373 Park was built in 1854 in the Carpenter Gothic style with board and batten siding. By 2000 the house had become a two unit eyesore. A local contractor/flipper bought it and with huge grants from the city rehabbed the exterior and turned it into a single family home. A couple from Boston was looking […]
This home was purchased by Habitat For Humanity as a project house to rehab. They had an architect draw up plans to put back appropriate porches. The Gifford Park Association donated money to buy the materials and I volunteered my labor to make the treads, sawed porch apron, balustrade, newels, finial, frieze and brackets. It […]
4 N. Jackson in Elgin started out as a very fancy Victorian/Mansard home built in 1875. W.W. Abell, a very prominent Elgin architect was commissioned to “Modernize” the home in 1897. Here is how it looked a few years ago. Here is how it looks today with a new paint job. For twenty years the […]
An investor purchased a home in the Historic District and decided to put new steps and balustrade on the front porch. He used store bought newels that are not the correct style and too slight. The lattice on the steps apron is also wrong. The cities preservation specialist informed him that he wold have to […]
The workmanship on a porch I repaired recently was excellent. The guy obviously had some great woodworking skills. He made one major mistake by using white pine and he did not instruct the homeowner on keeping it caulked and painted. Also, he did not prime any endgrain before installing. A tree is designed to suck […]
A neighbor called me asking if I could help him replace some porch parts that were rotten. I find the work very satisfying so I dove right in. Here is an original post base that is in good condition. Here is the rotten one that needed replacing. Here is the new one that I turned. […]
In the late 70’s this house was a run down two unit with terrible asphalt siding. A young couple bought it because it was was all they could afford. It was in a bad neighborhood with some serious drug dealing going on. A friend bought the house next door and he bailed out of the […]
Mike Howell with Carpentry with Integrity was asked to rehabilitate the old house porch at 815 N. Spring. Here is an old picture of the house and porch. The Xes in the balustrade were not original to the house. Notice the steps and sidewalk before being renovated. Here is a more current picture of the […]
In 1981 after many remuddlings over the years the house looked like this. A friend bought it and slowly, over several years started to bring it back. Here is how it looked after the aluminum siding and enclosed porch were taken off. Notice there are no arches on the second story porch. It was sold […]
The owners of the Wing mansion in Elgin ran across an old picture of their front porch showing details that were no longer there. It is the half cross in the middle of the balustrade with the ball on top. For some reason someone in the past took them all out. The owners commissioned […]