Henry Glover House Project

It’s been ages since we’ve posted anything.

We came across a great photo of the HGH by PAR Photography. Many thanks and credits to them.

Happy New Year Everyone!!

We took advantage of a great fall Saturday to finish our last outdoor project.

With help from our friends at Detroit Metal Elements, we installed the west side alley gate.

And does it ever look great, especially with the sun shining through the fleurs-de-lis

A before photo along with several after photos.

What’s a great way to end the week.

This morning, we hosted part of the team from the Detroit Land Bank Authority for a tour of Unit 1 and Unit 6.

And then we picked up the 6th and FINAL Certificate of Occupancy for Unit 6.

What a journey it’s been, starting in February 2017 with an initial meeting with Christian Hurttienne Architects to develop a proposal to purchase the HGH from the Detroit Land Bank.

And now, over 7 years later, it’s done.

Well, OK, it will never be done.

But done enough to pop the champagne.

We got the front door trim installed and painted.

And the carriage house is done except for the entry door granite steps and 2 backordered interior garage fire doors. Unfortunately, we can’t call for final building inspection until those are finished.

We’re almost done with the Carriage House rooftop deck cresting.

We should finish it tomorrow, weather pending.

A couple of photos, with the 1st looking up from the side yard parking area, and the 2nd from the sidewalk.

We’re down to the Carriage house to finish, and we’re less than a month to being completed.

We’re currently focusing on punch list items needed for Certificate of Occupancy.

One of which is the rooftop deck. We finished the 2x2 Ipe deck tile installation today. It looks awesome.

And the parapet cresting will be installed next week. We’re using the same parapet cresting that we used on the original house.

The first photo is looking SE-ish, the second SW-ish, and the third S.

We finished installing the front side porch western red cedar railings today.

Tomorrow, we’ll sand the nail / screw holes and do some touch up painting.

We installed the black, aluminium Trex front porch and front side porch railings to pass code before Unit 1 could get C of O.

(Which we’ll reuse on the carriage house rooftop deck.)

And we were also awaiting delivery of our American Porch western red cedar railing system

After picking up the AP porch railing system from the painter, we’ve started to install the front porch sections.

And it looks so much better than the black aluminium.

The newel posts will be tan with hand painted red accents, the top rail red with the rest of the rail system being tan, finished with green spindles.

The newel post cap color is TBD - either red or green

Hopefully completed by Saturday at 10am

We’ve had questions about tours of the HGH when it’s completed.

While it’s not a tour of the entire house, as most of the units are already occupied, we are opening up Unit 2 this Saturday from 10am to 2pm to walk through.

It’s not completely finished, but finished enough to get a look at the walnut and cherry doors and millwork, the plaster crown mouldings, and the rest of the finishes.

Unit 2 is located on the west forward part of the orignal house in a townhouse style residence covering the finished basement, 1st and 2nd floors.

No reservations required.

Please join us if you can as this nearly 7 year restoration is drawing to a close.

We can’t thank you enough for all of the support and encouragement on our journey to bring the Henry Glover House back. It’s been incredible.

We’ve started to prep the front door trim for painting.

In removing the legacy paint, it appears that the original color was white, followed by a darker, brownish red, and the last several coats a darker green. Not Charleston green by any stretch, but a forest green with some black in it.

We got it primed today. Tomorrow we’ll patch and caulk, and re-prime the impacted areas.

Based on the holes we need to patch, there was a very thin screen door at some point with 5 hinges on each side

Our plans are to paint the stiles and rails green, and the recessed interior panels tan.

And then we’ll figure out what to do with the facia trim.

Another milestone day at the HGH.

We’re thrilled to present the beautufully restored, original walnut front doors.

Many thanks to Alan Kaniarz at AK Services.

Next up is finishing the exterior millwork around the doors.

One would think that after 6 1/2 years of deconstruction, reconstruction and restoration that we wouldn’t be seeing something for the first time.

Guess again.

While prepping to (finally) install the front doors, we noticed a small piece of spring actuated metal beneath the bottom hinge on the active door that would “open” and “close” with the door

And tucked behind the walnut moulding, we could feel a small piece of wrapped wire, probably at one time going to a ceiling fixture or wall sconse.

Pretty cool.