The Hegeler Carus Mansion, located at 1307 Seventh Street in La Salle, Illinois is one of the Midwest’s great Second Empire structures. Completed in 1876 for Edward C. Hegeler, a partner in the nearby Matthiessen Hegeler Zinc Company, the mansion was designed in 1874 by noted Chicago architect William W. Boyington. The mansion is now […]
Many years ago, 409 Douglas had a new siding installed. The neighborhood group did a Great Unveiling on the home and then the owner painted it nicely. A previos owner had taken out part of the fancy interior stair balustrade to put in a wall to create an apartment I made the parts to put […]
A previous owner had installed an inappropriate iron balustrade on the house at 507 E. Chicago. Here is a picture: The new owner hired me to put on an appropriate balustrade and newels. I do not usually install but I did on this one. Here is a picture of my new balustrade and newels:
The owner took the paint off of the brick building at 211 Michigan. I made parts to rebuild the porches. He received a mayor’s award for his efforts. Here it is with the paint on it: Here it is under construction: Here it is after rehab:
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Rock Island has a program they call the Great Unveiling, where volunteers take off substitute siding. We asked if we could borrow the name and they agreed. We have done over 30 Great Unveilings since then. In the old-fashioned spirit of a barn raising, volunteers take off the siding and then have a big lunch. […]
A woman at 643 Douglas contacted me about repairing her rotten newels, rails and one tread on her porch. I agreed to take on the project. I bought the materials and cut them to size for $600, and Dan Jensen built the porch for $1000. She got a second bid for $2100 so she took […]
About five years ago, the porch steps on 140 N. Porter had rotted away. The owner hired a guy to rebuild them. He did so in treated lumber, but made newel posts that were not appropriate for the porch. Newels are to match the porch posts. He made square posts with a large cove chamfer. […]
The people at 24 N. Porter built a new porch stair balustrade that did not match the original. As seen below, the rail on the stairs does not match the rail on the porch and it should. The city cited them for it and made plans for them for the rebuild. Here are the plans […]
The porch rail newels and balustrade were rebuilt many years ago. The parts that were not treated lumber rotted away. The owner asked me to rebuild the newel posts exactly as they were. I started making the parts and realized it would be too hard to tell anyone how to install them so I decided […]