Amanda Pike purchased a historic Washington, D.C. row house and, after six months of ownership, discovered that the porch roof was separating from the front wall. In this project, the restoration pros from DIY's Restoration Realities join Amanda to diagnose the nature and extent of the problem and determine the best way to fix it, restoring the porch roof in the process. In a second restoration project, Amanda's friend Nicole learns about how to remove and strip an upstairs transom window that has long been painted shut.
The project house: a 1915 row-house in Washington, D.C.'s Eckington neighborhood.
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Homeowner Amanda Pike and friend Nicole Criss.
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Project 1: Repair the sagging porch roof.
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Project 2: Restore interior transoms.
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Project BackgroundAmanda Pike is coordinator for Operation Frontline, a nutrition and culinary arts program. She and her friend Nicole Criss want to take care of some restoration problems on Amanda's 1915 row-house in Washington's historic Eckington neighborhood. At 25 and a first time home buyer, Amanda is full of enthusiasm and willingness to learn how to turn her old gem into a restored jewel. Nestled on a hillside of connected row houses, the first thing one notices when looking at her porch is that the left hand side sags a little. The old box beam has detached from the brick wall causing the porch ceiling to lilt downwards. Restoration Realities examines the problem, determines what has caused it (possibly condensation on the roof) and offers Amanda help in fixing it. After applying a temporary support via a jack, we take apart the box beam to examine more closely the extent of the damage. Possibly rebuilding or replacing the ledge beam and then reattaching the box beam in a new anchor system should solve the problem and make the porch straight once again. Replacing the original ceiling bead board where will complete the project.
Inside the three-bedroom home, Amanda has discovered she has transom windows that have been painted shut. She is unaware whether the paint is over glass or wood but, either way, would like to restore the transoms to their original condition. Using a specialized paint removal tool that uses heat to loosen old paint, Nicole tackles this project. A working transom and the old porch restored brings this historic home two steps closer to a beautiful restoration.
The transom, before...
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...and after.
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![PHOTO](javascript:popup("http://img.diynetwork.com/DIY/2006/01/13/drtr204_1cc_e.jpg",350,450))
![PHOTO](javascript:popup("http://img.diynetwork.com/DIY/2006/01/13/drtr204_1cd_e.jpg",350,450))
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