State of the carriage house

I just took a spin around the carriage house and listed everything I thought needed done.

Interior:

Upstairs and stairwell:

• Door trim - Bondo, caulk, paint
• Paint door, some caulk needed
• Remount banister, paint
• Paint stairs and entry door
• Quarter-round next to stairs
• Walls in stairwell, upper hall, kitchen - plaster, paint
• Register in hall
• Top coat on window #2 trim
• Hall floor - new linoleum, quarter-round
• Kitchen window
• Fridge nook floor
• Cabinet door and bottom in kitchen
• Cabinets - patch with Bondo and paint
• Yellow tile on wall: remove, scrape glue, paint
• Attic access: insulate, paint
• Bathroom sink drain
• Medicine cabinet
• Blue tile: remove, scrape glue, paint
• Paint entire bathroom
• Recaulk tub
• Realign and finish faucet
• Paint interior of closet
• Floor: new linoleum, quarter-round
• Reglaze hall cabinet
• Front room: three places still require plaster patching, paint touch-up
• Paint doors in front room and hall (strip old paint, primer, paint)

Downstairs:

• Closet nook: remove rotten plaster, replaster, paint, do something with floor
• Remove remaining track on S wall, finish sealing and paint above old S door
• Plaster at top of old S door
• Remove drywall ceiling, insulation on north end of ceiling
• SW window: insulated board, a little more plaster.
• Replace S window (with screen)
• Screen on W window
• Finish trimming carpet
• 1x2"trim on W wall. Caulk, paint.
• N wall - plaster, paint
• E window - finish wiring of outdoor and indoor outlets, lots of plaster, paint
• Wire lights, 2 outlets on E wall, some baseboard heaters in the family area.
• Dehumidifer stand and laundry corner shelving, with outlet
• Light above laundry corner, switch on shelving.
• Paint floor in concrete area
• Drop ceiling in entire downstairs

Exterior:

• Scrape and paint eaves. (How to get up to them?)
• E wall - concrete under threshold, caulk, paint door and trim, paint threshold
• Caulk and paint middle door frame (top coat)
• Install security light (box already in place)
• Mortar in foundation
• Caulk under and around window, top coat of paint
• N - fix light
• Outhouse roof trim - replace, paint
• W - tuck-point base
• Mortar, caulk, paint old carriage door frame
• 1x4" trim on S end of carriage door frame
• Trim window, paint upstairs window
• Mortar at base on SW
• S wall - mortar, caulk, paint
• Finish patching of sill of SW window
• Drive: concrete patch, paint
• Dig small drainage pipe for (new!) gutter downspout

I figure that's, what? Two or three days' work?

Seriously, though, I'm going to get as far as I can on this between June 22nd and July 1, when I'll have the place entirely to myself. Then I can put tarps down, move furniture into other rooms, and so on. I'm going to do some of the more cosmetic work during this time; bigger items probably won't get addressed at all (although the remainder of the summer is supposed to be House Time, too).

I don't even have the heart to post a similar list for the big house - but if that list were actually completed, I'd have a fully renovated carriage house on my hands, and it is doable. It truly doesn't need more than this right now - oh, sure, there are things that would be nice if I wanted to sink more money and time into them. But they're not necessary.

Housebuilding hiatus

"Oh, sure," you say, "You already went into hibernation once this year!" Well, Gentle Reader, this won't be hibernation; it'll be estivation. We're off to Budapest tomorrow for two months, and so there won't be any House work completed during that time.

Not to say I won't find something else interesting to post here (Europe does, after all, have the occasional attractive old building), but it won't be about progress on The House.

So I guess this would be a good time for a planning post, wouldn't it? Here's something like the current list:

1. Windows in big house


• Finish painting first-floor windows
• Glazing work; several missing and cracked panes here and there, lots of putty replacement


2. Winterization


• Carriage house
• Weatherstripping around two downstairs doors
• Insulated board for small window on south corner
• Still a little caulking/plastering above the south wall and in the closet area on the southeast corner
• Insulated board for attic access panel


• Big house
• Urethane in obvious holes in basement walls (mortar later)
• Boards over vents under first back addition
• Board up two basement windows on east basement


• Tuck pointing on both buildings


3. Carriage house bathroom
• Attach and plumb vanity


4. Carriage house electrical work
• Replace stolen ground wire outside
• Overhead light for washer/dryer area
• Separate circuit for bedroom to permit use of air conditioner


5. Carriage house paint and trim
• Paint walls and trim in bathroom
• Finish trim on remaining windows (three)
• Fresh plaster patching and paint in living room, then hallway, stairs, and kitchen


6. Equipment closet in big house
• Reroute incoming DSL into closet in dining room
• Add an electrical outlet there for the Linux box


7. Carriage house garage area
• Remove superfluous fiberglass insulation (40% complete)
• Still some miscellaneous plaster, and more paint, aye!


8. Dining room
• Remove and scrape wallpaper (60% done, thanks to daughter)
• Remove damaged drywall from ceiling
• Finish restoration of plaster on walls (base coat's on)
• Drywall ceiling
• Paint (I'm still liking that semi-gloss ultra white)
• Clean and maintain the woodwork and buffet
• Shore up under floor (soft spot from long-standing leak in roof fixed in 90's)
• Polish floor


9. Carriage house kitchen window


10. Carriage house roof and gutters (the last big money job to save for)


11. Porch restoration


• Paint all pillars
• Cast duplicates of scroll work on pillars to replace missing bits


12. Big house heat (not so crucial now)


• Ductwork as needed
• Probably baseboard heat upstairs, at least in my office


13. Remainder of big house


• Upstairs bathroom plumbing (got a good plan to reroute this)
• Addition of sink in kitchen
• Cleaning
• Finish plaster patching in back stairs area, paint
• Reroute supply wire to blue room electrical (that's the one running outside right now)
• Think about plaster on basement walls, a big job
• It would be nice to insulate and finish the attic space
• Tiles in the master bath?
• Hardwood veneer in the Blue Room?


14. Breezeway/swimming pool connecting buildings


• Well, I can dream

Not The House

Even crazy house people need a vacation from time to time, so we're visiting friends in Puerto Rico. This is a picture taken at the Campamento del Caribe, which is run by some of those friends, who happen to have an apartment free until the 10th. We had to drive to Atlanta to get affordable air fare, but it was so worth it.

In the meantime, back at The House, nighttime temperatures are down to 9 degrees or so. Yeah, I drained the plumbing in the big house as we were leaving - I haven't gotten that flue replaced, so no heat there yet. So far it hasn't been an issue, but as cold as it is, I think it most certainly will be now.

So - happy New Year to all! In lieu of resolutions, I just have a to-do list.

1. Big house heat


• Flue and chimney liner (to be done by an HVAC friend of mine)
• Ductwork as needed (to be done by me)


2. Winterization


• Carriage house
• Weatherstripping around two downstairs doors
• Deadbolt on "utility door" to replace present 1" hole
• Insulated board for small window on south corner
• Still a little caulking/plastering above the south wall and in the closet area on the southeast corner
• In the event of warm weather, the most urgent mortar replacement work


• Big house
• Urethane in obvious holes in basement walls (mortar later)
• Boards over vents under first back addition
• Board up two basement windows on east basement


3. Gutters, sometime prior to the spring thaw


4. Carriage house bathroom
• Attach and plumb vanity


5. Carriage house electrical work
• Replace stolen ground wire outside
• Overhead light for washer/dryer area
• Separate circuit for bedroom to permit use of air conditioner


6. Carriage house paint and trim
• Paint walls and trim in bathroom
• All window trim


7. Equipment closet in big house
• Reroute incoming DSL into closet in dining room
• Add an electrical outlet there for the Linux box


8. Carriage house garage area
• Remove superfluous fiberglass insulation (40% complete)
• Still some miscellaneous plaster, and more paint, aye!


9. Dining room
• Remove and scrape wallpaper (30% done, thanks to daughter)
• Remove all damaged plaster on walls
• Remove damaged drywall from ceiling
• Restore plaster on walls
• Drywall ceiling
• Paint (I'm still liking that semi-gloss ultra white)
• Clean and maintain the woodwork and buffet
• Shore up under floor (soft spot from long-standing leak in roof fixed in 90's)
• Polish floor


10. Carriage house kitchen window (after spring has sprung)


11. Remainder of big house


• Upstairs bathroom plumbing
• Addition of sink in kitchen
• Cleaning
• Electrical systems: oh the humanity!

In the dining room by Thanksgiving

Here is the original picture of the dining room from this May; things haven't really changed much since then; the focus has, of course, been carriage house livability. As you'll recall, one driver for the roof project was leaks above this room; there is some damage to the late-period drywall on the ceiling and the wallpaper was basically a loss, as you can see even in this picture.

But it's a fantastic room; all the woodwork looks like this, very little of the molding is missing, and the floor, while chopped up a lot from the room's use as the kitchen of the apartment in 304 during the 70's and 80's, is still attractive.

So we've come up with the goal of making this one room usable by Thanksgiving, and having a good-sized meal there. A collateral goal will be the installation of a sink in the kitchen, which is the room to the west of the dining room which was last used as a kitchen in the big house (it was a bedroom for 304 in the 70's and 80's, and it is currently my sawing shop, because the generation of sawdust in the carriage house has been denied approval by the household environmental management commission, a body whose membership comprises my wife).

This picture, taken in August while the roof was off (hence the bit of light showing at the top of the wall) shows what we're going to have to fix up in terms of the ceiling. Actually, it doesn't show the worst of it, which is just off the top of the picture - that entire sheet of drywall there is rotten and moldy around the edge, reportedly due to an overflow in the bathtub upstairs. Which I take to mean repeated and egregious overflow; a single incident would not account for the damage I see.

So anyway, I guess I haven't posted a to-do list recently!

1. Carriage house livability


• Garage area livability
• Remove superfluous fiberglass insulation (40% complete)
• Caulk everywhere (a lot is done; more to be done)
• Some plaster patching (done on southwest, need to move everything out off the east wall to continue the process)
• More paint, aye!
• Seriously considering laying down a heating pad and hardwood veneer on the south end of the downstairs; the white walls certainly make the area look like a place you could live in


• Windows
• Kitchen window is the only one left


• Bathroom
• Attach and plumb vanity


2. Carriage house electrical work
• Replace stolen ground wire outside
• Entryway lighting
• Overhead light for washer/dryer area
• Separate circuit for bedroom to permit use of air conditioner


3. Carriage house paint and trim
• Paint walls and trim in bathroom
• All window trim


4. Dining room (target: Thanksgiving. Yes, 2009, pipe down over there.)


• Remove and scrape wallpaper (30% done, thanks to daughter)
• Remove all damaged plaster on walls
• Remove damaged drywall from ceiling
• Restore plaster on walls
• Drywall ceiling
• Paint (I'm still liking that semi-gloss ultra white)
• Clean and maintain the woodwork and buffet
• Shore up under floor (soft spot from long-standing leak in roof fixed in 90's)
• Polish floor


5. Remainder of big house


• Upstairs bathroom plumbing
• Addition of sink in kitchen
• Cleaning
• Winterization, a lengthy process
• Heat
• Electrical systems: oh the humanity!

Roof complete

As promised, the roof pictures. From the south, compare with the earlier pictures with the lower box gutter falling off the house. We had originally intended simply to remove that eyebrow, but it turned out that its joists are the ceiling joists of the brick section. When we took it off, we could see the stairs.

So we put it back.

The north side of the house looks even cooler, I think. These eaves hang pretty far out, and the contractor was pretty frustrated that I wanted them wrapped in metal instead of vinyl. (The width made the metal hard to handle without it buckling.) But there's no other plastic in this house, and I don't intend to be the one to start.

I'm thinking some horizontal boards similar to the ones on the eaves on the sunroom (the very top right of the first picture up there) might look nice, and tie the whole thing together visually. Opinions?

So given my recent strides in electrical work in the carriage house, here's my rough to-do list:

1. Carriage house livability


• Garage area livability
• Remove superfluous fiberglass insulation from the ceiling and around heating ducts (we're going to heat the garage area, after all; we're living in it)
• Drywall the south wall where the garage door used to be
• Caulk everywhere (a lot is done; more to be done)
• Some plaster patching
• More paint, aye


• Windows
• Finish bathroom window
• Kitchen window


• Bathroom
• Attach and plumb vanity


2. Carriage house electrical work
• Replace stolen ground wire outside
• Entryway lighting
• Overhead light for washer/dryer area
• Separate circuit for bedroom to permit use of air conditioner


3. Carriage house paint and trim
• Paint walls and trim in bathroom
• All window trim


4. Big house


• Upstairs bathroom plumbing
• Cleaning
• Winterization, a lengthy process
• Heat
• Electrical systems: oh the humanity!

Front windows

I think I mentioned I finally finished the front windows last week. No trim, of course (that's not a functional to-do point), but they're tight and they work.

These windows, what with the need to rebuild the sill and reset the bricks under the old sill plate, really set me back longer than I had wanted. I wanted to have the heat under control during the month of August. But life does these things to us.

The current plan would have to be this:

1. Carriage house electrical work


• Replace stolen ground wire outside
• Baseboard heaters
• Entryway lighting
• Second switch for garage area overhead lighting
• Troubleshoot outlets in kitchen (none work)
• Overhead light for washer/dryer area
• Separate circuit for bedroom to permit use of air conditioner


2. Carriage house livability


• Garage area livability
• Remove superfluous fiberglass insulation from the ceiling and around heating ducts (we're going to heat the garage area, after all; we're living in it)
• Drywall the south wall where the garage door used to be
• Caulk everywhere (a lot is done; more to be done)
• Some plaster patching
• More paint, aye


• Bathroom
• Attach and plumb vanity
• Touch up paint on walls and paint the trim


• Windows
• Finish bathroom window
• Kitchen window
• Interior trim on all windows


3. Big house


• Roof work proceeding apace
• Upstairs bathroom plumbing
• Cleaning
• Winterization, a lengthy process
• Heat
• Electrical systems: oh the humanity!

Updated plan

Fourth post today: I know the planning posts are less fun, but for me they're the most useful, because they're my actual to-do lists I'm working from. The carriage house livability point is still the focus, although we're moving in on the big house, too, at this point (the books are living there, after all, and the WiFi access point).

1. Carriage house livability


• Garage area livability
• Remove superfluous fiberglass insulation from the ceiling and around heating ducts (we're going to heat the garage area, after all; we're living in it)
• Drywall the south wall where the garage door used to be
• Caulk everywhere, the previous owners had no idea about winterizing, it drives me berzerk, there's daylight all over the place
• Some plaster patching where it'll do some good
• More paint


• Bathroom
• Attach and plumb vanity
• Touch up paint on walls and paint the trim


• Windows
• Front windows
• Remaining two 28"x54" (kitchen and bathroom)
• Trim on bedroom window and window 2


• Cleaning
• Finish mopping ceiling and walls in front room




2. Big house


• Some more plumbing, perhaps the upstairs bathrooms
• Cleaning
• Winterization, a lengthy process
• Heat

That's a pretty truncated big house list, but it's all still vague and just looming on the horizon.

Current plan, then

So now that the tub surround is done, my carriage house list looks like this:

1. Carriage house livability


• Bathroom
• Attach and plumb vanity
• Touch up paint on walls and paint the trim


• Windows
• Front windows
• Remaining two 28"x54" (kitchen and bathroom)
• Trim on bedroom window and window 2


• Hook up washer and dryer
  
  
  • Plumb the hot and cold over to the laundry area
  • Drain
  • Electrical work: one 110 outlet for the washer, one 220 for the dryer
  • Take a dryer vent through the wall to the outside
  • Put in a utility sink, too, as long as there's plumbing going on


• Cleaning
• Finish mopping ceiling and walls in bedroom and front room


• Paint all external trim

Looking a little more doable. Which is logical, given that time is passing, but still.

The overall plan at the moment is to make the carriage house livable, then start on the big house. There's still some carpet to remove over there, and the vanity in the blue bathroom - that has to be done soon so I can return the dumpster - but so far, it's just in a holding pattern for now.

There has been some discussion of renting an apartment due to the relative non-livability of the carriage house at the moment; that's still up in the air, but my sister happens to have a one-bedroom place available within easy bicycling distance and doable (but not terribly practical) walking distance, so it might work out pretty well for everybody. But I still feel that the best to-do list remains to get the carriage house to a nice basic condition, for resale value if nothing else. I've put maybe $1500 into this so far (not including the two dehumidifiers and the air conditioner, all of which can be reused or resold elsewhere). I'm pretty sure that if I didn't have to sell the house within the week, like the bank did when I bought it, I could at this point get a good $25,000 out of it even without getting the rest of the plumbing working. If I finish the carriage house windows and trim and plumb the big house, I figure that's going to go up to at least $30K, maybe even $40K if I'm not in a hurry. So there's very little downside here.

But take heart, Gentle Reader. I'm currently betting it's not going to come to resale.

Kitchen's clean

So that's one top-level to-do point done. The remainder of the carriage house list is now as follows:

1. Carriage house livability


• Bathroom
• Install new tub surround
• Install new (pedestal) vanity
• Finish cleaning, probably paint the trim


• Windows
• Trim on bedroom window and window 2
• Front windows
• Remaining two 28"x54" at my leisure (kitchen and bathroom)


• Cleaning
• Scrub stairs
• Finish mopping ceiling and walls in bedroom and front room
• One more thorough mopping of entire apartment


• Hook up washer and dryer
  
  
  • Plumb the hot and cold over to the laundry area
  • Drain
  • Electrical work: one 110 outlet for the washer, one 220 for the dryer
  • Take a dryer vent through the wall to the outside
  • Put in a utility sink, too, as long as there's plumbing going on
  • Run a line over from the dehumidifier into the drain


• Paint all external trim

The Plan

So here is my current plan, partially ramified into a current to-do list:

1. Carriage house livability


• Kitchen
• Finish cleaning
• Put fridge into fridge nook (this requires some special cleaning)
• Carry stove up from van, install, clean
• Unpack kitchen items from downstairs


• Bathroom
• Reinstall tub faucet assembly, plumb, test
• Repair tub wall
• Install new tub surround
• Install new (pedestal) vanity
• Finish cleaning, probably paint the trim


• Windows
• Finish window 2
• Front windows
• Remaining two 28"x54" at my leisure (kitchen and bathroom)
• Trim on bedroom window


• Paint all external trim


• Hook up washer and dryer


• Cleaning
• Scrub stairs
• Finish mopping ceiling and walls in bedroom and front room
• One more thorough mopping of entire apartment


2. Cleaning in big house
• Bedrooms upstairs (library floor still has partially glued padding)
• Basement
• Remove floor structure, save plywood and 2x4s
• Clean actual floor
• Back rooms (just vacuum and remove carpet)
• Remainder of downstairs: just mop thoroughly


3. Kitchen in big house
• Install $10 sink, probably against east wall
• Purchase and install long countertop against west wall
• Electric cooktop in west wall counter
• Second small "vegetable sink" in west wall counter
• Cabinetry at a later date
• Remove frame wall between present kitchen and "back room #2" to make extended kitchen area


4. Upstairs plumbing in big house (two full baths)
• Entirely new water supply due to stupid present routing
• Local on-demand hot water for both showers


5. Gutters and drainage


6. Which brings us to the issue of heat in the big house... I want to get started on heat in earnest no later than early August, or Things Will Be Bad.

This should all be easy, right??