I'm meeting with a new potential kitchen designer in a few days. During our initial conversation, it was interesting to reflect on how far this new potential design is from the old one. A world of difference and I love it. This new kitchen placement just feels so much more natural to me. As a point of reference here is the history of the kitchen placement: 1910 - 1950s --> middle of the house, where the den with built-ins used to be  1950s - 2017 --> converted the back porch to the kitchen Design  --> middle of the house on the back, very open concept Current Design --> back to the corner of the house Not only does the corner placement just feel better, but I also just love that it is back where it was for the last 50 years. Feels right. As a point of comparison, here are the two re-designs of this area of the house. vvv Current Design vvv vvv Old Design vvv With the new design, I'm really excited about so many things but specifically,: the ...
One of the best features of this house has been sticking around for over 100 years - the stairs. You can't build stairs like this. Well, you can - but it just would not be the same. I've loved these stairs from the beginning. I love the two landings. I love the window at the first. I love that we are turning the bitty baby closet into some built-in shelves. They are just a home run. And while I don't plan on changing the stairs at all, they will be different by virtue of all the work happening around them. Changes: updating the window on the first landing increasing the headroom walking from the second landing to the first transitioning the closet to shelves When I was trolling Pinterest for some inspiration images, I found this textbook image about the actual parts of stairs. Every bit about how stairs are defined is staying the same. It's the elements around the stairs that will be changing. So what's being added? Not totally sure yet. But, from ...
How is it week 8? It feels like it should be both week 3 and week 12 all at once.  This was a bit of a slower week with Thursday being a holiday. I haven't been able to really get back inside the house because all the ladders are actually inside the house and I don't want to fall into the pit jumping through a window.  That hasn't stopped me from visiting the house. I often find myself just standing there staring at the side of it, looking at all the pieces of wood joining together. Sometimes I notice things that I have questions about - and then other times my trance is broken by a loud car rumbling by.  I'm not sure if I've said this already but one of the best parts about this project is that it makes home ownership less intimidating to me. I'm not a person who is intimidated mystery or unknown but rather that inability to understand or solve for it. So, being able to see every nook and cranny of this house exposed makes it less intimidating in...
Welcome to our week 7 recap! I'm writing this a few days later since it's been a busy couple days - which makes it harder to actually remember what happened. But when I look back on the pictures, it has been a pretty crazy week. So much happened and with even more progress. Every time I met with the contractor, he tells me something on the order of "don't worry this will get better". But I'm nearly always excited by the progress. It feels nuts to look back on the pictures from early September when there were wallpaper covered walls - or honestly even just walls. I know this project won't be done in a month - or even two, but it feels like it is really picking up speed.  All the walls are pretty much in their place and we are beginning to think about plumbing. While the house is up in the air (e.g. on the jenga stacks), I think we'll soon begin to see more work happen on the exterior. All of that (e.g. window placement, roof changes, etc...
Welcome to the Week 6 recap. It feels like a big week of change - but maybe not. When I stand on the lot, it feels like things are really happening . After months of talk about things hypothetically, we are actually seeing the fruition of our conversations and plans. When we did the demo, it just felt like "wow, this place feels bigger". When we framed out the second floor, it was like "shit, there will be rooms again". But. Now, demo is in our past and we are taking those stripped down walls and framing out the new windows! Even, if the window is going right back where it used to be - there is something very fresh and exciting about seeing the sharp clean lines of the new framing. I literally smile like an idiot looking at them. Things are real. On Friday, I visited the site during lunch and just stood in the middle of the downstairs taking it all in. I stood in front of the giant kitchen window and just couldn't believe it. It's probably double...
One of the things that I'm pretty stuck on is not wanting a house that feels new. Thankfully, the bones of this house are 100+ years old. My hope is that even with all the "cosmetic surgery" we are doing, you'll still feel like the house is super old ... but not from poor insulation or unsafe electrical work. In all the work we've been doing in weeks 1-5 to get the house cleaned out and stable, we've stripped out pretty much anything that wasn't salvageable. Due to some renovations over the last 70 years, the house didn't have any of the original hardware. I was in Portland recently visiting my best friend and she took me to Portland Architectural Salvage . Just imagine a 4-story warehouse filled with dusty treasures. Doors are organized by .... CENTURY. Mantles come complete with lead paint most likely. But - we rounded a corner and came face to face with so many beautiful old door knobs. Both of us are in the middle of renovating pre-1930s beac...
The house has this original 1900s-ish era fireplace. You could see it in a lot of family pictures. But admittedly, there wasn't much special about it except it's age and emotional significance. Those are both important factors to be clear, but when making decisions about the future of those house... they don't necessarily win out. Whenever I approach the steps of this project, I often say "we" did something, or "we" are planning something. But - this time the expression of "we" is actually accurate. My brother helped me pick out a fireplace. He did a great job and even taught me a new car game on the 40 minute ride to the store. Original Plan: Keep the fireplace, restore it as a wood-burning fireplace Add another fireplace to the "family room" side, make it gas Hiccups: Price // The original chimney flu was taking up a lot of room in the upstairs hallway. So, when we got some estimates on the repair and shift of it...
Oh Week 5. You were a real gem. We had an ant infestation,  beams all the way until the house, and found a lucky penny. All winners - even the ants. There wasn't a whole ton to describe this week because it could mainly be summarized as: (1) try to fix crooked stuff and (2) replace the bad stuff. Unfortunately, it was determined that much of the back wall falls under bad stuff. The worst part about week 5 was that it really became impossible to see the house before work.... or after work. Ridiculous changing of the seasons. It's practically dark until just before 7 am ... and then again by 6pm. Which oddly enough is nearly my exact commute. The comfort is that it's not like on demo days when there is super visible change each day. I do still feel like I'm missing things ... which has prompted me to install a trail camera in the backyard so I can catch a few timelapse shots throughout the day. The most exciting things that happened was framing really started to ha...