A Little Black Paint Makeover

Our mailbox has been living on a front porch chair for over a year... ever since we removed the asbestos siding. I don't like our mailbox, and I was hesitant to drill holes into the brick for a box that wouldn't stay long.

Here's the old mailbox:


I removed the stick on numbers, lightly sanded it with 22o sandpaper, and spraypainted it with a can of black paint we had lying around in the garage:


I then realized that the stick on numbers were the only numbers visible from the street...

... the other house numbers had been painted white. Even though we intend on replacing the posts soon, we can't have the house unidentifiable! They were too delicate and paint encrusted to remove for stripping or proper painting, so I used a paint brush to paint the numbers black.

Here's what the mailbox and numbers look like on our house:


Much better than an ugly white mailbox sitting on the green chair! If it wears well, I may not even need to buy a new mailbox. Here's to a little paint.

Eye Candy and Paint Possibilities

Saw this on Flicker.... the perfect paint colors for our house.

Go take a look... it's gorgeous!

Funny enough, it's basically a twin to the other house in these colors we snapped a picture of:



Of course, my photography is no match!

Paint. And plywood. And one more stack of beadboard.

Also, the rental of a nail gun and air compressor to easily install the beadboard and plywood. THAT is what I would buy with a $200 gift certificate to Home Depot. Now... I don't have a $200 gift certificate, but luckily the fine folks over at One Project Closer are giving away just such a gift certificate! You can enter, too, but only if I win. Deal?

To Fred and Ethan: Pick me! Pick me! Can I send over fresh baked brownies?

Beadboard Ceiling!

While browsing through the Habitat ReStore in my city, I discovered a large pile of pine paneling, left over from some job or store closing. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that some of it was beadboard paneling. The best part? Each bundle of 6-8 foot boards was only $6! These bundles sell for $30 each in the store. I bought all they had, which was 6 bundles. This leaves me about 1 bundle short of the whole ceiling (after factoring in waste). Total cost for beadboard should be about $70 total after buying one more package at retail price.

It's decorative grade beadboard, so we will intall plywood first onto the open rafters to prevent warping. Our inspiration is Craig and Yvonne's gorgeous Victorian House, and the front porch ceiling they created. We will have to do a similar vaulted ceiling to avoid the window headers on our house. We are leaning towards staining it darkly just like they did, as well... would it be too fancy or dark for a little house like ours?

I'm really excited about how this porch project is coming together. We probably won't start true contruction before Memorial Day, but I'm going to start repairing the posts, staining or priming beadboard, and more. That way, we will be ready when the free time hits!

Tentative Porch... a Pictoral

A very nice person over at the Old House Web forums photoshopped the blue columns onto my front porch! Thank you so much, wletson! Just ignore the shutters on the house; we decided we don't want them.



They are really growing on me. I realized that these are just the right size for the porch. It would be prohibitively expensive to buy new posts that are a true 6 inches wide! (At least $300 each, I'm guessing, though I can't even find any that aren't really 5.5 inches.) I think we will just stick with these, unless something comes along first.

UPDATE: They may or may NOT be upside down. (This was photoshopped off of the old pictures- I think it gets the point across either way). I'm convinced it's an optical illusion to all of you! I have evidence in the bottoms of the posts, I think, and I'll take more pictures of the both ways. Plus, I think the posts look REALLY weird the other way... very top heavy.

More Porch Posts and a Decision Needed!

We did pick up THESE posts for free at one point... they are 6" wide, but aren't really traditional. I'm not sure they will work, so I hadn't mentioned them yesterday.



OK... here's the test run (in powder blue): I just leaned them up there.







Now... I have to make a decision soon (like by tomorrow or so), because I have an offer for someone to buy the posts for about the amount I need to buy 4 of the ones from Lowes (Edited to add... I'd just need to add $100 or so. On the other hand, if I use the blue posts, I can sell the remaining 7 or 8, and use that money to buy beadboard for the porch ceiling...) So... salvaged not quite right historically that need a little work to be perfect, or new construction closer to original, but are hollow and maybe not as "nice" of craftsmanship?

Porch Posts!

It's time to paint our house trim! But before we paint it, we need new porch posts. The current posts are hollow quasi-Craftsman squared columns. They are rotten through and through, and need replaced.

The columns are about 6 inches wide.

We know the porch is not original; you can see the "ghosts" of the old porch on the brick (the small white lines between the windows and the door). The original porch likely looked like THIS: (Our next door neighbor's house)


The posts on their house are turned posts, and there is a small amount of gingerbreading at the top. They appear to be a true 4 inches wide (and are more than likely original to the house, based on that size and the layers of paint that appear to be on them!).

We'd like to put actual turned posts like our neighbors back up, as the square columns are just too plain for the house. I've been trying to find salvaged posts for almost a year now, but can't find anything that doesn't cost $400 each OR they only have THREE posts. Sigh.


Question #1: Would it be weird to put half posts back up where the old half post ghosts are? The paint won't come off with anything that doesn't stain the brick, and we think this might be a nice way to hide the paint. Would it look weird though?

Question #2: What size of turned posts should I get? I know that the new 4 inch posts will be too spindly at barely 3 inches wide. Would a true four inch post be too small for the porch with it's larger roof? What do you think?

Question #3: Since I can't find salvaged posts, any pointers on buying new ones? Is there a reason I shouldnn't go buy the 5" or 6" posts from Lowes (that are actually 4 or 5 inches)?

We really can't afford much for the porch. I know we can't afford the $300 repro ones I've seen online that look gorgeous! We probably can't afford much more than $300 for all FOUR posts!

A New (Old) Storm Door

Picked up this storm door a few weeks ago; it needs a lot of work, but is just the right size for our odd opening.



It came with a glass storm insert AND a screen insert (the red behind the glass). One pane of glass is broken, and all of the panes need re-glazed. Part of the door needs re-glued, and the exterior side needs repainted, as the red paint is peeling and chipping. We'll leave the interior side natural. I'm excited; this should be the perfect small scale practice for reglazing our windows.

Window Trim

The plan was to have the exterior window trim finished this weekend; a nasty cold said otherwise! I still can't talk, but am feeling better.

Here's what I accomplished before falling ill:


All of the wood is cut and primed on all sides, and is ready to be installed! It is 3/4" square pine molding; we are going to "build out" the molding in a more decorative style when we paint in the spring.

We are looking at beautiful weather (for November) this weekend, so we should have it up, caulked, and painted soon!

Exterior Window Moldings...

When we removed the siding, we were left with ugly window trim:



All of the tan trim surrounding the window is not original; much of it is rotting, and it sticks out beyond the brick. It is also not sealed against the brick. The original windows (as seen from neighboring homes) were trimmed out inside the brick opening. We want to remove the tan trim and replace it with something much more suitable.

Here is a window without the tan trim:


This looks much better, and is more historically accurate (again, given surrounding houses). The problem is the gaps:




The quarter round molding currently on the outside of the window frame appears to be newer (it is missing the first layer of paint); it's broken in places and needs replaced anyway. My thought is to pry it off, and replace with a 1 inch deep block molding that will reach from the brick to where the storm windows will start.

Issues that need solving: Do I caulk between this wood molding and the brick? If not, how to I seal between the brick and wood?

A (mostly) Finished Windowsill

After two more Bondo applications, and a thorough sanding, we have a presentable window sill:



For those of you who don't remember, here's the "before":



It needs primed and painted now; this will wait until we decide what color/brand to use on the rest of the house. I'm not convinced that the original color (the dark brown on the window) is what I want... I'd prefer something with a little more "color".

Finally a project COMPLETED! (First one for this blog?) Off to work on the front door today, which had been neglected in the last few months. It's slow going... not a lot to show for my work!

Bondo... Part 2

An update on the window sill that I was fixing with Bondo....



I sanded the excess Bondo down with 60 grit sand paper on a random orbit sander. Here's how it looked after I was done:


A few spots left to fill, but overall a pretty good first try! A stiff bristle paint brush is excellent for removing all dust and dirt from the crevices of a repair such as this; important because Bondo needs a clean, dust free surface to adhere to.

This time, I had learned a few things about Bondo. I used an (old) spoon to mix and apply it instead of a putty knife, which allowed greater control. I mixed smaller batches of Bondo, and waited for them to hit "prime" spreading time... about 1 minute in. This is the result:



A little more sanding, and I think we will have it!

Red Brick Victorian Houses in Denver

While I was away, I found myself in a fabulous Denver neighborhood full of brick Victorian houses. Most are much grander than ours, but they gave us some great ideas for paint colors to match our red brick cottage.

Here are a few of our favorites:














I really like the first one and the fourth one the best. Here's the house mocked up:
#1


#4/5


We're still playing with paint ideas; here's one more:

Bondo and Rotting Things (or why I hate Bondo)

One of our window sills sustained water damage over the course of the last 100 years... I'm blaming the asbestos.



Instead of immediately replacing this HUGE solid piece of wood (that is probably holding up that entire wall!), we decided to see how far the rot went.

I started scraping the rotted wood out... it was so soft and crumbly that you could use a fingernail to remove it. I used a scraper instead. Fortunately, the rot stopped a good deal short of anywhere that could be considered structural...

Here is the sill after scraping all crumbly wood out, a light sanding to remove what paint survived the water, and the application of Miniwax Wood Hardener, to harden the remaining wood.




Now the fun part... BONDO.

When I read about using it, everyone said "It dries fast.. don't make much". I figured they were talking about a 5 minute set time... NOT a 5 SECOND set time. Ok... it's not quite that bad. But I would say you have about 30 seconds to get your mixed Bondo to exactly where you want it before it is permanently where you DON'T want it.



See?

Despite my increasingly miniscule portions, I'll be spending a lot of time with the sander and chisel.

(An aside... you can see the likely original color of the windows and trim on the wood of the window. It's the dark brown. I hate to say, I'm not a fan.)

Trim Colors on a Red Brick House

It's time now to play "Pick the Trim Color", where I turn the floor open to your suggestions! (Pictures are below) Picking colors is not my forte.

Some background information:
The house next door is an identical cottage; it has original turned porch posts and fancy bracketry. Its trim is black and white. You can see a picture of a similar house (much fancier, with gingerbread and gables) here (substitute black for green).
Our house wouldn't have had the railings, but would have had the turned posts and brackets. We want to put turned posts back up instead of the hollow square columns we currently have; they are severely rotted at the base, and to me they make the house look too formal and Jeffersonian.

A historic choice of color would be dark brown. Our windows are dark brown on the exterior; I'm guessing this was the original color (before the green and the white). Other historic color choices would include tan and green. There is a gorgeous brick cottage a few blocks up with a dark taupe, forest green, and burgundy color pallete.

Complicating matters, our roof is in good condition, and a very light grey. Not the most attractive roof for using a historic pallate of colors! We are, however, NOT changing the roof.

Finally, I would like to be able to use one of the accent colors as the color of the addition on the back side of the house and possibly the garage, accenting both with the remaining accent colors and possibly a little "brick color".

Now, here are our contestants:
#1

House #1 is sporting a lovely sage green trim on the fascia, soffits, windows, and posts. Dark grey and light grey accents on the turned posts and door, and a weird peachy tan on the sills and headers complete this version.

#2

The grey on the fascia, soffits, posts, sills, and headers of House #2 is almost the same color as the roof. Paired with a muted blue door and post accents, it will stand out on any street.

#3

A darker grey adorns House #3's main trim areas. The door, header and sills are all a sage green (you kind of lose them around the door!); the same color is paired with a muted burgundy on the posts.

#4

Tan pays a visit to House #4. Paired with dark sage green and burgundy, it looks good without the roof. May we suggest a new hat for House #4?
#5

House #5 has chosen a lovely taupe as it's main accent color. It has paired this with a muted blue door and porch accents, along with light grey headers, sills, and post accents. The grey is mirrored in the roof.

#6

A plagieriser, House #6 doesn't see fit to have an original thought. Pairing the greys and taupes of House #5 with the sage greens of earlier houses, it is a copy in all ways.

#7

A late contender, House #7 is clad in a rich brown with a burgundy door and green and window accents.

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Now... your thoughts? Which are your favorites and why? What colors might you try out instead, and where?

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In case you are wondering, I used Benjamin Moore's Personal Color Viewer to paint my pictures. Why? Because it was the only cheap program usable on a Mac. It works OK... the cursors are too big, and it is very difficult to do precise detail work. Also, the program is not very intuitive. I'm sure there are better programs out there!

A Look at the Brickwork

Our mason is back in town today, and coming over to talk about plans for continuing. I thought I would share pictures of the little bit of work that was completed before we discovered the moving walls. It really looks nice!

Underneath a Window
Before:

After:


A Corner
Before:


After:


This one isn't completely finished, as you can see... it was in progress when they stopped.

Overall, I am VERY pleased. The new mortar is almost indistiguishable from the old; the slight difference you can see is dirt staining the old mortar. The new bricks are blending in very well, too. I am glad we chose to hire this out; the level of craftsmanship is not something I feel I could attain myself!

Crisis Averted!

The structural engineer came out and didn't seem TOO worried. He said he's seen worse. And... the fix doesn't seem too expensive (and it sounds like we can do it ourselves if needed)...

We are going to drive 8 inch stainless steel corkscrews into the mortar to bring the two walls together. They shouldn't cost more than $5 each, are driven in with a hammer drill (which we have), and are needed every 16 inches or so sideways and up and down. We'll countersink them, and then fill in with a dab of mortar to patch. We will need to move the wall back into position using 4x4's and a masonry jack, as well.

We are going to have our mason bid on the new work, too... if it's reasonable, we'll let him do it. If it's a little much, we'll drive them in ourselves. Unfortunately, he is headed out on vacation this weekend, and won't be back until next week.

Crisis averted!

The Walls are Falling! The Walls are Falling!

I WISH I was Chicken Little.

The mason we chose to do the brickwork (Mason #2) came over to start work today. Since we hadn't yet replaced the too-small window or removed the excess wood from the windows, they started on the corners... they are doing a beautiful job so far! The mortar and bricks are matching almost seamlessly.

We removed the excess wood from the windows while they worked on the brick. It's the light tan wood in this picture, and was used to bring the window trim out beyond the siding:



It was obscuring some of the repairs needed.

Then the mason called us over to look at a couple sample patches for the nail holes. We decided that a particular mix of clay might work the best. As we watched, he pushed the clay into the nail hole... AND THE WHOLE WALL MOVED INWARDS.

The window frames were keeping the walls from moving.

We know what is happening... the two wyeths of brick that form the cavity wall are separating. They should have been laid with a Flemish course (using bricks laid the short way to tie the wyeths together) when it was built. Now we will have to find a way to tie these wyeths together 100 years later.

We have a structural engineer coming out at 9 am tomorrow... please send us your good thoughts. I have no idea how much this is going to cost. It sure sounds expensive. Wish us luck.

The Second Brick Estimate... and a Quandary

A second mason made his appearance at our house today; I must say I am impressed. He pronounced our house to be in excellent condition for its age and need in only minor repairs. (Just like the first mason).

Brownie Points:

• He mentioned that he used to live a couple blocks away in an old house, and how neat these old houses are.
• He mentioned that the old mortar was just lime and sand, which would need replicated to avoid damaging brick BEFORE I asked about what mortars he would use. (The other mason danced around this question, and mentioned something about white mortar)
• He was appalled that we might paint, and said he could make it look good enough to not need paint. (The other mason said we couldn't NOT paint)
• He has enough bricks of the right size, age, and approximate color in his yard RIGHT NOW to do the job. (The other mason wasn't sure where to get them)

Did I mention he doesn't want us to paint?

We had him give us two estimates; one for just structural work so we could paint and one for making it "pretty" with matching brick and mortar.

Structural Work: $600
"Pretty" Work: $1800
(In comparison, the first mason was $400 to $800 for essentially structural work)

I must say... the "pretty" work was much less than I feared it could be. It doesn't include filling the nail holes, as he said that anything he could do would look like filled nail holes, and the holes themselves would be less notice-able.


Now the quandary... perhaps we should not have started this project this summer, but money is tight around here. Due to grad school, less work than usual this summer for me, and the rising cost of fuel and food, we will really have to scrape $1800 up (and credit of any sort is NOT an option). Unfortunately, I don't think we can do the $600 structural fix, and then "go back" and have them do the "pretty" fix. We really do want the natural brick, and I think it will have higher resale value overall...

Vote: Paint or Natural?

We Finally got a Brick Estimate!

We FINALLY got a mason to come over and look at our house! It only took about 10 days of calling every mason in the phone book. Isn't there a housing crisis and a downturn in house building right now? You'd think they'd need work!

The mason was very hard to read... in fact, we thought our house might be falling down from the looks on his face for about 5 silent minutes.

Luckily, he was very positive! He said it looks structurally fine, and that there was about a day's work in repointing various spots and rebuilding some of the areas under windows. He didn't want to give an actual estimate until we had scrubbed the brick down... but did give us a ball park of $400 a day, with no more than 2 days of work. Definitely in our price range...

He WASN'T so positive about being able to keep it natural OR our ability to find matching bricks... he said we will probably need to paint due to this.

So here's the question... how bad WILL a missmatched brick or three look every once in a while? Is it preferable to painted brick? And finally... if we are going to end up painting it, will we be better off just doing the work ourselves (since it won't have to look perfect if it is to be covered in paint)?

(For pictures of the work to be done, see this post)