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Soulard House Restoration

This is where we don't want anything but evidence of your finest wood butchering in all its glorious, and photograph laden glory. Bring your finished products or WIP's, we love them all, so long as there's pictures, and plenty of 'em!

Re: Soulard House Restoration

Postby kirkpoore1 » 18 Oct 2016, 13:06

Mike G wrote:You show a photo of how the arches and detail-over were back in the 1920s or 30s, but not how they are today. Are they completely repairable? It seems a pity to be making new ones if there is something salvageable of the originals. Presumably the pierced panels are planted on to a solid background. Is that right?


Mike:

That part of the house was demolished in the 1930's, and replaced with a brick monstrosity (that I can't find the link to right now). All we have to work from is a few photos. There are some details on the rest of the house that have survived, like the rope molding.

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Re: Soulard House Restoration

Postby kirkpoore1 » 20 Oct 2016, 04:27

Ok, time for more pics. Prepared to be dazzled--though not by my work.:)

First off, here's the brick wart that used to be on the side of the house where the solarium is being rebuilt:
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Yesterday Eric and I finished up the window frames and started transporting them:

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Cast iron sash pulley, bought from a salvage place. The owner actually bought more than we needed.

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First six frames stacked on my trailer. We didn't dare go any higher.

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Stacked in the house. We delivered 4 more at dusk, but the last 4 are out in the rain with a tarp over them as I type this. Ick.

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The dining room after the plaster was removed. But here's what it looked like before the plaster was taken off:
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A closeup of the door frame:
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Yes, folks, that's walnut burl veneer on the walnut door molding. Holy crap! Nobody does that anymore! (Ignore the steel lath strips, or whatever they are.)

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Eric was able to persuade the owner to keep the ceiling.

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Yes, those are gilded details along with the paint.

Here's a gilded top (capital?) over a window frame:
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Closeup of same:
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And back to the ordinary mundane outside details. Today I finished designing and started sawing out the patterns for the over-window exterior panels. These are 1/8" hardboard. I'm making these out of hardboard because I plan on giving the client all the patterns when the job is done so she can file them away where some future restorer can use them to repair damage. Probably won't happen, but what the heck.
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This is the pattern for the narrower panels. As you see, its really too long for the scrolls saw, but I made it work.

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Needs a little cleanup, but this is over a panel. I will have to cut all these out with a jig saw because the scroll saw just is a little too small.

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Re: Soulard House Restoration

Postby Rod » 20 Oct 2016, 11:15

It's got some very expensive features- any idea how much the house cost to build originally?
There's been a series on TV about Stately Houses - looking back at the original plans and their costs. Some rooms cost the equivalent of £1m in today's money - the houses billions!

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Re: Soulard House Restoration

Postby Andyp » 20 Oct 2016, 13:11

Wow, some fantastic period details there. The window above the door, IIRC, is a transom and is a great way of bringing light into dark corridors. I often wonder why such features are not used more often in modern buildings.
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Re: Soulard House Restoration

Postby DaveL » 20 Oct 2016, 16:04

Andyp wrote:Wow, some fantastic period details there. The window above the door, IIRC, is a transom and is a great way of bringing light into dark corridors. I often wonder why such features are not used more often in modern buildings.

I have heard that window refereed to as a borrowed light or a stolen light.
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Re: Soulard House Restoration

Postby 9fingers » 20 Oct 2016, 16:35

DaveL wrote:
Andyp wrote:Wow, some fantastic period details there. The window above the door, IIRC, is a transom and is a great way of bringing light into dark corridors. I often wonder why such features are not used more often in modern buildings.

I have heard that window refereed to as a borrowed light or a stolen light.


Yes I have them in my upstairs bedrooms to provide light to the landing which has no route to external light.

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Re: Soulard House Restoration

Postby kirkpoore1 » 20 Oct 2016, 17:47

Andyp wrote:Wow, some fantastic period details there. The window above the door, IIRC, is a transom and is a great way of bringing light into dark corridors. I often wonder why such features are not used more often in modern buildings.


I think most ceilings are too low. This house has 12' ceilings.

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Last edited by kirkpoore1 on 20 Oct 2016, 19:23, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Soulard House Restoration

Postby Andyp » 20 Oct 2016, 18:08

Kirk, I appreciate the ceilings in that house are very tall but as Bob has them it is possible that 12' ceilings are not a prerequisite to placing a window above a door. My father's 80s built bungalow has them under 8' ceilings.
I have seen pictures opening widows like that which can be a useful way to move warm air around as well as providing light.

It is more likely a cost/speed to fit thing when the house is being built.
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Re: Soulard House Restoration

Postby kirkpoore1 » 27 Oct 2016, 05:49

Now, where was I?

After we delivered the window frames, another guy started to install them. I went over there today and found that all the frames are in place, but most are not fully screwed down. Eric had gone over on Monday and beveled the inner corners on the four corner windows, and that gave the space required to get them in. Alas, no pictures of this. I did, however, get ready to work on the window stops by making measurements on each window frame. More on that later.

Today I also delivered the exterior panels which will be installed over the solarium windows. I cut out the edges on the bandsaw, then sanded them and finally did a little cove cut on the outside edges on the shaper. I then cut out the pierce work on the panels with my newly repaired jigsaw (concrete floors and electric power tools don't mix well). The piercework took the better part of six hours over two days.

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This is a typical panel. I drilled a few holes for each cut then used a fairly fine toothed jigsaw blade to make the cuts.

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Since there were large unsupported sections, they were pretty fragile. I broke two sections out, and this shows one being glued back in. I managed to mostly avoid this by supporting the dangling sections from below while sawing.

After sawing, I painted and dipped it in preservative:
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Drying:
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After drying, the next day I sanded the panels lightly to remove the raised grain. The Woodlife preservative is water based stuff and does raise the grain a little.

Today, after delivering the panels, I picked up the cypress strips I'd cut a couple of weeks ago for window stops. I went back to the house, and then measured the amount each stop strip will have to extend from the frame into the window interior. These stops act as rails to keep the sashes in place. Each outside strip is 1" wide, but the thickness is particular to the individual frame whether the strip is on the left or right. They range in thickness from 17/32" to 7/8".

Each strip has an 82 degree cross cut on the lower end instead of 90 degrees, so that it will mate up properly with the sill.
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Here are the strips now:
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I still have to drill and countersink the screw holes, and then they will need to be painted.

Tomorrow I'll start on the inner stops, which are walnut.

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Re: Soulard House Restoration

Postby kirkpoore1 » 03 Nov 2016, 11:51

All the window stops are complete and delivered. Sorry, I didn't get any more pictures, but they look like 56 90" long sticks, half cypress and half walnut. :) Eric or his daughter will be painting all the cypress ones light green, and the lower halves of the walnut will get the same. The upper halves of the walnut stops will be shellacked.

I don't think I mentioned that. The finish on all the unpainted walnut is shellac. Eric chose this because that's what's on the original woodwork. When we left a set of frames outside overnight in a thunderstorm, we were both assuming that the shellac would get cloudy and need to be recoated. That wasn't the case at all--the water just ran off.

I did go over to the house today to get some measurements after the frame were installed. The solarium is about 35' from front to back, but the floor is a full inch out of level over that distance. So the baseboard and other molding will have to be adjusted to compensate. Here are some pictures of the frames installed:

Front frames:
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There is actually a steep stair in the floor in front of these windows. It will be normally covered by a trap door. Why stairs there, where there are two other sets of stairs to the basement? Damn if I know.

Side frame toward the front:
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Side frames toward the back:
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Back frames:
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One other picture. This is in the door from the dining room to the main hall. The veneered panel is in the door way, because the wall is about 18" thick. It was built that way to accommodate the built in china cabinets. Note the cast bronze hinge, too.
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One other thing. I will be stepping back from working on this house. My future work will probably be limited to parts that can be built in my shop and delivered, such as carved details. The reason for this is actually good--after being unemployed for 6 months, I go back to computer programming starting on Monday. I'd really like to stay on this, but would have to triple my price to make the same net income, and frankly can't do that. If I'd started doing this kind of work 25 years ago when I got out of the Air Force, I could probably command a living wage today in it, but that's really not the case. I do feel privileged to be able to work on this project and others and get paid decently for what is essentially a part time job or hobby.

The unemployment period also allowed me to travel to England, visit with many of you and take advantage of Bob's hospitality. I probably won't be able to make it back for a few years, but it's definitely on my list.

I will still get pics as things go and will keep you guys up to date as I can.

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Re: Soulard House Restoration

Postby 9fingers » 03 Nov 2016, 12:04

Great news on the job front Kirk.
It has been good to see all your woodwork on this project and you have clearly been enjoying it from what we can see but taking such a pay hit must be tough.
Hopefully you can derive some degree of satisfaction from the programming work and still relax with the woodwork.

Good Luck
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Re: Soulard House Restoration

Postby Rod » 03 Nov 2016, 15:34

Yes good news Kirk

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Re: Soulard House Restoration

Postby RogerS » 03 Nov 2016, 16:05

That's a very interesting insight into how you guys make a run of box sashes. Over here we tend to make the box sash with the weights inside the framework at the sides...think of a u-shape viewed from the top with the open part of the u facing the wall openings.

Will you be putting parting slips in between the frames ?
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Re: Soulard House Restoration

Postby kirkpoore1 » 03 Nov 2016, 16:44

RogerS wrote:That's a very interesting insight into how you guys make a run of box sashes. Over here we tend to make the box sash with the weights inside the framework at the sides...think of a u-shape viewed from the top with the open part of the u facing the wall openings.

Will you be putting parting slips in between the frames ?


It's hard to see, but there are wall studs between each pair of frames. The frames are about 8" from inside to outside, and the studs take up the first 3-1/2" of that. There are wedges filling the gaps between the frames and the studs, and the frames are screwed to the studs through the wedges. (Does that answer your parting slip question? I'm not that well aquainted with technical window jargon.)

The sash weights will be located between the frames and inboard of the studs. There is enough room between the frames for the weights to pass each other. The upper sashes will actually be on spring balances since there is no room for weights for them, and we don't expect them to be opened much. The lower sashes will have the weights, except on the corner side windows due to space limitations. Those will have spring balances too. The sash weights themselves will need to be so heavy (due to the window size and the fact that they're double pane insulated glass) that Eric expects to have to cast them out of lead.

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Re: Soulard House Restoration

Postby Andyp » 03 Nov 2016, 17:12

Stunning work in that house and congrats on the job front. How many years to retirement?
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Re: Soulard House Restoration

Postby Malc2098 » 03 Nov 2016, 17:15

Great work and great job news!
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Re: Soulard House Restoration

Postby kirkpoore1 » 03 Nov 2016, 20:31

Andyp wrote:Stunning work in that house and congrats on the job front. How many years to retirement?

Probably 7-10, unless I can find and marry a woman who will keep me on the style to which I have become accustomed. :)
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Re: Soulard House Restoration

Postby Andyp » 03 Nov 2016, 20:57

kirkpoore1 wrote:
Andyp wrote:Stunning work in that house and congrats on the job front. How many years to retirement?

Probably 7-10, unless I can find and marry a woman who will keep me on the style to which I have become accustomed. :)



HeeHee. It worked for me ;) although I did not take into account how hard child care could be.
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Re: Soulard House Restoration

Postby RogerS » 03 Nov 2016, 21:17

I wondered about that. Parting slips are thin laminates - we use ply nowadays - that hang freely in the channel where the weights are and separate them so that there is no risk of them hitting each other.
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Re: Soulard House Restoration

Postby kirkpoore1 » 03 Nov 2016, 22:39

RogerS wrote:I wondered about that. Parting slips are thin laminates - we use ply nowadays - that hang freely in the channel where the weights are and separate them so that there is no risk of them hitting each other.


We've got about 5" between the frames, and each frame has an additional 1/2" channel routed out of the side to give the weights more room. I know Eric hasn't thought of anything like parting slips or he would have said something. The weights may be as much as 50 lbs each, so I don't think they'll want to bounce around much and get hung up on each other.

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