Moving Right Along

We are feeling a bit tardy with getting another entry written in our old house saga as the winter begins to yield its icy grip here in western pa. We’ve had plenty of cold and the guys are very happy to be inside most all of the time, even though there is minimal heat in the house. We’re trying to avoid making too large a contribution to global warming before the house is fully insulated.

Too cold and snowy to  work on the exterior!

When we left off last they were about to start installing the windows and that has been done successfully, save for three little windows in the attic for which we await some new sashes. The small roofs got their new shingles, the siding (scallops) is up in the gables and is looking good with the dessert sand trim package. The guys have painted the exterior window trim in preparation for installation, but as the weather turned really cold they moved inside.

Windows and doors all installed except for the attic windows above the kitchen.

 We are delighted to have windows that will actually operate and not pour pounds of paint particulates onto their sills. Some windows moved a bit to provide better locations but most went back in the same holes to preserve the look of the house. We removed the double front doors and placed an octagon window at the landing at the bottom of the staircase. The new front door went into the living room window spot. What a different feel the front porch will have, entry on the left and an enlarged seating area to the right.

Redesigned front porch waiting for some posts--adding one to make five.

Much time has been spent on meeting with the good folks at Masterpiece Kitchens where Debbie holds fort as designer and Pete does the installs. Long discussions and multiple visits to various shops led to selecting a slab of granite for the countertops, confirming cabinet measurements, adjusting multitudes of details so that framing could be completed. We are almost ready to hit the order button on the kitchen. The floor and backsplash tile are selected. If I ventured that we are almost done with decisions there I’d be as far off as my first guestimate on cost. At least we’ll have a happy banker friend when we’re all done.

Shopping for the granite countertop proved a challenge, 

but we eventually decided on this one—Renoir.

Kitchen components—granite, cabinet doors, floor and 

backsplash (will be subway) tile.

While we’ve been shopping the guys have been reframing some interior walls, building closets and shoring up some floor joists that had lost way too much material to a mad remodeler trying to put in a bathroom drain pipe. A couple of jack posts in the basement pushed up a sag in the dining room floor beside the stairwell. Looking at the structure of this old house is amazing in so many ways. It really has hung together magnificently for 100 plus years. I’m confident with the changes and improvements we are on track for keeping this old place in good shape for many more. Today the new stairs were installed, and all I can say is, “Wow!” It makes me real eager to see the finished product begin to reveal itself.

This second floor plan shows our changes.

Closets are being added to the studio, master bedroom, 2nd bedroom and attic.

We finally figured out how to fit in a small half bath, too.

No, we don't have termites. These holes were made in the living room rafters 

when a previous owner added the upstairs bathroom. Pretty scary! 

But Keith and Larry got them all patched up.

I’ve taken on one small project, but it’s going to be my little baby. After consulting with the insulation pros and selecting a flash and batt system for the walls, we decided to remove all the beaded board in the attic. I hope to put it all back, but first we redesigned the closet area and hall space between the guest bedroom and attic and I’m going to do a built-in dresser and bookshelf (see second floor plan above). Lots of fun, and a bit of a challenge, too. (That’s code for it’s taking longer than I thought it would.) Oh, flash and batt means they will apply an inch spray foam in the wall cavities and then fill the remainder with fiberglass batts. This should seal up all the air leaks in the walls real nice.

The beaded board in the attic had to all come down, but we'll put it back.

Hope you enjoy this update and when we pop in again we can show a little of the green siding and some interior finish work including the stairs. Have a blessed Lenten season and a Joyous Easter.

peace, bob

Something New

Hello again and happy new year! 

It is time to let you know what has been happening on our “new” old house. We’re excited because yesterday the new windows were delivered and the contractors will start to install them this week. They have been busy so that means the new addition is built and under roof—in fact all of the roof is finished. The soffit, fascia and gutters are in place, too.

New shingles being install on the existing roof.

The addition which is in the location of the old sun porch will house a laundry room and a mudroom kind of entryway on the first floor. The second floor will house the master bathroom. Also we are adding a small bump out on the kitchen wall. This is where our breakfast nook will be built. Here are some drawings to help illustrate the changes.

This drawing shows the laundry room and entryway. There will be 

doors from the entryway into the kitchen and the family room (to the left). 

The kitchen nook will have two side-by-side double hung windows.

The master bath will be housed in the second floor of the addition.

Pouring the foundation for the addition.

Framing the first floor of the addition and the kitchen bump out.

The roof being built over the new construction.

We also have a new set of exterior steps to the basement. The old ones were in the wrong place and in poor condition so we had a precast concrete set complete with metal doors put in. That meant digging a large hole and cutting a doorway into the stone foundation. They have amazing saws to do that kind of thing now—very cool.

Bob and Zady inspecting where the doorway
will be cut through the old foundation.

This unit was installed in one piece.

The guys have also been working on the front porch—pouring new footers and constructing a new floor—the roof will stay minus the old shingles.

The old porch floor had to go. The house looks strange 

all wrapped in Tyvek—windows and all.

We had a bit of a mix up on our window order, but it was caught in time and has been remedied. Also two rain storms filled our basement with water. Having an open foundation and no gutters contributed to the problem. Hopefully there will be no more shop vacuuming the basement. Thanks to Denny for lending the sump pump which we used to empty the shop vac canister. 

It feels good to get past the holidays as our plates were full trying to stay up to speed with the house and participate in the usual Advent and Christmas activities. We’re starting to feel like we’re keeping far enough ahead of the contractors that we can go at a more relaxed pace. Still, every day we are working on some component of the house, but we are enjoying the adventure most days.

Once the windows are installed, the siding and trim will be installed on the exterior. We can’t wait to post pictures of that—we are very excited about the colors. We’ll have that in our next installment. It is fun sharing our progress. Let us know if you are reading our blog.

Until later,

ChrisAnn 

You Dig 9 Tons and What Do You Get?

It’s time to check in again, ‘cause we’ve been busy. Over 4 weekends we toiled to remove plaster and lath from all the walls of our old house. After many hours of dusty, dirty, grimy work and assistance from many helping hands, the walls are down to the studs.

Bob shoveling plaster out the living room window and onto the chute. 

At the end of the day he looked like he had came out of a coal mine. 

A hundred years of dirt and soot, I guess.

We took down the plaster first then the lath with the exception of the first floor ceilings--there the plaster and lath was pulled down together and then separated. The tools of choice: hammers, pry bars, crow bars, digging bars, sledge hammers and long handled scrapers. Flat shovels and 5 gallon buckets were used to pick up and carry the downed plaster to the chutes.

Bob made two chutes--one for the first floor and one for the second 

so we could send the downed plaster to the trailer.

We took 9 tons of plaster (4 loads) to the landfill and 4 loads of lath to be burned!

Many thanks to friends who volunteered their help: Cheri S, Monica C, Gary S, Wayne R, Dana P, John, and Bill W. We especially want to thank Bill who showed up just about every weekend! Thank you to Baur Construction for the fans and truck and trailer.

Gary taking down plaster. For now we are leaving the plaster on the chimney masonry.

Dana models the mandatory dusk mask while shoveling the downed plaster. 

The lath still on the walls came down later.

 

Cheri demonstrates the use of those nifty chutes.

Down to the studs--the family room looking into the dining room.

Looking toward the hall from the guest bedroom. 

The studio is beyond the hall on the left and the master bedroom is to the right.

This is all that is left of the stairway and it will have to be replaced. 

The stairs run along the chimney in the living room.

The contractor has sent his team to begin work on the exterior—they started on November 9, our anniversary. First the sun porch was removed. There is plenty of indication that there was a roofed porch on this side of the house prior to be enlarged and enclosed one. We think there were doors in the location of the windows. They also uncovered an open well under the floor. This was probably topped with a hand pump which gives support to the idea that the room on the east side was originally the kitchen. We’re not sure what we will do with the well—whether we’re allowed to operate a well in town, but it would be great for watering the lawn and garden.

Awe, lovely insulbrick—further indication that things will look worse before they look better. 

The original siding under the insulbrick is german lap board.

Drop a pebble down, wait a few seconds and you can hear 

the splash of water at the bottom.

We are glad to have the demolition completed—our sore bodies especially! Now the workers are taking off the slate roof and putting on new shingles. We are sorry to have to let the slate go, but after 100 years, it's beginning to deteriorate. Also, since the original box gutters had been removed there was no satisfactory way to address the bottom two feet of roof surface.

Other balls that Bob and I are keeping in the air include designing the layouts of the kitchen and the addition which will house the master bath, laundry and entry.

We’ll be back with more photos soon as the excavator should be arriving any day to dig the  foundation for the addition.

Hope you are enjoying the updates! 

Later,

ChrisAnn 

Delicate Demo

We spent several weeks gently removing trim around the windows and doors as well as pulling baseboard. Finding a 10” wide board 15’ long is a real pleasure. Improvements that have happened over time included placing big registers and outlets in the baseboard. We’ll be doing some patching, another reason this clear white pine will end up being stripped clean and then painted. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves for we’ve some fun discoveries to share.

In removing the baseboards in the family and dining rooms we had a challenge as at some time a second layer of wood floor, nice 2” wide clear oak was added on top of the original 3” pine. This meant gently prying out the top and then using the electric crow bar, a.k.a. sawzall, to clip the nails and out it popped. Bill Williams was a great help with this, as was his father Cam who at 94 years young was happily pulling nails.

Bill and Cam lent a hand with taking down the trim and 

removing anything not in the final plans. We wondered what we 

would find behind the brick patterned masonite board!--crumbling plaster? 

No, just wall paper. The dark boarder around the window is not trim--

it’s soot on the plaster where the trim has been removed. They must have 

burned coal to heat this house.

Cam employed impressive skills to remove nails from reusable boards.

 

One of the early things we noticed was that it appeared the central stairs had been turned around 180°. It seems that the front door was originally in the corner of the L where a bathroom was added. We’re guessing that as the town grew out to the house it made sense to move the front door to the west side of the house where a porch was added. Another hint that the front door was in the corner can be found in the flooring and in a closet door that had the only transom window trim in the house.

We’ve gently removed closets and walls that were added when the house was made into a two unit (upstairs, downstairs) rental. Were were able to pull out a wall that created a shotgun bathroom. We really don’t know what we are gong to do with the fireplace, which seems to have been most recently used with a coal and/or gas insert before being sealed off. We’re thinking gas logs and have begun looking for an old mantle.

Bill helped remove the closet in the corner of what will be our living room.

Here is an after shot with the closet removed. You can see the layers of 

paint and wall paper and the opening to the chimney. When we removed 

the wall-to-wall carpet in this room, it revealed the original pine 

floor boards which had been stained around the edges of the room--

no need to stain where the area rug would cover!

Under the wall-to-wall carpet in the attic over the kitchen, we found 

this linoleum type flooring. Thankfully it was not glued to the pine floor boards 

beneath and could be easily removed. The same is true for the upstairs 

apartment kitchen which had vinyl adhesive squares instead of 

carpeting over the very old floating linoleum.

We removed the wall that was added to make the upstairs 

galley bathroom. This will allow for a larger bedroom 

which will be Chris’ studio.

This bathroom will loose the bath tub and be redesigned 

as a half bath—sink and toilet.

Thanks for reading,

Bob

NEXT TIME: Photos of plaster and lath demolition! If you care to join us, we’re having parties on Saturdays October 6 and 13. Bring a hammer and perhaps goggles. We’ll provide dust masks and lunch.