Green again!

Huge thanks to Sam Jackson, his students from Trinity, and friends from church. We went from a pasty white primed house to a great green once again. It's amazing what a crew can do in a few hours.

Around 9:30am...

Three-month House Update

Has it really been three months? Time flies.

In the past three months we've progressed from a bare frame of exposed studs and subflooring to an actual house with flooring, wiring, plumbing, insulation, walls, tile, some paint, and even kitchen cabinets as of yesterday. There's a decent chance I'll be living in the house next month!

In addition to the house updates, I went to India for a week to visit Angie while she was there for a month. I also got to go to the Final Four in Indianapolis and celebrated the Duke championship over Easter weekend with Angie's family. Got to visit family in Texas for a weekend on a work trip and spent a couple days in Richmond before the 'rents and sister head back to Japan next month. Work has been crazy busy but somehow everything is still coming together.

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We stripped and primed the exterior since the contractor (Blue Harris) did such a horrible job before I bought the house. Within two years his paint job was literally flaking off. By sanding down to the original, 110-yr old wood we are able to start fresh with paint that should last for years and protect the siding. We haven't quite decided what shade of green to repaint the house. For now, primer will have to do.

Three months ago we were at the stage where most the blue board was installed as an air-barrier in the walls. Wiring, plumbing, and HVAC rough-ins were being completed. Here are three photos showing the stages of progress in the master bedroom.

After rough-ins we had insulation installed - R23 blown-in insulation in the exterior walls and R15 batting for sound proofing in interior walls. We still need R38 in the attic and insulation in the crawlspace. Should be a comfy home!

The sheetrock was hung and the crew did a great job. I was very glad to see that the work to fur out walls and ceilings was well work the effort; with only a few exceptions everything came out straight - not necessarily plumb or level, but straight!

This is the hall bath... Angie found an old floor-model record player/radio which we have converted into a vanity with the vessel sink. It looks amazing. We did something similar in the master bathroom by converting an old dresser for the vanity.

Water drainage continues to be a issue we're working on. Since the house is at the bottom of the hill, we get a lot of water during heavy rains. One step we're taking is a french drain around the house. Friends came over to celebrate Memorial Day with shovels. In a few hours we had great trench ready for gravel and pipe.

...And after digging we took time to enjoy a cookout.

...Thanks to neighbors Antoine and DeDreana we had a grill for the food! They've got an amazing family and because of their hospitality a year ago I felt welcomed into the neighborhood and decided to embark on this renovation project.

Angie even got the neighborhood kids involved with the french drain later in the week. Sounds like in return we'll be building a neighborhood fort for them!

Sadly, I left the crawlspace door open one evening and we lost Angie's toolbelt and the circular saw my grandfather gave me. In her mourning, Angie wrote a haiku on the wall above the door. The "second lost to Worth St" refers to her days building Habitat houses up the street when crime was a constant issue. We've been very fortunate that theft hasn't been a problem at the house.

I'll just say that paint colors are difficult to pick! So far we're batting a little less than .500 with our choices. But we're narrowing our search and trying to stick to historic colors.

And just yesterday the kitchen cabinets were installed. There's still crown molding to be added to the top and trim on the bottom to hide under-cabinet lighting. For countertops, we'll use 2'x2' granite tiles - a very cost effective, aesthetically pleasing, and somewhat "green" material. Someday maybe we'll add a tile backsplash too, but that'll be a weekend project for the future. For now we're focusing on the essential tasks.

Next week we expect to finish countertops, tile, electrical, and plumbing. Still need to get our restored doors and windows hung, install trim, and refinish floors. Painting will be an ongoing project. Kind of hard to believe we're getting this close to finishing the interior!

Plumbing, Framing, and the New-Old Backdoor

The plumbers came a week ago to install the new supply lines and drains. Everything went well and we passed the rough-in inspection.

This is the master bathroom. You can see a little pipe sticking out of the wall to the left where the shower head will go. This is the original cast iron tub from the house - it weighs a ton. No joke, at least 300 lbs. It'll be refinished and shine like new by the time the house is ready for bathing. (By the way, the chair doubles as stand-ins to get a feel for where the toilet will sit.)

This is the new bathroom that we added. Since this will be a free standing tub, we'll have a rain head shower installed and hang a curtain all the way around the tub. For the vanity in here, we'll convert an old floor model record player/radio by adding a sink and faucet to the top. I think it'll look really cool.
The framers have been busy furring out the walls and ceilings. Since original walls were plaster it didn't really matter if the studs were even; you could always compensate will a little more plaster here and there. But now with sheetrock, wavy walls just won't do. So after a couple days of work, basically re-framing the entire house, we're almost done with this step which will open the door for heating and air, electrical, insulation, and then finally sheetrock itself.
Speaking of opening a door... After months without a backdoor and running cords through the window, the framers helped us install the door yesterday. Here's Angie offering a welcoming smile. At this point we can only welcome those able to make the 4 ft jump from the ground over the threshold, but one day there will be a new deck with stairs.
There it is... Looking pretty good for a 110 year old door. When I mentioned to the framer how old it is, he asked why I went through the effort to refinish it when I could have more easily installed a new one. That's a question I've been asked by quite a few people and all I said was I did it because it's original. It's rewarding to know that some things can be saved for another generation.
The new-old backdoor is finally installed. To the left you can see the old deck and the OSB sheets where the back entry used to be. By moving the door we were able to create space for the master bedroom and bathroom. Now the backdoor will open in the kitchen.

Next up... A little more framing. Repairing windows. Repainting the outside. etc etc Angie is leaving for her month-long trip to India on Wednesday, but has given me a long list/medium length booklet of tasks to complete. No rest for the weary.

House Photo Update

Wow... It's been a long time since the last update. Here's a "photo tour" of the past few months.

When I bought the house, the original backdoor was in pretty bad shape - broken glass, layer upon layer upon layer of peeling paint, etc. Here's a picture of the door half-way through the process of stripping paint. I learned a lot through this process, but the key conclusion is that the right tool makes all the difference. A friend has a grinder-like paint stripper that works wonders. Instead of hours of scraping and sanding, the tool takes off 80% to 90% of the paint in 15 mins. It's awesome!! Sadly, I learned the hard way with this door. Check out the next photo to judge the results though.

Here's the refinished backdoor with a couple coats of primer, new glass, etc. It'll be installed by the framers on Monday.

Before demo we didn't know what was really going on in the walls. Here's a picture of the original "living room." The windows look ok here - a few window panes had been replaced but otherwise the 110-year old frames, glass, pulleys, etc were in place.

This is the left window in the photo above after removing the plaster and trim. We found extensive structural damage mostly due to water seeping in at the bottom corners. This lead to rotten wood that caused the window not to open and close properly and could cause much more serious issues over time. A carpenter rebuilt the window frames a couple weeks ago using the original design so we can reattach the window weights for fully functional bottom sashes. Eventually we'll add storm windows to create an air-tight seal and improve energy efficiency.

This wasn't behind a wall, but under the floor... After rebuilding the back half of the house, constructing new piers, replacing water-damaged girders and joists, and even laying new subfloor we found there was one more section of rotten wood. This section extends about 18 inches from the wall is nearly 6 inches deep. This was found when I cut back the original subfloor and realized that the only girder section we didn't replace had been damaged by water running down the wall during years past. The framers cut it out and it's solid again. Just another example of the issues we continue finding as we explore the house board by board.

Here's the original master bedroom with the only bathroom. (Don't you love the yellow?!) Compare with the next picture creating a new floorplan.

You're looking at the same "wall," or lack thereof. Due to the addition of a second bathroom, the layout of the room changed and we took out a wall and created a nook in the back corner for the bed. On the left side of the photo is where the master bathroom door will be. On the right you can see the bottom of the original cast iron tub turned on its side. That thing weighs a few hundred pounds!!

The master bedroom is on the left; on the right is the second bathroom. The tub won't sit in the middle of the space, it'll slide over to the right and once it's refinished it'll look great.
To accommodate the new floor plan, the closets are opening on opposite sides so we've built new door frames. You can also see the "blue board" in the walls. This is 1/2 inch styrofoam sealed with a bead of foam to create an airtight seal in the walls to enhance energy efficiency. This has been Angie's initiative and was installed with the help of friends.

Sam came over one day and installed salvaged flooring in the hallway. This is the same floor and he and I pulled up from the kitchen. We were able to clean enough of it to replace key sections that suffered water damage.

The nice thing about using salvaged flooring is that it's from the same mill, so it should blend in well after we refinish the surface. Home Depot doesn't seem to sell Jackson Lumberyard boards from 1900. Sadly, we didn't have enough salvaged flooring to replace all the ruined sections, but I'm hoping the new and old will complement each other.

Framers were supposed to come Saturday but the Triangle will likely shut down due to a few inches of snow, so we rescheduled for Monday. Ironically, when they worked before Christmas there was also a snow delay. But they're good and fast so everything should be ready for the plumbing rough-in next Thursday. From there we'll move on to heating and air, electrical, insulation, and sheetrock. I've got my fingers crossed that the big issues have been identified and the next steps will proceed quickly.

First Christmas card at the house ...thanks Sam