The Remodeled Blog

The first step is the hardest

Finally we are moving forward with work on the house. Between visitors, visiting, school, work, being exhausted and general laziness we have done some work on the house! I finally got a ladder, ok I got it a while ago, but I finally got a ladder that will allow me to paint the window above the bulk head. The glass is now re-glazed, storm window removed, and base coat of paint applied. Tonight I am going to put the top coat of paint on the window and all the windows will be completely, 100% done. On to the second floor!…eek.

Dave dove right into, ok more like he has edged his big toe in the water of bathroom work before jumping in. But now he is in! and the result…all the electrical work is done. If we had tile on the floors they could be warm on the tootsies. If the beautiful venting light were installed, it would look amazing and functional. Currently it is beautiful and functional sitting on top of the bath tub. =)

So we are officially moving forward with the bathroom and the house paining! Yippee!!!

From top to bottom: thermostat for the floor, light switch and junction box

This is our light/fan…though obviously not mounted. One step at a time here people, really!

It even works! ooooo…pretty!

I know this doesn’t look like a big step forward..but really, it was a lot of work.  Running wires and doing wiring takes a lot longer than you might think. Then you are wonderfully left with the anticlimactic feeling of not doing much. Well, except for those darn lights working.

Remodeling Yoga

Lou asked me a pertinent and interesting question, why did I post before pics of my door but not the after pics. Well that is because it looks the same as it did in the before. Now I am sure you are wondering why this is. Well, when you are remodeling an old house there is no such thing as a simple project. As soon as you drop a hammer into one wall you find out that you have to remodel four other rooms. The hallway project actually started out with the bathroom remodel. The wall next to the stairs use to look like this. So there are actually before before pictures. When we moved in we had to wall up that doorway so when you walked into the house you weren’t looking at our toilet. Then that necessitated a remodel of the entryway (of course the bad paint and bad wallpaper also cried out for such work), but this just shows how if you touch one room in an old house you inevitably touch another.

So why does the doorway look the same, well, our house is mainly [tag]knob and tube[/tag] wiring. For those of you who don’t know what that is, that is really old wiring that often likes to spontaneously set your house on fire because there is no ground. So among all of our other projects there is the constant background project of replacing all our [tag]wiring[/tag]. This wall has a light switch that needs such work. That light switch is connected to the light for the [tag]foyer[/tag], which also needs such modernizing. Because I did not want to have to replaster, repaint and replace the trim…again…I decided to leave that wall as it stood and finish that part when the wiring is done (which will hopefully be soon).

So to just finish that wall, we need to rewire the light switch, rewire the light in the foyer and on the porch, which these are connected to the rewiring taking place in the upstairs bathroom which has to be separated from the wiring in the attic. Then there is also the big question, do i finish that wall before we replace the front door? or should I wait until after…hmmm. I am thinking before and I can just repaint when needed.

This is part of what makes living and working on an old house so interesting. Nothing is simple. The only thing that is straight forward is that you have to be flexible. So I practice my [tag]yoga[/tag] with a hammer in one hand and a nail gun in the other and I try for downward facing dog while ripping apart plaster. Ah, the joys of an old house.

Wearing Red Lipstick

A new entryway is like wearing red [tag]lipstick[/tag]. I say this because your entryway is the first thing people see when they come into your house, much like your lips are the first thing people see when they look at your face. If they don’t have red lipstick, people often won’t notice, no matter how fabulous they are. If you do have red lips, they absolutely notice and usually say wow. Well, now our entry way is like our house is wearing red lipstick. It was this ugly pinkish taupe painted [tag]foyer[/tag] with strange rose [tag]wallpaper[/tag] trimming the crown molding and the trim going up the stairwell. There were cracks in the [tag]plaster[/tag] the horrible cheap white painted crown molding, which doesn’t even deserve the title [tag]crown molding[/tag].

So for a while I had been waiting and waiting and waiting to do some work on the house. It is, or can be, a stress relief for me. Plus I get to feel like we are making progress on all our projects and the dream of living in a house not under construction comes a little closer. But the main projects, like the bathroom, are not ready for me to work on. I have found this to be enormously frustrating. Sitting around waiting for other people to get motivated to do work so you can do work. It just drives me nuts! So in my irritation, I realized that the entry way needed to be redone. We have always spoken of it, but it has been one of those projects that just fall to the wayside. The only time we ever thought about it was when we were giving someone the “grand” tour and we would mention, “oh, someday we are going to redo the entry.” Well someday finally came. As I was stewing in irritation and feeling entirely impotent in house remodeling, I remembered the hallway and I tore into it like a dervish.

So roughly a weekend worth or work, and details spreading over the next week, which was mainly waiting for stain to set, I redid the entry and it looks beautiful! It makes such a difference. Now if we can just get some natural light so people can see what I have done, we will be all set….but that is another project.

But much like any project working on an old house, nothing is as simple as it looks. All the wallpaper had to be taken off with a razor blade. We had to shave plaster away from the wall to mount the trim, so what Dave thought would take 15 minutes took over an hour. But overall, it was a pretty simple job…and highly satisfying.

Working on your house gives you a bigger sense of accomplishment than just completion. There is a part of yourself that goes into everything you do. You get to see this beautiful old house turn into a truly beautiful old house. The house has good cheek bones, as my mom would say, and now you are starting to be able to see what we saw when we closed our eyes. The beauty is hiding underneath dull wood, bad paint, and a hundred years of wallpaper, but it is there. Not only do I love this house, I am proud of it. I am proud because I know that what I have done may help this house live for another hundred years.

The Satisfaction of a Faucet

The bathroom is far from done, and far from begun. We are squarely in the middle where it is easy to rest, complacent, without progress, satisfied in good enough. What I mean, is that the bathroom is functional. We have a toilet that flushes, a sink that runs water and a tub that fills up….wait, it is true. We finally put a faucet in the tub! I bought this great Pegasus waterfall faucet for about $30 on ebay. This should have cost me $150…so it was a good deal. We even got a matching diverter valve for the shower….which is still not actually installed. Well the piping is, but not so much the shower head.

This faucet is so luxurious!

Even though I am surrounded by drywall and plywood and have to use a step ladder to get into the tub (because someone hasn’t built the step he promised)…I feel like a queen when I shave my legs to a cascading wall of water! Soon we will have a new water heater so I can stop heating my tub roman style, by heating pots on the stove and pouring the boiling water in the tub. Though yes, it is very 19th century, and matches the house in tactical age…not the level of authenticity I have been going for.
What a girl will do for a hot bath!
Boiling Water

Replace or Restore- Windows

I feel this is the constant question when remodeling an older home. Which is more cost efficient? Which one is going to improve the value of the house? Which one is going to look the nicest? Which one can I afford? This last question is always the one that hits me the hardest. In the trials and errors of house remodeling, I have discovered that sometimes you really should spend more.

Last year we replaced our back sliding glass door with new french doors. We were debating on whether we should get the really nice Anderson doors, that were about $2000 or if we should just get the generic ones sold by Home Depot for$700. After looking at both, the Anderson were obviously nicer, but the Generic ones didnt seem bad. We were going to paint them anyway. So we went with what was easier on the wallet. We are all regretting that decision. The door leaks like a sieve. So now we are trying to find ways to fix all the air leaks. We should have spent the money. But I do still prefer the generic french doors to the awful sliding ones we originally had.

Anyway, replace or repair the windows has been an active topic of conversation in our household. We have beautiful old windows, with wavy glass and their original wood. They have never been restored. The only crime committed against them is that the upstairs windows were painted. Last year, I replaced a lot of the glass panes. Many had small cracks in the corners. After doing some of the remodeling work in the attic, bathroom and sun room, we have a store of extra windows. So I farmed the panes from those windows and replaced the cracked ones. (Click here for step by step instructions for farming and replacing glass)

This is a good way to recycle. Not to mention, it doesn’t cost anything, since I used old glass. If you don’t have any old glass, check out freecycle.org or craigslist.org. A lot of people want to get rid of their old windows. You are doing them the favor of taking them and you get the glass for free!

After replacing the glass, the windows looked beautiful. And since I used old glass, you couldn’t tell that I had replaced anything.

Of course the problem with old windows is the heat loss. In the winter you can practically feel the air coming in…not practically, you can feel it, sometimes quite strongly too.

So do you replace those old beautiful windows with their charm and history with energy star vinyl windows or do you try to restore them. Well I vote restore. Everyone has new window, but how many people have 100 year old windows! HA! All self righteousness aside, there is still the issue of increasing their r-value. Glazing helps. Good storm windows. Re-caulk the glass and around the edges of the windows, both inside and out. Add insulation where possible. I would also get thermal curtains, they make a big difference.

Here is a link to a great blog that discusses this very same issue and an article in the Chicago Tribue:

House in Progress
Chicago Tribune: Replacement Windows

For me, I think there is a certain aesthetic to the old windows with the wavy glass or the bubbles. No, they are not energy efficient. They are not as strong as new glass nor are they easy to replace. But that is part of the point, isn’t it? They are not easy to replace? New windows are everywhere, preserve your old ones. In my opinion it adds value and character to your old house.