Chronicling my adventures restoring and updating a quirky old Philadelphia rowhouse
The first time I drooled over pocket shutters was, I think, at the Winterthur Museum when I was about 5. So naturally, when I found evidence suggesting the Crooked House originally had them, I was hoping for a way to recreate them. But I figured I could never justify the price of having them made…
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I want to take a look at the front wall before I bought the house. But first, here’s what it looks like now. And here’s one of those few I remaining spots where the before was nicer, at least in some ways. The casing on the left window was super super crooked even though the…
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I’ve felt a little bit guilty about how much more say I had with the house Tito lives in than he has. He sold off most of his furniture. I decided down to the inch where every door was going. He said, “And you’re so good at it.” So that made me feel better. He’s…
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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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