Stuff We're Doing

Ok, so, as you guys know we're in the midst of a pretty extensive bath and kitchen redo, with the bath leading the way and affecting the kitchen. 

So... 

The bathroom has a holey floor, which has absolutely no insulation in it. We'll be fixing that. The washer/dryer closet is framed in and the bath tub is up in the room. And after all the consideration of barn doors, pocket doors, and so on the carpenter thinks he can take one of the doors from the attic and extend the door header so that the washer/dryer closet has double doors. Anyway, we had a big, lengthy series of discussions about how it's all going to shake out, such aswhere the vanity and toilet and lights go. 

We're also going to add hall lights, so that this area won't be so ridiculously dark. 

the kitchen ceiling, which when put back will not be dropped but will have a bulkhead running above cabinets and appliances on both sides (which is the only good way to get the vent above the stove legal). Removed skirting above the cabinets that are staying. What I think we're doing is doing a beadboard wainscoting, reusing and mostly leaving alone the sink side of cabinets, and using the short wall on the opposite side for the stove, fridge, and either an espresso machine bar with some open storage or a set of display cabinets. 

Stuff We got Done

Since we just rented out most of 231, I thought I'd share some photos we took while it was staged for showing:

The tiny bedroom/"hot box."


231's upstairs bathroom. -- it's too small to photograph most of it.


The front bedroom.


231's stair hall. 

This is the done stuff. Next post: the stuff in progress. 

Old House Philosophy

Philosophizing here, in brief: 

I feel like in some regards owning my house is a constant job of managing other people's prejudices and expectations.I know they mean well, but specific fallacies I get very tired of include: 

1. The idea that my house is going to take forever, and that old houses are a ton of work, and this would somehow not be the case if I bought something new. That's actually not true -- I am pretty lazy and I wouldn't buy an old house if it wouldn't will perform comparably to a newer house once it's not derelict. Besides which, I have yet to meet the person who doesn't invest some portion of their money into maintaining and altering their house, regardless of its age. 
2. The notion that newer is better. Sometimes, yes, but this view ignores the role that economic, legal, logistical, etc., factors play in material selection and manufacture. A 2X4 is not superior to a steel beam, necessarily, but a 2X4 happens to at one point be a better choice or even just the choice that's made given all the factors mentioned above. 
3. The notion that newer windows create savings, which is somewhat true. but that is a very simplistic statement that ignores when you individually would realize savings based on how inefficient the old ones are and how much new ones cost and also ignoring intermediate solutions. Also, the old windows are part of the historic fabric, which is the primary reason I own this house. I get that it doesn't matter to you, but it very much matters to me. 

Finally, for someone who loves them owning an old house is not always a practical matter. In my opinion they are beings, like books or other storied things, and I am writing the next chapter of their lives, such as it is. So my renovation choices have a moral component. In other words, no, I'm not interested in hiring some jerk to cover my house in vinyl siding or tearing out my historic woodwork to simplify the application of sheetrock. I do make compromises, but the fundamental compromise that I do not want to make is compromising the house's historic essence. 

More on flooring

Er, well, a few posts back I posted about the laminate stuff that we put down. A few weeks later, I really like it -- we were discussing what kind of floor's going down in the new bathroom, and if we can find a design we like we're probably going to go with more of the same line. 

Advantages: 1. Scoffs at water, 2.looks great, like tile. 3. Feels soft and somewhat warm, unlike linoleum, vinyl, or tile. 4. actually has a lower finished cost than other alternatives, despite being a more expensive material., 5. 25-year guarantee., 6. easy installation and a very forgiving process. 7. crazy easy prep -- sweep and you're done, unless you need to pull carpet. 8. cuts with scissors or a carpet knife. 9. mine turned out REALLY cheap because the size of the pieces allowed me to work around islands and such -- so I ended up needing two fewer boxes than estimated. 

When we were looking at it, we also looked at some laminate wood that looked really great. I seem to recall that the Dupont line is a) awesome and b) on sale right now. 

A Tale of One Kitchen

Kitchen before and kitchen after. 

Sweating the Small Stuff

We do a lot of little stuff.  I promise to upload some commentary on the big stuff, but really the majority of work that we do is small stuff.  

Specifically, we've only done a few things that cost more than $2,000.  Specifically, we did the drywall and plaster work that we had to do to get into the house, and that was about $3,000.  We bought all new appliances for the rental-side kitchen and that was about $2,500.  But the majority of stuff has been small, very small.  In fact, we've really spent nothing but our time in a lot of cases.  

We have now spent weeks stripping wallpaper, a task made worse and more complicated by the fact that the victorians wallpapered everything, and they generally wallpapered over old wallpaper.  So we have wallpaper on the walls and ceiling up to six layers deep.  Many implements are sold to make this better, and we tried using dissolving solution.  But we finally just bought a steamer.  It made the process both faster and less dusty, but still very slow.  

Another thing we did was use orange oil on most of the wood.  I know most people would call this "cleaning," but I don't think anyone had done any such things in our house in over a decade and what should be beautiful wood was looking pretty dry and awful.  A few liberal slatherings with oil and we had lustrous, gorgeous wood.  Of course, given how dry it is and the length of time before we did this, we'll be doing it again.  A lot.  

My dad also managed to break a few windows open -- some had been painted shut.  He and Chris also installed the original shutters, which are blackout shutters and were mercifully left in the attic by whatever idiot thought it was a good idea to take them down.

Chris did a ton of small electrical work -- which, of course, is why I married him.  (not really, honey)

And we installed a lot of lights, since the prevailing fixtures were decidedly 70s trailer park.  In the parlor, the light cost a mere $42. Crucial difference between Lowe's and Home Depot, as far as I can tell: Home Depot really sells the hell out of clearance items. We got two and the other will go in our bedroom. 

Economics

A lot of people look at our house and assume that it is bleeding us dry.  And that could be true, and sometimes seems like it is with the much higher utility bills that we're enjoying in Pennsylvania.  However, a lot of incentives and particularities are making our situation pretty economically feasible.  

First, while I wasn't thrilled that we had to delay our closing initially, I was thrilled to discover that between our original closing date and our actual closing date we became eligible for these lovely Homeowner's Tax Credits from the U.S. Government.  Thanks, Preznit!

Second, our house is a duplex, as well as has a detached carriage house, and that creates a lot of advantages.  We can, of course, rent out one side, and we will be doing so as of April 1th.  We also get to depreciate not only improvements to that side of the house, but utilities and other things relating to the administration and improvement of the shared environment. If both units are rented at market rent, we actually will cover our mortgage entirely.  So, not too shabby.

Third, we are eligible for a wider variety of incentives than we would be eligible for either as owners of single-family property or as owners of commercial property, allowing us to potentially take advantage of both.  More on this later, as we attempt to balance our desire to restore our historic home with our desire to be as environmentally responsible as possible.  

Catching Up...

Boy, have we been busy.  In fact, we've been so busy that I haven't posted anything to this blog in forever.  I actually got my tags today, which I suppose makes me an actual Pennsylvanian.  And I will set immediately to bringing everybody up to date on what we've achieved 'round these parts.  

Personally, I celebrated a birthday, started and am settling into my new job, and the family has been settling into what I suspect is harsher than average weather.  

As to the house, we have been gratified to discover that things are neither better nor worse than they initially appeared.  On the one hand, we could have a house where we don't really have any work to do, which wouldn't have been our goal, and on the other we might not have any money left.  So...I suppose everything's good.  Just wait for updates.