This cOld House 37

Octobrrrrrrr 29, 2009

This summer we bit off a big chunk of the outside, kind of by accident. We really just wanted to paint, but once started, it became glaringly apparent some restoration work was in order.

The wood had never been painted and we made the heartbreaking decision to paint it with a good protective coat of latex. The semi-opaque stain just wasn't enough to preserve the 85 year old oak. It was taking a beating. On top of this, the carpenters removed an obscene amount of latex caulk that had been used over the years to stem the rot. Unfortunately when rot is not properly addressed it just keeps on keeping on. In some areas the gap between wood and foundation/wood/stucco/metal window frame was over an inch. We used putty in some places and structural epoxy in others and are confident that the restoration work that was done will give the house another 85 years. (With proper periodic maintenance.)


We now have a door from the yet-to-be-remodeled kitchen to the new patio. Now we have no excuse not to be dining al fresco every wonderful night... except that the kids are scared of all things natural... flies, bugs, bees, dirt, spiders etc. And we are part of the minority in this country who do not own a barbeque. And the entire summer we had scaffolding all over the place. (See picture above.) But we are looking forward to next year when al fresco is definitely on the menu.

The door kind of hosed up the room I had been using as an office, so the computer et al has been relocated to the newly rearranged living room. Added value from the door, more
light, less cold or hot than the original single pane steel casement window we replaced and a tax credit for buying the super insulated Pella door.

So now we are thinking about the kitchen, (with the office cleared out it's a lot easier to picture the space with the walls blown out.) And it would be lovely not to snake our way through the labyrinth of doors, halls and chambers that makes up the original 'service' part of the house.

While I am eager to knock out the walls, I am loathe to start a new round of improvements hot on the heels of the work we had/are having done this year. I feel as though there has been someone else in the house for the past six months, (um, I have,) and I'd like a little down time.

This cOld House 36

OK, we've done a little bit this last year, but not nearly at the pace we'd historically worked when we'd first moved in. The good news is that most of the triage has been done, so we can work at a slower (and less costly) pace. The other part is that we kind of ran out of funds so we had to slow down, adjust our expectations and live with the house as-is for a while.

Our big disappointment this year was not getting any storm windows done. We had something set up, but the carpenter backed out and left us in the lurch. On the bright side, we had the floor in the master bedroom fixed up to the point where Dan no longer feels like he's going to fall through. I can't say I pine for the past when he bitched about it every day. We also fixed the pitch in the floor of the girls bathroom, and replaced the sink and commode, so it is finally all done. We even got the medicine cabinet re-installed, after a lengthy absence.

An aside, when we pulled the toilet and flooring up, we found an open electrical splice, in the joist cavity where the main drain was! Yah, that was a bit of triage. The electrician I finally coaxed out to fix it was pretty blown away by it.

We also got 7 of the 10 master bedroom windows restored, and the sills wrapped which has made a difference in the warmth in the room. We can still smell fresh air when the wind blows, but it's not as bad. We also had some of the bad patchwork on the other restored windows re-done and they look much, much better.

The side yard worked out great and we planted a few trees at the end of the season. We are looking forward to maybe putting in a little veggie garden next season. Probably the best thing we did all year was taking out the catalpa tree. I had been leery of it since we moved in and I discovered a five foot wide hole at the base where an animal (Norris, the giant woodchuck, we believe) had taken up residence. I'd had a couple of tree guys look at it and pronounce it sound with the caveat that it could last another 50 years or come down in a storm tomorrow. It was over 100 years old. When I finally convinced Dan that it had to go we discovered that the trunk, a good four feet in diameter, had a two foot wide hole in the middle from the base up to about 10 feet or so. Given the damage that Hurricane Ike did in September, we are confident it would have crashed through the girls' bedroom ceiling, taking out the attic with it and landing in the dining room. Another disaster averted.

We're moving forward on master bath plan which is taking a loooooong time. Dan and I can't agree on a floor plan, much less fixtures etc. But with the big freeze we had this week we learned something valuable - even 'though the supply pipes for the master are in an interior wall, they FROZE solid because there's no insulation between the stem wall where the pipes are and the outside wall. I had a bit of an epiphany about how the get the wall insulated as well as solving the HVAC problem in that room... we think. And we had the opportunity to use the girls' bath in a dress rehearsal of what it will be like while the master bath is 'all tore up.'

We also had some plaster/stucco work done including getting the stairwell ceiling from the kitchen down to the basement done. It had come loose after generations of people taller than 5'10" knocked their heads against it. (Dan included.) Our plaster/stucco guy is fabulous and we're looking forward to having him repair the bulk of the water damage... eventually.

Dan bought a hammer drill and we've been feverishly putting up stuff on the walls in the basement/garages. We had the cabinets from the house next door that we salvaged, as well as some old cabs that were in the house when we moved in. We still have more to hang.

We discovered some more water/bug damage on a major structural beam, this time in the furnace room and had a steel beam installed to shore it up. When we finally did the clean-up from that Dan was intrigued by the texture on the floor, as well as the hollow sounding places when you thumped it. So he began excavating a few of the places and he's now becoming quite talented at applying hydraulic cement. There is big scar on the floor, approximately 5 feet in diameter that we always thought was where the old boiler sat, but our new working theory is that it was where the cistern was and it was probably never filled and capped correctly which is why it always leaks around the edge of the circle when it rains. (Even 'though it's right next to the sump pump.)

So in spite of still having much to do in the house, we are biding our time until the next big projects. The kitchen, (of course on hold until we sell the house next door,) and the master bath until we can come up with a plan that makes the three of us happy.... me, Dan and the budget.

Sorry no photos this post but it's too cold to be in the basement or outside to take pictures!