April showers bring May…scraping, painting, and tuckpointing

When we had the historical paint analysis done, we learned that Felt Manor had as many as 14 different coats of paint. The original house was built 170 years ago. That’s a new coat of paint about every 12 years. And it was time to scrape off all those layers and take it back to bare wood.

Here’s why we couldn’t just add another layer of paint. The paints in the 19th century were made from linseed oil. Fun fact: linseed oil keeps hardening throughout its life. Eventually, it gets so brittle that it doesn’t adhere to the wood anymore. And that’s where we were. So the painters were up on the scaffolding scraping and sanding the main cornice to prepare it for a fresh coat of Classical White paint. We love that we’re able to go back to a historically accurate color.

The masons were also busy tuck-pointing and repairing the exterior of the main house and Coach House. Felt Manor is located in a national historic district. And many of the buildings are made of Galena brick. Some of the mortar had simply deteriorated over time. In other cases, the wrong mortar was used for repairs. This red brick is much softer than brick that is manufactured today. If your mason uses a mortar that’s harder than the brick, it will cause the bricks to crack and fail. The mortar needs to be flexible enough to allow for the freeze/thaw cycles we have here in the driftless region of northwestern Illinois.

The chimneys — there are four at Felt Manor — all needed masonry repair. They’re looking gorgeous now with their freshly painted chimney caps. Our hope is to have at least some of the seven fireplaces in the house functioning!