Jurassic Bungalow

With the cool spring and regular rainfall the yard is pretty lush this year:





The ferns are now 4 feet tall, the house is nearly as obscured as when we first bought the place. But ferns are much different that trees...



I worked out back this morning for a while and just quickly set, in approximate locations, the bases for the pergola columns:



I really like the salvaged cement block with the stone faces. I told Lisa it will give the pergola "instant age."

Need a Door? Or 50?

Friday and Saturday Friends of Historic Preservation's salvage crew started working on the International Center building on the University of Iowa campus. The old portion of the building was constructed in 1935 as a dormitory for law students. There are over 50 old birch (we think) 5 horizontal panel doors complete with fully functional window transoms and hardware.

We have removed 20+ already in their jambs. The doors are a nominal 32 inches with some hallway doors (also with transoms) at 36 inches. With the transom they are 8 feet 4 inches tall.

Nearly all are right handed. The casing around them is mitered in the corners, with a biscuit hold thing miter together and three screws on each side of the joint (six per corner)

If you're building new (or remodeling) and want a great set of matching, never painted doors, let me know and I'll put you in touch with our salvage barn manager.

Of course the highlight of my day was crawling out a second floor window to a parapet to get a great shot of the Old Capitol Dome across the Iowa River:

What was even better was when I turned around and saw this:

Too big for a squirrel, wrong color for an opossum. Could a groundhog climb to third floor?