Chronicling my adventures restoring and updating a quirky old Philadelphia rowhouse
Let’s start with a look at my stairs from the archives, when they still looked like something. 10 inches narrower than code requires, but attractive and well built. This stairway is not original to the house; I think it was installed in a 1930’s remodel of the first floor. That triangular wall under the stairs…
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Whoo hoo! The hall done! (ish) And still crooked. If you were hoping to see boughs of holly on this blog, I’m sorry to disappoint you. Next year I’ll put up real Christmas decorations. This year, you can see a wreath though.
You remember I said I had to cut notches for 5 beams at the other wall in my kitchen? Well, the Irishman did it. He did the same thing I would have done, but probably 3 times as fast. I’m not a master carpenter Here’s how it worked. First the piece at the top of…
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It’s a common sight in South Philly. But usually it’s being taken out to landfill, not in. The good news is, the woodwork is great quality, the price was good, and it’s in 16 foot lengths. All the baseboards in the house should have just one seam. Except in the closets where I’ll throw together…
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So my kitchen is coming together. The sink and interior doorway walls are mostly done, but the fridge/stove and patio door walls are not. You might remember this framing for the soffit on that side. Gotta love the crookendess, right? So to resume work in the kitchen I started with building this:
Yes, it’s getting close, but extra hard toward the end. First on Saturday I freaked out about the Irishman starting work while I was helping my dad fix his car, even though it turned out that everything he did without me was FINE. But I got down there to help/micromanage him for the second half…
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Not really. I’ve put a moratorium on a few things including working on other people’s houses and clothes shopping since I bought the Crooked House. And another pair of work pants just fell apart this week. So before we talk about actual work I have a story that’s too good not to share. I was…
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This weekend I got about half as much done as I had hope to. How many of you are surprised? Believe it or not, the Irishman is. You see, everything in the house is so crooked and wonky that he underestimated what he was up against. Scribing and cutting 2×3’s into wedge shaped shims everywhere!…
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After 3 weeks of non stop big jobs, it’s back to the small ones. After we did the living room, the Irishman told me we’d bang out the kitchen the following weeknend. I was ready to shriek “NO!!” But he saw for himself how many loose ends needed to be tied up. So I worked…
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Now we’re on to the part that’s (maybe) fun to plan. Fitting in the things that actually make it a kitchen.