Wallpaper and Windows

Last weekend was a busy weekend on Walnut Street.

On Saturday, we got Fidel to come over and assist us in clearing out all the trash that had accumulated in the dining room upstairs from tearing out the kitchen floor.  We also finished tearing out the bathroom floor - so now all the original floors are exposed and ready to be restored.

We also started stripping wallpaper in all the rooms.  For some reason, in the second floor flat, every room was wallpapered with multiple layers of wallpaper - and then every room was painted over.  In most of the rooms, even the ceilings were wallpapered, and that includes the hallway and stairwell.  It's going to be a big job stripping all that wallpaper, but it has to be done.  In many places, the wallpaper is peeling, and, like many nonprofessional installations, the wallpaper has several places where the seems were overlapped, the paper is bulging, etc.

Surprisingly, the walls underneath the wallpaper are in pretty good condition.  Although there are some holes in the plaster, and there were many many screws, tacks and nails driven into the walls, most of the walls are reparable.  So there's no need to remove the original paster walls - we'll just have to patch them all.

Underneath the wallpaper, we found copies of the Berkeley Gazette and the San Francisco Chronicle, all dated from September 1950.  There was older wallpaper beneath that, but the last layer - the latter that was subsequently painted - was installed in 1950.

We don't know what most of the wallpaper looked like, but in the south parlor, there had been a closet or bookshelf installed before the walls were painted.  Although that shelf has been removed, no one ever painted over the exposed paper, so we can see what the paper in that room looked like.

Wallpaper in south parlor

And in the stairwell, we can see the two papers that were installed, one over a now-removed picture rail, the other underneath.

I also started fixing the windows in the house.  There was only one window left that had no glass at all, the south window bottom sash in the south parlor.    The window is large, and the glass needed is 41" long by 31 ½ inches high.  Installing it was a little nerve wracking: handling ⅛" glass that large always feels like it is about to shatter from its sheer weight.  However, with some care, I got it installed, and secured in place with glazier's points and window glazing.

Every time I restore windows, I marvel at how wonderfully simple they are, and how much fun they are to repair.  I detailed how to do that in the 62nd Street blog, but in this house, it is complicated by the size of the windows.  One of the windows I dismantled and repaired today is the east wind in the south parlor.  The glass in that window is almost 5 feet wide, and the window weights are huge.  In fact, the weights are so large, I couldn't take them out of the weight pockets via the access doors - the weights are too long to fit through, and I had to remove the interior trim to get to them.  Even though two of the weights still had the ropes on them, I went ahead an replaced all four ropes, hoping that I won't have to do THAT particular job again any time soon.  Of course, the east window in the north parlor is the same size, so I'll have the same problem next weekend.

I also spent time scrubbing the bathroom sink, which was filthy and rusty.  There's still some rust to be removed, but it will come out, and the sink really is beautiful.  With the clawfoot tub, it will make the bathroom look as it did in 1903 when the house was new.

The bathroom sink, on the way to being clean

I also removed graffiti and stickers from the pebbled glass window in the bathroom door.  Now the door lets light flow from the bathroom in (and vice versa).  With the windows uncovered and the glass cleaned, the pebbled glass glows in the sunlight, for the first time in years.

 The bathroom door, looking into the hall (left) and in from the hall (right)

The worst part about working in the house is that it is just so dirty - everything is covered with years of dirt.  I spent time brushing off all the surfaces today, so at least all the dirt is on the floors.  I've been sweeping the floors like mad, but there's still dirt.  In the south parlor, I finally mopped the room, and the difference was dramatic.  Next weekend, I hope to sweep up as much dirt as I can, then wash not only the rest of the floors, but also the trim and window ledges.  As I take each window out to fix the weights and ropes, I am washing the windows themselves, and having clean windows is a big change.

Light and Airy

Yesterday, with the temperature at 91º, we uncovered the rest of the windows on the second floor of the Walnut Street house.

Taking down the plywood (actually sheets of OSB) isn't easy.  The sheets are heavy, and keeping them under control while lowering them down from the second floor is tricky.

So we came up with a system:  I would screw a handle onto the inside of the plywood, which gave me something to hold on to.  Once that was in place, Tom removed all the screws from the plywood, and then got out of the way.  Using the handle, I could maneuver the sheets until they were lying on the ladder - and then I'd let them slide down.

The results are amazing.  The flat is totally filthy, but we can actually see it now, and working in it will be much more pleasant.  I also opened all the windows and aired out years of mustiness.  Even on the hottest day of the year, there was a breeze blowing through the flat, which kept it cool.

The house is coming back to life.

Here are a few photos:

The bathroom 

Dining room looking to back bedroom (the toilet is being hauled away) 

The dining room (the pile of debris is mostly the old disgusting vinyl floor from the kitchen) 

The front and back parlors

The north bedroom

Next up: Repairing/restoring all the windows, and removing the kitchen chimney.

Repairing Pocket Door Locks

I spent the day yesterday working on the locks for the pocket doors at the house on Walnut Street.  It was a wonderful day.

I have always loved old pocket doors.  They are surprisingly complex and interesting in design, and wonderful in function.  They create a way of closing off a room without losing floor/wall space by having to accommodate the swing of doors.

The Walnut Street house has 5 pocket doors - one set of double doors and three individual (large!) pocket doors.  They've all been abused, and none of the locks worked.  So yesterday, I spent the day taking them apart, removing years of paint from the beautiful brass, and making sure everything worked.  Then I reinstalled them.

Ever wonder how a pocket door lock works?  Here's a description:

The mechanism for the pocket door handle and lock

The lock and handle set fits into the edge of the door, so you can pull the door out of its pocket, and so you can close off a room and actually lock it.  To pull the door out, you press the button at the bottom front edge of the lock (A).  The button moves the lever (B) that holds the handle (D) in place. When the lever moves out of the way, there is a spring (C - hard to see) that pops the handle out, so the door can be pulled open.  When finished moving the door, the handle is pushed back into the lockset, and the lever again holds it in place.

To lock the door once it is closed, a skeleton key is inserted into the keyhole (E).  The key moves the back bar (F) and forces it up, which disengages a wedge (G) from the main bar.  The main bar (H) then is pushed forward by the key and forces the lock lever (I) out and into the plate on the opposite door (or on the wall, if it is a single door).  This prevents the door from being moved back until a key is reinserted and turned back to move the lock back out of the way.

Pretty ingenious, and yet relatively simple.  The locks don't require any grease or oil, and once I cleaned the years of paint and gunk out of them, they work smoothly - ready for another 100+ years of service.  (Note that the picture was taken before I disassembled the mechanism, so all the paint etc was gone by the time I put the cover back on and reinstalled it in the door.)

Fixing old mechanical things: I highly recommend it.  It uses a part of my brain that I don't get to use much while at my paid gig, and can be deeply satisfying.

Next up: front door locks, and fixing weights/ropes/pulleys in windows.  Can't wait!