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I did a lot of work on my previous home. It needed it.
It was built in 1910, and didn't have indoor plumbing back then. There had been a pump on the side of the house, and a big cistern in the basement. I discovered a big hole in the floorboards of a closet on the first floor, which I assume was a toilet. There had been a stairway from the first to the second floor. They took out the lower half of it, and installed a bathroom. There was a very short cast iron bathtub at one end. When I got rid of it, I really hoped to find a home for it, since it was so unique. I thought someone would need it. But I didn't really know how to find that person (it was before Craigslist), so it ended up in the trash.
Shortly after I moved in, the p-trap under the bathtub was leaking, in the basement. I got a replacement, and put my wrench on it and it disintegrated. It had been wrapped in masking tape, and the metal had completely eroded away in places, leaving only masking tape.
There were pipes running everywhere on the basement ceiling. It had been added to many times over the decades. There were many valves and dead-end lines. I finally cut it all down and redid it. A friend showed me how to sweat pipes and I did it in one day. There was one leak, which was a pain to fix, but it was great to have done it.
I had a couple of friends over to replace the garage roof. The shingles were red, and mostly in very bad condition, so it was probably from the 60's. It also had metal trim on the corners. One of the guys spent the entire day tearing out and replacing one section where the roof boards had rotted. A few years later I scraped and painted the garage. Probably should have done that more often. I replaced the windows then too.
I put a new vinyl floor in the upstairs bathroom in between tenants.
All the time I was there, I wanted to remodel the place. Especially that 70's decor kitchen. I started with the bedroom. I gutted it. I discovered that it was originally a dining room, or at least it had been connected to the kitchen by two doorways. It was all lath and plaster, but with stuccoed drywall over it. There was vermiculite insulation in some of the wall cavities, but not all. There was a US flag in one wall cavity. I believe it fell from the attic. It had 46 stars and was rapped in newspaper from WWI. I ran coaxial cable, but I forget what I did for electrical. I got insulation up. I bought replacement windows. I needed a friend to show me how to install them, but he didn't really want to. The room was closed up for a month with no activity before he finally came over and helped me. Then I got the drywall up and mudded. Spray texture, paint, doors and trim molding. Then carpet, and it was done! I'd been sleeping on the couch in the living room for a few months.
I had the roof redone not too long after I moved in. It was really high and steep, so there was no way I was going up there. But just the north face was bad enough to need it. I think I used the same guy who did our house a couple of years ago. I think he charged about $600. When I sold the place, the south face was in sore need of replacement. Many of the shingles had so little asphalt left they were mostly fiberglass.
There was a stairway that was added onto the side of the house next to the driveway. Up at the top its roof had little slope and was wearing out and starting to leak. I redid that part.
I had the chimney tuckpointed. It was in such bad shape, they shortened it by a course.
I replaced the basement windows. My friend helped me with those. Two of them got the usual kind of basement window that swings inward. One of them got glass block, I think. The side of my house with the garden, and side walk was a low spot. In heavy rains it filled up with water and the water ran into my basement. Fortunately, it went pretty much straight to the floor drain, leaving a trail of mud down the wall and under the washing machine. Anyway, I sealed it up.
I decided to remodel the bathroom over Christmas break, 2002. I had three weeks of vacation, and I'd hoped to get it usable by the time I had to go back to work. Ha! I started around the 19th. I was so busy I didn't have as much time to work on it as I'd hoped. Demolition, and learning what was underneath everything. The cast iron bathtub was cooled by air from the outside. There was very old uncovered and live wiring inside the walls. The upstairs landing was over part of the room, and not supported in any structural way. When I got to the framing part, I did a lot of sitting and staring, trying to determine the best way to fix the structure and also the best way to make the walls for the room. I got the plumbing done (but nothing hooked up to it) around January 2nd. The whole time, the base of the toilet was sitting there with no tank or water supply. We had to flush it with a bucket that we filled in the kitchen. I was showering at my mom's house.
I very carefully cut a sheet of 3/4-inch plywood for the floor, because I wanted something solid. Of course that meant there was a 3/4-inch step at the door. I put vinyl down on that. I got a plastic shower floor pan. I framed out a bench next to it, because I had to put something there. It was under a low overhang. On one side of the shower area, the aforementioned upstairs landing protruded into the space. So, bench. The shower head was on the opposite wall. Before remodeling, the tub filled the whole space, and the shower head was under the overhang. It was about four feet off the floor, so I usually showered on my knees. The entire space (except the ceilings) was tiled. Those four-inch square tiles, beige. A custom glass door and partition.
I was back at work on January 6th and still working on the framing for the next week. Drywall the week of the 20th. Tile also took a week. Grouting went badly, and I had to do it twice. I showered on Feb 18th. Mid March I got that friend to do/help with the electric. I must have gotten it completely finished around the 20th of that month.
I list all this out to compare to the original assumption that it would take me three weeks. !
So the bedroom and bathroom were done. And then we were making plans to some work on Cyn's house to eventually sell it, when my tenants told me they were moving out. This meant I had to remodel the upstairs. Uh oh.
I'll try to keep this one more concise. I gutted it. Nothing but studs except for one room. I filled up two dumpsters with waste that I hauled down the stairs. With help, of course.
I did some framing work, including an entire wall. I had all new electrical put in. I ran cable and phone myself. Insulation. All new windows. I think I did all the plumbing myself. I hired someone to do the drywall. I enjoy drywall work, but this guy got it all done (by himself!) in three days. It would have taken me weeks, and I'd have needed help. I assume I primed and painted it myself. I had someone do the carpet and vinyl. I hired someone to do the tile around the bathtub, and then I had the tub refinished. When it was mostly done, I gutted the other room - I had been using it to store stuff from the other rooms during the process. I filled up another dumpster!
I had my cabinet maker friend help me with kitchen cabinets. He set me up with some cheap Chinese cabinets and helped me install them. He helped me with the countertops too. I think I bought some remnants in HOBO or something, but he helped me by cutting and installing them. The kitchen looked really great.
We sold it very quickly. We had three people wanting to make offers, but the first guy got his offer in right away, and it was good. He was turning the place into business space, which is worth more than residential. And then the real estate marked crashed a year or so later. I think I made about $40K over what I paid for it. I think I got my money's worth, but I don't remember what I spent. And it sure was stressful. We finally sold it in June 2005, after moving out of it the previous September.
It was built in 1910, and didn't have indoor plumbing back then. There had been a pump on the side of the house, and a big cistern in the basement. I discovered a big hole in the floorboards of a closet on the first floor, which I assume was a toilet. There had been a stairway from the first to the second floor. They took out the lower half of it, and installed a bathroom. There was a very short cast iron bathtub at one end. When I got rid of it, I really hoped to find a home for it, since it was so unique. I thought someone would need it. But I didn't really know how to find that person (it was before Craigslist), so it ended up in the trash.
Shortly after I moved in, the p-trap under the bathtub was leaking, in the basement. I got a replacement, and put my wrench on it and it disintegrated. It had been wrapped in masking tape, and the metal had completely eroded away in places, leaving only masking tape.
There were pipes running everywhere on the basement ceiling. It had been added to many times over the decades. There were many valves and dead-end lines. I finally cut it all down and redid it. A friend showed me how to sweat pipes and I did it in one day. There was one leak, which was a pain to fix, but it was great to have done it.
I had a couple of friends over to replace the garage roof. The shingles were red, and mostly in very bad condition, so it was probably from the 60's. It also had metal trim on the corners. One of the guys spent the entire day tearing out and replacing one section where the roof boards had rotted. A few years later I scraped and painted the garage. Probably should have done that more often. I replaced the windows then too.
I put a new vinyl floor in the upstairs bathroom in between tenants.
All the time I was there, I wanted to remodel the place. Especially that 70's decor kitchen. I started with the bedroom. I gutted it. I discovered that it was originally a dining room, or at least it had been connected to the kitchen by two doorways. It was all lath and plaster, but with stuccoed drywall over it. There was vermiculite insulation in some of the wall cavities, but not all. There was a US flag in one wall cavity. I believe it fell from the attic. It had 46 stars and was rapped in newspaper from WWI. I ran coaxial cable, but I forget what I did for electrical. I got insulation up. I bought replacement windows. I needed a friend to show me how to install them, but he didn't really want to. The room was closed up for a month with no activity before he finally came over and helped me. Then I got the drywall up and mudded. Spray texture, paint, doors and trim molding. Then carpet, and it was done! I'd been sleeping on the couch in the living room for a few months.
I had the roof redone not too long after I moved in. It was really high and steep, so there was no way I was going up there. But just the north face was bad enough to need it. I think I used the same guy who did our house a couple of years ago. I think he charged about $600. When I sold the place, the south face was in sore need of replacement. Many of the shingles had so little asphalt left they were mostly fiberglass.
There was a stairway that was added onto the side of the house next to the driveway. Up at the top its roof had little slope and was wearing out and starting to leak. I redid that part.
I had the chimney tuckpointed. It was in such bad shape, they shortened it by a course.
I replaced the basement windows. My friend helped me with those. Two of them got the usual kind of basement window that swings inward. One of them got glass block, I think. The side of my house with the garden, and side walk was a low spot. In heavy rains it filled up with water and the water ran into my basement. Fortunately, it went pretty much straight to the floor drain, leaving a trail of mud down the wall and under the washing machine. Anyway, I sealed it up.
I decided to remodel the bathroom over Christmas break, 2002. I had three weeks of vacation, and I'd hoped to get it usable by the time I had to go back to work. Ha! I started around the 19th. I was so busy I didn't have as much time to work on it as I'd hoped. Demolition, and learning what was underneath everything. The cast iron bathtub was cooled by air from the outside. There was very old uncovered and live wiring inside the walls. The upstairs landing was over part of the room, and not supported in any structural way. When I got to the framing part, I did a lot of sitting and staring, trying to determine the best way to fix the structure and also the best way to make the walls for the room. I got the plumbing done (but nothing hooked up to it) around January 2nd. The whole time, the base of the toilet was sitting there with no tank or water supply. We had to flush it with a bucket that we filled in the kitchen. I was showering at my mom's house.
I very carefully cut a sheet of 3/4-inch plywood for the floor, because I wanted something solid. Of course that meant there was a 3/4-inch step at the door. I put vinyl down on that. I got a plastic shower floor pan. I framed out a bench next to it, because I had to put something there. It was under a low overhang. On one side of the shower area, the aforementioned upstairs landing protruded into the space. So, bench. The shower head was on the opposite wall. Before remodeling, the tub filled the whole space, and the shower head was under the overhang. It was about four feet off the floor, so I usually showered on my knees. The entire space (except the ceilings) was tiled. Those four-inch square tiles, beige. A custom glass door and partition.
I was back at work on January 6th and still working on the framing for the next week. Drywall the week of the 20th. Tile also took a week. Grouting went badly, and I had to do it twice. I showered on Feb 18th. Mid March I got that friend to do/help with the electric. I must have gotten it completely finished around the 20th of that month.
I list all this out to compare to the original assumption that it would take me three weeks. !
So the bedroom and bathroom were done. And then we were making plans to some work on Cyn's house to eventually sell it, when my tenants told me they were moving out. This meant I had to remodel the upstairs. Uh oh.
I'll try to keep this one more concise. I gutted it. Nothing but studs except for one room. I filled up two dumpsters with waste that I hauled down the stairs. With help, of course.
I did some framing work, including an entire wall. I had all new electrical put in. I ran cable and phone myself. Insulation. All new windows. I think I did all the plumbing myself. I hired someone to do the drywall. I enjoy drywall work, but this guy got it all done (by himself!) in three days. It would have taken me weeks, and I'd have needed help. I assume I primed and painted it myself. I had someone do the carpet and vinyl. I hired someone to do the tile around the bathtub, and then I had the tub refinished. When it was mostly done, I gutted the other room - I had been using it to store stuff from the other rooms during the process. I filled up another dumpster!
I had my cabinet maker friend help me with kitchen cabinets. He set me up with some cheap Chinese cabinets and helped me install them. He helped me with the countertops too. I think I bought some remnants in HOBO or something, but he helped me by cutting and installing them. The kitchen looked really great.
We sold it very quickly. We had three people wanting to make offers, but the first guy got his offer in right away, and it was good. He was turning the place into business space, which is worth more than residential. And then the real estate marked crashed a year or so later. I think I made about $40K over what I paid for it. I think I got my money's worth, but I don't remember what I spent. And it sure was stressful. We finally sold it in June 2005, after moving out of it the previous September.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2016-08-13 10:43 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2016-08-13 01:53 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2016-08-13 02:37 pm (UTC)From::)
I'd say you made a whole new house inside the old container.
no subject
Date: 2016-08-21 03:54 am (UTC)From: