Let the Bricks Fall Where They May

Levi: We've got a brickmason in the house! This feels like progress. He lives in the neighborhood and came recommended. He's taking apart some of the arches that are in disrepair and is rebuilding them. They are gonna look good as new! 

Lauren is turning into quite the window restoration expert. She has found a number of resources online and is now happily ordering replacement parts and equipment. She seems to spend all of her free time at the house with a respirator and hairnet on, using a heat gun to scrape off the countless layers of decaying paint. 

Lauren's workstation: It was a buffet or table or something fancy until it fell off a truck and cracked. Now it's a work table.

I have spent a lot of time cleaning the upstairs with my guys. I'm looking forward to framing in some interior walls very soon. 

I love the oak lumber used in the framing. This is from the days when a 2x4 actually measured 2 inches by 4 inches.

Levi: The next bunch of pictures is of one window in particular. It's in pretty bad shape and it seems to take the brunt of the weather. We are using it as our process template for how the other window will be fixed. It's quite a process and I'll let Lauren elucidate.

Lauren:  Originally, a wood window slid up a wood frame with a small piece of wood to keep the window (sash) from sliding out. Weights were tied to a rope, hanging in the side trim of the window balancing the window to hold it open. At some point in the past, someone added weatherstripping to better seal the windows. I love working on these windows. I like thinking about the craftsmen that originally hand made the windows, and whoever re-habbed them to add the weatherstripping, and I even think about whatever idiots painted them shut and nailed them together and put caulking around the glass to seal them. I love how something can be in such terrible shape but still be good as new when you are done. Did you know that old wood windows with storm windows on the outside are almost as efficient as new windows?

My rehab process is the following: Remove window, remove glass. Use heat gun to scrape the thick paint off. Sand. Epoxy corners. Paint with oil based primer. Replace glass and glaze. Paint. Place weatherstripping and attach weights. Put window back in place. Easy right? 

We ordered our new glass for the ones that were missing and discovered it was 1/8 inch too wide. Randy on Broadway is a glass master and was able to cut 1/8 inch off for us! If you see me driving 20 mph down Jefferson St. it might be because I have six 40 inch wide pieces of glass in my car. 

Someone accessed the weight pocket and just tacked it back together with various pieces of wood. Jerks. 

Sash weights that hold the windows open

Those weights have lived in this channel for almost 100 years!

Levi: I kept finding puddles in one spot in the house when it rained. I knew there was a hole up the roof somewheres. We tore out the attic sheetrock and carpet and the hole turned out to be quite easy to find. It's the size of a baseball. In the photo below you can see some fire damaged roof next to the replacement roof. We were unaware that there was any fire damage at all when we bought this place.

Lauren: Our house is full of mysteries! The framing on the 1st and 2nd floors shows no sign of a fire. The attic has fire damage on opposite ends. Did they just replace all the joists in the middle? Were there two separate fires? We will never know!

Hole in the roof, hole in my heart. 

Steep stairs down from the attic

This attic will be a sweet sewing room/ spare room

Charred.

At the right time of day having a hole in the roof can create some cool light effects. 

I saw this pile of flexible ducting and thought it looked like intestines. Or something.

Whoever framed the house originally did a beautiful job. 

We hired an engineer yesterday to draw us some plans for the kitchen back wall. We plan on turning the entire back wall into factory style steel framed windows, from the top of the counter to the ceiling. Things are moving slowly but surely!