Face
Posted by Chris
The exterior of the house needed a lot of work. The first step was to remove the formstone. Formstone removal costs a few thousand dollars, and they set up scaffolding, powerwash the brick and re-paint the mortar, returning the facade of the home to its original brick. There is a lot of information on formstone out there, and it’s ironic how it used to be a symbol of status, and now it’s the opposite. The house looked a million times better without it.
The windows were replaced with high efficiency vinyl windows from Vytex. They installed them and did aluminum wrapping around the window jambs.
The front stoop was formstone as well, and I hired a mason to replace it with a brick stoop, and replace the exterior windowsills with brick. I hired a guy who was working around the corner to fabricate, install and paint a new railing.
The front door was a special order at lowe’s, and I hired a master carpenter to fabricate a custom door jamb (14 inches in depth). A lot of folks will install a pre-hung exterior door and get creative with the trim. Adding framed walls inside increased the total depth of the front wall, and a custom jamb with a window above it makes a very nice built-in touch. Don’t forget the doorbell, also in brushed nickel.
The front door casing and header were purchased online, and are made of some kind of composite material, not wood. They installed easily with screws and glue, and were pre-primed and ready for paint.
The cornice was re-painted while I was in Iraq. When I bought the house, the cornice was covered with vinyl siding. It was in surprisingly good shape when the siding was removed, and it was stripped down and repainted, completing the renovations on the front of the house.
One Response to “Face”
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January 21st, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Very good, I enjoyed you story.
And the result. Ataboy . Pat on your back!
The short story, I redoing my child hood home.
Fells Point, But I’m bcbc blue colar bi-costal
And have liveed out in LA Ca rge past 30 yrs
But have returned every year. Mom Dad OK. in assied living place
Good luck Bill