#renovationjoys

[thisoldfarmouse]

Fancy Cut Shakes….Rich was right 

Okay…….this took a lot longer than I thought it would.  It took over two weeks for me to cut the patterns (darts and bobbed corners), install the shakes, and prime.  Every band around the bay has has 40 shakes in it, so every band of a pattern was 120 shakes I had to cut.  That’s two cuts per shake…….so 240 cuts on a chop saw to form one band of three around the bay.  Then add in the time it took to flash the corners, block plane the laps, level and lay out the courses, blah, blah, blah.  When I say two weeks I mean…… I took off work for two weeks and every good weather day, every Saturday, every Sunday that I could work on them I did…….it took a lot of time.  It’s all primed (with an oil based primer) and waiting for good weather so we can top coat it with two coats of paint.  

It’s a lot of detail for a feature on the back of the house.  As you walk down to our home it’s clearly part of the elevation (that you see), and it adds a lot of visual interest to it.  The patterns on the bay are identical to the gables and it pulls it all together…..just like we thought it would.  More than once I’ve questioned my sanity working on this house and the subject came up several times while working on this bump out bay.  

My friend Rich helped me frame some of the office in the beginning (over two years ago).  He looked over at the first floor of the bay that I already framed and said “ It’s going to look good.  Going to be a lot of work, but it’s going to look good”....he was right, but then again he always is.

[thisoldfarmouse]

How crazy do you want to get with the whole restoration idea………. 

All along while working on this house our goal has been to restore it using common sense as our guide.  The top picture shows the north porch roof as it was built and trimmed in 1943.  The bottom picture shows what I came up with for our bump out bay door roof.  It’s not a full blown restoration copy, it’s built and trimmed with materials that were readily available to me.  An exact replica could have cost twice as much, and would have taken longer to build…..and to what end?  The new roof captures the charm of the roof built in 1943 and is in keeping with the rest of the details found on the house.  Over the next couple of weeks {if not longer) I will be working on a restoration job where they want everything to look (and be) period correct.  I'll be working on a Victorian home built around 1900, and the owners have been restoring it for the last 20 years right down to the smallest of small details.  What's important in that statement is TWENTY YEARS of restoration. I like this couple and am happy to do the work for them, but we don’t share the same philosophy.  My wife and I want a serviceable home that meets our needs, and doesn't consume all our time……. and money.  Two and a half years (of evenings and weekends) is enough time to spend on a house remodel.  That being said, there are projects for me that will push into next year, like the gable on the front porch over the stairs, and the retaining wall with sidewalk.  I should finish the majority of the interior before Christmas…...as in merry to us.  Lastly with the steps we've taken in remodeling/restoring this old house; I can sleep at night.  I feel like we've done as good a job at restoring it to a time period that fits it, without leaving us bankrupt…..financially, mentally, and physically.

[thisoldfarmouse]

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