Thursday, March 3, 2022

Peeling Back the Layers - Sister House Demo

 

Hello Friends! How has it been five months since we started on Sister House?!!? It doesn't seem possible. Not to worry, Sister House is not finished yet! We ended up taking an unintentional six week break for Christmas and family things. Not quite in the plan, but that is how life goes.
So to pick up where I left off, Demo!  

Mandy and I were dying to see what was underneath the horrible drop ceiling in the dining and living room. So it was first on the list! It came down pretty easily and fast!
Above you can see the back wall with all the trim intact underneath the paneling!

And there was a light fixture (complete with wall switch!) hiding under the ceiling! 

It is really hard to see, but there is a beam (painted white) dividing the living room and dining! Just like at my house! I was so excited to uncover this!!

Once we got all the wood down it is much easier to see!
There was so much wood in that ceiling! A grid of one inch thick firring strips held up by 2" x 6" boards! Way more than was really required to hold up cardboard ceiling squares.... The 2 x 6 boards were bolted onto a 2" board that was also bolted into the wall studs. Unfortunately, that means I have a lot of bolt holes to patch! (Which is still on the to-do list)

The kitchen also needed some peeling. Goodbye paneling and another drop ceiling!

We also removed the upper cabinets and pulled up the linoleum. And yes! Plenty more holes to patch!

Of course under the linoleum was the dreaded black tar paper, but under that is lovely maple floors! After much experimentation I discovered washing with hot water then covering with a trash bag and letting soak for 6 hours did the trick! It still required some scraping, but much easier after the soak.

Tar paper protects the wood so nicely! The floors are beautiful!


Of course the bathroom also needed a little paneling removal! It was like an archeology dig. We could clearly see the previous remodel once the paneling was removed.

I am guessing the last remodel was in the 1950s? Pink tile and floral wallpaper just screen 1955!

You can still see the outline of the original 1920's trim and sink though! How I wish I still had that sink!


As charming as this little linen cupboard is, it isn't original 1920's either. In the bottom of the cupboard there is trim lines on the wall. So there probably was a clawfoot tub here too! But since I love the tub and it is staying, the cupboards are also staying! And yes, they do have doors. 


How fun is it that he signed his name?! I love finding things like this! And of course, I sign my name on the trim too!
(Actually, now that I think about it, I don't think he himself signed his name. We have found John Holicka's handwriting all over the house and his is very neat. This much of been a carpenter labeling the trim?)



Thursday, October 28, 2021

Happy 9th Anniversary Little House!

 

Goodness, another year has gone by!
When I was thinking about this post, I didn't think there was any projects to add to this year's Have-Done-List.  But looking through my pictures I discovered I was kind of busy this Spring! 

Backyard view through the apple tree.

The biggest projects was finally patching the heat vents! This one is a shared vent between the bathroom and back bedroom. 

Because the old vent covers actually come out over the floor, the floors also needed to be patched. Thankfully I had leftover tile and leftover flooring. But first patching the wall!

New lath is the first layer,

Then a "scratch" coat of plaster,

And finally the top coat of plaster.

The one tile half tile that needed to come out so I could fill it in with whole tiles.


Can you see the section that has really white grout? That is the new rows!

And since I had the tile cement and grout out and I thought it was finally time to finish the half row of tiles behind the bathroom door. I had originally miscalculated the width the trim would ended up taking and left too large of a gap.  

Gap all gone! And it took about ten minutes! Lol!

Once all the wall vents (there were six) were patched it was time for a little trim rearranging! I had a small amount of old trim left over and one 6' piece of new. It was really close, but we made it! 
The white piece of wall is my new patch, the black on either side is old wall.

This wall actually had four pieces of trim on it! I managed to get it down to two! 

This wall done! One would never know!

I also re-painted my bedroom! I finally found the paint of the color I had upstairs and am so happy with the color now!

Can you see the old color (upper part) and the new color (lower part)? So much better! The old color didn't even look pink compared to the new color.

And then I finished a new quilt for my bed!

Mandy and I had a shelf Saturday and took down the floating shelves I had upstairs, brought them down to my room and then put up a bigger shelf for plants upstairs.

We also hung towel hooks in the bathroom! Should have done this long ago! And I love the old fashioned look it brings to the bathroom.

Mandy's new plant shelf. It has so many more plants now that we have had to bring then all in for the winter.

So that is this year's list! More than I thought, I had kind of forgotten that all happened this year! Working on Sister House is bringing back so many memories. It is fun to see the sister's differences, but I am still glad this little house it mine. 

The two sisters!



Wednesday, October 20, 2021

On to Sister House!


 Are you ready for a tour of Sister House?!?
It has been so fun (and a lot of work!) discovering all of her features and charm. At times I have felt a bit like an archeologist digging into the past, peeling back layer after layer! On October 1st Mandy and I started cleaning, de-cluttering and peeling back the 1970's layers.
Do you know why I named her Sister House? She is an almost exact duplicate of my little house!

The sisters basking in the autumnal sun!


The living room and dining room is all one great room. Lots of carpet (that already went in the dumpster!) and a drop ceiling that we tore out.



Also a bit of paneling on the back wall!

Oh the kitchen! So much paneling! And another drop ceiling!



And more paneling in the bathroom! 

A nice old 1950's bathtub. The tile surround is actually a more pleasant color than it shows up here. A friend called it pistachio and I think that describes it perfectly! 





The front bedroom. Just a bit of wallpaper removal here!



The back bedroom with more wallpaper!



The upstairs is one big loft with lots of fun ceiling angles! 



I will be removing the closet doors and leaving them as alcoves. 

The stair paint is certainly not helping to brighten things up!

Of course, Sister House doesn't look exactly like this right now. Mandy and I have been ripping out and ripping out! I am so super excited about this project! I have dreaming about it for a long time. Not only is this another cute bungalow that needs love, but I will be furnishing and decorating her to rent out as an Airbnb!!
I have always thought it would be really cool to have a Bed and Breakfast, so when I discovered Airbnb, I knew the dream was getting closer! I think Airbnb is a great way to share my love of old houses. I can't wait to take you all on the journey!

I will be back shortly with pictures after demo and all the fun things we uncovered!

P.S. Sister House has her own Instagram account! Follow along @SisterHouseCottage.