Chronicling my adventures restoring and updating a quirky old Philadelphia rowhouse
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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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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My sister and I were lucky enough to find vintage Wagner Ware cast iron skillets in my grandmother’s basement. The skillets hadn’t been so lucky though. After going unused possibly for decades, they were covered in an impressively nasty crust. Then my sister’s boyfriend got a Griswold Dutch oven from his grandmother’s basement. These are…
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My parents wanted to do my dad’s office on a shoestring budget (though they did put a little money into 3 days of Irish labor), so they happily took some free stuff. I picked an office chair out of the trash at work and my aunt happened to have a good Oriental rug in her…
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So I’ve had a pattern. Do project, burn out, take time off, start 2 new projects. I was around that point in the cycle 2 weeks ago and, well, it was pretty obvious that sooner or later I need to finish painting the kitchen cabinets, get the knobs on, and get glass in the doors.…
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First there was Tim. He was in the picture for a solid 2 years, and even though I had to put up with a lot of stupid shit I stuck with him. But he left me high and dry when a better option came along. I never gave him his stuff back. Then there was…
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What was the problem? We finally figured it out. It wasn’t that I drove a screw through a pipe when installing the sink. It also wasn’t that the Irishman did any damage with his power nailer. (And when I dropped by to offer this suggestion he didn’t take too kindly to the idea.) No, it…
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The start of the weekend was ordinary. I decided that yes, I do like that green in the bedroom. The photos I took at night show the color better even though the room looks better now. Even my dad, who is not a green person, likes it now. (Actually he had told me to ignore…
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My dad came down and helped me bang out some painting yesterday and today. We did the bathroom, all 4 closets, and the ceilings in the upstairs hall and back bedroom. Both colors I got in the back bedroom were MUCH darker than I was expecting. I don’t know if that photo shows the colors.…
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