Kicked Eaves

Cooking with Gas

2010-10-16T11:48:00.006-04:00

We recently had an energy audit conducted on the house. The result: our home has heat loss equivalent to a 24 inch diameter hole in the wall. It wasn't really fair that the storm windows are currently off, and we do in fact have holes in the walls, of various sizes. But still, our heating and insulation could be more efficient.

The new storm windows will help, but we really want to get away from so much oil use.

Eventually we may use the gas line to heat a boiler, but until then, we took advantage of a sale Finest Hearth and installed a gas fireplace insert. Now we can heat the downstairs to a cozy temperature without using any oil.

Bonus - it looks a lot better than the old non-functioning fireplace. Bonus #2 - it works in a power outage!

Before:

After:

We're still trying to figure out what to do with the bricks and the tiles below, which are only temporarily placed there.

Patented Technology

2010-09-21T21:04:00.004-04:00

With a small amount of research, we were able to unearth the patent for our Loxit Sash Balances. Through a home restoration message board I was put in touch with an historic hardware guy who sent me the name of a guy who can replicate the wooden teeth -- he suggests using a reinforced resin to withstand moisture. Not sure how much all this will cost, but its neat to know we could pull it together if we wanted to. Who knew that the Internets could be such a boon for old home restoration?

No More Nerve-Wearing Perturbations

2010-09-21T16:20:00.018-04:00

There's a chill in the air these days, which means we need to get our storm windows back on ASAP!

When we re-shingled, we removed an array of mismatched storms. Most were triple-track aluminum, some perhaps original wood, but none in good shape. With our beautiful new casings and shingles, we were hard pressed to have the old mismatched storms re-installed.

For replacements we decided to go with Adams Architectural Millwork, out of Gelana, Illinois. For a long time we had considered some aluminum "historic" storms from Allied, but in the end we knew that only a wooden storm would do the house justice. The ones we ordered will have screens that can pop in place of the glass from the inside, so no climbing on ladders every spring. Here's an example of the wooden Adams storm:

In the meantime, we've started on the window restoration project. We picked the two front windows, as they are the first thing you see from the street. Recall we also "trued-up" the center bay and right window up front. So this bay has seen its fair share of attention.

We made a cool discovery when the sashes were removed this morning. We've always known our first floor windows had some interesting hardware. There are two buttons on the casing, to the right of each window. The windows are all long-since painted shut, so we didn't know exactly what function the buttons performed.

This hardware is apparently so rare that none of the builders or window restoration people we've had out to the house have recognized it. When the windows came out today, we were able to get a closer look.

We found this mechanism inside - a solid looking cog, and a set of wooden "teeth" along the sides of the sashes.

A closer looks reveals the name "Loxit Sash Balance," a patented product out of Providence Rhode Island.

Of course we googled them and found one or two hits, one from a School Journal published in 1901 (same year the house was built). It seems to cover everything from textbooks to construction. But it did have these interesting notes about our hardware...

The Loxit makes windows open and close easily!:

"No need of sending a boy with a long stick to tug and heave while the other pupils look on with unconcealed amusement."

The Loxit eliminates that annoying rattle!:

"The Loxit also does a good work in preventing windows from rattling. The sash is held so firmly in its place, that, no matter if it has undergone shrinkage it cannot get started on a course of nerve-wearing perturbations."

I am ALL FOR elimination of nerve-wearing perturbations. If only they made one that applied to 4, 3 and 1 year olds.

Think Like a Raindrop

2010-09-01T17:45:00.011-04:00

I think it was our Realtor who said "a home's worst enemy is water." He said to "think like a raindrop" when assessing certain structural elements of a home where wood meets rain, snow or wind...

When you think about it, this entire Project is about protecting our home from water, or the elements. A new covering of Typar, new shingles, and eventually some window restoration and new storms.

The new bulkhead solved a major water issue in the back, but the real issue is water coming off the roof and sitting against the foundation. With our unique "kicked eaves" roof line, we cannot install a gutter without destroying the aesthetics of the house. So water basically pours off the roof, pounds the earth below, eroding the dirt and then seeping back into the basement through the foundation.

The worst of the problem was along the front of the house where the grade level was actually lower than the middle of our lawn. The house was sitting in a hole, effectively.

So now we've addressed this issue with a serious drip edge. We've installed about two feet of stone, with a drain pipe buried in it, which will divert water away from the foundation and into the yard.

Here is the drip edge in progress. We're very happy with the results, and we'll know how it works when Earl hits this weekend.

Some close ups of the drip edge.

Of course the beds will eventually have plantings, and you won't be able to see the drip edge, but we'll know its there, quietly protecting the house from the evils of water.

Here's a shot of the front steps newly stained, and now nicely meeting the new grade of the front walk. You can see our current mailbox solution. It's an improvement over the mailman wedging our mail between the screen and the glass on the back door.

Now we're just waiting on the front door, the final shingles around it, the mailbox, the doorbell... Should be done in time for Christmas!Welcome home!

Photo Update

2010-08-31T18:47:00.002-04:00

We're finally getting to the re-grading required to make our front stairs "work" with the landscape. No more 12 inch drop on the last riser! We're also putting in a drip edge to divert water away from the foundation.

ShamWOW!

2010-08-19T16:14:00.003-04:00

I have to admit, this is one very exciting milestone! Welcome to the 21st Century old Kicked Eaves! Ok, well maybe just the 20th Century, but we'll take it!

A New Bulkhead, Yahoo! (sarcasm)

2010-08-18T15:52:00.008-04:00

Our new bulkhead door finally arrived. This is one of the less-fun, required improvements. The old dog-house was really a mess, and a stream of water literally flowed through to our basement every time it rained. So while this will not improve our enjoyment of the house, it will certainly decrease the headache factor.

Recall the old dog-house style bulkhead:

The current situation is shown below. They had to pour a small concrete base at the top of the old stairs down to the basement. It is a non-standard size opening (of course!) so the new steel bulkhead door had to be custom made, and it will now sit on top of the concrete base. The alternative was ripping out the old stairs entirely and pouring an all new foundation down there. The custom door/small concrete cap was the less expensive option.

Note the small deck is now removed from the sliding doors. Long-term we plan to reconfigure this back corner so the exit is in the rear of the house. In the meantime, we'll just place that old rotten set of stairs up against the house. I'm sure it will look great. ;)

Here's the new bulkhead, on its side. It's primed in red paint now, but will be painted to match the shingles.

Like I said, not really fun stuff, but necessary. And also fantastic for insulation and security.

Columns!

2010-08-12T14:41:00.007-04:00

Our columns arrived yesterday! The builder came out first thing this morning to install. Behold:
Of course this is more fun with a before shot:

Pretty dramatic, right?

We're still waiting on our front door, overhead lantern, and a little landscaping... and our exterior makeover will be complete! Well, at least as far as the porch is concerned.

Approaching Completion, Phase I

2010-07-30T21:42:00.006-04:00

About time for some more progress photos. The shingles are 99% done, the trim is 90% done. We're just waiting on our columns, the new bulkhead door, and the front door, before the final touches can be made.

Here are some before and after shots. Notice there are no more wires coming to the front corner of the house! This may not look like much in the photo, but in real life it really opens up the front yard, and cleans up the feel of that front corner.

We have some decisions to make regarding the windows. We found another restoration guy who can do it for less. When we started really thinking about restoring all the old windows - the numbers started to get pretty painful. For the cost to restore one old window, you could almost buy two nice new windows. And with new windows you would not need storms.

In the end we decided that yes we do still want to restore. We're going to start with the front two on either side of the large bay window. In the meantime we need to get storms back up on the other windows. While its unusually hot here in Maine, winter will be here soon enough and the wind blows straight through these old windows.

Once we finish these open items, the exterior of the house will pretty much be done. I guess we can call this Phase I. Phase II and III being the interior and adding space.... both of which are still TBD.

When is a Door not a Door?

2010-07-15T19:58:00.009-04:00

When it is a fine piece of modern craftsmanship that creates a water and air-tight, secure barrier between you and the world. And when it replaces a dilapidated, poorly built, drafty, 50 cent locks from Ace Hardware thing that barely kept out the mice.

Behold, our new cellar door. This is the door at the base of the bulkhead (see below). It may not look like much, but this puppy will pay for itself in one winter given the breeze and sunshine you could feel through the old one.

Unfortunately I did not take a good "before" shot of the old one, so here it is, lying in the dumpster in our front yard. Buh-Bye Old Door!

Is that your FINAL answer?

2010-07-13T19:14:00.007-04:00

You have to be decisive and have a strong gut when you're renovating your home. You make a decision one day, and the next day it's implemented in the form of labor and materials. If you change your mind, it's either going to cost you, or you just have to live with your "mistake."

I've spent many a late night fretting over catching the builder first thing in the morning to share a revised detail -- before a truckload of bead board is purchased or the wrong paint color is mixed.

So we decided to go with "option c" for the soffit. We are applying new bead board to the existing soffit thereby encasing any lead paint AND improving the appearance.

Today when we stepped out to see the progress for the day, we saw bead board already applied to 1/3 of the soffit area. Luckily, we really like the result.

The painter will be here this week. Hopefully we picked the right color!

We ordered four new windows for the breakfast room about 2 weeks ago. Fortunately for us, Eagle takes 2 weeks just to process the order, and we only received a call to verify colors today. Turns out we DO want to change the order. This is one instance where slow processing works to our benefit.

We picked a front door design, and now we understand the process will be iterative. This brings great calm to the indecisive soul. The door manufacturer will create a design sketch and send it to us. We then get to "tweak" it if anything looks off. Basically we want something like the photo below, which is a historic door from our neighborhood. At the rate windows and doors are shipped, it may be winter before we see ours, but at least we know it will be exactly what we want.

White is not White

2010-07-08T18:36:00.008-04:00

Until you analyze a home inch by inch, you don't really think about all the details that go into your overall impression. You just drive by and think "that place is a dump" or "that looks cozy." But what exactly is it that makes a dump a Dump?

In the case of our Dump, there are many elements. The most noticeable problem for our house -- in our opinion -- was the shingles. They looked like a set of bad teeth. Fine from far away, but if you come close and get a big smile... it was unmistakably dilapidated.

And its not until you start fixing certain elements that you notice others that are less obvious (because you're distracted by the crooked teeth). For example - grossly crooked shingles will distract you from the chipped paint on the trim. So replace the shingles, fix the trim. Then you notice the soffit needs a little help.

So we've come to the soffit and our options are: a) paint them, including careful handling of existing lead paint; b) tear them off - including careful handling of lead painted boards; or c) place new bead board soffit on top of the existing boards thus encasing any lead painted surfaces.

The easiest (and cheapest) option is c.

We think, we hope, that this is the last bit we need to fix to completely eliminate all obvious elements of dumpiness from the place (at least from the exterior!).

Here's a photo of the same gable from the previous post - now newly shingled! It looks great! And I was going to point out on this photo how the soffit now looks crumbly in comparison, but you know what? In this photo you can't really tell. The builder was going on and on today about the 20 foot rule: from 20 feet away you can make anything look good with a new coat of paint. Maybe he's right.

In other riveting news, we picked one of the trim colors. Our basic scheme is Seacoast Gray Shingle, white trim, black accents. Of course "white" is any one of five hundred billion color options. We narrowed this down to 5 soft whites from Sherwin Williams, and finally decided on "Classical White" -- which, if you care, is a white with Raw Umber and Deep Gold mixed in. It is a nice warm white with brown and yellow undertones. In contrast we could have gone with a colder white with no yellow mixed in (see Sherwin Williams "Pure White" which is white with only Raw Umber mixed).

Photos on the Internet are never accurate when it comes to color, but this shows two of our choices (Downy on the left, Classical White on the right). Compare both of them to the white trim already in place - that is just a cold plain white primer coat on the wood. The Classical White will register "white" to a passer by, but in their heart they will think "my, that house looks so cozy and inviting!" Well at least that's what we hope.

A New First Impression

2010-07-06T21:32:00.009-04:00

The shingling is coming along very nicely. It's amazing what some nice, even, smooth shingles can do for an old home. Even without new paint, the old windows look better, and if you don't look too closely the whole place really looks brand new.

The third photo shows a high gable where the last of the original shingles remain - quite rough in comparison.

I see now how the exterior of a home can really impact a buyer's interest in a home; the first impression is everything. But the thing is, we're not new buyers -- we've been living here for almost 2 years. So while the exterior now looks like a million bucks, we're not fooled. We know what the basement looks like. We know about that painted-over-wallpaper.

It does look great though. We can't say it doesn't make us happy to see the old place spiffed up.

That being said, we're ready for the builders to leave. It's sort of like a good date that has gone on just a wee bit too long.

At first everyone was giddy and smiling. A veritable love fest. Then the bill arrived and things went south fast. In all seriousness, it just gets old having guys working outside your windows all day long -- especially when you work from home. The debris on the lawn keeps the kids inside, the driveway is full of supplies. So, as much as we love these guys, we'll be happy when they go.

I guess this is a good lesson, and we will think very seriously before we embark on any further projects.

Progress Photos

2010-07-01T16:08:00.005-04:00

Here are a few shots of this week's progress. You can see the exterior of the now-straight bay window up front. There are two other windows that could use straightening, but we're now asking ourselves: how much is a straight line worth?

The answer: probably not at much as it costs.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

2010-06-28T20:59:00.008-04:00

If you have kids you've probably read the children's book series "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie." Renovating an old house is much like that series. Basically, if you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to want a glass of milk, and if you give him milk he's going to ask for a straw... and so on.

So if you re-shingle a 110 year old home, when the builder gets to a crooked window sill he's going to ask you if you want to straighten it. If you straighten a crooked window, you're going to have to replace the interior trim. If you replace the interior trim you're going to damage the plaster, and so on.

Having lasted 110 years, our home is actually still quite straight and solid. There are one or two locations however where the house clearly settled and it is most obvious when you look at the windows. Four of the windows have been manipulated over the years so that the window sash appears level, while the window opening itself has gone 1-2 inches off kilter. The technical term for this effect is called, "the hot mess."

Two of these off-kilter windows happen to be right at the front entry. We decided to let the builder "true-up" the opening on these two, then we would see how it looks and decide if its worth it to do the other two.

To complicate matters, we know there's lead paint involved. We've got 3 kids age 4 down to 8 months* so this is a big issue for us. We're happy to get rid of any lead based interior trim - but the removal itself is also tricky.

We had to clear all furniture out of the room in question, and when the builders arrived this morning they went in there and sealed themselves off with plastic sheeting. Lots of banging and sawing later we're left with this lovely interior.

The builder will now cut a new knife with our trim pieces and return in a day or two with brand new trim that matches the original exactly.

Note the hole in the wall between the two windows. We knew this was a possibility. To add yet another layer of complication to things, the walls you see here are actually wallpapered plaster, painted over by us in the lovely Benjamin Moore Yosemite Sand.

So now we wonder - do we just patch that spot, or is now the time to rip all the wallpaper down, and re-surface this room? Like I said, if you re-shingle a 110 year old home...

*if you were not already questioning our sanity, you know for certain now that we are clearly not in our right minds due to years of sleep deprivation!

2010-06-25T15:31:00.000-04:00

New Casings are Here!

2010-06-24T21:46:00.005-04:00

Our builder has made more than a reasonable effort to convince us to replace our windows, and I have to say he's almost broken us once or twice. But we remain resolute.

Today the builder installed some of our new casings. This is the outer most trim that goes around the top and sides of the window. The sill is the bottom piece, and unless you pull the entire window out of the wall, you cannot replace the sill.

The builder had a knife cut to match our existing trim, and then cut new casing trim to apply to the windows. The new casing is approximately 1/4 inch thicker than the old casing. This is required so that the shingles and the "cedar breather" behind them do not rise up above the dimension of the casing. That would make the windows look buried in shingles.

Anyway, the photo here shows our stained glass window with the new casing applied. Just inside the new casing you can see some chipped and ragged looking trim. I believe that is the jam? similar to the sill it cannot be replaced without removing the entire window. It looks bad in this photo, but in person you can tell that with a coat of paint the overall trim will look brand new.

We do plan to remove 2 or 3 windows that are severely askew to straighten them out. It turns out the house is not crooked, just these few window openings appear to be crooked. Perhaps they settled that way? We have to clear out the living room for several days while they do that, but that's a post for another day.

Shingle Progress

2010-06-23T18:09:00.003-04:00

Perspective

2010-06-21T18:10:00.007-04:00

Let's check out some side-by-side before and after shots to see just how far we've come with the porch.

Its easy to lose sight of how things used to look. Now I see lots of nice straight lines, smooth shingles. No matter how much we sweat the details it's going to look great when it's done!

Pretty Shingles!

2010-06-18T16:42:00.009-04:00

More progress photos. Lattice work installed in the porch base. This is for ventilation under the porch, and its also a nice detail to break up the continuous shingles.

And yes, those are new shingles!

While this makes us inordinately happy to see, our celebration is also mixed with some frustration.

When you look at the porch you probably see wood, shingles, some stairs. Not much to it, right?

Well we see those things, but we also see a rise over run that is steeper than we requested, a lattice box that is mysteriously off center, and trim detail that does not quite look like what we had in mind. And why doesn't the lattice box look exactly like the photo we used as a reference?

In these small, teeny-tiny, seemingly innocent details, we've learned many many lessons.

Back when we were planning a more elaborate addition the architects offered project management services. They would come on site and monitor progress and give guidance to the builders. While this wouldn't make sense for a project this small, we've learned now how valuable those services can be.

Without detailed written specs, informal conversations happen. Decisions are made on the fly. Miscommunications happen and next thing you know you've got a 7 3/4 inch stair rise and someone had their heart set on a 6 inch rise and the stairs might need to be torn off and rebuilt and nobody's happy about that.

So while we're delighted to see some shingles thrown up, there's a fair amount of sweat and frustration thrown in behind them that no one would notice besides me and Chris (and of course the skilled craftsman who actually did install them). ::sigh::

But don't the shingles look pretty?

It's a Wrap! Sort of...

2010-06-17T19:29:00.007-04:00

Almost all of the old shingles are now off and the house is wrapped. This photo shows the festoon of wires and boxes I mentioned, they will all be going away when we bury the electric/cable/phone.

The builders finally installed some stairs to the porch (admittedly they were waiting for some decisions from us before building). Seems we have some code issues that are hard to resolve in an aesthetically pleasing manner.

The wall/rail around the porch is only 24 inches high. That was the original height, and we want to preserve that. It feels less enclosed and also does not block the line of sight from the inside.

Because the porch deck is only 30 inches from grade level, a 24 inch rail is OK. Anything higher off the ground would require a 34 inch rail. The stairs, because there are 4 or more risers, do require a 34 inch rail. So how to make a 34 inch hand rail work with a 24 inch porch rail? Basically the hand rail would run right into the base of the columns which is not going to look good.

We're still not sure how to resolve it, but we know the stairs will have a shingled wall running down either side. Until we figure it out we need a set of functional stairs so we can start using the front door again.

The yellow wrapping over the Typar is "Cedar Breather" - it creates a 1/4 inch space between the Typar and the shingles so that air can circulate and keep everything dry. Because of the Cedar Breather, we'll need to bump out our window casings by a 1/4 inch so that our windows do not appear to be buried in shingles. This is not an issue because we're replacing the casings anyway (matching the existing detail). We're keeping the original sashes and sill though.

We're pretty sure a shingle or two might be installed tomorrow - this is what we've been waiting for! Hopefully we still like the color once it goes ON the house.

New Skin in Progress

2010-06-14T21:39:00.012-04:00

The re-shingling process started today. Looks like they went around the house and tore off anything they could reach without a ladder.

The new shingles arrived. Maibec Eastern White Cedar Shingles, in Seacoast Gray.

Here you can see evidence of the trench where they buried the conduit for the electrical, cable and phone wires. This will eliminate the festoon of wires and boxes that currently clutter the front right corner of the house. We don't think the builders have any intention of re-seeding this trench, so until we do something we might have a mud problem on our hands.

It seems like slow going, but I think just removing the jagged rotten shingles is an improvement. At least the Typar is smooth and clean.

Speaking of Typar - Whatever happened to Tyvek? I wondered that too... I don't see much Tyvek anymore. Apparently they are competing products. Typar is more breathable.* Guess that's a good thing, although, we're not so worried about our house becoming too airtight anytime soon.

*If you ask Dupont, Tyvek is better. We figure that our house has been without either for 110 years, we're just happy to have any house to wrap at this point!

As Good as New?

2010-06-12T21:32:00.011-04:00

Seeing the innards of your 110 year old home is a bit unnerving. They tore off the siding on the front to run some new wiring to the porch. The inner beams and paneling are actually in pretty good shape.

But like the mid-point of a root canal, you wonder to yourself if it will ever be quite the same again. The Dentist reassures you you'll be as good as new, but until you chew your first New York bagel, you don't quite believe it.

The builders quickly put up the bead board, the next day the deck was installed, and thankfully the place looks a little less like an irretrievable mess.

Buried Treasure

2010-06-08T20:05:00.006-04:00

We found these two small glass bottles when excavating under the porch.

Based on some very rough internet research, I would date them around 1900-1920. One of them has the faintest traces of a label on it - Edward something... and a Street address that we can't make out.

It seems it was very common in the early 1900's for home owners to bury their old used glass bottles in their own yard. A neighbor of ours finds old glass on a regular basis.

Have you ever wondered where all your used glass ends up? Wine, beer and ice tea bottles, used once then tossed? Most of it is recycled now, but think of the piles, mountains, of used glass that must be buried under our feet!

When you think about it, old home restoration is sort of like a massive recycling project (this is not a new idea). Of course, like the one wine bottle or cardboard box - its just a drop in the bucket. But maybe one restored home will inspire the neighbor to do the same... and so on...

Laying Ground Work

2010-06-07T18:31:00.009-04:00

For the very first time in this almost two-year long process, I finally feel a sense of satisfaction with old-home restoration. Up until now everything was on paper. Theoretical. And honestly, until now it was just two years of tedious, anxiety-producing list making, picture drawing and magazine flipping.

After the porch demo, they started laying the groundwork (literally) for a proper porch installation. To address some water issues we've re-graded the area under the porch. At the foot of the future new steps they dug an 18 inch trench and filled it with gravel. This will prevent the stairs from heaving or shifting during the winter freeze.

Even though this amounts to a pile of sand and rocks, it gives us great pleasure to see something done right, and know that the end result could last another 50 plus years.

In the meantime we're still stuck on shingle colors. We narrowed it down to the two shown below. Don't bother picking one, because the photo on here tells you absolutely nothing about the true color. The color changes from photo to photo, monitor to monitor, and also from morning to noon, cloud to sun.

We pretty sure we're going with the one on the right. It is a very very light gray. It almost looks white, unless you see it next to something that is actually white, which is why we have the footrest out there in the photo. The trim will be white. Window sashes will be black... we think...

And here is our future porch deck, neatly stacked on a clean job site (a good thing). And there's our very own port-o-potty. We originally questioned the need for one... but after seeing some of these guys I'm glad we went for it!

Emo Porch Demo

2010-06-03T09:06:00.009-04:00

It's started! After almost two years of planning, our home renovation project is finally under way.

This week we're tackling the porch. The existing porch, up to the roof, is getting demolished and rebuilt. As I mentioned before, the stairs were clearly unsafe. What we didn't know was that the entire porch was somewhat unsteady.

When they tore off the base, we found this:
The post you see directly under the nearest column is not something we added today during demo - that is what was supporting the porch. It appears to be a 4x4 post, with 3 2x4s tacked on the top.

My construction experience consists of watching my Dad build our front steps when I was eight, and even I know that this is not adequate support - and it certainly cannot meet code requirements!

Anyway, they delivered some very impressive looking pre-cast cement pillars to go in the ground which will give our new porch a nice solid foundation.

The demo process is fairly surgical. First they had to jack up the existing roof, then tear off each part of the porch carefully, so as not to disturb the Christmas lights.

Here's what it looked like at the end of the first day:

With only one day behind us I can report that the builders are quiet and neat. So far so good.

I mentioned before that this is not a finance blog. This is a renovation journal, but all I really want to write about now is the emotions tied to this project.

Mulling this over I've concluded that home renovation IS an emotional subject.

So how are we feeling? Chris is excited. He's happy to see work finally getting started. Me? I'm a mess. I spent several hours last night worrying about the columns.

See the wavy columns in the pictures? We HATED those columns when we bought this house. I've never seen anything like them. They look like they are perhaps installed upside down? No other home from this era has columns like this. When we drafted renovation plans we picked out the traditional Tuscan column with appropriate entasis.

There is a home in our neighborhood that is almost identical to ours, and that one has the standard Tuscan column. So perhaps our wavy columns were added later? Or maybe the builder wanted to put a unique mark on this home? Who knows.

But now that half our porch is in a dumpster in the front yard, I'm wondering - are we going to regret losing those columns? Maybe the whole character of the house will be lost without them. Will the proportions ever be right again? Seeing the porch dismantled makes me feel sad for the old house; I wonder - who are we to mess with something that's been around for 110 years?

So I stepped out in the rain this morning and asked the foreman to please place the old columns in the garage. You know, just in case we come up with a use for them someday.

On Porches

2010-05-28T09:59:00.011-04:00

Our very first "small project" will start next week! We decided to tackle the porch first for many reasons. The porch represents probably 80% of the first impression of the home, we do spend a great deal of time out there in the summer, and the front steps are simply unsafe.

We're busy scrambling to pull together details for the reconstruction. Our goal is to match the original architecture as much as possible. One change we are considering is a different combination of railing/shingled surface.

You'll note that our current porch has a solid shingled wall:

This is the original porch, we are fairly certain. The only missing element is probably a widow's walk above the porch. We know this based on the old photos and this drawing from the local newspaper, published in 1901:

Here are some examples from our neighborhood of what we may do instead of the solid wall (the first two being from the same architect, and probably the third as well):

The railing adds a nice detail that would improve the overall look of the porch, but something about changing a design that has existed for 109 years seems... wrong. Using the architect's own design from another building feels slightly better. We would love to rebuild the widow's walk, but we're not touching the roof of the porch in this project, so maybe later.

I will have to get out there this weekend and take extensive "before" photos before the demolition starts. That should be a good show for the kids!

Plan B

2010-05-20T21:02:00.009-04:00

If you're wondering what the heck is going on with The Project, well, join the club. The whole thing got held up at the appraisal stage and... as we expected... things did not pan out. The numbers don't make sense. Why would you build if you can buy for 75% of the cost? Home prices are coming down, building costs are not. Bla bla bla.

But this is a renovation journal, not a finance blog so long story short, we're still moving ahead. We're just going to do it in a more financial cautious manner.

We've prioritized smaller projects to tackle while we watch the market and re-evaluate The Project in another six month.

The smaller projects we want to tackle now are:

*Re-build front porch
*Re-shingle
*Repair a rotten rear deck
*Long
***List
*****of
******Money
*******Sucking
*********Projects!

We met with Bob the Builder, yesterday (his name really is Bob). Understandably, he's disappointment that the whole thing is not happening as planned. However, he was more than happy to help us get started on smaller projects.

He was so happy, in fact, that he stopped by unannounced today to scope out the porch project. He left a sample of ceder shingles which made us inordinately happy. Something tangible, colors to choose! We're really getting something done after almost two years of planning!

So, as for color...we're thinking of a traditional grayish shingle color, and an overall color scheme along the lines of this:

Originally we had admired some color schemes with more contrast, like this (sorry for the tiny pic):

But that was nearly two years ago when we first started all of this planning, and now we're thinking the dark trim with beige is going to look too 2005...

So our current choice is Seacoast Gray, which will look roughly like the first photo above. We hope to see Bob back here next week for porch demo, otherwise known as Phase I of Plan B

Yard Work

2010-04-02T11:11:00.022-04:00

Slow going here on "The Project," as we call it. Still in a holding pattern. Gas line is flagged, builder is ready, and now we wait, and wait.

So while we're waiting, I can share some more "before" shots.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, our yard is woefully underutilized. Before we moved in we tore off a rotting deck in the rear of the house. Now the post holes and debris left behind make the yard a bit of a hazard for the kids.

The front yard, while level and large, is a bit wild and woolly. The driveway exits onto a busy street.

The backyard is a great sunny spot in spring and summer, but there's no access from the rear of the house and its too muddy in March and April to really enjoy.

Part of our plan is to do some landscaping, add a hedge or wall along the busy road, and move the driveway to exit onto the quieter side street.

The drawing below shows the plan for the yard, with the driveway relocated.

The color drawing is one option for the backyard. With a little thought, this not-so-large space could be quite pleasant at least 6 months out of the year.

Its nice to look at the drawings and imagine the yard in a year or two... in the meantime we wait.

Kitchens and Gardens

2010-03-14T22:04:00.003-04:00

This past weekend we met with the kitchen designer and a landscape architect. Despite all of the anxiety around a project of this magnitude, when we think about the end result in the kitchen and the yard, it is hard not to be excited to get started.

The kitchen is already the hub of the house. The more time I spend there, the more I can see how great the new kitchen will be. The new kitchen will also be the connecting point between the old and new portions of the house. Our inspiration for the kitchen is this:

This is very close to the look we're going for - perhaps a less stark-white for the cabinets. These are nice but we want a more historic look. The pendant lights over the island are very close to what we want. Soapstone counters, drawer pulls (oiled bronze).

In contrast, the yard is one part of our property that is drastically underutilized. Mud, ruts and valleys, chipped paint and debris from shingles and who knows what, and a driveway that runs out to a busy street, makes it very unappealing especially with 3 small children. Part of the landscape plan is to move the driveway to lead out to the quiet side street, and place a hedge or wall along the busy street, creating a safer front yard for the kids. We'll also clean up the back yard and add a deck off of the new family room which will make use of the yard that much more appealing.

We're still looking at an 8-10 month outside estimate for project completion. Our current estimate to break ground is mid to late April. But after this weekend we just want to get started!

A Little about Lighting

2010-02-24T21:22:00.009-05:00

I wish I had some great ground breaking photos to share, but we're not there yet. We're currently in the painful process of sharing every minute detail of our financial history with the bank. We hope to break ground by the end of March, but that is still just a hope.

In the meantime, we have plenty of time to stew over our plans, and work on the one hundred zillion decisions to be made. If you think about all the decisions at once it is overwhelming, the stuff of 3 am anxiety. So we are taking all this time to make decisions at our own pace. This week its lighting and kitchen layout.

You cannot underestimate the importance of good lighting. Once you start paying attention, you'll notice three types of lighting in a warm, well-lit home:

Ambient lighting: provides the overall glow that lets you get from point A to point B without stubbing your toe; but if you have a wardrobe of black like I do, it is useless to help you make heads or tails of the sea of black within a dresser drawer. Typically recessed lights in modern homes, or the single overhead light in older homes.

Task lighting: designed to help with a specific task like cooking or reading. Usually a recessed light or under cabinet light in the kitchen. Our current kitchen is quite dark, with most task lighting frustratingly placed behind our heads, casting a shadow right where we work.

Accent lighting: lighting used to illuminate art or a plant or some other focal point. Since we have no major artwork, we're leaving any accent lighting for a future project.

When these three types of lighting are layered well, it can make an empty box look warm and inviting.

For ambient light we know we'll need some hanging lights over the kitchen island. We like the look of the one shown here - somewhat period appropriate, simple.

There's really only four other places that require special light fixtures: stairway wall sconces, bathroom wall mounts, and the family room overhead light. Lots of decisions...but we're chipping away.

Shedding Some Light on Windows

2010-02-20T11:13:00.000-05:00

What makes the look of a home appealing? Aside from subjective design differences, there are many elements that go into a beautiful home. Some are obvious, while others may never hit your radar. We notice good architecture, quality materials. Less obvious, but probably most important are the windows.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, when we first looked at the house, the crusty painted-shut windows were a horror to us. I grew up in a home with old windows -- sills filled with chipped paint, hard to open -- and I dreamed of a home with clean smooth-operating windows. Because of the potential lead hazard we even contemplated replacing every window before moving in.

Before the closing, the inspector caught wind of our plan and said "you might want to reconsider taking the windows out, some people place a high value on a home with original windows..."

So we turned to the internet and opened Pandora's box of window knowledge. Here is some of the terminology required to talk the talk when it comes to windows.

"true divided light" means the window is made up of smaller panes of glass with wooden muntins that run vertically and/or horizontally holding the glass in place.

"simulated divided light" means the window is made of one pane of glass, with a grill placed on one or both sides of the glass to simulate the look of true divided light.

"double hung window" means a window with a lower and upper sash (the glass part) that slide past each other vertically:

"casement window" means a window typically with one sash that opens on one side hinge:

There are several other styles of window, but our home has only double-hung, and in the new portion we will install several casement windows for better ventilation.

Back to the True/Simulated Divided light debate... True Divided Light Windows are expensive. Of the big window makers, only Marvin has a true divided light line. Of course you can go to a smaller custom window builder and get them made, but again, it will cost you.

After a little research, our eyes are opened to the difference a window can make. Suddenly we don't see a home and think "that's nice" or "that looks like poor construction" -- we can now identify at least one element that goes into this overall appearance of quality vs. cheaper construction.

Many people, especially the sales person at the window store, will argue that the Simulated Divided Light windows are easier to clean, have great insulation factor, will last 25+ years. Later they will try to sell you something made of vinyl arguing they "look just like wood." So if a vinyl, simulated divided light window is much cheaper - why would you ever want to pay more for a real wood, True Divided Light window?

The answer is simple - while you may not notice it immediately, a good window will dramatically change the look of a home. I once heard someone describe very cheap simulated divided light windows as giving a home a "blank stare." When we started to observe windows, we did notice that the true divided light, especially original ones with the wavy glass, can really give a home a warmth that is hard to duplicate with a new window.

But aesthetics aside, we don't have an unlimited budget. Fortunately there are all-wood, simulated divided light windows out there that come so close to the real thing that you truly cannot tell the difference.

Small details in the construction of the window are what make the visual difference:

*Wood vs. vinyl

*Spacers between the glass

*grills/muntins on both sides of the glass; and

*the depth of the muntin (is it just a flat piece of vinyl or is a real wood grill with some depth?)

So while we hope to restore the windows in the existing portion of the home, we will be going with the Eagle (now owned by Andersen) "colonial" simulated divided light window for the new portion. The colonial style has a deeper profile muntin/grill, which looks just like the 100 year old windows we have now. These will give us great energy efficiency while respecting the overall historic look we want to preserve.

And now you know more about windows then you ever cared to know. But you'll notice the difference the next time you see a nice old window!

Location Location Location

2010-02-13T20:13:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned in the last post, when we first purchased the home we thought it needed major work. The basement had such a mold issue you could smell it immediately upon entering the house. We imagined massive renovations would have to happen even before we moved in. Replacing windows, sandblasting doors...

Luckily after some research we realized that we really didn't want to replace the windows, we wanted to restore them. But the guy we wanted to use had about a 6 month backlog. So we opted to just seal the entire house in a coat of fresh paint, and hope for the best until we could get around to the restoration. Here are some before and after shots from that initial paint job, completed before we ever moved in. Efficiency and cost dictated that we actually paint over the wallpaper! Actually a builder told us the plaster might not survive removal of the wallpaper, so until we were ready for a major renovation he advised we just paint over the flowers. And that is what we did. Its amazing what a coat of paint in the right color can do for a home. As you can see the windows are amazing. Two thirds of the home gets southern sun exposure. Like I said the house also has pretty much every original detail intact. Some stained glass in the foyer, an interesting double staircase. Here is an interesting set of windows in a gable on the third floor.

After our initial paint job and drying out the basement, we moved in and immediately started work with the architects. Since moving in we've grown to love the house, and the neighborhood. It is one of the oldest neighborhoods in town, with smaller plot sizes. Our plot is about a half acre, which is larger than most nearby.

We can see about ten different neighbors' homes from our house, and we like it this way. There is a sense of community that is hard to come by.

As I mentioned, we've agonized over the scale of our project. We've wondered if we wouldn't rather just put our money into a home that already meets our needs. We even went so far as to visit another home - just for a sanity check. Turns out even if it saved us some money and the hassle of construction, we would rather be here. Hopefully we still feel this way in 5 or 10 years.

We're close to town and less than a mile from Fort Williams. Down the street is a quiet beach. There's even a sliver of a view of the channel from our yard and from the front rooms of the house.

So that's why we're doing this. Why we're willing to go through eight to ten months of construction. We like this spot and we're going to make the most of it.

Before

2010-02-12T21:14:00.000-05:00

Here is our beloved home as it stands today. It is a five bedroom, 1.5 bath home. It's actually quite comfortable for the way we live today, given that it was built 100 years ago.

When we toured the house as potential buyers, however, we had a list of "cons" including:

1. Detached garage - difficult to get to in the snow or while lugging car seats/sleeping toddlers.

2. Zero closet space. This is not an exaggeration. I guess closets were an afterthought in 1901. Maybe they had less clothes, or people were just smaller?

3. One full bath. Not a big problem now, but with two daughters, this would not work long term.

4. Small kitchen.

5. No "great room."

As potential buyers we wondered how much work was required before we could even move in. We painted the interior top to bottom, gutted a moldy basement, and immediately contacted an architect.

But now, after living in the home for over a year, we've grown used to its quirks. Only one outlet in many rooms. A single wall sconce for light in our bedroom. These used to be deal breakers for us, and now we barely notice them.

Perhaps this is why, during the planning phase we've agonized over this burning question: how much space do we really need?

We've gone back and forth and ultimately we decided that yes, we will want that larger family room eventually. Having a third child, and hosting a couple 15+ holiday dinners during the planning stage also solidified this opinion. When the kids get bigger, we will need more space.

After a few meetings with the architects to discuss our needs, they came back with the initial drawing.

Either we picked the right architects or we are incredibly easy to please, but we went with the first thing they came up with. Or the plan is just that obvious. In fact it was our idea to pop out the back and connect to the garage. They just drew a very life like picture of it.

This is not a new idea, people have built connectors for ages. You can see these rambling ells and old barns-connected-to-home structures all over New England.

So that is the plan, to connect the home to the garage. This gets us our attached garage, a family room, a mud room up front, a master bath and closet on the second story.... and also some extra living space above the garage.

When this project is complete, we will have a home that can serve us for the next 50 years if we want.

While the size of the project gives us heartburn, there are other factors that make us confident this is the right thing to do. Three words: Location, location, location.

Before Before

2010-02-12T20:59:00.001-05:00

This story begins in July of 2008 when my husband and I decided to buy a 100 year old home near the Maine coast. We knew the house would need some major work, but we thought the plot size and location were perfect; we saw major potential.

But really, the story begins back around 1901 when our home was first built.

According to our local historical society, our home was built as the home of a resort owner here on the Maine coast. Or perhaps it was the home of the caretaker. We have not verified which, but either way our home was built in the middle of a subdivision called "Mountain View Park" even though there were few mountains to be seen and it was only steps to the ocean.

Above is the earliest photo we have of our home. Our house is the one in the center; the natural shingle color appears whitish in this photo, and the roof black. This was taken around 1902-4. It appears as if our home is not fully attached to the foundation in this photo, and it is also not at the same angle to the water as it is today.

We found this later photo, actually a post card, which shows our home in its current location and appearing fully installed on its foundation. (our home is the one on the far right of this photo, white-ish with black roof)

We believe that in that time period, homes were sometimes moved from one location to another. The two homes in the foreground are also still standing today.

We discovered some of the history of the home shortly after moving in. This may have something to do with our slowly growing appreciation of the home and all its original elements: almost every door, window and wall is original.

One of our first instincts on moving in with two small children was to rip out any potential lead hazards. We did some research and realized the windows were best dealt with by sealing them in paint so as not to disrupt lead dust with the friction of opening and closing them. Same with the doors.

We're so thankful now that we didn't tear anything out - after a year in the house, it is precisely those old doors, hinges, windows and doorknobs that make this house so incredible.

I also hated, HATED, the roofline originally. It has what is called "kicked eaves" which I considered flimsy and cheap at first. I'm embarrassed to say I even asked the architects if they could do something about it.

Fortunately the architects educated us a bit in a kind way and we have grown to appreciate the unique nature of the roof - and in fact we want to mirror this element in other areas in our renovation.

Which brings us to today. February 2010. We now have completed mechanical drawings, have chosen a builder and after some soul searching and even a tour of another potential home -- we are moving forward with a large scale renovation and addition project.

We hope to break ground by the end of March. The project is estimated to take eight to ten months. Please join us on our adventure!