Trying to meet a deadline from the city's Façade Grant program (as well as a vacation - finally - in August) we have been hard at work getting our entrance on Randolph Street done. If these photos seem like a great leap ahead, it could be because our camera broke and left us blog-post-less for a while. It is as close to done as we've ever been with this phase of the project. Glass Commercial Door and Sidelights furnished by Roma Windows in South Philly. We tried to put them in ourselves, failed miserably because we didn't understand the interlocking parts, and finally hired a real sweet "glazer" named Spencer who worked 1/2 a day with us and didn't charge an arm or a leg. just a toe - and so we got it done right. It works. And then moved onto the project of the wall above the door.
We wanted to do something that looked modern, not cheap, yet cost was an issue, as always. So we looked at some design books and liked the look of vertical slatted wood in modern Scandinavian architecture. We made a design, bought a bunch of 1x4 pine boards at a lumber yard, and pre-stained and sealed them on the ground. Then we cut them to length, fabricated sets of 2 on the ground, and fastened them to nailer strips on top of the old plywood. I believe what we did could be called reverse board and batten. It's kind of barn, kind of modern, kind of soft, kind of hard.
Gerhardt, dancing on the scaffolding.
Halfway done! Kickin ass is what I say... and the windows (although they are fairly cheap pre-existing windows and slightly off kilter) look great when they're recessed a little.
The Facade Grant will match funds for replacing windows as well - so we took out all the old broken single-paned windows, cleaned things up and spray painted the green grating black. This is the first time since owning the building that these windows haven't been boarded up or covered by dirty plastic! Now open, the sun shines in. There is so much light inside it feels great.
Cleaned up a little inside, and it's nearly ready.
