quare id faciam?

Project for 'Providence House'

It looks like I'm being given opportunity to do a little project for the home of the pastor of New Hope Pres. in Fairfax, Va. – the church I attended for a number of years (& where, technically, I'm still a member, though for about a year I've been mostly worshiping in LCMS churches) before moving back to Baltimore two years ago. I've done a fair amount of work for families of New Hope, but have never had a chance to work on the Coffins' house, a relatively plain but nicely proportioned & well built brick colonial-revival-generic about 60 or 70 years old (if I recall right) that they (and church members with them) really love. For that reason, and because I don't get many opportunities, working the way I do under present circumstances, to do exterior finish carpentry, I'm grateful for & looking forward to this modest job.

I've put a bit of effort into setting up the project, accordingly. It's small and certainly nothing fancy – just repairs to the porch columns (which sit directly on the concrete deck & have begun to show the inevitable rot, though after a surprisingly long time) and replacement of existing black-painted iron railing with a more traditional-looking white wooden railing. But even for something this small & ordinary, there's a considerable distance between what might be called passable work and good, attractive, durable work. So there've been a number of little details to consider and options to communicate, with a view to doing a job the Coffins (and I) can be confident about & happy with for a long time.

No sense in going into the details here, fascinating (and, perhaps, psychologically revealing) though they all are; but for visual interest I include, below, part of simple drawings I used with the homeowner to go over parameters & problems. (Drawings might seem like overkill for a job so seemingly straightforward, but I'm well satisfied they were worth the trouble – a good deal of explaining having been saved and a few worthwhile questions having been ironed out now by reference to them.) I may follow up in later posts with some photos & notes from the job, assuming the project goes ahead.

posted by paul bowman @ 12:00 AM