Week 9 of the Restoration (8/27/2007 – 8/31/2007)

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 01:00:00 GMT

The last (dog) days of Summer. Not much happened this week…we basically talked strategy and started to plan our next steps. Marcelo, Fernando, Eric, Dave and myself met on Monday to plan out who will be doing what structural work and when we will do it. We are hoping to get the plans approved by September 10th and all the structural beams by Sept 17th. Then we will be moving quickly to get all the structural aspects of the house in order.

Week 8 of the Restoration (8/20/2007 – 8/24/2007)

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 02:00:00 GMT

This is the first week that the restoration is starting to really visually take shape and form.

Renato spent many hours with the buffer getting the door hardware to look like gold! He used a linseed oil solution on the hardware to make sure the brass did not get scratched – the pieces are like jewelry for the doors. After being cleaned – we are using a lacquer to ensure the brass stays shiny and bright for years to come. We found out the material is brass and not gold – oh well.

Week 7 of the Restoration (8/13/2007 – 8/17/2007)

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 03:00:00 GMT

Eric, from Top Cat Construction focused on making slate repairs/refeeds on the mansard roof on the tower. After all the repairs were made – we used a special slate restoration liquid (diluted) to clean the slate. Many years of bird poop, air pollution and water marks have discolored some of the slate and we wanted to even out the color to bring back some of its original luster. The cleaning does not make the slate look new – but it did a good enough job to restore the original, weathered look.

Also – we applied Ice and Water barrier material on the awnings of the tower windows. This is in preparation to installing the Carriage House Shingles on the awnings.

Marcelo’s guys continue to patiently work through scrapping off all the layers of paint in the archway and porch detail. In addition we replaced the ceiling of the porch on the left side of the grand pavilion. We also continued to prime the back and sides of the home – we should be ready to start with the final coat next week.

On the inside – Fernando took out the built-in hutch in the hallway going from the kitchen into the bathroom. Our plan is to make a set of stairs going back into the basement. These stairs were removed at some point prior – and we want to restore the stairs so there will be an entrance into the basement from inside of the house vs only having the entrance from outside. This area was also the servant’s stairs going up to the 2nd floor. Again the steps were partially removed at some point – and we are not able to use the space as a staircase again because there is not enough head space or length to meet current code requirements. A second staircase is being planned in the new family room area. Fernando also created a “floor” for an upstairs storage room so we can productively reuse the staircase space.

In addition – we took out the wall between the kitchen bathroom (left side of home) and new family room space (right side of home) – so now the new owners will be able to access the kitchen and family room through a small hallway.

We also now have fully refinished a couple of the interior walnut doors – wow! Each door took about 10 hours of work – but the result is stunning. Also – the guys tested the doorknobs for the type of metal and they think the doorknobs are gold plated (it would make sense knowing that the owner was a jewelry manufacturer). I’ll have them check out by a jeweler to verify what they are made out of. Renato will be working on restoring all the 100 + pieces of hardware in the following weeks.

The porch railing is 80% restored – it will look like it is brand new once we’re finished.

I’m looking forward to seeing what the structural engineer comes up with for shoring up the tower -- we should know more by the end of next week or the week following. Also our website www.modvic.com went live today!

Week 6 of the Restoration (8/6/2007 - 8/10/2007)

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 01:00:00 GMT

Marcelo worked on priming more trim, sanding down the primer and doing spot primer preparing for the final trim coat of paint.

We also finished the hard manual labor of stripping all four of the Corinthian columnsand started to strip paint within the archway detail. We repaired a

Week 5 of the Restoration (7/30/2007 - 8/3/2007)

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 04:00:00 GMT

Most of the work done on the home was on the exterior this week. The 2 front grand doors were stripped of the red paint and stained back to its natural mahogany color – what a statement as you enter the home! Also – the tops of the Corinthian columns (2 so far) were painstakingly stripped and prepared for new paint. We also replaced damaged/worn wood parts of the columns near the base.

Fernando started to replace warped/damaged cedar clapboards with new pre-primed cedar clapboards. Also most of the fascias, softits and corner returns were replaced around the house. Everything was inspected before we closed up the areas and any damaged wood was replaced or sistered with good wood).

Marcelo also got the first coat of primer on the front and right side of the house! The home already looks completely different with the C2 primer base – I can’t wait until the other colors are put on.

We met with Bob at The Dempsey Group who are Civil Engineers – these are the items we need to take care of before we start with any demo or finish work:

Basement
Crawl space – repair broken walls, repoint and parge, also make entrance from basement vs kitchen floor.
Main area under kitchen – Install LVL cross beam – rebuild wall portions where beam will be resting. Rebuild basement ceiling/kitchen floor to better support area where chimney chase was removed.
Kitchen – Install LVL cross beam as load bearing support (will cover with small soffit).
Family Room – Install LVL cross beam (needs to clear new stairway going to 2nd floor)
Laundry Room – Install a LVL ridge beam to span full length of 2nd floor (above kitchen). Also repair, replace support rafters and install new dormer header.
Grand Turret – Support structure with LVLs on perimeter where both floor locations were. Can soffit the LVLs and include underneath lighting.
3rd Floor Bedrooms – Install LVL ridge beams on both sides of the chimney with column supports. Also repair, replace support rafters and install new dormer headers.

Week 4 of the Restoration

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 04:00:00 GMT

Part of the kitchen area had a new tile floor and below the tile was a wood floor (probably from the 1920s) – then the original Southern Pine Floor wide floor boards at the bottom. The original floor boards were in good shape – so we took out all the other flooring and are planning to repair, refinish and stain the original floors! They are interesting in their sized board (different widths) and show a lot of character of withstanding 150 years of use, then laying dormant underneath other layers of flooring for close to 80 years.BenjaminStanleyFreemanHomecirca1856

A large hole in the floor was created due to removing the chimney chase – so we purchased old original Southern Pine floor boards from John Isgur and his partner, Donna at Noreast Architectural Antiques in N Hampton NH to repair the floor. We also were able to purchase original door hardware that matched the specific doorknobs and hinges we already had in the home.

Some of the vinyl floors/tiles proved to be major obstacles in bringing back the original wood floors. Lots of glue and tar had been left behind and proved difficult to remove without putting in many long hours of manual labor into the restoration (we wanted to protect the floors as much as possible). We spent the time this week and were able to get most of the floors down to the original wood. In case of the future family room area – we removed 2 floors to get back to the original Southern Pine wood floors that were similar to the wood we found in the kitchen. We also will be going back to the original Southern Pine wood floors in the new laundry room on the second floor of the carriage house.

Rick’s interior restoration guys start this week and began with restoring the original porch railing that we found in the basement. Also – painstaking stripping and scrapping of the 2 front doors progress and one of the doors is fully restored back to the original mahogany wood! I can’t wait to see how the finish will look and the doors are put back on their hinges.

Dave Packert finalizes our existing floor plans – we find out that we’ll need to bring in a structural engineer, Bob Dempsey, to help us figure out what type of supports we’ll need to shore up the kitchen floor and ceiling. We also identify some rot on the sill between the foundation and home on the back side of the carriage house. We also will need Bob’s help to figure out what type of support and insulation is needed to bring the ceiling space and roof rafters up to code on the second and third floors. There will also be support needed for areas we are removing walls. Eric Ayre has to postpone any roof work until we have the engineer’s plan in place.

Melanie and I walked with Dave, Marcelo, Fernando, Eric and Rick to discuss our ideas on the new layout. Our overall interior plan was to keep any layout changes to a minimum and work with the home’s original layout wherever possible –this is what we proposed:

1st FLOOR

Kitchen (1st floor carriage house portion) – removed an interior wall to use full expanse of kitchen to include eating area, 13 ½ ft original Country Store Display Cabinet (purchased via Ebay), large island, seating and cabinetry. We could not come up with a proper design that follows code for the back “servant’s staircase” (which had been removed previously) – so we wanted to convert that space to a butler pantry or coat closet. Also we thought of installing an iron/wood spiral staircase going from the kitchen area up into the 2nd floor laundry area and bedrooms.
Bathroom – maintain the full bathroom where it is and create a staircase going back down into the basement from the hallway into the bathroom. Also open the an original hallway into the right side of the home where the family room will be located – so there would be direct access from the kitchen.
Side Entrance – close off “dining room” doorway going from side door entrance directly into the dining room. Little “vestibule” would become mudroom and would now have room for a seat, shelving and hanging items.
Dining room – no changes.
Front Foyer and Circular Staircase Foyer – no changes.
Parlor/Sitting/Library Room – no changes.
Family Room – remove walls of 3 separate rooms to make into one large family room area. Remove closet to make access for hallway into bathroom and kitchen areas. Install period appropriate door that goes out onto back deck.

2nd FLOOR

Turret Room – no changes.
Kids Bedroom (left) – add closet.
Carriage House – make into laundry and storage room with expanded bathroom area. Heighten ceiling space. Turn servant’s staircase into closet.
Bring spiral staircase up into the main part (high ceiling space) of Laundry room area.
Kids Bedroom (carriage house) – improve on closet area.
Master Bedroom – remove wall on left side of fireplace mantel. Expand master bath and make walk-in closet. Create doorway and hallway into laundry room area on the carriage house side of home.

3rd FLOOR

Grand Turret Room – removed upper floor to give direct line of site up to the top of the turret.
Kids Bedroom (left) – expose chimney chase. Heighten ceiling space. Remove back wall near window and create closet/storage area.
Kids Bathroom – create “Jack and Jill” door bathroom between kid’s bedrooms. Install Sun Tunnel.
Kids Bedroom (right) – remove bathroom and create better closet space. Heighten ceiling space. Install 2 skylights.

Dave will provide us with modified plans and his recommendations next week when we meet with the structural engineer.

Week 3 of the Restoration

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 04:00:00 GMT

Wallpaper is removed (2 layers on top of 3 layers of paint) – we find the word “HELP” scrawled in what appears to be the glue backing of the older wallpaper. This freaks out the workers a little – but I just see it as the house’s cry for help to come back to life – and we’ve come to the rescue! To counter the plea for help – we also find the word “LOVE” on another wall. The home has some mysteries to solve.

Week 2 of the Restoration

Sat, 14 Jul 2007 19:46:22 GMT

The home’s roof was in desperate need of repair. The slate roof over the carriage house portion of the home was in relatively good shape, but needed about 50 pieces of slate to be replaced or repaired. The main portion of the roof (back) was slate – the front part of the roof was asphalt shingles – both need to be replaced quickly before any finished work to the interior of the house was to begin. Along with replacing rubber roofs, damaged wood, rafters, etc – we needed someone who was familiar with the “lost art” of slate roof repair. We were fortunate to find a local N Attleboro contractor, Eric Ayre from Top Cat Construction to start the work this week.

Week 1 of the Restoration

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 19:44:47 GMT

The main contractors, Marcelo Ferriera (painter) from Siedel and Lana and Fernando Costa (carpentry) from Revival Restoration and 5 of their employees started to strip paint (5 layers) off the inside trim, remove wallpaper and vinyl floors. The trimwork around the windows was quality old southern pine – but was not deemed appropriate for staining (the original woodwork was also painted). We planned to paint the trim a light color; repair, wet plaster and paint all the walls; and leave the doors with a natural walnut stain.

June 2007

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 19:43:58 GMT

The home inspection went well – the home inspector was impressed with the great condition of the home for being over 150 years old! The assumption was that were going to do fully update the home with new plumbing, electrical and HVAC.

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