Deborah & William Hillyard
Deborah & William Hillyard
Deborah & William Hillyard
Deborah & William Hillyard
Deborah & William Hillyard
 

Deborah's Study

Original window in Deborah's study
We decided to use two of the bedrooms as studies; one each.  This is the story of Deborah's study.  I had to rip out more than half of the walls as the old plaster was falling off the laths.  The baseboard molding (skirting) was in terrible shape, so that all had to be replaced.  I was unable to find a molding that was appropriate and large enough at a reasonable price, so made my own by combining two smaller moldings onto a ¼“ thick MDF backing that I routed to shape.  All a bit tedious, but very satisfactory in the end.  Where possible, we do try to retain the original fixtures for historic integrity, but we are not anal about it. 

At some point, this window must have broken, and the owners at the time replaced it with a sheet of glass they glued into the frame!         They did not even measure properly, so there is a gap at the top.  I found it hard to believe, but it is one of the minor ignominies heaped on this poor old house by previous owners. 
Detail of the new window
After several weeks, here is the end result.  The frames are restored, and the replacement windows are installed.  Luckily, we have been able to save most of the original window and door mouldings that survived.  The process of restoring them, however, is extremely tedious. 
Closet in Deborah's Study
Restored closet door and ceiling fan
Ceiling molding in Deborah's study
The new windows in Deborah's study
I rebuilt the small closet to include storage space, as well as some tall hanging space to store Winter clothes in the warmer months, and Summer dresses in Winter. 
The door to the closet was in bad shape, with splits in the wood, and gouges all over.  I spent quite a while with wood filler and a sander!  It came out quite well.  The old fan cleaned up pretty well too.  The old schoolhouse shade adds a bit, I think. 
We decided to use a modest crown molding in all the upstairs rooms; a little more discreet than the one we plan for downstairs.  I also restored this door, that leads to the landing.  Unfortunately, the doors from some other rooms are unrecoverable, and need replacing.  Thus we will replace all the doors onto the landing with new solid wood doors.  We found an excellent source of reasonably priced doors at Bargain Outlet. 
All the windows we are installing are energy efficient, dual pane Low-E glass, with Argon gas fill.  Krypton gas fill is a little better, but quite a bit more expensive. 
Storage Room
The Loft
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Our c. 1860 House -

Upstairs Renovations