First Look At The Millwork

Just received some preview pix of the millwork and am beyond excited!

Here is the door that we found in a scrap heap. Unsalvageable sadly, but we used it to inspire the doors to come.

 

Now the new:

 

 Bathroom Door

Glass paneled back doors to sitting porch and dining porch

Interior double doors

Details

Though they lack the charm of a door long abandoned in a backyard, they will WORK which is nice.  And they're lovely too, don't you think? ;-)



 

 

Prepping the "Pretty": Lacquer removal. A labour of love.

BRASS IS BEAUTIFUL.

our Deltana hardware after a thorough de-lacquering

 

But only after it's aged a bit really. Apparently, I am alone in this belief as nearly all manufacturers of brass hardware produce it with a lacquer finish that keeps it from tarnishing. And that lacquer ultimately yellows to a really weird fake gold color over time and hides all the inherent beauty of the brass.

But there's good news, that lacquer can be removed! And it can be removed easily - though it took us two houses and countless hours of scrubbing to realize this. I now share the secret with you:

 

1) Multi Strip Professional Paint remover

2) Paint and sponge brushes
3) fine Brillo pads
4) patience
5) elbow grease

Multi- strip has the consistency of "Slime" and it's best to slime the hardware with enough Multi Strip to cover the hardware and the surrounding surface. Wait three hours, wipe the slime off with a paper towel and the lacquer will slide right off with it. Inevitably, some spots of lacquer will remain but then you enthusiastically scrub any remaining lacquer off with the brillo pad. Et voila! Lacquer free brass.
It will now age to a deep rich brass color that looks better and better!

I would have never had the guts to try this had the fantastic architect Maria dela Guardia of DLGV Architects not suggested it and I am forever in her debt. It makes a world of difference!

"Wetting the Roof:" a Bahamian Tradition

When I first saw this photo  of the small cottage's new roof in mid August, I asked Owen what the flag was for and he said "To wet the roof."

I figured that was some sort of technical term with a definition above my pay grade so I let it be.

But when we came down at the end of the month and saw this flag on the original house's new roof, I was curious about the term and asked what was needed to wet a roof and why.

He responded "well usually, a case of beer or some rum."
WHAT!?
Yep. When a crew finishes pitching a roof, they raise the flag, grab some booze and christen the roof with a splash for the house and the rest for the crew.
I LOVE THIS TRADITION!!

We missed that glorious moment but decided to "wet the shingles" after the front side was completed just for the fun of it and Owen did the honours:

Terrific tradition that I wish we could employ for every "first!"

What's New is (or looks) Old Again

I have a camera full of  amazing photos of the latest Jewelbox developments but it appears that I left the cable required to download these photos at Jewelbox! GRRRR.
I did come back with my tape measure though. This, I couldn't find when I was there and needed it but now that I am back in NYC, it seems to be exactly where I thought I put it in the first place. 
Helpful!

So the photos from my iphone will have to suffice.
But what terrific photos they are!

It been three months since Jewelbox went from this:

To this:

 

An almost identical copy but with a little more height, dormers and whole new roof.
Putting the old wood back up was the plan from the start and it does much to increase the house's authentic appearance.

Cladding the street facing dormers with some of the siding lengths that were too damaged to use on the side anymore is one of my favorite details so far.

Another one of my favorite details is the new siding that the crew milled on site to mirror the old siding EXACTLY!

It is gorgeous!

10 x 1” pressure treated wood that three guys have to maneuver through a saw at just the right angle to create the same look. It’s time consuming and probably not at all fun for them but they’re really good at it and it is THE difference between a house that looks original and a house that looks newly built.

LOVE IT!!!!




  

Eight Weeks in a Flash

This video is a bit of an exaggeration, but it feels like the house is flying up this fast. 

Details II!

And now this joyful update.

The new ceiling beams were installed today and the guys very conscientiously ripped the same tiny bead detail into the new beams as existed in the old.

I LOVE IT!  Everyday I can better see the forest through the trees of house wrap and concrete block and plywood and all those things I can’t stand to see in a house but know must be there.

A few hundred coats of paint and you won’t even notice the difference!!

 

And check this out. The view of the north windows originally and as of today.

 

 

 

It's all in the details!

Hopefully, the photo documentation of the house’s reconstruction has been as entertaining to you as it has been to me. This is doubtful I know, as it’s not your house and you couldn’t care less if it stands or falls; but I hope that if you’re interested in construction, you’ve been pretty impressed all the same.

Personally, I have been blown away by this entire process – so very different from the Chatterbox project – and I wake up every day excited for the day’s events.

Owen Higgs - seriously one of my favorite people and definitely my all time favorite contractor on the planet – is as passionate about construction and preserving an old school vibe as I am. And better, he, and his awesome team, knows how to make it happen.

I realize that at this stage, there’s very little that appears original but that’s about to happen and hopefully in a marvelous way.
Let's review:
A quick check of the photos of the original structure shows an old and beautifully shaped building in seriously bad condition.

 

We’d hoped that we would be able to sort of reinforce it in a non-invasive way. After spending a day in there kicking the crumbling foundation stones and touching solid seeming walls that turned to dust, it became powerfully clear that the only way to keep it from falling down was to take it down, build a proper structure and then reinstall all the usuable wood from the original building.

the original foundation from the interior

 

new foundation before the lime and curry dirt treatment

 

I can’t tell you how painful this was! Sort of like having to re-break a kids broken arm in order to properly set it. It’s the absolute best thing to do, but in the moment it just feels mean!

It wasn’t until last week when they built the kitchen frame and used old wood beams as the posts did I really believe that rebreaking the arms of the house was going to work out just fine.

Original kitchen on the right. It rested on beams then.

 

And it rests on beams now! Original beams! From the original house. YIP!

 

Another view. Ignore the post brackets.

 

 

Good times!