Little has happened at the Keys house in recent months, but that is beginning to change. We’re finally able to devote some more time to the project and will continue pecking away it it in small increments. We’ve also found some things for the house which are of interest. So far we have have acquired an 1880’s cook stove for the kitchen which retains its original nickeling. We were also able to score an 1880’s six-piece parlor suite which had been languishing in an antique mall pretty much forever. Also an 1880’s wall clock! At some point I will post about these finds.

The real excitement, however, concerns the exterior of the house. The bling is coming back! Both roof cresting and a new paint scheme are in process!

While not a top priority, Jim wanted to order cresting and have it on hand in case the world got too chaotic/dysfunctional. As it turned out, he was not a bit too paranoid. The national shutdown did, in fact, delay the production and delivery of the order, but we finally received it. We still need to prime and paint all the pieces before they can be installed.

Also Jim removed two of the porch supports from the south porch for repairs to be made off-site. I’m in the process of painting them now, so they will be the first bits of color to appear on the house in many decades.

Newly-fabricated roof cresting patiently waits for primer, paint and installation. While not an exact duplicate of the original roof cresting, the new cresting is of the same scale and evokes a similar appearance. Finials are to the right — they will terminate each span of cresting.

These are the porch supports which will first receive color. Though intended to be a side porch, the previous owner used this side of the house as the front. This photo is from last fall.

Jim made new bases for these two porch supports. The bases have been saturated with an epoxy which will make them impervious to water and decay. They will last much longer than the originals did. Antique molding will cap each base and is identical in profile to the original base molding which disappeared decades ago.

The new colors are revealed! A pale olive is paired with seafoam just as it was 134 years ago. The corner post has been primed and is ready for its first coat of paint.

I’m kind of loving these colors with the Barn Red paint in the background. I still don’t know the original siding color of the Keys house, but will remove some cheesy plastic siding (vinyl) and do some sanding in the very near future to determine that. If I don’t like the original siding color, Barn Red will be in the running as a serious potential option!

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