Restoring the little house
Oct. 18th, 2014 09:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
restoman1. 
This little house stands across the street from mine. It was built in the 1850s, shortly after mine. The previous owner took good care of it for many years as a rental, but his partner racked up some serious debt and they wound up losing the property to bank foreclosure. I bought it last winter to restore it and rent it out again. My crew and I have spent most of the summer repairing, painting, and generally upgrading the place. The exterior work is done and the interior work should be done by the end of the month when one of my workers, Bob, will move in with his girlfriend, Patty. The house looks small, but it has 3 bedrooms and 2 full baths, with living room, dining room, kitchen and laundry room. All the rooms are rather small, but adequate for their purpose.
2.
This was the first trial of colors for the place. The general and independently-replied response to these colors was: "I'd like some fries with that Big Mac, please." So, I toned down the yellow a few shades.
3.
Dave cuts out some of the severely damaged clapboards to replace them.
4.
Tony and Dave making repairs from the scaffolding.
5.
Mark removes the old drip edge from the cornice.
6.
Mark and Dave work on the cornice.
7.
Mark and Dave rebuild the cornice. We custom-made the moulding to match surviving original pieces on the back of the house.
8.
Mark works on the porch cornice, while Dave finishes up the upper cornice.
9.
Much of the house is painted. The lighter yellow color is tinted primer.
10.
I was lucky to have 3 sets of correct size Victorian shutters in storage. I had to order 2 more pairs to complete the house. The hardware is all new.
11.
Tony and John used drop bars, sledge hammers and even a framing hammer to break up the old concrete walks. We used my new truck to take several loads of broken concrete to the landfill.
12.
Paving blocks for the new walk.
13.
Bob laid the blocks in a bed of sand and gravel, Tony cut blocks on my diamond-blade masonry saw.
14.
The new walk as it looked in today's rain.
15.
Bob touches up paint on a shutter. The roof had to be tarped to keep rain from damaging the new drywall ceilings inside.
16.
I had all 13 windows replaced with new vinyl ones, factory-painted red on the outside. The original windows in the house had been missing for many years, but by careful research and measuring, I determined that the first floor windows were 9-pane over 6-pane with 6 over 6 on the second floor. I had the new vinyl windows made to match what the original windows had been. This is Brett, the window installer, a sweet and hunky guy.
17.
The blond guy is another Brett who owns a roofing company. His crew of 9 men with 4 trucks stripped all 5 layers of the old roofing off the upper roof. They also put down new OSB board decking, ice shield, and asphalt shingles, with a ridge vent and new chimney flashing. The whole job took them 7 hours, including clean-up! I was delighted that they were available to do the job, or we would have had to do it ourselves.
18.
The upper roof is all stripped of roofing.
19.
The new roof is done! ...all in less than a day!
20.
The exterior of the house, complete. We still need to finish the kitchen and interior painting, but it should be ready for Bob and Patty by November 1st.
This little house stands across the street from mine. It was built in the 1850s, shortly after mine. The previous owner took good care of it for many years as a rental, but his partner racked up some serious debt and they wound up losing the property to bank foreclosure. I bought it last winter to restore it and rent it out again. My crew and I have spent most of the summer repairing, painting, and generally upgrading the place. The exterior work is done and the interior work should be done by the end of the month when one of my workers, Bob, will move in with his girlfriend, Patty. The house looks small, but it has 3 bedrooms and 2 full baths, with living room, dining room, kitchen and laundry room. All the rooms are rather small, but adequate for their purpose.
2.
This was the first trial of colors for the place. The general and independently-replied response to these colors was: "I'd like some fries with that Big Mac, please." So, I toned down the yellow a few shades.
3.
Dave cuts out some of the severely damaged clapboards to replace them.
4.
Tony and Dave making repairs from the scaffolding.
5.
Mark removes the old drip edge from the cornice.
6.
Mark and Dave work on the cornice.
7.
Mark and Dave rebuild the cornice. We custom-made the moulding to match surviving original pieces on the back of the house.
8.
Mark works on the porch cornice, while Dave finishes up the upper cornice.
9.
Much of the house is painted. The lighter yellow color is tinted primer.
10.
I was lucky to have 3 sets of correct size Victorian shutters in storage. I had to order 2 more pairs to complete the house. The hardware is all new.
11.
Tony and John used drop bars, sledge hammers and even a framing hammer to break up the old concrete walks. We used my new truck to take several loads of broken concrete to the landfill.
12.
Paving blocks for the new walk.
13.
Bob laid the blocks in a bed of sand and gravel, Tony cut blocks on my diamond-blade masonry saw.
14.
The new walk as it looked in today's rain.
15.
Bob touches up paint on a shutter. The roof had to be tarped to keep rain from damaging the new drywall ceilings inside.
16.
I had all 13 windows replaced with new vinyl ones, factory-painted red on the outside. The original windows in the house had been missing for many years, but by careful research and measuring, I determined that the first floor windows were 9-pane over 6-pane with 6 over 6 on the second floor. I had the new vinyl windows made to match what the original windows had been. This is Brett, the window installer, a sweet and hunky guy.
17.
The blond guy is another Brett who owns a roofing company. His crew of 9 men with 4 trucks stripped all 5 layers of the old roofing off the upper roof. They also put down new OSB board decking, ice shield, and asphalt shingles, with a ridge vent and new chimney flashing. The whole job took them 7 hours, including clean-up! I was delighted that they were available to do the job, or we would have had to do it ourselves.
18.
The upper roof is all stripped of roofing.
19.
The new roof is done! ...all in less than a day!
20.
The exterior of the house, complete. We still need to finish the kitchen and interior painting, but it should be ready for Bob and Patty by November 1st.
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no subject
Date: 2014-10-19 01:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-19 02:00 am (UTC):-)
Seeing the progress and the end result is what keeps me going.
no subject
Date: 2014-10-19 02:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-19 02:21 am (UTC):-)
no subject
Date: 2014-10-19 05:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-20 01:25 am (UTC):-)
I hope that the work I did gives the house another century of life.
no subject
Date: 2014-10-19 05:23 am (UTC)How many houses do you have now? I can't keep track!
You and your guys do a lot of really hard work.
"I was lucky to have 3 sets of correct size Victorian shutters in storage." See, if this was the only sentence I read in your post I would still know it was you. You are the only person I know who could say this! :-)
no subject
Date: 2014-10-20 01:39 am (UTC):-)
How many houses do you have now? I can't keep track!
I have a hard time keeping track myself! Right now I have 5 houses besides the one I live in. Three are restored, and 2 in need of restoration. Ask me that question again next week and you may get a different answer.
At 20, Tony is the only member of the crew that could be called 'young.' Mark is the next youngest at 45. Considering our ages, we do harder work than you would expect for a bunch of old guys.
Not many people stockpile old house parts like shutters, but I'm glad I did! I have always been one to march to the beat of a different drummer. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2014-10-19 07:02 am (UTC)The walkway is so cool. :)
The colors must really brighten up the neighborhood. :)
Hugs, Jon
no subject
Date: 2014-10-20 01:50 am (UTC)I love that walkway myself. My neighborhood has quite a few old walkways and driveways that are paved with the old paving blocks that once paved the city streets, 120 years ago. I have always admired them. There is no good source for those old paving blocks anymore, but fortunately a few places manufacture new paving blocks that look similar to the old ones.
That little house had been a dull gray with gray-green trim for about 30 years. The new colors make a huge difference in its appearance, IMHO. A lot of the neighbors have complimented me on the new colors. I think the view from my front porch is much improved now!
*HUGS*
no subject
Date: 2014-10-20 02:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-20 03:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-20 03:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-19 10:30 am (UTC)All I kept thinkin' as I scrolled down with the pics? "Bus Driver! Move That Bus!!!" .. lol!
♥
no subject
Date: 2014-10-20 02:39 am (UTC)I suppose the house does look a bit like a bus ~more so with that yellow color. lol
*hug*
no subject
Date: 2014-10-19 03:39 pm (UTC)Clapboard siding is neat to see. It makes me think of my grandfather telling stories about the old farmhouse he and my grandmother moved into around when my parents were born. Grandpa said that he learned, when he had to replace some, that they were sixteen inch wide boards.
I love that you have the shutters on the house! I don't know what it is, but I've always liked shutters. Real shutters at least. The vestigial ones that not only don't work, but are clearly the wrong size for the windows even if they did kind of annoy me.
Anyway, that's so neat that you do this kind of work. It's like a friend of mine who's a mechanic. When he fixes my car, or shows me the mods he makes to his, I'm always a bit envious that most of what I do leaves no lasting, tangible product.
no subject
Date: 2014-10-20 03:34 am (UTC)The clapboards on this house are 7 inches wide and a half inch thick. Only one lumber yard in this area sells pine boards in that dimension. They get a lot of business from me! :-)
I love seeing real shutters on a house, correctly sized, and hung with real shutter hinges and shutter dogs. The vinyl or stamped aluminum shutters look tacky, and they are often too big or too small for the windows, which makes them both tacky and ridiculous. The details make the difference. ~Of course, the real wood shutters cost more.
I get a lot of personal satisfaction out of what I do, which I think is partly what drew me into this field. Work is such a big part of life. I think that it is important to do something that makes a positive impact on this world, not just to take a paycheck home.
no subject
Date: 2014-10-20 12:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-20 02:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-20 01:20 am (UTC)(Your crew can be a very pleasant distraction, too. :-)
no subject
Date: 2014-10-20 03:59 am (UTC):-)
I do try to get the details right, they make a big difference in the overall appearance.
My house has been part of the Hawley-Green Historic District for several years, but the other side of the street is not. If all goes as planned, next year the other side of my street will be added to the district, so this little house will have better protection and a better prospect for the future.
Your crew can be a very pleasant distraction, too. :-)
Most definitely!! ;-) They all are a handsome, lovable, sexy bunch, but when Dave works shirtless, I find it difficult to pull myself away and get anything done. :-p~
no subject
Date: 2014-10-20 01:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-20 04:01 am (UTC):-)
no subject
Date: 2014-10-20 02:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-20 04:23 am (UTC)Nope, not a duplex, and I don't think it ever was ~it's too small. The house was remodeled in the mid 1920s. I believe that both porches were built then, both doors date from then as well, and I suspect that the floorplan was changed too. It is quite unusual for one of these small houses to have no front door and 2 side doors. Of the 2 side doors, the left one opens into a small vestibule at the bottom of the stairs to the second floor. Doorways lead out of the vestibule into the living room (left) and dining room (right). The other door at the back end of the porch goes directly into the kitchen. I don't know for sure, but my best guess is that the original entrance was on the front wall and was replaced by a window 90 years ago.
To add to the house's mystery: the back wing (not visible in any of the photos) is brick, parged with cement. It had yet another exterior door (closed up decades ago). I believe the brick wing was built as a kitchen in the 1860s.