Entries by Dan Miller
126 Hill Porch
126 Hill was foreclosed upon. A flipper bought it for $60,000. She was having a hard time finding contractors to do the work and asked me for some advice. While I was there I noticed the clear marks for a porch post on the front of the house. I asked her if I could […]
Porch aprons
Overthe years I have collected a lot of porch apron designs, especialy sawed ones. When a customer is considering installing a new porch apron I often take my mockups and actually place them on the porch to give the customer a choice as shown below. When we were rehabbing the house next door I […]
162 Summit
162 Summit Elgin, IL After the crash President Obama initiated what he called the National Stabilization Program (NSP). It gave money to cities to buy and rehabilitate foreclosed problem properties that were having such a negative impact on our neighborhoods. The City of Elgin was awarded over two million dollars. I was lucky enough to […]
132 N. Channing
For years 132 N. Channing was a nasty two unit. The Gifford Park Association uses the proceeds from its annual Historic Elgin House Tour to purchase and rehab problem properties. In 30 years, this was the fourth one they did. The home had asphalt siding on it and the Gifford Park Association used volunteers to […]
272 Division
According to Steve Stroud’s book There Used To Be 272 Division was built in ca 1875 for H. D. and Ida Barnes. H.D. was an assistant manager of the Elgin Packing Company. He owned the home until 1901 when it was sold to St. Joseph’s German Catholic Church for their rectory which it is still […]
DuPage Street condos
This building was built as three apartments and was later changed into six. It deteriorted badly and was attracting nasty people as renters. It origianlly had porches with roofs but was changed into just decks. An investor bought it and changed it into four very nice condo units attracting excellent owners. Each unit […]
467 Division
Several years ago the City of Elgin bought this house for $140,000 as it was a bit of a problem property. It had asphalt siding on it. They offered it to our neighborhood organizaiton to rehab. We had done four problem properties in the past but we felt this one was nice enough that it […]
806 W. Highland
When the current owners bought their house it had wide exposure aluminum siding and the porch balustrade was missing. The owners have spent years getting the original details replaced. I made a mockup for a proposed porch balustrade. I used two sizes of spindles to give them a choice. I did not make or install […]
530 S. Liberty
When the current owners purchased 530 S. Liberty they knew the porch posts were unusual and probably not original but they had no idea what would be appropriate for their home as shown below. At the five year point of their ownership the Historicl Society was given old plan books from some prominent architects. […]