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  • Locked thread
Koivunen
Oct 7, 2011

there's definitely no logic
to human behaviour
This is a thread about our house. We (myself and Rodnik, another goon) bought the house in April of 2012, it's our very first home. We first saw the house in February, met the... quirky... Realtor, and by the end of April we were homeowners.

The house had been on the market for about a year and the price was reduced and reduced, when we looked at it the listing price was $52,000. We ended up getting it for $45,000 with sellers covering the closing cost. It's a 4 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath place with a full stone basement. We are doing all the fixing up ourselves. It's hard work but it's fun and incredibly rewarding.

As you'll be able to see, it was a place that hadn't been redecorated in 40 years. It was built in 1907 and was pretty structurally sound minus some cracks in the plaster and about a three inch dip in the floor in the center of the house downstairs.

The previous owner was an old woman who had lived in the house for most of her lifetime and ended up passing away. She also probably smoked a pack a day inside the house for most of her life as well. The whole place was coated in a thick, sticky, yellow coat of tar and nicotine.

There was a lien from the city for the costs she accrued from her home health care and all profits from the house went directly to the city. We aren't married so we are joint-owners of the house, both of our names are on the title. No problem getting a loan, we decided for just my name to be on that as I had the better credit score.

We lived in our apartment for four months while we ripped out all the uglies and started work on the house. In that time we removed all the wood paneling, all the drop ceilings, all the popcorn ceilings, and washed every square inch free of nicotine.

Our goal was to get two rooms completely finished before we moved in, and that was accomplished in July. We have actually lived here for about two weeks now. We'll be gradually fixing it up room by room and will post our progress here. There have been a few surprises that we've run into but nothing too major.

I'll think of more details to throw in later, and if anyone is interested in our actual home-buying process we can certainly write about it. In a nutshell, we did everything ourselves, we were not represented by a Realtor, and we just went with the seller's Realtor to close. We wouldn't do it any differently.

Anyway, on to some pictures.


The street-view of the house. You can see the backwards screen door.


Inside the front porch, which is half open and half enclosed.


Front entryway. The front door had this horrible stick-on stained glass that wasn't even cut correctly.


The stained glass window in the entryway. Has a thick coat of nicotine on it.


Living Room.




Dining room.


Crazy servant staircase.


Windows in the stairwell with original patina. Also coated with a thick coat of nicotine.


Super tall stairwell.


Master Bedroom


Bedroom #2.


Doors everywhere. Master is connected to #2.


Tiny bedroom #3.


The fluorescent purple room, bedroom #4.


Teeny tiny little bathroom with grandma accessible bathtub, but has the original sink and medicine cabinet directly behind the door (that's as far as it opens).


Gross kitchen. To the immediate right there is fake brick paneling on the walls.


Cute pantry.


Basement with canning room.


Old coal room and 1/2 bath to the right.


Mancave bathroom.


The backyard (MUCH prettier in summer).


Back porch area.

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Koivunen
Oct 7, 2011

there's definitely no logic
to human behaviour
I will start off by posting some deconstruction pictures, and I'll post our complete Master Bedroom later this week.


This paneling was obviously hung by the family, and not the professionals who did the rest of the house. Firstly they used glue (and glued their names on the wall), and secondly, it wasn't cut right, so there was a 2" border on the bottom that they covered up with small 2" pieces of paneling, which you can see lying on the floor.


First big surprise: Old water damaged ceilings that were hiding above the drop ceilings. Taking down drop ceilings was actually a breeze, but getting our butts to the recycling center to get rid of all the metal is another story (it's still in the back yard).


Drop ceiling panels.


Ripping down paneling is a good way to get buff.


Master Bedroom de-dropped and de-paneled.


Stairwell de-dropped and de-paneled. This was actually quite the production and required our ladder to be fully extended.


Rough wash of the left window, still needs deep cleaning to really rid of the nicotine.


Tiny Bedroom #3 will need basically all the paint chipped off. It will most likely be the last room that we finish.


Second big surprise, shoddy electricals hidden by the drop ceiling in the kitchen. They took the old original wiring, connected it to some modern wiring, connected that to a surge protector, then stuck an extension cord in that to connect to a fluorescent light above the sink area. I'm surprised the house didn't burn down years ago.


Starting to wash some nicotine off woodwork.


This was a support beam in the basement. The floor had a dip in the middle, and this was why.


We used floor jacks and lifted the beam and leveled off the floor. We removed the rotting beam, and the jacks remain in place until we can replace the beam and find a better long-term, no-rot solution.


This was the bottom of the beam. Flakes off in your hand. Hard to believe it was supporting the weight of a house.


All the paneling and drop ceiling stuff from the entire house. Went to the dump the next day.


Removing popcorn ceiling. This actually wasn't too bad, it was just labor intensive. The easiest way was just getting a spray bottle, wetting down the ceiling, let it sit for five minutes, and scrape it off.


Washing nicotine off the dining room walls.


More nicotine washing. We used Krud Kutter, and that stuff is amazing. If you're not in a well ventilated area, though, it can give you a major head rush (and not in a good way). So far I believe we've gone through a gallon and a half.


We started to strip some of the paint off the woodwork in the dining room, but then it got too hot to use our heat guns. It's coming off nicely and it looks like all the wood is quarter sawn oak. There are some paint flecks that didn't come off with the heat guns so we will have to find a way to get rid of that. It looks like no matter what kind of liquid solvent we use, we are most likely going to lose the stain/finish, which would be a shame. Stripping the rest of the dining room will most likely be our winter project.

Jerome Agricola
Apr 11, 2010

Seriously,

who dat?

Careful with that Tom Selleck poster. It might be load-bearing.

PooBoots
Feb 27, 2007

Oh my god. Now, I *could* be saying that about that hideous panelling, but I'm actually thrilled that you have all the original woodwork! In Canada, some of the older homes look like they have nice woodwork, but when you get the paint off, you find that it was just 2nd grade pine with an interesting woodgrain finish. Kudos to the people who made it look so realistic, but I wish it was the real thing, you know?

Our house was built in 1918, had one family living in it until we bought it in 2001. It doesn't have panelling but it was entirely papered in old-lady wallpaper. I have one more room to do downstairs then that's half the house unpapered.

A note about stripping paint off the woodwork with a heat gun: You *have* tested the paint to make sure it isn't lead-based, right? Otherwise you're going to be breathing lead vapours. As a rule, all paint that could have been applied before 1970 (I think) should be considered lead-based.

That wiring picture is hilarious.

particle409
Jan 15, 2008

Thou bootless clapper-clawed varlot!
It's almost good that they painted over the oak. It probably prevented a fair amount of tar from seeping into it. Who paints over oak anyway? It'll look great when you're done.

edit:
There might be asbestos in that popcorn ceiling. Just an FYI. If you're going to do it yourself, get it really wet, add a tiny bit of detergent to the water you're using. You can find directions online on how to safely remove asbestos popcorn ceilings.

Hollis Brownsound
Apr 2, 2009

by Lowtax
You learned a very important lesson of rehabbing homes, there is never, ever anything good hidden by drop ceilings.

Tastic
Jun 3, 2005

Wow that's a really sweet home. Have you checked to see if the fireplace works yet? Nothing worse than having a fireplace that isn't working.

Rodnik
Dec 20, 2003

Tastic posted:

Wow that's a really sweet home. Have you checked to see if the fireplace works yet? Nothing worse than having a fireplace that isn't working.

As the co-owner and BFF of Koivunen I'll field this one. The fireplace unfortunately is nothing but a decoration at this point. I doubt it has been used in the past 40 years. The decorative metal enclosure is loose from the wall and there is no working damper. I'd imagine if we used it in it's current state we would have smoke pouring out through the bricks and into the walls. When it isn't maintained the mortar in the bricks gets pretty iffy. That said, maybe a year from now we will tackle that, Its not exactly a "do it yourself" project but maybe we wont have to pay someone to do the entire job.

PooBoots posted:

A note about stripping paint off the woodwork with a heat gun: You *have* tested the paint to make sure it isn't lead-based, right? Otherwise you're going to be breathing lead vapours. As a rule, all paint that could have been applied before 1970 (I think) should be considered lead-based.

That wiring picture is hilarious.

Actually I'm sure it is lead paint. In some areas using a chemical stripper is unavoidable. Areas around the window sills and panes of glass can't be heated as they will crack very easily. Heavy ventilation in the way of fans and open windows as well as a lead and asbestos rated respirator is the way to go there. For heat guns, Lead wont vaporize until it gets hotter than 1100 degrees. We are using heat guns rated below this temperature so it isn't really unsafe at all. Still, ventilation and masks are advised.

Sapper
Mar 8, 2003




Dinosaur Gum
Nice. Reminds me of our first, $28,000 home. I would get the chimney inspected, and assuming the flue is ....present....repoint the mortar yourself. What kind of condition is the wiring in? If there's a fusebox, there should be a cutoff switch for the mains, and you can probably install a breaker panel yourself(we had to rewire the entire house, it wasn't even worth salvaging) Now is the time to add outlets, lights, and everything else, since the walls aren't finished up yet.

Electrical work isn't hard, just Google anything you're not sure of, and NEVER put a splice anywhere but in a box that will be accessible when you're done. That's way against code, and a great way to create a fire hazard. I pulled a wall down and found a ball of duct tape that contained 7, count 'em, 7 pairs of Romex twisted together(no wire nuts) with a healthy amount of melting going on.

PooBoots
Feb 27, 2007

HollisBrown posted:

You learned a very important lesson of rehabbing homes, there is never, ever anything good hidden by drop ceilings.

Not necessarily! My in-laws redid an old house, pulled down the drop ceiling in the dining room and found an original pressed-tin ceiling! Cleaned and painted, it's very nice.

Rodnik posted:

Heavy ventilation in the way of fans and open windows as well as a lead and asbestos rated respirator is the way to go there.

Yep. If it's got to be done, it's got to be done. Protection is everything.

Lead, asbestos, crappy wiring - old homes are death traps. :D

Tomarse
Mar 7, 2001

Grr



Thats a really nice house! (or will be...)

Where in the world are you that a house only costs that much?

CroatianAlzheimers
Jun 15, 2009

I can't remember why I'm mad at you...


Tomarse posted:

Thats a really nice house! (or will be...)

Where in the world are you that a house only costs that much?

The midwest I reckon. I live in one of the inner-ring suburbs of Detroit and homes, nice homes mind you, in my neighborhood are going from between 25,000 and 50,000 dollars.

(I'm going to guess Milwaukee going by the name on the sign.)

Rodnik
Dec 20, 2003

CroatianAlzheimers posted:

The midwest I reckon. I live in one of the inner-ring suburbs of Detroit and homes, nice homes mind you, in my neighborhood are going from between 25,000 and 50,000 dollars.

(I'm going to guess Milwaukee going by the name on the sign.)

Very close. If you go on Awful year book you could easily find out so I don't mind saying. We are In Duluth Minnesota on the very nose of Lake Superior. This city at one point had the highest number of millionaires per Capita than anywhere in the world (this during a time when being a Millionaire was even more unthinkable for most of us than it is today. The craftsmen that were attracted by the building boom of the early 1900s were the best in the world, and you can really see it in some of the old homes that haven't been bastardized with vinyl siding and whatever other modern innovations people have tacked on to older homes.

You can buy what would be considered mansions on the coast for 100,000 dollars here. Not joking really. We were going to buy an old victorian fraternity mansion for 75k, four stories, huge fireplaces, a really crazy place, but decided it was just too much work.

This house was originally built by a well to do Swedish merchant family. They moved back to Sweden right after it was built. Original cost? 6,500 dollars. If you go by inflation, Thats about how much we paid for it in today's money. Duluth's population is about exactly the same as it was in 1906 so I suppose in a roundabout way it makes sense.

Rodnik fucked around with this message at 02:41 on Aug 15, 2012

Bees on Wheat
Jul 18, 2007

I've never been happy



QUAIL DIVISION
Buglord
That looks like a gorgeous house, and I can't wait to see it fixed up. Around here, a house like that might cost ten times as much, or more, depending on the neighborhood. :sigh:

Molybdenum
Jun 25, 2007
Melting Point ~2622C
I've been doing some plaster repair in my 100 year old house. Have you found any that is loose/cracked?

daggerdragon
Jan 22, 2006

My titan engine can kick your titan engine's ass.
Thread bookmarked. I've gutted and renovated my own late-1880s house (that also had that crazy insane wood panelling and drop ceilings everywhere), so it's always fun seeing other older houses get renovated.

Why not replace the windows? They look old, and you might be paying a lot for heat this winter.

CuddleChunks
Sep 18, 2004

Years ago I helped clean up a hoarder's home. It was unreal how effective Spic & Span was against the gross nicotine layer that was on the walls. You'd wipe your sponge over it and see this lovely off-white area surrounded by a dirty brownish-yellow. :barf:

His computer was even worse.

It looks like a pretty neat project, please keep us updated.

Koivunen
Oct 7, 2011

there's definitely no logic
to human behaviour

Molybdenum posted:

I've been doing some plaster repair in my 100 year old house. Have you found any that is loose/cracked?

Yes, lots of cracks. You'll be able to see in the upcoming pictures where we tried to repair some cracks in the Master. We used premixed easy sand joint compound on the entire room, and after we had already sunk too deep, realized it wasn't the best option. I'll go over that in detail with the pictures. We have started work on the living room and have tried plain plaster of paris, which was hard to work with over large areas because it dries so quickly, and we also used the powder mix-yourself joint compound (Rodnik would be able to tell you the proper name). That worked out much better and gave us a solid 90 minutes to work with it and smooth it before it started to dry. It takes a bit to develop a good technique to get it nice and smooth but we are most happy with the joint compound for repairing cracks. For smaller areas like nail holes and minor dings, the premixed joint compound that sets in 15 minutes works best.

daggerdragon posted:

Why not replace the windows? They look old, and you might be paying a lot for heat this winter.

There is a great website out there that goes over old vs new windows and the benefits of keeping original windows and the downsides of putting new windows in an old house. I can't find it right now but will post it when we can come across it again. The windows are original, and we will have to replace some of the storm windows, but we plan on keeping all the original wood windows. All the pulley systems are still working, there's a few where we have to replace the hardware, but we will not be replacing them.

E: These are a few of many sources that talk about the value of keeping original windows: http://www.oldhouseweb.com/how-to-advice/preservation-brief-conserving-energy-in-historic-buildings.shtml

http://ncptt.nps.gov/testing-the-en...opment-1996-08/

http://conservationcenter.org/assets/EffectsEnergyonHistoricWindows.pdf

http://escholarship.org/uc/item/05p5881m

More pictures!


This is a better pictures of the shoddy electricals in the kitchen.


Planted some nice sage plants. A few days after this we had the massive flash flooding and the plants died. We had about five inches of standing water in the yard. My garden didn't fare well either.


This is our functional bathroom. We took down the drop ceiling and started to tear down the nasty cardboard-like wall covering only to realize that they had built the tub casing over the wall covering. So, we've got halfway ripped off walls, and we hung a cheap shower curtain ring over the tub and connected the grandma shower head to the ring. We were hasty when hanging up the shower ring as we had been showering at the gym for a few days, and we neglected to measure first. The ring is off center and we have to stand towards one side of the tub to get under the water, but hey, it works for now.

THE MASTER BEDROOM


This is after all the paneling and drop ceiling had been removed.


Looking creepy after chipping off some paint.


Close-up of the old water damage on the ceiling. The roof was replaced in 2009 and it appears that this damage is old-old. The plaster was loose in some places so we had to put in some plaster screws to keep it in place. For this area we ended up using joint compound across the entire area, which was more difficult that it had to be.


Getting started on patching the nail holes and cracks.


More patching. On all the cracks, we used a small circular saw blade to open up the crack about a quarter of an inch, then filled it with joint compound. We put extra compound on top because "oh we can just sand it later, after all, the can says it's easy-sand." Well, turns out it's not so easy-sand, and we spent hours sanding this damned joint compound, but you can still see the plastered area through the paint. It's not really obvious, but if you look, it's there, which is unfortunate, but... it's a learning experience.


More joint compound. On the areas where it's bare plaster, we ended up using an adhesive like substance that we rolled on so that the joint compound would have something to stick to.


Getting through patching the water damaged ceiling. This took forever.


Another view of the room. This was before we put in the A/C unit and it was blistering hot and humid. This didn't help the drying process for the compound.


We put plaster mesh in the joint compound. We did a thick layer of compound to hide the cracks and the plaster screws, stuck some mesh on, and put another layer of compound on top. In our minds, it was going to be sleek and smooth and beautiful, but in reality, the joint compound dried too fast and we weren't able to get rid of a lot of lines and bumps. Again, "Oh well, we'll just sand it," didn't really work out in reality, and there are some rough areas in the ceiling still, but overall it looks a million times better than it did.


Finished with the water damage patching. Look at all that god damned dust on the floor. Sanding this was one of the most labor intensive things I've ever done. We didn't have a fan going and we didn't have A/C, just standing in the room made you drip sweat, then add a heavy rotary sander, dust flying everywhere, a huge respirator and goggles, standing on a ladder and sanding stuff above your head... ugh. We will not be using premixed joint compound ever again for such large areas, it was definitely not easy-sand.


Footprint dust. Even though we tried to quarantine the room and used rugs under the doors and were careful about tracking stuff through the house, there's still leftover dust in the air from this project. It was very messy. Once we're done with the living room we will be renting a dust filtration system.


Again trying to be artistic.


Guess the decade.


Give a girl a camera and she thinks she's a photographer.


Primed. We used that very odorous stuff with a K in the name (I am so useless at remembering brands).


We FINALLY got a window unit A/C to paint the room.


We originally had this steel-blue color picked out for the room, but when we got to the paint store we realized it was rather dull, so on a whim we picked a color that was a bit more blue. It's called Animation and on the paint sample was this nice, rich, royal blue. We brought home a gallon and put on our first coat, and this is what happened. What...


But after three or four coats, it eventually turned this very nice, even blue. It goes great with the woodwork and is awesome for sleeping in. We also painted the ceiling a neutral white.


If you look closely, you can see the compound covering the crack in the wall that I referenced earlier.


No more water damage, no more nail holes, overall we are very satisfied with how the Master Bedroom turned out.

Koivunen fucked around with this message at 06:30 on Aug 17, 2012

mrglynis
Mar 10, 2009
Ok this may be obvious to everyone else, but I gotta ask. What the hell is up with the wall leaning out like that. I'm referring to the wall where you put your bed. I think I saw the same thing in a picture of another bedroom too. Just curious really. Great job on the house so far. My house is 80yrs old but thankfully already had the plaster replaced with drywall.

TheNothingNew
Nov 10, 2008

mrglynis posted:

Ok this may be obvious to everyone else, but I gotta ask. What the hell is up with the wall leaning out like that. I'm referring to the wall where you put your bed. I think I saw the same thing in a picture of another bedroom too. Just curious really. Great job on the house so far. My house is 80yrs old but thankfully already had the plaster replaced with drywall.

It's the roof.

See this pic?


The roof sides are angled more in the front and back, but less in the middle. The edge of the bedroom just happens to cut into the more-angled bit.

That blue makes it look like you wallpapered the bedroom with painter's tape.
Honestly, it's growing on me.

As for the artistic photos: I'm digging the one of the scissors.

CuddleChunks
Sep 18, 2004

Koivunen posted:


If you look closely, you can see the compound covering the crack in the wall that I referenced earlier.
Nice! That looks much better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIx2X8MSZF4

Backov
Mar 28, 2010
I've seen lots of houses like that around where I grew up that started life as barns. That the deal with this one as well?

Tora! Tora! Tora!
Dec 28, 2008

Shake it baby

Rodnik posted:

Very close. If you go on Awful year book you could easily find out so I don't mind saying. We are In Duluth Minnesota on the very nose of Lake Superior. This city at one point had the highest number of millionaires per Capita than anywhere in the world (this during a time when being a Millionaire was even more unthinkable for most of us than it is today. The craftsmen that were attracted by the building boom of the early 1900s were the best in the world, and you can really see it in some of the old homes that haven't been bastardized with vinyl siding and whatever other modern innovations people have tacked on to older homes.

You can buy what would be considered mansions on the coast for 100,000 dollars here. Not joking really. We were going to buy an old victorian fraternity mansion for 75k, four stories, huge fireplaces, a really crazy place, but decided it was just too much work.

This house was originally built by a well to do Swedish merchant family. They moved back to Sweden right after it was built. Original cost? 6,500 dollars. If you go by inflation, Thats about how much we paid for it in today's money. Duluth's population is about exactly the same as it was in 1906 so I suppose in a roundabout way it makes sense.

Wow, that almost makes me wanna cry. I paid almost 4 times that for a house that's probably a quarter in size (so I got, what, 1/16th house for my money?) that was built in 1925 but doesn't have any of the amazing architectural details y'all's does. Location, location, location. But I'll be interested in seeing y'all's improvements.

dwoloz
Oct 20, 2004

Uh uh fool, step back
Beautiful home! So nice to see a lot of historic detail being saved and restored. Im rehabbing a 1919 bungalow and stripped all the original painted woodwork. It is a tremendous amount of work; a lot more than I anticipated and not sure if I'd make the same decision again. It is beautiful though

Blooot
Mar 19, 2001

Love these threads, thanks for posting. Also bums me out as I am home shopping and fixers where I am are 12X the price.

Not an Anthem
Apr 28, 2003

I'm a fucking pain machine and if you even touch my fucking car I WILL FUCKING DESTROY YOU.
Wow, looks (except for the barn style) EXACTLY like my old house in Rochester, NY. Same lovely paneling and problems but there was gold underneath it. Same horrible stained glass too.

Rodnik
Dec 20, 2003

t_violet posted:

Wow, that almost makes me wanna cry. I paid almost 4 times that for a house that's probably a quarter in size (so I got, what, 1/16th house for my money?) that was built in 1925 but doesn't have any of the amazing architectural details y'all's does. Location, location, location. But I'll be interested in seeing y'all's improvements.

Hey, if you feel you are getting the utility out of it and you love your home and the place you live, that's all the matters in the end!

Not an Anthem posted:

Wow, looks (except for the barn style) EXACTLY like my old house in Rochester, NY. Same lovely paneling and problems but there was gold underneath it. Same horrible stained glass too.

Wait, you don't like the stained glass? Or is that sarcasm? Stained glass rocks, especially when the window looks out at your neighbor's wall.

MullardEL34
Sep 30, 2008

Basking in the cathode glow

CuddleChunks posted:

Years ago I helped clean up a hoarder's home. It was unreal how effective Spic & Span was against the gross nicotine layer that was on the walls. You'd wipe your sponge over it and see this lovely off-white area surrounded by a dirty brownish-yellow. :barf:

His computer was even worse.

It looks like a pretty neat project, please keep us updated.

Simple. loving Green.
We use it to clean "smokeeter" air purifier collection cells at the cigar lounge.

dyne
May 9, 2003
[blank]
Ah, fixing all the plaster cracks was the absolute worst part of renovating my last house! I wish I had just torn out the walls and put up new drywall.

The best thing I did was make an air cleaner out of an old furnace blower I got for free. I built a wood box around it and stuck a pair of furnace filters on it, and it cut down on dust dramatically.

Koivunen
Oct 7, 2011

there's definitely no logic
to human behaviour
Just an update. Two weeks ago I sprained my neck at work, might have some disc involvement and nerve compression, yadda yadda, long story short, progress on the house has been slowed.

First, here's a story about a bird. We had a pidgeon living on our front porch, which we named Bufu. Bufu's babies died and she abandoned her nest, so we knocked it down and put up stuff to prevent future nesting. There was a nest on our back porch, occupied by another Bufu, and her baby survived, so naturally we named it Lil Bufu Jr.. Here's a short chronicle on Lil Bufu Jr.'s life.


This is when Bufu first left the nest and we were able to see her baby for the first time.


About a week later, the toddler years.


Our cats liked watching the action of Bufu flying to and fro.


Lil Bufu Jr. finally flew from the nest, but his flying skills weren't good enough to go anywhere else besides our porch railing. He hung out in this one spot for several days.


That's Rodnik holding Lil Bufu Jr. I held him too, and it was all fun and games until I realized my hand was swarming with lice and mites. The porch rail was infested as well and those things hung out for many days after Bufu Jr. took off out into the world. I ended up pouring bleach on it because we didn't have any bug killer and I found one on my arm inside the house. The problem has since resolved.

We knocked down the nest after Lil Bufu Jr. was gone, deep cleaned the entire porch, and then we bought a grill and put in on there. I sure do love grilled food.

Anyway, on to the house.

A small kitchen renovation...

The chore I hate the most is washing dishes. In our apartment there was no dishwasher so I had to wash everything by hand for a whole entire year. It was awful. With the deposit money we got back from the apartment, we bought a dishwasher.

I was feeling buff one day so while Rodnik was plastering in the living room, I demolished part of the kitchen to make room for the dishwasher. (This was before I hurt my neck.)


We were able to use the circular saw to a point, but it wouldn't fit all the way back to the wall, and we didn't really have a power tool that could complete the cut, so it had to be done the old fashioned way.


I took a sledgehammer to the counter top and the shelves as they had been both glued and bolted in place. About an hour later it was fully taken apart.


Decided to rip down some of that awful fake brick, and it appears that this was also family-installed. I was pretty disappointed to see yet more glue, that stuff is super hard to get off. We're going to end up having to replaster that wall too.


Until then, cover that nastiness with a flag.


There's hardwood under there, but would it be worth it to painstakingly take off all that glue and old tile? Should we just tile over it? It's a project that we won't get to until probably next summer, so we'll see what we feel like doing at that time.


Our beautiful dishwasher. (Ignore the counter mess.) Unfortunately, the piping that was used under the sink is not proper PVC piping and it's narrower than anything we can find in the hardware store. This means we can't fit the pipes to connect the dishwasher drain to the sink pipes unless we want to re-plumb the entire sink area. So until we figure something out, we have to stick the drain hose in the sink whenever we do a load of dishes.


The Living Room

This is still a work in progress. We need to finish painting the orange (excuse me, "Burnt Clay") and after that's done we will be hanging crown moulding and putting a picture rail between the two colors. We bought the supplies (hardwood oak of course) and will be waiting to stain it until we figure out what we want to do with the wood that we are paint stripping in the dining room. In the far future, we will be stripping all the woodwork in this room (windows, floorboard, room dividers, and mantle) and we want the moulding to match the woodwork, so our moulding and picture rail will be unfinished for a while. Will post pics as soon as it's done.


Rodnik plastering. He finally was able to develop a good technique after experimenting with different thicknesses, different floats, etc. We worked out a system where he would do the plastering and I would follow with the float.


More plastering. You can also see that we took a circular wire brush power tool thing to the radiator pipes to take the paint off. We'll finish doing that eventually.


We had the entryways sealed off with plastic. The kitties got very lonely not being able to come in. We were using pieces of firewood to hold down the flap that we went in and out of but somehow they would occasionally figure out how to get in despite that.


Pikkukoira that is not a bed.


Final plaster.


We filled the giant holes above the window with premixed joint compound and did it layer by later. It took forever to dry but the final result was perfect. You'd never know there were three gaping holes there.


Primed! We ended up doing two coats of primer because the plaster sucked so much of it in.


Primed also! I haven't gotten around to washing the floorboards or that window frame, and you can see how nasty it is with nicotine staining.


Our color selection. Willow Tree on the bottom and Burnt Clay on the top. My camera flash makes colors super vivid, it's more muted with natural light. Try to imagine this with crown moulding, a picture rail, and quarter sawn oak around the windows.


Still needs the orange finished.

I can't wait to be done with this room, then we can move our living room junk downstairs and actually use the room. Right now our computer is on the floor and we sit on a twin mattress and do our internetting. Makes your back sore. We also have some nice furniture that is sitting unused in the entry way, so it will be good to have that room cleared, too.

Our next project will be the entry way, which shouldn't be too hard. Some minor patching, priming, and then paint, which we already picked out, it's a nice rich maroon/burgundy red.

Cpt.Wacky
Apr 17, 2005

Koivunen posted:


There's hardwood under there, but would it be worth it to painstakingly take off all that glue and old tile? Should we just tile over it? It's a project that we won't get to until probably next summer, so we'll see what we feel like doing at that time.

Hardwood floors are great and all but with the work it would take to get the tile out and the fact that it's a wet area I would stick with tile. The only difficulty could be finding tile that matches.

dwoloz
Oct 20, 2004

Uh uh fool, step back
I just went through the same kitchen flooring dilemma in my 1919, looked exactly the same. Kitchens and bathroom floors were often left as painted wood. The adhesive is what's called cutback and besides being very difficult/impossible to remove, it most likely contains asbestos. So, it's best left be. I put down Hardibacker and tiled mine.

Thanks for the update, lookin good

dwoloz fucked around with this message at 02:35 on Sep 15, 2012

Zoot Suit Mahoney
Jan 20, 2010

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Zoot Suit Mahoney
Jan 20, 2010

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Jan 20, 2010

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Zoot Suit Mahoney
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Jan 20, 2010

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Zoot Suit Mahoney
Jan 20, 2010

Quit jivin' me, turkey.
Hahaha, oh my god, I am so sorry. I had the awful app open and put my phone in my pocket. Sorry for buttposting all over your thread!

e: What I MEANT to say was: This looks like an amazing project. Is this the biggest project you guys have undertaken? A couple friends and I might be doing the same thing soon (but on a muuuch smaller scale). It's a lot more fun that I thought it would be.

Zoot Suit Mahoney fucked around with this message at 05:46 on Sep 15, 2012

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