One of the great things about having William around to take photos is that folks are less suspicious when a kid runs up to snap pictures of them doing their thing. Like when Ringo showed up with our Port-a-potty and started mugging for the camera.

We found a spot between two cedars where it would stay shady, be out of plain view, and be easy for Ringo to pump out every Wednesday.

This morning I cleaned the putty residue off of my latest completed sash and reinstalled it, completing the window that I started last month. (This is the same window that had the rotten sill.)

I think it looks pretty good! We were in Williamsburg on Tuesday and William took great joy in pointing out thumbprints in window glazing to make me feel better about my job.

I'm moving on to another window on the north side of the house. You can still see traces of the red paint on these sashes. I had noticed this before, but chalked it up to being just a trim color, since we have early photos showing dark trim. But now we know that it was also the color of the body of the house.

The weather was beautiful today...much cooler than the high 90s we've been experiencing. A great day to practice drumming in the backyard. -- Bill

I finally got around to putting together the teak outdoor shower that we bought this spring at Target. Pretty cool. But I think I need to get a new hose to use with the shower. The water coming through the old hose is really funky. -- Bill

We had a nice, lazy father's day weekend. My only project was to make this brick stoop off of the screened porch steps out of assorted bricks that were lying around.

Today we visited an 18th century home that really needs a lot of work after a devastating chimney fire in 1916. Rosewell in Gloucester County.

It's such a neat place to visit. We were the only ones there and it has a wonderful, ghostly feeling. The foundation that owns it has stabilized it and will continue to preserve the ruins in their present state. Seventeen fireplaces in all! -- Bill

Spent all day working on restoring an old window sash. Then on my way to bed, I got my feet tangled up in some shoes sitting on the floor and put my shoulder right through a window pane in another window. Fix one. Break one. Net zero.

No blood and luckily it wasn't one of the windows I've already fixed! G'night. -- Bill

William's been scraping, sanding, priming, and painting some of our old porch furniture to earn some extra money. He did a great job.

The masonry crew was briefly back on the job today and will be back tomorrow to start laying the foundation.

The sashes from the front window that I am working on now are clearly much older than the back window that I finished last week. The wood is much harder (and easier to scrape without gouging) and the interior sides of the sashes have more coats of paint. Looks like the present green was painted over a pale yellow (or maybe a gold that faded) which was painted over a light blue, which was painted over the original red/brown. (The same red/brown that was on the outside of the sashes.) These sashes also have no brads or points holding the glass in. Only the putty. -- Bill

Yesterday I finished stripping, sanding, and priming the two front sashes that I've been working on. They were in good shape and required no wood repairs.

Might I be the future master window glazier of Colonial Williamsburg? Well, I may be getting a little ahead of myself, but I write this a very proud man. I just finished glazing one of the sahes and I give this one an "A"! (Up from a C- earlier this month!) I promise, this will be my final journal entry about glazing windows, but I wanted to share the last little secret that was the coup de grace for me.

After placing a generous bead of putty all the way around the edges of the pane, use the corner of your putty knife to mash the putty into the rabbet about every inch or so.

This simple step prevents the putty from pulling away from the wood when you draw your putty knife along the rabbet to make the angle. Oh, and I wipe the putty knife down with a little paint thinner before creating that angle.

And voila! A nice looking sash! Mission accomplished.

Meanwhile I ran out of Restoration Glass and had to order more. Seems I was having a bad counting day when I placed the first order.

I wish I could report progress on our foundation, but things have been at a standstill. Our 1,400 pounds of colored mortar finally arrived today (we're attempting to come close to the old mortar) and the contractor's mixer needed a new muffler, which also arrived today. All the planets seem to be aligned for some progress next week. I hope! -- Bill

Started priming some of our new sashes today. -- Bill

The foundation got started yesterday, but by the end of the day I was too mentally worn out to post an update here. The questions and judgement calls where coming fast and furious. Most of the issues regarded making sure that we were leaving enough access and pass-throughs for HVAC trunks and ducts. (The plan calls for solid foundation walls running under the house instead of piers, so the number, size, and placement of openings is important.) I got our HVAC guy to come by last night and walk the foundation with me and tell me exactly what he needs, which helped tremendously.

Today all of those decisions were behind us and I pitched in (left) to help where I could, mainly breaking bricks in half for the top course of headers.

We are going with an American Common Bond with the top course being headers and the rest stretchers. But since this is a brick veneer over block, we can't just turn the top bricks to make the headers. Instead they have to be broken in half.

We also chose a "grapevine" mortar joint...a technique picked up from elsewhere in the old foundation.

I am happy with the brick and the mortar color (OC), and with the job the mason is doing. But he's already started preparing me that he's going to have to leave our job and bounce to a few others that he has going on simultaneously. Even so, he expects to be finished with our foundation by the end of the next week.

Before he left today I got him to commit that he is definitely coming back here tomorrow. After he left, I broke out more brick halves for tomorrow and I plan to serve on the crew again, providing whatever unskilled labor I can. Actually, I may try my hand at laying brick. He tried to get me to do it today, but I declined, not wanting to slow things down. But I really shouldn't pass up the opportunity to learn how to do this.

Yesterday Gay and I removed the upstairs rear discharge toilet and tried to diagnose a longstanding problem. The toilet just doesn't flush with enough force to fully clear the bowl. So we haven't been using it for the last couple years. Yesterday, we replaced all the guts, all the seals, cleaned all of the holes under the rim, and made sure that there were no blockages in the toilet or the drainpipe. After putting it all back together, it gave us the same lethargic, no-pressure flush. We've now chalked it up to just being a poor toilet design that probably never worked well. Without the benefit of gravity, the water just can't rush out like it needs to to create the necessary suction to clear the bowl. Gay is now investigating newer rear discharge toilets and technologies (perhaps pressurized) to see if there's something with a more powerful flush. Sure would be nice to have a second working toilet. Especially this coming holiday weekend when we'll have 8 people in the house! When's the addition going to be finished? -- Bill

Only a small amount of progress was made on the foundation this morning before the crew packed up and left when it started sprinkling. The afternoon was nice enough for me to cut grass while grumbling about more lost time. No telling when I'll see the mason and his crew again. Wasn't a good sign when they took all of their tools. I guess he's off to another job for a while.

A reader fixed our toilet! -- Bill

Cool! Just found out that The Wall Street Journal did a quarter-page article on old house blogs in today's issue, including the Enon Hall site! There's an image of our site's home page, and I really love the caption under it: "You think your renovation is tough? Try fixing the mistakes of your ancestors from the 1700s." Makes me chuckle. Anyway, welcome to any new site visitors who found us through today's article and thanks to Kara Swisher for including us! -- Bill