Friday, April 12, 2013

In which I remember projects past

We have spent the last several days cleaning up errant plaster and dirt from the nooks and crannies of the second floor at Slum and Blight.  It is back breaking, monotonus, and time consuming, but this is where we save our money.  I have been getting the shop vac into tiny little spaces to suck up whatever debris is there and Greg has been taking out nails from the rafters and the studs. The floors are coated with at least a 1/4 inch of grey dust, and staples, and small pieces of cardboard...  We have an electrician and a foundation guy coming on Tuesday to have a look at the ole girl, so things are afoot!

I sat down the other day and started to go through old photos of renovations past and so I thought I would share some highlights.

These are from the first renovation project, Little Bohemia, a 1907 Arts and Crafts cottage located in Bayside Village about 3 miles from where I sit now. Here is the house in about 1910.  about four of the birch trees still survive.


 I had always coveted this property and when I heard the price dropped on the place, I snatched it up.  We rent it out now, but the old girl is on the market....time for someone else to love her.  

This is the family room before photo.  Why mint green??  Awful color. I think I wouldn't want to be in this house alone.  The walls in this room were so rotted out with mold that I literally ripped one whole wall out in one piece and walked out the door with it. In 2006, they were renting this sad house for $600 a week.  I get double that now. 

Homosote walls and rotted wooden floors

We took the room right down to the old boulder foundation, and then dug down three feet.  (I say we, but I didn't do the digging)

We also decided to open up the kitchen to the the family room, making the whole downstairs more open and light filled.  It was the single best decision we made for that project. 


























The room turned out bright and sunny...it still has an "underground" feet to it, but it is now open to the kitchen (where I am standing taking the photo) and has a nice porcelain tile floor and bead board everywhere.   Note the bookcase where the TV is.  That is part of something we removed from the house that is pictured in another photo in this entry.....can you guess what we repurposed...or mor accurately, what Greg's nephew repurposed when he was here.  (He also made a nice small cabinet too!.


Here is a view of the room from the "renovated" kitchen.  The counter tops are figured birch plywood and have worked great so far!  See what I mean about opening up the kitchen?



This was the guest bedroom when we bought the house.  Though the bunks were fun to look at, they were not original to the house and really tied our hands as to how to rent the place.  Plus, the bunks blocked the window!  Out they came!



The walls were finished and painted behind the beds, so we knew they were not originally there.  

I painted the room a bright peach color with white trim and made the decor a bit folky.  This is my favorite room in the house now.


Oh the horrors of the bathroom!  Ewww


It took me a long time to get up this nailed and glued down floor!  
The toilet was the first thing one saw when one walked into the bath.  The next was its stink pipe!

This was Greg's first slate floor job.  It helps to have a design background and about double the time needed to put a  floor down.


Notice that we switched the sink and the toilet positions

We have also added a new roof, lots of new paint and some vintage wicker and needleworks that I found various places.  I also has a burst of mission furniture collecting and that is all in this house too. 

Enough for the day, back to cleaning!

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