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Praise, scorn for Thoroughgood House renovation

VIRGINIA BEACH

After a nearly two-year renovation, the historic Adam Thoroughgood House is missing some of its history.

The kitchen doesn't look like a kitchen, its Colonial-style pots and pans and antique table replaced with storyboard panels.

The main parlor, where the Thoroughgood family entertained and relaxed, is now depicted as a room where the family might have eaten, with a dining table and chairs replacing the rest of the room's period furniture.

"All you do is walk in and look at it," said Richard Stuart, former president of the Thoroughgood Civic League. "You don't walk away feeling like you got a history lesson or idea of what life was like in early Colonial America."

"People in the neighborhood are upset."

Despite the extensive renovation, some Beach residents have doubts about how the city has beenmanaging the home, a National Historic Landmark and one of the oldest surviving early-Colonial homes in Virginia. They are worried that the city, which took over the property in 2003, has not solved basic problems, such as the need for a new air-conditioning system.

Thoroughgood neighborhood resident Bob Coffey is unhappy with the makeover.

"It's void of a lot of its artifacts and furniture," he said. "The furniture adds a lot to the story that an interpreter could tell."

The $475,773 restoration was partly funded by a $150,000 federal grant, with the rest paid by the city.

Jorja Jean, a teacher at Thoroughgood Elementary School and a founding president of the Friends of the Adam Thoroughgood House, said several projects that were supposed to be paid for were not completed, including special display lighting and installation of a new heating and air-conditioning system.

Much of the renovation focused on moisture control, with new door casings, doors and sills installed to keep moisture out. Jean said a new heating and cooling system is crucial to stabilize the house and the collection. The current system broke down after the home reopened in May, and has since been repaired.

Blog » Preserving Your Sliding Doors

Keeping your sliding doors, whether bypass or patio type, like new is no complicated feat. Showers and closets require that the door be light in order to facilitate realignment, and bypass doors fulfill these functions. They are suspended from a top track with multiple channels so that they can slide past each other. The panels create a full window to the inside, which is why most people choose them for their closets. If you like this article on garage doors visit roll a door for more education.

With patio doors, one panel must be fixed while the others are movable, and these are usually made from glass in wood, metal, or vinyl frame. The sliding panels move along rollers at the bottom of the frame. Lifting many of these doors can take them off the rail, but others must be set up to be in line with locks, usually halfway down the rail. Aid should be employed when moving a patio door.

Window and door hardware stores carry repair kits for broken tracks. Major breaks can be covered only with professional help from an installer. Sliding door parts are made with precision by manufacturers, meaning they cannot be easily replaced. Going to the hardware store is your best bet, if you can’t get parts from your manufacturer or if you don’t know who your manufacturer is. A counterpart may be found, as long as you have the original with you.

Repairs are usually needed for the rails of bypass doors. There are best practices for dealing with bypass doors, and they are found below. If a bypass door cannot slide as smoothly as expected, you need to check the roller brackets at the top of the door. The function of roller brackets is to keep the door in place between the bottom of the door and the floor. More information on the topic of garage doors is located at garage door repair .

Brackets come in one or two wheels and in all different styles. A single wheel bracket is fine for a light door, while a double wheel bracket is required for a heavy door. The door can be pulled up or down without deconstructing the whole set up. Unscrew the doors to adjust the height.

Door sticks and off track doors can be blamed on loose screws, objects stuck in the track, broken rollers, or bent rails. If the wheels don’t roll smoothly, graphite powder should be applied to the axles. Something that does not work on nylon rollers is oil.

Grease isn’t so bad applied to catches and locks every so often. To clean an overhead bypass door track, spray household cleaner on a terry cloth rag, wrap the rag around the tip of a screwdriver and rub the padded tip along the track. Another thing to watch out for with bypass doors is getting it in the proper position in the bottom rack.

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