Home Improvement

[Cardinal]

Smashed thumbs, torn-off fingernails, numerous cuts, nails poking through shoes, paint clinging to hair, bruises, etc. - all the characteristic badges of honor of the many handywomyn and men of Cyburbia. The "weekend" thread got us started, now let's share our stories of working on the old homestead.

For me it has been an old farmhouse in the country - no labor of love - just a cheap place to stay, and room to garden. It wasn't habitable when I began two years ago, but is now all but done.

I have added and replaced windows and doors, taken out an put in walls, put up new wallboard on half or more of the interior, dealt with electric and HVAC systems (but farmed out some, and all the plumbing), put in new floors and ceilings, painted, and landscaped.

Along the way I encountered walls up to four inches out of plumb, windows without headers, fiberglass nailed over holes in the roof, rotten walls and floor joists, dirt piled up to rotten hardboard siding, and much more.

I also found several newspapers from the 1950's with articles about Alaska becoming a state, the launching of the Edmund Fitzgerald, segregation in Little Rock schools, and the Janesville, WI City Council considering abolishing the ordinance that prohibited single women from being served alchohol at the bar (they had to be seated at a table).

Oh yeah, I still haven't taken out a building permit.

 

[Dan]

The Denver House

It was 850 square feet of brick Craftsman bungalow goodness, on a nice block in an up-and-coming neighborhood just a couple of miles from downtown Denver. There were no exterior alterations from the time the house was built in 1925; it was architecturally perfect. The abundant windows had glass that was original ... imperfect and wavy. The price was unusually affordable.

The interior, though ... was a mess. All the original woodwork was covered up in 10 to 15 layers of latex and oil paint, and most of the windows were sealed shut. The interior paint colors ... hospital hallway green, day care center blue, and hot pink. Bright, awful, gut-wrenching hot pink. There was only one or two electrical outlets in each room, few of which were grounded. A few were original ... one round plug in the middle of a painted-over brass plate. The only bright spot was that the kitchen was remodeled in the mid-90s (no gawd-awful 1970s cabinets, like I encountered in every other NW Denver house), with the wall between it and the small living/dining room opened up.

I spent nearly a year stripping and repainting, installing all new electrical outlets, all new light switches, all new hardware, all new lights, all new plumbing fixtures, and all new appliances. Paint ... good stuff from Sherwin-Williams, in yuppie colors like "Navaho White." The basement, with the paint job on the walls and floor, looked finished. In the end, I had a respectable residence, one which inspired respect and jealousy among my friends.

All the work paid off, and when I sold a little more than two years later, there was a bidding war. The new owners ... they plan to gut the interior, "pop the top," and "punch the back," adding a master suite with an en-suite bathroom. They were going to push the little bungalow to about 2,500 square feet under roof. If the bust didn't hit the new owners, they'll have the first tract mansion on a block of mostly intact, single-story Denver-style bungalows and Tudors. I don't know whether that's good or bad.

 

[donk]

Here is my list so far. Bought the house 3 years ago.

Age built prior to 1886. My house is visible in a historically accurate rendition of the town where I live.

Story of my house:

Built as a home for ship yard workers. Evident in construction techniques and materials used. My house is a board / plank house made of 16 fooot long boards that are 3 inches thick and vary in width from 12- 20 inches. The boards are pegged together and caulked with cotton batting and other materials.

Size 928 square feet. 1 and 1/2 stories

Layout

1st floor 16' *24' main room (includes kitchen and living area) plus a 10*16 addition on teh back

2nd floor 16'*24' divided into 2 rooms. Have to walk through one to get to other

Lot - nothing special - 75 feet by 75 feet

What i have done

1) My entire back yard was a concrete patio from when an in ground swimming pool was present. The pool had been filled in because the liner kept cracking. Tore this up and am still in the process of trying to get grass to grow and do some plantings.

2) Painted upstairs rooms. One was school bus yellow with red trim and Mickey mouse (Disney that is) wall paper borders. Painted primer white so i would have time to think.

3) Other room upsairs has stucco hanging down from the ceiling so low I can comb my hair if I stand on my tippy toes. This is the next project.

4) gutted to the original frame the "great room". here is a list of what i found as I tore back each layer

a) paint
b)wallpaper
c)fake wood panelling
d drywall
e) asbestos paper
f) plaster
g)lathe
h) plaster
i) framing/planks

5) Rewired and installed a new service - went from 30 AMP 4 fuse service to 200 amp service - cheapest way to go. Got this done for price of materials and a bottle of scotch to a friend.

6) reframed and partitioned great room - island to separate a galley kitchen from rest of room

7) drywalled - only job where I decided to hire someone else to do it. Poorly done drywall looks like crap.

8) replaced forced air oil furnace with base board heaters. Whenever teh furnace went on your ears pooped as the furnace was too big for the house.

7) tore up old flooring and sub flooring - commercial carpet over ply wood. underneath - linoleum, newspapers, pine boards,

8) poured iso mix to level floor - center of house is 2 inches lower then edges . Jacked center beam and installed posts

9) painted great room. walls some colour called jungle dew (changes slightly from green to yellow to off white as sun changes). ceiling is a colour called linen. (off white to grey)

10) New surround and flooring for bathroom - done on the cheap -painted bathroom too.

Next step - have hardwood floor to install

Long term -needs new roof - 4 layers of shingles already there, they all need to come off and teh roof should probably be resheathed.

Would like to get new windows - get rid of 70-'s horizontal sliders.

Siding - get rid of foot wide yellow vinyl. Replace with either cedar shingles (somewhat time frame correct) or other product to look like boards.

Replace front Deck- to be more visually pleasing and match house better.

Pictures of work in progress and before and after pictures to follow

things I have found in the ceiling and walls

Shoes - from 1900

Bottles from 1900

Newspapers from 1950's and 1970's

Bottle openers and candy wrappers from various eras

The best item is a NIB slinky cat from the 1960's.

 

[OhioPlanner]

Bought our house in December and have been doing home improvements almost every weekend since.

It was built in 1951, but is a new build for this 1920's neighborhood. Most of the homes were Sears kit homes.

Picked the house because it is one house from the bus stop, across the street from a huge park, including a library and recreation center.

I've painted every room in the house, refinished the wood floors, changed out most of the light fixtures. Rewired a lot of the outlets, switches.

Hired a landscape architecture student to develop a design plan for the yard. Spent a lot of time outside planting the first phase.

 

[Downtown]

hmmm... i don't know that i should be included in the handywomyn group. i hate home improvementing. well, i hate things like painting, and wall papering that need a fine eye for detail. i don't mind ripping out wall paper or carpet - the destructiveness is quite fun. now we're coming to the eternal homeowner's crossroads - invest $40K in improvements to make your house what you want, or buy a different house. oh the dilemma.

 

[adaptor]

This weekend we finally got the reglazed, stripped and refinished window back into the bathroom (it was out most of the summer, I'm not a fast worker) and got some primer on the treated lumber of the replaced, architecturally appropriate front porch. Thsi anticipating the arrival of 6 cu yd of topsoil to replace the azaelias and garden beds we removed for the demolition and reconstruction.

I'm not experienced, skilled or equipped for a lot of the basic work that needed or needs to be done on my 1914 home. I have relied on a combination of contractors (the porch) friends and family (electrical and plumbing) and Home Depot (floor covering) and the local been there forever hardware store (everything for the old house).

I'm constantly torn between restoration (not a historic house) and repair -- Do I break out the bulging plaster and patch in drywall, tear out the entire wall and insulate or what? Leave the aluminum siding and paint it, tear it off and replace with vinyl or restore the wood? Mostly the answer is that in this neighborhood I'd be overdoing it and there have been so many half-assed repairs done in the past the best bet is to just make things safe and functional (thus the porch).

We have found some fun stuff in the process: posters of KISS and teen idol Lief Garret in the attic crawl space, marbles and a evil looking bisque doll in the back yard and an unimaginable assortment of rusted hardware, broken glass and other trash strewn about our little 1/10th acre.

 

[Jeff]

Bought the house in March, so far all we've done is painted, and ripped out this tiny little forest growing in the backyard. Oh, and I painted the chain link fence too.

 

[Cardinal]

Added a few shots of the place in the gallery. http://www.cyburbia.org/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=6025&user=11&thumb=1

 

[boiker]

color?

my house was advertised as a 1949 ranch.

If you drive down the street you can tell the house was built in the 20s or maybe 30s.

Anyway, simple square, 1-story bungalow with a small front porch, and a set of double hungs on either side of the front door.

Attic space is plentiful, and if i could find a place to stick a staircase, could be converted into a third bedroom + bath + small office.

Bathroom was hot pink and high gloss black, it is now remodeled and is med green walls, with dark green trim and matches the original tile in the floor perfectly. Light fixture replaced, original mirror from the medicene cabinet replaced (and saved).

I must be the only one here who likes color.

Hallway, warm red
Bedroom, (sons) dusty/greyed blue,
Bedroom, (mine) a dark brown color called thistle
living room, dark blue with a dry brush blue on top of it. The walls are heavily textured.
dining room, yellow witha dry brush dark gold color, again...heavily textured walls.

tore up all carpeting.. floors are in decent shape, but they do need refinishing.

our kitchen is terrible white white and more white with a bright cranberry trim color and then a trim of wall paper with berries and holly'ish looking stuff. there is not charm in the kitchen.

I've installed new gas line, and new switches (removed the orginial leaky ones with mercury in them) 3-prong outlets (grounded to the conduit).

exteriorly, we have done nearly nothing as i've only been in the house for a year and have a little kid that likes to cause havok.

now i have to move, (thank you lay off), I didn't even get a chance to re-glaze the windows, or re-wire the house, install 200amp service, tear off the aluminum, paint the exterior, re-seed the yard, install landscaping, paint the garage, re-roof the garage, water-proof the basement, get a new furnace, install new water pipes, finish the basement and attic, and remodel the kitchen

i'll post pics of my colored rooms.

 

[Cardinal]

Re: color?

I must be the only one here who likes color.

Kitchen - toasted almond, pagoda red and balsam green
Dining room - puppy paws (tan) with blue trim
Living room - winter wheat (light yellow)
Master bedroom - spruce shade (pale bluish-green)

Color is good.

 

[Chet]

Re: color?

I must be the only one here who likes color.

Nope. My last house was a 3000s.f. brick colonial. I spent 2 weeks stripping wallpaper, and painted the dining room a deep 'blood' red. All of the trim had been previously painted white (including crown molding, french doors to the sunroom, 2 built in china cabinets, arched entry to living room, and formal looking inset wood panels below the chair rails). It was very striking!

In my first house I painted the den dark green, and refinished the hardwood floors in a honey maple. Very cozy.

 

[boiker]

Re: Re: color?

Kitchen - toasted almond, pagoda red and balsam green
Dining room - puppy paws (tan) with blue trim
Living room - winter wheat (light yellow)
Master bedroom - spruce shade (pale bluish-green)

Color is good.

yep.. color is good.

i forgot to mention.. my house's real age?
i was pulling that concrete or cement board off the plaster walls in the bathroom and behind it i found the owners who built the house had signed and dated it. August 19, 1929. got a digital pic of that too!

 

[Jen]

This house we are living is nothing special, no mystery, little charm just plain jane 3br 2ba walkout.

But the last house we lived in was a beauty. Located in a walkable small town on the banks of the Kalamazoo River. It was the first house we bought. A colonial revival built about 1908. WHile she desperatley needed redecorating it was a solid house. Tall steeply pitched roof with halfmoon stained glass accents, inside was tons of yellow pine woodwork, pocket door, original switches and secrets in the crawlspace.

We built a 2 car garage that first summer, using origianl block to build the foundation, redid and reconfigured the one bath. Saved the clawfoot tub and installed pedestal sink.
Next tackled the kitchen, complete restoration and expansion into the side porch( which had been enclosed and darkly panelled with no windows) Discovered the turned porch posts inside the walls! Coudln't use them, so now they sit in my garage rafters waiting to be reused. again.

In the crawl space discovered lots of old junk and some interesting relics. A copy of the Nov 15, 1917 edition of the GR Herald. Headlines "Ominous silence portends doom of serb army" and the execution of a spy in Utah. Funny police blotter tells of the capture of two men who stole a car robe and box of cigars from an automobile. THe paper was wrapped around a water pipe with a men's union suit wrapped around it. We also found a silver religious medallion of St Teresa, and a buffalo nickel and lots of old bottles. . ALso found a chalk drawing of kids playing baseball that was hidden behind a kitchen wall. Interestingly, that summer I looked up the neighborhood on some old old aerial photos from the twenties and saw the outline of a baseball lot across the street now surrounded by houses. I can imagine a previous owner watching the kids play, listening to a game on the radio and sketching out a drawing on the wall as they worked on home improvements.

We did most if not all of the work ourselves. Doug is my handyman extraordinnaire. When the plans were to tear off half the roof and two walls of the old kitchen I had major doubts about what he was getting into, but those were laid to rest. We bought the house for 49,000 and sold it five years later for 88,000.

This place we are in now is finally getting some attention on the inside. OUr problem is when one says lets paint over that dirty wall, the other chimes up what color then we go off on tangents of color and texture and why do'nt we redo the banister and base boards and lets go to the antique salvage yard and look for this and that and while we are there lets look for that old famhouse kitchen sink and glass door knobs, blah blah blah.

Slowly we are getting the desire to rehab this old cottage, it is exciting!

 

[plannerkat]

We just bought our project last week. 1924 bungalow with deatched garage that over the years has been chopped up into apartments and subjected to repairs that can't even nicely be descibed as half-ass. Granted, we bought it for nearly $20K below its appraised value, so we knew there was work to be done. First order of business is to reopen sealed doorways & upgrade the moderately frightening wiring to at least 200 amps. Many years of weekend projects lay ahead...

 

[el Guapo]

Oh yeah, I still haven't taken out a building permit.

Fight the power!

 

[Chet]

One thing I'll never do again...

DRYWALL.

Hated doing it. The texture turned out shi**y.

Fortunately it was in the basement water closet and few guests ever used it.

 

[Cardinal]

Re: One thing I'll never do again...

Fortunately it was in the basement water closet and few guests ever used it.

You have a closet just for water?

 

[Chet]

Re: Re: One thing I'll never do again...

You have a closet just for water?

It was a little tiny closet with a toilet in it. I knocked out the wall and added a sink and rough plumbed for a shower.

 

[el Guapo]

Re: Re: Re: One thing I'll never do again...

It was a little tiny closet with a toilet in it. I knocked out the wall and added a sink and rough plumbed for a shower.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Anyone else hear the Zebco 404 squeeling?



hook, line and sinker bTurk!

 

[mike gurnee]

Loved my first house. 1929 North Carolina Arts and Crafts. Sun room, front porch, back porch. I was only the second owner (woodwork never saw a paintbrush). It had propane for the kitchen stove, electric water heater, and oil furnace--converted all to natural gas: covered the cost after 18 months of reduced bills. Interior was mostly cosmetic work, but does anyone remember the joy of removing wallpaper from ceilings? And the pink plastic bathroom wall tiles hit the dust rather quickly. Removed about 1/2 mile of Wysteria runners from the yard.

Colors?
front room/sun room: off white
dining room: pale mint green
kitchen/breakfast rooms: bright yellow
hallway: original wheat wall paper
m. bed: 3 walls original paper with light chocolate paint on other
2nd bed: pale blue with one wall original paper
bath: bright striped new paper
upstairs office: deep purple/white trim

For each subsequent house hunt, my wife reminds me that "renovation is out of your system'--over and over and over again. But I still look at those pre-war charmers.