George Douglass House Restoration Report for the quarter endinng March 30, 2020

Work Progress in George Douglass House, January 1-March 30, 2020 During this quarterly period, interior plastering and woodwork joinery continued at an efficient and coordinated pace as weather, planning details, and Pandemic restrictions permitted. Project carpenters Tom & Chris Lainhoff fabricated major paneled elements, built-in corner cabinetry, and molded millwork such as chair rail, cornices, perimeter-architraves, and baseboards in their home-shop. These components were designed and detailed based on surviving fragmentary “templates” found in the house and authenticated during the course of the project. Importantly to all other restoration aspects in each parlor, great care was taken to stabilize and level floor joists to receive original and re-purposed species-matched floor boards in their historic positions in both parlors. Carpentry and plasterwork progress required sequencing and integration with lath application, repair or replacement where necessary, and lime-plastering, by installing the permanent and temporary wooden “stops” at the meetings of plaster and woodwork. This alignment on both horizontal and vertical axes requires exacting precision in both crafts, so that the finished work meets 18th century artisan quality standards and original-design objectives. This task is made exponentially more challenging in a grand “relic” of a manor house whose structural elements are no longer plumb, level, or square. A new “blind” board partition, without door passage or other opening, was constructed between the front “best” and back “family” or dining parlors. This re-established the historic public and mercantile-office privacy in the front parlor and a less formal family preserve in the back. Continuing the restoration precepts and priorities established in 2d floor chambers in 2019, the first preference is to preserve original and un-compromised 1765 plaster parlor walling in its un-coated state. Severely degraded early plaster will be re-laminated to original, repaired, and replaced lath, recoated with a scratch coat and a finish coat formulated from 18th century recipes. Soot and other particulates and adhesions on early plaster will be cleaned as thoroughly as possible and the cleaned surface lime-washed. Larry Ward