Living in: House (The first 1.5 months)

We moved into our house on February 1. It was a chaotic and exhausting, which was entirely our own fault! Moving doesn't seem like a big deal when it's just down the street, and we had only packed about a third of our things by the time the big day came. We also rented a tiny truck (really just an 11-person van with the seats taken out) and had to return it before we were finished, so we did the last 8 hours of moving with our small car. It was a mess, but still fun, because this is hopefully the last time we'll move in a long, long time!

Here are some photo highlights from the first two months of living here.

Moving day

 

No time to paint the ceilings/walls before moving in!

TV and ladder sitting in the closet. Paper still covering the newly-finished floors.

With the help of a dozen generous friends who helped us paint, we were able to finish our entire house in a weekend. It was a dream.

Miscellaneous photos from before we moved in

We're lagging far behind in House updates! In lieu of a real update, here are some photos of the work done from November 2014 - January 2015.

Before the chimneys were taken down, November 18, 2014.

A sign the chimney was not sound: Lots of soot, meaning that the flames were licking the outside of the chimney. There was a fire inside the wall that was holding the chimney.

The old knob & tube wiring from the early 20th century was disabled, and replaced with modern electricity: December 8, 2014.

Taking out the old ductwork & air conditioner, and getting all HVAC:

Old thermostat! 

New thermostat! It was pretty cold in there from December - February because the crawlspace wasn't sealed yet, and there were some uninsulated areas that were still being worked on. 

Buying lumber to trim out the north side of the house (last week of December):

Most of the drywall was repairable, but some new stuff was needed to cover the back of the old chimneys.

In mid-January, our carpenter was wrapping up the biggest/messiest work so we could move in in February.

This is the closet of the master bedroom: made of 1 old chimney and 1 closet that previously served the adjacent room. Our carpenter flipped it so it faced this way, instead, and was able to re-use the original wood.

Everything we've done so far

Some people have been asking, "What exactly are you guys doing over there?" The answer is, nothing. When we first bought this house, I (Bethany) imagined us doing a lot of of the work ourselves. I had a vague vision of us sort of crouched near a door, lovingly assembling or installing something (a doorknob? This was not well thought through.) But in reality, once we realized the scope of what would need to be done, we knew we would not be doing much, or any of the work ourselves. We heard many horror stories of house renovations gone wrong, but so far, ours has been pretty painless and all of our subcontractors have been great to work with. Here's a list of everything that's been done so far, in chronological order:

November 2014 - early February 2015

• Take down faux-wood paneling, particleboard doors, and non-original moldings
• Pull up carpeting
• Discover a chimney! 
• Sadly, remove both the surprise chimney and the chimney we knew about. They were crumbling at the base and pulling the house down. The chimney we did know about had a fire at some point, and had charred some of the wood in the living room walls.
• Foundation - rebuild piers and girders
• Foundation - dig out back corner of the house, which had sunk into the ground.
• Discover significant fire, termite, and water damage in the back corner of the house, which just kind of crumbled apart in your hands. Rebuild two walls back there, match original wainscoting. 
• New HVAC: ducts, AC unit, and thermostat
• Electrical: Replace all old knob-and-tube wiring, add new electrical outlets.
• Close in a wall
• Remove mildewed drywall from the ceiling a the back room, hoist up the ceiling by building new joists in the attic, drywall new ceiling. 
• Discover framing from where an old door likely was; search high and low for an old window matching the unusual dimensions and style of the other ones, find one (!!), purchase, and then get kind of overwhelmed by the prospect of finding a sash and making it work properly..
• Flip closet so that it serves the new master bedroom and combine it with the space where the old secret chimney was
• Repair cracked drywall
• Drywall for ceilings where old popcorn ceilings were
• Trim out everything, including painstakingly try to match original trim as closely as possible.
• Sand, patch, repair, and refinish floors, including the two big holes in the floor where the chimneys used to be.
• Locks: Get new locks and secure back door.
• Move in!
• Prime & paint four rooms and two ceilings: Feel ridiculous researching various shades of white, host 12 friends over the course of two days for a massive painting party. (HUGE thanks to everyone!!)

That's all, so far!

Floor Day

House tour: Progress!!

House Tour: "Progress"

House Tour: Look, we made it worse