Rot Door Frame in Entry

Posted on | December 21, 2011 | 9 Comments

rotten door frame Rot Door Frame in Entry

A few days I woke up early to bring out the trash and noticed the door frame in the entry leading down to the basement was all gouged out. I came stomping up the stairs yelling, “What the heck are doing ruining 18th-century molding?” I knew I had heard him downstairs late that night making some kind of mess and I was rather annoyed.

As Greg explains he was removing the rot. The wood was so soft that the door would never hang. My rebuttal, “Well we never open that door and don’t you think it’s better to preserve it?” Anytime I want to fix something he always throws the preservation zinger in my face. Yes, I was acting childish but it felt the right moment to throw it back at him. I asked, “What are you gonna do fill it with wood putty?” You hear the annoyance in my voice but I’ve become extremely frustrated with the picking and picking of every project. To him it will never be perfect…The den molding we’ve been painting; He decided to re-sand a few spots and fill with putty because the gouges were annoying him. In my head I’m screaming, Just finish a damn project!!!

The damage has been done to the door frame and now we need to come up with a solution. He removed the molding covering the top of the rotted frame. The wood is one solid piece extending the whole width of the wall. I guess we cut out the rot wood and replace it with a new piece. Hopefully, once the jam is painted and the door rehung with HL hinges we’ll hardly notice the difference.

Ah the trials of a house renovation…

DSC0254 Rot Door Frame in Entry DSC0257 Rot Door Frame in Entry
DSC0251 Rot Door Frame in Entry

Category: entry, house renovation

Decorative Fireplace Fitting

Posted on | December 2, 2011 | 18 Comments

brass gas fitting Decorative Fireplace Fitting

While I was working on polishing the antique brass andirons; Greg remembered we had this brass fitting that needed to be cleaned up. With a bit of scrubbing a beautiful decorative fitting appeared.

The fitting sits to the right of our fireplace, we’ve assumed it went to a former gas line? But how did it work? Did an additional line come out of the fitting to light the fireplace?

Any ideas? We would love to hear your comments!

DSC9886 Decorative Fireplace Fitting
antique brass fitting Decorative Fireplace Fitting

Category: found objects, house renovation

Restoring Door Jamb

Posted on | November 17, 2011 | 18 Comments

Snapshot of the den on November 17th, 2011. I still need to finish painting the walls, restore the firebox, line the chimney, strip the floors and add interior shutters.

We’ve never talked about how we restored the door jamb in the den, so here it goes. When we bought the house the original jamb had been cut out and removed on the right side. We assume this was done to fit furniture into the house—the doorways are only 26 inches wide.

We removed the frame and realized the wall was crumbling. Paneling was carefully removed and the wall was gutted to the corner beam. We went back and forth on whether to keep the doorway expanded because it was more convenient and it allowed more light into the space or not. Many of you shared your opinions on this post from January—the widen doorway was more favored.

We found three doors in the basement that were mates for the den. Greg decided he wanted to restore the door and use in the space. I like the idea and thought keeping the symmetry of the room was the right move. When the renovation is complete we’ll be able to close all three doors and light the fire on cold winter nights.

The molding profile that was removed was difficult to source because it didn’t match anything modern. We got a tip that Blue Anchor Woodworks carried many of the knives used to cut historic molding profiles found in Marblehead. We were able to match the molding with a knife in their inventory and bought 32 feet for $200. Having a custom knife made would of been a lot more expensive.

When we replaced the beams in preps for a new ceiling we also built out a new wall and installed the molding. Blueboard was hung in the wall cavity and then plastered over. The molding has been painted and you can hardly tell the difference between the old and new. Well, except that new molding doesn’t have nearly as many dings. I’ve taken care of that and made it more authentic by accidentally knocking it a few times with the vacuum cleaner.

We still need to fix the little gap between the top of the door and the molding. Can you even see that or does it just glare at me? I think the best tactic is to fill the gap with some wood and paint it green so it blends. Below photos of the project.

Den when we first bought the house.

Removing ceiling, stripping paint off molding and removing damaged door jamb.

Doorway expanded allowed more light in but I didn’t like that it threw off the symmetry of the room.

After we removed the ceiling and replaced with new beams we also put the door jamb back in. The paneling in the corner is original.

We had custom molding made for us at Blue Anchor in Marblehead to match.

Making sure the corners line up.

Carefully nailing the molding into place.

Adding molding to opposite side.

Blue board was installed and then plastered over when we did the ceilings.

View of the two doorways restored.

View from library looking into den with doorway restored.

A close-up of the corner after plastering.

Priming molding and painting the walls in the den.

Den this morning on Nov 17th, 2011. I still need to finish painting the walls, restore the firebox, strip the floors and add interior shutters.

Category: den, house renovation

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