Work Weeks 30 & 31: And Stay Out!
Hi friends! I bet you thought I was yelling at the pigeons, right? Nah. They are still happy as can be, coming and going on the third floor as they please. I was referring to the fact that the weather has been so incredibly beautiful, everyone has been working outside these past few weeks!
The brickwork repairs and pointing are all done out front on the second story! The rotting window sills were replaced too. We opted for brick ones, so no one ever has to replace them ever again. Hooray! Repairs were made to the window trim, and before the scaffolding comes down in anticipation of the new metal porch roof, I got out there and got the windows all caulked, primed, and painted. It’s so exciting to see my color choices begin to come to life! I went with a green that is an exact match of the green slate on the roof. The effect so far is dreamy! It’s the perfect shade to make the windows recede into the background and draw the attention to the beautiful roof and brickwork!
Out back, Kupey’s own personal Mt Everest has been to grind out all the old mortar from the bricks. He did an incredible job, with Zach coming in at the end to rally and help him finish! Yesterday the repointing began. It sure will look nice! And boy oh boy is repointing the worst most tedious job!
In roofing news, the slate roof is nearly complete! Hooray! It’s down to one final side- the west side, and one final wonderful roofer, Pzemek. (I’m probably butchering the spelling of his name just as much as its pronunciation, but Polish isn’t an easy language to pick up!) Neither is this level of skill in slate roofing! It’s truly awe inspiring to watch it go up. The west side needed many, many carpentry repairs before he could begin. When the metal covering the soffit came off, it was discovered that the wood parts of, oh, basically the entire freaking roof, were rotted. Shocking, I know! (I kid. There was a MASSIVE hole in the roof! Of course it’s rotted!) So Paul worked hard all last week to get it all stabilized and repaired, and Pzemek is back this week to get started.
My new labor of love starting this week is door restoration! I’m going to be pulling off, scraping, sanding, staining, and varnishing every darn exterior door on the place. How many doors? Let me take a minute to think about it…10. There are 10 current doors, and 2 replacement doors coming soon. No, wait…there are 11. 11 doors plus the two replacements coming. So 13 total! Here are the first two:
They belong in the doorway that used to connect the house to the outbuilding. They were originally intended to be interior doors, but I’ll get them outdoor ready! I *think* they are pine (I’m not that good with my wood identification!), but old growth, 1860 pine. Those suckers are heavy! The brown paint on the first sides scraped off with ease. Better already, right?! Today I’m scraping the green sides.
Ok, that’s it for now! I hope to have some awesome after photos for you soon!