Old Houses

freetown fred · By: **freetown fred** On: Sun Aug 15, 2010 10:07 am

WNY,that's comin along nice--outstanding on the moulding--not bad for a New York youngster

WNY · By: **WNY** On: Thu Jun 30, 2011 5:22 pm

This years Progress so far....we started stripping the paint on the front of the house....actually we are a little farther..she has started priming and painting.. as you see, A LOT OF DETAILS need to be finish, painted, I think she is up to 10 colors now!!!

Enjoy. more pics to follow...

009to090 · By: **009to090** On: Thu Jun 30, 2011 7:01 pm

Our new house was a bank-owned house also. 1920 Fedral style Plantation House. We paid an inspector BIG BUCKS to give us the good, or bad news. In our case, it was a little of both. Good news: NO insects or termits. No sill rot. OLD, OLD solid Beams/Posts. Yep, can't put a nail into them.
The bad news is, no heating system. The house has 9 fireplaces and/or thimbles for solid-fuel stoves.We are busily preparing for a EFM520 HighBoy install later this summer.
This weeks project: Continue upgrading electrical system. Old knob&tube wiring is still in house. Good news is, the previous owner had a Main CB panel, with a 200amp service installed. But it only has 24 CB slots!
Soooo, last week I installed a 100amp sub-panel alongside the main panel. Instantly doubled the number of circuits the house could have.
Also installed another 100amp Subpanel in the "workshop" which used to be a 2400sqft Country store & post office.
I'm in the middle of digging a trench and burying grey conduit between the 2 buildings. Then I'll pull some 2-gauge thru it.
I guess I better take some pics of it.

Wood'nCoal · By: **Wood'nCoal** On: Thu Jun 30, 2011 8:38 pm

Making progress Dave!

Welcome to the "Old House Club" Chris!

mozz · By: **mozz** On: Thu Jun 30, 2011 10:18 pm

Just got done ripping out 4 layers of linoleum and underlayment, and some funky green wall coverings. Oak cabinets, sanded, stained, sealed, and 2 coats of varnish. They are almost done. The dishwasher, disposal, icemaker and base cabinets will be done tomorrow, hopefully. I really want to tile the floor but may end up going with a padded type of sheet vinyl. Grass keeps growing and that takes a day away from work.

: (58 KiB) Viewed 9 times; View: New Page • Popup • Select:BBCode; [nepathumb]27997[/nepathumb]

: (154.09 KiB) Viewed 14 times; View: New Page • Popup • Select:BBCode; [nepathumb]27998[/nepathumb]

: (119.15 KiB) Viewed 9 times; View: New Page • Popup • Select:BBCode; [nepathumb]27999[/nepathumb]

wsherrick · By: **wsherrick** On: Thu Jun 30, 2011 10:50 pm

Whats the floor made of under all of that stuff? It looks like Heart Pine. If it is, maybe you should think about bringing that back. It would be beautiful. I've done a lot of stripping and refinishing in my time. It would be a lot of work, but; well worth it. You would preserve the original floor.

Pacowy · By: **Pacowy** On: Fri Jul 01, 2011 12:31 am

In our last house several of the original floors, which originally were finished with shellac, had been covered by vinyl for decades. After removing the vinyl we gave them a good scrubbing with ammonia and recoated them with amber shellac. The ammonia is a bit strong, but even a homeowner floor washing machine can do most of the work. You don't have to strip all of the old finish, and the new shellac is easy to work with. One room at a time, we did about 4500 sf that way, and they all came out looking excellent without an excessive amount of labor.

Mike

mozz · By: **mozz** On: Fri Jul 01, 2011 6:06 am

The entire house is t&g hardwood floors, what type of wood i have no idea. I don't think it is a pine, it is rather hard. EDIT: I was drilling some holes under the sink this morning and it is a type of pine, you were right. This was a Sears type house were you ordered it and they brought all the lumber in by train. The pieces all over the house have numbers and letters. They were all painted with a barn red colored paint. The kitchen has a tar paper type layer which was placed right over the wood before the first layer of linoleum tiles. I tried to scrap some of the tar paper off but it was nearly impossible. You would gum-up any type of sandpaper trying to remove it. Chemicals might work. But now it is too late as i have completely covered the floor in Hardibacker cement board.

: (130.45 KiB) Viewed 8 times; View: New Page • Popup • Select:BBCode; [nepathumb]28001[/nepathumb]

: (174.36 KiB) Viewed 6 times; View: New Page • Popup • Select:BBCode; [nepathumb]28002[/nepathumb]

: (92.13 KiB) Viewed 5 times; View: New Page • Popup • Select:BBCode; [nepathumb]28003[/nepathumb]

: (136.82 KiB) Viewed 6 times; View: New Page • Popup • Select:BBCode; [nepathumb]28004[/nepathumb]

freetown fred · By: **freetown fred** On: Fri Jul 01, 2011 4:29 pm

Outstanding, you're really coming along--The house I was raised in was a Sears deal--whodda thunk it--I think I have the old paperwork somewhere??? I'll look around--I love that exterior scrollwork

back when people took pride in what they did--even in a kit :!:

WNY · By: **WNY** On: Sat Sep 03, 2011 12:28 pm

Here's the progress on the front...almost done.! Just need to finish up under the overhang (tight fit!).....
The wife takes all the credit for the paint work!!

Wood'nCoal · By: **Wood'nCoal** On: Sat Sep 03, 2011 8:31 pm

Excellent Dave. Looks great. It's a true labor of love. It would be so much easier to just paint it all one color and get off the ladder, but look how nice it is now!

SMITTY · By: **SMITTY** On: Sun Sep 04, 2011 9:10 am

Wow - all you guys have waaaay more motivation than I do.

The way I look at it is .... the bank still owns my house until I have a ZERO balance on the mortgage. To me, making high dollar, high labor repairs is like remodeling an apartment - your helping out the landlord that's already getting rich at your expense! Maybe I'll put some insulation in this room when the mortgage is paid off. Don't hold your breath! :lol:

cArNaGe · By: **cArNaGe** On: Sun Sep 04, 2011 5:55 pm

Wood'nCoal wrote:Excellent Dave. Looks great. It's a true labor of love. It would be so much easier to just paint it all one color and get off the ladder, but look how nice it is now!

I think I'm just going to paint mine white. :lol:

wsherrick · By: **wsherrick** On: Wed Sep 07, 2011 10:15 am

WNY wrote:Here's the progress on the front...almost done.! Just need to finish up under the overhang (tight fit!).....
The wife takes all the credit for the paint work!!

You have some very nice detail on your house. The style of the ornamentation is, "Eastlake," very popular in the 1880's up to the mid 1890's. Back then you were considered a Rube if you painted you house white. That detail originally had a multicolor scheme to bring out all the different designs in the trim. White paint for houses didn't come back in style until after WWI. Still most houses were not white until after the late '20's if you were aware of style. If you ever wanted to accuratly restore the house iniside. Look up Thomas Morris. His wall paper and furniture designs were the hallmark of the Eastlake period. I love Thomas Morris carpets and wall paper.

SteveZee · By: **SteveZee** On: Wed Sep 28, 2011 6:39 pm

I guess I should add my old place to this thread. The original front part was built by shipwrights in 1786. Upstairs in those rooms with the gables it feels like you are in the hold of a schooner. There's allot of cool old features still in the old gal too. I'll post some pix of the outside first.