Historic House Renovation

New fence

2009-02-18T20:46:00.001-08:00

How the paint picks turned out - What do you think? (hint: I'm thrilled!)

2008-07-22T15:00:00.000-07:00

Paint colors

2008-07-02T22:01:00.000-07:00

I have literally spent more time trying to figure out paint colors than I have spent on practically any decision I've ever made, from what college to go to, to what car to buy. There is just something about it that scares me, partly because I refuse to go with the same boring old beige throughout the house but I haven't felt confident enough to think I know how to coordinate colors.

The difficulty is that when standing in any one room, you can see at least two others, if not three, especially since the dividing wall between the kitchen and dining is now gone, and there's a french door between the living room and front bedroom, making it more of a study.

I went through magazines. I collected tons of paint chips of various brands. I consulted friends, family and friends who are experts. I sampled at least 10 colors a few months ago. I tried every possible way that would make the decision for me. But in the end, I think the best way to put your personality into a place is to dive in and pick it yourself...and then live with the consequences, at least until it's time to paint again.

I procrastinated the paint selections till the very last minute, and then I ended up going for colors I had never sampled. Here are my color picks:

Living room - Behr contemplation (interior flat enamel)
Dining room - Behr color match to Glidden's cookie crumb (interior flat enamel)
Study - Behr grape vine (interior flat enamel)
Hallway - Behr contemplation (interior flat enamel)
Bedroom - Behr color match to Ralph Lauren's silver chiffon (interior flat enamel)
Trim, doors, kitchen cabinets - Behr Swiss coffee (interior semi-gloss)
Ceiling - Behr Swiss coffee (interior flat enamel)

Progress

2008-07-02T19:06:00.000-07:00

This first phase of the remodeling project has taken longer than expected. It was slated to be a two-week project, which granted was an optimistic estimate. About a month later, it is half-way there.

To be fair, I'm making the decisions as I go, some of them not fast enough. And, I have thrown in extra items that were not part of the original plan. Plus, we had to fire the first trim guy, after struggling for a week and half to get him to do things right the first time.

Here's the progress report:

Electrical - Completed. The original quote was for something like 12 additional outlets. I added 40-some outlets, including TV, phone jacks, including cat 5 writing for a LAN line, and general plugs in every room. The existing plugs were either in weird places or not grounded (two-pronged instead of three), or both.

Closets - The doors will need some fine-tuning in the end, but they are up and framed, the sheetrock is finished and textured and the baseboards are in. The inside shelving, rod and drawers are not yet in, though they have primed the shelves.

I also got a shock last Friday when I peaked inside the original coat closet and found that it is no longer deep enough for a rod and hangers. Apparently my expectations for a 6-ft wide bedroom closet and an adjoining hallway closet deep enough for hanging anything was completely unrealistic. Just a complete miscalculation which I cannot account for.

Trim - This is where the focus is this week---getting all the trim up. I'm adding two items to the baseboard throughout the house. My dad found a nice little chair rail-type piece to top off the baseboard, which gives it a lot more charm and elegance. Plus, I'm adding a shoe mould to the bottom of the base.

Any missing chunks of baseboard need to be replaced. And, I am adding crown mould to the tops of all the windows and doorways and to the ceiling.

Walls - For the most part, the walls and ceilings are patched up and textured in every room. We do need to troubleshoot some areas, where bubbles have formed in the top layer of the sheetrock or the wall isn't as smooth or level as it should be

Painting - The painting was supposed to start today, but we started on the door/window moulding instead, so it will likely start tomorrow, which is fine because I picked up my paint selections only today after tons of hand-wringing.

Fireplace and mantel - still gathering the materials for this.

The dust bowl

2008-06-19T07:36:00.000-07:00

Old house blues

2008-06-18T20:49:00.000-07:00

If you're a perfectionist, just know fixing up an old house is going to wear on your last nerve, especially if you're living there while the work is going on.

The floors and ceilings are parallel but not perpendicular to the walls. The floors slope in different directions. You hang a door and find uneven spacing between the door and floor and door and headers. You put the trim on and there are bulges and gaps. There is no such thing as a 90-degree angle or plumb-ness. You find unexpected remnants of structures behind the sheetrock and in the foundation that you suddenly have to work around.

The first few days, I came home from work completely unsuspecting. Then I developed a severe pavlovian resistance to coming home, afraid of what I will find. I was hypersensitive to every little thing that wasn't quite right.

Now, I'm learning to just chill. That electrical outlet hung at a strange angle was just until they could figure out how to cut away the beam to fit it straight. I'm learning the work happens in stages. Just because the door is hanging a little loose on the first day isn't cause to go off on the contractors.

There are adjustments made throughout the process until you have the finished project. And, as mysterious and daunting as it seems to me, if you know what you're doing and know what to expect, the early awkwardness of it is not so scary.

My dad compared it to the first draft of a story---if you worry too much about making every word perfect before moving to the next, you may never finish.

Really, really, really, really old wallpaper

2008-06-12T21:05:00.000-07:00

We found this wallpaper under the sheetrock. The living, dining and kitchen all had their very own butt-ugly design.

Living room...notice the random butterfly.

Dinning room

Kitchen

Another layer in the kitchen

New closets!

2008-06-05T22:16:00.000-07:00

The bedroom closet was there but the doors are new.

This is the new linen closet in the hallway.The space was stolen from a very deep bathroom closet, which we made shallower. There's a coat closet on the other side of the bathroom. And, some paint samples.

More spring blooms

2008-06-03T23:27:00.000-07:00

The Jane Magnolia up close

Pear tree blooms in the backyard

More pear tree

Redbud in the front yard. I have two more in the back.

Full Redbud

2008-03-20T21:18:00.000-07:00

My porch swing...it's my first "house" purchase and the closest thing to furniture I have bought. I can't wait till it ages to that nice weathered, distressed color. It is awesome to sit out there, especially when the storms roll in.

The second great thing in this picture is that Jane Magnolia tree (thanks to Aunt Mary for identifying it for me) just beyond the porch. Technically, the tree is not mine. It is just on the other side of the property line in my neighbor's yard. But it still beautifies my driveway. Most of the year it looks a bit gangly with or without leaves. After winter, instead of leaves, it gets these big buds that bloom into gorgeous flowers. The flowers last only a few weeks before the petals begin to litter the lawn, leaves replace them and then it's back to looking gangly. But those few weeks are completely worth it!

The grand tour

2008-03-14T18:32:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the jaundiced photos. I took these with my cell phone camera at night in one of the more yellowish flourescent lighting. Plus, the walls are a pale yellow (but hopefully not for too much longer!)

Living room leading into the dining room and kitchen

Living Room from the other angle

Front bedroom

Possible new floorplan

2007-04-29T23:07:00.000-07:00

Before & After

Floorplans and remodeling by DNB Homes

It takes a village

2007-04-25T17:14:00.000-07:00

Remodeling will be somewhat of a bureaucratic/democratic process, between me, the city, neighborhood association and the city's archaeological & historical commison. Pretty much anything I do to anything outside of the house requires approval and/or a permit from all three, each of which meet only once a month.

On top of the historic designation, the house is deed restricted. I initially had plans to build a two-car garage with a garage apartment on the second floor. These are fairly common in the area. But I quickly learned that won't be possible. The existing ones are grandfathered in, but as of this year, they are not allowing new garage apartments. To prevent creating a second dwelling within the property lines and to discourage taking on renters , the deed allows the "apartment" a bathroom or a kitchen but not both.

I also can't use glass blocks for the bathroom window for privacy. Almost every house in the area has them for the bathroom window. But when I asked, I was told it's not allowed and existing ones are either grandfathered in or bootlegged. If the latter, they may face fines.

Home sweet home

2007-04-10T21:41:00.001-07:00

Welcome to my very first blog entry! On April 1, I moved into this 1920 bungalow located in a designated historical district on the edge of a major metropolitan downtown. This blog is about my new old house and all that comes with owning and remodeling a historic home.

An old house was written in the cards for me. I love finding the scars of time on old things and imagining the lives of the people who used them. In high school and college, I shopped at places like Flashback, where they sold platform shoes and bell-bottoms. Old things are rich with history! And, as a bonus, they are guilt-free. A distressed piece of furniture, vintage clothing--I can't mess them up; they're already worn! It's a free pass for the perfectionist in me. And, finally, much like a headstand, they are good for seeing life from another perspective---a reminder that things weren't always the way they are.