Another painting project before the winter hits

I'll admit, I haven't been working as diligently as I should have on my exterior painting. I did get quite a bit of interior work completed this year but when it comes to the outside, I have not been as productive. One item I did want to take on before the cold weather hit was the front porch. I did finish scraping, priming and painting the front columns.  

I went back and forth on how to deal with the many layers of paint that were on the stucco. I decided to remove what I could and then apply a couple coats of Thorocoat over everything. A local paint store was able to tint it so that it was a close match to the color I was painting my clapboards. The scraping and painting the stucco was tedious work. I still have a couple minor touch ups to do but I am happy with the results.  

Hopefully I can tackle a second coat on the trim and be finished with this before the end of the year. It will all depend on weather at this point.

Work on the lower beadboard

The better part of this past weekend was spent working on the beadboard. I started the lower level and tackled detailing the corners, mimicking the way that it was originally detailed. The beadboard was set in an alternating offset pattern where each beadboard end was notched to tie into the perpendicular run of board. 

This was a little painstaking and somewhat beyond what I might typically take on. Once I got the hang of it though, things moved along pretty quickly. Unfortunately I don't have scaffolding so there were many trips up and down the ladder that slowed things down. 

It eventually took shape and I finished one corner and have another one well on the way. Once the corners are done, it should get much easier as all of the runs are straight after that.

Here is a detail of the finished corner. The offset detail looks very nice and the beadboard looks fantastic. Still crossing my fingers that the weather cooperates into November!

Beadboard Finishing and Installation

After what seemed like a lifetime of staining and varnishing, we finished prepping the beadboard for the eaves and soffit. I was able to figure out a way to make the job go quickly but it wasn't long before the project took up every space we had: the basement, the back yard, the garage. It was a bit overwhelming and I think we will be cleaning up from this for weeks.  

In addition to the beadboard, the demolition process found that much of the original crown molding was beyond repair as well. Edges were worn, sections were rotted, and the previous roofer had nailed the roofing substrate through it, damaging it to the point where it could not be salvaged. This was depressing. I had hoped to be able to save this component so that it was original. Instead, I had to buy new. I was able to find a molding that perfectly matched it in every way except the thickness. The older crown was much heftier than what is available today.
   

Beadboard installation on the upper gables was done by carpenters. They scaffolded the house in order to do this work. It was best to go this way. My carpentry skills are good enough for such a job but it probably would have taken me a month or more to figure it out. They were done in less than a week!

I am really happy with how the new beadboard and crown molding look. It is exactly what I envisioned and it will look even better when it is painted. There is a final piece of molding missing. It is for the corner formed by the freizeboard and the beadboard. It is being made by the millworker right now and should be here next week. I hope I don't have too much trouble installing it.

The eave return detail is a little awkward and not exactly how it should be. I am debating whether or not I should re-do these areas. That's what I get for leaving the job without providing a drawing of what I wanted. I will probably tackle this when I get to the back of the house.

Exterior Siding Demolition is Complete

Demolition of the exterior siding was completed this week. There were a lot of great discoveries and a lot of not so great discoveries. All in all, I think we are in pretty good shape. 

Lets start with the great discoveries. When they removed the siding, they revealed that the gable is clad in shingles. It is a nice contrast from the 3" exposure clapboards that clad the rest of the house. They also seem to be in pretty good shape. 

The demo also revealed that we have corner boards and a frieze board trim around the house. Mose of the clapboards are also in good shape. The finish on them isn't so great but it is far better than what I feared I might find. 

The worst part of the demo reveal is the eaves. All of the beadboard soffits are rotted. If they were in better shape, I might consider keeping them but instead, we have found a beadboard that matches it perfectly and will replace the beadboard with a replica. We will be staining it so it should provide a nice accent around the entire home. 

We've always had a single door to the cubbie hole beneath our front porch. The demo revealed a second door but there are some challenges with how we make this workable. 

Most of the window trim is in good shape. I think that I have three sills I have to replace but that shouldn't be bad at all. All in all, I am happy with the window areas. 

One of the window's trim was cut apart to make the siding work. The small window in the dining room bay will have to get new trim so that is looks "right" again. 

There is a skirt board at the bottom of the bay window that is missing. We will have to reconstruct that. 

There is a molding that used to exist at the edge of the beadboard. It framed the beadboard at the soffits on the eaves and at the gable. Luckily, there are two homes on the street that have the molding intact so I can figure out what it is and replace it to look like it once did. 

The cove molding on the capitals and on the gables is all intact. I may need to replace some of it but that work will be minor. 

Parts of the back of the house are in rough shape. Clearly, this area never saw much attention. I have a few pieces of clapboard to replace and a lot of minor patching to do. 

The eave returns at the back of the house are a complete mess and have to be completely re-framed and trimmed. The birds will not be happy. 

Carpentry work begins on Monday so I have been busy choosing stains and finishes and getting lumber ordered so that they can start work. I am having people that know what they are doing take care of the eaves and I will tackle a lot of the rest. I am glad that the demo is over but probably won't be completely at ease until the eave work is completed. There may be more discoveries come Monday! 

Anatomy of a Hancock Bungalow

In order to understand some of the opportunities we have with restoring our home's exterior woodwork, I took some time to put together the research I have about the home and looked more carefully at the neighboring structures. At first glance, the structures may seem unremarkable. They are modest structures that have changed over the hundred years since they were first built. Some have been muddled beyond recognition and others have been carefully maintained. Closer inspection reveals a wide array of architectural details within a set building format or bungalow "theme". This gives the neighborhood a distinct character and visual cohesion. 

There are thirty of these bungalows, on two blocks on Ridgeland Avenue, in Oak Park's Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie School of Architecture Historic District. They were all built by Raymond Hancock. Hancock built hundreds of these types of homes in Oak Park and the city of Chicago. He advertised himself as the "largest developer of bungalows in Chicago". It is unclear if this was advertising showmanship, but he did have offices on the north and south sides of Oak Park, on the South Side of Chicago in the Gage Park neighborhood, and in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago, just east Oak Park so there may have been some truth to his claim. This particular group of Oak Park homes were constructed starting in 1915 and finished in the following two years. 

One of Hancock's marketing ideas was to give the owner a hand in the design decisions that went into the home. While the advertisements boasted amenities like cement basements, laundry tubs, and elaborate sideboards, many of the elements on the exterior of the home could be customized. Prospective owners could choose the style of bungalow and embellish it with brackets, various materials, and column styles. Hancock was able to maintain a standardized production method for his homes with almost identical floor plans, but also offer the variety and personal appeal that new homeowners wanted.  

There are three primary styles of Hancock home that are found in the historic district; a front gable a side gable, and a hipped roof. Those with side gables and hipped roofs have a variety of front dormers. Those with front gables have different expressions of the gable depending on whether it had a full second floor or a smaller attic space.   

Side gable Hancock home with a front dormer. The dormer with three windows, exposed rafters, rafter tails and brackets. 

Front gable Hancock home with center window and brackets with intact eave beadboard soffit.

Front gable Hancock home with shingles above three windows, tongue and groove eave and brackets.

In addition to the stylistic varieties offered by the gable placement and number of rooms, each detail of the home was also customized. All of the homes have distinctive columns supporting the front of the home or flanking the front porch. Some run from the ground to the eave, others from the ground to a freize board and others are only the height of the adjacent windows. Ours happen to be stucco, a very unique feature for the street as many of the others are wood.

This is me ripping the aluminum siding off of the top of our front columns to reveal the cove molding. 

A wood column the same height as the adjacent windows.

A wood column the same height as adjacent windows but with a suggested clapboard-clad pier below. 

A full-height wood column from the ground to a freizeboard.

A column clad with beadboard and a wood pier below. 

Almost all of the dining rooms are given a more gratious interior appearance by a side bay window. There are both angled and square bays. Some extend to the eaves and some have their own roof. They provide added interest to the side facades of these homes.

Side dining room bay with dorner moulding, banding and brackets and exposed rafters above. 

Side dining room bay with dorner moulding, banding and brackets and exposed rafters above.

Our side bay is tucked under our eave and it doesn't appear like it had any detail or brackets. The skirt moulding, just above the bottom trim board was removed before they put on the siding though. We will have to replace that. 

The amount of detail on these relatively modest homes is surprising. Many of the more overtly "Craftsman Style" homes with exposed rafters and and bracketing are intact but very few of the soffited eaves exist in their original state. These eaves were clad with beadboard and had an intricate cove molding along the fascia and a small quarter-round trim towards against the main house. Our home had a soffited eave.

View of a soffited eave on a stucco home.

View of a soffited eave with beadboard on a central dormer.

We know there is beadboard under our eaves because we still have it in our porch. The eave restoration is the part of this project that gives me the most angst.

Though many of the homes on the street have been severely altered and have lost many of their details, there are still many that appear to be lovingly cared for. and retain much of their historic integrity. To my fortune, this will be my "library" as I move ahead with more work restoring the outside of my home.

Hopefully it won't be too long before the Tiny Oak Park Bungalow is a great example of historic restoration.