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Archive for the ‘house renovation exterior’ Category
this is the house today in 2013
Posted in back yard, basement, house renovation exterior, interior renovation, the truth of renovation, tagged new house for sale on May 7, 2013| Leave a Comment »
our house in 2007 in Portland
Posted in house renovation exterior, interior renovation, looking for a house, original victorians, renovation, house, victorian, tagged house, metal, siding, victorian on May 7, 2013| Leave a Comment »
this is the house we bought in 2007 and are almost done renovating today in 2013
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front
sideentrance
oldkitchen
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oldstove
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oldsidestairs
backporch
backwindows
backofhouse1
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front
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dining room #1
dining room #2
backyard
backofhouse
bathroom #1
bedroom #1
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rottenposts
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mandated sewer replacement
Posted in back yard, house renovation exterior, renovation, house, victorian, the truth of renovation, tagged mud, replacement, sewer on October 7, 2011| Leave a Comment »
our sewer line is being replaced! OMG Portland makes you do this if your sewer joins another’s and if you want to either sell your house or add a second bathroom, and at the tune of $6000 or so you are obliged to do it
side view near house
another side view
mud and holes and pipes
john staring down the deep hole
our lovely back yard
gutting the back porch
Posted in house renovation exterior on February 26, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Back Porch
As the painters were scraping off the old paint and caulking all the nail holes in the original siding, John started demoing the back/side porch with Jeff, our helper. It was an enclosed landing into the kitchen with stairs running down to the side of the house. It was as old as the house and partially blocked the entrance to the back yard as well as the side and besides it was a wreck to look at and had the same terrible smell as the rest of the house.
old porch steps
gutting the porch
Once the porch demo was complete we had a back yard full of old wood. Some of it was donated to the Rebuilding Center in Portland which is a non-profit organization that resells their donations at a discount, as reusable, recycled materials and some of it was thrown away. We kept some for the repair of the old siding, since they did not make these boards anymore.
old porch wood
colors
Posted in house renovation exterior, tagged paint on February 25, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Choosing the paint colors was a very difficult job. I had walked and driven around Portland endlessly taking photos of houses of that era as well as going to the libraries and the bookstores, ordering books, etc…I saw that any color, but color, not neutrals was what was needed. I decided to paint the house some variation of the colors of a sunflower. Out neighborhood was called Sunnyside and there were hundreds of sunflowers everywhere that summer. I sketched a house I would want and then set out to match the colors at the paint store. Nothing looked right as I experimented on cards and parts of the house. Then something clicked and finally I knew that the colors were right.
my inspiration for the colors
more flower inspiration
colors on the siding
Buy good quality paint for your exterior wood siding and trim, it will look richer and last longer. We used three coats of Lambert Paint as well as a thick coat of primer.
stashed handgun
Posted in things we found, water damage on February 20, 2009| 2 Comments »
we found this gun
The gun we found tucked in the basement rafters, once everything was gutted added some fun to our otherwise devastating discoveries.
It was rusted and unusable and after doing some research I found out where it was manufactured and when but not much else. Late 19th century, hand revolver, make H & A. Hopkins & Allen top-break revolver. Why would someone stash their gun in the basement and never retrieve it. Maybe they were looking for a permanent hiding spot, maybe they had to cover up their crime. All kinds of conjectures came up from friends and family. This finding really felt exciting and I decided to go to town hall records to see who owned this house at that time, hoping to track down some interesting piece of information. After spending weeks researching the deeds and titles associated with our house, I learned that this house was owned by many families, all the way back to 1907 where the trail went dead. Between 1897 and 1906 I could not find any information. The records were not kept as well. Even the records from 1907 were all handwritten. The gun was rusted and unusable, the Oregon rains took their toll. Nevertheless I am planning to make a collage with the gun and all the other things we found, and leave it in the house as its own bit of history, a memento for generations to come of the history of a Portland Victorian.
windows
Posted in house renovation exterior, windows, tagged marvin, windows on February 19, 2009| Leave a Comment »
we replaced all the old windows
All the windows were basically inoperable whether they were aluminum or the old original wood ones. Some were simply storms, from a once complete set. We decided to replace all the windows with brand new Wood Marvin windows. They had a wood exterior and could be painted. I had already started sketching the color schemes for the new paint job we would do and knew the windows would be some kind of dark red or orange. Otherwise we would have bought a metal exterior window, which is tougher under constant rain conditions. The windows took a while to figure out, size wise, as the old openings did not match the standard size windows available. We worked with a local Door and Window company that specializes in vintage and antique houses. The windows took about 2 months total to order and install. Then another month to get them trimmed inside and out. We had all the trim hand milled at a local wood shop, in trying to replicate the original from what was available as evidence on the ext shadows. The interior window trim was brittle and caked with layers of paint and we made the decision to replace it as well. The wood shop had a knife profile that pretty closely matched ours so we saved a few hundred dollars by not having to cut a new knife.
here are the new Marvin windows installed
basement and wood rot
Posted in basement, water damage, tagged basement, beams, old growth wood, post, water damage, wood on February 18, 2009| 2 Comments »
John was extremely excited about gutting the basement, which was wet, smelly and dark. The stench was unbelievable, and it permeated the whole house. Even though we had the whole house cleaned 3 times before we moved in, the source of the foul order remained a mystery. Not for long though. As soon as John started tearing out the wall panels in the basement he uncovered black mold everywhere. This was the culprit, unbeknownst to anyone we talked to before we bought the house, including our home inspector.
I think in retrospect they all avoided mentioning it as a possibility, certain we would not have bought this house under those conditions. Being from the East Coast, this was not an issue we had ever encountered, especially since our house in New Jersey did not have any such problems. Portland gets a tremendous amount of rain and the pile of dirt near the foundation had created an ongoing stream of wetness seeping into the house and infecting all the wood and of course the walls themselves, which were made of paper and fiber. We were extremely naive and completely clueless and were soon to discover an even worst nightmare caused by the water seepage.
old basement walls
john ready to gut basement
basement gutting
Well, the mold was obvious once we tore out the basement walls which were old drywall. there was a lot of black stuff on the other side of them. The smell was the worst thing. Then we tore out all the old insulation which was a big mess because it was fiber fill, the old style they used in the 50’s, pure dust.
Our old house was built with strong old growth wood beams and sills which we found were rotten. Can you believe it?? Such old growth strength gave way to water and its continuous destructive effect.
Once the whole basement was gutted and everything disposed off, I bought a janitorial mold killer and hired a guy to spray it on all the open wood beams, toxic stuff but it kills the bacteria. We left openings all around the siding for about a year so the air could get in and circulate the mold out. Then the following summer we cleaned up the basement floor and filled in the large holes and painted it. The holes were from people digging into it over the last 100 years and not repairing it and the smell from the wet soil was also contributing to the mold. We also put in all new insulation and new walls.
gutting the basement
replacing the original beams and sills
replacing beams
trees and water damage
Posted in water damage, tagged squirrel, tree, water damage on February 17, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Front Yard and Overgrown Trees
It was not so much a yard but a piece of land with bushes and wild nut trees growing on it. It looked like no one had touched it for 20 years. Uncared for and untended, abandoned really, except for an overgrown rose bush that seemed to hold some potential, still. This was March, 2006, early Spring and a handful of Japanese irises were beginning to shoot up next to the rose. Otherwise there was nothing but weeds and overgrown wild self-sown trees.
We had to take the tree down immediately. It had been planted by a squirrel maybe 10-15 years earlier and was a hazelnut tree that grew right next to the house. Since the soil around it had piled up and created a hill of dirt that was above our foundation level we realized the water would continue seeping into the basement as it had for many years previously. Our neighbor was very happy when we cut the tree down as she had been cleaning its nut deposits for years from her driveway and the baby nut trees it had been forming along side it.
the tree that caused the damage
this was the other angle of the tree
repairing the siding
Posted in house renovation exterior, tagged siding on February 13, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Siding repair
The siding was stripped of all the original paint and repaired. It took about 3 months!
the house after paint stripping and repair, also some necessary trim was installed
before and after
Posted in house renovation exterior, tagged metal, siding, trim on February 2, 2009| Leave a Comment »
how i saw the house
Many Victorian homes are renovated with extreme attention to historical detailing. This can become a bit manic and extremely expensive. These Victorians are colorful, vibrant, quite wild and beautiful, while more modern, newly built Victorians have a simpler palate. We wanted something in-between, non-traditional but also respectful of its history. We liked the idea of the tall 10 foot ceilings, typical of early Victorians. Most homes in our price range were bungalows and had lower ceilings which to us felt a bit confining. The attic was uninhabitable and there was no access to it but we thought we could make it into a living space eventually, which would add significantly to the square footage of the entire house. The neighborhood was one of our favorites and since our first month in Portland, it was the one area we returned to to shop and enjoy a pleasant meal.
We knew the house had great bones but quickly became aware of some of the issues, especially after the “heady” feeling passed and we had our inspection. The water in the basement, the unpleasant odor permeating the whole house, old fixtures and pipes and many other not so charming details suddenly loomed over us.
Siding
The siding was metal, pale blue, unattractive, and covering up beautiful original trim details and old wood siding. We realized you cannot paint it, the paint won’t stick and you cannot paint or trim any detail on it. The only solution was to rip it off. Once we did we were happy to find the original wood siding in great condition, but the trim was missing. Basically all the normal trim on a Victorian house was gone. There were gaps everywhere that allowed you to look through right into the inside of the house. The old paint also had to be stripped. So our two painters took to their heat guns and proceeded to spend the next 3 months hand stripping the original lead paint off the entire house.
this is how the house looked the day we purchased it
wow this was a huge shock! no trim whatsoever!
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