Productive day today. Painted the “baubles” on the columns and did some other trim coats and touch ups. Plus for the newly painted kitchen radiator back into place in prep for reinstalling. Plus, the sign for the package box arrived.
Second coat of paint on the columns and looking good. Next up is painting the baubles on the columns the same “Dignity Blue” as the baubles on the railings to tie it all together.
We primed the columns and facing boards today. A little additional touch will be needed but then it’ll be ready for paint.
Spent the day prepping the columns for painting. Started by repairing a half missing base that was only being held by two rotting sides. I had slipped a 4x4 piece underneath last week to make sure it had something under it. Today, I cut new sections and hammered them into place.
All the railings restored and installed at The Hague House. Seriously could not be happier with how it has turned out.
In case you’re wondering what the the blue we are using as accent on the porch was inspired by… It’s the blue from the fireplace tiles. We plan to hint at that blue throughout the house.
The second of the railings is now installed and touch-ups done. Really excited about how this is all turning out.
The first of the three porch railings, with package delivery box, painted and installed. There’s some touch-ups and trim work still to be done but this is close to final.
Painting the “baubles” (which is what I call them not knowing the right name) on the spindles. This is slow tedious work and I’m sloppy at it and it fills me with self doubt but I’m sure it will be great when it’s done.
We continue to make progress on The Hague House porch, despite being waylaid by needing to rebuild a section of the fence at The Summit House.
We got primer and the first layer of base paint on the railings over the past few days. Here’s how that looks so far.
Jason's Box
One of the problems one can run into with a restoration project such as this is that not everything can be saved. Plaster crumbles. Bricks deteriorate. Wood rots.
Such was the case with one of the side railings for the porch. A large section of the top rail was rotted away. The only solution was going to be to cut that section shorter. The problem, of course, was that then it would not have bee long enough to fill the space needed. So, what to do?
After some thinking about it. Jason came up with an innovative solution. Build a box that was similar in size and scale to the base of the column.
Jason sketched out a rough idea…
But, what is the box for? It’s a package box. What’s a package box? Well, you know when you get packages delivered that are too big for the mailbox from the Post or Amazon? Normally, they just leave it on the porch — thus inviting curious eyes and porch pirates. Well, with a package box, there’s a place for those to go. With a rainy week ahead and projects at other houses to keep me busy, Jason got to work:
Using some of the scrap from the porch floring and some new green-treated plywood, he put everthing togather…
Once together we were able to put it in place, measure the railing against it, and put it all together…
And here’s how it will look all together…
I couldn’t be happier with the results. He took what could have been an unsolvable problem and came up with a solution that may just be one of the major “Wow!” features of the house. One of those things that a buyer will see right away before even going inside and, upon realizing what it is, wonder why all houses these days don’t have such a thing.
I know I want to build one for my house now that’s for sure.
More porch work today. We cut custom front trim from leftover flooring board. Curve routed edges and a drip edge cut underneath. Turned out beautifully.
More work done on the porch railing today. The main one is now together. Nothing is bolted down final yet (need to stain the floor first and complete some detail work) but two of three are ready for install at least.
Amongst all of the crazy busy of the least few weeks that had me distracted away from Hague House project, I got Jon The Floor Guy by to sand the porch at Hague. Looks fantastic and is ready for finishing.
Refinished/Repaired/Resealed the concrete kitchen countertops at Ashland for Bethany’s Birthday. Here’s a before and after side by side.
Today, we started the process of rebuilding the railings. We are using the original to the 1890’s house cap, base, and spindles attached to new posts that have been routed to blend in. A lot of clean up and work but well worth it.
