When we were last on site, I made a field drawing of the door sill using the badly rotted pieces we pulled off the structure.
In the company shop, The information in this drawing allowed me to mill a replacement sill out of a heavy 2 inch thick 10' long slab of white oak. After some constructive debate and a failed attempt at using trigonometry, we figured screwing an 1/8 inch strip along the bottom of the slab and passing the board through the planer would give us the taper we were looking for to shed water away from the front door. Thankfully, a couple passes through the planer and we had landed right on or mark with the dimensions of the piece.
On site, I used a router to add the round-over details to the front and sides of the sill
With the help of some shims, we have a perfect fit.
Using another drawing and our photographic records, I was able to recreate the trim detail around the base of the pilasters. The decorative base cap molding was provided by the homeowner from an earlier restoration project.
We primed all the trim which will get a final coat from the painter who who has the painstaking task of scraping and repainting the entire South elevation. For now, our work here is done. You can see the evolution of the project in the GIF below. The owner is extremely happy that the front entrance of the house is now usable and looking better than it has in a generation. With the use of solid rot resistant White Oak and Spanish Cedar, the sill should be ready for another 200+ years of use.
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