We bought our first old house in 1975 only because that was all we could afford. I calculated what I could afford and it was $30,000.  This one cost $29,500.  With 10% down my monthly payment was $250. At the time it was tough to make the payment as a teacher I was only making$9000 a year.   It had an ugly storm door on the front that hid the fancy inner door.

We started looking into options.  I had seen pictures of fancy Victorian Screen doors so we decided to go with that.  I was an amateur woodworker so I wanted to make my own.  We also saw marks for a missing frieze at the top of the porch.  Looking for a replacement for that started my forty year love and study of old house porches.

I wanted the door to be something that was authentic so whenever I saw a house with one on it I stopped and asked if I could trace and measure the details. After the people realized that I was not crazy they allowed me to do it. What would you do if a big ugly guy knocked on your door and asked to trace your details?  I actually made some friends by doing it and one woman, after realizing what an old house nut I am actually invited me in for a complete tour.  I found a real bracket that I used as a pattern for more  and store bought spindles that would serve me well.  I made my first Victorian Screen door even making mortise and tenon joints like the old timers did.  They had huge machines to quickly and easily do it.  Making them by hand as an amateur woodworker was not so much fun.   I made a couple more like that then switched to making joints with large dowels.  With a doweling jig it is much quicker.  Most doors after the turn of the century were made with dowels instead of a mortise and tenon joint.  Here is my first Victorian screen door and the frieze I made using a design I found on a house nearby. Marks for the spindles and middle pieces were left on our house.

Here is the seocnd door I made for our back porch. My doors have interchangeable storms and screens.  The local glass place made them with aluminum frames.  I put a rabbet on the inside of the door to accommodate them.

Here is the frieze and balustrade I made for the back porch to match the front:

Here are two I made for a neighbor.

The owner installed them himself.  The door frames were not square so the doors required some planing which is very common.  He did not want to do it so he took the door frames completely off and reinstalled them square so the doors fit perfectly without planing.

Here is anther one I made for a neighbor.

Below is another I made for a neighbor.  This bracket pattern was taken from a door form a nearby house.  The people had it in their garage and I convinced them to put it back up.

Here is the door I  made for the back porch of our current house.

I made frames from wood for the interchangeable storms and screens. the frames and the doors have matching rabbets.

In the 70’s I became a Victorian Screen door nut. I wanted to be a missionary to spread the word about Victorian Screen doors.  I took all of my authentic patterns and directions for making a screen doors including correct proportions and printed them  in booklet form.

In the 70’s the Old House Journal let subscribers place ads in their magazine at no cost.  I put an ad for my Victorian Screen door plan book in the magazine and sold over 500 of them nationwide at $5 each.  Felt great. At the time there were not companies making them.  There are several today but they are expensive and most do not look very authentic.  I have now placed my plan book on line free to anyone that would like it. It has full size patterns for real brackets.  Click here to see it.

A friend and neighbor had a great old picture of his house which originally had Victorian screen doors.  He used a pattern from my booklet to make them.  What a wonderful addition to our neighborhood.

Another friend and neighbor made these doors for his house.

A friend added store bought brackets to create a Victorian Screen door.

Here are more pictures of Victorian screen doors. The first on on the left is from Cape May, New Jersey. We visited there on our honeymoon in 1976.

If you make one for your house I would love to see a picture.  Send it to Dan Miller at [email protected]

352 Prairie has been an eyesore and problem property in our neighborhood for a long time.  It looked bad as seen at right and had a lot of police calls.  A flipper bought it and applied for downsizing and architectural rehabilitation grants from the city. He was set to get over $100,000 in grants to rehab the building. He gutted the interior, and tore off the aluminum siding and inappropriate porches. He  then realized he was in over his head and stopped work.  Soon after he got foreclosed upon. It sat as an empty eyesore for a few years. Another investor recently purchased the property and plans to live in half and rent the other. It has historically had two addresses one on Prairie and one on Chapel.

Here it is with the siding and porches off of the front.

The west side porches are shown on the left before they were taken off.

Here is the west side with new porches, new siding
and fresh paint.

Here are the brackets and corbels I made for the new west side porch.

Here is a close up view of the brackets and corbels installed.

Here is the finished porch.

Keep posted for the front porch to be remade.

The Resurrection of 12 Hill

12 Hill was designed by prominent Elgin architect David Postle.  Most of his houses in Elgin are a lot larger and fancier.  Like this one on Douglas:

Here is a Postle designed house on Rugby Place.

The Historical Society museum has the original plans which were used to bring 12 Hill back.

Below is how it originally looked.  Notice how the architect has the roof soffit and fascia continue across the front and side of the house. Kind of unusual, especially on the front gable. I personally do not like the looks of that line across the front of the house.

Here is how it looked in 2008 with aluminum siding on it. The extra soffit and fascia is gone.  The guys installing the aluminum siding must not have wanted to wrap it so they ripped it off. Notice how the panel between the windows and the little simulated window at the top of the gable are gone also. Nice clean lines but oh so different than the original design.

A contractor approached the homeowner saying that he noticed hail damage on the aluminum siding and offered to work with the insurance company to get the homeowner new siding.  They agreed.  The contractor got a permit and took off the aluminum siding.

The marks for the panel between the windows, the extended soffit/fascia and  and the ornament in the gable can be seen.

The contractor  found out that the Preservation Ordinance did not allow him to put back aluminum siding.  They were told they needed to repair the original cedar shingles and replace the missing details that were chopped off to make things flat for aluminum siding.

The cedar shingles were in pretty rough shape as they had lots of nail holes in them and the home had been sandblasted leaving it very rough.  The contractor did not want to repair the siding but if they did not repair it they had to replace with new cedar shingles which is very expensive.  The contractor negotiated with the insurance company for three months before they were given the go ahead to replace the shingles and missing details.  After much discussion the city also allowed the new siding.

The casings were rough because of sandblasting and had some rot. Notice the casings are mitered which is unusual for an old house.

This is the contour of the molding knife that was made to duplicate the original casings exactly.  They were all made of treated limber so they will last a long time.

I remade 95% of the straight and curved casings.

They took off all of the old shingles. I remade the panels on the sides of the windows and the

gable ornament.  New casings and a keystone were added to the window.

90% of the gable ornament on the house had to be replaced as shown on the left. The curved molding at the top was a challenge. The new panels  that are on the sides of the window are shown below. They are all new as nothing could be salvaged.

Pieces of the old one shown at right could be used as a pattern so the new matches the original exactly.

Here are the panels installed

The  bank of three windows above and to the right of the house are not original to the house.  I convinced the contractor to put casings on it to match the rest of the house.

Here is the gable ornament from the other side that I replicated.

This house has a one of a kind water table board.  The architect must have wanted to show off his creativity.  It is made of two boards and a large crown molding.  A lot of it was rotten and had to be replaced matching the original exactly. The architect’s plans clearly show it.

Here is the replacement showing the same corner as above:

The architect’s plans show large brackets in the porch which were taken off.  The marks on the house give the exact dimensions and the plans give a good idea of their shape.

I looked at similar large sandwiched brackets in the neighborhood:

I made the brackets out of inexpensive 2 X 12 lumber working around the knots. They do not get any weather so they are not treated.

Every round topped window had a missing keystone, all of which were replaced.

I made a full scale mock up of what the missing soffit/fascia should look like to guide the contractor.  He was a great guy but had little old house or carpentry experience. He could not visualize what was to be built.  I cut all of the wood to size and I had to lend him my extra chop box for the project.  About 2/3 of the way thru he bought his own.

The side porch had an aluminum canopy from when the aluminum siding was installed.  When they took the siding off they took the canopy off.  The owners wanted to put it back but the city Preservation Specialist said no.  They wanted some type of canopy so with the Design Review Committees approval, I made them one exactly the same as another house in the neighborhood.

When I bid the project I did not know the full extent of the project so I bid it high at $3000. That turned out to be low as it cost me more than that but I chalk it up to having the chance to make a real difference in my neighborhood.  I chalk it up to the expense of getting an education. My goal in retirement is to make a difference and I made a huge difference on this house. The project could not have been done without me.  Remember Carly Simon’s song from the 70’s – “You’re so Vain”  She was not talking about Warren Beatty.  She was singing about me.

 Porches recreated by Neighborhood Housing Services

In the early 80’s Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) and the city of

Elgin bought 326 E. Chicago with the upper level to be for the NHS office and the bottom floor to be rented out as an apartment.  It was purchased for $55,000.

A neighbor came forward with an old picture showing how it used to look.  The city and NHS board decided to put this amazing house back to how it used to look.  It cost $50,000 with a public outcry with people saying more money was put into the home that it will ever be worth.  They were wrong.  With it being on a heavily trafficked street it was noticed by all and became an inspiration for others to renovate their homes in the neighborhood.

While the home was under construction a neighbor came forward saying that he had garbage picked the original front door when the house was being rehabbed.  He gave it back to us.

At the time Elgin had only one restoration carpenter and that was Dave Hunt.  A local woodworker, John Haight made the posts, the balustrade and the friez at the top of the porch. He passed away but his family currently runs The Haight, a funky wedding venue downtown in the space that used to be his shop.

Here is the home under construction.

This is how it looks today and is being used as the
home for the neighborhoods ROPE Officer.

NHS used the home for their offices for several years and then decided to do it again by buying another home to rehab for new offices.  205 N. Gifford was purchased for $40,000.  It was a flophouse with padlocks on every door.  The back stairs and basement were filled to the ceiling with junk as the owner was a pack rat.  Volunteers filled two dumpsters to clean it out.  An architect was hired  to make exterior plans and specs for the inside.  The first floor was to be the new NHS office and the second was to be  rented out.  This picture shows it shortly after the fake brick asphalt siding was taken off.

This picture shows the south side.  The Sandborn map showed that it had a bay window on the south side where the multi-paned window is in the picture. It was decided to put it back.  The Sandborn also showed

that the porch was only on the front of the house.  It was decided to put an appropriate one back.

Picture showing the new bay window.

I made the brackets and posts for the porch and the brackets for the bay window.

The home was featured on the ElginHistoric Housewalk.  Click here to view the booklet page which gives some history of the home.

NHS sold the home to a private homeowner who owned it for many years. She lost her job and could not maintain it.

The building deteriorated badly.

A flipper bought the house and with the help of a city grant put all new siding on the house, restored the porches and upgraded the interior nicely.

Current interior and exterior pictures.

This house on Douglas Street in Elgin has four columns with unusual large beading on the top 18 inches. 

The two in the rear got a lot of water from the roof and were rotten.  I was hoping that some epoxy could give them several more years.  When they were taken down the top on one crumbled in my hands so epoxy was not an option.

The column was coopered (made like a barrel with sections glued together) as was the fluted portion.

The owner of the home came to the Design Review Committee asking to replace all four columns with new fiberglass columns.  The Committee urged him to try to replicate the two good columns as the flutes were a unique feature.  A compromise was struck in that the owner bought two new fiberglass columns and I replicated the fluted portion to be placed on top of the fiberglass column.  The new fiberglass columns were very close in diameter to the originals. 

I made the fluted portion the same way they were originally made.  I made a custom molding knife to cut each section of three flutes.  Each of those was cut at the precise angle necessary for it to glue up to be a circle. Just as was originally done, a spline was cut to keep them together. Below is a cut off section of the fluted portion of the column showing the splines.

Band clamps were used to glue the sections together.

The transition plate was turned to duplicate the original.  A piece of wood was attached to the flutes to slip into the fiberglass column to allow the two to be attached to one another. The capitol on the column shown (on the bottom of this picture) is new and fiberglass. It was very close to the originals and simply slides over the column.

Below is the new column installed. The new wooden flutes were made from old growth cypress which has excellent rot resistance.  They were also treated with a sealer/preservative and the end grain was painted. The installation contractor added some flashing to the roof so they should not get water and rot. The new and the old columns cannot be distinguished.  The owner and I were very happy with the results.