MORE windows?!

That's a big window..

These two will be installed on either side of the larger window (above) and replace the existing bay windows in the living room. With these three, I will have run out of windows to replace in the house..THAT'S a milestone! :)

New Demolition Videos

After some technological wrangling, I was finally able to get the rest of the demolition video off my phone!

With pictures, I’m used to being able to email them to myself for editing, or just upload them directly. Well..all the videos I took were too long to send either way – I had to call in a favor from the cell phone folks. Love my small town service J

Either way, here is the link to my YouTube page. It’s not sorted correctly (and I’m not sure how to do that yet?), but the videos have been numbered so you could watch them in order if you wanted.

http://www.youtube.com/user/BoomerangBungalow?feature=mhee

Phew..check that one off the list!

201

Last night, after more than 100 years, the house next door to mine came down.

The demolition crew started on the garage around 1:00 yesterday afternoon, and by the time I got home from work, they had cleaned it up and were ready to start on the house.

Roughly an hour and a half later, the house was gone and the cleanup began.

In talking with the neighbors, we can’t help but feel sad about it. Sad that such a beautiful old building – one full of so much history and character – had to be torn down because of the neglect it suffered over the last several years. Even in its neglect, it still kept much of the charm it had all those years ago when it was one of the finest homes in town. I suppose even now I was holding out hope that someone would swoop in and renovate that house as it deserved.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqotuuCCQZQ&feature=youtu.be - video of the front of the house.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfhU9-2yuqw&feature=youtu.be - last of the second floor.

As we have worked through my house these last few months, I can’t imagine the work that must have gone into building the house next door all those years ago. You could see the chisel marks on the woodwork we salvaged, and we heard the stories of the wagon train that brought in all that foundation stone from Indiana. No pneumatic nail guns around..no circular saws.

In the short time I’ve lived in the neighborhood, I’ve heard so many stories about this house. From sitting on the porch sipping tea with grandparents, to sleepovers with friends, and the junior-senior prom held here way back when, this house has seen over a century of family – and community – history pass through its halls, and now all that’s left is the memory.

There’s something sweet about that, though. As it stood most recently, the house was not the one from those memories – it had become a sadder version of itself and it might be better – certainly easier – for everyone to remember it as it was.

Walls closing in...

Busy weekend!

So busy, in fact, we were able to have all the cabinets hung and set by the time Sunday afternoon rolled around... even after taking Saturday off. Thanks to the adjustable cabinet legs my parents picked up at IKEA on their Texas trip, installation was pretty easy! All you’ve got to do is set the box in place and check it for level and plumb every which way. Check that each face is in line with the adjacent cabinet’s face, lock it in place with a couple screws and you’ve got it made.

I'm road-testing an island. I like the added prep space, but I wonder if it's too big?

All set! Making counter tops, cabinet doors, and drawers over the next few days.

It’s been so long since there have been cabinets in this kitchen – it’s starting to look so small comparatively! That said, it will be a good day when I don’t have to look at all of my groceries out in the open all the time J

Picture Update :)

Dining room, without carpet..but, oddly including a kitchen countertop?

The only bad spot I've found so far. Dining room, right in front of the basement door.

Entry without carpet. The floors were in really great shape here!



Office without carpet.

This is the PVC trim I picked for the exterior of the house. With this and the cement board siding, it should be relatively low maintenance!

Kitchen window and a snazzy new door!

New furnace and electric water heater..

..and air conditioner..

Means no need for a vent pipe! No vent pipe means no chimney!

As you can see, the chimney had issues anyway. I thought about re-pointing it, but it would have been more work, more time, more money..without much benefit. The new HVAC system operates without the need for the vertical ventilation: win-win!

Keep checking back for more – we’re making huge, noticeable progress every day!

Show me the money!

There are several opportunities out there for saving money when renovating a house. For instance, we have taken serious advantage of store and manufacturer rebates.

Lots of places offer rebates..It’s usually $4 off your purchase of this or that, and most often I’ll ignore it because it takes weeks and weeks to get your $4 back, and lots of times it can be a fair amount of effort. We decided really early on that with as much as I’d be buying for this project, it would be well worth the time and effort to send in for rebate money.

For instance, if you remove the UPC codes from bundles of insulation and send them in with receipts to the utility company, you get a debit card loaded with money.

..not that I ever bought any insulation..

I used that to buy exterior doors… which qualify for an Energy Star tax credit. We also watched store advertisements and ended up buying durable, 25-year shingles A) at an 11% discount, and B) with an option for an in-store rebate. I then used that rebate money to purchase fiber-cement siding which – you guessed it – qualified for a $1 per board rebate. $1 per piece x 325 pieces means money for exterior paint. So, as you can see, I’m still shelling out good chunks of change for these things, but one purchase (and a little planning) helps to subsidize the next purchase, and on and on.

Many of the rebates described were in-store options. But, as I said, there are also manufacturer rebates from time to time, so pay attention to those.

There are also various services through local utilities – things like energy audits where they can show you where you gain/lose the most heat energy from your house. These services are provided free of charge to customers and, in my experience, they leave you with a ton of energy saver light bulbs and a new programmable thermostat. Bonus! The electric company has a program where you can turn in your old appliances for cash, assuming they still work. There was an old refrigerator in the basement. Boom - $50.

Another thing we’ve paid a lot of attention to is waste. Many professional jobsites will hang a 12’ sheet of drywall, cut out the openings, and throw the scrap away in favor of speeding through the project to get to the next one. While our methods are quite a little bit slower, our waste is quite a bit less as well. We use smaller pieces on smaller walls. It just makes sense.

We also took advantage of the scrap yard located in a neighboring town. When we removed the too-narrow water lines from the house early on, we took that copper to the scrap yard and paid for all the new plumbing with the proceeds. Because there was also a good deal of copper in the old wiring, we could cash that in to offset the costs of the new wiring. (Note: We took the time to save the old steel siding, sort it, load it in the truck, and drive over to the scrap yard only to find that they weigh it at aluminum rates…we used those proceeds to buy a sandwich.)

Look at all those rebates..

A really cool project I haven’t mentioned is my dining room table: we salvaged wood from the attic space of the old garage, planed it down, and made it into the most amazing table. We copied the design from Restoration Hardware..So, if anyone ever wants to buy it, I feel really confident knowing I could get $4,300 out of it ;)

I finished it with Tung Oil for protection thinking it would dry lighter colored.

It stayed fairly dark like this, but we've used steel wool to dull it slightly. With use, the color will fade over time as well.

Learned how to weld in the process! :)

Also, my family has always been into flea markets and antiquing and things like that. I take every opportunity I can to go and usually find good ideas for the house, if nothing else. One of the last markets I went to, I found a clawfoot tub that was in pretty good condition. I knew early in the project that I would like to have one, and had been doing research online. The going rate for the rusty old tub in grandma's barn was apparently $200, which I wasn't enthused about. But, I had planned to go look at some nonetheless. Then, at the flea market, I found a vendor who had a pair of tubs he wanted to sell. He said he'd been carting them around for a while and didn't have a lot of interest..and sadly, he was going to scrap them after that very event so he wouldn't have to load and unload them anymore. He said he could get $50 out of the scrap metal, so he would sell it to me for that - SOLD!

Here's the tub..all sanded and painted, waiting for it's feet. And a faucet. And water.

I’ve also been to and from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Des Moines a time or two. The ReStore is an awesome place, it’s open to everyone, and it’s inherently ‘green’ which is something I’m into. What it does is this: people who are doing home improvement projects (including contractors) who have leftover items can take them to the ReStore where they can be sold to someone else who needs that random piece of slate tile for their front entry, or that old front door to match the others in their old house. To my knowledge, donations are tax deductible (I took the old bathroom vanity, ceiling fans, closet doors, and a few other fixtures) and anything you’d like to buy is fairly priced. The proceeds fund the store which provides jobs to at-risk youth and others in the area. Very cool program – and they’re expanding their operations, so check them out!

http://www.gdmhabitat.org/about-us.php

There's still plenty of life in the old closet doors, vanity, and light fixtures!

Part of me wants to keep the old tiles from the bathroom. The other part knows someone else will use them better than I could, and it will help them in their renovation.

There is also the completely unending generosity that comes with living in a small town and having great friends and family. I have been so fortunate to have people come out and help me put this house back together, give me their old barbeques, or donate beer and pizza in their absence. All of it is much appreciated, and yet another benefit of living life right here in Iowa J

Windows: IN!

Thought I’d take a moment to show you my new windows!

Once we’re a little closer to finishing, I’d like to see about adding muntins/divided lights to the upper panes so the windows will look more like the originals. That could be a ways down the road, though.

Anyway, we’ve installed the six windows in the back of the house – this is the area that will get sided this year. The remaining windows will be replaced next year (or the year after) when I get to siding the rest of the house. Since finishing the windows, we’ve started – and nearly finished – insulating the back of the house. Once that’s finished, it’s time for us to hang more drywall and for my mudder/taper man to come and work his magic.

Kitchen windows - right over my imaginary sink.

Speaking of siding, I got a phone call this morning (before I even got out of bed, thank you) saying that they’ll be delivering it tomorrow which is a few days earlier than anticipated. No problem: I’ll just have to make a run to the store to hunt down the window/door trim I want and pick up the corner pieces that work with fiber cement siding.

Big hole for a big bedroom window!

Big things happenin’!

This weekend

This weekend proved to be fairly productive..when you consider we only worked for a few hours one afternoon.

As I said in the last post, we’re hung up waiting on my electrical contractor at the moment. Until he comes back, we can’t have our City inspection which means we can’t insulate..or drywall, or sand the floors, or lay the tile, or bring in the bathroom fixtures..you get the idea. Though – as you can see – once we get that inspection out of the way, we’re really going to make noticeable progress. Like..start FINISHING stuff J

For now, though, we’re working on the outside. This weekend, we worked on wrapping the garage. This should keep the weather out, and further help with energy costs down the road. And because we used plastic cap nails, it should stay put longer than if we had just used staples – this is handy because it might be a while before we can really get moving on the siding.

As you can see, we tore off more siding under the new roofline outside the kitchen. We did this so we’ll have a solid spot to attach the F-channel to. F-channel – which receives the soffit – fastens to the wall in a straight line even with the bottom edge of the fascia board. From there, you can cut your soffit (vented in this case) to fit the gap between the F-channel and the fascia board. And because we’re not really all that professional, that’s as far as we got. The next step, in theory, is to snap the new fascia in place under the existing drip edge while overlapping the edge of the soffit underneath. Whew.

When I say “in theory” with regard to the next step, it’s because there’s a small complication. You see, when we ripped the steel siding off the side of the house, we found another issue: because the house had been added onto over time, the walls don’t line up exactly from one addition to another. When you’re working with steel, it’s not as big a deal because the material is more forgiving; however, now that I’ve (finally) decided on the cement board, we’ll have to do a little more preparation before we can start hanging. The cement board material isn’t as forgiving because it needs to be secured directly to the wall every few inches. Steel siding – or aluminum or vinyl – actually kind of floats in a channel.. that, and the physical makeup of the material make it easier to hide imperfections in the walls. There might be an easy fix for this – I’ll keep you posted.



See the difference in (old) siding colors around the windows?



Once we have our exterior walls squared away, we’ll be able to hang the rest of the new soffit and finish closing off the house to the outdoors. Once our electrical inspection gets a passing grade, we’ll be able to close the inside walls and it will start to look – and feel – like a home rather than an elaborate outbuilding.

Electrician: Tuesday. Celebration: Tuesday night? Too soon to call!

New (Old) Development!

So, remember how I wrote about not having “before” pictures in an earlier post? Well, that’s true. I didn’t…but the appraiser did. Stuffed into all of my loan information were a few pictures snapped by the woman who did a walk-through on the bank’s behalf. She also included a rough floor plan, which is helpful when you’re not familiar with the place but trying to piece my pictures together. I’ve included little signals so you can see exactly where the pictures were taken from so you can gain a little more insight.

From a design standpoint, the floor plan will stay almost exactly the same. We have moved a door here or there (not to mention added a garage), but the square footage of the living space remains.

1. Entry - new wiring, insulation, and drywall completed.

2. Living room - new electrical/audio wiring, insulation, and drywall completed.

3. Dining room - removed the partial chimney and corner hutch in addition to wiring, insulation, and drywall. 

4. Bedroom/Office - new wiring, insulation, and drywall in addition to the reconfigured closet layout and bookshelf addition.

5. Bathroom - removed paneling and massive amounts of unexplainable concrete, updated plumbing/electrical, and replaced the subfloor and wallboard. 

6. Bathroom - Pt. 2

7. Kitchen (facing Dining Room) - currently demo-ed. Planning for new cabinets and countertops.

8. Kitchen - Pt. 2

9. Laundry - a new door to the garage will take the place of the windows seen here.

10. Master Bedroom - moving the door and closet to improve the room's function. More to come!

Playing Catch Up

Hello again!

In the time I’ve taken between updates, we’ve hit a stall in our progress. At the moment, we’re waiting on a coordinated effort among the cement contractor, the electrician, and the electric company. Getting everyone’s schedule to align (even without including my own schedule) is proving to be a slight challenge.

What we need is this: the current electrical meter is attached to the side of the house right outside my side entrance – when we built the garage addition, we thought it would be awfully nice to move the meter to the alley side of the addition and bury the line through the backyard so it’s both out of sight and out of the way. This is a matter of aesthetic preference and practicality – we need the overhead lines out of the way if we’re going to re-roof the back of the house, let alone reconfigure the pitch of the roof.

Once we have our trench dug (32” deep – which seems excessive to everyone but the City code), we can bury the connection from the existing breaker box in the basement to the new breaker box/meter in the garage. The new breaker will connect directly to the incoming power source and will run the circuits on the back half of the house. Running the circuits in the back of the house from the breaker box in the garage will save a small amount of wire/money, but will save more with regard to time and energy involved in installation.

At any point during this process, the electric company is supposed to be coming to remove the power from the house, trench through the alley and backyard and reconnect the power to the new meter box at garage’s new meter socket. (I learned that a meter socket is a fancy word for high priced metal box. It’s the housing for the dial that records how much power you’re consuming.) In speaking with the territory manager, I found that the power company we have locally will provide 25’ of trench and 25’ of cable free of charge. Anything past 25’ is charged to me as the homeowner, but the charge is pretty minimal when you consider I won’t have an overhead wire getting in the way of the goings-on at the jobsite.

Once the power shenanigans have been resolved, we can get to work on the roof.

I’m in the process of finding a new roofing contractor. The one I had contacted and verbally committed to has more or less flaked on me…which is unfortunate because I received a great bid from him. So meeting contractors starts again. It’s not my favorite part – they’re pretty quick to tell me I should’ve just built a new house. It’s unprofessional to stick out your tongue at someone, otherwise I might.

At any rate, we got a pretty good deal on the materials for the roofing project. Trusses conveniently went on sale and there was an 11% rebate on most other building materials – including sheathing, shingles, building wrap and all the other odds and ends we will need. So, in an effort to save money and a little time down the road, we bought most of what we’ll need in the near future and then some. I likened spending all that money to ripping off a Band-Aid…do it quickly and it won’t hurt as much..