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The first order of business in restoring the La Salle is to repair the foundation. Some of the wood substructure is rotten which shows up as white spots in the photos above.
The 2 main girders that run the entire length of each building are being replaced. At left you can see the process of lifting the structure and replacing the old wood with new and supporting it with new concrete piers. At center is a close-up of a finished section and in the photo on the right you can see the completed girder and piers on the left side and work still in progress on the right side.
Some of the first floor units also needed floor beams replaced, left. The center photo shows the additional surprise we found as we finished taking down the walls in the hallways. Besides the "ice doors" found earlier, another access into each kitchen was also located directly below. Perhaps the lower opening was for the ice and the upper for milk? We're looking for more info and will include it in future updates. At right are the bathtubs that are still in place for the 2 units shown here. These will be cleaned resurfaced and reused.
On the left you see a kitchen that has had the counter removed. Those that were not original to the building are being replaced with new counters that are being made to match the lone existing original counter. The upper cabinets seen here are original and will be repaired as needed, refinished and repainted. The water heaters that were located in the kitchens are now gone, center photo, and new ones will be repositioned into the attic to free up some space in each unit. All of the appliances that remained are now off to recycling and new ones will be installed once the renovation is complete.
Among the interesting things found under the La Salle was the old red bucket and lead cylinder at left. Also, if you lost your cat, maybe 40 or 50 years ago, we may have found it (we think it was a cat).
The new roof is going up. Unlike some of our previous projects, no remnants of the original roof existed to help us pick the type and color material to use. We decided, with help from the Texas Historical Commission, to use a green shingle that is common on many roofs throughout the Fairmount-Southside Historic District.
