Jacob Beaty House (1874 Folk Victorian)

[Gothichome]

Eric, good to hear from you. I too look forward to new progress pics. And a new lady friend, is she an old home person? Some of the best folks are old home folks, but you probably know that.

[Eperot]

Okay, Okay, so I know it's been a long time and I promised pics of my finished dining room, I know it, and I'M SORRY. The time just kept getting away from me and it just didn't happen. So I feel an update is in order.
Just before Thanksgiving 2018, I finished the next room in the house on the list, the Dining Room. As I said in an earlier post, I was starting a new relationship at the same time and I decided to take some time off once the room was completed, to stop and smell the roses. After all, I'd been working on the house for a decade straight at that point and felt I deserved a break. Actually, I needed one. Badly. So I did just that, attending to other matters in life.

First in February I made the decision to part, after 15 years, with my old VW Bus. It was really starting to get rusty, needed work, and while I still loved it, I wasn't using it anymore. I felt sorry for the old bus, and I also no longer needed it at this point with the house for moving large things. So I cleaned it up and got it on Ebay. In short order, it sold (for a good price too, thanks to all those "vanlife" youtubers driving up the price!)

I took some of the money and bought another long time love of mine, an old Jeep Cherokee. I managed to find a totally rust free one from the south, and then spent the spring and summer enjoying the process of attending to the wealth of mechanical problems wrought by 20 years and over 200,000 miles. And it turned out great. With it, I can still carry stuff, make trips to the dump, carry dogs, and more. And I simply adore it. It is simplicity on steroids...analog in the way nothing modern is. In fact, I drive it more now than my BMW.



So nothing really got done to the house in the year or so gap in my posts.
But as for those Dining room pics. Here you are!













Now that we have all been sequestered away in our homes due to Coronavirus, I like many of you I'm sure have been busier than ever. As I work in the restaurant business, I have been out of work since mid March. I have instead absolved to use this time wisely by returning to past unfinished projects and issues that have been niggling me. I've gotten tons done, from refinishing my bedroom floor again (thanks, dogs.) to fixing a troublesome sheetrock seam, to repointing the inside of my basement where mortar was starting to crumble to the floor. Now at last these and many other tasks are done and I can finally move on to what I've been waiting for for a decade.....

THE OUTSIDE. Yes, this May it's really starting. Time to let the neighbors see something pretty.

I hope you are all well!
Eric

[Manalto]

Eric, you must be thrilled with the results. It looks just beautiful and soothing and welcoming - everything that someone wants in a restoration. Congratulations.

[Gothichome]

Eric, good to hear from you. Lovely work as usual and i’m Sure the outside work will make the your home the queen of the block. What are you restoring on the outside? It looked great as is.

[Eperot]

Thanks for the compliments, it means a lot coming from fellow old house nuts.

Gothichome, you are being very kind....the outside of the house looks terrible. The house needs paint....BAD. It's peeling so badly at this point, but a bigger issue is the siding itself. There have been either windows removed and shoddily patched in, or windows put in that were done years after initial construction that I opted to remove for originality. In fact, you can see in the first pic up there of the dining room after demolition a window...look at the next image and presto! The offender is now gone.

In addition, the siding is generally in pretty rough shape. A few areas are still good, but with the number of boards that need replacement from rot, splitting, punked out ends, etc. it just is easier to redo the whole darn thing. Not to mention the second floor above the kitchen was a later addition and they used a regular lap siding, not the German cove siding it should wear. I hope to get two sides done this spring-fall, and the next two done next year. With the Covid shutdown, it shouldn't be that hard to stick to this year's plan...I have all the time in the world to do it likely at least until June.

[Eperot]

It's finally happening...I received my first shipment of clapboards and lumber for trim and such, and my first job was to make two windows for what will be the laundry room and half bath...these windows will go into the wall where my current kitchen is. It took a good bit of measurement to get every dimension right and exactly like the other windows extant in the house, but I nailed it, from the drip caps right down to the sub sill. Currently re-sizing some salvaged sash to fit these fine new frames. I should be able to just place them into their spots and presto! Done.

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[Gothichome]

Nice work Eperot, I see a second wood under your sills? Did you find some weights for those sashes.

[Eperot]

The sills were salvaged from another local home that had it's windows replaced, but unfortunately they were too thin. I had to glue and screw some filler strips on the bottom to make them the same thickness as the others on the house. I think they'll hold up fine.

I don't know what the sash will end up weighing yet, so I'm not sure what weights I'll need. I'll know soon enough. I think I have 8 four or five pounders in the basement, so I may not need any.

[phil]

wow , the jeep and the room both look so pristine! nice work! I also drive older vehicles and repair my own. I appreciate the simplicity of some of the older ones as well. It looks like you are doing some true restoration work and not caving to the tendency to replace old things with new , except where necessary. renovation often means new materials and restoration, as you know, is much different.
Phil

[Lily left the valley]

Holy Moly...your dining room looks amazing. Having the gut befores to easily compare really helps give perspective on how much work you did.