The signs of progress

Laundry room and new opening to bathroom

It's amazing what can be done in a few days..... Last week, when we went to the house there were holes in walls, but it still looked like demolition was in full swing. This week, walls are being framed and new electrical and plumbing is going in. A lot has happened in just a few days....

The contractor has started framing the laundry room that will be on the second floor. It borrowed room from the bathroom, took out a linen closet in the hall (there's another one in the bathroom) and part of a closet in the guest room (there's another full closet in the guest room). The electrical and plumbing for the laundry room is starting to be roughed in and it shouldn't be long before walls go up!

Framed laundry room

The electrician was working hard to get the downstairs electrical upgraded. Side note- the house had two prong outlets in majority of the house. We have to upgrade to three prongs per code. The downstairs is upgraded and he'll soon be upgrading the upstairs. You'd be amazed at how three prong outlets are taken for granted, until you need to plug in the shop-vac and there's only one three prong outlet downstairs, so you're running extension cords through the whole house!  Thankfully, that is no longer an issue.

Fred doing some vacuuming

Our blonde moment of the week.... we've been working at the house for weeks with no running water. There is a leak from the upstairs toilet that we still need to fix and a few other leaks have popped up, so we keep the water off to the house. This means bathroom runs are usually taken at a local store and wet wipes help to wash hands (trying not to be graphic). So we worked yesterday thinking that there is no water to the house. We were covered in paint chips and plaster dust, so we tried to wipe as much as we could with wet wipes before leaving the house to meet Fred's parent for supper. While we were changing clothes, Fred sat on the side of the tub to put on his shoes (no furniture in the house either). He leaned back a bit and hit the nozzle for the shower and POOF water came out! We realized that the water was on in the house! It was amazing! I immediately grabbed the hand soap I brought to the house for when water was running and started scrubbing my arms and hands. It's incredible how something as simple as running water can make you feel stupid for not realizing it's on, but also be so comforting. Running water = progress! The leak upstairs hasn't been fixed yet and isn't a problem as long as no one messes with the toilet.

Fred and I are currently reviewing the quotes from cabinetmakers for the kitchen..... ouch. Thankfully, there does seems to be a couple that are reasonable that we want to discuss further details with them. Most of the quotes also include counters... a few include granite, which would be awesome, but I'm not holding my breath. At this point, we want good quality cabinets and floors (tile), and if we need to upgrade counters later, that's fine. So, now it's working on the details of the quotes and see where it goes from here.

We got our first rug for the house. It's red with gold and ivory details on it. It's planned for the dining room and I'm going to pair it with gold curtains. Thus, the great paint debate continues... I want a medium to dark brown for the walls and Fred wants something like cream.... I need more color than that. He also has suggested the living room be red. That may be a little too bold for me. We're also trying to decide on a color for the bathroom... we're both kinda thinking yellow, but I want more of a deep yellow and he's looking at sunshine yellow. We were able to decide on the colors for the Master (slate blue) and guest room (sage green).  Hopefully, we'll be able to find colors that we can both live with.... the sanding continues!

One day at a time; one room at a time

So Saturday was a bust on working on the house. The HVAC units are almost in, but not quite, so there was no A/C and the house was 96°. Needless to say, we didn't stay very long. We checked out the progress from the week before... so far the kitchen has been demoed; the ceiling and wall in the dining room has been ripped out (to find that leak); and the upstairs hall closet, side of bathroom , and closet in guest room (they are all right beside each other) has started to be ripped out to make room for the new laundry room. Our contractor has been busy! He also managed to get some of the cabinet makers to the house to measure for quotes.

Demoed kitchen

The original thermostat to the house... It was HOT!

Where the laundry room will go

It rained at the house Saturday night, so we figured things had cooled down some........not so much. We needed to get work done to the house, so we went over there Sunday to finish scraping the back stairwell and kitchen of its wonderful peeling paint. After figuring out how to work the ladder- it's one of those little giant ladders, we were on our way. Fred was nice to me and climbed up the ladder and got up the wall and ceiling of the stairwell, since I don't do well with heights, and I'm a little clumsy. I think he figured it was safer for him to do it, so he wouldn't have to take me to the ER.

So, I continued to work going down the stairs in the places I could reach (no short jokes! :-) )  Once Fred really got going scraping, I felt like I was in a blizzard! There were paint chips going EVERYWHERE, mostly on me. Thankfully, I finished my part and moved into the kitchen to scrape the ceiling. Fred's parent brought us lunch and started helping by scraping the windows. When Fred finished the stairwell, I was partially down one wall in the kitchen. My back was starting to hurt and I didn't like being on the ladder so I asked Fred to finish the kitchen while I started sanding the stairwell. This proved to be more difficult than sanding the bedroom walls, as the oil paint underneath is far more prominent and very slick. So I sanded and sanded and sanded to get the lines smooth. Hopefully, once we prime it the lines will blend. I sanded all the way down the stairwell, where I could reach without the ladder and Fred finished scraping the kitchen. The windows in the kitchen are almost done being scraped too.

Back stairwell after scraping and some sanding

We're tired!

All in all, we got a lot done.... especially for how hot it was. We went through 9 bottles of water. I have not been so tired and sick feeling. Hopefully, the A/C will be working for when we work this weekend. I can't handle many more of these extremely hot days, working hard and only having a fan for some relief.

Our task continues... we have to finish sanding the stairwell and kitchen so we can prime and paint once the plumber and electrician finish roughing in everything. One day at a time; one room at a time.

Our other projects continue. We're still working on getting the paint off the brass hinges and hardware. It's a slow process, but we don't want to use any chemicals. We're also slowly picking up items for the house. We found this fantastic brass coat and hat rack at one of our favorite spots: Urban Relics of Suffolk. They have such cool stuff and great prices!

Brass coat and hat rack

It's hammer time... to the kitchen

Demolition in the kitchen has started! Our contractor called yesterday to let us know he had starting ripping out cabinets. When we arrived, the kitchen looked completely different. All of a sudden there is tons of room.

Now the fun begins! We've designed a layout that will hopefully work with the weird shape of the kitchen. It's hard to contend with 3 windows, 4 doors, and a staircase when it comes to laying out cabinetry. Hopefully, we succeeded. Our task this weekend is to start scraping and sanding the walls in the kitchen. We also get to go look at tile for the floor!

Click on the layout to zoom in

We need to figure out colors for the kitchen. I want the walls, cabinets, and tile to complement each other. I need opinions... what's better- painted cabinets (I'm thinking Antique white or ivory) and medium brown walls with medium to dark tile, or stained cabinets (thinking maybe a dark walnut or mahogany) with light brown/cream walls and a lightish/medium tile ( I don't want the tile too light)? Any other thoughts/suggestions?  There is lots of natural light coming into the room.

The windows in the kitchen. The sink and dishwasher will be under the double window

Soaking the blues (paint) away

Another weekend gone and we're slowly making headway in the house. We got a late start on Saturday and after a quick stop to the Restore, we headed to the house.

If you're not familiar with the Restore, you should be. They are awesome! There's one in Newport News and Franklin. I'm sure there are more in the area, but those are the two I've been to. If you're trying to find materials out of an old house, say for instance, old style tile, they are great. They carry lots of building materials that are priced very well. Plus, they help Habitat for Humanity.

Anyway, when we got to the house, my task was to start sanding the walls where I had stripped the paint. Since there are places that wouldn't strip off, we sand to smooth out any lines that are left. So now the house is a giant dust storm.

Fred took on the task of the yard.... such a brave task. He started to trim the Holly bushes, so they actually have a shape. The yard is starting to look better, but we're still tasked with having to dig up many Magnolia and Pine trees. They are free to a good home for anyone who wants one in 757. We'll probably start digging those up in the fall. I read that is the best time because they start to go dormant, but the soil is still warm enough for transplantation.

We had several guests stop by. One of the neighbors popped by to say hello. We had met these neighbors before and welcomed the break. Also, my mom, uncle, and grandmother stopped by to see the house. It was good to see that they all like the house as much as we do.

Our neighbors also showed us a storage shed on the property that we would have never known was there. It's covered by ivy and looks like a big bush. It's pretty cool though.


We went back to the house on Sunday to get some more work done and I think we got a lot completed.... Fred and I started off with removing doors. They all need to be sanded and repainted. Some are blue, some green; none in what I would call a pretty color. We wanted to take off all the hinges. They are real brass and have been painted over multiple times. We're determined to get the paint off. We found a process that we're hoping works. Take an old crock and put the hardware in it with warm water and dish soap. Turn it on low and let it soak all night. The paint is supposed to peel right off. We tried it and it seems to be working! (http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/how-to/intro/0,,20055784,00.html)

So after we removed the doors upstairs, I got to work stripping more paint in the stairwell. I spent all day doing that and the stairs are almost done... hopefully I'll be done scraping and onto sanding next weekend..... until then, we're hoping the demo starts soon!

It's snowing!!

Today, we made it back to the house. It's been too long since we last worked. I learned how to make it snow it July.... scrape peeling paint. We started in the master bedroom. When we started, I thought this would be a fairly easy task... I was wrong. Apparently, latex paint over oil is quite a pain in the butt. What was already peeling came off easily, but then you have to keep scraping so that you get all of the paint that isn't adhering properly. So after 15 minutes into scraping, I'm covered in paint chips. (Thankfully, Fred and I took necessary precautions and wore masks and goggles)

While I worked on the walls, Fred and his parents bravely took the task of scraping the paint on the windows. There are four windows in the bedroom and they each need to be completely scraped. They did a good job, even as the sun was bearing down on that side of the house and the room heated up like a sauna. (Side note: the AC doesn't really work, so we suffer through the heat with the help of two fans)

Once I completed the walls and ceiling, I moved into another room, so Fred could use the step ladder to take down the valances... yes, we have custom valances for each window. These too will need to be repainted. Blue just doesn't cut it. I think they will be beautiful painted white, the same color that we will paint the trim.

So, after scraping the walls in most of the upstairs rooms, I got sort of restless. I headed back into the master bedroom to start tackling the peeling blue trim. This is a daunting task. It's starting to, what the pro's say, Alligator, where the paint cracks and peels and looks like Alligator skin. It looks like that antique look people pay a lot of money to achieve... except is doesn't look good on the bedroom or closet doors. So we have to scrape and scrape and scrape, and when we're done scraping, we get to sand everything down.

There weren't too many surprises today... just basic scraping. Hopefully, the contractor will start working sometime next week- demo the kitchen!

I shutter to think.....

Earlier this week, we met the contractor out at the house to start discussing the renovation. We had discovered that someone has put a spray foam behind the shutters (which by the way aren't aesthetic, they're functional!). So, we're now not sure if we can salvage any of the shutters since the foam allowed water to get behind them and the wood started to rot. :-( We're hoping some of them can be saved and down the road we'll get new ones.... although, we did find the neatest place for antique salvage... Caravati's in Richmond (caravatis.com). They have almost anything and everything you would need to restore an old house. We were happy to find that they also have salvaged shutters, so that may be an option to replacing them.

For now, our homework is getting the kitchen designed. It should be interesting, as we have basically 13 X17 with four doors, three windows, and a staircase in the kitchen :-/

Sold!

We bought a house! There will be lots of work to do, but we agree that once we get it completed, it will be a wonderful house...... Although the list of work keeps growing......

So we closed on the house last Thursday. We knew going into it that there is some work to be done, but in the few days of starting to work on the house.... the excitement from closing is wearing off.


I'll start from the beginning. We bought a foreclosure, which also means we bought the house as-is. :-/ About two weeks ago, the property management group finally dewinterized the house (this was supposed to have been done 4 weeks ago). When they did, water went EVERYWHERE. The damage caused the plaster from the dining room ceiling to fall and soak my beautiful hardwood floors (now they need some love). So plaster goes everywhere, as does water. The house sits like that for 3 days when the selling agent checks on the house and sees the damage. He arranged for the water leak to be fixed and the plaster to be repaired. They traced the leak to an upstairs toilet, although I'm not convinced that it is the culprit. After repairing the toilet and a shoddy plaster job, we close and the house is ours now. Thankfully, we have already found a contractor to help us and he already anticipated water issues and has planned to rip open the dining room ceiling to repair the problem and properly repair the ceiling.

So this brings me to the days after closing, when I'm scrubbing dried plaster off the hardwood floors for 4 hours. They still don't look great, but hopefully they can be fixed. Fred and I are at the house yesterday and it's hot so we turn on the AC to try and cool down the house. As we're sitting on the dining room floor resting, Fred places his hand over the vent and realizes there's no air coming through despite the vent being open. We figure there's plaster down the vent from the catastrophe, so we stick the shop-vac down the vent to suck it out..... only it's not plaster.... it's about 2 gallons of WATER! That's right, water has been sitting in the duct. We think we sucked it all out and left the fan to the AC running to dry it out. We're now praying there are no mold issues. It's amazing how something that sustains life can be so destructive. On to the next project..... scraping the peeling paint.