One of the many obstacles we ran into when trying to purchase the Coat Shop building was that it was..er...ugly. Words that the banks used to describe it includes "blighted" "neglected" and "deteriorated." Ouch.
We knew when we bought the property that one of the first things we needed to rehab was the outside. The rehab tasks include:
- Recreating the original Coat Room sign
- Replacing the broken storefront windows with safety glass
- Rehanging the entry door
- Adding reclaimed wood framing to the windows a la the Hopkins-Finley House (below)
Our friend Mark came out to give us some advice on the wood framing project, and proceeded to sigh and grimace and
bust out the frown lines. Fortunately, we're getting used to this reaction when people first see the Coat Shop. They seem to be saying (or in some cases, are actually saying) "Holy crap. I don't even know where to begin."
We're getting pretty good at responding, "Here. Start right here."
Once we got through that phase of our conversation with Mark, he made a very astute observation. While he liked our idea of adding reclaimed beams, he pointed out the difficulties in creating a waterproof seal and affixing the beams to the exterior frame. Then he said, "ou know the framing you have right now is redwood. Under all that beige/salmon paint is probably some really nice wood." Brilliant!
Gentle readers, as you may have read in previous entries, there are are many things I do not understand about this whole rehab process. But one thing I DO know how to do is strip paint. It's painstaking and gross, but it's not rocket science and it's very satisfying. I'm thinking of getting started on Sunday. I'm planning on using chemical strippers. I've heard great things about using heat, but our local tool rental shop doesn't rent heat guns and I'm not quite ready to invest in my very own. But we'll see what the hardware store guys have to say about that.
If anyone out there has any thoughts on this, I'm all ears.
-Amy
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