The Historic District

ColonialRevivalPete wrote:The Dining Room

Repaint and get rid of the nasty curtains ( is anyone noticing a theme here?)

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I don't know how I missed this post. Love how the mirror works with the lamps and sideboard (I think?).

The room looks great. Of course the light fixture is terrif too.

The living room is looking good as well. I have been having fireplace envy lately. I really want to install one here.

We somehow lucked out with not having to worry about deer here. We're close to a wooded area on the south and west sides, but I think the regular trains that regularly run a few blocks down (it curves from running west to north right around our neighborhood) keeps them out.

Hi everbody I'm back again. After a long year or so my wallet is a lot lighter in the process. Lots of things have changed around the homefront.

Progress Report:
Portion of the drive way poured.
New electrical in the garage and shed was run.
New lighting was installed on the outside of the house and garage.
Storm window construction has begun.
New torsion springs were installed in the garage. There was no feasible way to save the old spring system. It looked pretty cool. However, the wooden garage door was able to be saved.
Some cracks in the foundation have been repaired.
Back entry way is in the process of being freshened up. Found some hidden electrical when stripping back wall paper. Need to make a cover for the pull box.
Installing rain water tank and irrigation system for the garden. After a structural mishap, had to rebuild the platform. All is well now and has been holding water for over 2 months.

After all this time off the site I forgot where I left off. I will review and post projects that I have missed and of course post pictures of all the action. So please bear with me as I update you all with projects and pictures.

Drive way project.

Great crew got this done in under a week. Asphalt driveway just needed to go. It was cheaply done and falling apart. Maintanence costs were just not worth it, plus we have plans for the expanded portion of the driveway. After some back and forth decided that concrete was the best way to go.

Garage torsion spring project.

Also brought the pros in for this one. The old and original torsion springs had it after 80+ years of work. There was no way that I could keep the original equipment. Ordering springs was just not cost effective so to save a few pennies I diassembled the old system and then the pros took over. Took about two weeks total time to get this worked out. In the end I have a functioning garage and got to keep the original door.

Some roof work

Had to care care of some squirrel damage. I really dont like these critters. Nothing like spending half a day on a ladder pulling old slate and replacing the sheating. Thank fully in St. Louis I found a place that sells slate by the piece and spent a few hours there getting the proper colors to match the roof. Cutting the slate went smoothly. Nothing like a grinder and a diamond blade. Now finding the copper nails and strips of copper to hold the slate on the roof proved a different story. Thankfully the internet led me to the proper site to purchase this stuff. While I was up on the roof and had the 36' fiberglass ladder out I fixed the gutter and fixed another couple of spots on the roof. At least for now roof work is done.

Oh, they had overhead garage door openers in the late '30's? I thought that they just had regular swing doors back then.

That would mean that my hardware is probably original, since it very much looks it. The door isn't, and the spring finally went last summer.

Nice work on the driveway. I decided against asphalt or concrete for mine, since there were drainage issues in the past and frost heaving. The gravel is far easier to fix if that happens again.

I'm new here and saw your old post with your garden and I just want to say I like your idea of integrating a raised bed into the fencing. I'm setting up a larger garden for next year and I think I'm going to steal your idea.

I love the slate roof btw, I dream of being able to have a slate roof.

Some people do DIY slate, even without any prior experience - Tim from The Restoration Couple on Youtube did his complete roof this year! In rainy Britain no less.