# 1922 "Arts and Crafts" Renovation



## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

*1922 "Unidentified Style" Renovation*

WARNING: PICTURE HEAVY

My wife and I purchased our first home on July 20th, 2012 and proceeded to get married on July 28th, 2012. After almost a year of searching for a house in a particular area without success finding a somewhat move in ready home decided to pursue a home that needed a complete renovation, top to bottom. With the help of an FHA 203k renovation mortgage, we made the purchase. Here's what we bought:

The house is a 1922 "Arts and Crafts" style house. It's classified as "old style" by the local assessment office due to how unique it is. It's was a 4 bedroom, 1 bathroom home 1800 square feet on an 8000 sq foot lot. It was vacant for 1.5 years and neglected for at least 60 years.

*Exterior*

Here's a photo of the front porch on the right side of the house:









Above that porch was another closed in "sleeping porch":









There's also a sleeping porch on the left side of the house off a bedroom:









Here's a shot of the back of the house:









*Interior

*Here's a shot of the kitchen stove, it was TINY!









A shot facing from the stove to the side wall:









A shot of the kitchen sink, yes it was that dark in there even during the daylight:









Dining room:









Built in in Dining room:










Weird basement room w/ locking door and interior window:









The *"TO DO"* list:

1. Gut entire house
2. Replace/relocate doors and windows
3. Remove knob and tube wiring from whole house, upgrade 40A panel to 200A, run all new lines
4. Remove all plumbing from house (it was never winterized), run all new lines
5. Convert from antiquated oil heat to high efficiency natural gas
6. Upgrade from 1 bathroom to 2.5 including master bathroom
7. Convert from 4 bedroom to 3 bedroom for "master suite"
8. Replace garage door
9. Insulate house
10. Refinish/replace hardwood floors
11. Everything else you can think of


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

Living room:









Bedroom 1:









Bedroom 2:









Bathroom 1 (the only bathroom)









Creepy Basement:









Creepy Basement:


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

Couple important things to note:

1. The red cedar shingles on the house were in much worse shape than we thought. After having them looked at by multiple individuals, it was determined that they were the original 90 year old shingles. We've had to replace some immediately, but due to cost we're going to have to go slow with them.
2. The house came "as is". This was interesting to us because we took as is to mean the mechanicals and structure were as is. Wrong, they left EVERYTHING in the house, furniture, belongings, pictures, clothes, you name it, all left behind. It was actually quite sad to see a whole life just erased like that. We salvaged what we could and literally filled a 30 yard dumpster with the rest.

Demo started on July 25th, 2012, 3 days before our wedding:























































Demo was done by myself and friends. Total trash generated was 2 full 30 yard dumpsters.


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

Demo continued the day after we got married and here's the progress on July 30th, 2012:


















































































and lastly, some cool findings in the house which will be coffee tables or storage later:


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## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

Is this your first big DIY job?
Did you get a pre nupual agreement on who gets the house? lol
Are you trying to live in there while your doing all this?

Anyone checking to see if those were supporting walls your knocking out?


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

Whoa, question heavy.



joecaption said:


> Is this your first big DIY job?


Yes.



joecaption said:


> Did you get a pre nupual agreement on who gets the house? lol


Nope, she's a trooper and loving every minute of buying all brand new things for the house.



joecaption said:


> Are you trying to live in there while your doing all this?


No, we lost our occupancy permit when we got the building permit.



joecaption said:


> Anyone checking to see if those were supporting walls your knocking out?


I come from a family and friends consisting of all commercial contractors. Everything was checked and rechecked before taking it down.


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

August 2, 2012 - yard clean up and more demo

My wife is the landscaper on the project. The front of the house had 15 foot tall shrubs covering the whole face of the house. She wanted them gone, so out they went. Cut them down and attached the roots to my truck and ripped them out.

The end result, now we can see the whole house:



























Keep an eye on this existing front entry way, it's moving!:




























Notes at this time:

1. We were saving that antique yellow sofa you see in some of these pictures because we planned on selling it even though it needed to be refinished. We later found out from the fire marshal that it's the sofa she was found deceased on. It's been removed from the house and disposed of.


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

August 3rd, 2012 - OH NO! Major structural issue. They notched the old joists for the plumbing on the upstairs bathroom. They were all split and sagging.





































They have since been sistered with 2x10 LVL's the whole way across and a header built to accommodate the plumbing relocation upstairs.


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

August 11th, 2012










Found a great deal on insulation for the project, couldn't help myself but load the trailer twice with 40 bags on one trip and 30 on the next. A mixture of faced R-15 for the walls and unfaced r-21 for the floors.


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

Fast forward to August 23rd, unfortunately a huge gap in photos, hopefully my wife has them on her camera. I will fill in later if possible. I did hire a carpenter to do some of the major work, this was some of it. Here you'll see that we closed in the sleeping porch on the right side of the house to accommodate our master bathroom. Due to code on ceiling height, what was an 18 foot wide porch only left us with a 9x9 master bathroom.





































Leftover TGI's from the floor of the master bath(these things are expensive!):










Our new air handlers in the attic and basement for our heat/AC (all brand new hydro system):


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

August 27th, 2012 - We cut down the dead cherry tree in the front of the house and put a lamp post in it's place. Also, the back of the house shingles were in such bad shape, we decided just to reshingle the whole back.










Notice the new patio door where the window to the dining room used to be:


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

August 30th, 2012 - Back side of the house is all shingled and trimmed. Azek trim rocks!


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## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

The reason I asked about if this was your first is I see you chose to gut the inside before fixing everything outside before winter sets in.
Anyone gone over the roof and in the attic to check the roof decking to check it's condition?

I've just done dozen of complete guts before and often find major damage to roofs and walls windows and doors, foundation and would hate to have you out of money fofoing the inside and not have the money left to fix the important stuff that's keeping your inside work from getting distroyed.
In no way do I mean to be critacal of any of your hard work!
Make sure you fire block all those walls top and bottom.
Pull a string on every walls and check to see if they needs to be shimed or sistered to get the wall flat.

I see you have one of the classic pink bathrooms so small you can sit on the tub and wash your face. 
Wait long enough and they will be back in fashion. lol

Make sure to keep posting pictures so we can see how your coming along.


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

September 23, 2012 - Rough inspections all passed. Time to insulate. Also, time to do a little landscaping!














































New 96% efficient Burnham Alpine heating unit:



















Upgraded 200A electrical panel:










A little fall landscaping:


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

joecaption said:


> The reason I asked about if this was your first is I see you chose to gut the inside before fixing everything outside before winter sets in.
> Anyone gone over the roof and in the attic to check the roof decking to check it's condition?
> 
> I've just done dozen of complete guts before and often find major damage to roofs and walls windows and doors, foundation and would hate to have you out of money fofoing the inside and not have the money left to fix the important stuff that's keeping your inside work from getting distroyed.
> ...


Roof is less than 5 years old. It's sound. The one thing I will say about this house is that it's dry as a bone inside. No leaks. All of the windows now have been replaced except for a few, those are good too. We've had some serious rain here, and there hasn't been any water at all coming through the roof.

Regarding the bathroom, yea, we weren't waiting for that. It's long gone. We couldn't take having the toilet in front of the door either.


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

September 25th, 2012 - All blue board is hung.





































Waiting on Durock:










Some patches to an existing wall we wanted to save:


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

October 1, 2012 - Our inspector pretty much forced us to spray foam since the attic didn't have a ridge and soffit vent. New doors and garage door pictures as well:



















Garage door and back door:










Front door:


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

October 14th, 2012 - Do it right and make it white. PLASTERED!


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## Windows (Feb 22, 2010)

Awesome house and project. I have never seen an Art and Crafts home like that. Very unique. You are making amazing progress.


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

Windows said:


> Awesome house and project. I have never seen an Art and Crafts home like that. Very unique. You are making amazing progress.



We call it arts and crafts because no one really knows what to call it. Even the assessors office had no clue so they called it "old style". LOL

We don't really know if it's arts and crafts.


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## cocobolo (Dec 16, 2008)

Squished said:


> We call it arts and crafts because no one really knows what to call it. Even the assessors office had no clue so they called it "old style". LOL
> 
> We don't really know if it's arts and crafts.


Well, not to spoil your day, but it's not quite Arts and Crafts. The real A & C houses have all sorts of most interesting wood detailing, which in itself is a major part of the design. That is what is lacking in your house to make it a true A & C house. So, I think your assessors office has the right idea by calling it old style.

Perhaps the most famous of the Arts and Crafts architects were Greene and Greene. They did many wonderful houses in the genre, and most of them still exist today. Very expensive to build mainly due to the high level of craftsmanship required to bring such a house to completion.

But WOW! Have you guys ever done a TON of work on your new/old house! Glad to see that you have tackled the structural problems right off the bat...that's not something you can leave to chance.

By the time you get finished you will have a unique house which is going to look first class. Well done! :thumbup:


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

Just "old style"? Blah! There's got to be a name for it!

Any here's the progress from today, October 20, 2012. We rented a commercial floor sander and here's my wife using it. The hardwood floor was also put down in the kitchen today and two of the bathroom floors were tiled.


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## cocobolo (Dec 16, 2008)

Good heavens, but you guys work quickly!

For what it's worth, I found a couple of items here in my library that you might like to check out when you have some spare time (right!).

There is a magazine called Arts & Crafts Homes which is excellent and might give you some ideas. Not that I think you need any, you're doing one hell of a good job so far.

Then there is a book by Randell L. Makinson simply called Greene & Greene, subtitled The Passion and The Legacy. It has top flight photographs of some of the finest Arts and Crafts houses in existence. That will show you what one of these homes is like. They really are quite exceptional.


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## gma2rjc (Nov 21, 2008)

The house is looking great! It's nice that you have so much help with it. 

How many staircases do you have? I counted 3 from the pics you've posted - one by an exterior door, one near where your wife is sanding the floor and the one in the room with the sliding glass doors.


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## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q...es&qpvt=arts+and+crafts+style+homes&FORM=IGRE


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## cocobolo (Dec 16, 2008)

Good grief Joe...I never thought I would get to the end of those pics...amazing.


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## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

Not sure I would have been installing the flooring before the rock is finished, primed and painted. I'd hate to see them get messed up.


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## cocobolo (Dec 16, 2008)

joecaption said:


> Not sure I would have been installing the flooring before the rock is finished, primed and painted. I'd hate to see them get messed up.


I would think they will be using a heavy dropcloth Joe. But you're right, the floor is usually the last thing to go in.


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

joecaption said:


> Not sure I would have been installing the flooring before the rock is finished, primed and painted. I'd hate to see them get messed up.


We're going a little backwards. We want to give the plaster a long time to cure, but simply can't delay the project. So we're moving forward getting the flooring done, kitchen installed, and first floor painted. We're pushing to get our occupency permit back so we can move in and do things like painting. I'll put a nice coat of rosin paper down when Im done.


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

gma2rjc said:


> The house is looking great! It's nice that you have so much help with it.
> 
> How many staircases do you have? I counted 3 from the pics you've posted - one by an exterior door, one near where your wife is sanding the floor and the one in the room with the sliding glass doors.


Thanks for the comment, without the help of my dad (commercial plumber) and many of his contacts, this would never have been possible. I've cashed in every "I owe you" he had, but i think he was holding them for me when I bought my first home anyway. 

3. Sort of. One in the living room to a landing. One of the kitchen to the same landing. Then one from the landing upstairs.

There has to be a better classification of what this house is other than "old style".


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

cocobolo said:


> Good heavens, but you guys work quickly!
> 
> For what it's worth, I found a couple of items here in my library that you might like to check out when you have some spare time (right!).
> 
> ...


I'll have to look it up, thanks.


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## memarybe (Mar 7, 2011)

Looks to me like it may have started off as a "Georgian" style house. But along the way has had modifications. I also have an un identified home. We just refer to it as an a-frame. It is the closest we have come. I can understand your frustration in trying to get proper identification of your home. We could use a thread for situations like this one. There are a lot of us that have the same problem. By the way your home looks fantastic!


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## cocobolo (Dec 16, 2008)

Squished said:


> There has to be a better classification of what this house is other than "old style".


I'm inclined to agree with you. I do remember one old style of house very similar to yours being referred to as "Shingle Style", for obvious reasons. I will have to look that up and see if it applies more correctly to your fine house.

Whatever you call it,she's gong to be a beauty! :thumbup:


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## cocobolo (Dec 16, 2008)

Well, I visited our friend Mr. Google, and I think that Shingle Style is quite appropriate for your house. It has just the right amount of detail, and the main features all seem to fit.

Check out some of the Shingle Style houses in the Hamptons...whooeeee! Worth a few bucks some of those nice little shacks. So you are in some very select company of that's what you end up choosing to call it. :yes:


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

October 21st, 2102 - Fun with Polyurethane. Total newbie at sanding and refinishing hardwood floors but figured I've watched enough youtube videos I had to try it. Worst case scenario, I hire someone to fix my mistakes and I pay double. Best case scenario, I save myself $1000 off the best quote I got. I believe I've successfully saved $1000 to the budget. I rented a commercial 18" square buff orbital sander, started with 20G, then 36G, then 60G, then 100G, then 120G. Finish is Procoat Oil Polyurethane applied via lambswool applicator. Here were the results:


































































I like how the old floor came out better than the new floor, way more character. It had all sorts of flaws from where someone miserably failed with a drum sander way back when, they made the floor pretty cool. Tomorrow morning at 6am the next coat goes on after a 220G screening, then at 6pm I'll put the final coat on.


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## cocobolo (Dec 16, 2008)

Pretty good job for a young feller! :clap:


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

cocobolo said:


> Pretty good job for a young feller! :clap:


Hey, who you calling young!


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## cocobolo (Dec 16, 2008)

Squished said:


> Hey, who you calling young!


When you get to be my age, _everyone_ is young!


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

Just realized I never put a full on shot of the house from the street view:


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## AnnContorno (Sep 27, 2012)

Congratulations you guys! You are making tremendous and QUICK headway! You must be so excited! Thank you for journaling this for everyone to see who is obsessed with houses and remodeling!


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## AnnContorno (Sep 27, 2012)

And did you freak out when you got a good look at that knob and tube? That stuff is SCARY! lol


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

October 22nd, 2012 - Finished the third coat of poly on the first floor, like glass:


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

AnnContorno said:


> And did you freak out when you got a good look at that knob and tube? That stuff is SCARY! lol



I actually like it better!


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## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

We gave up on site finished floors many years ago.
Only install prefinished, lay them and walk on the same day, more layers of finish then a site finish, and no smell or drying time.


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## evane (Aug 8, 2007)

Place looks great so far, why did you decide to do plastering? Stay true to the period?


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

joecaption said:


> We gave up on site finished floors many years ago.
> Only install prefinished, lay them and walk on the same day, more layers of finish then a site finish, and no smell or drying time.



I can't stand the look of the seams on prefinished. Other than that, you're right, way easier.


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

evane said:


> Place looks great so far, why did you decide to do plastering? Stay true to the period?


Nothing looks better than a smooth plastered wall. You just can't get that with sheet rock, it always will have that commercial feel to it. Plastering is an art form and has proven it can stand up to the test of time (the plaster in this house is 90 years old and still going strong where we left it).


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## 95025 (Nov 14, 2010)

Fantastic work!

I'm looking forward to more pictures as the project progresses. 

Excellent!


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## shadytrake (Jul 8, 2012)

It looks beautiful. I had my dining and living room refinished and it looks really nice. The age of the red oak strip is so beautiful. Nothing beats saving old flooring when you can.


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

October 27th, 2012 - Time to get all the misc. stuff done. Little of tiling, little bit of flooring, some painting, etc.

One of the more disappointing things in our home was on the second floor the previous owners covered the beautiful heart pine (maybe fir?) floors with a really cheap 3/8 white oak flooring made by Bruce. Bruce stopping making this from what I can research in the 40's, and for good reason. It's garbage. Had we sanded it, nails would have been sticking up everywhere. We made a late game decision to tear it up and see what's underneath, WOW I'm glad we did! I can't wait to get the floor sanded and refinished, the wide 3 1/4 boards are nothing short of awesome and should look amazing once it's sanded and poly'd. It was a brutal task to tear it up then pull up each individual nail, but it will be awesome. 



















Then we decided to prime one of the spare bedrooms, it was totally complete since we didn't renovate it other than electrical and heat/AC.

Before:










After:



















My carpenter has been busy doing all the trim. When you buy trim for an entire house, holy moly is it expensive! Each windows consists of 7 different pieces of trim.



















That's it for now. I'm going to finish tiling the tub surround today (my first attempt to tile), and then hopefully repair and sand the bedroom floor. Pictures to follow later.


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## BigJim (Sep 2, 2008)

That floor will be absolutely beautiful. When I installed the old heart pine floor I would have the finishers hand scrape the joints so the flooring would have a slight curved look and it really looked like it had been there all the years. 

Not being critical of the trim work at all, but if it were mine I would have plinth blocks installed, to me it just looks incomplete without them.


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

BigJim said:


> That floor will be absolutely beautiful. When I installed the old heart pine floor I would have the finishers hand scrape the joints so the flooring would have a slight curved look and it really looked like it had been there all the years.
> 
> Not being critical of the trim work at all, but if it were mine I would have plinth blocks installed, to me it just looks incomplete without them.


Good eye Jim. Funny you mentioned about the plinth blocks. The rest of the house was actually built without them, so we continued the trend. Believe it or not, the rest of the house where the old woodwork is, it looks REALLY good without them having the big 1x6 basement against them.


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

October 28th, 2012 - Amateur hour in bathroom #1 learning how to tile. This was my first real on my own tile job. I had some direction from my old man, but I laid each tile on this tub surround. There definitely some cleaning of mortar around the accent tiles that needs to happen, but nothing a little vinegar won't take care of. Here's the finished job:














































While I did that, my wife worked on one of the railings down stairs that would have been difficult to sand one they started putting in the kitchen tomorrow:

Before:










After:










It should be noted that at one time, the stairs themselves were BRIGHT red, and the railing was BRIGHT blue. That must have been interesting!

Also had our outside light put up:


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

October 29th, 2012 - Hurricane Sandy - Being 7 houses from the ocean, we had some concerns, but the house faired well. The kitchen started getting installed today (totally custom) and I managed to get the tile grouted. Here's the kitchen pics for now, tile to come later.





































Tile I installed over the weekend all grouted:


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

November 1st, 2012 - More kitchen progress. The kitchen is finally coming together with the drawers, doors, and hardware being installed. The hood was installed, what a beast that was as the instructions were no where near what actually needed to be done to install it. I also started prepping the master bedroom floor to be sanded on Saturday, so I'll have pictures for that after Saturday. Here's the kitchen for now.


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## cocobolo (Dec 16, 2008)

I like the idea that those cabinets are very much in keeping with the design of the house itself. Good thinking. :thumbsup:


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## 95025 (Nov 14, 2010)

cocobolo said:


> I like the idea that those cabinets are very much in keeping with the design of the house itself. Good thinking. :thumbsup:


I agree!

This whole project has been fantastic to follow. :thumbsup:


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

Lots of updates to come this week, been too busy working to take pictures. Getting real close to move in day. Stay tuned for tomorrow's update!


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

November 5th, 2012 - A sneak peak of this past weekend. Well, sincewe finished ripping off all the old 3/8th white oak flooring and pulled every nail, it was time to rent the sander at Home Depot and sand the old fir (we don't think it's heart pine anymore) floor. We made 3 patches, 2 over by the old closets where the radiators used to come through the floor (we salvaged the wood from the old closet that we're closing in), and one noticeable one down the middle. While the transition strip is certainly noticeable, we like it. Our bed will cover most of it and the rest acts as an accent. The old floor really cleaned up nice. Our cabinet maker/carpenter also started putting in all the sliding drawers in the kitchen, as well as doors, knobs, etc.

Then we hit amateur hour with the tile by the entryway. A couple bad cuts and we ended up short a slate tile. No worries, the person I got them from has 2 more so we'll get that fixed today and then grouted tomorrow. Trim and electrical should be all done by the end of the week and I'm going to have a busy week patching nail holes, caulking seams, and priming the walls.


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## cocobolo (Dec 16, 2008)

Looking pretty good. Next time you will know that you can stain any light wood to get a closer match.


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

cocobolo said:


> Looking pretty good. Next time you will know that you can stain any light wood to get a closer match.



We actually didn't want to stain it but rather leave it as a transition strip between the room. When we get tired of it maybe I'll sand it and stain it. :thumbsup:


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## cocobolo (Dec 16, 2008)

Squished said:


> We actually didn't want to stain it but rather leave it as a transition strip between the room. When we get tired of it maybe I'll sand it and stain it. :thumbsup:


It does look nice. 

I have many red cedar boards throughout my place that aren't red by any stretch of the imagination and they don't look out of place.

Old fir goes dark like most of your floors. Do you know if the lighter wood is pine, or something else?


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

cocobolo said:


> It does look nice.
> 
> I have many red cedar boards throughout my place that aren't red by any stretch of the imagination and they don't look out of place.
> 
> Old fir goes dark like most of your floors. Do you know if the lighter wood is pine, or something else?



The lighter wood is actually fir as well. We assuming it's going to go darker over the years. Unfortunately, it's hard to match 1922 fir to 2012 fir in terms of grain, etc., so no matter what it will always be the strip that doesn't belong.


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## cocobolo (Dec 16, 2008)

Squished said:


> The lighter wood is actually fir as well. We assuming it's going to go darker over the years. Unfortunately, it's hard to match 1922 fir to 2012 fir in terms of grain, etc., so no matter what it will always be the strip that doesn't belong.


I see...so this is brand new lumber then, is it?


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

cocobolo said:


> I see...so this is brand new lumber then, is it?


Yes, you are correct. And the floor in the original 1922 floor.


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## cocobolo (Dec 16, 2008)

Were you able to leave the new wood in the house for a time before you had to lay the floor? I'm just thinking of any possible shrinkage issues that may happen down the road.
If the boards are narrow, that shouldn't be an issue.


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

cocobolo said:


> Were you able to leave the new wood in the house for a time before you had to lay the floor? I'm just thinking of any possible shrinkage issues that may happen down the road.
> If the boards are narrow, that shouldn't be an issue.


Not as long as I wished (1.5 days), but i put the boards in very tightly, assuming that shrinkage will indeed occur. Those two strips are 2 5/8" each.


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## cocobolo (Dec 16, 2008)

Squished said:


> Not as long as I wished (1.5 days), but i put the boards in very tightly, assuming that shrinkage will indeed occur. Those two strips are 2 5/8" each.


2 5/8"...shouldn't be any trouble at all.

The type of heat you have in the house might have an effect on any possible shrinkage. Natural gas/propane heat is moist, wood or electric is much drier and will have a greater effect.

But hey, the house is 90, you have to expect a little character to develop here and there!


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

cocobolo said:


> 2 5/8"...shouldn't be any trouble at all.
> 
> The type of heat you have in the house might have an effect on any possible shrinkage. Natural gas/propane heat is moist, wood or electric is much drier and will have a greater effect.
> 
> But hey, the house is 90, you have to expect a little character to develop here and there!



We're on a natural gas hydro system, definitely a moist heat for sure. A little character is no problem at all with this house. I think the ghost that lives there might even like it!


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## cocobolo (Dec 16, 2008)

Natural gas...you'll be fine. Older house like a little moisture, which also helps the inside air to hold more of the heat anyway.


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

Novemberr 10, 2012 - Been a while since some updates. We had to pick a granite slab for our countertop, what a chore. The ones we loved were all insanely expensive ($120 sq/ft installed), and the ones we could afford were so generic they just didn't go with the quality of our kitchen. In the end we sucked it up and picked a good one. The color we settled on is called "Blue Flowers" and is very similar to the exotic Azul Aran that simple isn't affordable.

Here is the slab we chose:










Here's the crane moving it (i need one of these in my garage!):










Here's a close up:










Got some paint color on the walls and trim in one of the spare bedrooms:










Half bath downstairs, tiled, grouted, trim is up, walls and trim are now painted, vanity is put in place waiting on the vessel sink. The vanity we found at a builder's surplus consignment shop, it fits perfect and was $120.:










The kitchen is coming together with the stove in place ready for the granite to be templated:










New fridge waiting on final assembly:










That's it for now, more updates after the weekend is over.


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

Oh how i dislike painting!


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## mterry (Oct 17, 2012)

Looks great, you do really nice work!


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

mterry said:


> Looks great, you do really nice work!



Thanks, many more photos to come today/tomorrow.


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

November 18th, 2012 

Full bath upstairs is painted (Arctic Ocean, Behr, Home Depot)



















Half bath sink and vanity (vanity from Furniture Guild, sink from Linkasink):



















Maritime Lights in half bath (Restoration Hardware, Baby and Child Catalog):










First refinished and poly'd door (these take a ton of work to disassemble, clean all the hardware, stain and poly the door, I get one done a week):










Master bedroom is painted (we're changing that door, which is why the trim and paint isn't complete on that wall):



















This hallway use to be a nasty mix of dirty pink walls and smoke infested white [yellow] woodwork, all primed now:





















For this week, the granite goes in tomorrow, which means the stove and dishwasher can be set in place and kitchen sink can be setup. We're ~2 weeks from finally living here.


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## 123pugsy (Oct 6, 2012)

Everything looks great.

Thanks for taking the time to post.


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

November 19th, 2012 - Torture but reward. Well, the granite is done and WOW does it look nice! Unfortunately, the vacuum the guys were using had a stuck wheel and as they dragged it across our new hardwood floors, they left quite the mark. Needless to say, they are going to take care of it. I should have had the floors covered in rosin paper, I didn't even think of it as I was waiting on the kitchen guy to finish the toe kicks. Anywho, here the pictures. The kitchen granite is called Blue Flowers and a mix of blue, gold, and white. The bathroom granite is called Persa Blue and is a mix of blue, gold, and beige (to better tie into the beige/blue/green tile). Keep in mind, this house is very close to the ocean, so we're trying to keep lots of blues and greys, etc., in the house.























































Bathroom:



















Yes, the sink is VERY small in the guest bathroom. Given the space constraints we were working in, it's the biggest possible sink (and also happens to be the smallest they sell). It's more than enough to wash hands and brush teeth and still leave counter space for soap, etc.


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

November 24th, 2012 - Day [Too Many to Count] Today was paint all day with my father in law until we couldn't paint anymore. And wow, did we do just that. Living room is now totally painted, all the way up into the upstairs hallway. The only thing remaining was to do trim work and that will be taken care of tomorrow. I'm no painter, but with a good brush, a good roller, and a steady hand, you learn real quick. This color is called Moose Mousse, it's a Valspar color from Lowes.


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

November 25, 2012 - Living room trim is all painted, as well as all the built in bookcases and fireplace surround. The living room is DONE, now needs a good cleaning and some furniture. With only the kitchen left to paint this week, we've set our move in date for next weekend. 4 months of hard work is finally coming around.























































I'm getting pretty good at this painting thing, finally getting the hang of making a nice edge using no tape.


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## 123pugsy (Oct 6, 2012)

Looking real good. :thumbsup:

Thanks for posting the progress pics.


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

Haven't had a chance to update in a while, but as of last night at 4pm we passed out final inspection and are getting our CO paperwork today. Looks like we'll be moving in this weekend! Updates to follow this weekend when the dust settles (and gets picked up!)


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

Been a long time since an update. We've been living in the house since December and loving every minute of it. The first phase of renovation finished in December and in April we started up again. I'll start with some before and afters.

This was when we first bought the house, back in July 2012. Sorry for the small picture, I took it from our appraisal report:



This was December when we finished phase 1:



And here is present, there's been some landscaping since this photo, but you can see the transformation:



On the exterior, we tore off the 91 year old red cedar shingles and reshingled. We ripped up the old concrete walkway and put down a cobblestone walkway, made some flower beds, new gutters, new fence, and installed underground sprinklers.


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## Two Knots (Nov 12, 2011)

Bless your heart, what a beautiful house you created. :thumbsup:

Enjoy it, and much happiness to you both...
you should be very proud.:yes:

Keep those pictures coming, we love sharing in your happiness.


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## Windows on Wash (Aug 30, 2011)

+1

Very nice work.


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

Here's a before shot of the bathroom:



Here's the after shot of the bathroom:



Sorry for the slow updates, I'm trying to do "before and after" shots together. Tile work was all done by me (my first tile job ever) and the granite was contracted.


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## 123pugsy (Oct 6, 2012)

Nice transformation on the bathroom. Looks good for a newb. :thumbsup:


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

Here's the before kitchen (exactly as we bought the house, this was what we walked into):





Here's the new kitchen:




























The new photos are from December, we've since added some wall hangings and shades:



















Lots of fish/ocean related stuff as the ocean is at the end of our street (6 houses down basically)


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

123pugsy said:


> Nice transformation on the bathroom. Looks good for a newb. :thumbsup:


Thanks, I measured twice and cut once. :thumbsup:


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

Old oil furnace:



New 96% Burnham Alpine gas unit:



I realize some photos are repeats, but I just dug out some of the old photos and figured I'd match them to the new in the same post.


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

Original Living Room:










New Living Room:


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

Original look to the backyard:










New look to the backyard:


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

Right now we're working to complete the master bath. I have it scheduled for completion by July 1st if people get on their game and get me my materials when they promised.

Here's the tile floor - Unicom Starker Materiae - Carbo (sorry for grout haze)



Master shower tile waiting on grout (Abbystone Gris I believe is the name):





Grout is cleaned up here, vanity box is in:


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

And lastly, while in the middle of all this work, in March we decided to adopt a dog, meet Moxie:






half lab, half chow (she has a purple chow tongue).


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## gma2rjc (Nov 21, 2008)

Wow! You're doing a great job. Everything looks beautiful... including the dog. :yes:


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## Windows on Wash (Aug 30, 2011)

Great job and big congrats and thanks for adopting the pup.

If you want a dog folks...please adopt.


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## rrudd2 (May 20, 2013)

Beautiful home! Outstanding job on the renovations!

Congrats on the dog. Adoption is definitely the way to go. We adopted two beagles, several years ago. They've been a joy.


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## Windows on Wash (Aug 30, 2011)

rrudd2 said:


> Beautiful home! Outstanding job on the renovations!
> 
> Congrats on the dog. Adoption is definitely the way to go. We adopted two beagles, several years ago. They've been a joy.


+1

Just put down my 15 year old lab/beagle mix two months ago. 

He was the best dog and basically a person trapped in a dogs body.

The most mischievous little SOB you ever met too. Never knew some trouble he didn't like. 

Good thing he was adorable.


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

Just wrapped up granite and sinks/faucets this weekend in the master bath. Tile and trim to finish this week. Also finished the master closet built ins, carpet this week.













































Both of these rooms used to be second floor screened in "sleeping porches" for the summer time when it was hot. Since the house has central air right and my wife and I just don't see us sleeping outside, we converted them into the master bath and master closet since we blew out the wall between the two bedrooms earlier in the renovation. I'd say it was a good investment.


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## Squished (Sep 18, 2012)

The cabinet maker who did our vanity put the doors, drawers, and hardware in today:



so close to completing this bathroom. Just glass, trim, a little more tile, and we're done.


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