top front windows done

These actually went pretty fast -- well considering how long I've dragged out some of my other windows. Slowly the house is making the transformation from a dull yellow to my snazzy new paint scheme. I'm considering switching from windows to working on the porch to help complete the look. I imagine I'll be working on that for a while if I do start that next. One thing that makes me cringe every time I look at the house is how the porch beam has a subtle but very noticeable sag in the middle. Obviously this is going to get fixed, but I don't know to what extent the damage is. If anything, it would involve pulling off the fascia boards and reinforcing/replacing the structural beam underneath. So it shouldn't damage the paint too much. I can always do touch ups after the fact. I'm hoping to get that taken care of sometime by the end of the year. Cross fingers..

the new hotness

It's no exaggeration, I've been looking for this register for the better part of four years. After buying the house, I scoured ebay and antique stores for the first year. I was bombarded with tons of cool old hardware, but I could never find what I was looking for. After a while I became disgruntled and forgot ebay even existed. My hopes were dashed and it would seem I'd never find that missing piece of hardware to complete this register. A few months ago my interest in ebay was rekindled and I browsed the hardware section every once in a while out of curiosity. I never expected to see this beautiful auer heat register, but there it was. The clouds opened up and a bright light came down from the sky. I distinctly remember hearing the voices of angels. I always thought to myself that if I ever did see it I would spare no expense to get my hands on it. Well, I wasn't going to spend $300 on it -- but the deal I got on it was way better than that. I couldn't resist.

The plan was originally to canibalize the new register for the faceplate that was missing. This thing just looks too nice though. Once I restore the original I may fall back to that plan, but for now it will inject some much needed eye candy in the dining room. I think these are cast iron but they do have a sort of copper planted finish on them. I love these registers. Here's a closeup of the manufacturer's mark. It says "The Auer Register Co. Cleveland O.".

Drool..

old heat registers

One thing I've been blessed with in this house, is much of the original hardware is still intact. Door and window hardware is 95% complete. The heat registers are all there too, save for the one in the kitchen. I'm still hunting one down to put in there. But probably the most important pieces are these fancy cast iron heat registers. I've seen several homes around here with this exact model -- must have been popular in the 1910s - 1920s. The Auer heat register was apparently made in Cleveland, OH but I don't know much more about them then that. If anyone could pass along any info it'd be most appreciated.

The formal rooms in this house have one of these registers each. They're in fair condition -- some surface rust, a crack here or there but nothing too major. At some point in the future I plan to pull them out and give them a proper restoration. This is the register in the foyer:

The register in the living room:

And this is the register in the dining room. We're obviously missing the face plate the door hinges on, so the door is pretty much stuck open all the time. The thermostat is just on the other side of this wall behind the swinging door and so I'd like to be able to control the airflow out of this one a little better. More of the story to come tomorrow..

prison decor is so 80s

You might remember way back in the year 2007 I rejoiced after upgrading my home from the cheesy prison look. What I mean, of course, is we removed the wrought iron bars that were on every single window of our home. A huge improvement for this house's curb appeal. If you look closely you'll see the remnants of the bars on the two top story windows over the porch.

I despised these bars the day we moved into this house 4 1/2 years ago and I despised them even more the day I removed the rest of the bars. That's because we kind of forgot about them that day and I figured I would get to removing them in a few weeks. So weeks turned into months, then years. Until yesterday that is. Behold the sad remains. Of course the last piece wasn't going down without a fight. I must have wrestled it for an hour (note bent up piece) :).

Ah yes, much better. I've already started and nearly completed step 1 of my 8 step window process. I'm hoping I can finish these in the next two weeks or so. I'm planning on getting my window guy back over here soon to resume work on another room. We'll restring these while we're at it.