Home Improvement Today?

Yeah i thought it would be a total gimiick. I bought mine for a specific job (filter inside a plastic tent) but just using it in the garage I was suprised. I'll eventually have a nicer unit but for the time being the Wen works. Luckily dust collection doesnt seem to have much resell value so can pick things up for decent prices used around me

 

Thank you! Yes definitely, no reason to dump a bunch of money into a house that sitting on rocks 6" off of the ground. Luckily, the very sandy soil in the area drains so well that all of the beams underneath are in relatively good shape. Repaired what needed to be repaired structurally underneath and she's good to go for another 144 years!

It's just such a crap shoot, no real way of knowing what kind of condition things are in until it came up in the air. Same with the inside framing, until the plaster came down. Also, we only removed the plaster around the outside perimeter because we had to for plumbing and electrical and HVAC installation. We were able to leave and repair it in the hallways to try to keep some of its historic charm.

 

A little old house porn for my new homies in the thread.

 

Such old cobb webs.

 

Me too haha

 

Some of the reality show part of it is a bit over the top but I like seeing all the old buildings they work on

 

I love these stories (from afar). It'll be a real charmer when you're through, great exterior. I'm a sucker for cut nails/pegs/through tenons, etc.

How far had the walls/floors fallen off level/plumb in the 100+ years? Family member did something similar 20 years ago, ended up chasing and chasing doors/cabinets because they didn't want to strip it down to studs. Previous owners had just cut doors/stops/trim to fit how it settled. Electrical was everything from knob/tube to Romex and everything in between. Plumbing same, cast iron, copper, brass, PVC, etc. They regretted not doing what you're doing.

Keep posting progress or link where ever you keep updates. Labor of love is the right attitude.

 

It was never ending for them. Easier initially to screw 1/4" drywall over plaster/lathe...if you don't take into consideration removing all the base/case/jamb extensions/etc., etc., etc. Last I knew, most of their doors were still self opening/closing.......it wore them down and they finally just chose to live with it. Tough choice to make after putting hundreds (thousands?) of hours in to it. Looks great, doesn't live very well, though.

They moved the house several miles. Had to move it in the middle of the night so the utilities could take down/re-install all the overhead power lines between the two sites. That part of the equation alone was several thousand dollars.

 

Will do! thanks for the tip!

 

That's some really fine looking joinery. I would've loved to keep some of the timber elements exposed after I gutted my kitchen but it wasn't in the cards.

Tough to tell but looks like maybe the common rafters land on soffit framing that cantilevers over the top plate?

 

Its amazing to me, just seeing old places get re-done like that. lots of lift

 

So I had done concrete counters in my kitchen but they didn't turn out very good. I made the decision to go in a different direction, and finally removed the concrete and installed the replacements this weekend: It's a solid surface product, the OG brand name Corian.

I bought a sheet of it from an overstock website, and did all of the fabrication myself. You can cut it with carbide tipped woodworking tools so it was more up my alley than the masonry work.

I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.

 

That's exactly right. I would love to have been able to expose it in some way, but not sure what that would've looked like. The ceilings upstairs are only 7'3" anyway...

 

We're definitely going to have to shave some doors. About to dive into that now. Most of our issues were in setting it back down on the foundation. Basically had to level the floor, and let the walls come to meet it, broadly speaking. In places where the walls were way out from the floors we just had to split the difference.

 

I know I previously shared a photo or two of my kitchen that is getting remodeled, but here are the photos I took this morning after getting everything cleared out for the contractors. This is the mid-level of my house that is my kitchen/dining/living rooms and it will be fully open concept by the end of the project.








and here is a semi-accurate rendering of the new kitchen layout, missing the fume hood and also support columns on either side of the island.

 

thanks! I'm super stoked about it. It was difficult picturing a location to move the fridge to. I believe this should exponentially help the resale of the house.