| First, we had to deal with the floor. The joist
underneath rotted away and the floor dropped down about 5 inches.
It's been that way for more than 45 years. At least.
Hmmm. Must have been a reason the joist rotted out... Water,
maybe? |
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| Yep. Here's the joist right before we jacked it back
into place. Couldn't do it before the old electrical panel was
removed. Now it's back in its original location, now held up by a
treated 4 X 4.
Next we tackle the wall above. Well! How hard can this be.
A few loose bricks. SIMPLE.
And, well, the fireplace above was "soft". It was full
of old oyster shells and came down in a pile of fine dust. |
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| We worked our way up and found many, many loose
bricks. Many came down the moment we touched them. Note in the
picture above that there is a brick floating in mid-air. It was
very, very loose. Gently we rebricked up to the old brick and tied
them back in. |
Took about 14 hours for a job we thought would be one to two. New
nailers were installed to replace the old ones that had rotted and
contributed to the collapse of this section of the wall.
Well, THAT's done! Next!
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| Now the window casing needed to be replaced. All
rotted out. Matching the original wasn't easy. Here's how I
built up the trim under the inside sill.
The original is beaded at the bottom. The piece is 5/4"
material, and I didn't have enough to do the job. So, I laid up
several pieces. |
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| Then, I had to rout out an 1/8" gap on the bottom to
meet the beading. I bull-nosed the beading separately and glued it
to the plank after cutting it back on the side with a chisel.
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| Finally, I added a very close match to the original molding.
I made up several of these for other windows that have been damaged. |
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| Time for a new fireplace. I had the idea from Sue to use a
rosette from the window casings as a design element. She gave me a
photo of a similar design she liked.
I needed to modify the design considerably, but held onto using the
rosette. I soon found out that the designer for the room wanted us
to use the rosette and window/door casing over the mantle as well.
Using my trusty glue gun, and lots of drawings, I mocked up the mantle
to work out the moulding details. Then I built it out of 5/4"
mahogany which I got from 84 Lumber at a better price than standard
"one-by" poplar.
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| Step-by-step I laid up the pieces and routed the moulding
trim as needed.
Finally, Robert Slack installs it for me just before the room is to be
painted.
Doors and shelves will appear in the closet to the left of the
fireplace. Robert and I split that job; he did the hard part and I
the fun part.
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| Pretty remarkable transformation. I wish I had a
wide-angle lens for the camera so you see more of it... |
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