Second Floor - Before and After

Well, today is the day. We're moving upstairs. We've officially "finished" the second floor remodel.

I put "finished" in quotes because, of course, we have a few things left (baseboards in the closets, hanging up the hallway light, paint touch up, installing a stair runner). But that's OK. We can live upstairs and do those things.

More than anything, both of us are looking forward to living somewhere with color after seven years of "landlord white."

"Seven years!" people exclaim when I tell them. Yeah, well. We never really had much of a formal timeline. And in addition the remodeling the second floor, we replaced the windows, front door, front porch, fence, roof and siding, front walkway, landscaping, and HVAC.

And we fixed assorted things that broke all over the place - sinks, toilets, ceilings that came crashing down.

And we enjoyed life. We went on vacation - including two times overseas. We got bikes and rode them all over the place. We celebrated weddings and birthdays with our family. We had friends over and went to see movies and concerts. 

So with all of that, seven years doesn't seem too bad to me. 

Now for the pictures.

Front Room - Before

 Front Room - After

Bedroom - Before

Bedroom - After

Bathroom - Before

Bathroom - After

Hallway/Stairs - Before

 Hallway/Stairs - After

Amazing.

It doesn't get much more amazing than these before/after photos of our floors. But first, I'll extend the suspense by writing a bit about them.

The floors in our house are just planks of old growth pine. There's no subfloor. And while old growth pine is much harder than new pine, it's still a soft-ish wood.

Additionally, all of the floors had been covered with tile, linoleum, carpet, and more. They had been through water damage and leaks. They had a gazillion nails and staples pounded into them (remember this from 18 months ago?).

Our expectations were pretty low. We knew there would be irregularities in the wood. We thought parts might turn out OK. But wow. Just wow. We hired a terrific contractor, who is EPA certified for all of that nasty old dust (maybe there was lead, maybe there was asbestos). Three days later, it was like magic.

So here are the pics. Amazing.

Stairs before:

 

Stairs after:

 

Hallway before:

 

Hallway after:

 

Front room before:

 

Front room after:

Master bedroom before:

Master bedroom after (with bonus Mike!):

Next up: lighting and trim!

Drywall-a-palooza: Part 2

Found the camera. It was on the third floor, on Mike's desk. Of course!

Before I show off the finished bedroom walls, I want to share some of the work that has to happen before drywall goes up.

Modern construction follows a set of strict rules and measurements to ensure that the building process is ultra-efficient, from both a time and materials standpoint. For example, modern studs are generally spaced 16 or 24 inches apart, to ensure that sheets of drywall that measure 4 x 8 feet will fit evenly.

In 1890, the whole house was made of plaster and lath, so it didn't matter if the studs were irregularly spaced. But since we're using modern 4 x 9' sheets of drywall, we have extra work. See the extra piece of pine that's screwed to the stud on the right side of this picture?

And the pieces on the third and sixth (from the left) studs? Yep - those are extra pieces we need to add to make sure there's something that will hold the drywall.

  

For our next lesson in old ass house construction, take a look at the next image. That's new insulation hung on an interior wall. Wondering why we'd ever do that?

Here's the deal. Plaster and lath construction is incredibly heavy, durable, and thick. It's very soundproof. That's one of the main reasons that old houses feel "solid" while modern McMansions feel hollow and echo-y. Most home restorers try to keep the plaster around and have it repaired.

That wasn't possible for us given the thirty or so fist-sized holes in each ceiling, and the scary wiring, and the lack of exterior wall insulation. So we're using insulation around the master bedroom to bump up the soundproofing.

Once all of that extra work is done, the actual walls can be added. Look! Our bedroom!

Last topic for the day: paint stripping. I may have mentioned earlier that all of the woodwork in the entire house has been painted. While Mike and my dad hang walls, I've been stripping paint. Here's the bedroom doorway so far. The next picture represents about 5 hours of work with the heat gun and putty knife.

 

And sometimes the painted woodwork is hard to reach. So I get to use the stilts!

Next up, hallway walls and more paint stripping.

Photographic proof of dumpster week

I normally loathe putting pictures of myself on the web, but y'all just need to see this. THIS is how dirty it was doing demo work in our house:



We actually had friends drive by, and when I walked out onto the front porch to wave, they didn't recognize me. The insides of our walls are so dirty. I just don't get it. Did the original owners heat the house with coal and not vent the fireplace at all? Ugh.

So let's go on a tour of the demolition area. This picture shows the former location of one of the two walls that separated our house into two apartments.



It used to be the wall that held the door shown on the left of this picture:



(How 'bout that weatherproofing, eh?)

Now that hallway looks like this:



Our stairwell looks like this:



When we were done with the walls, and the crappy tile that covered the original wood floors in the front bedroom and downstairs hallway, there was still room left in the dumpster. Well, we are not people who will send a dumpster away half empty. So Mike sledgehammered our cracked concrete front walkway.

Here's a nice view of his handiwork, and the caution tape we posted until we get a new brick walkway put in. To the right, you'll see the pile of bricks that will be the walkway. Front center, you'll see that we moved our awesome mailbox closer to the road so that our mailman escapes major injury (make sure you click on the picture for the full-size view):



(Digression about the brick pile: as of today, three different people who are total strangers to us have driven by and asked if we are planning to use the brick. I am embarrassed by this as, yes, the brick pile has been out front for a year. But we were busy! We got married! And we work full time jobs! So for all of you locals...yes, we plan to use the brick pile. Soon. Thanks for asking.)

We hadn't had enough fun yet, so we then pulled down the shrub monster. My dad came over with his chainsaw, we cut them down, and then we used Bessie to pull out the roots. Mike was in his glory - using Bessie to rip things out of the ground.



Finally, last Monday, we sent the dumpster away. This pic was taken before we loaded the shrub monster's remains on top.



Best thing about the shrub monster's demise? I get to put my garden in its place: