Demo Queens

After months of work being halted due to frigid conditions and heavy snowfall, we’re finally back at it!

This section of the house was in the worst shape of the entire exterior. Leaks and gutter issues that had gone unchecked for years led to spots of rotten siding and trim. We also removed the now-obsolete, side apartment entrance, which was a much later addition to the house.
Our gal is getting a face lift and will be looking refreshed and rejuvenated in no time! (If anyone asks, she didn’t have any major work done… just a lil upper eyelid surgery to fix some vision issues. 🤫🤐)

Brian Munroe Rich Sudol Krisja

Interior front door restoration on its way. This gorgeous mahogany door and trim will all be stripped and clear coated to show the beauty of the wood.

The beauty of utilizing Facebook Marketplace in a historic restoration is that if something better comes along, you can always swap it and sell option #1 back on Marketplace. Sometimes even at a profit!

This is the perfect example. We spent months searching for an antique door that had a full glass panel to let in as much light as possible. Everything we found was either out of our price range or just not right. The back door that was baaaarely in place when we purchased the house desperately needed to be replaced for security reasons. So, due to timing, we had to settle for a door that was great, but not what we ideally envisioned.

Brian and Rich installed our half-glass, currently-white, salvaged door and it did the job well…until we spotted these beauties. The price was VERY right. The door we wanted came as part of a pair, but we can now sell the 2nd one, as well as the white door we had originally installed. All we’re out is a bit of Rich and Brian’s sweat labor. Which is a very valuable commodity, indeed, but us Demo Queens are passionate about making this historic restoration as beautiful and authentic-to-the-period as possible.

You can follow our back door journey from the beginning in this post. Keep an eye out on our socials for the after pics of our new-to-us, solid wood, full-glass antique door! 🚪

Who knew doors could be so exciting? 🤗

.munroe1

We finally got the last round of unsalvageable books out of the house. To say that the previous owner was a book “collector” is an extreme understatement. A university already carted away thousands of them before we bought the house. A book seller also picked through the thousands upon thousands that still remained in the house when we purchased it. We hate to see any books come to the end of their lifespan but, sadly, a lot of these were in denigration stage and beyond saving.

These original tiles from the fireplace sure clean up nicely. Layered under decades of dust and debris, we uncovered this fabulous color scheme.