Chronicling my adventures restoring and updating a quirky old Philadelphia rowhouse
6 years ago today I bought the Crooked House. 3 years ago (not quite to the day) I finished my 6-month renovation and moved in. In Year 6, I finally faced my fear of the facade and took it on. At the start, I was afraid to take the awnings down. The windows were horribly…
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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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Sorry, I’ve had some technical difficulties trying to write this post. But anyways, I’ve had some good and bad news. The good? I’m officially done cleaning the brick! The bad? I’m done because further tests haven’t shown any noticeable improvement. My house looks a little dirty next to the house next door… and next to…
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The brick may be the biggest stripping job. Way bigger than I thought it was. But don’t forget the wood. I was super excited about how restorable it was… But it still needed restoration. And how to restore it? I decided from other paint removal projects went that heat was better than chemicals. Best would…
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We can breathe a big sigh! It’s been 4 months of early mornings and tedious work. But the brick probably hasn’t looked this good in 50 years. It looks extra good from a distance, but the cleaning didn’t get it completely perfect. I’d call this satisfactory, but if it’s feasible to do even better I’m…
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I went MIA for a bit, but now there’s a lot to tell you about. We’ll start with the stripping progress. It got to be a slog. As I got higher up on the facade, the paint got more and more stubborn. Plus, I had more rungs to climb in between dipping the roller in…
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Quick progress update. I’m still plugging away at the paint removal. We’re getting there. Now let’s look at the condition of the facade. This weekend I used the scary caustic stripper again and got MOST of the caked in white paint out of the marble. Some small dots remain. I could do it again to…
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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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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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The 6 posts I’ve now written just about planning work for the front of my house probably tipped you off to the fact that this project has me scared shitless. I’m definitely going for it, but as long as we’re getting freezing weather at night, repeatedly soaking the brick with water would be very…
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