314 McCormick Boulevard

314 McCormick Boulevard A century home in progress shared through photos, ramblings, and much trial and error.

She has been summarized to just a few photos. My heart breaks and swells. Before and afters are in order.
07/10/2023

She has been summarized to just a few photos. My heart breaks and swells.

Before and afters are in order.

Me in April: Wow! At the rate I’m progressing, I’ll be done with the dining room before 05/15!Me 05/18: No. This particu...
05/18/2023

Me in April: Wow! At the rate I’m progressing, I’ll be done with the dining room before 05/15!

Me 05/18: No.

This particular room became in depth because of plaster failure, a window A/C unit, and rusted out baseboard heat covers. I’d also not touched it at all up until April 2023 - meaning all the random feel good small projects were still there for the taking. I’d estimate myself around 90% complete right now, minus blinds, curtain rods, and exterior window sash paint + storm window reinstallation. I also need to paint the ceiling, but we’ll see about that.

- Replaced windowsill, repaired and reglazed accessible window sashes, scraped alligatored lead paint on exterior trim. Waiting for glazing to skin to repaint and reinstall storm.

- Repaired 2’x4’ section of failed plaster under affected sill with birch plywood and probably more than the recommended amount of patching plaster. Also many 3” screws. Watch out, archeologists.

- Uninstalled, sanded, and sprayed baseboard heater covers gloss white. The backer piece installed onto the baseboards wasn’t that removable, so I masked and sprayed them indoors. Learned many lessons from the living room that made this much cleaner and quicker. Incredible difference from the formerly rusted surface but my skin was stained red lol.

- Patched, sanded, and painted walls SW Parisian Patina. I remain on the fence about this color. It’s darker than I wanted but people say it’s nice.

- Gave the place some authenticity back while replacing outlets and switches by installing a reproduction push button switch with genuine mother of pearl inlays. Coupled with a new brass plate and ready to serve a century (or however long the basis of our electrical code lasts)

- Restored the original brass window hardware. I gave up on saving the screws this time around because I didn’t feel like bringing out the Dremel. Replaced with new slot screws from ACE.

Very pleased with how clean and proper it’s turning out. I get major schoolhouse vibes from it and want to chase that a touch for staging and decor.

Feeling like a total badass after ripping a piece of rotten tree off of my house and replacing it with not yet rotten pi...
04/25/2023

Feeling like a total badass after ripping a piece of rotten tree off of my house and replacing it with not yet rotten pieces of trees.

Backstory: last summer, a dinosaur A/C the previous owner so kindly left rusted out, leaked, and wasn’t noticed until water was dripping from the baseboard heaters in the dining room. The plaster underneath the window frame was reduced to sand and I think I sobbed hysterically while pulling it out and cussing, idk. Fast forward to this spring and I’ve become homeowner enough to handle it.

Uninstalled the aluminum screens and frame first, which was held entirely by a 2” thick line of caulking. Then, removed the original window sill and sill plate by just tearing off rotten chunks with my bare hands until I reached a place the pry bar could bite into. I wiggled out the window sill, but the sill plate remained steadfast on top of the gap where I’d just pulled the rot from. Seeing the water damage on the sill plate itself and knowing it wouldn’t be saved, I took the jigsaw and hacked half of it out - leaving the good part of the plate and creating a little finish job for later. I suspect the plate was a cosmetic installation when the screen windows were put in, anyways.

Popped over to Lowe’s to buy my first ever piece of lumber, brought home my 2x10, and realized my circular saw had no blades for the application. Jigsaw take the wheel, I got the cuts done like twenty minutes after the circular saw would have in a much nastier fashion. It worked anyways.

Screwed the sucker in with 3” Torx, caulked, painted, happy dance, then focused on the inside.

There’s been a 12x40” gaping hole in the dining room wall since the leak occurred, leaving just lath and stud bay where the plaster had failed. While drywall certainly could have been an option, it would have been $80 to deliver it and it wasn’t fitting in/on the Mustang. I used a piece of 1/2” birch plywood in place of drywall, since my thickness is 5/8” and I wanted to skim coat with plaster patch to match it to the existing wall. Most importantly, it fit in the car.

I cut it to size with my now heroic jigsaw, used an oscillating tool to fine tune the ragged plaster edges around the hole for fitment, then threw more Torx screws at it before finishing with fiber tape and the first of three plaster skim coats to match it to existing wall thickness.

Damn I’m good.

Faux wooden blinds have been installed in the living room, marking the end of a very public era (which was my own fault ...
04/19/2023

Faux wooden blinds have been installed in the living room, marking the end of a very public era (which was my own fault as I ripped out disgusting old ones maybe 1.5yrs ago).

This had no reason to be so difficult. An old male sales associate approached me while I was browsing these, insinuated that I could not handle cutting them without a husband, and then waltzed away after refusing further assistance. Lexington Lowe’s is always ripe for a more manic type of employee. Stuffed 80lbs of composite material arranged as privacy into the Mustang and off I went.

I went with their flagship, Allen + Roth - which is strange too, because I tend to stay away from “Lowes special” styling - but these fit the bill stylistically, so I took the plunge + lower price tag. The instructions were likely the wordiest I’ve ever read and gave no real help. I struggled for about 45 minutes on the first blind and had to uninstall hardware multiple times after misinterpreting steps - not like me, usually..

I survived using the miter saw to trim them down and got the other two installed at the rate of maybe 20 minutes per, though the miter cuts could be a LOT cleaner on the heavy plastic top and bottom rails (the saw has seen better days).

I have decided I hate installing these particular blinds but I love how they turned out.

This Schlage deadbolt was somehow more difficult to install than a light fixture with .0001 inches of slack. Thank god d...
04/11/2023

This Schlage deadbolt was somehow more difficult to install than a light fixture with .0001 inches of slack. Thank god dad swooped in during his visit last night.

It matches perfectly - worth it.

I’m focusing on the living room right now. Replaced two outlets, the light fixture, and painted the ceiling. Next on the...
04/09/2023

I’m focusing on the living room right now.

Replaced two outlets, the light fixture, and painted the ceiling. Next on the list is a reproduction or salvage rim lock for the front door, glass repair, then reglazing and paint for the repaired window sashes.

Maybe it will be done in a week. Or three months. Idk.

03/02/2023

New fixture days are fun! Soaker tub arrived yesterday (pics after installation but it looks great) and the teeny tiny little ceiling light came in today.

A two year project marked complete only because I’m done screwing with paint stripper and denatured alcohol.
02/20/2023

A two year project marked complete only because I’m done screwing with paint stripper and denatured alcohol.

Old shellac is so fascinating. You can use denatured alcohol to give life back to the crackles, but the last time I trie...
01/28/2023

Old shellac is so fascinating. You can use denatured alcohol to give life back to the crackles, but the last time I tried I left a giant bright spot on the front door. 🥲 This is the old kitchen door that is too far gone to be reused, found under the front porch.

Busy weekend for the bath - I painted it two tone with SW Ultra White semi gloss and SW Sandbank high gloss. This paint ...
01/03/2023

Busy weekend for the bath - I painted it two tone with SW Ultra White semi gloss and SW Sandbank high gloss. This paint feels long overdue after tons of sanding, scraping, and repair.

Milk paint should have never been legal. Each picture represents a new layer of paint stripper + finished pedestal
01/03/2023

Milk paint should have never been legal.

Each picture represents a new layer of paint stripper + finished pedestal

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314 McCormick Boulevard
Clifton Forge, VA
24422

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