Side Project

Your probably thinking why don't I finish a project before I start a new one? Well, like a good novel, there is a bunch of little side stories and plots that lead up to the climax. Right now I'm just building up the storyline, giving little tidbits here and there before I tie them all together.

The master bedroom, with the soon to be master bathroom, has no master closet. The solution? Add one. To do this I will be framing out a 4' by 10' closet into an adjacent room. The adjacent room will eventually be one of the boys rooms. The room is rather large, so taking out a 4'x10' area isn't much of an issue. As you can see in this first picture, there was a door in the wall, and now there isn't. Well, when I'm done, there will be a door again. This door was not original to the house, it was added at some point, probably when the house was a 2-unit rental.


Here it is with the framing and drywall piece removed. On the other side of this drywall is the master bedroom.


OK, so those pictures were rather boring, how about I throw in a few bonus pictures from earlier in the evening. Some nice fall color, looks like I'll be doing some raking next week!

Check out that green lawn.

Ceiling Framework

Finished up the framing in the ceiling for the dome. I want to get the ceiling portion drywalled ASAP so I can get the insulation layed back out in the attic before the cold weather sets in.

Now there is a nice spot for the ceiling dome to fit securely in place.

Master Bathroom again

Ok, back on the bathroom tonight. A little more cutting and the first 10' section of 3" pipe went down into the wall. It was sort of a relief to actually get that "link" in, as now I can visualize all the connections are gonna work out. Its always been lingering in the back of my mind if running plumbing all the way up there was even gonna be possible, but yes, yes it is! After I got that piece in I started taking out the ceiling joists that need to be moved for the dome.


In this view you can see the tee connection in the floor. The connection pointing to the right will go over to the toilet. The connection pointing up will be the vent stack that will run up into the attic and through the roof.


Remember this view? Well now there is a pipe coming down from above!


My helper for the evening. "Hand me that screwdriver"


Looking up, one of the ceiling joists removed, 1 more to go. Just have to cut the power and pull the wire out that runs through it. Its all the old cloth covered wiring that I will all be replacing anyway.

Roof & Lightning Rod Repair

I finally made it up on the roof to repair a little leak that has been there for awhile now. Earlier in the spring a shingle had blown off and there was a couple exposed nail holes. After I replaced the shingle and tarred up the holes, I decided it was a good time to repair one of the 6 lightning rods that was broken. All the pieces were there, it was just crooked because the copper rod was cracked and someone had repaired it with duct tape at some point.

Here's a view towards the back of the house, you can see the farthest lightning rod is missing the top and the blue ball. I took the parts off so I could repair it.


Not the best fix ever, but this will have to do for the time being. I took a wooden dowel rod that fit snugly inside the copper rod, then I put a few wraps of electrical tape for good measure. This picture was taken from the "widows watch" on the rooftop - looking towards the front of the house. On the right edge of the picture the hatch is visible that leads to a ladder down into the attic. From the attic there is a staircase that goes down to the 2nd floor.


Another picture towards the front of the house. You can see the copper lightning rods have a heavy green patina from the weather. The globes are blue glass.


As I was finishing up the roof, my parents arrived for dinner and brought along 20 raspberry plants, 2 rubarb plants and a lilac bush. After dinner we planted them all and by the time I finished it was pretty dark out.

Plumbing and Play Time

The task today was to cut an access hole in the parlor wall on the first floor to run the plumbing down into the basement. I cut through the paneling, plaster, lathe and 1" boards that comprise the walls of the old house. The walls are 7" thick compared to 4-1/2" in newer homes. After I opened up the wall I needed to cut down through the wall sill plate into the basement. This wall sits on a solid 8"x8" Oak beam, but luckily it is not centered on the beam, so I can run the drain pipes past it with a 45 degree bend and I only have to notch out an inch on the corner edge of the beam. After doing that, I couldn't help but call it a day as it was such a beautful and sunny fall day out. I took the kids and dogs out in the backyard for a few hours. The fall wildflowers are in full bloom. Lots of whites and purples (not sure what they are called though!).

The new hole in the parlor wall.


A close-up of where the 3" pipe will run through into the basement.

You can see the back of the house in the distance,

also the wildflowers and the dogs.


The boys and Sprout.

Sewing desk install

Well not all projects are fun or give you something to be proud of, but some of them just have to be done. The wife isn't the most organized person, and judging from the looks of the sewing room she might be considered the most UNorganized person. :) To help straighten things up a bit I installed a 9' long countertop/desk along one wall. I'll let her finish organizing, I did my part.

Before:

Thats better...

Master Bathroom

So here's where the bathroom is at so far. I have the tub, sink and toilet setting in place temporarily so I can lay out the plumbing.


Christine got her dream tub she's always been wanting, a claw foot princess slipper tub.



Pedestal sink mounted in the corner.


Here's Miles holding the ceiling dome that will go in. Its just shy of 4' tall and 3' wide. Unlike a normal ceiling medallion, this one is dome shaped, so it will require reworking the ceiling joists to fit it up into the ceiling. (I always take the hard way of doing things). When its done it will look like a custom built plaster ceiling, when in reality its a lightweight polystyrene dome! Also I will need to drill out a hole to mount a glass chandelier that will hang down from the center.

Quick Kitchen Update

While I'm trying to get the blog up to date I'll throw in a few pictures of the kitchen update. It was just a quick fix to get rid of the old wallpaper and brighten it up a little. There will be more extensive remodeling later on. New flooring and countertops will be in the not too distant future. Momma helped with the wallpaper removal and painting, we took care of that in a weekend. I also added crown molding to the wall cabinets and a new light fixture.

Old view before we moved in.

Another angle of the old kitchen.

Here's the new paint, trim, light & dishwasher.

Another angle.

Here's the cool new light fixture & ceiling medallion.

First major project "Master Bathroom"

So the first major project is underway (Aug. 08). It involved taking an empty 8'x8' room that is attached to the master bedroom, and turning it into a full bathroom. The first order of business was tearing out the old lathe and plaster walls. What a mess. That is all cleaned up now and the process of running all new plumbing from the far side of the basement has begun. This isn't an easy task. This new bathroom is at the front of the house on the second floor. The water and drain connections are in the basement at the back of the house. When I'm done I will have installed more than 70' of 3" drain pipe and 150' of 1/2" copper water lines. Oh, and I estimated the amount of plaster I hauled out to be well over 1000lbs worth. Each 5 gallon bucket full weighed about 70lbs.

Now for the interior pictures!

The living room woodburner, bay windows, parlor furniture and curved oak staircase.

A few pics

Here's a few more exterior views of the house as well as an aerial view of the land. The property lines are shown in red. You can see the kids "trails" out back.

Welcome to our 1860's Victorian home!

Here's the start of our journey to restore & remodel our "new" home. Long story short, we weren't looking to move or buy a house at the time, but I just so happened to see this house while out on a bike ride one evening. Flash forward a couple months later and we are living there! We closed in July 2008 and moved in the following week.