The porch project..................
First of all, thank you for all the supportive comments from the last post. Putting your life right on the line ... is not easy. But for me, it is necessary. So thank you for hanging in there!
Now ... on to the next project.
As you know .... Honey has been working on this old house.
A few years ago, a guy stopped by one day. He wanted to paint our house. I showed him the palette I had selected but informed him that we could not afford to have the house painted. But he wanted to give us a bid anyway.
So he looked.
He estimated.
He brought a friend and estimated some more.
And he left the bid in the mailbox.
I think he was afraid of my reaction.
And well, he should have been!
$60,000!
Yea. The decimal is in the right place. And since I really didn't want to put his son through college by myself, we declined his offer to paint our house.
Fast forward five, six, maybe seven years ..........
Honey has committed to finishing the east side of the house and restoring the porch this year. And making plans to restore the porch has been a little more difficult than either of us expected.
We have no pictures of the porch when the house was built. The only picture we have was 35 years after the house was built and the porch had been enclosed. Finding brackets and spandrels and railing detail that is right for the house has been a challenge.
This is not a fancy house. So searching the beautiful homes of Broadway or the Gold Coast for inspiration wasn't going to work.
Many homes that are similar to ours have been "remodeled". Some have been "remuddled" so only the barest trace of the original house remains. There is only one place to look for inspiration.
Yep ......... it to the "marginal" neighborhoods.
And we think we found what we are looking for ............... inspiration. Simple ..... Victorian ..... but not over the top. True inspiration and not the 1990's version of Victorian woodworking.
One thing checked off!
Now to find lighting!
Now ... on to the next project.
As you know .... Honey has been working on this old house.
A few years ago, a guy stopped by one day. He wanted to paint our house. I showed him the palette I had selected but informed him that we could not afford to have the house painted. But he wanted to give us a bid anyway.
So he looked.
He estimated.
He brought a friend and estimated some more.
And he left the bid in the mailbox.
I think he was afraid of my reaction.
And well, he should have been!
$60,000!
Yea. The decimal is in the right place. And since I really didn't want to put his son through college by myself, we declined his offer to paint our house.
Fast forward five, six, maybe seven years ..........
Honey has committed to finishing the east side of the house and restoring the porch this year. And making plans to restore the porch has been a little more difficult than either of us expected.
We have no pictures of the porch when the house was built. The only picture we have was 35 years after the house was built and the porch had been enclosed. Finding brackets and spandrels and railing detail that is right for the house has been a challenge.
This is not a fancy house. So searching the beautiful homes of Broadway or the Gold Coast for inspiration wasn't going to work.
Many homes that are similar to ours have been "remodeled". Some have been "remuddled" so only the barest trace of the original house remains. There is only one place to look for inspiration.
Yep ......... it to the "marginal" neighborhoods.
And we think we found what we are looking for ............... inspiration. Simple ..... Victorian ..... but not over the top. True inspiration and not the 1990's version of Victorian woodworking.
One thing checked off!
Now to find lighting!
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