September 2 – It’s a wrap!
Buildings are secured. The flag is down. The closing team has returned home.
We’re thankful for an excellent season.
Sandra White photo.
September 1 – A few more projects
Jim got to work caulking and painting the workshop trim he replaced on his prior trip. He also installed the station sign above the door.
Others on the team continued with grounds work. The lighthouse is increasingly visible with this season’s hillside brush removal.
August 31 – Season closing team heads out
The season closing team of Sandra, Linda, Cathy, Tom & Jim headed out this morning. If plans hold, they will return Tuesday afternoon.
August 11 – Team 7 wrapping up
One of the remaining projects was repairing this broken window pane on one of the tower windows.
The team scoped this out on their prior trip, allowing appropriate supplies to be procured. While glazing can be patched in place, removing old glazing & glass and reinstalling new is best done on a flat surface.
Unfortunately, it was the top sash with an issue, necessitating removal of both the upper and lower sash in the frame.
Once out, the old glazing is removed. A layer of bedding is laid, the glass set, points installed and then glazed. It’s actually the points that hold the glass — the glazing make the window watertight. Here’s their work station in the second story hall.
Note the new paint in this area courtesy of Kathy Sanders and her team a few weeks back!
Ben is inserting the stops that hold the upper sash. Once secure, he inserted the lower sash and the stops on each side the hold both sash against the frame.
Meanwhile, James has been at work mowing, weed-whacking and edging. One can see from the color variation on the sidewalks that he removed a lot of extraneous material. Not only does this look nice, but it will help minimize water accumulation and freeze/thaw damage.
All photos courtesy of Jim Greenwell
The grass will need to go for awhile as there’s a gap until the closing team arrives in early September.
August 18 – Team 7, Day 6 – Projects high & low
Ben’s been working on the summer kitchen floor repair for several days now. The “soft” floor was even softer underneath. After all the old material was cleared away, he could start to rebuild the supports. Trying to remove as little historic material as possible, he had to angle and piece wood to create a stable base.
And here’s the result!
Meanwhile, Jim’s been replacing a badly cracked soffit.
Close up:
Another job nicely done is shown below.
Everything these last few days has been up high or down low. That makes hard work even harder. Whew!
Great work, Team 7! Your work is appreciated.
August 16 – Soffit complete; landscaping ongoing
Soffit reconstruction and painting is complete. Doesn’t it look nice?
Ben continues reworking the summer kitchen floor. As yesterday’s photo showed, there was a lot of rotten wood to clean out, supports to be rebuilt and only then can the flooring itself be repaired.
James meanwhile has been clearing behind the 1867 Lighthouse and Assistant Keepers Quarters.
August 15 – Team 7, Day 3
The team is finishing up the soffit work and starting on their next challenge — floor and foundation repair in the summer kitchen.
The original construction is all “true dimension” lumber so repair parts will need to be fabricated to fit. This is another of those “bigger than a breadbox” projects one runs into maintaining historic buildings.
Photo credit: Jim Greenwell
August 13 – “Carpenter team” Round 2
The “carpenter team” arrived noonish and started in immediately to complete work on the rear soffit around the gutter. They had replaced the majority of the soffits on their earlier trip this summer. In this corner, they reconfigured a troublesome downspout connection but needed some specific wood to complete the repair properly.
James (left) and Ben on scaffolding. Jim Greenwell photo.
The team plans to spend a week working on a variety of projects.
August 1 – Team 6, Day 7
Team leader Kathy Sanders reported in that the upstairs hallway is now painted.
Years ago, we scraped and painted the large bedroom beyond the door seen here as we were using it for housing, but this hallway had not been touched since the Coast Guard automated the station in the 1950’s. It’s gotten a well-deserved paint job.
Kathy Sanders photo
Team 6 heads home today with no team immediately replacing them.
July 30 – Team 6 keeps on painting
Team leader Kathy Sanders reports lead remediation is complete on the main floor of the 1867 lighthouse and that she’s moved on to the second floor hall. Various volunteers have worked toward this goal, starting in 2017. Kathy, though, has really been the heart and soul of getting this work completed.
The process consists of scraping and cleaning surfaces of as much lead paint and residue as possible, then coating with a special lead encapsulating primer. It’s sticky stuff and somewhat harder to work with, but does the job nicely when its not practical to get down to bare wood.
Mark, meanwhile, painted the lantern room roof, matching the oil house roof he completed earlier.
Kathy Sanders photos