As usual, I managed to take 1 big job - replacing 3 basement windows - and turn it into about 600 small jobs. I've finished a lot of the 600, but I still don't have any new windows installed so it sorta feels like I haven't gotten much done. 

I already covered the construction of the first set of window sashes, so I won't rehash that. BUT...since then, I got the glass installed and glazed, which went exactly like I thought it would: not fun. I think once I get the hang of it, the work won't be so miserable, but it's a lot like finishing drywall -- you gotta do it a whole bunch before you don't suck at it. 

First, the windows had to be primed with oil-based paint. Then, after watching a dozen vids on how to glaze windows, I gave it a shot.  

The putty was way stickier than I was led to believe it would be, which was about 98% of my problem. I legit spent 4 hours on this one sash trying to get it right, and the end result was still pretty rough. 

And, in a few spots, the putty wound up overhanging the wood glazing rabbet on the other side of the glass, which is a no-no; leaving the putty proud of the wood means the putty will be visible when looking through the window. 

The next evening, my inner perfectionist couldn't stand the results anymore so I tore it all out and, after watching another couple vids, tried again. The second attempt was, approximately, a 400% improvement. And, it only took me 2 hours, not 4. I did the other sash the evening after that and got the whole process down to 45 minutes.  

Once the glazing dries, I can get everything painted and then, finally, installed.

While that was going on, I got the glass for the next set of sashes; I got those finished up at the end of July.

It's all math, and something I shouldn't really struggle with, but with all the measuring and marking and cutting, there's a lot of room to make a mistake; somehow, I don't think I could ask for better fits on the arched sash pieces for both sets of sashes I've built so far. 

Anyhow...I need to get those sashes sanded and primed so I can get things glazed and painted. 

As for the 3rd window in the group, I started repointing the limestone about a week ago. The exterior side is done and I've moved the operation inside so the interior stone can be repointed. ​

As was the case with the previous two windows, the mortar just inside and beneath the sill is absolute garbage. Too many decades of trapped moisture turned it to dust, same thing with the mortar covered up by the window jamb sides -- which I can't get to just yet, but I will once I get the interior stone put back together, have a solid base to work from, and can remove the old jamb.

With any luck, I'll be cutting out the old jamb before the upcoming weekend is over. Glazing dry time is starting to be a bit of a concern; I need to be done with glazing all 3 sets of window sashes in the next couple weeks so I still have time, before it gets too cold, to get the scaffold up and continue rebuilding the parapet. So much to do, so little time!

On Instagram, I do this #52weeksofhome thing, which is participated in by mostly owners and rehabbers of old houses, where each week there's a new "theme" and everybody is supposed to post pics per said theme. This week's theme is "take a walk", meaning "show us your neighborhood (or street, or city, etc.)". 

As somebody whose first professional career stop was the city planning field, I nerd out on this kind of stuff. But Instagram only limits posts to 10 pics, so what I could share was a little bit limited. Luckily...I've got this blog thing where I can kinda do whatever the hell I want; here are some more pics (I'll try, and probably fail, to keep the words to a minimum).

Let's start back in 1876, when what's now Compton Heights was still considered "the country". The current neighborhood boundary is represented, more or less, by the yellow line but until Interstate 44 came through, the neighborhood extended all the way to Lafayette Avenue in the upper righthand corner of the pic below.  

Almost none of the structures shown in the above image still stand today. My house, built in 1878, juuuuust missed inclusion in the map.   

Moving ahead to 1883, due to rapid expansion of St. Louis, the area had been platted and made ready for conventional urban development. If you know where to look, you can see my little house in the map below. 

Back then, the central business district (aka "downtown") was a pretty dirty place, as were all urban cores of that era. There weren't a whole lot of rules regarding any kind of waste, pollution, or land use; in the densely populated city centers, this created a lot of situations people - of means, usually - wanted to get away from. 

Enter Julius Pitzman, a surveyor and city planner known, historically, for the development of private, gated neighborhoods and streets in St. Louis. He saw an opportunity to improve upon his previous upscale developments, many of which still exist today, and he dreamt up the development - "Compton Heights" - shown below. 

Today, in zoning terms, we'd call something like this "large-lot single-family residential". Pitzman's development was ahead of its time and called for a variety of things, such as large lots, setbacks (a specified minimum distance between a lot line and where a structure can be built), and curved streets. Ultimately, Pitzman's idea was to create an environment where residential structures and nature coexisted; typical urban development prior to this amounted to building things on top of things on top of things on top of every square inch of available land, with no thought - aside from parks - given to green space. 

The planned residential development (my house is outside the castle walls, as my neighbor and I like to say) was loaded with deed restrictions, called out in the images below.  

Today, that development is largely intact and consists primarily of very large, very ornate homes. Here are a few images of the structures in the planned development: 

There are only a couple mansions that could use a fair amount of maintenance attention. The pic doesn't really show it, but the house below is one of them, and another one I really like.

Alleys in the planned development section of the neighborhood are few and far between but where there is an alley, there are some big carriage houses. They're tough to photograph because the structures are large and the alleys don't provide a lot of room to work from, but these are a couple I was able to get halfway OK pics of.  

The alley immediately between my property and the planned residential development has been paved, but to the east and west, it hasn't. 

Outside the planned residential development but still within the neighborhood boundaries, there are plenty of other large homes and architectural gems. 

And of course there's the Magic Chef Mansion, built for Charles Stockstrom, a founder of the stove company that eventually be known as "Magic Chef", just across the street from Reservoir Park.

Speaking of Reservoir Park, that's the area that surrounds the Compton Hill Water Reservoir. A million years ago I lived in an apartment across Grand Avenue from the park and would take Roscoe over there just about every day. 

Now, it's Freckles' and Farley's stompin' grounds. The reservoir hasn't been used as a means of delivering water to St. Louis residents in who knows how long, but when it was in service, it held 28 million gallons of water. Architecturally, it isn't much to look at -- just a big water-holding bowl on top of a big hill (it's got walls and a roof now, but way back when...it did not).  

The park is kind of a hidden gem, albeit one in plain sight. It's bounded to the north by Interstate 44 and to the west by Grand Avenue, two psychological, if not physical, barriers to accessing the park on foot. The park's southern and eastern borders front the Compton Heights Neighborhood exclusively, which sort of makes it our own little place.  

As for that pesky highway that tore up the neighborhood, it was a necessary evil. The reservoir itself was spared from any sort of demolition but the northern section of the Compton Heights Neighborhood was not. ​

In the strip of green space between the highway and Compton Heights to the south, we have a little community garden; lemonade from lemons, I suppose.

That's my take on my neighborhood, Compton Heights. Big, fancy houses, a unique set of curved streets, a tower, a park, and plenty of stuff preserved from 100+ years ago. Now, I gotta stop writing and get back to work on this little thing...