House restoration: front stairs

I was reluctant to deal with front stairs because I remembered the pain of assembling it the first time. I had completely forgotten that I had repaired it once before, after an attack by wild beasts. It gave me courage, and I took out the broken parts for inspection.

I also remembered that the stairs had been broken once again before the removal so I cannot blame the movers for this particular damage. The pieces had been packed in a moving box.

A couple of steps were missing.

I found one, and I believe I saw another one somewhere so I will probably find it among my supplies three years from now, but it is easy to make a new one.

Doing it a third time made me more confident.

What I did this time was enforce the seams with filler, just to make the whole structure more stable. As I have mentioned before, there is a major flaw in this design because the front stairs must be removed every time the fronts are opened. I have considered getting rid of the stairs altogether, but they do add a nice feature. So it's a matter of making them solid.

If you wonder why I haven't removed the LED light and battery - it is the only light still working. Probably because it traveled packed in a box.

I had to cheat slightly with the upper rail, but I did it the first and the second time as well. Filler is useful.

But at this point I once again decided that the back arch was unnecessary. The structure seems stable.

So all I did was add the horse heads. One was lost, but fortunately I had a spare.

I think the horse heads add an interesting feature to the facade.

Now I need to figure out a smart cat-proof way of attaching the stairs for easy removing. Maybe velcro?

House restoration: facade, part 2

Join me in my triumph: my plan worked! After 24 hours in clamps, the wall was - well, I won't say like new, but it was pressed together. You could still see the rip, but now it was easier to deal with. The inside almost seemed straightforward.

I sanded the rip as smooth as possible, but the problem was that I didn't have the right paint. This paint was something I mixed back then, and there was no way I could mix the same again. I had two options. I could hang wallpaper that would cover the rip neatly. The issue with wallpaper on a surface with windows is that it is quite difficult to cut the paper neatly around them. Back then I did it on flat surfaces, and it was hard enough. So I decided against it. I can always do it later if I change my mind. The second option was to repaint the whole surface, and that's what I did. I have a vague memory of being dissatisfied with the colour anyway (or maybe I am making it up, to justify my decision). In any case, I genuinely believe that the new colour is much nicer as well as more authentic. It is called Duck Egg Blue and would probably be used in a Victorian house, rather than the earlier bright baby blue.

You cannot see the rip unless you look very closely, and who will ever do that?

On the front, I had a similar problem.

It was easy to sand the rip, then cover it up over with filler. But how can I find the right paint? I bought it at a hardware store in Cambridge seven years ago, and I have no idea what it was called.

Just to test, I painted over with the closest paint I had at home.

It probably looks tolerable in the picture, but I knew I would get irritated every time I looked at it. Therefore I went to my local paint store. It is a small store, very friendly, and they got quite interested when I explained what I was doing. I took the pediment with me to show them what I needed. It was the only loose bit.

They used some clever device that was supposed to recognise the colour and provide a code. However, the lovely salesperson said it wasn't 100% percent reliable, and indeed when we looked at a strip it was totally wrong. We looked through everything close, and another person was summoned, and finally we decided on the best match. Now, I was expecting a 50 ml tester, like I used to buy in the UK, but it turned out that their smallest testers were half a liter. By then they had mixed my paint so I couldn't say I didn't want it. Moreover, they had run out of half-liter white jars, so they gave me 0,75 l for the same price.

I now have this paint, with the pretty name "Nostalgia", that will last whatever remains of my life, while all I needed was a few drops. Ah well, all my future projects will be nostalgic.

I was actually prepared to paint over the whole front, since I had all this paint, but believe it or not, the match was perfect. Human eye is still better than electronic devices. And half of the rip would be hidden by a pillar.

Now that the wall was repaired, I could deal with the pillars. Several pillar caps were broken.

If I had a laser cutter I would cut them, and if I had a 3D printer I'd print them, but having neither (yet), I had to use my imagination.

Cardboard, filler, paint - and you wouldn't see a difference, unless you were looking very, very closely and also knew what you were looking for. I am quite proud of myself. 

I did the same with all pillar caps that were badly damaged, otherwise I used filler. And really, there are faults on real houses as well, particularly on old houses. 

The final steps were the pediment and the railing. A bit of the railing is missing, and I don't think I will find it among my stuff as I have already sorted all supplies. 

Not much I can do right now, but I see a couple of solutions I could try.

And I was right: I feel SO MUCH BETTER now that the facade is restored.

Next: front doors.