I FINALLY finished stripping the paint tonight - what a lot of work that was. The next few days I should get the repairs done to the wood and get everything in primer. The tin roof you can see is done with two coats of Tinner's Alkyd Red roof/gutter paint made by Gateway Paints. This is the closest you can find to the old red lead paints used on metal roofs back in the day. I'm happy with the results so far and eagerly await for the windows to be finished so I can pick them up in Cape May and get them installed - what a difference they will make.

I won the jointer on EBAY and should hopefully pick that up this week. Now I have enough tooling to at least start making the main 1x6 pieces for the baseboards.

Meet the Beast

My buddy John was kind enough to let me have this 300 pound monster of a saw. It is a DeWalt radial arm saw made around 1945. Believe it or not there seems to be a bit of a demand for this particular saw, and not much comparative in scale or quality available today. It's got a 12" blade and a true 2 HP motor. Everything is fully adjustable and the action and precision is unbelievable for a saw of this age. And this monster will do just about any cut imaginable - it has 24" travel across the arm, arm height is adjustable left/right and up/down, the saw rotates 360 degrees horizontal and tilts 90 degrees down.

After 60 years of service it needed a good cleanup/restoration and it appears to be almost good as new again. My dad welded up a stand for me to make this beast a bit more mobile (yes, this was supposedly their "portable" model!), and I constructed a new surface table/guide based on the original book John gave me with the saw. Now I just need a new blade and get the table "trued" up to the blade and I'll be ready for some serious cutting. One last key tool needed for my trim/woodwork resto shop is a jointer. John has a 4" I can use but I have my eye on a 6" I may lock in this week. Of course I may still use his for smaller work....

Getting Ready For Foyer Windows

Hopefully in a few more weeks I should have the foyer windows that are being custom made from original pics of the house. He's been held up a bit finishing up a Showcase House project in Cape May. In the meantime I removed the other aluminum double hung window and started the fun filled project of stripping paint. I'm about half way done at this point. There will be some damage to deal with and then everything will get painted up and ready for the window install. The roof I decided to deal with as well while I was working in this area. There was a layer of asphalt shingles nailed to the old tin roof that were probably done in 1971 during the apartment conversion (destruction) - and these were shot. The roof was in surprisingly good shape and all I really needed to do was fill the nail holes and some separations from the wall, then do a thorough scrape job. I finished up with a good coat of Rustoleum primer and today ordered some tinner's red oxide paint... this is the red paint you see on old metal roofs and evidence of it was on this roof. Apparently once very easy to get in your local hardware store, it now took some serious googling to find a supplier - and not have to buy in mass quantity. I only need half a quart at best.

Back Stairs Window Finished

I finally completed the restoration and installation of the salvaged stained glass window in the back staircase. The PO's removed the original window at some point and replaced it with glass block - not really appealing. This window definitely makes a huge difference both inside and out in what before was an eyesore and now a nice focal point. All that's left i s final paint and the inside stripping the jamb and painting which will get done when I finish restoring the staircase next winter.

Almost A Shop

The garage is finally powered up, even though I ran 125 feet of wire and of course ended up 3 feet short - never fails. I have a 40 amp sub-panel with a lighting circuit, a 20 amp outlet circuit and a 20 amp 220v outlet circuit. I sleeved the wiring in conduit along the stone walls so they should be well protected. I installed 3 cold weather fluorescents which I haven't had a chance to use at night to see if it's going to be enough lighting.

The outside lights are wired through a photocell mounted in the LB cover feeding the main power into the garage and this is working great. These lights are restored cast iron fixtures found on EBAY - amazingly at different times yet they are a prefect match!

The shop is now about ready. Here is the latest addition to the tool collection - a Craftsman scroll saw probably from the 1950's with a 24 inch throat. This sucker really ways a ton. And the winning bid - $15.00... a real deal! I bought this with the sole purpose of cutting out the reproduced dining room window seat, but I'm sure I'll find many other uses.

The butler stairs window is about done too. Finally finished glazing and now just need to prepare the jamb and install. I hope it's the last window I have to glaze cause I just can't master this art. Maybe big square panes are easier, but these little triangle and diamonds are tedious and just don't come out as nice as I would like. But I guess from afar they won't look to bad.

The Big Dig

Last few days have been spent digging the path too run electric to the garage. It's about an 80 foot run to the house and includes running under the driveway and a sidewalk - and this was the easiest route! I'm running 8-3 able which will give me 40 amps to the garage (knocked down one notch due to the long distance). The run will be inside 3/4 PVC conduit except for under the driveway. To get across the driveway I dug a shallow hole at one side and about 30 inches down on the other. I drove a 3/4 black iron pipe at as slight a slope as possible with a cap on the end so it would not fill with dirt. A 10 foot pipe just made it across and I ended up at the bottom of my deep hole. For the sidewalk I drove a pipe and was able to pull it back out and run the PVC through the hole made by the pipe, so the only break in the piping will be at the driveway. I end up under the porch where an existing hole was made to run porch outlets. The cable is halfway pulled now and then I'll need to wire up the garage and I'll finally have a real shop to work in, and not the first floor of the house or the yard.

Shingle Siding Finished

My order of shingles finally came in (1 square this time) and back to the clothesline priming and painting and hanging to dry.... and the neighbors still shake their heads in amusement. I finally was able to finish the dining room and for my first shingle siding job, it came out pretty good, especially for not being just a flat wall. I finished off with a piece of trim at the top and now this wall is ready for final paint.

While I was in the groove, I went and did the 2 rows under the foyer window as well. I left the under course in place this time since they were in OK condition. I just laid some tar paper over top and added the new shingles. Just need to strip the rest of the window, prime, paint, and await the new windows being made - this should really turn out well and be a nice focal point for this side of the house. Only shingles left to replace on the first floor is on the little porch peak and I may do the garage front this year.

Finished

The Garage Solution

So how did I get the door from a fancy 500 pound immovable wall to a functioning roll up door?? With just a $2.00 part of course. I ended up buying an eye bolt for each cable that is closed about 320 degrees - just open enough to slip the cable through. These act as a guide for keeping the cable lined up from the bottom attachment point on the bottom panel, up to above the top panel. Then through the eye and a slight change in direction clearing the beam and wrapping around the winding drum. As the cable moves across the drum the eye keeps the cable in place. Granted there is a slight concern for wear over time and a permanent solution is in the works. But I probably could get several years from this solution easily and it proved my idea will work. Long term I would like to make a pin with a wide roller that will keep the cable in line, but will also let the cable drift some (unlike the sheave with a single fixed groove), and will roll so there is no wear between it and the cable.

With this solved came adjusting the springs. These springs have two set screws that you loosen, then insert a 1/2 inch cold rolled steel rod into one of the holes in the winder and crank clockwise, when you can't move anymore, take a second rod, insert in another hole, pull out the other rod and keep going - counting the number of turns as you go on the spring. Of course a few turns in and the spring really starts to fight your arm! I didn't have the factory winders, so I made a pair out of 18inch long rebar and grounded the ends down till they inserted snug into the winders - worked really well. Now the chart I downloaded from Coplay (marked on the track) said a 7 foot door should be about 7 1/2 turns. The setup they showed only had two springs, mine has four - but I figured it would get me in the ballpark.

Framing complete

So 6 1/2 turns on the outside springs, I then started on the inboards.... on the 5th turn the door started to raise itself! Guess the charts wrong - imagine that, so backed down to 4 turns on each inboard spring and the door stayed shut. I pulled the door up with no real effort and actually had to slow it down near the end of the run. But then... I couldn't pull it back down! There was still to much tension on the springs, so with the help of my neighbor we got it back down. I took 2 turns off the outside springs and tried again - PERFECT! One arm up, one arm down, cables stayed in place.

Door goes up

Now all to be done was build a filler for between the top of the door and the header and trim everything out. Here are the final results. Now all I need is a little power and I can start thinking about reproducing some woodwork.

Door goes down - ready for paint and power

A Garage Story

Since first moving in, I've been really wanting to put a door on the garage. I really couldn't set up shop until then or risk having anything of value stolen - easy pickins. Well finally about a month ago I picked up a nice solid wood door that looks like carriage doors but is a roll up. It came complete with torsion springs and Genie lift - all I had to do was make it work.

The garage was designed originally for carriage doors and is solid 12 inches of stone. The opening is 17 feet and the door is 15 - so first I had to add 12 inches of wall to each side (this pic is on the previous post). The beam spanning the opening is an I-beam boxed in with wood. I ended up anchoring these walls to the top beam and drove steel rods through the base and about 18 inches into the ground. Later I will be adding some L-brackets to anchor into the floor and up onto the vertical parts of these filler walls.

Next with the bottom panel in place I started laying out the tracks and mounting brackets. This is where not having any instructions started to be a PIA! My first go around I had the brackets mounted on wrong face. I new the cable that pulls the door needed a channel to sit in and so I shimmed everything in to create a void.... well after doing this and seeing that the top track wouldn't line up.... take everything down, rip out the 2x6 shims and remount correctly. OK, so now the vertical tracks were right - now for the top tracks. I spanned double 2x6's between the two beams supporting the roof and nailed boards on the bottom so these could float left and right. The ends of the track get attached to these beams and once installed I could square everything up by moving the beams and then lock everything in place.

Torsion springs and tracks mounted

Well, that wasn't to bad - still a few evenings of work. Now to figure out the torsion springs. This is a real monster, 4 springs, two shafts that couple in the middle, brackets between each pair of springs, and end brackets with bearings for the shaft to rotate, plus the winding drum to roll up the cable attached to the bottom of the garage door. I had 8 1/2 inches between the top of the door and the beam, plenty of room to mount underneath - noting to line up the winding drum with the cable channel. So I get this act up and mounted and figure hey - not so bad - then I visualize the door coming up and guess what? It will smack right into the middle of the drum. I forgot to mention that the end brackets are supposed to mount where vertical and horizontal brackets all meet, but I didn't have room because of the beam above. So I mounted it a few inches lower.... now I knew why it had to go exactly where it was designed to mount.

Closeup of mounting bracket - see a problem here??

Great - so now what?? Can't mount under the beam, can't mount on the side of beam because the drums won't line up with the cable channel, don't want to take everything down to square one and remount walls to back edge of beam (later saw that this wasn't possible either!)

Great looking door.... but how do you open it???

Next time - the solutions.