Hello

[JacquieJet]

Nice photo! Glad it worked! Yay! Always great to be of assistance. It is pretty awesome being Canadian, heh heh. Except for those cold winters! There are a lot of wonderful, extremely helpful people on this forum. I'm sure you'll love it here! I do!
Is your home the one in the middle of the photo, or off to the side?

[Chevygirlalways]

Welcome, I see why you wanted to save that house. Please more pics and good luck in your restoration. Susan

[dixie girl]

It is the house on the right. My camera skills match my computer skills and probably my restoration skills too! Just really couldn't stand to see her torn down and I am so lucky they hadn't condemned it yet. It is a miracle because the fire chief was worried it was a firetrap with all the "wall to wall stuff". I have reason to believe the sister who inherited it sold off everything of value to travel but when she could no longer do that she just began collecting things anywhere she could get them. Maybe she was trying to barricade herself in. We began emptying it out, we removed the worst of the rotten boards and replaced them, had the house power washed, the rusty roof sealed and coated and we scraped what we could before bad weather started and had it spray painted white to protect it. The trim was supposed to be cranberry but looks more like brown and I am not happy with it. I will take more pictures on the weekend and have someone help me get them on the computer. I believe the house was built in the 30's and is a craftsman style. I have no funds to be fancy so I am going to do my best to just preserve what is here like it or not including the metal kitchen cupboards with built in drainboard sink. The sink I like not the cupboards. It doesn't even match the wooden built in cupboard in there. I can't believe it is original and why would they do something that looks so out of place to me. The kitchen is only about 8x10 with three doorways so no country kitchen here I can't even get a normal size refrigerator through the door. It has a nice size formal dining area.

[dixie girl]

dixie dream0005.jpg (372.2 KiB) Viewed 618 times

found a picture of the living room after clearing books

[Don M]

Actually metal kitchen cabinets are liked by some folks here. They are probably mid-century, so 60 years old or so. Are they in ok condition? If you hate them maybe you could find wooden ones at an architectural salvage place.

[dixie girl]

My grandmother had beautiful metal cupboards in her kitchen that still look nice from the 60's but they matched and didn't look like they were just pieced in there. It is still original with a wonderful set of red vinyl chairs and matching chrome table. These are nothing like that. There are two doors and three drawers not enough to line the wall, rounded corners and very rusty with drawers that are rusted through in places. Painted and repainted again and again. If they had been up north probably would be alot nicer but in our humidity not good. They are on the long wall but on the side short wall is a beautiful built in kitchen cupboard with multipaned glass upper doors. They look so out of place. The built in metal sink counter on the cupboards somehow is still very nice. Maybe I should try to just do something very crafty to save them. I don't know how you could save the rusted drawer bottoms. Because of our heat, humidity and insect problems destroying things that aren't cared for it is hard to find old things that aren't expensive it seems. I can't afford to restore this house just trying to save it enough that someday someone might be able to. They were going to tear it down and I just couldn't stand to see that happen. There aren't many big old houses around where I am and my friend bought it for the price of a mobile home in our area. My real question is does anyone just get by with knob and tube wiring and if I decide to rewire is there a way to still use the push button light switches or are those reproductions I have seen. Is there somewhere I can learn about wiring? I did a little 40 years ago but don't remember much about it. I have some memory problems. Thanks to everyone for your patience with me.

[Don M]

You could have the rusted drawer bottoms welded with new metal, there is a rust converter that when applied changes rust black & supposedly blocks further rust (automotive). The doors & drawer fronts could be stripped & re-sprayed with automotive paint. Knob & tube can still be safe if it hasn't been altered by improperly adding more wiring, if the insulation hasn't deteriorated & by not overloading the old circuits. K&T was installed at a time when maybe one or two lights & an outlet for a radio was all that was required. It is easily overloaded by today's electric appliances especially by heat producing units or appliances that draw a lot of power. You should have it checked by a qualified electrician.

[JacquieJet]

I second getting the wiring looked at by an electrician. I know some people keep the knob and tube, but usually in that case they have somewhat minimal power needs (for the reasons Don mentioned above), and also the knob and tube hasn't been tampered with (sometimes people add onto it over the years and it becomes a fire hazard, etc).
A qualified electrician could give you an idea of what is going on. Shouldn't be too expensive if it's just a walk through, but a conversion from knob and tube to current wiring should only be done by a professional (or someone with in-depth wiring knowledge). Not something to tackle if you don't have a lot of experience. Do you have any friends that have done wiring before? They might be able to educate you and you could learn from them while they work on their own small projects here and there.

[dixie girl]

Here are the pics couldn't figure out how to get the inside pics no electricity and no flash. The house is still full of stuff however your encouragement made me take out 6 more trashcans today! I also re-examined those metal cupboards and have decided to just be crafty and keep them. They aren't original I am pretty sure but there aren't to many people who have them and they will probably be unique the way everyone is redoing kitchens today. Guess I will have to throw in a couple visits to auto shops between lumber yards. Thanks for the tips Don already bought the stripper but I don't want to sand due to probably lead paint. I also want to encourage everyone who is doing this type work to be very careful about the lead paint and vacuuming it up can dispense it in the air. I saw small kids in some of the pics. You are probably all way ahead of me but just in case and extra caution won't hurt.

[dixie girl]

IMG_20160406_195955761.gif (46.14 KiB) Viewed 597 times

IMG_20160406_195905808.gif (54.7 KiB) Viewed 597 times

IMG_20160406_183851808.gif (53.27 KiB) Viewed 597 times

IMG_20160406_183738621.gif (82.08 KiB) Viewed 597 times

60406_195955761.gif[/attachment]