Repoint or Remove?

The second/unused chimney has recently been repointed.   Since it is not used to vent anything, it would not have been worth it to rebuild it.  It was in good enough shape that replacing missing mortar did the job.  The chimney at the front of the house vents two boilers and a hot water heater.  That was completely rebuilt six or seven years ago.  That was a major job and cost a pretty penny.

The Dayton House gets a tax break because of its designation and also because it falls within a census tract.  It is harder for lower-income home owners to spend money on repairs that keep a house intact.  A chimney that is not used would very rarely if ever be repaired.  Because this house is historic and the chimney is a visually interesting element, it just seems  better to have it there.  The original section of the house had other chimneys that were removed -- most likely at the time of the Italianate update.

This house is across the street.  The second chimney here was just removed.

This one is two houses over.  The chimney wasn't repointed -- it was just covered with mud. 

Neither looks are very attractive.  We care a lot about this house, which is why we have chosen to preserve what we can.  The chimney is no exception!

The Barn Loft

The "garage" at the Dayton House is actually a barn. This is the loft.  That's a lot of extra space for storage -- and it would make a nice office or outside space. 

This is the view from the hay loft.  The door opens and you can see the side yard from a unique perspective.  I don't know how many city houses still have their barn intact, but this one is.  The square footage for the footprint is 432 feet, but you get the same amount of area upstairs too.  It also has a drain so when you clean the floor, you can hose it down and the water will drain.

A barn is a unique and useful part of this old house.

Stuff that Wasn't Fun to Do....

Of all the things we've done on the house, this is the project that was just about the least fun.  OK, maybe it's tied with getting a full tear-off for the roof.

We put in a sump pump last year.  Talk about spending money to dig a hole in the ground!  This was a big project and it kept costing us more and more because the more digging that was done, the more money it cost us.  There are a lot of big rocks in the ground around the Dayton house -- and it added on to the labor to have to dig around them!

One interesting thing we did learn, is that the city water drain goes from the basement, all of the way back to the barn, then down to the street.  When we tried to determine where the run-off was draining to, the guy snaked the line expecting to hear a noise from the storm drain in the street.  He heard nothing.  But things were getting loud in the garage!

The garage/barn was for horses, hence it needed a drain.  This is very convenient when you are hosing down the garage floor.  But it was sort of confounding when it came time to deal with drainage.  But this is the type of thing one experiences when owning an old house.

As for the pump, it was not fun to spend money on it, but it works really well!

The Back Porch is Back!

This was the back porch. By the time this picture was taken, a lot of scraping and sanding had taken place.  However, it didn't look much better than this.

Here is a similar view of how it looks now.  The wall has been mudded and painted.  The concrete was patched and painted.  We decided to repair rather than replace the concrete because if we'd torn it up, the footers that support the porch columns would have been lost.  Everything fit right the way it was and there was enough to be done to replace, repair and repaint the wood on the porch that it wasn't worth it to open one more can of worms.

This is the old gate that has been previously mentioned. It used to be red/maroon.   We've change it to match the color of the other doors on the house.  It makes a nice contrast with the yellow on the garage.

The porch had been in a shameful state, but now it is back!!!

Behind Door Number....

While we were working on the house today, we overheard heard a tour going on that was highlighting the historic houses of Black Rock.  They were stopped at our house.  This has happend before a couple of times and it's always a thrill to see others enjoying the house.  Scott Glasgow came  by to check on us too -- and to see if we had any interesting salvage in the barn that we were going to put in the dumpster.  We learned that the historic designation is now official for both the state and federal registries.  It's making this work all that more worthwhile... but on to the doors!

This is one of two dozen doors from inside the Dayton House.  Each door got a good going over today.  Many of them were pulled off, brought out back, set on saw horses and planed.  The house settles, hinges get loose.  It came to be that fewer doors in the house cleanly shut and stayed closed then those that were able to smoothly open and close.  It was clearly time for a door intervention.

As if there wasn't enough suffering in re-glazing a couple of dozen window panes, we had to deal with the doors too.  This meant multiple trips up and down stairs carrying the doors in and out.  A few new doorknobs will be needed.  In the case of some of the really old mechanisms, we are going to do what we can to save them.  There is a box of old doorknobs in the basement and we might be able to go the organ donor route with those too.

Coming soon, will be an update on the fences.  This section got a good going over today too.  Tom re-painted it and there was a gap that had previously been blocked with some trellis material which now has planking.  The old garden gate which Gary Rogers found floating in a creek in Princeton, NJ will be put  back up tomorrow.  It's gotten an interesting face lift.  So stay tuned...

A Rainy Day Topic -- Gutters

It's raining this evening and the gutters are hard at work.  Our gutter system is rather patriotic... red, white & blue!  The blue/green is used by the porch to match the trim, the red is used to match the brick.  We do have a good amount of white that leads from the eaves.  We might end up getting the run shown here painted, but that is a low priority.   The sections that are red have been around for a while and were red to begin with.

We had intended to install Yankee gutters but went with conventional ones.  They were more affordable and the roof was set up to take them.  The roofer who did the shingles did not want to do Yankee gutters and did not finish the job.  Luckily we got help from someone who wanted to do the work.  The gutters were custom cut and fitted to the roof and were not pieced together.  They are working really well.  The profile of the gutters is not blocking the brackets either.

Gutters are one of those things you hate to spend money on.  They aren't fun, they generally don't add to the attractiveness of the house... until you take into consideration what will happen to the lower levels of the roof and foundation without them. 

Also, when the gutters went up and the eaves were painted, the brackets got a good cleaning and tightening.  I would say between the 30 year architectural shingles, repaired eaves, new gutters and downspouts, that the roof at the Dayton House is in pretty good shape these days!

Little Things, Big Things

We've got a "guy."  Actually, we have a couple of them and they work together.  They do big things and they do small things.  There are things we let go and they ask about and want to see fixed.  This three foot section of fence was one of those small things.  We had pickets falling out but it was a small worry compared to the big stuff that needs to be done.  But we've fixed it and now that it's done, well we shoulda just done it a while ago.

We've painted the garage and replaced molding around the door and window that had rotted.  Now we've finished off the bottom of the boards that face the barn too.  They weren't in really bad shape... but now things are finished right.

I think everyone needs a "handyman" and we certainly are benefiting from extended skills and labor for stuff we could do but not do well enough.  Anyone reading this blog who could benefit from the use of a small job here and there might consider the handyman route. We'll hand ours down!

The View from the Roof

The sky lift rented from Home Depot made it possible to reach the eaves.  The chimney was rebuilt a few years back.  At that time, we dropped a 35 foot liner down it.  There had never been a liner in the chimney and it had caused not only deterioration, but provided an excellent entry point for bats.  The paint colors chosen were based on those used by the prior owner, Gary Rodgers.  We felt the colors were right for the period of the house.  It was also a question of economics.  Sticking to the same color required less paint.  This is a view looking West.  Notice the Niagara River in the upper right portion of the picture.  The history of this house is undoubtedly linked to the construction of the Erie Canal.

This is a view from the lift looking at the circa 1875 addition of the house.  It was at this time that the structure was transitioned to the Italianate style.  The house has many of the original six over six windows.  An impressive amount of the glass shows ripples, swirls and ridges indicative of age.  The trip up on the lift gave us a greater appreciation of the roof we had replaced three years ago.  The shingles are 30 year architectural and a full tear-off was done.  Yankee gutters will go in soon and we will be installing new downspouts.  Many birds nests were cleared from the eaves and brackets and many  bad boards were replaced.

Here is an even better view of the roof.  The chimney will get some repointing.  It is not in service now but we may decide to install a gas vented fireplace in the dining room.  This chimney served a coal burning fireplace.  The original insert and mantel remain largely intact:

This is an aerial view of the barn, which was constructed from box cars in the early 1900s.  While the white lower portion is bright and cheery, it's been decided to paint it yellow. Gary Rogers put the facing on the barn and had painted the lower portion red.  He also replaced the yard arm and tells me the thing could now lift a piano! The basketball hoop was put in about ten years ago as a birthday present to Tom.  It was installed by John Redman and meticulously leveled.  The door to the hay loft still opens. Since this used to be a barn, there is drainage out to the street.

As an added teaser for a future topic... The side porch will be repaired and given a major over-haul this month.  It will remain yellow.  A picture in the National Registry nomination shows the porch in 1975 and it was yellow then.  The porch is the L-shaped extension seen on the South side of the middle portion of the house.  The roof has been repaired a number of times but the foundation is no longer sound and major repairs are required.

The biggest treat in being up on the sky lift was seeing the church of St. Francis Xaviar from a high elevation.  I have climbed to the top of the tower and there is a crack in the face of the clock. You can see through it and over to Grand Island.  There are a few lovely views of the tower from inside 243 Dearborn and I will make a post showing them one of these days.