Mount St. Mary's -- Entrance Phase II

Where has Dave been all summer???

Hooksett, NH.  Finishing up the entrance to Mt. St. Mary's

Remember last year, when I did the doors?  Well, now it's the onsite work and it's been a busy summer.  I've done my best to capture the stages as I work my way towards completion.

So here's where I started back in May.  The doors are done, but it's easy to see the difference with the unrestored parts/


As with any restoration, preparation is 90% of the job and this was no different.  I burned a lot of sandpaper and elbow grease on this project.  Below is the beginning of stripping the left side.

 and sanding and sanding and sanding . . .
 and more sanding . . .

Love the view from the porch where I'm working.  Looking out over Hooksett and Bow, NH


Back to sanding.  You might notice that the plaster capital is gone.  I'll be replacing those with crown molding that matches the inner entrance.

A beautiful day working under the canopy/


Here I'm fitting the replacements for the plaster capitals

 The left side of the entrance is stained to match the doors/  Now to start stripping the right side.

and sanding and sanding and sanding . . .

and sanding and sanding and sanding . . .



and sanding and sanding and sanding . . .


\A nice view of the entranced from below.



Both sides stained and protected with a coat of varnish.  Also the capitals have been temporarily placed.

And now it's time to attack all of the little blocks.  Tedium thy name is small oak blacks.

A herculean effort later . . . they're stripped

and stained

On to the final part.  The upper arch.  The old finish up here was better protected than down below and so not only was it difficult to reach, it was hard to get enough leverage to sand it off.

 Eventually, though, I worked through it.

and finally it's all stripped and ready for stain.

All of the sanding and staining is finished (whew!)

One of the remaining tasks was to replace the trim that I couldn't save.  Note the sharp edge around the raised panel.  In the picture below the trim is installed there.

And So ./. .

It's been almost two years, but this damaged and neglected entryway was worth the effort when you compare it to the "AFTER" picture below.

BEFORE


AFTER

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