Old Town Home

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

The Perfect Storm: Long Overdue Progress on Our Custom Storm Windows

Posted by Alex

Comments 11

So here we are, nearing summer nearly eight years after I unceremoniously removed our aluminum triple track windows, seven years after I expected to have new windows built, and over a year since I declared my own personal ultimatum for building said windows, a deadline that I ultimately blew in a major way. But hey, we've got a pile of western red cedar 4/4 boards boards in the basement just begging to be turned into a bunch of storm windows. I can't deny them their destiny.

The next step in our process was to draw up some good plans and get to building these long overdue windows. I went through several drafts of "plans," each one a slight evolution on the prior, and before I cut the first piece of wood I put together a concept drawing of what the various size and shapes of the windows will be.

As I mentioned in the last post on the subject, I want to treat this as a frame that will be mounted in place, and then create a series of glass or screen panels that can be changed out as the seasons dictate. The drawing I made reflects this approach. Although I would have liked to have a bit more material at all of the critical points of the window to support the panels, I didn't want to overdo it and make the storms so large that their profile would obscure the view from inside of the house. Once I had all of the significant measurements according to my plans, and all of the height and width measurements of the first window, I got to work building the frame.

The first step was to rip the lengths of cedar to the sizes I needed. The cedar I ordered came in 4" and 6" widths. I carefully calculated the best way to rip the boards to minimize waste given their size, and the size of the pieces I'd need for the project.

With the top and sides cut, I moved on to the middle dividing rail and the bottom rail of the window. Though I planned to rabbet most of these boards to accept the panels, these two pieces were a little different. Since the bottoms of both panels will rest on these elements and I wanted to ensure water would not end up pouring into the air gap between the storm and window. I needed to figure out a way to make sure the water would run away from the house and window if it ended up coming in sideways (like during a driving rain storm). To accomplish this rather than cut the pieces square, I placed a slight angle on the cut. This way if any water decides to run into that part of the wood, it will fall away almost as quickly rather than running into the house. At least that's the plan.

After the five pieces that will make up the frame were ripped to their proper size, I set up the dado blade along with a sacrificial fence to rabbet the interior parts to eventually accept the panels. This was a simple and shallow dado, but it left enough material to really support each panel on three sides in each opening.

I debated for quite some time on how I wanted to ultimately assemble this frame. On one hand, I could use pocket holes and screws at each joint. This was the quickest and easiest solution, but definitely not the best. Pocket holes would require me to fill them after the fact and also wouldn't allow for much room for expansion and contraction of the wood, possibly leading to excess warping and finished product failure. This is a perfect example of using pocket holes for unconventional purposes isn't always the best answer.

Instead I decided I wanted to take a little extra time and do true mortise and tenon joints at each meeting point on the outer frame. I figured out where each tenon would fit and got to work on my bench top mortiser.

A little while later I cut the tenons using the dado blade on the table saw and was on my way to assembly.

The areas of the rails that included that slight angle required me to use my chisel to ease the edge of the mortise to accept the angle cut into the rails.

Things were fitting nice and tight and I was able to see the whole thing starting to come together.

But before I got ahead of myself I tried to dry fit the frame in the master bedroom opening and take a few measurements for the panels.

Did I ever mention our house is old? Yeah, it's true, about 125 years actually. And with those years come some settlement and sagging (thanks, gravity). And with that settlement and sagging comes some windows that are completely out of square. The end result? My dry fit was close, but needed a little adjustment. So a little trim here, a little shave tere, and we were back in business with a good fit. I primarily ended up trimming the boards with the dado blade to make slightly longer tenons and then just chopped the ends a little. Here's one of those tenons before I trimmed it down to the right size.

With the first frame done I decided it was a good time to take stock of what had gone well, and what could be improved upon for the next window. I mean, I do have about 10 of these things to build in total.

Good:

Construction seemed solid
Sizes seem to work
Mortise and tenon wasn't horribly difficult
Cedar was working out and smelling great while being cut

Bad:

Remember to reset the angle on the saw *before* cutting
Determine the location of the meeting rail once the frame is actually in its opening (don't just guess and check)
Remember to take the clean, folded laundry out of the basement *before* cutting a lot of cedar or your laundry will smell like a Guinea pig's cage

With everything set for size, I laid the whole assembly flat and clamped the first frame together. I still need to sand everything down to make it nice and smooth, but we're well on the way to one of 10 windows complete. Oh joy.

Although this project is embarrassingly years behind schedule, I'm really happy to finally be knocking out some progress. After all, if we go through another winter without storm windows, I think I may be sleeping on the couch permanently.

Am I getting ahead of myself with my enthusiasm, or are you starting to see how this project will come together? Do you have any experience building storm windows? Maybe you're in the midst of a woodworking project? I'd love to hear what you're up to.

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Comments 11

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Second Act: The Old Town Theater Revival

Posted by Alex

Comments 14

Besides doing our own projects and renovations, we love watching the work of other area undertakings unfold around us. Since moving to Old Town Alexandria in 2003, we've been observers to a progression of sorts, watching as the various storefronts, buildings, houses, and areas in and around the city have transformed before our very eyes.

Looking back, we wish we would have taken so many more "before" photos over the years. In the time prior to our blogging days we weren't quite as concerned with documenting the change. Now our keen eyes and convenience of always having a decent camera handy (thanks to smart phones) have allowed us to capture the various changes in our neighborhood as they happen.

Recently we had the enjoyment of watching as a neighborhood landmark we were concerned might ultimately be lost was thankfully resurrected over the course of several months of diligent effort.

When we look back on our move to the DC area in 2000, we fondly remember driving down King Street as we discovered Alexandria for the first time. Old Town is such a different place from the suburban landscape where we grew up while living in Ohio, and we were in awe at the quaint and friendly streets that would eventually be our home. One building, in particular, stood out to us as a true welcome sign for the area. With its large block letter marquee looking out over the city's main strip of King Street, the Old Town Theater initiated us and informed us of exactly where we had landed.

Old Town Theater -- The Richmond -- In the 1950s

Though the theater was closed when we moved to Old Town, the marquee and building remained as a reminder of the various small towns the DC metro area ultimately sprang from. When the theater was purchased in 2003, with the intention to return it to a functional movie theater, Wendy and I were both extremely excited. It's long been a dream of mine to live within walking distance of a small local movie theater. My friends who lived in Oberlin, Ohio, nearby my hometown, had all experienced this when we were kids on our various trips to the historic Apollo Theater.

There was something to simple and nice about walking to dinner, then to a movie, then grabbing ice cream after the show. When the theater in Old Town reopened, Wendy and I, along with neighbors and friends, did our duty as patrons and supporters and made sure to see movies there almost exclusively. It didn't matter that the sound system was sub par, it wasn't IMAX, didn't have theater seating, or in any way HD/digital (it was still using reels in canisters), it was our local theater. It was an experience above all else. The sound would often fall out of sync with the actors' lips, the heads would get cut off at the top of the screen after a reel change, and sometimes the movie would just stop for 10 or more minutes and someone would need to go outside and get Roger, the owner of the theater, so he could head up to the projection room to fix it.

These are all things that are unacceptable when going to a major theater, but they are all expected when we're talking about a neighborhood establishment where the owner sells tickets, introduces the movie with a little speech (instead of commercials and trailers on the screen), and runs the projection booth. The theater has seen a lot of owners over the years, and I'm relatively sure they've all run themselves ragged to make it work.

1930 Photo of the theater courtesy of Alexandria Times

The Old Town Theater was quintessential small town life amogst a big city. It was charming, they had a liquor license, and it was a great way to see first run and Oscar nominated movies without the hassle of crowds and parking, something we'd see at a larger theater. More than anything, it was a holdover and throwback that simply couldn't last forever.

Sadly, as we mentioned in a blog post from 2012, Roger decided to sell his theater and retire once and for all. We were all rather concerned for the future of the theater, as we all heard everything from "mixed use office and commercial space," to the possibility of "several condo units." The risk of the theater disappearing and losing its original intended use from the time it was built in 1914 was quite worrisome. Deconstruction of the theater's deteriorating marquee began, and we didn't know if we'd ever see it again.

After several ideas were kicked around among the new owner and the city, a newspaper article cited discussions with the city and several potential tenants bubbled to the surface. This gave hope to the idea that a true theater company of some sort would be able to take over and restore the original and intended function of the theater. And though the "Old Town" marquee was not an original element to the building, its addition in the 1980s felt "right" along King Street, so the hope it would be rebuilt abounded.

We watched the construction continue for months on end, periodically catching some major progress of items being removed or re-installed. At one point we watched as the marquee we had grown so accustomed to transformed into a steel skeleton of itself.

After what seemed like an eternity of deconstruction, the reconstruction of the building began. We'd walk by often and peek in trough the windows at the newly exposed brick interior that showed the original form of the theater.

The most apparent work continued on the theater's exterior, though I'm sure an extremely significant effort was underway inside. We can't tell you just how happy we were when we saw the first steps of the marquee rebuild occurring. This minor element gave hope to the fact the theater would once again become what it was ultimately always intended to be.

One of the significant days of the project shed some light on the various color choices the owner was contemplating for the theater's trim elements.

Over the months of rehabilitation work we watched, and we waiting for the return of the "Old Town" sign, not sure if it would ever grace the façade again.

Then, one day, there it was! It had returned!

The new letters are far more understated than the old white and fluorescent lit letters. They class up the joint a bit, if you know what I mean. They even added a very attractive row of lights to the surround of the marquee, which definitely brought in more of an art deco feel to it (at least for me).

As the overall renovation progressed and the theater's re-grand opening drew near, we once again felt fortunate to live near a treasure of this sort that simple doesn't often exist along many cities main streets.

A few more weeks passed and the theater really started to take shape.

We even took a quick glimpse in through an open door one day, just to get a feel for the newly polished interior.

The new Old Town Theater had its grand opening on an evening in December 2012. They brought out the red carpets and velvet ropes for the event, and the little Old Town Theater sprang back to life.

The renovation had been completed and was done in an absolutely beautiful way. We'd watched all along and are so happy it turned out as it did.

Though we've not been to a show since its opening, we plan to go to one soon. They are a live variety theater and offer everything from comedy shows to live music or the occasional movie (especially during Oscar season). You can even book the venue for various private events.

Ok, Maybe I'll need to get a photo someday where there aren't cars...

Despite our fears, our Old Town Theater was not lost to the redevelopment and constant "improvement" that often accompanies an urban revival. Instead this character element of our community survived, almost against all odds. We're now left with a neighborhood jewel that could have easily have been lost.

Incidentally, the Apollo Theater I mentioned in Oberlin, Ohio also recently underwent a major renovation. Perhaps this can set a trend of bringing a little bit of small town main street back into everyone's lives.

Have you been to the Old Town Theater for an event since it reopened? What did you think? Do you have any fond memories of the Old Town Theater from years ago? Are there buildings in your town that the community is fighting to save? Any other local stories of historic preservation you'd like to share? As cliched as it sounds, we're stewards of our towns, cities, and countries, and projects like this make us smile, as we know this element of our city's history will be preserved for future generations.

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Old Town

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Monday, June 10, 2013

Bean There, Done That - Raspberry Filled Vanilla Bean Cupcakes

Posted by Wendy

Comments 4

What's red inside and white all over? Vanilla bean cupcakes complete with fresh raspberry filling, of course! It's no secret I love to make cupcakes. After all, it's typically the first thing I volunteer to bring to parties and gatherings. So when I offered to co-host a baby shower at our home two weekends ago, I was excited to make a new cupcake as a sweet ending to the party.

Personally I see nothing wrong with boxed cake mixes or store bought frosting. They're a huge time saver, and often an inexpensive way to create a tasty dessert. But recently, after years of store bought exclusivity, I've gained some comfort with venturing out on my own, making complex cakes from scratch, as I did with last year's Irish Car Bomb cupcakes, and even perfecting a simple buttercream frosting, like when I made the cherry almond vanilla cupcakes recently for a friend's birthday. With these experienced under my belt my approach to cupcake creation has become an equation involving time and effort necessary/available and desired end result.

Knowing that I'd be juggling hostess duty, which means making the other party food as well as whipping the house into shape, I opted to take a hybrid homemade and prepared mix approach on my baby shower cupcakes and opted to use a high end Williams-Sonoma cake mix and frosting, which I baked in turquoise and multi colored cake wrappers that worked with the color palette of the party.

Making the cake was a snap. After following the recipes on the package, I was ready to get fancy.

My only experience making a cupcake filling was last year's Irish Car Bomb cupcakes, complete with Jameson whiskey ganache. While those cupcakes took nearly three full hours to make, I'd refined my process and streamlined my game. With my confidence bolstered, I tried my hand at a raspberry filling. It was relatively simple to start. In a medium saucepan, I combined:

1/3 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons cornstarch
and 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

I let the mixture come to a boil, and after it thickened, I stirred in 2 cups fresh raspberries.

Using a small whisk, as them cooked I gently broke up the raspberries for a smoother consistency. Because I planned on piping the filling into the cupcakes, this consistency was important as it needed to flow through the small hole in the cake decorating tip I planned to use. I allowed the filling to heat and reduce until it resembled a warm jam, and then i immediately put it in the refrigerator to cool.

While the filling cooled, I started on the vanilla buttercream frosting. The thought of homemade frosting used to scare me, but it's actually a simple process. All you need is:

1 cup butter at room temperature
3 cups confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2% or skim milk (optional/as needed)

Simply cream 1 cup butter in a mixer then slowly mix in 3 cups confectioners sugar a little at a time. Once the mixture is combined, add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and blend until the frosting is the desired consistency. If needed, add a tablespoon of milk, one at a time, to thin the mixture if needed.

Tip: While it still makes me cringe to hear Ina Garten spout pretentious tips like "use really good vanilla" on Barefoot Contessa, there's something to be said for using high quality ingredients. I recently discovered a fantastic vanilla extract, Nielsen-Massey's Madagascar Bourbon pure vanilla extract, and now I won't be using anything else.

I do hope you just read this part with a stereotypical pretentious rich and snobby person accent, perhaps like Thurston Howell III.

Once the frosting was done and the raspberry filling cooled, I added the filling into a disposable frosting bag in order to fill the cupcakes. This process was a bit tricky, and threatened to be a total mess. Unlike frosting where you must apply pressure, you need to account for the fact that the raspberry can easily flow out of the bottom of the bag. Learning the hard way, I realized you need to pinch the bag closed while you spoon in the filling. Oops.

One by one I filled each of the 24 cupcakes, opting not to remove any of the cake but rather forcing the filling in. You can see from the photo above that I actually depressed the tip into the cake a bit. Next time, with a little more time to work with, I might experiment with removing a small section of the cupcake in order to allow more room for the filling. This method worked well, but my preference would be to have more filling in the cake.

Once the cupcakes were filled, I set out to pipe on my buttercream frosting. The simple step of piping on frosting makes cupcakes look elegant and store bought, and I've found it actually takes less time than spreading on frosting with a knife.

For a final touch, I added a fresh raspberry to the top of each cupcake, which effectively acted as a cue for the flavor.

All in all, the cupcakes were a huge hit. They were beautiful, tasted wonderful, and the raspberry filling drew a lot of compliments. In fact, the mom-to-be commented that they reminded her of her wedding cake. This was a happy accident, but I was thrilled that I could whip up a dessert that made guests smile.

Do you have a go to dessert that you like to make for friends and family? Is anyone else a cupcake junkie like I am? Any suggestions on new desserts or new cupcake flavors to try? I'm tempted to jump on the cake pops wagon, but have heard that they're a ton of work. Does anyone have any experience? In my opinion, there's nothing better than a sweet treat to end a meal or a special event.

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Thursday, June 6, 2013

Around Old Town: 311 Cameron's Southern Elegance

Posted by Alex

Comments 4

Today's Around Old Town subject house is actually no longer a home, though it started its life as one. This building is located at 311 Cameron Street and is situated directly across the street from Alexandria's city hall building.

Today, this building is now a collection of small stores and apartments on the upper floors (although Wendy and I have long admired this home and have dreamt of turning it back into a single residence). It's three doors/windows on the first floor are quite tall, wide, and very atypical for Old Town. It feels far more like a house you'd find in a more southern city.

Though the home, built in 1817, is quite jaw dropping on its own, the thing Wendy and I have always been enamored with is the carriage passage to the right of the main building.

Again, more typical of a southern style city mansion, this passageway with its hanging gas lanterns and classic moldings lead you to what was once a private "piazza," and to the rear of the over 100 foot long and three story home.

Luckily, this passage is now open to foot traffic as it's the primary way to reach the shops in the rear. The courtyard is still setup for lounging, and though a commercial space, still offers a very serene setting and quiet enclave in the city.

As you can see in the photo above, the rear portions of the building are as impressive as the front. The balcony, more typical of the south, is quite an unexpected attribute to the building.

From "Historic Alexandria, Virginia, Street by Street: A Survey of Existing Early Buildings," the home's description reads. "When advertised for sale in 1817 by owner-builder William Dunlap, a three-story brick with two stories in the rear, running back 117 feet, with 12 rooms, some "spacious and elegant;" with one front, two back stairways; kitchen with two fireplaces; a portico in front; in back a covered way with piazzas; a pantry and smoke house adjoining. "So far" Dunlap had spent over $12,000."

Though the home is not likely to ever become a private residence again, it's a great example of a very well maintained retail/rental establishment in Old Town. It's also amazing to think the whole place was originally built for about $12,000. Today you'd be lucky to get the three large and solid wood doors and windows on the first floor for $12,000.

Do you have a favorite home in your neighborhood that you always pause to admire? Perhaps the home itself, a beautiful garden, interesting portico, or some other architectural feature that captivates you? If so, we'd love to hear all about it in the comment section, or snap a photo and send it to alex@oldtownhome.comfor a chance to be featured in an upcoming "Around Town" segment.

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Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Where Do You Get Your Wood? OTH's Sources for Online Lumber Suppliers

Posted by Alex

Comments 13

Renovating an old house can be quite a bit of fun. It's also true that it can be tedious, trying, difficult, frustrating, and downright infuriating, but most of those moments fall by the wayside when you're able to look at what you've accomplished in a finished project and take pride in the fact that you were able to do it yourself and overcome some of the challenges that presented themselves along the way.

One of the single biggest challenges when considering DIY home improvement is actually not the lack of skills you have as an amateur, but more typically it's the lack of knowledge pertaining to where you can find good quality and reasonably priced materials. It's not an aspect of home renovation I initially considered when beginning our journey, but it's a fact that Wendy and I both learned very quickly. For most DIY homeowners, this does not come as a surprise and will most likely be met with quite a few head nods.

With the rather recent introduction (we're talking the last 20-30 years) of "big box stores" like Lowes and Home Depot, many people feel, and the marketing would lead you to believe, that they have pretty much everything you need in the way of materials to do any project. The reality is that they typically have the basics to help you get started, but you'll need to find alternate sources for quite a few materials in order to ensure a high quality finished result. Add to it that the big box stores don't typically carry some of the more specialized products you'll end up needing, especially those that old house enthusiasts such as us require to work on our house. I mean, I wouldn't ever expect to find plaster buttons or lime based mortar anywhere in the aisles of a big box, it just doesn't make financial sense for them.

One of the aspects of materials acquisition that's been particularly challenging for us is the location of high quality and reasonably priced lumber. If you've been through the aisles of the big boxes you know that the lumber available is often either not of top quality, or it's been thoroughly picked over, leaving warped or damaged boards that you must pick through yourself to find something the meets your needs. This isn't as much of a concern when you're searching for framing lumber, but if you're working on something that has a finished face that you plan to stain or paint (like our office desk), it has the potential to ruin your project.

Finding that perfectly straight, undamaged, and correct species board in a big box can sometimes feel like searching for a unicorn or leprechaun. Perhaps this is why I hoard my wood scraps in the basement. When I find something good and have a little left over, it truly brings pain to my heart if it isn't eventually put to use.

In yesterday's post, we mentioned that we purchased the western red cedar boards for our storm windows from an online retailer, but this wasn't the first time we've purchased wood online. Over the years we've compiled a pretty decent list of both local and Internet based resources where we're able to purchase high quality lumber for our various project needs. Now that we have the list in hand, and we've received the periodic question about where to buy wood, we figure there's some value in our list and it might help you with your projects in the future, so why not share? Hopefully this will also spark some discussion that will inspire you to share your favorite locations with us (wink, wink).

Right when we moved into our house there weren't many online resources for lumber, so we were left to find local sources. After a quick survey of the local market, we turned to Smoot Lumber in Alexandria. Smoot is particularly well known in the area among the trades, and it's been around for nearly 150 years. I've actually heard that John Smoot, founder of Smoot Lumber, has been credited with "building Alexandria," since his lumber mill was the main game in town and used to be located in the heart of Old Town. They're also famous for a massive mill fire in 1909 that devastated a large section of Old Town.

Now that they're located about 5 miles away, they're still relatively convenient. Smoot offers a tremendous selection of in stock moldings and profiles, many species of rough sawn boards, specialty building supplies, and high quality plywood. Their prices are somewhat high, especially for custom knives and millwork, but when you need something quickly that they happen to have, you can't beat the convenience.

Their showroom is nice with all of their molding profiles on display so you can easily get the sense of each items scale and purpose. You can see it in the background of this photo I took of a Smoot window from the late 1800s.

We've purchased several of our crown profiles, some rough sawn tight grain pine, our Cyprus siding, and much of our oak closet plywood from Smoot.

As our projects called for more specialized wood, or the prices at local lumber yards had us flinching as we grabbed for our wallet, my search for more lumber options took me online. Over the years our options to buy lumber online has grown tremendously. I now have several favorite online retailers that are my typical go to spots when I start my search.

The first place that jumps to mind was the first place we ordered from. It's a California shop called Mad River Woodworks, and they specialize in the more ornate Victorian style millwork you see on many "gingerbread" homes. We had them cut knives to custom match some of our home's original moldings and they've since added our profile to their catalog for easy ordering.

When we ordered I was amazed at their pricing. Custom knives, setup, and 100 feet of custom run 4" molding plus shipping from California was still less than half the cost of ordering it locally. Can't beat that with a custom cut stick.

We've placed a few other orders with Mad River over the years and often look to them for anything really specialized.

When building our office desk we wanted to use cherry, but didn't have a source for inexpensive yet high quality supplies. I was also concerned that we wouldn't be able to get it back to our house even if I found some locally, since we only had our Mustang at the time. Luckily I found a great mill online called Baird Brothers.

Baird Brothers is located outside of Canton, Ohio (home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame) and offers a very nice selection of S4S hardwoods and plywood. We ended up ordering all of the wood we needed for the desk in dimensional lumber and two full 4' x 8' sheets of cherry plywood. It all shipped freight and arrived in perfect shape. All of the wood for the desk ran us about $1200 including shipping. I priced it out at another local mill and they told us we were looking at $1600, so we were happy to find this option.

The final place we've ordered wood is from Sound Cedar in Washington state. We mentioned this in yesterday's post about the wood storm windows we're building. It actually took me quite a while to find a place where I could order 4/4 Western Red Cedar dimensional lumber, so I'm quite happy I was able to find it. Now that I know they're a good and reasonably priced cedar supplier I know just where I can pick up the wood for any of our future WRC needs.

And though we've not gone this route yet, I've been considered salvaged wood or rough sawn boards that people are trying to move on Craigslist. After a recent search I'm rather intrigued by the local pickup options for rough sawn curly maple and tiger cherry. Now that I have a planer I could make some beautiful furniture.

There you have it, my secret list of local and online lumber suppliers that have worked really well for us over the years. It's amazing how much better a project can turn out if you use high quality wood of the correct species for the task. It may add a few dollars to the overall price of a given project, but it's very much worth it when the end result is something that you can truly br proud of.

Do you have any great local or online resources for lumber that I need to know about? Maybe a great place to pick up reasonably priced salvaged lumber? If you do, please let me know, I'd love to hear.

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