Operation Restoration

We're just two crazy kids, tackling our first restoration on our very first house together.

[operationrestoration-blog]

Door Envy.

Beautiful isn't it? I am seriously in love with this door on so many levels. I came across this gem on one of my favorite blogs, Young House Love today where they went house crashing near their Richmond home. I saw this entry way and noticed that it mimics ours or at least what ours COULD be. It also reminds me of a house that we saw during our search that we saw. It was an adorable Mansford mansion house, that had these exact doors, but also had screens and a mail slot. Unfortunately, the house was priced kind of high and it needed a TON of work, so it was out. Even if I only wanted to buy it for entry doors and ignore the bathroom where the shower/tub area was being held together by duct tape.

I think we're going to hit up the ReStore in Worcester at some point this weekend, so maybe these doors could be there! It's a long shot, but who knows, but expect an entry with photos of our goodies.

Check out Young House Love's full blog post here.

[operationrestoration-blog]

This is the song I was singing after John the Plumber left our house Friday night after being without heat for three days. I noticed the pressure gauge on our 1960ish boiler was getting a little (and by a little I mean a lot) too close to the red, where it could possibly explode and we'd have a biiiiig problem on our hands. Thankfully, turning the heat off for three days wasn't that bad, since it really hasn't been that cold.

So, after putting out an APB on Facebook, our friend Lindsey's mom suggested John, a plumber who had done work for her in the past. I called John on Thursday and he came out that night to assess the damage. He thought it was the expansion tank and said it would run us about $40. $40 is something I could handle! He also said he would take a look at the pipe and see if there was any sort of blockage. We agreed that he would come back to the house late Friday afternoon to do some work.

We kept the heat off again that night, just to make sure the boiler wouldn't blow up on us and create a real monster. I left work early that day to let John in the house to do his thing. After hearing some bangs and clangs, John called for me from the basement. I went downstairs and he told me to take a look at what he found when he removed the pipe connecting the boiler to the chimney....and this is what I saw.

Now THAT my friends, is massive blockage. The pipe was full of junk, like mortar from the chimney (not a great sign, but one we'll ignore that for now) twigs, soot, you name it. John said he could easily clean it out and that would take care of our little problem that MassSave found in December, when we had our free energy audit done. That little problem? I'll just say that had to do with some leakage of gases.

John cleaned out the pipe and installed our new expansion tank, all for a bargain price of $190 (I consider that a bargain seeing that it could have easily cost us 15k for a new boiler!) and went on his merry way. It was great that he came out at night (a Friday too!) and charged us for a reasonable price, plus the boiler is running still running strong, and most likely more efficiently.

And we could finally sing, loud and clear...The Heat is ON! Hopefully to stay that way too..

[operationrestoration-blog]

The House That Hudson High Helped Build

Well, not the whole thing. Just the bathroom and the installation of the attic stairs...so far!

We've had the privilege of having some spectacular help the past couple of weeks. While I was away in Jersey getting my fist pumping on, Adam, Adam's Dad, Bob, and one of Bob's coworkers Paul, came and helped install our new stairs so we can finally (and safely) access the attic, and added insulation to the bathroom. The insulation was perfect timing since we had a big stretch of freezing weather.

I'll start first with the attic stairs. We need to seal up our big, gigantic hole in the bathroom, which will be closed up once we put up the plastic vapor barrier, so we needed access somehow! We went with a folding ladder (for space reasons) and picked out the spot in the middle of the hallway.

Just another shot, to give you an idea of where these stairs live!

We didn't really have any choice on where to put the stairs, since this was the only place they would fit, but all in all, I think it's a great spot. Eventually down the line we'd like to put in permanent stairs since we'd like the finish the attic. There's so much hidden potential up there we'd be silly to not add that usable square footage!

Here's a shot of Adam getting ready to make the first cut!

Then, Paul started in!

Look at all the stuff coming down from the attic! The same thing happened when we took down the ceiling in the bathroom. That stuff stays clings to you for a couple of days, and those masks were very needed.

Adam doing his part!

The hole is complete!

Yay! The stairs are in!! We now have full access to the attic without having to climb through the bathroom ceiling!

Next up...insulation! We actually have the entire bathroom insulated already, but here's some pictures of the progress:

The nice medicine cabinet I nabbed off of Craigslist, hung just to make sure the height was right

About two weekends ago, we got around to taping up the vapor barrier, and man, has that made all the difference! Who would have thought that just by adding insulation and taping off a giant hole that lets all of your heat out would make a such a great improvement! This project was just Adam and I and I thought we did a pretty decent job! He stapled, I held, and I taped the seams. Such great team work.

Man. Look at that tape job!

So, that brings us pretty much up to date. The wiring is done, insulation is in, and some cement board is up. I'll be working on another post later this week to show the progress that was made this weekend! Then, comes the fun stuff. Tiling, painting and then hopefully, a functioning bathroom! Stay tuned!

[operationrestoration-blog]

Frankie says...ReStore?

At the beginning of January, Adam and I traveled up to Maine for my Dad's birthday/Family Christmas. While we were up there, I wanted to check out this place I had read on Katy Elliot's blog (a fellow renovator's blog that's located up in Marblehead you should check out by the way!), called Habitat for Humanity's ReStore up in Portland. It. Was. Incredible. Plain and simple.

Basically, the ReStore is a place where people who are either renovating, demolishing or have any extra supplies, parts, etc., drop off these goodies, and people like us who are looking to save a couple of bucks can go and purchase said goodies! I wish I had brought the camera to take pictures, but the stuff was awesome. You can buy sinks, faucets (there was a Kohler bathroom sink faucet and tub/shower faucets for $200 TOTAL!) to insulation, paints, flooring, appliances, windows, doors, wood! You name it, it might be there...and for a fraction of the cost!

Adam and I (well, mostly me) fell in love with the beautiful solid wood, glass front door for $75 bucks. Seriously? We left without it, but I still think about it. One lesson we learned was to have our measurements for things on hand. We didn't and I didn't want to buy the door and not have it fit. But we did agree that we will most likely be buying our doors (interior) from them, as they had solid wood old looking doors (and doorknobs!) for $25. You have me coming back ReStore!

We did walk away with a couple of purchases though. Adam bought some metal pieces for drywall, $3 for about 5 6ft. pieces as well as something else I can't remember. But the best thing we walked away with was a wall sconce for the bathroom! We both immediately loved it and we couldn't beat the price...$15! I asked if it happened to have a mate, but there was only one, but since the brand was Hampton Bay (found at Home Depot) we went to the store and picked up another one! Check it out!

So for our lighting, we spent a total of $45! Not too shabby. We will definitely be shopping ReStore frequently as they're constantly changing inventory!

[operationrestoration-blog]

Oh, the wonderful things we've found

Since we're renovating such an old home, it's expected that we might scrounge up some interesting things (still waiting to find that time capsule filled with money!). Well, we've come across some neat little trinkets (besides the crappy workmanship).

Two cute little spoons. They remind me of spoons you would use for sugar. As to why they were found under the bathroom floor? That's a mystery.

A necklace charm. No idea how old it is, but it's still a pretty neat find.

Bones. Yes, bones. At first we thought it was from an animal that had gotten into the house, but the closer we looked, realized that those weren't just animal bones...they were someone's lunch. Yup, someone enjoyed their spare ribs so much, and were so full, they couldn't make it to the trash to throw out their lunch. So, why not throw it in the floor? Apparently they ate a surf and turf, because along with the spare ribs, there was also a lobster claw. De-lish.

Here you'll see a little bit of everything...really old square nails, coke bottle caps and those big chunks? Parts of the original cast iron vent pipe that we thankfully got rid of in November. But those pieces aren't from us removing it...they're there because it was an old, deteriorating pipe the previous owners ignored.

A brown speckled little egg. This wasn't found in the bathroom, but in a nest up in the attic. Thankfully we don't think it is an active nest, but it was there, all alone. There's no picture of it because of a little "incident"...so RIP little egg.

Tongue in groove chair rail! Located in the dining room, this has been probably the nicest thing we've come across thus far. It was so nice to see something still intact! I was taking down the wood paneling and noticed that there was a gap between the paneling and the wall, so I cut out a little square and looked down, and there it was! Thankfully it's intact throughout the entire room, so we're lucky! Also discovered in the dining room are remains of some nice floral wall paper. It's pretty sporadic, but it's nice to see what this room probably looked like.

The most interesting thing we've found so far? A pair of women's shoes from 1875. They remind me witches/pilgrim shoes, but they are just so incredibly neat. Adam found them in the attic when he was investigating it this summer and they were the only things up there! They're in pretty rough shape and deteriorating, but they are just so cool. The woman who wore these babies must have had really narrow feet, as there is no way I could ever get my size 9s in them. I plan on showing them off in the house somehow...maybe underneath a bell jar glass.

  I have a plan to buy an old letterpress tray like this one I found on Etsy, but I would love it if the boxes were a little more staggered, just to break up some of the treasures. I'll most likely go on a hunt and find some actual letterpress letters as I just love the look of them. Not really quite sure where I'll hang it in the bathroom, but it's going somewhere!

There's plenty more blog topics to come as we've done some pretty cool stuff recently, so stay tuned!

[operationrestoration-blog]

Ahhh...the gorgeous new plumbing!

[operationrestoration-blog]

Some more befores...Part II

[operationrestoration-blog]

[operationrestoration-blog]

New Year. New Goals.

Well, all it took to light a fire under my butt to start blogging was a chat with Adam about New Year's resolutions. I've been meaning to do this since starting the demo of the upstairs main bathroom, but it got pushed aside, i.e. I got lazy. Oh, and pictures to come...still learning how to blog here!

So, we're a little late, but I'll bring everyone up to speed and give a brief recap. And just to get this out there...we do have a second bathroom with a shower, so that's what we're using in the meantime.

We started our first homeowner's project with the bathroom. In the first heat wave of the summer in July, in a house that doesn't have the best (or any) ventilation and no AC.  I wish I could tell you why we picked it first, but I think it screamed for the most help. It was pretty hideous...tile that looked like my Middle School gym locker room, except that it was maroon, brown and white instead of yellow. gray, and white. It had a really ugly scallop shaped (plastic) sink top and vanity that might have been appropriate for a beach house, but not in the middle of Somerville and it had layers (3) of linoleum tile that was an absolute pain to take up.

We both were extremely optimistic when it came to demo. We're just two young kids, in our first house and demo happy. We took a week off, thinking that would be enough time to demo the entire bathroom. No prob. I'm pretty sure we finished demo-ing everything in there sometime in September.

A couple of things we learned pretty quickly:

It takes forever to tear down a shower that has a ton of tile with just a hammer and a screw driver. We quickly added a crowbar that made life so much easier...

Until we got the Sawzall. Once we got that baby, there was no turning back.

Lugging barrel fulls of crap up and down the stairs is exhausting. Oh, and get a dumpster. We ended up getting a bagster (found here on Home Depot) that we kept outside near the front of our house. Since you can have it picked up whenever you want, we could keep putting crap in it. And just thinking of the cost to have a dumpster for two months is scary. 

Utilize Craigslist. I'm a big supporter of Craigslist and have bought and sold my fair share of things. Once we took out the toilet, I put it right up on Craigslist and someone bought it for $90. I don't think I'd buy a used toilet, but hey, to each their own. 

Take all the free help you can. Adam's parents have been a tremendous help to us throughout this process. His Dad was a former engineer and knows his electrical, so when we cracked open those beautiful ceiling tiles and found two giant rats nest of electrical wires, he knew how to handle it.

Be prepared for surprises. We've already had a couple and it's a pretty small space. Once we took down the main outside wall, you couldn't help but notice the enormous rusty, leaky, corroded, barely hangin' on vent pipe. Some professional plumbing was needed, and became very apparent when we pulled up the sub floor and the pipes were a mess. They even used a radiator hose to connect some. Luckily, we were referred a great plumbing company and they made it look beautiful. All shiny and new. AND they finished a lot faster than what they quoted us at. Thanks for those savings!

To recap. We've demo'd the entire thing. We're talking to the studs here. The ceiling is down (and yes, it's really cold), no walls are up, but we have new plumbing and a beautiful new sub floor (it's really sad that new plumbing and flooring make me so excited now). 

So. Where do we stand now with the bathroom reno? Well, we had to rebuild some of the wall structure to make sure everything is level and square (to the best it can be with a 101 year old house!) We've bought a new exhaust fan (yet to be installed) and we have a working light over the shower! Progress! Next up will be some Wonderboard, Ditra for the floor and insulation! Once we have the floor tiled, we can have the plumbers back in the house to finish installing our toilet, sink and shower. Then we'll have a functioning bathroom again! Hopefully we'll have it in working order by my birthday…

Until next time!

— Meg and Adam