Man this is too cool. I appreciate you doing this and envy your vision!

Been addressing the interior ceiling/roof this week. Every one (almost) of the rafters were rotted along the ends thanks to years of leaking roofs and termites. After a little experimentation we figured out how to replace the ends since they were built around with the walls/mortar. Here's what we were facing.


Concrete quick saw and the old window is now completely turned into a new door to the courtyard.


Next outside is removing the crappy roof on the back 'add-on". When the previous owners added on, they didn't move the electric meter. They just built around the feed from the power pole. It's a miracle the whole roof wasn't a shock hazard. I pulled out a wad of screws and the metal will be removed, the feed re-routed and a new meter placed on the outside pretty soon.


And every time I think I've seen it all, another example of poor-boy ingenuity crops up. Vent drain leaking? Cover it with a cut-off drink bottle!

I was called pre war when I was growing up. Some touted it as better. I liked the new stuff with 16 inch centers.

There's a section of Hildebrand (street) in San Antonio that needs you badly! It was run-down when I was a little boy. Now, you'd swear you're in Mexico. (Actually you are; just an "annex".) It's where the "lower tier" attorneys have offices.

Put in a 28' I-beam and a 12' Gluelam this week to completely level and support the center of the building. Not going anywhere now.

First batch of windows are in. They really make a difference in the building.


Started ripping off the old tin to get ready to re-install the original tile roofing. Hope to get that going by next week...

This is great! Well done sir.

took some looking and digging but I found it finally ...

Nice! I'll PM you about it...

Another update- hit it pretty hard last week. Going to pull the roof off the add-on because the previous owners had put a roof on top of a roof. And not your typical "roll-out-another-layer" roof. The original roof was 3/4" decking with shingles. That had some rotten spots, so they built an angled roof on top of it with 3/4" decking and tin. Since we're putting the AC compressors up on it, I wanted to remove the weight and rot of the old roof(s). Whenever the rain lets up that should be torn off and re-framed and re-roofed.


Friday and Saturday we pulled out the old windows and transoms. I wanted to save them but they were too far gone and they had termites in them. Got the exterior and the interior ones re-framed and the glass man came by Monday and measured for the new glass. Going to go with the double-pane like the other building.

You designed soffits under your roof line?

There's no soffits, eaves or roofline. If you look at the actual pictures in the thread you can see that there is no overhanging roofline anywhere.

Good stuff, was through there again today and saw the boards up on the windows.

Yep. Waiting on doors and windows. Concrete work supposed to start tomorrow if the rain holds off. Found a plaster guy last week and he’s supposed to be out pretty soon and start patching/fixing whatever.

I gotta know. Is the driveway service bell still there? Had an uncle who owned a station in Bangs many moons ago and I can still hear that "ding ding". Gotta have one!

Bell is long gone- if it was there. There were enough air pipes coming through the wall and outside that there might have been one there somewhere but who knows.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/324657008001?hash=item4b9710cd81:g:V0kAAOSwKuRguDDO

When I was a kid, I would try stomping on the hose to make the bell ring but never could.

Me too. Local station epoxied a quarter next to the airline by the front door and no telling how many times I tried to pick it up.

More progress in the last couple of weeks. Plumbers finally had some time and spent the better part of 2 days sawing and jack-hammering the concrete floor out to replace and re-run and add drains for the new toilets and sinks. The concrete was thicker than they thought it would be so it was slow going.

New toilet drains and tie-in to outside sewer.


Where the kitchen sink and handwashing sink are going.


The station windows and the secondary building doors came in and they were installed. The installers shattered one of the interior pieces of the double-pane window and had to order a replacement. The windows really look good.

Courtyard door- still waiting on the sidelight glass.


Windows in for the station. Will be trimming them out pretty soon, hopefully.

Prep for the concrete work is in progress. The plumbers should be out today to replace the main supply and run whatever is needed before the forms and rebar are laid.

Ripped off the rest of the rotten wood and now we're waiting on the tile guy to come line out what they need to have built as a substrate for the tiles.


Spent about an hour on a less-visible location tile that was busted to see how that process was going to go. Hammer and chisel up on the ladder and an hour later it was chipped out with only minimal plaster sacrificed. I figure the plaster is a lot easier to fix than another busted tile. Cemented the new tile in place with some tile set adhesive and it looks pretty good and from a distance you can't tell which tile is new too easily.

Why do the lady's have separate bathrooms?

And the say there are no STUPID questions, well we have a winner that can be taken to the bank.

Back in the day the gas stations only had one washroom