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.

yep, more window madness

I know, it's been a while. Aside from taking a couple weeks off all things house related, I've been helping restore an elderly neighbor's front porch. I'm only fixing a modest amount of the porch, but it's a slow process. I'm getting close to finishing that, so I'm starting to refocus my energy back to the ol' McBroom house. :)

This is something I've been working on for the past few weeks. I've put a ton of work into this trio of dining room windows, although most has been to the exterior. I can't ignore what it looks like on the inside anymore though. I recently acquired a set of luxurious curtain rods I'm planning to put up over this set of windows. Of course to do that, I need to actually mark everything complete inside & out. If you remember, these didn't look too bad from a distance until you stuck your head up close. The finish wasn't pretty. There was a lot of caked on dirt and the wood was rotted pretty bad in spots.

The repair included lots of scraping out the funk and gluing mullions that had split a little too far.

Ah yes, smooth as a baby's bottom! Today I finally got all the rough and finish sanding done. I added a little wood filler in a couple spots I'd missed too. Once I get the final finish sanding on those last few spots, we're ready for the stain and poly. I am soo ready to get this over with...

the caples building

The Caples building. Probably one of the most significant buildings in all of downtown. Originally built in 1909 by Henry C. Trost for Richard Caples, former mayor of El Paso from 1889 to 1893. The building was initially built with five stories, but then in 1915 two additional stories were added converting the overall design to Romanesque Revival. I love the terra cotta detailing and arched windows of the upper stories. Aside from the architectural features, it also has a significant history. During the Mexican Revolution, it housed the offices of various Mexican political figures -- most notably Abraham Gonzalez and Francisco Madero. The pivotal Battle of Juarez in 1911 was plotted in the fifth floor. I believe Madero's provisional government as the new president was initially run out of this building. Of course, those were turbulent times and his presidency didn't last long. He was forced out a few years later by Victoriano Huerta.

Ok, enough with the history lesson. As you can see the building is pretty run down -- it's been that way for the last few decades. It was recently listed as one of the most endangered buildings by Preservation Texas. What I find quite exciting is that it finally looks like it's getting some much deserved TLC. The owner recently filed a request to replace all the windows and refinish the window frames on the exterior. I walked by the other day though and it looks like they're actually restoring the windows, just replacing the glass. It's going to look so awesome -- a good start to breathing new life into this old building. I hope they remove the plywood addition between the two towers in the U-shaped design. A lot of the brick and terra cotta could use some love too. My suspicion is this building is getting fixed up now as a result of the new city ordinance to bring vacant buildings (in their entirety) back up to code. So while this building lost its fight recently, I do like seeing the positive of what stronger city enforcement will mean.

billy the kid festival

One of the touristy things to do around town is to check out the mission trail. I think it's still in its infancy in terms of being something that actually draws people from out of town to check out, but the history is pretty cool. I think it's got loads of potential. This San Elizario mission above was built in 1882 and is actually the youngest of the missions. The first in the area dates to the 1600s, so this is a young chap. Even a wee lad needs some restoration work though. Especially when you're dealing with adobe.

The little town of San Elizario just east of El Paso is a reminder of the way things used to be. This town was actually the county seat back in the late 1800s, but when the railroad was built it bypassed San Elizario and instead went to El Paso. What happened was El Paso/Juarez grew into a metropolis and San Elizario stayed a small town with agrarian roots. One thing that's always interested me is the Old West lore of the late victorian times. John Wesley Hardin, Dallas Stoudenmire, and of course Billy the Kid. The first annual festival I attended over the weekend was pretty cool. I annoyed my wife with my best Estevez-esque "I'll make you famous" (ca. Young Guns) until I wore her down to go check it out. It was a little light on attendance, but I was pretty impressed nonetheless by the little town that could. Quite a few of the old buildings have been restored and are inhabited by galleries and restaurants.

Some are still waiting for some love.

This is the old county jail that Billy the Kid busted a friend out of in 1876. Uber cool.

A re-enactment troupe called Six Guns and Shady Ladies provided lots of gunfight recreation mayhem. It rocked.