Chronicling my adventures restoring and updating a quirky old Philadelphia rowhouse
It’s been hectic people. The last time I updated the blog I was frantic to finish painting the exterior trim and my parents gave up an entire weekend to save me. Since then this stuff has happened: Got all the construction stuff put away and thoroughly cleaned the house. Had my mother and grandmother in…
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This is my “Oh shit it’s fall” post, part 2. The wood: I had kinda put it on hold because the Abatron Liquid Wood epoxy consolidant I used looked so thick and shiny on the surface. And because the brick needed months of attention. Anyways, I did a few rounds of the epoxy consolidant and…
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Whelp, fall showed up this week. And remember how I never finished spray foaming the windows? Well, Tito was watching TV and said, “Babe, these windows are drafty!” So I had to fix that STAT. And light the boiler. Thankfully, this year started differently than past ones in that the heat works and making it…
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Don’t be fooled by my previous post. I don’t know everything. I’m just some guy who teaches himself how to do things on the Internet. And I had a non-standard situation to work with here. With Window Number 1, we had (and spoiler: resoved) a catastrophe. But only briefly. First off, I spray foamed the…
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So, I have 2 new windows in place, but neither of them really finished. Here’s how that went. (I did one per day so I’m consolidating a bit.) First off came the cheapie plastic blinds and the sheets of 1/8″ Eucaboard that I used to cheaply cover up just how much of a mess the…
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This isn’t the same kind of a surprise as I found under the basement stairs. I’m lucky enough to live near LimeWorks, which might be THE place to go for historic, non-Portland cement based masonry products and techniques in the United States. They’ve recommended a number of things for restoring my facade, starting with making…
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We have the windows, but there were a couple things to take care of before we got them in. The brick mold could have waited, but I want to be able to install it as the windows go in. So, more rounds of filling, sanding, hardening, sanding, and then we were ready to prime. I…
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That’s right, everything is picked out now! A few weeks ago when I was getting neurotic deciding whether or not the windows should have muntins like I originally planned, or not like the house was originally, Tito looked confused about why this even mattered because he didn’t think it would look that different. Blog readers…
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A quick review – I found the original brick mold in place and mostly in good shape under the aluminum capping around all 4 of my front windows. It has an unusual shape, very narrow when viewed head on, but deep and with an interesting profile. Also, look how badly the first floor windows slant…
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Do you get the pun? Anyways, it wasn’t too long ago that I was doing mental backflips to be satisfied with an obviously inauthentic door because it’s mahogany and it’s there and I can’t get a 30 year mortgage on a replacement. Then I bought a period door, but the jambs started bothering me. So…
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