Walter's Last Stand Restoring One Of The Last Burley Griffin Homes In The US

Landscaping has been added

2006-10-10T17:32:00.000-07:00

Turning the corner on this project, I just need to side up the rear and paint the door. Then it's backinside for more renovations! Thw last picture is the Gamble House garage in Pasadena. I used it as an idea point for my project.

Google=Genius!

2006-08-08T07:37:00.000-07:00

If Google was just a search engine, they would be great, if Google was happy with expanding into free sofware such as Google Earth, then they would be awesome. However they are in the genius category after their latest free download called SketchUp. Thanks to a tip from houseblogs I decided to download the software. I never thought I would even get around to using it, let alone actually liking the 3d rendering software. But after the first 20 seconds of using it, I learned this was nothing like the photoshop or illustrator or any other image software that takes a good 6 hours to get up to speed. The tutorial takes about 15 minutes to complete, and everything else is self explanatory. This sketch took about 20 minutes.

Concrete Finished!

2006-08-04T12:09:00.000-07:00

after waiting almost 1 year for the perfect day for pouring colored concrete, the job is finally done. And Wow does it look nice. We used a chicago brick pattern, with red brick as the color and walnut as the release.

A very interesting (and expensive) process to stamp concrete.

1 contractor ordered a special mix of red concrete
2 pour
3 dust the stamp in the release color
4 press the stamp into the fresh concrete
5 let the concrete dry overnight
6 power wash off most of the reease color the next day
7 let the concrete completely cure (about 3-5 days)
8 completly sweep the dry driveway
9 spray a sealer on the concrete
10 let the sealer cure for 3-5 days

the finished product looks outstanding and would recomend it to anybody.

Garage is starting to look like a NICE garage

2006-06-13T14:38:00.000-07:00

Carl has added the electricity! What a bear, we had to hand dig the trench because of the root systems for the trees. When I say hand dig, I mean with our fingers! There were quite a few areas where we had to dig underneath 6 in dia roots to set the galvanized conduit. Stone work has been done all by Pete. That stuff is also not the easiest to work with, as each piece must fit in a grand pattern yet to be determined. I will assume it will be another 12 hours of work before the stone will be completed.

Garage is starting to look like a garage.

2006-04-19T11:51:00.000-07:00

Painting is just about complete, just a few minor touch-ups left. I used wagner's Paint Crew sprayer. I spent about 5 hours taping and hanging plastic and about an hour actually painting. I may never pick up a roller again.
New electric will be buried next. Trench rental scheduled for Saturday.

Protect our trees

2006-03-23T12:44:00.000-08:00

After reading this article from the daily southtown called Tree protectors to organize in Beverly I breathed a sigh of relief knowing we made the right decision on leaving our old growth white oak in the corner of the yard and building the garage around it. Jen and Mrs. Kelly are the ones who made sure we did not lose something completely unique to our Chicago neighborhood.

Happy St. Patricks Day!

2006-03-05T16:49:00.000-08:00

OK OK I know! I am waaay behind schedule, but with weather like this I think I'm doing pretty good. With spring only 2 weeks away it is always fun to watch the snow. Because I know it will all be melted tomorrow!

Work on the garage has been going slow but steady. I have finished building the sliding "party" door and I have cut and trimmed all the soffit pieces. I thought keeping open soffits would make it easier to finish, but because the nail holes from the roof have to go through the substrate to grip I was left with an open soffit full of nails. I used firring strips and beadboard to give a finished look to the soffits. It only took 2 months to finish. Next up is building the venner stone base. Stay tuned!

Restoring a classic prairie style home

2006-01-11T18:34:00.000-08:00

1st phase is to get the house winterized. Started by insulating ceiling, replaced old windows, and painted walls using a cermaic additive. Before picture shows room addition made of solid concrete as it has been since 1918

Was hoping for a green christmas

2005-12-20T12:54:00.000-08:00

Siding is up, Beer shelf has been installed, and sill skirt (A Burley trademark) has been installed. And its FREEZING! Weather has taken its toll this december, normal temps in dec range from 20 to 40, this year we have been lucky to hit 20. Roof should go up before christmas as we are forecasted a slight warmup to melt the snow.

Siding is actually vinyl, it is made by a company called naillite and goes up relatively simple.

Wrapped!

2005-11-24T12:50:00.000-08:00

Well it looks like 1 month is going to turn into two months. Wether is starting to get bad and things are slowing down a little on the project. Moving est finishing date to end of january

2005-11-17T12:46:00.000-08:00

Had some significant weather the past week (notice all the leaves have fallen in one week) Had to replum the structure after 50 mph north winds threw us out of whack. Worked all day on the decorative crown, kinda looks like a ship.

2005-11-11T12:44:00.000-08:00

Roof is coming along, it's getting bigger, still no significant roadblocks, everything is going smooth

2005-11-03T12:42:00.000-08:00

Making significant progress we have the skeleton up and everything is moving right along

I'm not kidding the Sox have won the Series!

2005-10-29T12:39:00.000-07:00

Awesome picture taken from King Drive during the White Sox rally.

Taking a break

2005-10-27T12:37:00.000-07:00

White Sox win the World Series

2005-10-26T12:34:00.000-07:00

The new cement has set, and the White Sox are 1 win away from winnign the world series! Material has been ordered and progress has started, we should be done in about a month.

Oct 7 The project has officially begun

2005-10-07T12:26:00.000-07:00

Destruction

It's not Easy being green

2005-10-02T12:20:00.000-07:00

So the tree stays, the new plan will allow for a 6 x 6 cutout in the back of the new garage.

Garage must come down

2005-10-01T11:59:00.000-07:00

1918-2005 we hardly even knew ye! The garage was functional, but small so a plan was developed to expand the footprint west to 24 ft. This would involve removal of a 200 year old white oak tree. (est removal cost $2000)

When discussing plans with our neighbor, Jen denounced my horrific plan. They teamed up, threatening to tie themselves to the tree and all the time screaming "that tree was here before the indians" and that tree was here 200 years ago, where will you be in 200 years!"

So that leaves us stuck, since you cant build through teh tree, you must build around the tree .

Back Room

2005-08-11T16:57:00.000-07:00

This room was built using SOLID concrete walls (ughh!). Therefore we had to be a little creative when it comes to insulation. We used a ceramic additive to the paint. The ceramic particles are supposed to dissolve into the paint and create a heat reflecting membrane within the paint.

The windows came out great, notice how we made sure to use casement windows as these were prefered by the architect. We also tried to match the style of the window using the existing original windows as our template.
We installed an Armstrong cherry laminate ceiling and pine cased windows stained cherry. We tried at least 12 different shades of premixed cherry from different stain manufacturers to get the windows to match the color of the manufactured ceiling. Even after conditioning the soft wood we still ended up with a blotchy finish that did not match. A trip to Super Menards in Oak Forest solved our problems. They sold cherry stain in a spray can which went on like a dream come true! We bought every can of spray stain they had as each window took 1 1/2 cans to complete. After 3 trips of buying out stock of cherry stain we completed staining of the windows.

Neighborhood History

2005-08-10T13:45:00.000-07:00

This info was published in 1973 Prairie style review, by Paul Sprague

Russell Blount became interested in prairie architecture while a house (Gunn House demolished) was being built down the street from where his girlfriend (Helen Wells) lived. When Blount asked his girlfriend to marry him, Helen's dad, Thomas E Wells, was also subdividing the family farm to interested developers in the area.

Russell's dad offered him some land to build a home for him and his daughter. Blount decided to commision Walter Burley Griffin as the architect for a small cottage for him and his bride to be. The house turned out so nice that the plumber who was working on the house made an offer to buy the house that Blount could not refuse. Apparantly part of the deal was that Garrity (the plumber) would also be holder of the plan as this house does not ever appear again. Which is unlike Blount to not reuse plans.

Needless to say, Helen, Blount's Girl was a little ticked off that the house that was being built for her was sold to the plumber. So Blount went back to Griffin, only this time he ordered to plans and had an idea to build one for himself and sell the other.

So Blount lived in the 2 story home and sold the 1 1/2 story cottage. He was receiving all types of praise for the 2 new styles of housing he was having built. Blount and Griffin would now work together on a plan to build an entire city block of these "Blount cottages" on his father-in-law's farm. Now the year is 1911 and Griffin is becoming more and more famous, in fact his work won a contest in Australia to build the entire capital city.
Blount also went back to Griffin for another plan, a new home for him and his family as he was making quite a bit of money selling these homes. Things were changing about this time, Thomas Wells, Blount's father in law was murdered on his front porch, Griffin didn't care about this pet project anymore as he was moving to Australia, and the U.S. was getting started to go to war.

Blount continued to build houses but without Griffin's supervision. the houses no longer featured oak millwork, or covered soffits, or custom windows. Blount would build 7 more houses on the Wells Estate before finally giving up, as his ambition for the project dwindeled. This house was based on the 1 1/2 story plan, just turned on the lot. Blount always wanted each house on this block to look a little different than the other so even though they all share 1 of 2 similar plans they all have some individual characteristic. After Blount built The Hornbacher house in 1914 (also based on th 1 1/2 story design) World War I was in full gear and as soon as the war ended everyone wanted houses like those they saw in Europe, thus ending the era of the prairie school and dooming the Hornbacher house to a bunch of wierd improvements.

House History

2005-08-10T08:31:00.000-07:00

Went down to Prairie Ave Books on Wabash the other day and found a great piece written by Paul Sprague about the history of the Neighborhood. This house is known as a low cost "Cottage for Blount" it was designed as a 1 bedroom home with an unfinished upstairs that would be completed as you got the money. The developer (blount) lived not to far away in his own Griffin home and rented this property for 4 years before selling it to William Hornbacher. William had little to no interest in keeping this house original so in while the White Sox were throwing the world series in 1919 William was adding his own personal touches to the house.

Built a family room on the back of the house (above)
Added a dormer over the porch for a 3rd bedroom
Finished the upstairs
Enclosed the front porch
Removed the "Griffin signature" fireplace
Changed the original 1st bedroom on the main floor into a den
Added a second dormer upstairs for a second bathroom

All of these changes were well intentioned and done with great quality. He just did not know what he was doing gave the house a lopsided appearance and lessened the praire style character of the house. Or perhaps he did know and was trying to lessen the style as times had changed and having a prairie style house in 1919 was like listening to all your favorite songs on 8-tracks.

Little to nothing was done to the house again until 1959 (the last time the Sox were in the world series) During this time the owner (hornbacher?) Did a little bit more to the house.

Added wall outlets and 100 amp service
Built a screen porch on the front of the house
Expanded the garage
Updated the kitchen with maple cabinets, plastic and metal tiles
Updated the bathroom with plastic and metal tiles and added a peach colored toilet

The house would change hands in 1962, and then again in 2004 when I bought it. And according to schedule, the White Sox are well under way for world series appearances during the 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 repair and remodeling season.