Normandy Park Restoration

 Starting work on some of the overdue basement stuff.  Using shiplap to cover the open area on the stairwell landing.

 All the major stuff is done in the upstairs area, just some wrap up items to finish.

 Almost done.  All that remains is some trim at the base of the entry windows so that they match, and final paint.  The dead lighting outlet was drywalled, and I reinstalled the pipe shelving.

 Got some aluminum registers in a custom size for the house.  There are 2, one in the hallway and one in the kitchen.

 Getting the plinths installed in the kitchen.  Trim wood installed, this also shows what it would have looked like in white, which is rather bland Painted

 Building the breakfast bar area in the kitchen Installed Sealed Painting and installing the shiplap Final result

 Finally did all of the sanding and finishing of the floors.  This is a huge step as it allows me to finally finish everything else upstairs. Here it is fully sanded and waiting for sealer Applying the sealer.  I'm using Loba Invisible Protect 2k.  2 coats as recommended 2nd coat You can really see a big difference between how the wood reacted after the first coat.  It looked as if a significant tint was going to be imparted to the wood.  But after it dried, that went away.  The 2nd coat shows less affect, showing that it's sitting on top of the first coat. Final result The Loba turned out great, only adding a very slight tint to the flooring.  I was surprised at how much the grain raised after the first coat.  But as the instructions required, I buffed with a 200 grit screen between coats.

 After pulling up the holly bush, I'd never gotten around to replanting anything in the front.  Neighbor 2 blocks down had 2 bushes out out on the curb for free, they're mine now. Definitely need some edging and more ground cover in front, but that's a lower priority.  I will probably be replacing the gutter downtubes with galvanized ones soon though.

 Finally 100% done with the back wall of the house.  Windows installed, trim done, and paint. The windows will probably get pretty messy until I have time to install the edging and river rock along the edge, but that will come later.

The old oven vent and plumbing pipe holes in the kitchen were long overdue for patching.  Both holes were originally round, but the larger one needed to be cut square to patch it properly. Here it is with one replacement piece installed. Here with the wood pieces installed.  At this point the backside has been filled with Great Stuff foam and 2" of solid foam for insulation, on both the large hole and the small one.  In the image above you can see the first failed attempt to just use great stuff, but it would not stick and fill the area properly without the solid foam for support. And here it is with one coat of paint on it.   There is some fresh paint on the beam, the rest of the beam will need a full coat as it's only had one coat on it.

 Trying to get parts of the house completely done.  Got everything except for the mirror installed in the 1/2 bath. Here is what it looked like when I moved in And this is what it looks like now

 Working on the exterior trim for the back window-wall. Have a few more to go.  All of that will get caulked, and then painted the same dark color as the interior. In the 2nd photo you can see I have the steel plates loosely in place where I'm going to build the corten style edge.

 All of the windows are in, and I'm starting to sand and paint the trim.  Exterior still needs some cover trim, and is still the primered white color, that will all be painted to match the same dark color. I added some Costco LED string lights to and existing circuit, and strung them between the rafters outside.  Not sure if I'll keep them or not, looks a bit messy when they are off, but it's pretty when they are on. Also finally patched the original stove vent hole, and the smaller plumbing hole in the ceiling.  Filled it with foam so that it was properly insulated and then glued and nailed in replacement wood after cutting the rough round hole into a clean square hole.  The plumbing hole I just filled with a round plug I filed down to fit. That will all get filled, sanded, and then painted.

All main windows installed now, only the 2 on the end still need installation. Here they are before installation. Now installed, sealed on the outside but only held in by temporary pieces while the caulk cures.

Doesn't look like much, but give the 60's era vintage of all the finishings on the house, it's nice to see a properly finished door threshold Needs a little touch up on the inside part, but the rest is all properly sealed, and protected with custom metal pieces I kit-bashed together.  All the metal parts cost about $20 total.  There just wasn't any off the shelf item that would work.

 Removed all of the old windows, and ready to start framing. Really wanted to remove the last 2 next to the fireplace, but it felt like I might be risking the structure, and that wall gets more splash from the rain so that would probably need constantly cleaning, so I'll live with that.

 Getting prepped to start finishing the hardwood, clearing out all of the furniture. Also finished the caulk and paint on the roof above the sunken area.

 2 Windows installed, can only transport 2 at a time so I'll have to go back for the 3rd on Monday.  Think I'll have the rest delivered.

Replacing all of the large windows with larger double-pane windows.  The involves sawing out the center support, and then adding additional framing at the bottom (as there is none currently) and building a frame.  I'm doing them in sets of 3 or 4 so that they are manageable.  Unfortunately the glass isn't cheap.  Code requires tempered glass, and I'm looking at about $775 per window. Start, demolition The base only had the metal flashing wrapped over the foundation, so as a precaution I went ahead and sealed it with the same tar-based sealer I'm using on the base of the foundation Now framing And finally, once measurements are made, and glass ordered (2 week delivery) some temporary filler is put in place

Finally getting the kitchen windows fully installed.  Since I'm using a dark color on the trim, I had to compensate for that by using a black window caulk, and my pre-painting before installing any of the white trim.  Here I'm getting ready to install the raw glass And here I've installed them and put some paint on before installing the inner trim The last piece on the right ended up being too large, so I'll have to re-order a piece for that.  

The long term plan is to use 12 gauge steel and weld modern-looking edge around the entire back window wall, similar to this. This would help reduce splash from rain getting on the windows, and clean up the look a lot.  I will add pots with some plants in them as well.