My house remodel

[Robert_in_NY]

Well I decided to start a thread to share my house remodel. I will get some pics of the house and post them. There are not too many before pics of the inside as I have already started tearing apart the upstairs and some of the downstairs but will post pics in a bit of what I have done.

Here is an overview. My house is a two story with full basement and full walk in attic. The basement and first floor both have 9.5' ceilings and the 2nd floor is an 8' ceiling. There are two living rooms, an office, dining room, kitchen and full bathroom on the first floor. 4 bedrooms and a full bathroom on the second floor. The roof is a 12/12 pitch which gives a lot of room in the attic.

What I am going to do is remove completely two chimneys that run from the first floor and basement through the house so they are tall. When they are removed I am going to re-do the roof with new asphalt shingles (Elk brand). I will start this stage in the next couple weeks.

What I have done already is stripped the wall paper from two bedrooms and the upstairs hall and both stair wells leading to the upstairs. There were 6 layers of wall paper on almost all the walls and 3 layers on the ceilings. Ava's room has already had the walls painted. I just need to paint the ceiling and add a border to match her theme to cover the transition line on the wall as its a two tone paint scheme. Then put a new rug in and adjust the old door and her room is done. The hall and other bedroom are ready for paint but need a couple repairs done to the plaster still. The other two bedrooms will be redone completely as well. The upstairs hall and master bedroom have hardwood floors and I will refinish them soon. The upstairs bathroom had a problem and I tore the entire bathroom out already. It is down to the studs and will be redone completely as soon as the main work is done so Ava and I can move in.

All the electric is the old style knob and tube and old style romex with no ground. So all the wiring will be replaced with proper wire and outlets. Smoke and CO detectors will be hard wired in also as I go.

The first floor is going to see all the walls stripped of the paneling and I will inspect the plaster to see if it can be saved or if it will be stripped as well and new drywall put up. The ceilings are all coming down and new drywall is going up with new lighting. While the ceilings are down I am going to install radiant heating under all the upstairs rooms (except the master bedroom as that is the only ceiling not being removed). Each room upstairs will have its own zone so I can shut down rooms not being used and can have each room adjusted how we individually like. The first floor will get radiant heating as well but those joist are exposed from the basement and there will be 3 or 4 zones down there depending on how much tubing each room needs (300' per zone max). The current boiler is about 10 years old and I will replace it with a new high efficiency boiler and replace the current hot water tank with a boiler mate. This will remove the need to replace the chimney as there will only be a 2" pvc pipe coming out the wall.

The front living room is already done. The second living room, dining room and kitchen will be redone and those will be the final rooms before we move in. Once we are living there I will finish the upstairs bathroom then remove the downstairs bathroom. I will move the one wall in the downstairs bathroom back into the office more so that I can move the washer and dryer from the office to the bathroom and have a cleaner look. The office will still be plenty big enough for my use.

I also plan to re-deck the attic floor and a future idea is to finish off the attic to make it a nicer, cleaner more useable room. The cellar will be cleaned and the stone walls painted and floor will have drains installed and concrete repaired where it is missing. I also will add drain pipe around the outside of the house and coat the outside of the cellar walls and add a membrane to the walls to help keep water away from the walls.

There are a few other things that I will do there including repairing the two concrete porches. One is going to be removed and replaced with a wood deck that wraps around the corner of the house and will over look the orchard and rest of the property. This will give me a new place to build a new stair case to the ground where the basement door is. The current stairs are concrete steps that are very rough and slippery. The basement door will be replaced and possibly the front main door if I decide its not worth keeping.

It is a lot of work but is something I am looking forward to. Ava has been helping me with the wall paper and is looking forward to painting. I will post some pics of the interior work so far and take pics of the outside soon and post them later.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

These are the two stair cases leading to the 2nd floor and Ava's bedroom. Also one of Ava helping remove wall paper

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Here is the upstairs hall way and pics of the upper bathroom being demolished.

 

[Lloyd_E]

Robert,

Very ambitious. I know you know... be careful of the dust and lead paint. Very troublesome during restoration of a period house.

Cool and interesting project.

Lloyd

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Robert,

Very ambitious. I know you know... be careful of the dust and lead paint. Very troublesome during restoration of a period house.

Cool and interesting project.

Lloyd

No worries with lead. I am actually a lead abatement contractor and have already address the main lead issues. The walls are not lead and there was not very much lead in this house to begin with. The windows were all replaced and there was one door with lead paint that was removed completely. This was all done when I first bought the house.

When I get ready to strip the ceilings downstairs I will set up the whole house air fitration system as well as use my respirator as I do not like plaster dust and rock wool insulation.

 

[jayste]

Robert, WOW! I'm tired and sore just reading all that you're doing and going to do! Looking forward to the progress.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Robert, WOW! I'm tired and sore just reading all that you're doing and going to do! Looking forward to the progress.

I enjoy working on my own house. I did the same thing to my last house. It was a top to bottom remodel of a 3 bedroom house. New roof, soffit and siding as well as all new doors and windows, redid the upper bathroom and added a first floor full bathroom. All the walls were scrapped and painted and trim was repaired and painted. The kitchen was a complete remodel and all new floors throughout. The furnace was replaced with a new high efficiency boiler (all new baseboard elements as well) and boiler mate and the chimney was tore out and removed completely (I am not a fan of chimneys). It was a nice house but was in town and I didn't like living in town. I sold it after I bought this house. It really was fun doing my own house as I get to play with new materials and new technology on my own place that we may eventually use on customers homes.

 

[firefighter jim]

Robert, Been there, done that! Good Luck with the project! Jim

 

[Scotty370]

All I can say is "YIKES"!!! You 'go' guy!!! ~Scotty

 

[dave1949]

Quite a project Robert. I like that framing exposed in the bathroom . Are you adding firestops in the walls if they aren't already in?

I'm sure Ava will remember helping you, kids like that sort of thing - as long as they get an ice cream break now and then
Dave.

 

[PA hayseed]

I enjoy working on my own house. I did the same thing to my last house. It was a top to bottom remodel of a 3 bedroom house. New roof, soffit and siding as well as all new doors and windows, redid the upper bathroom and added a first floor full bathroom. All the walls were scrapped and painted and trim was repaired and painted. The kitchen was a complete remodel and all new floors throughout. The furnace was replaced with a new high efficiency boiler (all new baseboard elements as well) and boiler mate and the chimney was tore out and removed completely (I am not a fan of chimneys). It was a nice house but was in town and I didn't like living in town. I sold it after I bought this house. It really was fun doing my own house as I get to play with new materials and new technology on my own place that we may eventually use on customers homes.

I see your house is like mine, all that old base, wood doors etc. I bought a special stripper (marine grade) when I redid my doors. I went through literally hours of sanding etc, but the stripper worked the best. It looks by the pics that the trim is all stained and varnished. Did they also use a combing technique to simulate graining? That stuff wore belts out on my belt sander.

I love to see people rip out that old horsehair plaster and lathe, then try to put up drywall on those uneven frames. Been there and done that. SHims and glue and 3" screws.

Impressive work, post your updates.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Quite a project Robert. I like that framing exposed in the bathroom . Are you adding firestops in the walls if they aren't already in?

I'm sure Ava will remember helping you, kids like that sort of thing - as long as they get an ice cream break now and then
Dave.

Firestops will be added where ever needed and that includes sealing the holes where plumbing lines go through the floors. Might as well do it right while I am able to get to everything. I am not going to tear open all the walls though so only the walls getting tore open will be addressed. Tearing down most of the first floor ceilings will allow me to access most of the walls except the front room.

Ava and I went shopping for snacks and loaded up the house with water, gatorade and lots of snacks for break time while working. We will have to buy more snacks this weekend though as she ate all the ones I like and all thats left is goldfish and Pringles Barbque chips (which I like but so does she and if I eat any she will scarf the rest down fast to keep me from eating too many)

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I see your house is like mine, all that old base, wood doors etc. I bought a special stripper (marine grade) when I redid my doors. I went through literally hours of sanding etc, but the stripper worked the best. It looks by the pics that the trim is all stained and varnished. Did they also use a combing technique to simulate graining? That stuff wore belts out on my belt sander.

I love to see people rip out that old horsehair plaster and lathe, then try to put up drywall on those uneven frames. Been there and done that. SHims and glue and 3" screws.

Impressive work, post your updates.

The trim was just varnished smooth and I will be leaving it alone. They did paint some of the trim in places and I will use a chemical stripper with my full face respirator and strip them in place. Some rooms I am replacing the trim completely since I have to do so much work to certain rooms it isn't worth trying to save the trim.

I have drywalled so many houses in my short time already I know all about the fun involved in drywalling old houses. That is one of the reasons I took the time to strip the wall paper and keep the lath and plaster. I like the rough plaster look when painted and I dispise hanging and finishing drywall. Updates will be posted as I go. I am going to start tearing down ceilings in the first floor so that I can redo the upstairs heating and remove the old base board heaters and cast iron radiators. There is one radiator that is in my way right now and I want it gone so time to make another mess.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I took some pics of the house today to give you guys an idea what it looks like and to also give myself some before pics since I forgot to take them.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Here is the first floor rooms, the first two are of the down stairs bathroom. This is the room that I will move the wall and put the washer and dryer into. The next pic is of the Kitchen. When I sold my other house I moved everything into this one and as soon as I get a couple rooms done upstairs I can move a lot of the things upstairs and out of the way. The office is the room that is completely filled with boxes and a piebald deer. The room where the carpet is missing from the corner and the radiator is sitting out in space is the dining room. That corner had a cabinet and counter built up and the window was covered over. I tore that all out and opened the window back up as that was a very dark corner. It is much nicer now. The next pic of the second living room. The front living room is the last pic and is the only room actually finished off and is the room Ava and I use when we are there so she has a ton of her toys in there and there is very little spare room in there now.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Here are some more of the second floor. These are all bedrooms that are being worked on or going to be worked on. Chimneys cut through two of the bedrooms.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Here is the attic, I already cleaned a lot of the garbage out of here but have more to go. I have an auctioneer friend who wants a few of the things up there so I am waiting for him to come over so I don't toss the wrong things out.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

This is also another project I am working on. The red wall was the worst of the 4 walls. I patched up the worst hole and plan to add a 6' addition to this end to give me more storage room and a place to add a stair case to the second floor loft. It will also cover the rest of this wall protecting it from the elements. The back will get an addition out 16' to park my harvester and other seasonal equipment in. It will run the length of the barn. The other end will have a lean to put on to give me some more covered storage room to park implements and protect the compressor for the cooler inside the barn. The front will just get new steel put on and windows will be replaced. The barn door opening was a small opening barely big enough to get a compact tractor through height wise. I expanded it to a 12x13 which is the largest I could go without cutting beams. The door is going to be ordered soon and installed but for now all thats in there is a couple John Deere items, a Vicon spreader and 400 gallon air blast sprayer so nothing worth stealing. The tin on the roof will be removed and shingles installed to match the house most likely next year though as I have plenty of work to do on the house and the barn will get worked on as needed for this year.

 

[ToadHill]

Looks like fun, I remember doing the same thing to my house 30 years ago when we moved in. Took down all the wallpaper and found only green horsehair plaster, no finish coat. We pulled all the plaster and lath out, insulated the whole house and dry walled it. I thought it took forever but it really wasn't bad since we did a section at a time.

By the way, is that one of your deer in the corner of the pictures in post #15?

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Looks like fun, I remember doing the same thing to my house 30 years ago when we moved in. Took down all the wallpaper and found only green horsehair plaster, no finish coat. We pulled all the plaster and lath out, insulated the whole house and dry walled it. I thought it took forever but it really wasn't bad since we did a section at a time.

By the way, is that one of your deer in the corner of the pictures in post #15?

The deer in question is a wild deer that was killed on the road 2 miles from my house. It lived on my friends land for about 6 years before it met a car on Route 20.

Its hard to see in this pic but there are two deer pens in the woods (each pen is a half acre). On the other side of the pens is my parents house and barn. You can kind of see the buildings behind the trees. My parents house is about a 600 foot walk. It is very convienent since almost all my farm equipment is stored there and they help out with Ava a lot. I am staying there right now and have been since I broke my back in the fall of 2007. By this fall Ava and I will be in our own house again and everyone is looking forward to it (well, my dad wants me to leave Ava with him but that won't happen).