Remuddling

"Remuddling" is a term coined by The Old House Journal to describe Remodeling that destroys the character or original details of an historic building. Our old house has been a casualty of remuddling...most notably the removal of a large arched window on the second floor.

But sometimes, one is lucky enough just to have historic details covered over with aluminum or vinyl siding. I hate aluminum siding; it's ugly and causes the wood underneath to deteriorate...but at least it doesn't melt if the barbecue grill gets too close.

I removed the aluminum foil from the rear door and sidelights (that's the small windows and trim on each side of the door) today and found this peeking through:




You might also notice that the adjacent door on the back porch to the kitchen has been removed...we suspect it was not original anyway AND allows place in the kitchen for a stove inside...which is always nice.

Inside the wall, studs, insulation and wiring are IN and the hallway wall and ceiling recently removed due to an altercation with pull-chain light fixture...an "ex" pull chain light now.

Opposite, the former pantry is having a broom closet built opposite the space for the "counter wide" refrigerator (which the wife is insisting on in order to preserve the view of the neighbor's collection of used car parts.)

You probably didn't notice the small bench in the bottom of the second photo on this page...I noticed this item on the way to work the other day, sticking out between two mattresses in the garbage in front of an apartment building. "I wonder what that is?" I said and threw the bench in the back of my truck. Turns out that this is an oak artist bench (I am not an artist...it's all my grandfather's fault...but that's another story). the left side of the bench folds up to 45 degree angle and an artist' mast (missing) attaches to a grove underneath. One sits on the bench and paints or draws away.

Maybe a new career for me? But for now, it's a bench.

More next time,

Deano

Shocking News!

Actually.... we did stuff this week to PREVENT shocks! Here's a subtle before and after shot...you may have to look in previous posts on this Blog to find out what was changed this week! (the ladder doesn't count).

BEFORE:




















AFTER:


Inside: I have wired the outlet boxes for the kitchen (the close-up is so my brother-in-law can tell me I did it all wrong!). Not sure it's to code but the town council can't find the code anyway...so not to worry.















What you've been waiting for: the Answer to the before and after question...

1. The electrical cable in the gutter is gone! (what were they thinking?). It went from the electrical box, out a hole in the foundation, around the side of the house, up behind the corner of the vinyl siding, across the gutter and into the bathroom. The new cable stays inside, through the basement ceiling and up the pantry wall. Unfortunately... the 48" bathroom vanity top got destroyed in the process of attempting to move it out from the wall!

2. You have to look at the far right of the first photo for this one. Gary, who loves to make more work for himself, insisted on taking out an old stove pipe (for a wood stove) out of the kitchen wall as it would stick out of the sheetrock about an eighth of an inch. I thought it would be behind a cabinet anyway, so who cares? Gary won, but then lost, because when he went to repair the hole in the roof over the kitchen window (notice missing chimney cap), ALL of the black shingles fell off and he ended up replacing the entire roof on the little "butt out" in the kitchen...in 90 plus degree temperatures.

Next week: the kitchen door is removed and a wall put up in it's place.

Thanks for reading! Deano

The Visitor

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New Mailbox!

Gary, the carpenter was working alone in the bathroom when he sensed a presence in the adjacent room...he turned to view this fearsome creature staring back at him from the shadows...a dog...a very large dog and one that did not bark! Just as suddenly as he came, the dog turned and ran off...but we found him later in the day. Right now, he's living on our deck until we can find his owner!
Things still progress slowly at the old house...

The subfloor is finished in the kitchen, pantry and dining room, finally... but then we decided to gut the rest of the kitchen as there was no insulation, nor wiring. Joyce is thinking about vinyl flooring, faux stone, with some copper and earth tones.

In the bathroom, we are installing the new bath tub, purchased on Craig's List. Going to be a tight fit for the toilet!

A September move sure doesn't look promising though!

Outside, we've planted some flowers.........................................................................

We tried to approximate the two landscape features of our next door neighbors which gives the illusion of a grand entrance...the lower photo is on the right of the house and has a Japanese maple we bought at a garage sale...doesn't show up too well in the photo, with some ornamental grass and a solar light.

Hope to have the first floor done before we move in and then we'll work on the second...have quite a pile of junk in the backyard, could use a dumpster!

More next time...thanks for reading! Deano

A Thousand Pardons...

...But I have been too busy to update the blog for a couple of weeks!

OK, the REAL reason is that there has been a lot of work going on at the old house, but nothing very glamourous...or photogenic at least, unless you like looking at floor beams. The carpenter spent a lot of time the last two weeks cutting out old structural "repairs" that just were not done properly...thank God for Sawzalls, is all I have to say. The floors, at least where the kitchen, dining room and hallway come together, is now solid and level and the subfloor is in the process of being installed.

Our No. 1 MISTAKE with this project has been buying things we were not ready to install and then having to store them; move them and move them again. The kitchen cabinets and stove we bought on Craig's List months ago have done little but get in the way of progress so far...but the may be in place in the next week or two.

We also purchased a bathtub on Craig's List which will go into the first floor bathroom. Joyce has chosen this tile pattern:

It's called "Subway Tile" and I plan on putting "IRT" in n black letters in the middle, in front of the Bathtub...but no one here in Cincinnati will understand that.

We have decided on a faux stone linoleum for the kitchen and dining room...and need to find an installer this coming week.

I wonder about the wisdom of taking on such a project...six months later...the neighborhood is seriously devalued and houses are being snapped up by landlords who do a cheap repair and then try to rent them as Section 8 housing. On the other hand, there is a renewed interest in cleaning up the area and in "civic" kind of stuff which includes a bluegrass concert in September.

Hopefully, you'll see MAJOR progress in the next installment! Thanks for your patience!

Deano

A Weekend to Remember

While I should have been inside working on the bathroom...I spent most of the Memorial Day weekend (while not drinking beer and grilling out) working outside to fill in the "gap" in the fence next to the railroad...fence guy gave me the cedar slats for free (and I have just as many left over). I've deferred to my train buddy John Derrenkamp who complained that he couldn't see the bottom of passing trains. So, I'll use the remaining slats to make a small platform and John and others now will be able to watch trains to their heart's content! In the foreground of the s t r e c h e d photo is the garden I am building with the sundial on one of the brick posts removed from the side of the driveway.

We did reach a milestone in that one room is just about complete and Joyce and I bought a used couch and loveseat to celebrate! OK...that was the easy room...no bathroom or kitchen yet but the floor in the downstairs bathroom should be in this coming week.

We are taking a BIG risk this week in listing one of our rental properties for sale but six months or longer is the norm right now for a sale. If the house sells early, we will have to move into the new old house sooner than expected. Well, at least there is one working toilet and a couch to sleep on!

This is our house on Elliot Avenue which is for sale...if you are interested (old "before" photo) :

Well, yikes! four property tax bills just came in the mail...it must almost be June! Thanks for tuning in this week...Deano

It was a Dark and Stormy Night...

While Ginger oversees the demolition from above, the downstairs bathroom is completely gutted...after many unsuccess attempts to patch parts of it (I should know better by now!) ...
I finally had to enlist some professional help (no not a psychologist, but that may not be such a bad idea!). I'm glad I did; Gary made framing out the kitchen look easy in a few hours!



Down in the cellar we found at least three more places where beams had been rotted or eaten out by insects...and repaired by some yahoo using bite-sized pieces of wood and a nail gun. These were replaced with double 2x8 studs...we can now put in heavy things like a refrigerator and a bathtub.

Well, we need to start on the bathroom but at $25.00 an hour, we'll see how far this goes.!

D

Always Sumthin!

This week, I installed the new front door; (never an easy task in an unplumb old house)...the house no longer looks like a bar & grill!! What color do you suggest we paint the new door?

Another Good Samaritan is the maintenance guy at work, Gary Harris. Gary came over during the week and together we removed a 400 pound cast iron 50's era bathtub from the downstairs bathroom as well as the old water heater and carried them to the scrapyard...at least we received enough cash for lunch! Here is Gary sitting in the truck with the "load" in the back...on the way to the scrapyard.
OK, that's the good news...but now, the rest of the story:

Gary pulled down some sheetrock in the basement (my mother made me say "basement" but...despite it being Mother's Day...the downstairs is a "cellar." Underneath, we found the tackiest repair job you have ever seen...and carefully covered over with joint compound.

We'll spend several days...once again...jacking up ceilings and replacing yet more termite damage...the right way.


Then on Thursday I noticed that my pulse was acting kind of strange and went to the doctor on Friday. Apparently, my heart has returned to the Atrial Fibrillation problem of a few years ago and I am on anti-arrhythmic medicine (you didn't think I could spell that, didn't you?).

So, things are certainly not going as planned but that's to be expected in our imperfect world...




"Man, who is born of a woman is short of days, and full of trouble."
Job 14:1, The Bible............................................................................

Ain't it da truth?

Happy Mother's Day and Til next time, D.