Category: Uncategorized
Chronicling my adventures restoring and updating a quirky old Philadelphia rowhouse
Back To Work, On Storage
Did you miss me? I took a solid 2 months off working on the house and that’s been really great. In fact, I haven’t been this social in 6 years, before I bought the place. Relatedly, I decided to reorganize the kitchen cabinets. Partially because some of them are a disorganized mess and partly to…
Read more
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…
Read more
Beer Tour and Life After the Kitchen
Well, the beer tour was fun! Ticket sales were down a bit this year, which meant that the crowd fit into my house better than last year. I forgot to take photos but picture about 3/4 of this. Also look at the unfinished banister and the pig tail! Now, some people said that no one…
Read more
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.…
Read more
And I’m Still Painting the Damn Kitchen
I’ve been complaining about this job since April, but sooner or later I need to put it to bed. And this year I’m a Beer Tour host again. This year it’s November 4. Time to start tidying up? Nah, let’s start a project. (Look how cute the door prize baskets are though! If you want…
Read more
My April Fool’s Mansion Revisited
This weekend I was in the Wissahickon Valley Park (highly recommended) for a short hike. On the way back there was no choice but have a look at the place that surprisingly many people actually believed that I bought 2 1/2 years ago. This house is in Pelham, a section of Mount Airy that was…
Read more
Farther Down the Front Door Rabbit Hole
I really should have been starting the kitchen, but that got held up this weekend so instead I decided to go to Philadelphia Salvage. Just to look for a skeleton key for the vestibule door and set screws for some old porcelain door knobs. Really, that’s all I was looking for. But, no luck. The…
Read more
The Small Project Roundup
Okay, taking on a challenge to do a job a day (on average) should mean a month of doing small, easy projects. As you know, I had a large, relatively skilled job that I was hell bent on finishing and ended up calling it like 6 of my 30 projects. But I decided to finish…
Read more
I’m Not a Plasterer, but Stucco’s Done!
This stucco job is pretty big considering that I’m supposed to be averaging a project a day. But not only were there 2 more coats but there was prep in between, so that means we’re looking at Projects 14 through 17 now. I had left tar paper lapped over the weep screeds and stuff and…
Read more