The steps for repairing the window can be viewed in the gallery of images below.

• Removing broken side of frame
• Measure details of existing
• Create a blank rail from new mahogany stock
• Mill blank on router table, using slice of old piece as pattern
• Mortise for existing tenons
• Clean tenons of old glue and glazing
• Fit, glue and clamp
• Create and apply new mahogany stop to retain glass
• Added 1/2″ to top of this storm, ‘plane-to-fit’ exact size of opening later.

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Here are a few pictures from day one:

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I’ll give you a hint. I’m using the Nexus 21 L-27 in this project!

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In 2002 I was called to make some alterations to an interior room that I had previously worked on for the same homeowner. The task was to eliminate an interior door opening and laminate the Mahogany wall covering over the opening, closing off the door permanently.

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After machining pieces of mahogany removed from an office wall and stored in an outbuilding on site, I applied them to a new hollow-core flat panel door fastened in the opening. On the reverse side the homeowner hired an artistic painter to replicate the view outside the office window.

Well, …it wasn’t permanent! Another beautiful job well done but a few years later and a new homeowner and whamo; I destroyed this work and replaced the original door.

Zen.

In this picture you can see my two most-favored tools; a blue steel Japanese chisel and a fine tooth Japanese dado saw. When I eventually learned to sharpen my chisels my life as a carpenter evolved.

After altering the door in my shop I brought it back to the residence and set it outside. I left it leaning there against the stone wall in the carport while I worked on the jamb and passive side. I replaced the passive side and left for the night.
The next morning at 5:30am the garbageman stopped to collect the trash and for some reason, took the door as well.

When I showed up at the job site, just a few hours later, and couldn’t find the door, panic set in. We raced to phone the sanitation company. They said the door had been taken, dumped at the transfer station and had by now been driven over by large debris moving caterpillars. The original Frank Lloyd Wright front storm door was destroyed!

While working on this home, I removed some large boards of mahogany from the deck area. Every piece of this Frank Lloyd Wright original that I removed, I labelled and stored neatly in one of the out-buildings. I brought a few pieces to my shop and reconstructed the door using that material from the site.

Having the opportunity to affect repairs on what I consider to be an important structure, at times, holds more meaning to me than to the client. The work I do, in a way, can be a personal interaction between myself and the original Architect, Builder and/or carpenters. I have my hands on things that homeowners never see; the guts of a house. In a forensic sort of way, I can get a feeling for the job as it might have been for the crew putting it together.
Using wood that came from the house was important to me but furthermore I wanted to use wood that Frank Lloyd Wright likely had set his own hand upon. So, from handrail to front door handle here you have it:

The photograph above shows the new screen door installed.
Frank Lloyd Wright began using the red square symbol as his signature mark around 1904. This home was built in 1952. In this image we can see the original signature block on the left hand side.

Thank the lucky stars we didn’t leave that door off too!

This entry is backdated to the date this job was completed in May of 2001. WoodDance Studio

Each Frank Lloyd Wright home was custom designed for it’s owner and given their name. This one is the Frank S. Sanders house, situated on rolling rock-covered hills, here in Stamford, Connecticut. Built in 1952 the Sanders house sits atop on a brick foundation rising from a large rock base and features a large cantilevered balcony and deck.

The first gallery photos show the condition I found this beautiful but damaged home when I arrived there in July of 2000. I snapped pictures of the entire house, it’s features, interior spaces and landscape and then spent some time with the client to discern her desire for the deck space. The homeowner at the time did not want me to ‘fix’ the damage and ‘restore’ the deck. She wanted me to change it. It was my job to come up with a different design that would allow her to view the forested property while seated on the deck and to built an enclosed screened-in area on that portion of the famous cantilevered deck!

We came up with a design which stole elements from the interior and cut up the old deck. I found a weakened structure; rusted steel beams and a flitch plate that was no longer attached to the now completely rotted 2″ x 12″ framing.

Some temporary supports then steel work and reframing and the deck was ready to be rebuilt. After extensive research on sail cloth flooring, which is canvas cloth pressed into lead-based paint, we agreed on a fiberglass floor.
I hired a boat builder to fiberglass the new deck. Accommodations were made for an ultra smooth and sound subfloor and the glass was applied. Custom made mahogany siding and rails were manufactured in N.Y. state and shipped to the jobsite by late September 2000.

Changing the design of an FLW original is an absurd idea considering the appreciation and few lasting examples of such an inspirational Architect but we did it, for better or worse. The alterations in style were to accommodate a functionality (over form) for the client. In that sense it was in keeping with a designed-for-the-user aspect.

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One change to the construction of this deck I affected positively was the milling of the mahogany siding for use on the inside faces of the deck walls. The original boards sat one on top of the other with no lap joint. They were butt joined and since each board steps up and sits in, each left an exposed shelf which collected water. Without anything to stop it, the water would run behind each board and down the inside, eventually destroying the infrastructure. I manufactured a ship-lap joint for those boards and they haven’t leaked since.

The new screened in porch, railings and beautifully colored mahogany siding lasted without signs of wear until 2006 when I was hired to demolish all of this work and rebuild the original deck!