The Historic District

You've done a wonderful job and saved an old place from complete demolition. Please keep updating with pictures as you finish projects.
Thanks,
Diane

Kansas.1911 wrote:It would be a pain and a trick to make that jump of 1'. What does the finished product look like--provided you have updates on that "older picture."

Well it's been a while and I think I should post a few of the requested and promised updates regarding some of the areas I posted previously. My latest project involved addressing that 7' to 8' ceiling height transition I spoke of before. I came to as close to a "perfect solution" as I could have expected, I think. This came by pure chance and luck.

In attempts to keep the new addition as "authentic" as possible, we've tried to use only reclaimed materials when at all possible. Not to mention the "it's WAY cheaper" aspect of it. Finding, stripping, and refinishing stuff takes time, but my time is free... and I've been able to find the materials for next to nothing. One of our more recent finds was a group of 100+ year old houses in town that were unfortunately slated for demolition to make room for a new apartment complex. I contacted the company handling the project and asked if I could salvage any usable materials before the bulldozers took everything down. They gave us the green light and in we went with tools in hand.

My main goal was to get as many trim boards (all painted fir) as possible, so I could strip and refinish them for our house. That's when we found what we called "the Holy Grail".

My father in law was in one of the houses taking down some trim boards from a finished (large) opening between a dining room and main living area. When he took out the vertical board on the inside frame, he noticed what looked like a "dark 2x4" just inside the wall behind the trim board he just removed. Same thing on the opposite side. When he touched it... it moved.
This is what the "dark 2x4s" in the wall ended up being:



So yes... those doors came home with us.
We even lucked out by the placement of the wall holding the track (14 feet long). The end of the wall was perfectly lined up with the entry door to the house. We cut the end of the wall and slid the whole thing out in one piece.

I held onto these things for 6 months trying to think of a spot to use them... then the lightbulb appeared over my head... we had the PERFECT spot! That 7' to 8' ceiling transition between the dining room and living room already had a solid beam for a mounting surface for the track AND I never really cared for how open that area was to begin with.
So... a couple weeks ago, I started framing up a couple of walls, cleaned up the doors and went to work on my new project. We really love how it changed to feel of the house and all it cost was a lot of sweat (and sometimes some cussing):

Well not sure how the Victorians would have viewed the exposed hardware but I thing it looks great. And it does hide the roof transition well. Great find and even better vision.

Thanks Gothichome! I figure the house they came out of wasn't Victorian and we're more of the Craftsman type so that's ok

Plus the door hardware is stamped from "The Seattle Hardware Company" and ironically, our entry doors are the original front doors to the Seattle Hardware Company building so it just felt right

Genius.

Pure Genius, using them in this modern way. Very pretty. Also, you get to enjoy the rich wood even when the doors are wide open.

Thank you, Kansas. Closest thing to pocket doors as we could do given the space. The doors were in remarkable shape. Just cleaned them and went over it with some Howard's (LOVE that stuff!). We still wonder how many decades they spent hidden inside the wall behind the trim work... and WHY.

Now that's real sharp! It lets you use old doors and you can use the trollies to add visual interest to the space! if you wanted to you could put the doors someplace away if you had a little one or a party where they would be a nuisance and just put them back when done, too!

Very good looking result!