Back Door Project Addition

Look upon it and lament; ye shall soon see it no more.

My friend Frieda* came over tonight and in short order she and I together removed the falling-off aluminum back screen/storm door and its frame.  It marked the End of an Era, an era that would have ended three or four years ago if I'd gotten around to it.

R.I.P. aluminum screen/storm door

(Moment of silence for the aluminum door.)

Now that the screen door is down and I've pried off one piece of trim from the hinge side of the door,  I've been able to make some observations about the back door and its surround, historical, structural, and other-al:

Hooray for friends wielding power tools

• The wood trim on the outside is not original.  Bless me, I'd been thinking for years it was, and had been working out in my mind how to repair the ogee that was cut out when they installed the aluminum door.  It was Frieda who said, "I don't think that's what was on the house.  I think it's modern."  You know, she's right.  In fact, I have a couple lengths of the very material down the basement.  The POs-1 also used it for trim under the portal sill between the living room and front hall.
 

• The original brickmould was probably like what still surrounds the openings from the front hall and the living room in the front room, which used to be the front porch.  I've spent some time tonight online (no, really!?) researching and I think I can get a reasonable facsimile of it from a lumber and millwork dealer down in Pittsburgh.  If they aren't to the trade only.

• The original house trim finish was a dark brownish-black stain or dye.  No paint, no shellac.  Just stain.  This fits with what I encountered in the front room when I was stripping the openings there.
• The door frame itself is a big ole 3x6.  It's not in the best of shape-- plenty of nicks and dings-- but it will do.  Maybe by itself until I can get some new trim.

Gap needing filled

• There's a gap maybe ¼" to 3/8" wide between the 2X6 doorframe and the brick.  I intend to clean it out and fill it with backer bead and caulk, whether I get new brickmould in there or not.

• Frieda and I brought the new-old screen door up from the basement and set it in the opening, just to see how it fits.  It does, basically, but there are some absurd gaps between the door and the frame here and there where the frame has gotten out of square.

Funny and inadequate screen door stop

• The funny little blocks nailed against the stop mouldng halfway up the door height look to be the only stops the original screen door, whatever that was like, ever had.  The stop moulding I've been working so hard this week to sand clean measures ½" by 1¾", and is eased on the vertical edge towards the exterior of the house.  It comes 1¼" short of the inside face of the replacement wooden screen door.  No sign of any other stop moulding a screen would have closed against, just those little blocks.  As much as it pains me to remove any original element like the stop moulding (especially after I've worked so hard to strip it), I may well do it and replace it with ½" by 3" material that my screen door can close against.  Those gaps I saw between door and frame pain me even more.

So this is more work added to the back screen door project, which was only supposed to involve stripping and repainting a salvaged door and hanging it on its hinges.  And here I have to get up at the crack of dawn to finish stripping the wooden back door, another thing added to the fun . . .

I Have No Business Posting at This Hour

. . . But I had to. Because I actually got some work done. For the first time since last August.

Hall closet floor Before

Hall closet floor After

Devoted this (yesterday?) evening and into the wee hours getting back to stripping the old shellac and miscellaneous careless paint spills off my 2nd floor hall floor. Denatured ethyl alcohol, steel wool, and a rag to get it started, heat gun with the scraper to go after the stubborn hardened paint drips and smears, then the Howard Refinisher with more steel wool and rags (and a certain amount of elbow grease) to get rid of the loosened paint and the rest of the shellac finish.

Yeah, I'm a little lightheaded by now. Yes, I raised the window while I was working, about 4" (Let's not get extreme; it's in the 20s out there). So yes, it's a good thing I got called in to teach in the morning, otherwise I'd still be at it and really messing up my brain cells.

But we have pictures. The new camera arrived today. I'm not 100% sure I like it that much. Focus either isn't that great or I haven't got the hang of it yet. But there are pictures.

The trim from Baird Brothers also got delivered, at 10:30 in the morning. I probably should have untaped the bundle and checked the shipment against my list, but I didn't. Didn't want the pieces cascading all over my front room floor. Better do it anyway.

But not tonight. I gotta teach third graders in the morning.

Some Progress, No Pictures

The other day, I got an email from a friend who's building a house in the vicinity. Did I want to meet her on Monday the 18th at Baird Brothers Sawmill in Canfield, Ohio, to help her pick out trim? "I know you've been meaning to go up there yourself sometime," she wrote.

Yes, indeed, I was, and with the offer of mileage one way and a day free from substituting teaching due to the Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday, it didn't take much persuading for me to move my trim-buying plans up a bit and go.

It took a couple of hours to get through her business, after which she headed back to the office. Me, I was just getting started.

I'd done some research, looking for the right profile for the new chair rail in my stairhall. And the closest thing I could find in any on-line catalog from any area millwork outfit was Baird Brothers' No. B910, which isn't really chair rail at all, but window mullion.

Never mind. I want something symmetrical; I'd go with 5/8 x 2 or 2-1/2 material eased at the edges if I could get it; and this window mullion profile will do fine.

At least, that was my plan coming in. When I saw the sample piece on the display board, I was no longer so sure. It seemed awfully narrow . . . Maybe it wouldn't do after all?

Hate to say it, folks, but the sales assistant I drew when my number was called wasn't immediately forthcoming with ideas. "So what can I do for you, then?" responded he.

Well, he could bring me a piece of the B910 I could butt up to the piece of door trim I brought from the house to see what the effect would be with both together. He did, and thank goodness, now it didn't look so mimsey. I took another keek at the display board later: Ah, yes. I'd been thrown off by the fact that the samples are all clear-finished oak on a clear-finished oak board and kind of blend in. I'd change that, if I were they . . .

All right, that moulding profile will work. I got out my handy-dandy Excel tables I stayed up till all hours the night before working on, complete with all the actual lengths I needed for the hall and the (longer) lengths of uncut moulding I would get to cut them out of. Sales guy took down the figures and asked, What else?

Oh, about 118' of quarterround for the base shoe. What I have now at the perimeter of the fake Pergo is 5/8 x 5/8, and I stayed with that for the living room and dining room. But the floor and the bottom of the baseboard in the upstairs hall parted company a long time ago, and require something more substantial to bridge that gap. So it'll be 3/4 x 3/4 material in the hall, upstairs and down.

Except for one place, probably. I commented to him that I had a curve to accommodate and would probably have to do a lot of kerfing and steaming. And showed him the floor plan I'd brought with me.

Oh, why not try flexible base shoe?

Hmm, sounds interesting! He brought a coil out, and yes, it's plastic (kind of a putty tan) and it's 5/8 x 3/4, but he says it'll take shellac and affixes with the usual nails, and it'll be a lot less grief to install than the wood. But, I said, I would go ahead and buy enough of the wood quarterround to have a go at taking it around the curve . . . if I'm feeling that Authentic.

I picked out the chair rail lengths in the warehouse. That, after all, was the point of my original plans to come up to Canfield in person instead of ordering my trim on-line.

Now I had to feel a little sorry for the sales guy. First couple of pieces I liked pretty much right off. But they set a standard I had to match. We were going with red oak, since yellow pine is no longer available and English oak is what the yellow pine was supposed to be emulating. All plain sawn, of course, so grain mattered. Not too straight: that's boring; and not too cathedral-y: that's crude. Something interesting but not obtrusive; a grain pattern I'd be happy to see at eye level in my entry hall. Took awhile to get what I wanted. He said, "Don't worry about getting specific lengths, we'll cut them to measure." OK, good, that frees things up a bit.

But by the time I was done choosing, he taped them all up together, uncut. "Don't the shorter lengths need to be cut?"

"No, that's okay."

"But I don't need quite that much . . . " I faltered, not having the nerve to say I didn't want to pay for more than I needed. Happily, he knew what I was getting at.

"No, I'll only charge you for the lengths you asked for."

And so he did. I'm a little reluctant to mention this, because I don't want to give anyone the idea this is Baird Brothers' standard policy. But I have the feeling that he'd weighed the cost-efficiency of cutting the pieces vs. that of getting back into the sales room to wait on more of the customers that were flocking the place yesterday, and decided that throwing in a few extra feet of moulding was a better deal for the shop.

They have free delivery within 100 miles, and the truck is scheduled to come with my trim sometime tomorrow. Anyone want to make any bets as to how soon I'll get it up? When wagering, please consider that unless I do my shellacking in the living room, it'll have to wait till Spring. I can't be generating denatured alcohol fumes in a closed space with the gas furnace and water heater going.

As to why no pictures, my digital camera kicked the bucket on New Year's Eve. I have another one on order, but it ain't here yet.

Home Show, Part I: A Lotta Stuff!

Yesterday I spent six or more hours wandering around the Pittsburgh Home and Garden Show.

Funny how that worked. I'd intended to check the guide and visit only the vendors' booths I was really interested in, then get myself out of there. Ha! Wandered up and down every aisle on both floors, then came round and did it again, just in case I'd missed something.

This home show is really great if you want vinyl fencing, cast concrete patio wall and paver systems, hot tubs, and any kind of replacement window. Me, not so much. Did take some window literature, but I still favor using the local custom wood window people, who did not have a rep there.

What I was looking for especially was local lumber and millwork suppliers, in case I decide to replace any of my interior trim. I established diplomatic relations with three of these. But before I go visit their yards, I believe I'll first check out Construction Junction, the Pittsburgh area building materials reuse and recycling place. There's enough foursquare houses being remodelled around the region--maybe some of the original disused yellow pine trim ends up there.

I also talked to a few patio room suppliers, to see if they could make me some demountable storm/screen infills for my too-breezy, snow-permeable, closed-in back deck. Maybe, maybe not. I picked up that it's an idea I'll have to wait to develop until I have the means and intention to do it right away. These dealers typically weren't interested in making site visits and giving me estimates on a job I might get to in 2009.

Understandable. But by then, I may figure out a way to build them myself!

I renewed my CostCo membership, sampled a lot of dip mixes, bought some dried mango slices to munch on, purchased a cute and inexpensive garden hose holder called "Gecko Toes," resisted snapping up a really beautiful but unnecessary queen-sized handmade bed quilt at $150, and determined that no one, but no one was exhibiting the kind of art ceramic floor tile I've decided is exactly what I need for my first floor stair hall. Too bad.

Even though I wore out a lot more shoe leather than I'd intended, wandering around all the exhibits and around again, I have an excuse-- I had to go back: I'd resolved not to buy anything the first time through.

And six hours and not much to eat later, how am I supposed to remember where the products I was interested in were?

Someone Else's House

Please allow me a measure of non-house-restoration self-indulgence.

I mentioned earlier that I took my parents sight-seeing on Saturday. One of the sights we went to see was a church I worked on as project architect when I was full time with the big design firm. The program was to restore the tabernacle to the central axis, and to return the choir pews and organ, which were moved in the early 1980s to the chancel behind the altar, back to the rear balcony.

We came up with a scheme the parish priest and the donor liked, and eventually we convinced them to let us (that is, me) design the new reredos instead of shipping something over from Europe or letting an outside consultant do it.

So here it is. Very handsome, in my humble opinion!

I'm sorry I can't provide an overall view of the completed choir loft millwork and organ case. The house lights were off when we came. I had access to the light panel, but it's the fancy new one that's just been installed, and I've never seen it, I've never been shown how to use it, and I didn't want to risk messing up the settings just before Saturday evening Mass. So I let it alone.

Here's another shot of the reredos from the dedication last December. Not bad work for a Prot, eh?