Category: Phase 2

Chronicling my adventures restoring and updating a quirky old Philadelphia rowhouse

Turning a Corner With Stripping

I’ve been in the habit of doing one task at a time to the whole house. This made sense when I was trying to be ready for ALL the plumbing, wiring, insulation contracting, drywall finishing, and floor finishing at once to get better prices from tradesmen. It made less sense when I decided to go…
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Losing the Stripping Battle… For now

It started off well enough. I got the 2 parking spots in front of my house! This is super important for not getting sued. And my dad found safety gear. This Tyvek suit is older than I am. It smells like garage. The plan was to start with a few test patches and take it…
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Pandora’s Box? No, Best Day!

Sunday was the big day. The project I’ve been waiting 5 years to start. The great reversal of architectural vandalism. We had to work from the bottom up. The giant awning downstairs made it impossible to access anything above it, including window glass (ew). Looking at the giant awning from underneath, I could see 3…
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Un-Capping the Windows

Viewer discretion advised: this post contains graphic images of architectural violence. I was too impatient to wait until the weekend to start peeling off the low-maintenance downgrades my house got. The capping was a job I could take on myself. I actually bent a little bit of it back years ago and left it that…
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What to Do About the Windows

After I’ve restored my brick front, it will be time to replace the windows. I’ve been looking forward to their demise for a long time Let’s have fun exploring exactly how bad they are. The top few inches of the openings are built down with haphazardly stacked-up boards. Then the window jambs are racked so…
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Outside Updates

My time this week went to some much needed filing, not to stuff you’d want to read about. But I did do something with the front of my house. I stuck my head out the window. That’s not much, but I haven’t looked too closely at the upper half of the brick what with a 13-foot-wide…
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Catching You Up on the Facade

If you’ve been with me for a while, you might recall that I wrote a mini-dissertation on my plans to restore the facade in Summer 2016. Here it is, if you want to read these old posts again: Existing Conditions A Cornice Vocabulary Primer How not to restore historic masonry In With Old Windows? But…
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5 years!

This year has kind of felt like a slog. But when we look back to where the house was a year ago, I think we have cause for optimism. Can you spot the changes? I’m excited about having the table set. That means Year 6 is starting out right. But back to last year… I…
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Planning the Most Important Thing, Doors

The old plan was to do the best I could to spruce up my circa 1990 Victorianesque front door this winter. I gleefully abandoned that plan when I found a door that’s close to period correct that’s almost narrow enough. Almost. I’m a small bit nervous about trimming allowances. Obviously the door needs to be…
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Cabinets are Done! Dirt Remains.

With help from my dad, I’ve gotten a LOT done. Between how slowly I work and how many flaws I find in these cabinet doors, I never thought I’d see the day. Now, I did have to stop painting a bunch of times because I kept spotting more flaws to grind out with the sander.…
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