In my old house woodworking business I often get asked to duplicate old house trim baseblocks. I do not think the old timers used a molding machine or shaper to make them as you cannot mold perpendicular to the grain. I tried it once by putting the wood on a sled to hold short pieces […]
This is how the house looked in 1981. It was overgrown and not maintained. The bank holding the mortgage foreclosed several times as decent owners could never be found. The bank asked the Gifford Park Association to oversee a rehab to make it decent to attract a good new owner. They did it and new […]
About 10 years ago I made replacement porch rails for 722 Douglas in Elgin. It is an intricate rail so I had a knife made to duplicate it exactly. Below is the profile. luckily I kept the knife so I could make the rail again. It is made in two pieces and then glued together. […]
The owner wanted to change a plain window into one with embellishments like two others on the house. I was hired to duplicate the elements from the old window. On the left is the original old window which is to be duplicated on the right. The framing is finished on the right but the details […]
Porch reconstruction at 327 W. Chicago W. W. Abell, a prominent Elgin architect, designed the house at 327 W. Chicago. A contractor friend was hired to rebuild a rotting porch and he asked me to make the details. It was very satisfying working on a porch of that stature. It needed a new porch apron. […]
Abandoned Italiante home on Lake St in Hanover Park. We drove past this wonderful old house hundreds of times going to and from work in the 70’s and 80’s. We so wished that someone would rehab it. The dormer in the roof is unusual for this style of house. Here is an old […]
706 Douglas is a wonderful house in the Spring Douglas Historic District that was designed by prominent Elgin Architect W. W. Abell. Below is how it looked a few years ago. The elderly woman that lived there was strong-willed and opinionated. I once told her that the wrought iron porch posts were not original to […]
Great new porch for an 1846 Greek Revival home The Historical Society is rehabbing the oldest home in Elgin. The city bought the problem property that was six units. They are keeping possession but letting the Historical Society rehab the property for their use. The interior is almost finished so they switched to putting back […]
The porch columns on this building were coming apart and some of the tops and bottoms were rotting with the beam sagging. The owner took it apart, put in a new beam and I repaired the posts and remade the tops and bases. The coopered columns on this apartment building are 18 inches in […]
The people that rehabbed this porch used balusters designed for interior use. Had they painted or caulked the end grain it would’ve helped them last longer. After installation, they needed to have the edges of the bottoms caulked so that water can’t get into the end grain. You always have to seal the end […]