Tag Archive for: Home Page

14 – 16 S. Chapel

Here is a picutre of 14-16 S. Chapel in 1981. It was an all brick building that someone added the stucco and Prairie influenced porch to. In recent times, the apartments were never nice and only attracted desperate people.

The Code Dept. cited a deteriorating porch so the owner, working with the city’s Preservation Planner replaced it with one appropriate to the age of the building. Here it is in 2008. The spindles and brackets in the frieze are store bought and too small. The interior and exterior of the building was not maintained so it fell into disrepair. A local investor bought the building and gutted it with the intention of rehabbing it. It stayed vacant for a couple of years. Recently two young investors purchased the building and have gone a long way in rehabbing the interior and exterior.

I had been working with the local investor to add an appropriate frieze and he agreed to allow me to chang it but then sold the building. The new investors contacted me and did allow to me make larger, approprote brackets but did not want to change the spindles as it would be very expensive. I also made stair treads for the front porch. I did not charge for my labor for the work but insted gave it to the new owners as a welcome to the neighborhood gift. Here are pictures of my brackets and the finished porch. The pattern for the brackets was taken from an actual bracket in Elgin. Th investors were helped with a 50/50 architectural grant.

The porch has an interesting tile floor.

/by
,

Men’s shed project

Jill Harkins wrote an article on April 30th for the Philadelphia Citizen. Here are some excerpts from the article.

Men’s shed is a global nonprofit making its way across the U.S. It is fighting loneliness and depression in older men by bringing them togetter to build things.

Men’s Sheds are gathering spaces in which men get together to work on projects shoulder to shoulder, from building furniture to volunteering at community events. They are designed to combat loneliness among retired men by providing them with activities they can do, as a group, while connecting with each other. Research shows that depression increases along with age, for many of the reasons you may assume: loneliness, poor health, and the loss of family members, friends, and spouses who pass away.

This process, however, is not inevitable. Research has also proven that as sociability increases among elderly people, loneliness decreases; as loneliness decreases, depressive symptoms decrease. Given that white men 85 and older commit suicide at more than four times the rate of the general population in the United States, building a formal infrastructure through which elderly men can meet new friends can literally save lives.

I enjoy meeting new people and woodworking so I joined the Men’s shed recently formed in Elgin. One of their first projects came when a widow asked if they could remake a gate for her that had rotted away. Her husband had origianlly make the gate so it had a great deal of sentimental value. I offered to help with the project but found out it would be best if I did it myself in my shop.

Here is what the old gate looked like.

Here are some picutres showing the condition.

I made all of the pieces out of treated lumber, duplicating the original exactly. The new gate will last forever. I could use my scraps to make the little pieces. I seldom throw away a piece of wood. Feels good to get a chance to use them

The original builder used mortise and tenon joints as shown on the right above. I used the Festool Domino to make the mortises and then the Festool tenons. It is a very expensive machine but I make a lot of storm windows so it has paid for itself. The machine lines the moritses and tenons up so it goes together nicely.

This is what the mortises look like:

Here are the tenons in place

It is a lot of work to make all of those moritses in the little cross pieces but less than real mortise and tenon joints. They are equally as strong. Here is a finished gate half.

Here is the finished gate.

Other Men’s shedders painted and installed the gates as shown below. Everybody involved should be very proud. It was very satisfying work for me.

/1 Comment/by
,

Custom porch post bases

Mike Howell with Carpentry with Integrity was the winning bidder to rebuild a porch on a wonderful old house.

The bases were rotten, the posts marginal, and the terra cotta ionic capitols had so much paint on them they were almost undistinguishable. The floor needed replacing. The owner wanted low maintenance so fiberglass columns were chosen. Ionic capitols were found in fiberglass that almost exaclty matched the originals. Aeratis pvc flooring was chosen. The manufacutrer has a nice bull nose to finish off the ends of the boards. They also worked with the Sherwin Williams paint company to come up with a paint that is compatible with Aeratis. Here is a picture of the new floor:

The owner wanted to match the existing column bases exaclty instead of going with new fiberglass ones so I was hired to make them. Here is an original base I used as a pattern. The others were in much worse shape.

The turned portion of the bases are 11 and 12 inches in diameter so they had to be turned on a faceplate on the outboard side of the lathe. I had to build a stand to hold the tool rest.

The discs that just needed rounding over were made from treated lumber. 2 X 12s were cut down to select just the vertical grain and then glued back together to essentially create a vertical grained board which is much more stable thatn flat sawn. The2 X 12s were planed down to get the exact thickness of the original. Very time consuming and it created huge bags of chips. I always used a respirator in milling the treated. Here are some finished plates:

To do the plates that needed a deep cove, I used Cyporess as it mills much better. It has great rot resistnce but I still coated them with Bora Care preservative. The only problem is that the wood is expensive. The wood for the 8 bases was over $500.

Here are the finished plates:

The world would not be interesting without an occassional tragedy. Luckily it only hapend to me once and I had made an extra blank to cover such things.

Here is the orignal base and a new one.

The columns and bases against the house were rectangular. They were not replaced but I did make new bases reusing the portion with the huge cove in it as it is too difficult to make. They were much easier to make than the turned ones.

All the non treated wood was treated with preservative then all the wood was primed on all sides before installation.

Here are the bases and columns installed. The original balustrade was reused.

/1 Comment/by
,

The resurrection of 326 E. Chicago

Neighborhood Housing Services came to Elgin in the early ’80s.  it was to be a partnership between the city, the banks, and the citizens of Elgin. The Gifford Park Association was instrumental in bringing it to Elgin so three of our board members also board members of Neighborhood Housing Services. People often got the two of us mixed up.

They needed an office so they decided to buy 326 E. Chicago for about $50,000.  It was a beauty salon on the first floor and an apartment on the second.

We found  an old picture of the original house showing the porches that had been taken off. Mark Herzog, a member of the GPA and NHS baords looked into state grnats and convinced the board to look into restoring the home from the picuture. Ill zoo only had one restoration carpenter at the time that was David Hunt. We got a bid from him of over $50,000 to restore the siding and porches. We decided to go forward with it. There was a huge uproar in the community as they thought putting the hundred thousand dollars into the home was foolish as it would never ever be worth that much money. We went ahead and construction began. John Haight, a local woodworker made the porch posts, balustrade and friez at the top of the porch. He passed away a few years =ao but his family runs The Haight, a funky wedding venue downtown. His shop was where the main dining area is now.

While the rehab was going on a man stopped in saying that when the house was being remodeled he took the original door from the garbage and still had it.  He brought it back and it fit right in the hole. It is wonderful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The home is on a highly trafficed street so it gets a lot of exposure.  It became an inspiration for others to do the same. A beautiful house like this the main entryway in Elgin helped improve our image.

 

Here it is today.  NHS moved on to rehab another problem property at 205 N. Gifford for its office. The City of Elgin still owns 326 E. Chicago and uses it as the home of its ROPE officer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is 205 N. Gifford before it was rehabbed to become the second NHS office.

/by
,

315 – 317 DuPage in Elgin

315 -317 DuPage had been a problem property for decades. Here it is in 1981.

Here it is in 2008

Kurt Kresmery, a local investor bought it and rehabbed the interior nicely so it attracts great tenants.

Here it is after rehabbing the interior and painting the exterior. Kurt is a friend of mine so I asked him if I could suggest a way to add details to the porch to make it look like it used to. He agreed.

I made a mockup and put it on the porch for the owner and the Design Review Committee to see. They needed to approve the design to give me a Certificate of Appropriateness. The owner needed to see my proposal to see if he wanted to proceed. I got the go-ahead from both. I made the spindles but they duplicate an actual old house spindle. The bracket is an old one from an old house. The corbels are a duplicate of an actual old house corbel. I do not like to make anything up.

Here are the parts I made. I have a low tolerance for tedium so I did not want to make so many spindles. The were purchased from Mr. Spindle who duplicated my authentic design exactly.

Here is the porch today.

/1 Comment/by
,

Missing Curved Porch Rail Restored

Before

A short section of curved porch rail rotted off and the owner replaced it with some terrible workmanship. Notice the two spindles on the right and the one on the far left are upside down from the others. The contractor could not make a curve so he turned it into two straight lines. The poor work was turned in to the Elgin Preservation Specialist and she required the owner to put back an appropriate balustrade matching the existing. This is the advantage of having an Historic District and Preservation Ordinance. Without it the terrible work would have been left. The owner approached me about restoring the balustrade. I have experience with curved rails and making goosenecks. Below is a picture of the rail and goosenecks I made. The wood is old growth cypress recycled from a water tower taken down in Chicago.

Below are the spindles I made to duplicate the originals. Old growth cypress was used for the spindles also. It has great rot resistance but they were still coated with preservative, especially the endgrain.

Here is a picture of the contour of the goose-neck and rail. Successive approximations on the router were used to get the contour.

Click here to see the story I wrote describing the method I use to route the goose-necks.

Here is a picture of the finished balustrade. I do not normally install my work but I did in this case.

Before

Here is a picture of the whole porch showing the original and my new section.

/by
,

373 Park

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 for a home in the area to move closer to family. They found 373 Park on the internet and got involved in it before the interior was finished so they could put their individual touch on the design of the interior.

I was hired by the contractor to help with the side porch and later by the homeowner for the verge board on one dormer. Here is a picture of the east side in 1981 showing the side porch.

Here is a picture of the front of the home in 1981.

Here is a picture of the home just as the rehab was starting in 2008.

Here is the side porch showing the poorly repaired posts and broken verge board. The bottom wrap on the posts are unusually big to hide a poor repair. They look terrible.

The bottoms of all the posts were rotten and showed that they had been repaired before.

I cut about 2 feet off of every post with the intent of having the wrap at rail level hide the joint. The bottom two feet was made new for each post and attached with a huge dowel in the center.

I made two mock-ups to show the customer and the Design Review Committee possible balustrades. I always make full scale mock-ups to put on the house to make sure the scale is okay and so the owners can see how it looks. I lug the mock-ups to the Design Review Committee to show them my proposal. They appreciate it as it is so much easier to see than a drawing.

Below is the balustrade that was chosen. I made new balusters, top and bottom rails and top and bottom wraps for the posts. There was one section of original post wrap at the rail level left on the house that was duplicated exactly. We do not know the design of the original balusters. The pointed arch baluster is very appropriate for this style of house. I got the pattern from an 1850’s pattern book.

Here is the finished porch showing the new balustrade, replaced verge board (contractor did it) and chamfered support posts. All of the window trim is original.

Th verge board on the east facing dormer was missing. There was a picture of it in the book entitle Chicago’s Historic Suburbs. I made new verge boards using the picture. I made a mock-up and placed it on the house to get the okay to go ahead. The city’s Preservation Specialist had me tweak it a little. I did not agree but it was not worth arguing about. Here is the mock-up on the house. I did not make both sides feeling that one would be enough.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Here is the verge board I created from old growth reclaimed cypress.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Here is the verge boards installed.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

At the end of the project the contractor added a large deck on the back of the house. His detailing was not how an old house porch apron and steps were typically done so I asked the owners if I could modify it and they allowed me to. The homeowners were great as they trusted me and let me do whatever I felt was needed for labor and materials. The pvc decking is expensive so luckily they had a lot left over. Contractors always order way too much material. I added the corner boards, vertical boards to line up with posts, the water table board under the flooring and the frame at the bottom of the apron. Everything was one flat surface as built. Looked terrible. All of the wood is pvc decking so it will never rot.

2 X 12s were used for the treads. I hate when 2 X 12s are used for treads as they look like cheap 2 x 12s. I took them off and planed them down to 5/4 which is the typical thickness for old house treads. A few had huge knot holes in them so I replaced them. I also bullnosed three sides of each tread and put a cove under each tread as the old timers always did. I use my treated wood scraps to make thousands of feet of 3/4 inch cove for exterior steps. I often give it to porch builders as I feel it is so important. The old timers always use it. The woman in the picture was a participant in the housewalk when the home was featured on the Historic Elgin House Tour in 2011


OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The apron was nailed outside of the stair stringers. A pet peeve of mine. It is very easy to do but was never done that way. I took them off and put them behind the stringer. The rest of the apron had to be taken off to be placed behind the rim board.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I love the front door. The owners plan to get a full view storm door for it to show it off.


Here is the new front porch which I did not have anything to do with.

Here is a picture of the house shortly after it was finished but before I installed the verge board on the dormer.

If you would like to read more about the house here is the Housewalk Booklet page.
/by
,

Habitat For Humanity project

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 was converted from a two unit to single family. Habitat stripped most of the paint off of the bricks. Here is a proposed design for a porch apron. They chose a different design found on a house in Elgin of the same vintage.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Here are mock ups of proposed brackets.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Here are the brackets, porch apron, balustrade and frieze that they chose that I made. Unfortunately Habitat chose porch posts from a big box store that are too slight. Old house porch posts are at least 5 to 6 inches wide.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Here is the finished house. The neighborhood appreciates the improvement.

This house has a sister house four blocks away. These porches are probably not original to the house.

/1 Comment/by
,

Fascinating Story

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.

Click here to read some history on the house from the Housewalk booklet page when it was featured in 2007

For twenty years the Gifford Park Association had asked the owner to let us feature his amazing house on the house walk. He refused. The home had had about twenty-five years of deferred maintenance so the owner approached me about replacing rotted details which was a huge job. I gave him a bid and then said I would do the work for the cost of materials only if he allowed the home to be featured on our house walk. He agreed. I was basically on a retainer for the entire summer to make his parts.

In the early 70s the home was vacant, rundown, and had vagrants living in it. They built fires in the basement to stay warm using wood taken from the interior of the house. The current owner was a teacher with a limited salary so he and another teacher went together to buy the house for around $30,000. The owner camped in the house to make sure the vagrants stayed out.  The two owners shared the house for a time but then one owner bought out the other and started on an interior and exterior rehabilitation of the house.  He made repairs and repainted the home. After rehabbing it he basically left it alone for the next 25 years so it needed rehabbing again in 2006. Many of the porch post bases and tops were rotten so I duplicated them exactly. Here are some bases that were rotten.

The bottom of this post was rotten so I turned a replacement for it.

Here are the new bases and tops made from old growth cypress.

Here are posts with new tops and bottoms that I turned.

The diamonds on the side porch were rotten so I replaced them. The tiny molding was replicated exactly. This picture also shows my new column bases.

The parade porch balustrade and floor were rotten. A new rubber floor was added and I recreated the balustrade including a curved rail. The box in the middle was rebuilt.

There is the second tiny parade porch that I made two small balustrades and curved rails for.

The vagrants had burned 17 spindles from the interior balustrade. I turned them without using a duplicating lathe. Since then I’ve actually purchased one, used it a few times and quit. I don’t like it. After 40 years of hand turning you cannot teach an old dog new tricks.

The owners did a very nice job of matching the finish to the existing. I’m glad they didn’t ask me to do it because I never do any finishing as my wife has spoiled me by always doing it. I guess she doesn’t trust me to do a decent job.

 

The dining room in the house is all trimmed with quarter sawn sycamore, including a tall wainscoting and built ins. It looks amazing. The vagrants had taken four cabinet doors and two drawers to use as firewood. The owner was never able to find or afford anyone to remake them. I agreed to do it even tho it was above my skill level I went to The Hardwood Connection in Sycamore, ironically to look for Sycamore wood. I believe it was destiny because they had just quarter sawn and dried a sycamore log. It was still on a cart and had not been put away yet. I bought a lot. A month later I went to buy more and it was all gone as it is such a beautiful wood. The owner lived with this built in cabinet without doors and drawers for 30 years:

Here are the drawers I made even using dovetails. I had never made them before but did not do them by hand but instead bought a dovetail jig for the router. You can see the fancy flecks in the quarter sawn sycamore. The original drawer has machine made dovetails.it is

The panels in the doors were duplicated from an existing door in another cabinet shown below.

The owner did a very nice job of matching the finish on the doors and drawers. Also shown are the new cabinet doors I made. Notice the wonderful wainscotting and the warming compartment in the radiator. The first floor has moldings to match the upgraded exterior. On the second floor the moldings are still from the original house. The study in th home was origanly the owners office. It is trimmed in the wildest grain, quarter sawn southern yellow pine. It is amazing to see.

This home has several different exterior crown moldings on it. Several had to be replaced.Prominent architects in the old days designed their own moldings and had local millwork companies make them. We had a huge millwork company in Elgin called Reinheimer brothers. I have made several hundred custom knives for molding making. Seldom do I use one twice. I have worked on several properties designed by W. W. Abell. He has a common denominator with his moldings in that he always puts steps in them. One of the moldings I had to replace was the largest crown I’d ever seen on an old house exterior. It has two sets of steps in it. Here’s a picture of the custom knife and molding I made to duplicate one of the crown moldings on the house.

 

My favorite architect in Elgin is W. W. Abell. I created a web page about him showing some pictures of his work.

Click here to find out more about W. W. Abell

 

/by
,

Making a re muddled porch steps into ones that are appropriate for the house

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 redo it. He came to me for help. I made custom spindles and rails for him to match the rest of the porch. I also made new appropriate treads for him. He found old interior newels for the balustrade which turned out to be a terrible mistake.

The newels were not kept caulked and painted so they rotted off in a matter of a few years.

New owners purchased the house but did not know what to do about the rotten newels. For months I had mentioned to the owners that I was interested in helping them. The City inspector informed them that the newels had to be repaired so they finally approached me for advice. Being short of funds they wanted to do the work themselves but needed some advice. I suggested buying fiberglass round columns from a big box store. They are about $100 and need to be cut in at least half for a newel. I then suggested that they take the bottom tread off and beef up the back of the first riser with a 2 X 6 to give something strong for the newel to attach to. They bolted a 4 X 4 to the beefed up riser making sure to line it up with the rail. Square holes need to be cut in the tread and column bases to slip them over the 4 X 4. The fiberglass column is then slipped over it and screwed to the 4 X 4. If the column is too small to fit over the 4 X 4 the corners may have to be sawed off. Below is the finished project. Notice they added a new cement first step when they put in a new sidewalk.

/by