Mid July - Electrical work begins.  Rich Vornkahl, of B & R Electric, works on updating the electrical system in the house.  The house will be newly outfitted with modern appliances and will have, for the first time, central air conditioning.  The A/C system will not only make the house more comfortable but will also protect its plaster walls from temperature and humidity fluctuations.

Late July – Driveway work begins.  The former driveway was deteriorated and poorly designed.  To exit, vehicles had to back out into traffic.  Making matters worse, a pedestrian walkway, which linked Avery Place with the Baldwin parking lot, was attached to the same driveway.  A new driveway was designed to improve safety and maneuverability.

This photo shows the driveway after the paving contractor, Grasso Construction, re-graded the driveway and installed a Belgium block apron.  Westporters Courtney Lemmon and Peter McCrea donated the Belgium blocks.

Blacktop and an oilstone surface will come next.

Driveway work continues.  This photo shows the newly laid blacktop surface on both the driveway and the re-located pedestrian path.  Relocating the path and separating it from the driveway significantly improved safety conditions.  A privet hedge will soon be installed to create a visual separation between these two elements.  The driveway blacktop will cure for several weeks before the oilstone is applied.

Late July / early August – Sheetrocking and plaster restoration begins.  Most of the house still retained its original plaster although considerable cracking had occurred over its 85-year history. This sort of damage is very repairable with modern techniques. The photo on the right shows a workman from Connecticut Custom Drywall using special washers to pull sagging plaster toward the underlying lathe, joists or studs to re-secure it. Less severe damage, such as smaller cracks and uneven surfaces, are repaired by applying a special mesh material over these flaws.  They are then skim-coated with new plaster. The photo on the left shows a worker taping new sheetrock in the kitchen.  The original plaster in the kitchen and bathroom had been removed prior to the decision to restore the house.

Before and after plaster restoration. The photo on the left shows a section of the master bedroom before the plaster restoration took place.  Notice the cracks and sagging.  The photo on the right shows the same view after plaster restoration (but prior to painting).

Early August – Clapboard restoration and repair.  Nearly all of the clapboarding on the house was in good condition. This photo shows the kitchen doorway (on the back porch) after it was moved slightly to the left to accommodate a new kitchen. To the right of the door, new cedar clapboards were cut to match the original cedar clapboarding on the house. To the left of the door, the original clapboards can be seen and appear nearly new (with paint scraped off).

Early August – Restoration of the front portico completed.  At some point in the house’s history, the original portico had been extended to project further from the front façade. This alteration created an over-scaled appearance and was not authentic to the period.  The left photo, taken in April, shows general contractor, Bill Dohme, preparing to remove the extension in order to expose the original, classically styled portico beneath. The right photo shows Bill installing fresh trim on the newly revealed, original portico. Cedar shingles will be installed on the portico’s roof to complete the job in a historically correct manner.

Early August – Insulation installed.  Typical of the era, the house was not insulated. Since most of the heat in a house escapes upward, additional insulation was blown into the large attic crawl space to a total of 16 inches.  Insulation was also added to the kitchen and upstairs bath since walls in both rooms (and the ceiling in the bath) had been opened for restoration work. Throughout the house, the windows will be weather-stripped to create tight seals.  All of these efforts will provide a much greater heat retention value for the house than in the past.

The original front porch.  This photo of Emily McLaury standing on the front porch of her house was tremendously valuable to the Restoration Committee.  Emily’s wide porch with its two benches was later replaced with a much smaller, bench-less landing.   A replication of Emily’s original porch and its benches is about to begin.

Early August - Entrance restoration begins.  Masonry contractor (and Westporter), Nicky Vena, checks the height and level of his supports for the new porch.  The landing seen in this photo will then be removed and a new porch will be constructed identical to the front porch upon which Emily McLaury is standing in the old photo.  The start of a new fieldstone path can be seen in the lower right of this photo.  It will lead from the driveway to the porch steps.

Non-original front landing removed.  After the non-original front landing was removed, the lowermost clapboards were also removed to prep for the new porch.  This process exposed the original sill and revealed an unexpected surprise – mortises had been cut into it.  This meant that the sill had once served another purpose.  Early builders were frugal with materials and often recycled them into new projects.  Architect Charles Cutler, was well known for this.  Another noteworthy find was the discovery of a page from the New York Herald Tribune stuffed into the mortise under the front door.  Dated September 11, 1945, it is believed that the newspaper was put there when the original 1920 porch was demolished and the smaller landing was built.

Original front porch replication begins.  Westporter, Carl Sirois, frames out the new front porch.  By studying the old photo of Emily McLaury, Architect Jack Franzen, drew the plans that Carl is using to replicate the original stoop.  Decking, siding, steps, columns and benches will be seen later (in a future photo gallery).