Foyer Fireplace Home Stretch

While milling the wood work for the parlor fireplace, I went and made the pieces for this one as well. I needed to fill a gap around the opening of the mantel to the tile face using some basic square stock and then finished with a small piece of trim to cover some small gaps in the edge of the tiles that fell short of the trim I made. I gave the mantel a coat of "Aged Oak" gel stain and a satin poly finish. The finish coat revealed some nice tiger oak that I hadn't noticed when i stripped the old worn finish off the mantel down to bare wood. Just a little restoration work on the insert and this can be checked off the list too.

I continued running the chimney for the parlor fireplace from where I left off last year on the second floor master bedroom. I added three more 4 ft. sections and another fire stop between the 2nd and 3rd floors which puts me right at the slope of the roof. Unfortunately this is right in the middle of a dormer or I could keep going straight through. My next order will be for a 30 degree bend, another 4-6 ft of pipe and then 30 degrees back to vertical and hopefully through the roof behind the dormer and below the main hip.

2nd floor

3rd floor

should poke though the roof a feet below that ridge beam (top of hip roof)

Birth of a Mantel

Haven't been posting as much lately, but still quite busy - just not as noteworthy. A nasty head cold didn't help much either! I left off with the basic wood work complete on the parlor fireplace and next thing to do was make a mantel.

I started from lumber pile and using some old 12" wide barn boards cut three pieces a bit over sized for the front and sides. After running through the joiner to get a clean edge I ran all three through the planer till I came up with a nice milled finish. This ended up around 7/8" thick. Next I ripped all three down to 8" wide and then on the outside edge ran them through the router to add a bead detail.

rough cut barn boards - precut for mantel sections

running through the planer

freshly milled 200 year old red oak - nice!

I ripped some 2x4's at a 45 degree angle and anchored to the wall above the 1x6 trim. This added some good support to mount the mantel pieces and will get covered over with some crown trim.

To add the crown molding I first milled some 1" square trim to step out the bottom of the crown and give an added detail to the design. This also made the mantel overhang seem less extreme (only about 4 inches now). Finally a little filler and finish sanding, a nice coat of stain (Minwax Gel "Aged Oak") and a satin finish coat. Add mantel clock, some nick nacks, and enjoy.....

Just waiting on the tile now.....

Back To The Inside

After a year sitting unfinished, the wood stove project is picking up steam again and I hope to get some free heat outta this baby come winter. Up to this point the main structure was framed out and covered in 1/2" cement board, but that was the extent of it. First thing to get sorted out was a hearth and hearth extension. The hearth extension I decided on slate and was able to find two pieces of slate - one about 3/4" thick which I hoped would do the job but it only gave me 2" past the front of the stove and code is 16". So I found the 2nd piece which added another 16" out and this was 1 1/2" thick. Using a diamond blade the slate cut much easier than anticipated, so getting them sized up was no sweat. Under the thinner piece I added 1/2" cement board and 1/8" metal shims that got me spot on with the other piece of slate.

The firebox hearth I used self leveling cement which I poured until even with the slate. I used 1/2" cement board under this as well. The final results came out great and could pass as being original to the house.

Next was installing a brick veneer on the walls of the firebox that I finished framing in and installing cement board for a base. I found these at Lowes for 50 cents/piece. I installed these using 3/8" tile spacers which gave me enough gap to point the brick.

When these set for a few days I did the hearth pour and then came time to point them with mortar. This was my first crack at doing this but watching John do my footers I picked up enough technique to do it. It's definitely tedious and probably harder to do with an uneven face (these veneers are quite random in thickness and rough edges), but the result is pretty good and this will be blocked by the chimney and stove anyway. I then dropped the stove back in place and adjusted the height of the chimney and it is now in place permanently! My back couldn't take too much more moving this 400 pound beast....

is it brick..... or is it??

I finally settled on a tile, a 4"x4" reproduction art & crafts tile which go well with the room colors - and my budget. The sample of 8 came which I installed and then put in an order for the rest. Having this settled I could then concentrate on starting the wood work. I had a general idea for a design inspired by some others I've seen and the fireplace in the other house I almost bought. It will be arts & crafts influenced like the rest of the house but a bit watered down since there are other influences to the design of the house.

Of course I didn't just go to the store and buy oak boards.... first I had to make them! This project will add a little more learning curve to my experience with the new tools I picked up in prep for reproducing all the missing wood work. I started out with 1/2" oak plywood base on the side which will be framed out 3" on the sides and 6" on top and bottom. The front will get 4 1/2" sides and a 6" top, all being 1" stock. The vertical pieces I milled from old door jambs taken out of the house - to far gone to be cleaned up into usable jambs again but enough to use here and keep as much original oak in the house as possible. The horizontal pieces were milled from my stock of rough sawed red oak. I've never worked with wood this hard before and I'm thinking this may have been an old growth tree the came down and was sawed up. The grain is real tight too. I even had to pre-drill for nails because they kept bending! So even if the original wood is gone at least old wood is going back in.

I added a small piece of accent trim on the bottom edge of the top 1x6 that wraps around to tie things together a bit. Next I have to mill wood for a mantel and add a crown under that. I would have went with brackets but since the mantel wraps around, it would have looked odd with no support under the mantel on the sides.

Outside Wrap-up

Well the outside work is coming to a close for the season and I'm happy to say that the first story is about 95% done. I finished up the painting on the back section of house/deck, built flower boxes from scrap cedar, and a bunch other misc. odds and ends that were being put off. The bilco door I ended up using the tinner's red paint from the metal roof... if it's good enough for a roof it will certainly hold up on a cellar door. Plus it just looked good with the green. Only project left is finish up some work on the rear porch steps. The front steps will probably wait till next year since I have to bust up the old ones. Another detail for next year be doing shakes under the porch where the 2nd floor cantilevers a few feet...you'll see.

I even went and did a little landscaping around the deck so I could get some plants in the ground I had rooted.

Here some nice before and after pics of the back to see the progress....

and some closeups....

restored fixture

And Now For Something Completely Different

I needed a change of pace from wrapping up the outside work for the season, so I took a day and did the tile job on the foyer fireplace. I managed to get a good deal on 150 salvaged 1x4 tiles that originally I was going to use on the parlor fireplace I'm building... but after several opinions, it was decided to use them in the foyer since they were a good match for the original hearth tiles still in place.

Since this will not be operational, instead of skimming a coat of cement over the rough brick surface, I fixed a sheet of 3/4 plywood with liquid nails and tapcon screws. This was a nice easy fix and gave me a flat level surface to mount the tiles. The also brought everything out more which covered some damage to the hearth tiles where they attached a tack strip for carpeting.

The tiles ended up going a bit further than I thought and even ended up with a few extras. Now all I need to do is grout and do some final trim work to fill the interior sides of the mantel.

The first story work on the exterior is wrapping up and I should have some final pics soon. I hope to get the wood stove project and floor sanding done on the first floor before the weather gets cold....

Hall House Builder

Better late than never Mr. Gates - I finally got the update so my scanner can work with Windows Vista - 6 months later! Anywho so finally here is the scan of the postcard featuring the Hall house sister house on Penn Ave along with a third house that is no more. Postcard is stamped 1909 on the back. Built by J. W. Meckert & Co. - Ridley Park.




The shingles are no longer on the house, so I guess this would be false advertising??

Goodbye Stucco

Now that the brick footers are somewhat stable, the stucco/cinder block covering the crawl space could now be demolished in the visible areas. Not too much effort here and a surprise was that the driveway side was recessed some and just had to remove the stucco only. This will keep things pretty tight on this side and only have to insulate the other.

After some reconstruction for something to nail to, the new drip, belt moulding, and bead board could be installed. Everything but the bead board is composite so no worries of rot, and convincingly looks like wood. John did some more repair and pointing to the bricks once the other two faces were exposed after the demo work. These are now 100% redone.

.... and finally the lattice is finished

Almost Skirted and Faulty Footers

The framing for the lattice skirts on the deck are built and fitted in place - now just need paint and lattice installed. Also finished the bead board on the stairs and added some additional trim work.

To fit the skirts, it was finally time to remove all the stucco off the brick footers supporting the rear section of the house. Needless to say the bricks were literally falling out of the stack. Fortunately my buddy John mortared them up to last another 100 years and a bit of finish pointing to boot. Here's a before and after of the north corner with loose bricks removed and after repairs....

yikes!.... and this is with top loose bricks still in place

this may actually support something now

By the way - that was the good side! The brick footers sit on leftover stone from the main house construction - how deep is any one's guess. But amazingly the rear has not really settled despite the condition of these corner footers. The two in the middle (4 total for the addition) are fine and the stucco still intact, probably helping keep them together. Under the stucco is cinder block that replaced old bead board between the footers. The areas not covered up by the deck will be replaced as original with bead board, the rest can stay just the way it is.

the master at work... just about every brick on this footer was loose

not bad for an "electrician" - thank again John!

And here is the same spot in 1945 with Norris's grandson Russ whom I met when the family came to visit. This is when this area was still an open corner porch entrance. You can also see the bead board that originally covered the crawl space before the stucco covered cinderblock. The upper bricks look loose even then too!

Handmade Handrails

Next on the decking to-do list was building a railing system. Taking some inspiration from the porch, I came up with something similar in design so I wouldn't end up with a 1990's deck on a 1900's house. Using a table saw I ripped cedar 2x4's through at a 15 degree angle to center of the 2x4 creating a V sloped top to the handrails. Then I took about 1/8 inch off each side so they would be just a bit narrower than the 4x4 posts. For the bottom rail I just cut a 15 degree slope on the outside edge angled in. The spindles were off-the -shelf 1x1 cedar that I spaced 3 1/2" inches apart (max code spacing). I pre-built each section flat on the ground using a wood block for spacing spindles consistently and laying 1 inch boards under neath the spindles to get them a consistent depth from the edge of the rails.

After the railings I added trim for the rim joist - a 1x6 PVC no-rot type of material and a PVC ogee trim. This was one area where I really wanted to shy away from pine trim and this new stuff works really well - and you can't tell. The remaining 1 1/2 inches of the joist will be my mounting surface for the lattice skirts which still need to be built (same as the porch project a few weeks back).

Finally - the stairs. It took a little trial and error to get the right measurements to use the material I had and have a usable set of steps. I went with the pvc trim again this time 1x8's for the risers and 2 cedar 1x6's for the treads leaving an inch overhang. My stairs are about 5 feet wide so I had to make 4 stringers on 16 inch centers. An added rise goes behind the rim and bolts to a floor joists. Of course I had the added chore of busting out the corner of the cement drive by hand - just the beginning of the fun I'll have removing all of that so I can get my yard back.

Then the risers and treads were added and another set of posts were added to the outside stringers for handrails. These were ripped in the same style as the railing, just no spindles.

Stay tuned for skirting, bead board, and some finishing touches....

Deck Part 2 - The Smell Of Fresh Cedar

Working with cedar definitely has an added bonus - the aroma when cuttin it! I spent the last few days adding 5/4 x 6 cedar decking to the new deck in between rain drops. The fresh cedar smell even blows in the house taking away the stale funk that still resides on the 2nd floor....



I had to use a 16 ft and an 8 ft board to make the slightly over 20 ft span, staggering the joints. The leftover ends are just to expensive to throw out, so I'll end up making some flower boxes from them. The posts for the railing are 4x4 cedar double bolted to the rim joists and are 36" above the deck surface. The tops I cut into a pyramid design - a shape that is reflected in many of the details of the house. I've also started design on a railing which will be made similar to the porch. The top and bottom rails will be custom cut from 2x4 cedar and the stiles can be purchased in 4 ft. lengths - so I plan to design a rail using 24 inch stiles - to expensive to have waste with this stuff!

Next time will be making and installing the railing system...

Deck The Hall House

Taking advantage of a cold snap (and bored of painting), I switched gears and started construction on the back deck. I didn't totally plan on this, I was just setting the 4x4 posts and the main support beams. But one thing led to another and a few hours later the supports were done and so was the rim joist. So I said what the hell - and kept on going. Working by myself, I used C-clamps to hold things while I squared and leveled everything and then tacked in place with drywall screws. Once all was happy I went back around with 16d nails. I used 1/2" galvanized bolts to fasten the double 2x8 main supports to the 4x4 posts. Next came adding the hangers to the ledger board, mounted on 16" centers, then drop in all the 2x8 joists. Final step to avoid any twisting was adding some cross bracing at the middle of the span.

Posts leveled, finding height to mount support header.

Closeup showing rim joists, support header, and posts completed

Joists installation complete

Bracing added - and framing stage complete

Next will be making and setting the railing posts and adding some decking.

A New Entry Oak Threshold

I crafted and installed a threshold for the new old front entry. This completed the look of the front door and came out quite nice. It is actually made from two pieces of red oak - one I made and the other I bought. The base is a solid piece of oak that I planed down and cut to size (approx. 1x6). Then it had to be rabbeted out because the cement base is actually a half inch higher than the hardwood floor inside. After a few adjustment it fit in perfect. Then I purchased a milled threshold to attach on top which is 1/4 inch thick. Once it was stained up and cleared it appears as one solid piece and should last a hundred years - unless someone rips this doorway out AGAIN!! Nothing left but weatherstripping now and refinish the door to complete the outside stage of this project.