Our New Old House

When Doug Burnett showed me the window sashes we were going to install with Bob Yapp‘s method of weatherizing strips, I didn’t notice at first that some were newly constructed recreations of the originals. He used mortise and tenon joints and stained and painted them to match the originals, so they really fit the character of the original windows. Since it was new construction fitting into the frame of an old, settled house some small adjustments had to be made here and there, but the ultimate effect was well worth it.

One thing Doug and I both agreed on was that measuring and lining everything up as squarely as possible is very important, but that when working with old houses, you just get a knack for eyeballing if something needs to be shaved down on one side or built a little less than square from the beginning. A perfectionist will have some serious personal growth to accomplish if they ever want to fix up an old house because inevitably one side of a window will need to be a millimeter wider than the other, or the bottom of a door will have to be shaved to fit the slanted floor it closes over. This is where the exact science of construction meets the artistry of craftsmanship. Only by finding balance between the two will you have a happy home renovating experience.

In Doug’s case, he had to bore holes on each side deep enough to let the sash cord knot sink into without blocking the channel through which the metal weatherizing rail would slide. This took a bit of trial and error, but he eventually figured out just the right depth.

He carved out the channel for the sash cord with a curved chisel. (I helped on this one.)

So, here’s one end of the sash with the hole and channel for the sash cord. If you look closely at the bottom you can see that the sash has been slotted for the weatherizing rail too.

Unfortunately I didn’t take good pictures of both of the sashes, but here’s the original sash:

And here’s the reproduction Doug built:

When we put the newly constructed sash into the window frame we realized that the bottom of the sash was not slanted to meet the sill. Window sills are slanted at about a 10 degree angle to allow water to run toward the outside of the house. The bottom of our sash was square so it didn’t allow the meeting rails to fit level when the sashes were closed. Doug shaved off one corner of the bottom of the sash to match the angle of the sill better.

With that little extra effort the new sash fit in perfectly and after we had it installed you couldn’t tell by looking at it that the bottom sash was brand new and the top sash was 100 years old.

Check back next time and I’ll take you on a tour of Doug’s cool old farmhouse!

A few weeks ago I attended Bob Yapp‘s workshop about weatherizing windows. It was sponsored by the Center on Sustainable Communities.

Bob showed us a system of adding metal rails for the original wood sashes to run on that blocked air from coming around the sides of the sashes and helped the sashes open and close more smoothly.

Doug Burnett of Burnett Realty has started using the system on the windows in a 1910 farmhouse near Runnells and since I was just about to start my window project, he offered to let me come see how he’d done it and gave me some tips for how to put Bob Yapp’s suggestions into practice.

One of the things he showed me was that a circular saw could be used to make the slots for the metal rails. He used a table saw.

One modification Doug made to Bob’s plan was in his measurement for the top sash. Because the wheel for the sash cord is in the way, he couldn’t put the rail all the way to the top. But with stops on both sides of the sash, he wasn’t concerned about any cold air getting through at that spot. He measured the rail to start just below the wheel and end an inch below the bottom of the sash.

After he’d cut the length, he lopped off the corners to make them less sharp and more attractive.

One side of the rails is installed with a staple gun (the kind that’s like a nail gun run off an air compressor) like so:

The other side is installed with screws so it can be removed later if needed.

Doug drilled pilot holes into the strips between the corrugated ridges. He used a drill bit that was larger than needed to accommodate the shaft of the screw so that the screw head has room to sink into the strip and not catch on the sash as it slides up and down the rail. Drilling through the strip left some pretty bad burrs on the back of the strip, which would make it hard to slide the strip into place with the sash, so he used a belt sander to remove the burrs and smooth the back of the strips. A steel file or a rasp would work for this too.

These are the screws he used (took this picture so I’d know which screws to pick out at the hardware store):

Doug also replaced some of the sash cord.

We successfully installed the upper and lower sashes with the steel rails and there was much rejoicing. Mostly we ate cookies.

Check back with my next post to see how we prepped a newly constructed sash to be fitted for sash ropes and shaved down the bottom side of the sash to meet the angle of the sill. There’s much more to come!

The other night I wanted to rinse out some cups. about 2-3 seconds after turning on the water a small mouse (we’ve known we’ve had for about a week) sprung up out of the garbage disposal sink drain. He was very small (young, but adolescent), very frightened, and obviously wet. He scurried across the counter to a corner and tried to hide behind a jar.

We had been leaving our cupboards open in the hope that the cats would catch it this past week, but not only had they failed, when we tried to show them the mouse they were too afraid of being on the counter and immediately jumped down. (We’ve apparently trained them too well about staying off the kitchen counter).

By this point I’d gotten a better look at the mouse and felt bad about the idea of one of my cats getting it anyway. So with Kelli’s help we slowly cleared away various objects from the counter and I picked up a small plastic container to try and catch it. After we’d moved nearly everything out of the way, it made a dash out from behind the jar and I had it trapped momentarily with the side of the plastic container. However, it broke free and scurried to the other side of the counter behind the microwave.

So we started clearing everything away from that side of the counter. Then turned the microwave away from the wall a little and it dashed underneath and around to the sink again, but at this point fell into the sink basin and I was able to get the container over it.

Finally I slid the lid under and had it trapped and I took it far out to the shed in our back yard to let it loose.

The whole ordeal was probably 20+ minutes, and I was exasperated by the end of it.

So yeah… my cats apparently have about as much interest in mousing as Garfield. But it was oddly still kind of an enjoyable experience. …now to wash everything.

With the damage done to our ash tree in this summer’s storms, we were prompted to take a good look at the rest of the trees on our property. One of our neighbors is a tree surgeon, so I asked him to look over the yard with me.

The catalpa tree between my house and my neighbor’s has long been of concern. It’s a beautiful tree but very messy and the seed pods and leaves it drops have been damaging both of our roofs. Ralph said he was shocked the two halves of the tree, which leaned out at precarious angles over both roofs, hadn’t fallen on our houses yet. It also provided way too much shade and made it impossible to grow grass between our houses. We decided that it would be a good time to take that tree out.

Here’s the spot between our houses from around the time we moved in:

Another tree that posed a threat was a huge double elm in the backyard. We have several Chinese elms, most of which are in good shape, but this one grew double and the two halves had been splitting apart over the years, hollowing out in the middle and threatening to fall on my neighbor’s garage.

In this picture, it’s the big tree on the far left.

Here’s a full size view of the whole tree. They’d started cutting some of its top limbs by the time I took this picture.

In the process of taking down the double Chinese elm:

In addition to these big trees, there were a bunch of smaller trees that had volunteered as saplings years ago when nobody was taking care of the yard. One clump of them was along my neighbor’s garage and one was along the slab where a garage had once stood on our property.

I took this photo from on top of a ladder two years ago. On the left you can see three trees by our neighbor’s garage, and on the right you can see the clump of volunteer trees that frequently dropped limbs on our power line.

In the midst of these volunteer trees were a mock orange bush and two lilac bushes. Both were getting too shaded out and were growing spindly, especially the lilac.

And here’s the back yard with the scrubby stuff removed. (Note the caution tape around the double elm, signaling its impending doom.)

My next task this fall is going to be cutting back the lilac and mock orange bushes to help them grow back better. They’d both grown all wide and spindly because they weren’t getting any sun. Time to shape them up a bit better. (Anyone with tips on seriously pruning lilac bushes, please let me know! I’ve never done it and I’m nervous about killing them!)

Here’s the space between the house, post catalpa removal:

And the back yard sans double elm and scrubby trees:

Now that there aren’t limbs dangling dangerously over the spot where we want to build a shed, we should probably, um, build a shed. Hope to finish that before the first snow falls. Meanwhile, we’re adjusting to the look of the back yard with far fewer trees. I’m still mourning the loss of some big old trees, but I’ll be excited to plant some nice saplings and start the cycle over again. One of the reasons we love our neighborhood so much is because of all the big old trees. They give the area a permanent, established feeling. Now’s our chance to choose trees that will last another 50 years and give future residents the same environment we’ve enjoyed.

This week I’ve been taking off the wallpaper in the back bedroom. Yeah, this wallpaper:

And behind the door I uncovered some pencil marks. It took me a minute to figure out what they were. See if you can tell:

Give up? It’s a child’s height and weight and the dates! The dates being from 1944 and 1945 and the height and weight matching the size of a five or six year old, I figured it must be my friend Judy, who lived in our house until the summer of 1945. She was six when they moved up the street to a bigger house.

Just below the measurements was another set of pencil marks:

Judy must have been practicing her numbers. (Sorry that picture came out blurry.)

I finished working on that room with a big smile on my face. Pictures of the back bedroom to come soon.