This home was foreclosed upon and purchased by two flippers from Chicago for $78,400 in July of 2017. The porch had a lot of rotten parts that needed replacing and I was hired to do that.
Some of the curved rails were rotten. The previous contractor had done some good work but did not use treated lumber and the owner did not keep it painted and caulked. I made new rails.
Some of the spindles had rotted bottoms so I replaced them.
The curved rails on the knee walls had to be replaced.
I made new. The rails are old growth cypress and the spindles are oak, both of which have great rot resistance. They were also treated with preservative. The base is made from treated lumber.
The house was redone inside and painted on the outside. It is currently for sale for$249,000
Click here to see the listing with interior pictures and a slide show of interior pictures before the rehab.
https://oldhouseporches.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/414.jpg441665Dan Millerhttps://oldhouseporches.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/old-house-porches-dan-miller-logo.jpgDan Miller2018-10-19 22:59:312021-06-07 08:42:03Repairs at 414 N. Spring
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.
After the crash President Obama funded a huge program called the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP). Cities nationwide were given money to buy and rehab properties made vacant problems by the crash. Elgin received over 2 million dollars. With it they bought eight properties. One they tore down as it was too far gone.
Just recently they have started work on building a new house in its place. Three houses they oversaw their own rehabilitation of spending a terrific amount of money to rehab very nicely. They all now have great new owners. When a house is nasty it attracts desperate people. You have to make them nice to attract decent people. Four homes they gave to Habitat for Humanity to rehab. This was one. It was a two unit.
They hired an architect to draw up plans for the porches.
As a volunteer, I made the balls in the balustrade, the front porch gable ornament, the rails, newels, brackets and porch skirting. The design for the skirting came from a porch nearby. Habitat stripped most of the paint off of the house, rehabbed the interior nicely, and rebuilt the porches. The only thing that could have been done better is to make the posts meatier.
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.
In 1975 we inherited a nice rocking chair from my wife’s grand parents. It was missing a spindle. We looked everywhere for someone to make one spindle for us. We found places that would make 100 but not one. I was starting to get into woodworking as a necessity in rehabbing our first house so I decided to buy a lathe and turn it myself. The lathe cost $500 so my wife was not a happy camper as together we were only making $18,000 as teachers.
When I told a friend at work that I bought a lathe he literally laughed loudly at me saying that he knew all kinds of guys that had bought a lathe and then made a couple of salt and pepper shakers and never used it again. I vowed to prove him wrong and appease my wife.
Tom Ackeman and David Powers had converted a run down mansion that was being used as artists flophouse in the neighborhood into a private dining club called the Butterman’s. The rehab of this house was the first in a neighborhood and turned out to be an inspiration to others to do the same. I had noticed that the fancy porch was missing two spindles in the spandrel.
I went into the club and found Tom in the third floor lounge sitting back in a huge chair smoking a cigar and sipping a cocktail. I asked him if I could make the two spindles for him in exchange for a dinner for my wife and I. He jumped at the chance. I made the two spindles before reading anything about how to turn wood. I later found out that what I was doing was really scraping wood not turning it. There are two different spindles in the spandrel and I made one of each. Here it is today
We had a great dinner and the rocker was repaired so my wife was feeling a little bit better about my new expensive toy. I made friends with Tom and Dave and later did some intricate spindles for the interior balustrade. They had a wedding reception there and kids broke several of the spindles. I was paid well for the work.
This picture shows ones missing.
This picture shows my repairs. The spindles are small and oak so they were very hard to turn.
I read everything I could about wood turning and did several more jobs in the neighborhood for pay.
When my daughter came along in 1981 so I definitely wanted to use the lathe to make some toys.
The first one was a rattle that she never used as the handle was too big to hang on to and it was too heavy for a baby. Making the rings was a challenge but luckily I had an article describing how to do it.
My mother used to put string thru a large button to create a toy. If you pull in and out on the string it spins the button. It was a lot of fun to play with. I made the same thing out of wood:
I made a wonderful spinning top
I glued maple and walnut together to make striped ball for the seal. The axle has a cam on it so the ball goes up and down when you pull it.
Since then I have made hundreds of interior and exterior spindles for old house customers. The most satisfying ones I have ever done were for a mansion at 4 N. Jackson in Elgin.
In the 70’s it was vacant and homeless people were living there. They took out several details to burn to stay warm. They took drawers made of quarter sawn sycamore which I also duplicated. Another thing they took were spindles from the grand staircase. They were missing all these years until I volunteered to make them.
It is common to find Tuscan column bases rotted. I have turned at least 50.
I turned turned 75 spindles for our own porch. The wood is glued up old growth cypress recycled from a water tower taken down in Chicago.
I turned the spindles for the porch across the street from us:
After the crash President Obama started a program called the National Stabilization Program. (NSP) Cities were given money to buy and rehab problem properties. Elgin received 1.2 million. I got to make the spindles for one. Thanks President Obama for spending taxpayer dollars in such a productive manner. Sure beats buying a new fighter jet!!!! For the cost of one jet hundreds and hundreds of problem properties were brought back across the nation.
As a volunteer I turned the balls for this porch balustrade on a house Habitat for Humanity rehabbed:
I have made hundreds of custom rosettes which are also called bullseyes for interior and exterior old house trim. I wrote an article for This is Carpentry on how to make custom rosettes.
I love round corner blocks on old house trim. It is not used very often. I only know of two houses in Elgin that have them and I got to duplicate some for both. You start by turning a big disk then cut in into four parts for the corner block.
The owner of the The Wing Mansion in Elgin had an old picture of his porch showing details that were now missing. I made the crosses with the chamfers and ball finial 0n top and the half balls.
The most difficult job I have done is turning the parts for a missing balustrade. A past owner had taken two sections of the balustrade down to put in a will for an apartment. I made all of the little pieces for the balustrade including hundreds of small turnings in oak. I also made the newel post and rail. This picture shows one of two sections I made.
For 40 years I have turned wood into spindles, finials and column bases. I have never used a lathe duplicator and would often mention that those that use one are not really turning wood. A few months ago I finally broke down and bought one.
I spent as much for the duplicator as I did for the entire lathe back in 1979. I have used it twice. Once for large ball finials. Balls are typically hard to make look round on a lathe. With the duplicator I drew a perfect circle for the template and made a perfect circle every time. That was nice.
The only problem with the duplicator is that it cannot do fine lines so I have to touch up with lathe tools. I made the bead in the center of this ball with a skew, not the duplicator.
These were the first spindles I turned with the duplicator. The gray one is the original.
I made these finials for the same house before I got the duplicator. The one with paint is the original I duplicate the old fashioned way with calipers and lathe tools.
https://oldhouseporches.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/003_Untitled.jpg956874Dan Millerhttps://oldhouseporches.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/old-house-porches-dan-miller-logo.jpgDan Miller2018-01-01 12:14:582019-06-04 23:47:56The Saga of My Wood Lathe
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.
https://oldhouseporches.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/IMG_4392-Copy.jpg27131593Dan Millerhttps://oldhouseporches.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/old-house-porches-dan-miller-logo.jpgDan Miller2017-10-05 23:21:242019-06-04 23:55:50Repairing an unusual porch post
https://oldhouseporches.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/IMG_4627-e1505882286711.jpg40323024Dan Millerhttps://oldhouseporches.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/old-house-porches-dan-miller-logo.jpgDan Miller2017-09-20 00:26:422019-11-11 22:51:06A porch upgrade for 126 Hill
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 recreate the missing elements and to her credit she agreed.
Luckily there was still a half post showing the exact dimensions of the post and what the crown and bracket used to look like.
A past owner took the post and brackets off and put in a very simple and unattractive balustrade and newels made of 2 X 4s.
I recreated a newel post and corner post with crown and brackets to match the existing. I chose inexpensive turned balusters from Menard’s. The paint shown is primer.
Here it is painted.
The finial I made for the newel is a scaled down version of the pendant on the brackets.
The side porch was poorly built of 2 X 4 ‘s.
It should have been torn off and rebuilt from scratch but the owner is on a tight budget so I left the deck and roof and just gussied it up a little bit with posts, brackets and turned balusters. There is a drop off so I added a fancy balustrade at the top and on the stairs as shown below.
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 did the same for my wife. We had several onthe porch and actually asked neighbors for their opinions. I often put different moldings on a mockup to show the customer the choices as shown below.
Lattice is often appropriate. Store bought lattice does not usually look good. Lots of people just tack it onto the water table board. If you are going to use lattice it has to have a frame and be set back a coupole of inches. The frame should be a little wider at the bottom than the top and sides. I like to make my own lattice. Store bought lattice make squares. I like to make a little smaller diamonds. I think it looks really classy. Some moding and a routed cove on the edge add a lot also.
The apron designs that I have collected all come from actual old houses. The most famous one that I have is from a house that W. W. Abell designed at 327 W. Chicago. Remaking it was very time consuming as it has overlapping joints.
Click here to see other porch apron designs. Double click on a picture to enlarge it.
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 be on the committee that looked at houses for sale in Elgin to pick the ones most in need of help. With the Federal money the city bought eight or ten houses, rehabbed four themselves and gave the rest to Habitat for Humanity to rehab. They put out a request for proposals to contractors to bid on the city owned properties. One of the houses was awarded to Carlos Rivera at Homework Construction an Elgin firm and the other three were given to a contractor from St. Charles. I have a great relationship with Carlos so I was hired to recreate a lot of the missing details at 162 Summit. Here is how it looked when the city purchased it for $56,430 in 2010. It had wide exposure aluminum siding on it and was two units.
I exactly duplicated hundreds of feet of missing interior trim, recreated fancy window hoods on the exterior and repaired the broken gable ornaments.
When a past owner put aluminum siding on the house he had to take all of the window trim off to make a flat surface to easily reside. The marks onthe house were used to recreate the window hoods.
Here is a mockup of a window hood I made to get approval from the city and their architect.
Here are finished window hoods:
The original side porch post and balustrade had been replaced with wrought iron but no pictures of the original porch were available.
Luckily the gable ornaments, front porch canopy and their fancy brackets remained. The gable ornaments needed extensive repairs. Here they are after repairs were made. The left half is new as is the turned pendant.
This was made new to duplicate the original exactly.
An architect was hired to design the new porch. I suggested a design that I thought would be appropriate. I made full scale mockups of everything to show the city and architect. I was allowed to carry out my designs.
I put the mockup on the house to check for scale and to get the okay from the city and architect. The two window hoods in the picture are new.
The spindle design was taken from the spindle on the canopy brackets as seen below.
Here is the finished bracket. Notice the classic symbolism of the crescent moon and star.
Of the design Wikipedia says, “Today, the crescent moon and star symbol is universally recognized as a symbol of Islam, and for that reason, it appears on the flag of many countries where Islam is a state religion or which has a largely Muslim population. Currently 8 countries have this symbol on their national flags, and all of them are
Muslim-majority.”
For info on the history of the star and crescent moon click here.
The plans had called for Home Depot spindles. I turned 15 custom spindles to match the design in the brackets. I also made the rails and post.
The contractor entered the home in the annual Chicagoland Painted Ladies contest and won.
Click here to read a Herald article about the property.
Click here to see some interior pictures of the home.
garbage picked the original front door when the house was being rehabbed. He gave it back to us.
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.
was too big to hang on to and it was too heavy for a baby. Making the rings was a challenge but luckily I had an article describing how to do it.
of two houses in Elgin that have them and I got to duplicate some for both. You start by turning a big disk then cut in into four parts for the corner block.
balustrade. A past owner had taken two sections of the balustrade down to put in a will for an apartment. I made all of the little pieces for the balustrade including hundreds of small turnings in oak. I also made the newel post and rail. This picture shows one of two sections I made.
