Before and Afters - Creating Curb Appeal for our Foursquare

At last! Everything is finished! What do you think of the center column???

And the exposed rafter tails?

 The additional white vertical trim pieces really accentuate the details too.

(Got that idea from the East Beach houses!)

 

 

To me the house looks finished with that additional column built by Phil at Sound Pointe. We are fairly certain that there never has been a center column. There was no evidence on the pier or the fascia board. Also, there are other houses, particularly smaller houses that do not have the center column. We think because it wasn't needed, structurally, it was omitted.

 

 

In addition to the new column and the new siding, we:

•  removed the brass kick plate from the door
• painted the door
• painted the porch floor
• polished the brass door handle and lock
• scraped the windows
• purchased a new light fixture (Woodcliffe outdoor pendant by Northeast Lantern )
• purchased new house numbers
• and painted the mailbox.

 

We have been working on cleaning the cement tops on the brick piers and cleaning the old bricks and mortar.

So far, we have tried muriatic acid and gentle power washing - we got nothin'!

I've got one other possibility up my sleeve but I would love your suggestions?

 

 

See the difference between the windows with the old storm windows and without them?

What a difference editing can make!

 

 

Personally, I think the red brick looks better with the blue gray siding and the gray porch floor?

 

 

Oh my gosh! Who stole the column? Right?

After-the-fact, that is how it looks ... the column was just supposed to be there.

Phil, with Sound Pointe, is a rock star! He apparently has a massive wood working shop with everything needed for building cabinets and furniture, etc. But, guess what? He had to make all the trim on that column and he had to buy at least one new whatchamacallit - router blade, I think?

 

 

Welcome!

 

Now for the yard ...

Inching Closer to the Finish Line

I am pretty proud of this front door and we're not even quite finished! We still need the new light fixture, the porch floor to be painted and a new mailbox but you can get the idea! My contractor said that this paint color on the door was not even in his realm of possible ... but he likes it! AND, he said it shows him that he needs to think about the door color as an accent color! YES!



My plan is coming together!

Thanks to my friend, Linda Carr Carrion, I have been learning a new skill! I have learned how to put photos side-by-side so that you can easily see before and after photos. My new skill has caused me to realize how much more careful my photography needs to be. Trying to get the exact perspective from one photo to the next is an entirely different skill. One that I have not mastered! Sigh!

 



 

So the before and after above didn't work out so well. See what I mean about perspective? I'll have to keep practicing.

 



 

(Guess I should have put shades up on the third floor before I took this?)

 But, Ta-da! Our new old house, approaching the finish line.

 

 

Oh! And we're still waiting for the new column which will go on that pier on the left. It is being custom made by the cabinet maker! He is nothing short of awesome. His name is Phil and he is the owner of Sound Pointe. This is his facebook page - scroll through his photos. In addition to custom cabinets he restores historic homes and he is currently working on an antebellum home in Edenton, NC.

 

 

Til next time ...

 



My "Deed" for the Day

William K. Fentress and Louise Gale Fentress in front of their house (our house)

In the photo above, Mr. and Mrs. Fentress (the original owners of our new/old house) are standing in front of the far left corner of our house. So, the house that you are seeing behind them is the next door neighbor's house. I am guessing this photo was taken in the 1950s.

 

If we could just pan right we would be able to tell if there was a column in the middle, back then. We don't have one. We have a brick pier in the middle but no column on top. I have no idea if the house ever had one?

 

House with the cream colored vinyl siding removed. And, see? No middle column!

 

I have spent some time in the Circuit Court House in Norfolk where the deeds, wills, marriage licenses, and other such documents are kept. My original goal was to see if I could find out anything about our house ... that didn't happen. 

 

 

Here is what I did discover:

 

• The lot that our house sits on was part of a development by the Westover Company. The lot is in block 21 and is all of lot 3 and 3/5 of lot 4. An original lot was 30 feet wide so by adding part of lot 4 the Fentress' gained another 10 feet of width.  This made it wide enough to build a house and add a driveway.

• Mrs. Fentress was the owner of the lot and she paid $2000. (Our lot assessed for almost 100 times that last year!)

• Eight families have lived here, in our house, since 1922

• The Fentress' purchased the lot in 1919 and apparently they had the house built and then moved in, in 1922.

• The family that lived here the longest was the first, the Fentress' - for 43 years!

• The average years that a family has lived here is 13 1/2.

• The median number of years that families lived here is 5 years.

• We are the 4th owners in the last 11 years.

Can you tell I'm married to a mathematician?

Guess what? In next week's blog posts there will be pictures of the completed bathroom tile!! AND, there will be pictures of the James Hardie siding going up!! Yee Haw!