A Rough in the Diamond

06/06/2026

05/26/2026

It has been a while since any updates have been happening but I thought I'd share with you a fun find that I think is a perfect addition to the beautoful front porch. 🩷🌷

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

01/02/2026

What a magical first Christmas we had in our lovely home.

We had the pleasure of hosting a small Christmas gathering with some of our new neighbors as well.

We are excited to see what this new year brings!

12/05/2025

❄️Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!❄️

10/22/2025

The first major project for the house is to repair the rotten wood siding. Inevitably, many boards will need to be replaced, so I have carefully traced and drawn a full-scale profile that I can use to reproduce the siding. I have a Williams and Hussey moulder that will help save some time and money. As another cost-saving measure, I am going to grind my own cutter knives. As a woodworker, you often find yourself doing a lot of metal work.

The second photo showing the end grain of some siding was taken in an area where a window and wall were cut out to make a kitchen during the 1960s apartment remodeling (thankfully they didn't get too far).

In a later post, I'll talk about the specific details of our first section of siding to be restored.

10/03/2025

Such a nice night like this allowed me to finish erecting the scaffold and take a look at the condition of the eaves and roof. There's a lot to dig into here, but one bit at a time and we'll have it back in order. Hopefully, soon, I can start moulding the replacement trim and siding.

09/29/2025

Whenever I talk about the craftspeople that came before us, I find myself waxing poetic about the "fingerprints" of the craftsmen. By this, I mean the evidence of intention, process, and tooling. Marks such as scribe lines, plane tracks, and file strokes, which are earnestly removed by a diligent maker. The craftsman's regrettable imperfections are treasures for us to find.

On this rare occasion, the fingerprints that I am enamored by are both literal and metaphorical. On the underside of these roof decking boards, we see the marks left by the roofers during the initial construction. The oils from their hands soaked into the boards while they fixed them in place. As the years of dust and grime settled on the boards, the oil acted as a binder and captured the dust as a pigment.

It's one thing to know that a real person lived and worked on this house 130 years ago. It is another thing to see their hand prints still on the job.

09/12/2025

I have finally moved my work bench into the parlor. This room will serve as my workshop for the forseable future until we make more progress on the rest of the house. Even though this room is one the most interesting, it ranks near the top for rooms that need work. I also need easy access to a workshop while I work on the exterior restoration. I plan to do my machine work from the garage and the hand tool work from the parlor.

The tools on the bench are all tools that I had scattered at Poplar Forest and were just collecting dust. I figured I should gather everything together to get an inventory.

My excuse lately has been that I didn't have a workbench to get stuff done... Hopefully, that proves to be true.