Our New Old House

I’m really good with rope.

In case you were wondering.

(wink)

I got to put my rope skills to good use replacing one of the sash cords on my window.

The weights were neatly tucked away in their pocket. The remaining old sash cord was still attached to the fallen weight.

It’s really important to tie this specific knot when you’re putting new sash cord on a weight. It won’t slip over time and come undone. It only gets tighter.

Here’s what a new bundle of sash cord looks like. My windows take medium gauge but there is lighter gauge too. Remember that if you have rounded pulleys you must use rope and if your pulleys have a flat rolling surface, you can use chains.

Now, my original plan was to fish the end of the rope down through the pulley, let it drop down into the weight cavity, and tie it onto the weight. But when I tried that the end of the cord kept getting caught on some of the plaster keys and I couldn’t force it down the cavity far enough to grab it. I decided to use a snake to pull it up from below because that would give me a firmer guide.

Here’s my wiring snake with a bit of yarn tied on the end that I would attach to the end of the sash cord.

Yet another tricky thing about this project was that the pulley had a slope on the inside. It didn’t just open through to the weight cavity, it had an extended piece that sloped down in the same direction as the rope would go, presumably to help prevent drafts coming in around the rope. Unfortunately, this made the hole JUST the right size for the rope and nothing more. It was a tight squeeze but I got the snake through and the end of the sash cord fit just right.

I measured it to be about the same length as the one next to it and tied it off. I left some extra on the end so I’ll have something to work with if the knot needs to be adjusted when I put the sash back in.

Hmmm… now what else can I tie with sash cord?

Who’d have ever thought I’d be using the mirror I carry in my purse to help out on a house project?

I wanted to make sure I removed all the paint from the inside of the parting bead because the moving window sashes would eventually break away the paint and release lead into the home in years to come. I was surprised how much I had missed when I finally pulled out my mirror to take a look.

One more round of chemical stripping, coming right up!

Admitting you have a problem is the first step toward getting over it. In my case, blogging about having rehabber’s block helped me re-focus my attention on the things that have been holding me back.

In the case of my window restoration project I kept running into setbacks with the hardware and the fact that I got bored sanding by hand. I decided I’d just have to suck it up about the sanding but the hardware was a tougher problem.

Like everything else in our house that shouldn’t have been painted the window hardware was all painted over. I used the handy dandy ammonia trick as seen in this post but the paint was hard to get out of the moving parts.

I soaked them too long and they rusted.

So I got hung up on how to fix the hardware. Finally, I just said, “You know what? I can get new hardware that looks like old hardware for the same amount as it would take to restore the old hardware.” Block dissolved.

Don’t worry, preservationists, I’m going to pack the old hardware away for any future rehabbers who want to take on the task. But as I looked through the rest of the hardware on the windows around my house, I noticed a few have missing pieces anyway. I might as well make them all match.

So with that block out of the way I continued working on the window frame I’m prepping.

I wanted to make sure and remove all the lead paint from the areas that will have moving parts, so I used Zinsser 5-layer chemical strip and then sanded the last bits of residue off. I followed each pass with the sandpaper with a wipe down with a wet cloth so the dust wouldn’t be airborne. I wore a mask and dusted the rest of the room with a damp cloth afterward too.

The frames are looking pretty good now!

Next up: replacing a broken sash cord and the benefits of being a girl home rehabber!

Hey readers,

Do you ever find yourself losing motivation mid-project? Find yourself staring at the window frame you’ve been meaning to sand for six months and just can’t bring yourself to pick up the sandpaper? Do you find yourself stymied by that one little distasteful part of a project and seek out every possible distraction to feel like you have an excuse for not finishing it?

I’m going to call it Rehabber’s Block and I must confess I’ve got a pretty bad case.

I’ve gotten lots done around the house this summer. Planted a rose garden, reclaimed some weed-ridden patches in the back yard, found some great baseboards to replace the ones my bathroom is missing… but the one project I really need to finish sits idle. I just can’t get myself motivated to do it.

If you’ve faced this problem, what got you past it? Send me your stories and suggestions. I’m floundering here and I need to get back to work!

Blocked and bewildered,

Kelli

This month we were thrilled to be invited to tour the grand mansion at the corner of 21st and University in Des Moines. Owners Aaron and Michael bought the house in 2009 and have been converting it back from being a commercial building as a former funeral home and retreat house into a single family residential home. They still have some work to do and opted to enlist the help of our Rehabbers Club members to come up with ideas about how to tackle some of their ongoing projects.

I took some video of our tour. It’s about 40 minutes long, so pause the player and give it time to buffer. If you have a Vimeo log in you can also download the video to watch on your own computer, which may fix the buffering problem.

Des Moines Rehabbers Club Meeting April 2011 from Kelli Griffis on Vimeo.

The grand entrance, which faces 21st St., features this beautiful tile floor:

The grand staircase flanks one side of the foyer:

Ornate, hand-carved newell post:

We started our tour in the receiving parlor. Here’s Aaron telling us about the history of the house. To his left is Michael. The room behind Michael was the original dining room.

Here’s the rest of the crowd.

The room behind the group is known as the library and has the most ornate crown molding in the house. It seems to be made of plaster and to have been cast and painted on the ground and then mounted to the walls in pieces.

The decoration seems to include some Arabic calligraphy script, which I’m seeking help in understanding. If anybody out there can read Arabic calligraphy and tell us what this says, I’d be truly grateful!

From the main foyer, pocket doors open to the formal parlor:

The formal parlor includes this gorgeous fireplace:

Pocket doors lead from the formal parlor to the receiving parlor and on through to the dining room. We speculated that another set of pocket doors would have led to the dining room.

The original kitchen was dismantled and a new modern kitchen is on the second floor. Aaron and Michael plan to restore a full size kitchen to the main floor. An original bathroom does survive, though, and it has some beautiful tile details.

The second floor shows off this beautiful curved hallway that lets in the light from the tall stained glass windows.

Five bedrooms and a servant’s apartment at the back make up the second floor.

This would have been quarters for the servants. The doorway on the right in the background is a pass-through closet to another room and includes a built in dresser.

A very small sun room was added on in the 1960s with a small addition. We speculated this was originally an open air porch that was later enclosed. It is only about 4 and a half feet tall.

This doorway goes back to what is now a modern kitchen. It includes two linen closets, which leads us to believe it was part of the servants’ area where they lived and cared for the family’s linens.

Next up was the third floor. Originally a ballroom, it later became the casket showroom for the funeral home and the area to the left of the stairs was the embalming room.

This unusual antique ceiling fan is on the third floor. I didn’t hear whether Aaron said this was original to the house or simply period appropriate.

From there we ventured outside and got a good side view of the house:

We talked about landscaping questions, including the unique challenge of having nearly an acre of parking lot.

One of Aaron’s questions was what to do with the sign. Some people suggested removing it and using the existing electrical wiring to run a fountain.

The brick driveway is a feature Aaron wants to restore and use, but part of it is covered by concrete. The part in the photograph is an example of some interesting ways to fit bricks together around a round driveway.

Next up we looked at the carriage house.

It has the original brick floor…

…and is a treasure trove of historic artifacts, including this unique piece of plumbing fixture. People had all kinds of speculations about this one. Is it a sitz bath? A tub specifically for bathing infants and children? Something specific to the funeral home business? You tell me. Leave a comment and tell me what you think.

A close-up of the knobs:

A small side staircase led to the carriage house apartment where the stable hands and carriage driver would have lived.

The place was in bad shape but we could all see the potential for a really cool living space or artist’s studio or something here.

It felt like entering a time capsule where nothing had been touched for a hundred years.

They found trunks full of old papers and letters, as well as some remnants of household items.

You could almost imagine a small team of horses grazing outside the window there.

That concluded our tour. Aaron and Michael have a beautiful home and lots of enthusiasm about bringing it up to its full potential. Thanks a million to both of them for sharing their home’s story with us. We’ll be checking back to find out how things are going.