Gosh, it's been a long time since I posted!

Project updates and progress reports
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awomanwithahammer
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Gosh, it's been a long time since I posted!

Post by awomanwithahammer »

It has apparently been a year since I last posted, but in the last year and a half, I have gained a son-in-law, a daughter-in-law, and a new grandson, and my mother has moved here from Texas into assisted living. A lot of “life events” in a short time, and another to come soon as I retire in May from the college where I’ve worked for 18 years!

I continue to plug away at my 1941 bungalow/rancher, although I haven’t had as much work time on it as I would have liked. Hopefully, with retirement, that will change. I never had a deadline for this house, and I don’t feel like it should be finished by now, but I do get frustrated that I don’t have time to work on it.

The whole house has been rewired and replumbed to code.

I’ve tried really hard not to “remuddle,” but I don’t think this house’s style is historically significant, so I’ve taken a few liberties while retaining as much character as possible. In order to make it attractive to families, I’ve rejiggered a few walls to add a second bathroom and possible third bedroom without adding any square footage.

Moved the kitchen from the dark back of the house into the breakfast room area, where the light and the view are so much better, and relocated the laundry facilities from the uninsulated, un-temperature-controlled back porch into the former kitchen area, which makes so much more sense as both the back door and the basement door are in that space. I hate foot traffic through a kitchen!

The two bedrooms were huge, and the bathroom was one of the 5-foot wide, 11- or 12-foot-long bowling alleys. I took 2 ½ feet from the smaller bedroom to make the bathroom width 7 ½ feet. Then built a wall to split the room lengthways, making a hall bathroom with the original tub, and cutting a door in the bigger bedroom to make a master suite. I’ve completed the hall bath, but not the master.

I’ve removed one sash from one window to see if I can restore them, and have discovered that, although the bottom sash came out nicely, the top sash is painted shut and will have to have the seal cut from the outside, after I remove the storms! I got it stripped down and am ready to reglaze. Fourteen windows times two sashes—what was I thinking?! The windows are worth saving; they have sash chains, not cords, and all are intact even though some don’t currently work and the putty is falling out—that’s what I was thinking.

I had intended to try to restore the interior doors, but they were all flush veneer doors and were so badly damaged, it wasn’t worth it, so I had new ones made. However, I have all the original hardware—knobs, face plates, locksets, hinges, and all! My door guy wasn’t happy because the old locksets had to be hand mortised in. So it cost a little more for labor, but I would have had to purchase new locksets anyway, and wouldn’t have looked as good.

I’ve hung all the ceiling drywall in the house and am finishing a room at a time. I’ve discovered that the old water damage in the plaster walls was much more extensive than I thought. I’ve stripped miles of wallpaper and reserved a special place in hell for people who paint over wallpaper. PO apparently used wallpaper to hold crumbling plaster in place because when I remove it the wall comes with it. I also discovered that the exterior walls consist of two layers of brick with an air space between, covered on the inside surface with a brown coat and plaster. No exterior stud walls (try rewiring or adding new electrical boxes in that!) But it does make for one solid house. I’m repairing all the water damage, but more on that in another post.

I’m scraping all the trim in the house and will repaint. Before anyone starts screaming, the trim is not good wood, and was always painted, never stained and finished. But it’s been easier to scrape than you’d think; it’s only been painted a couple of times and the top coat just flakes off. The original coat looks like primer; at least, I hope it was primer. It’s a nasty shade of yellow beige. I’d hate to think that was really the color of the trim.

Whew! It sounds like I’ve done a lot, but when I walk into the house, I get overwhelmed by how much ISN’T done. Sorry for the long post. I’ve been stalking everyone on the weekly digest and have enjoyed the progress, so I thought it was time for me to update. I’ll attach some pictures next time I post with more detail about what’s been done.

We thought it was already spring here in Tennessee, but apparently not. I feel for all of you up North.
Bonnie

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Deb
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Re: Gosh, it's been a long time since I posted!

Post by Deb »

Welcome back! Sounds like you had a very busy year, so the amount of work you got done is impressive! I so understand that feeling of no matter how much I do, there is sooo much left to still be done. I've learned not to look at the big picture, and to congratulate myself on the little goals, one project at a time.

eclecticcottage
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Re: Gosh, it's been a long time since I posted!

Post by eclecticcottage »

awomanwithahammer wrote:I’m scraping all the trim in the house and will repaint. Before anyone starts screaming, the trim is not good wood, and was always painted, never stained and finished. But it’s been easier to scrape than you’d think; it’s only been painted a couple of times and the top coat just flakes off.


First, I had to lol at this. I am repainting the trim at the Bungalow (linky below, but 1920's era non-craftsman) and got a little yelled at for it. And it's the same-I found, under wallpaper, on raw plaster that was never painted, paint along the trim that someone got there at the time they painted the trim. Since the plaster was never painted and always paperer, it stands to reason the trim was also always painted.

Sounds like you've had a busy year! Sounds like you are making a workable house there. Pictures would be lovely :D

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Mick_VT
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Re: Gosh, it's been a long time since I posted!

Post by Mick_VT »

Welcome back, and thanks for the update! We do however need pictures! :D
Mick...

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awomanwithahammer
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Re: Gosh, it's been a long time since I posted!

Post by awomanwithahammer »

This is the new hall bathroom:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_qHM ... zJQQWx6Q1U
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_qHM ... WdKRU1GYnM

The corner cabinet used to be in the breakfast room, which is now the kitchen (or will be when I get cabinets in there). There are two built-ins in the dining room, and then this little one that I had to remove. I was determined to find a place for it in the house, and I think this is the perfect place.

This is the only room that is complete enough to post pictures. There really isn't a before because the original bathroom space was expanded and moved. My pictures all seem to be in different places right now. My goal is to move them all into Google eventually, but so far I just have a few there. I hope pasting the links to the pictures will work here. Let me know if you can't see them.
Bonnie

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awomanwithahammer
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Re: Gosh, it's been a long time since I posted!

Post by awomanwithahammer »

Here's a picture of the corner cabinet as it stood originally in the breakfast room. This picture was taken before I bought the house, so all of the PO's stuff is still there.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_qHM ... TIzSU1JNnc

This is what I did over the weekend. As I said, there was a lot of water damage that I'm having to repair. I couldn't hold my arms up after Saturday!
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_qHM ... mhpM2pVZ0E

Same corner pre-scraped with a view through to the dining room:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_qHM ... DYtUXJmcFU

Here is one of the dining room built-ins:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_qHM ... lpRNmwzNmM

The original kitchen with PO's clutter. Very dark with very high windows looking into the neighbor's yard, that I can barely see out of (I'm very short). The washer and dryer will go under this window now.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_qHM ... VhyYi1MbDg

That seems to be all the pictures I can access from this computer, but there's more on my laptop at home. Oh! and the chandeliers you can see in the breakfast and dining rooms have been taken down, rewired and refreshed with a little metallic paint and will be put back up in their original places. The smaller one will be over the kitchen sink with flush mount lights surrounding it.
Bonnie

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Lily left the valley
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Re: Gosh, it's been a long time since I posted!

Post by Lily left the valley »

Glad you came back to visit, and I hope you have more time to stop by as things settle down for you. That is a lot that you've been up to overall. So it might feel like you didn't do much, but I think it sounds/looks like a lot, given your schedule.

In case you haven't noticed it yet, a gallery option was added here in August. You can make one for yourself by going through your control panel--once there, look for the "gallery" tab. We can make subfolders (and subs of subs too), and caption, comment and all sorts of fun stuff.

We've had a few threads lately where folk talk about various approaches to our homes in regards to what to keep/bring back/modernize/et al. You may have seen a bit of it through your digest reads. It's something that I've been thinking a lot about myself, as we slowly move into our new-old '35 bungalow that we closed on this month. So I've been glad to read all the various opinions and suggestions and "whys".

I look forward to watching your progress as time allows. :wave:
--Proud member of the Industrious Cheapskate Club
--Currently pondering ways to encourage thoughtful restovation and discourage mindless renovation.

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awomanwithahammer
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Re: Gosh, it's been a long time since I posted!

Post by awomanwithahammer »

Thank you, Lily. I'll check it out!
Bonnie

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Gothichome
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Re: Gosh, it's been a long time since I posted!

Post by Gothichome »

Welcome back, glad to see progress. No need to tell you we do expect pictures.

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