L. Norris Hall House

The Loft Continued

2009-09-07T21:36:00.016-05:00

With the drywall patching done, next was a lot of woodwork. I decided to make a pair of newel posts to spruce up the staircase a bit. At first I tried building them in place, but that proved to be futile. So I ended up building the posts and then installing them. This was easier said then done, but they ended up coming out pretty good. I got the biscuit joiner out for this project which made them nice and strong for the installation. One of the biggest issues was the varing widths of the wall. It actually gets half an inch narrower as you reach the lower post!

The caps will mimic the main staircase and eventually I'll make some pyramid caps to add on top. I bought some ball tops from Lowes, but the scale just was too small for the posts I built. Again I used the router to add bead edges which occurs often throughout the house. The green moulding actually was saved from the front porch when I redid the sill and lattice skirt project. Then the knee wall was topped with ledge and moulding.... in the end it came out much better than what I started out with.

The original baseboards on the stairs was another big project. The previous owner drywalled over the plaster leaving the boards practically flush with new drywall. So of course it would be too easy to just pry them off. No, they were slid into notches in the stair treds. So I had to drill the boards at the notches to clear the treds, then pry them off - carefully! I needed them intact so I didn't have to start from scratch making new ones. The originals were actually pretty crude and much of the treads and riser had a good 1/2 inch gap where the boards met them. So when I used the originals as patterns for the new ones, I added about 3/8 inch to all the lines. The new ones came out better than the originals and now the gaps are much smaller. I had to add shim boards first, then installed the new boards and caps. Now it looks right. Also before installing the boards, I ran a new line for the 3-way light on the landing which hasn't worked in several years. It was on an original knob and tube circuit that has long since been disconnected from service. Shimming out the boards left a nice cavity to do this. Otherwise I would have had to notch all the way down the staircase. What fun that would have been - and even worse patching all the holes.

I was happy to get rid of the crappy pair of windows and replace with new repoduction ones that I had made. The pair in the landing I sealed shut. They are too high to open and close easily from the landing, plus I still will have 5 more on the 3rd floor that will open. I made a new sill and replaced with new casing moulding that will match what I'm installing throughout the 3rd floor. The sill is a little extra deep so I can put my small collection of old glass insulators. It will be a nice spot for them since the sun will illuminate them here really well.

The doorway on the 2nd floor originally had a door which was long gone. I debated adding one again and to help hold heat from going up in the winter. The problem was in the summer I would need to keep it open for the AC. Plus the the 3rd floor will be used alot, so the door would likely be left open out into the 2nd floor hall often. So I decided to make it an open entrance and part of the entire staircase coming from the first floor. All that was required here was a new frame since the originals were pretty beat up and also had mortises for the original door hinges.

I changed out the original closet door with a 5 panel door. I just happened to use the one I already made for the kitchen closet but decided to leace it open instead. So it ended up here now.

I cut down an old 5 panel door I curb picked and made a closet door for the new dormer closet. Then I installed a bunch of casing and new baseboards throughout. At this point things are starting to shape up and can get a feel for the new space. Looks like it's gonna be a great hangout area....

Sometimes....

2009-09-02T21:01:00.015-05:00

Sometimes in life you just have to pull up your toolbelt and just trudge forward the best way you can.

The last 6 weeks are ones that I would sooner forget. The REALLY really short version of a VERY very long story is that Rach has decided to follow her own path in life and I now must find a new one for myself. The silver lining in all this is that things are civil and she has said that I have worked way too hard and have too much of myself invested in the Hall House for her to even think about taking that from me... so the show will go on at least. After entertaining the idea of selling the place and just starting fresh I got quite a lecture from her saying I owe it to myself to not give up on this place! So after some soul searching I have decided to stay and make a new life here as best I can. Easier said then done, but enough about that, after all this is a house blog.... so here we go.

After a week of doing absolutely nothing, it was time to start keeping busy. Last time I blogged I was wrapping up the siding job and working on the soffit. Well lets just say scaffold was not the best place for me to be working so I decided to throw myself into a new project. First I gutted the master bedroom add-on closet which opened up the doorway between the 2 front bedrooms. Nothing like good old sledge hammer swingin for some therapy! I think the neighbors thought I had finally lost it as debris began raining from the second story window. Well that didn't take long so I had to come up with something bigger..... the 3rd floor.

This was the area we had been using as a tv/computer/living area since we moved in. It had been somewhat redone with all new drywall, but it was still not up to my standards. The 3rd floor consisted of a staircase that led up to a entrance hall with entrances to each bedroom. The back smaller room has a closet which will eventually house the AC unit for the 2nd and 3rd floor. The front room is much larger but no dormer closet. So I kicked around several plans over the years and finally I decided to open up the entire floor as more of a loft, open up the staircase to the upstairs more, add a dormer closet to the front area, and build a chase for the fireplace chimney.

So first step, break out the sledge again!

Next I built the framing for the chimney chase. The angle makes it so that it's about 5 feet wide, but this is just the right amount to break up the front and back areas a bit. On the front half I can put a TV setup and on the back I can set up my desk for an office area. Then I framed out a dormer closet next to the stairs for more storage, especially since I will lose the existing one to the AC unit.

Also notice I cut out the wall enclosing the stairway, which created a kneewall and opened up the two windows in the stairway to the rest of the upstairs.

Next step was dealing with the wiring. There were 3 existing Halo recessed lights in the front bedroom. I removed the closest one to the center of the loft and replaced it with a ceiling fan. On each side of this fan I added two more lights. On the back area I added two more. Each area is controlled by a separate dimmer switch. I then installed the subpanel in the AC closet and refed all the 3rd floor circuits from here. I also added a few more outlets throughout, and a light in the new closet.

The next challenge was all the wiring coming out of the floor where I removed the wall. An old gas lighting line was there too. So up came the floorboards and was able to remove, reroute, or kill all but one old knob and tube circuit. That will go away when the bedrooms downstairs are gutted. Then to fill in the missing boards I removed some boards from the AC closet and used them to do my patching.

Then it was drywall time and some mudding. This was a bit of a challenge since the front room appears to have been gutted to the studs and the drywalled, but the back room was rocked right over the plaster. So now I'm trying to blend two different thickness in walls. Most areas I was able to gut down to studs to a corner and then blend in a new piece. Over the stairs though was pretty damn tricky. I also created an access to get above the ceiling. This will come especially in handy when I install the AC system.

Tomorrow I'll finish updating to where I'm now.

A Vague Posting

2009-08-01T06:38:00.000-05:00

Many changes here at the Hall House...... but the show will go on.

The Last Shake

2009-07-24T08:09:00.002-05:00

Monday I managed to hang the FINAL shingle for the siding project after 7 LONG months of work. What else to say but WHEW! I still have to do the soffit and fascia around this corner and final painting - and then the gutter and window project. I have all the lower gutters replaced which I didn't talk about yet and 6 more windows that need to be replaced. That should still keep me busy for awhile. Then I think I may build a shed so I can get my garage cleaned out. I need to make room in there so I can start refinishing all the kitchen pieces. Yea, I still haven't forgot about that project......

Basement - A Recap

2009-07-17T20:12:00.014-05:00

This spring after finally getting many items out of storage in the basement and into the house, plus a few EBAY sales, the basement is finally getting useable. I still have some things to do, but at least I have a shop and tool storage, plus a room to get my radio collection out where it can be appreciated and I can play around with them again. The outer walls still need to be skim coated in many places, and in the radio room I plan to continue building the wall along the foundation so I can have a nice clean wall and a good anchor for more display shelving.

I built a bench for doing smaller work on (mostly electronics) and bought plenty of shelving and plastic bins. Now all my parts, hardware, etc is sorted out, and I have a place for all paints and finish work stuff. I don't even want to think about what I went through the past 3 1/2 years looking for stuff.... or buying stuff and then finding I already had it 6 months later. I'll also be able to do some wood work down here in the winter time. This may be a temporary fix for that as there are some ideas brewing for a future shop project.

And here is the radio room. Finally dusted off and polished up after 4 years of storage. I've been collecting pre-WWII Philco and RCA sets for 15 years now. I recently made one exception as sitting on the work bench you can make out a small set that was my great-grandparents' and great-uncle's Silvertone set from 1936 that was recenly given to me. I have many others that await restoration someday when the house project slows down.... whenever that comes!

And just for a truely authentic restoration - I installed this original 1930's era antenna system on the side where I'm working now. I never had a good antenna setup in all the years I played with these old sets, but now what a difference in reception and the range on the shortwave bands I can picked up stations in Europe, Australia, and Japan!

Nominated!

2009-07-15T20:05:00.003-05:00

That's right - we were unexpectedly nominated for this years Ridley Park Preservation Award. Anybody in town can nominate a house, which the Historical Commission narrows down to a list of about six houses. My next door neighbor mentioned nominating us, but I said wait till next year.... as I still nailed shakes to the wall. But then the letter came, and the nominators remain nameless - but I have my hunches who! So they come out and takes pictures, then a panel of judges made up from the Historical Review Board, Historical Commision, etc come and do the judging based on the Secretary of Interior standards for home preservation. The winner gets a plaque to mount on the house, and remains so even if the house changes owners. Also a small ceremony takes place when they announce the winner at the Victorian Fair in September and a picture of the winner each year hangs in the town hall.

Needless to say it would be nice to win..... but we're not finished yet!! So originally I heard they wouldn't come till sometime in August, but when I confirmed the nomination they said about 2 weeks! Oh boy, get to work! Well that got me crackin on some landscaping projects for the front that I planned on doing later.

Sidelight Surprise

2009-07-12T08:56:00.003-05:00

My neighbor gave me back the original sidelights to the house! When they tore the original doorway out, the door was sold for $5 at a yard sale I'm told by another neighbor and she believed the sidelights were trashed. Well apparently they were picked up off the curb and saved. So now what to do?? I guess at some point if I can get glass for them I will put them back and sell the ones I installed. These are chestnut too which will match the original woodwork in the foyer. Also they have the nice ledge and dentil detail that contines from the one on the door. The original glass is busted and the one intact is a replacement pane. The fragment I found matches the textured glass in the staircase landing window. Now if I could only find that door......

A 100 Year Old Panaramic.... Almost

2009-07-10T22:54:00.004-05:00

My neighbor sent me a copy of some great pics the other day. Then tonight an idea came to me.... and a little tweaking in photoshop later I came up with this little gem.

A few more feet and we would have a great wide angle shot of our street almost 100 years ago. Very cool!

Here's another pic he gave me of his neat house (built 1887). You can see the side of it on the far right in the street shot. The two houses to the right of me in the street pic were built in 1897 and are identical to each other. The two to the left of me (not pictured) were built in 1893.... so at 1906 I'm the new house on the block.

There are two other pics I've seen of this section of our street, but I've yet to get copies of them.

He also returned a lost piece of the Hall house. I'll reveal that later.

Making A Window Whole Again

2009-07-09T06:59:00.016-05:00

When the one bedroom was converted into a kitchen upstairs, they took the two windows and shortened them. The one I can understand due to the counter being installed, but the other...???? Plus they hacked the original sill flush with the sheathing so they could put siding over it. It was real quality work too! They used ceiling tiles to insulate the section of the old window opening they enclosed - top notch craftsmanship.

So first thing was dismantling what they did. Of course this wasn't too hard to do. Then in order to repair the sill I had to remove it. This involved removing all of the original window construction down to the wall framing.

Once the sill was out (a real beast at over 3 inches thick) I ran it on a table saw to get a nice clean edge to join a new piece to it. It just happened that there is a 3/8 drop from where the old window closed against the sill and what was the outside part of the sill. So this made a perfect point to joint the new piece. I used a piece of salvaged pine for the replacement piece which will hold up to the elements compared to any new piece of pine. I glued and countersunk 4 inch drywall screws to join the two sections. All stripped and sanded it was time to put it back in place.

There is a cavity between the wall framing and the side pieces that will frame the window opening. This is where the old window weights hung. The original pieces were beat up and split, so I installed new sides. They seat in notches cut into the sill and header piece. Then the boards that cover these weight openings install on the inside and out. Finally install a stop trim and ready for a new Pella window.

This will all have to be done on the other window in this room too... but the counter is still in the way. So this will wait till the kitchen gets dismantled.

Siding Project - 7 Months and Counting

2009-07-07T06:08:00.006-05:00

Yep, that's how long (not counting the winter months) that I've been working on the second floor siding. Not much new info to report, you've heard for the last six months! Here is a set of pics showing the progress on the north side....

Next will be dealing with that shortened window and the idiot who hacked the sill off - I have some choice words for that guy!

Finally A New Post

2009-07-04T06:44:00.002-05:00

Yea, I know.... poor neglected blog! Well I honestly have been working on the place and progress to report on which I will have to take a few posts to catch up on.

I officially have completed the first floor AC installation. My dad came out and overkilled making up the copper lines with 56% silver solder! Only need 5%, but won't have to worry about leaks at the joints. Then my friend Liz's husband came out and charged it up which went smooth. Then fired it up, balanced out the system with the dampers and nice and cold. I used a thermometer at the dining room register and had 59 degrees coming out. There's no insulation on the supplies at this point, so I could make it even colder probably.

I put down a brick pad for the condensor unit to sit on which came out OK. There has been a little settling (I kinda did a quickie job on it), so I will need to go back in one area and get a little more sand underneath.

Of course now that I have some central AC going.... I haven't needed it!? It's been a cool wet summer - but I'm not gonna complain too much. Though the garden could use a little more sun than rain now. More later....

Happy 4th!!

I Can Almost Feel The Cool Breeze

2009-05-28T21:05:00.012-05:00

I spent my week off after Atlanta kicking butt on the Central AC installation. For the first floor system I'm installing a Goodman which I got a good deal on in January. After running my house through the duct sizing program, I laid out a plan and put together from stock pieces supplied by a dealer in NJ. I caught a free delivery deal with that too, so I've been doing good. With the help of my buddy John, we hung the unit from the ceiling using all-thread and brackets and started to install the duct work. I initially planned on coming out the side for the return, till I found the return was on the bottom - hence why I had to suspend the unit. The supply trunk runs down and catches three supplies takeoffs - one to the kitchen stair riser, and three floor units in the foyer, parlor, and dining room. I used insulated flex to connect the takeoffs to the register boots. The return runs parallel to the supply and catches three of the returns I installed in the walls 2 years ago when I gutted the first floor. The 4th in the kitchen I ended up not having to use since I had enough with just the three.

Two days and the duct and wiring was done and passed the blower test. I sealed most of the seams on the supply header, but still have a few to get too. Wednesday I helped John do a 200 amp service for one of his customers, then Thursday was back to the AC - running the line set and wiring the outside condenser.

That's as far as I got before going to Cape May for a three day weekend with Rach. At this point I was really getting frustrated with my working facilities - or lack there of! Tools are everywhere, the basement is jammed up, the garage is jammed up, and I will loose the kitchen soon as a work area.... so this week I stopped the other projects and started to build a shop in the basement. So the past few nights has been spent dividing the basement in half. One side will be my radio collection room. The other half will be a nice shop, and one corner will be a storage area for seasonal stuff and camping gear, plus the freezer.

I won't get this 100% now, but will be done enough to get a shop going and get all my tools downstairs, especially my larger wood working tools. These epecially have not been weathering to well in the garage and i have to keep removing surface rust on the bare metal, and coating with oil only works to a point. It won't be no Norm shop, but it will be 100 times better than what I've been dealing with. In the meantime, I had to start downsizing my radio collection a bit - at least of projects I doubt I'll get to, and other vintage items that we don't have room for in the house.

Tomorrow my dad will braze the refrigerant lines for me and then this weekend I hope to get the condensate pump installed and vacuum test the refrigerant lines, then open up the condenser to the system and top off with a little more R22. Then we'll be finally living the cooool life!

Back From the Work Abyss

2009-05-17T21:38:00.005-05:00

So the three month outage at work is over (I think) and I just came back from my two weeks of training down in Atlanta.... now I can finally get back to the laudry list of projects that await.

Here are a few pics of the current state of the back yard. I bought a nice cedar arbor that went together pretty quick. I had a design in mind to custom build, but the time just ain't there. Maybe next go around. The garden is planted and doing OK. The weather has been a little too wet this spring I think for my spring crop.

Also started building a filed stone wall to level out the slope one the side of the property. Here I will fill in and make a brick patio to sit the AC units on. Speaking of which that is my next big project. I have the AC unit and the duct work. Using a sizing program I put together a duct layout that should be sized just right. I should get a jump on that this week since I have vacation - no more HOT summers for us! Stay tuned....

And yes, more cedar shakes to do....

Some Blog Filler

2009-04-15T17:02:00.016-05:00

Working 70 hrs a week right now, I've had little time to work on the house and won't get to do much till May. So for the locals here is some turn of the century scenery of Ridley Park from my postcard collection....

More Garden Work

2009-03-30T07:54:00.003-05:00

This weekend I finally finished the major sanding of the kitchen. Next will be a touch up coat, a final sand, and then I can finally move on to some trim work and paint in the kitchen - I can almost taste it.... nevermind, that's just from sanding dust in my mouth.

Sunday turned out nice outside so I worked on the garden beds. I wanted to add an irrigation system which is much more efficient and better for the plants. But, I didn't want to pay the hefty investment of one. Then I found a plan online to make your own using standard PVC piping.

I built the main header on one end feeding all four beds. At each end is a shutoff valve and quick disconnect to attach a garden hose. I can run domestic water from the house, or from the other end I can run saved water from rain barrels when I get that system set up next year. They will be behind the garage. Each side of the bed gets a feed from the header with another valve to regulate the drip rate. Then branches feed off of these to the plants. The main header is glued, but the bed piping is dry fitted so is can be disassembled for the winter.

A 1/16 inch bit is used to make the holes. Recommended is every 6 inches, or for bush plants, 2 to 3 holes spaced 5 inches apart. Looks pretty good and price was at least half of a normal bought system. A layer of mulch will cover everything up. and help retain moisture. Next step is building some structures for cucumbers and tomato cages. The seedlings are doing good, especially for my first try!

A Reason To Post Again

2009-03-14T22:03:00.007-05:00

A little motivation and some warm weather got me workin on the house again finally. The kitchen is half sanded and looks like it will be a while before I sand the rest.

In the meantime last weekend I decided to rent a jackhammer and bust up the section of driveway that will become yard again. A large section of yard was made into parking when the place was apartments. But now it's much more than we will ever need and prefer to have some more yard back. I did decide to leave one lane around the side of the garage to park the truck when that retires from everday use to just a weekend hauler. A little intimidating at first, I managed to bust everything up in alittle over 3 hours. Then was the fun job of removing the concrete into a pile, which I've yet to work out the details of where it will go next. I was lucky to get a little help with this chore.

After raking the stones up a bit, I started construction on the raised beds for our new and improved veggie garden. I'm building four beds out of cedar - three will be 12ft x 4ft and one 10ft x 4ft. After plenty of research, raised beds are the way to go. After the initial setup, this style yields better results and is easier to maintain. I filled them with a bottom layer of leaves and compost, then the rest with topsoil. I'll add a few more goodies and mulch the top after planting.

We also started plants from seed indoors for the first time. This is far cheaper and can get an earlier jump on things than store bought plants. Plus you can get a better variety than the limited selection at the garden center. Just a plaine shelf with flourescent lights and using peat pots. We'll see how this works out.

So I had 7 yards deilivered of topsoil. About half went into the beds and half will go on the yard after I get a delivery from my dad. He had to replace a his main sewer line so I got about a yard from that. He is also getting sidewalks redone, so I'll be getting a few more yards that I'll use to fill where the concrete came out before I add the topsoil.

Once I get the spring yard work done it'll be back in the kitchen.

Winter Standstill

2009-02-11T20:19:00.007-05:00

Not much to report lately. The last few weeks were spent taking care of a Rach who caught a nasty bug, and then it's been my turn. I have enough energy to go to work and keep the fire going and that's about it. Before things came to a complete hault I was slowly adding coat of mud to the kitchen. I have just about two complete coats done. Also trying to get the rest of the paint stripping done.

I also went through all my door hardware and put together enough solid brass sets for the 1st floor doors. Then I polished everything up on the buffer and installed everything. That's about it lately......

It Works! But then......

2009-01-18T22:18:00.006-05:00

The powder room project has been one big roller coaster ride. You've already heard about the painting fiasco which finally came to a happy ending. Next was getting the high tank toilet in service.

Two more orders and I finally had everything I needed to put the tank in operation. I ordered new flush and fill assemblies from DEA Bath. They weren't cheap, but the quality was impressive - all copper and brass construction. So I enlarged the hole for the flush and installed everything in the tank. I left the back off so I could do a leak test and see most of the joints in the copper tank.

Well 24 hrs with no leaks I was comfortable to hang it on the wall. I finish up the assembly, hang on the wall.... and guess what?? Yep a slow drip. Take it down, clear RTV the solder joints on the inside of the tank, reinstall - and still a leak. Back down, dissassemble everything, and notice the leak appeared to come from the flush assembly donut through the tank. So I RTV the outside solder joints just in case, then reassemble using some putty along with the donut gaskets. Passed the first leak test without back and final assembly test. Back on the wall this time all was good.

Then it took three tries to get the spud on bowl end leak free. Finished the fill line install and it was ready for business. I must say these units have one heck of a flush! I guess the 7 feet of head pressure helps. So all was right with the powder room and finally could concentrate all my energy to the kitchen........ until

The cold came - I mean the REALLY COLD came. Since the plumbing was redone in the bath/kitchen, I've only had one trouble spot with freezing - right where a cold line 90's up and was against a cinderblock skirting the back section of house. I had a fix in mind for this, but didn't get to it yet. Last year I removed the exposed cinderblock and rebuilt the original style beadboard skirt where the deck didn't cover it. Needless to say it's not airtight, but last winter I had no problems, so figured the pipe insualtion was enough.

Then came temps under 10 degrees and the pipes froze.... all of them! So saturday I spend building a sealed/insulated inner wall around the skirt, and was going to heat trace the pipes until I heard some bad things about that. Ended up just adding another layer if insulation. I got as far as freeing up all but the tub lines and thought I was in the clear. Then I hear the noise and it wasn't the tub starting to flow like I thought.

Go under and see the hole in the pipe. No biggie, I'll cut and solder a coupling at the break. Well no coupling in stock, go to HD and back, couple the pipe and take a look around. Hmmmm, how di water spray over here??? Oh hell, another break thawing out. Then another.... five in all. Its about 8pm at this point, and it ain;t getting fixed today. So I cut out the bad stuff and figure I'll leave the powder room out of commision till I feel like going down in the crawl space again. That was till this morning when Rach tried to do laundry. The cold line tees off this run - back in the hole! So brain storm, I go to HD and pick up a pair of valves with the compression fittings to pop on the lines to the tub. 10 minute job, valve them out, and laundry, toilet and bath sink are back in service. At this point the tub can wait till spring.
The last fix was to open up the crawl space to the basement again as recommended by a friend. Since the space is pretty tight from the outside, it should acclimate to the basement temp and keep the pipes even happier. I built a filler piece when I first moved in to seal this off, and didn't want to completely open this up in case of any critters getting in the crawl space, so I ended up cutting in a vent, which will let the air through and the keep any critters out.

Ah, what an adventure this powder room has been.

The Obama Express

2009-01-17T12:00:00.004-05:00

Guess who made an appearance past the Hall House??!

Making Pre-Hung Doors Continued....

2009-01-10T09:17:00.007-05:00

So here's a little more on how I built pre-hung doors assemblies using salvaged doors. There may be better ways, this was just the method I came up with. I lay the door on horses opening direction down. After ripping some 1x pine to the jamb thickness I lay them on each side of the door. I use paint sticks as a gap shim between the jamb sides and door, then pipe clamp together to keep stable. Now I can measure for the header piece. I cut the top piece to length and then I router the thickness of the side jamb pieces into each end of the top (half the thickness of the top piece) This leaves a slot on each end for the side pieces to fit into making a nice tight joint. I reassemble the pieces around the door this time using paint sticks for the top gap as well. Now I can mark my cuts for the bottom of the door, which I also had to allow for the thickness that the kitchen floor will be built up. Once these are cut it's time for final assembly. I nail and glue the top joints and shim between the door and jamb assembly again - using pipe clamps as before to hold things together.

I do some quick checks for squareness and then it's time to brace the assembly so it can be moved around for installation. Using the top measurement, I cut three identical length stick (I used scrap from ripping down the jambs). Marking at measured points down each side I then fasten each support to the jamb having the ends flush with the edge of the jamb. This should guarantee that the width stays true from top to bottom of your built jamb. I also add corner bracing at the top. At this point you should have a pretty sturdy assembly and can now mark and mortise your hinges as I showed earlier.

Finally install as you would any pre-hung door. After the unit is installed, just remove the bracing. You may have to do some minor adjusting during the install depending on the condition of the door (it was surely shaved to fit another opening that wasn't square!), but so far I've had pretty good luck with this method and can do one start to finish in a few hours now.

New Appreciation For Pre-Hung Doors

2009-01-05T21:24:00.007-05:00

I'm in door mode right now in the kitchen and powder room. The powder room jamb I built and installed a while back, but never fully installed the door in the jamb. This created some problems during the install and not having the door in which left me with a little planing to do.

I picked up a neat tool - a Porter Cable hinge mortising kit for routering doors/jambs. It's fully adjustable to accept any size hinge and any thickness door and door height. So here is a shot setting it up on the jamb. There are little pins you hammer down to hold the jig in place. Then using a router with a guide, you router out the hinge mortise for each. Then remove the jig and square the corners, since I'm using orignal style hinges.

Next you take the jig and place on the door. There are adjustable ends with markings so you can account for the top and bottom clearances when placing the jig on the door. Then repeat the router sequence. The true test was mounting each half of the hinge to the door and jamb - and then pinning the door in place. Wouldn't you know it went right together! Is was a little pricy a tool even second hand - but when I have 15 or so doors to do from scratch, using salvage doors to boot, it was worth every penny.

So for the next door , the dishwasher closet, I built the jamb on saw horses around the door. But this time I mortised the door and jamb, making a complete unit. Then adding some cross bracing to keep things squared up I installed the complete unit into the opening with no problems. A few shims, nail in place, remove the bracing and call it done. Only things to add was the stop trim and mortise the strike plate for the lock.

The next door (basement) I'll go into a little more detail of how I made the jamb since my camera was dead when I did that part....

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-24T08:53:00.001-05:00

Hey - It Looks Like A Bathroom Finally

2008-12-23T17:10:00.005-05:00

The floor has dried, the toe moulding is in, and it's time to install everything. The clawfoot tub is in and hooked up....

As well as the pedestal sink....

and here is what I found under all that white paint - tiger oak

The toilet is in with the flush pipe....

All that waits is the parts to rebuild the high tank. I ordered new fill and flush mechanisms, plus refinished the tank.

In process of stripping the door and then I can try out the Porter Cable router hinge template I picked up second hand. I just may get the powder room finished before the end of the year - maybe....

It's A Major Award.....

2008-12-19T21:59:00.003-05:00

it just arrived and I know just where to put it!

right in the front room window!

....mind power Swede, mind power.

Painting Nightmare

2008-12-18T17:20:00.010-05:00

It all started out pretty well.....

Once I got the initiative to work on the walls, they went pretty quick and the sanding job came out pretty good for not having done any drywall work in over a year plus. I then caulked the ceiling panels into the crown and the crown into the wall, plus the wainscoting trim. Then it was a good coat of primer on everything. The ceiling was done with Valspar ceiling white.

From there though it was downhill quick. We had already picked out colors for the kitchen, bath, and trim work. After work I stopped by Lowes to pick up the paint, but forgot the trim color. So I quick picked out what I thought was an antique white, got the paint made up and was all ready to go. It was Thursday morning when I got to do the first coat. Wednesday I had to put a new engine in the splitter because it threw a rod - but that's another story! Anywho so I put the first coat on the wainscoting and quickly realized that color was really a tan more than a white - oops. After I finished it grew on me some though and actually would go really good with the kitchen green, but the blue I wasn't so sure. So then came the blue. As soon as I started putting it on I knew it was a bust. More of a Miami beach pool blue than something that belonged in an old house. The "Fiesta" in the name should have given it away. Rach agreed, so that sealed the fate of this color scheme.

Friday night I wanted to stop by Lowes and get some new colors so I could start Saturday morning. Well I ended up staying a few hours late so skipped Lowes. When I got home there was still time before we had to go to the Neil Young concert (he can still ROCK!) so I stopped at the Depot around the corner and picked out some new colors. I figured I've had pretty good luck with Behr in the past so what the heck.

Then came Saturday.... I start the wainscoting and quickly notice either Behr got worse or working with Valspar all summer put Behr in a new perspective. It was thinner and much worse with runs. When I would go back to touch up a run it would pull the drying paint pretty bad. I got through that and figured I'd clean up with the second coat. It continued to get worse. Then I go to roll out the blue. Cutting in, I liked the color and seemed OK at first - but then going back to drying sections was the same pulling problem. Just didn't seem like it was biting to the wall. Finally rolling it out, the roller would pull where I cut. After two walls I got really frustrated with the paint, worse than anything I'd ever worked with...... then the runs started. I tried to touch up with the roller and again the paint would want to pull off. All right - I'll let things dry before I go on any further. Fifteen minutes later I come back and the damn paint is literally running down the walls! In a panic I go to wipe a run off the wall before it sets, but it already had skinned over and that just made things worse. A bunch of 4 letter words later I walked away to let thing dry over night with a space heater in the room and stopped by Lowes on the way to work and get my third set of colors, and some high build primer - swearing off Behr paint the whole time.

Sunday morning it took over 3 hours using an orbital sander to clean up two half walls in a 5x8 bathroom. It was a real mess. It was never going to come back to the condition I had it with the first primer coat after freshly sanded walls. The corners I used a little caulk to clean the runs up and along the wainscoting joint. The wainscoting would have to wait, one mess at a time. After the high build prime was on things looked a little better. I got the blue on and finally felt a little better.

The wainscoting had some issues with runs in the joints which I'll never get out, just too time consuming. I sanded the flats some and put the new trim color on. Finally things looked good and the scheme was what we had in mind for the room. I installed the vintage porcelain sconce and new gfi and switches. Then another test fit of the high tank and marked where the medicine cabinet I'm restoring will go. Also mounted a vintage TP holder I picked up.

So today with the painting pretty much finished I did a final sanding of the floors and applied some "golden oak" stain which really brought out the oak floors. A couple coats of poly on the floor and I can finally start moving fixtures back in for good. Things are finally heading in the right direction again......