An Early Christmas Present

Reading the title of this post you'd think I was about to tell a story about something positive that happened with the renovation, and well yeah there is something good to tell, but not before we get through the muck.  On Wednesday morning Sarah noticed no water was coming out of the sink, and that happened to be during this recent super-cold spell in Richmond where temperatures have been in the 20's for a high.  So our first thought is frozen pipes, something we've been dreading since we moved in.  Since it was time for work I figured we'd deal with it later that evening...


After work I crawled under the house to the crawlspace and began searching for the frozen pipe which only took about 30 minutes to locate...since there was an icicle on the side it made it pretty easy.  So instead of recognizing that the pipe had ALREADY burst and that's the reason there was an ICICLE on the pipe I brought down the space heater to thaw it out.  Note to everyone else...the ice acts like a plug...and if you're lucky enough to have the pipe plug itself DO NOT THAW THE PLUG!  So needless to say about 10 minutes into the endeavor water began spraying everywhere and I was sitting there holding a space heater (bad).  I then noticed a valve just upstream (good) from the break and figured I'd just shut the problem off right there.  What I didn't know is the connection at the valve was weak so when I shut the valve the connection broke so even more water was spraying everywhere.  Since I have the water authority on speed dial, within 10 minutes the city came out to shut the water off.  Two days and many dollars later the pipes have been fixed and insulated.


Now, if you're still reading, it's time for the good news.  Yesterday while trying to remove vinyl tile from the sheet of luan that's at the mantel I noticed how sticky the tile was.  Not wanting to remove it all I figured I'd just take it off and flip it around.  I then proceeded to damage the luan beyond repair and just ripped it off.  For the rest of the story I'll just leave it to the pictures...

Here's what the fireplace used to look like...you can see the vinyl tile over the front.

Well the tile and luan are gone, but behind is some sheet metal with a hole cut out...looks like someone had a coal stove hooked up to this at some point...of course I had to see what was behind so I stuck my arm in...

Lucky me it's filled entirely with coal dust...5 buckets worth to be exact...so what's behind the sheet metal?

But first some more cleanup...

Starting to tear off the sheet metal...this was harder than it looks...do you see what's behind it?

The first view of the original cast iron surround which looks to be in perfect condition....but first...

a little...no I mean a lot of cleaning.

The final product after Sarah added some white paint around the surround.  Sure beats that old vinyl tile and to just think it was just sitting there this whole time is crazy.  Why someone felt the need to cover this up is beyond me...or paint the wood floors...or cover them with carpet...or...well you get the idea.  This old house has had a couple surprises but nothing like this yet.  Who knows what else we haven't uncovered yet?

No More Siding, Please

It's another Saturday so what does that mean?  Painting more siding of course!  It seems once we finish painting one stack of siding we have to go get another.  It's not hard work, just very monotonous and takes the entire day.  Good news is we finished it all today so tomorrow can be spent on others things, house stuff of course.

Our backyard looks like a bomb went off.  Luckily the neighbors say it looks better than before we moved in.

Our contractor Vic inspecting the wall that's supposed to hold up the back of the house...before it was eaten by termites.  We're going to pour a new footer on each end of the wall and have two new posts and a beam running across the top.

Here's a shot of the new footer...way bigger than we need but hey, better safe than sorry.

So you want to buy an old house???  Well before you do make sure you're prepared for things like this.  Both pieces were taken out of the east side of the house near the same spot...the one on the left is completely eaten by termites and the one on the right was on fire at some point.  Oh and there was also some water damage in the same area.  This is the second time we've uncovered previous fire damage but this time in a different location...so it was either a very big fire or two separate ones.


Mary I know you were looking for pictures of the newly sanded floor so here you go...

Showing it's True Colors

Finally after months of doing all the unglamorous and dirty jobs we finally got to paint the front of the house.  We chose a nice blue/green color that was from the list of choices for the historic area.  In the next couple of weeks we'll start to close in the rear of the house and put a floor in the downstairs kitchen (finally!)  BTW it took an entire day to even start the painting...first we had to scrape everything, wearing respirators because of old lead paint and then had to caulk the joint at each and every board.  The neighbors really seem to like the color and the fact that we're fixing what used to be a bit of an eyesore on the street.

If you look real close you can see the old layers of paint underneath the new color.  There were about 5 colors underneath including grey, green and tan.

Sarah's mom Liz had the fun job of trying to paint the railings on the front porch...it's harder than it looks to paint all the nooks and crannies.

A shot from across the street.  We think it looks really good next to the yellow house.

A Light at the End of the Tunnel?

We're only two weeks away from moving out of the apartment and into the house...only thing is the house isn't livable just yet.  The last few weeks have all been focused on the upstairs and we've painted all the rooms and ceilings, refinished the claw-foot tub, leveled the kitchen floor and started the tile and rearranged the laundry area and added a spot for the fridge in the kitchen.  There's still quite a bit to do...refinishing the floors, installing the plumbing fixtures in the bathroom, fixing a couple windows and replacing one, installing a water heater and washer/dryer, moving the fridge upstairs, completing the tile in the kitchen & bathroom, moving back in the oven range, and plumbing for and installing a new dishwasher.


Can't wait to have one level down with one more to go!


Replacing the bad siding on the front of the house...

Some Bondo work by the contractor on the front columns that used to be crooked...

Before and after pictures of the tub...also the third picture is a stamp on the bottom showing the tub was cast on July 26, 1924...

You can just start to see the new blue/green color of the house...

A Change of Plans

By now you all probably know we were going to fix up the downstairs and rent out the upstairs.  That's still the plan, but since we'll have delays in getting all the exterior work approved we won't be able to finish up downstairs in time to move in.  We're now trying to finish the upstairs as soon as possible so we can move in and then take our time fixing our space below.  Here are some pictures from recent work:

Mary came down to help out painting/priming the siding before it goes up.

This is the back porch where we'd like to add a double window to the left of the door.

The upstairs is almost ready to paint...after all that's done the floors will be sanded and refinished.

The Demo Continues

Having learned how fun it is to destroy things, the demo continued this past weekend.  Again we were focusing on the kitchen area, removing both the floors and some more drywall with a big ole crowbar the contractor let us borrow.  One of the contractors' workers was taking down drywall in specific areas looking for water and termite damage which is good because there turned out to be quite a bit of both.  With all the demo we ended up with a huge pile of junk in the backyard, and not wanting to rent a dumpster, I was the lucky one to haul everything to the dump...3 trips in all.

Sarah's parents came down later in the day and helped remove the rest of the drywall from the wall we're going to remove from the downstairs.  Luckily for us this house was renovated a bit back in 1994 (judging by the date stamped on the drywall) so all the wall's are insulated and the electrical and plumbing is modern and only needs minor work.

We had the easy job for today...Vic, the contractor and his crew were under the house repairing the foundation wall in the spider-infested crawlspace.  It's a brick wall and there was so much mortar missing the bricks had started falling out.  So the guys skimmed over the entire wall with a cement to bond the wall back together....they ended up putting on 80 bags or so and even re-poured one of the footings that had been undermined.

Next weekend, the roof...

Sarah and her mom checking out the new kitchen.

This wall won't be going anywhere for a while...couldn't say that yesterday.

Demo Day #1

Bright and early this morning we met with the contractor who will be doing most of the work for us.  He's worked on dozens of these old houses so he definitely knows what he's talking about and was able to put our minds to rest about some of the things we want to do.  First and foremost we need to fix up the exterior and seal it up before we start on interior finishes.  The roof will come first followed by some foundation repairs and finally the siding.  It's important we get everything done before winter when rot really kicks in for houses in the same condition as ours.  


In the coming days/weeks we'll be finalizing what we want done on the interior side...things like the kitchen and bathroom layouts.


We should start seeing some big changes coming up soon and we'll be sure to take plenty of pictures along the way.  Here are a few from today:

Sarah getting ready for a big dirty day

Cabinets are all removed (except the sink of course) and we starting to take up the old floors.  So far it looks like there are two old floors to remove....anyone have a crowbar and a strong back??

All the flooring and drywall is coming up in the next couple weeks so the contractor can fix the structural issues under the kitchen.  Right now there's a noticeable dip towards the back of the room and significant termite damage and rot at the back corner (if you look real close you can see daylight in the corner).  Luckily these old houses are built like tanks compared to today so much of the larger framing is actually still usable.

What did we just get into??

Plug your nose and put on some rose colored glasses as we show the "before pictures".  This is how we bought the house, before any demo and any cleaning.  If only there was smell-o-vision...

The upstairs kitchen.  The things planned for this one are new flooring, counter tops and paint for the cabinets.

The master bedroom on the lower unit which we would live in.

The kitchen in the lower unit...can't wait to tear it all up!

The house still has the original stairs and balustrade.

Another shot of the original stairs.  This is one of the few remaining original details of the house.  Part of the renovation will be to try and introduce these type of details back into the house.

The living room in the upstairs unit.  The upper level is very bright and open but a little smaller than the lower one which we'd live in.

And It Begins

Sarah and I have both been in Richmond for four years and living the worry free apartment life.  We've talked about having a house someday, and for a while it was just that, talk.  But things are different now...we'll be married in two short months and the time right now has never been better to buy a house.  About two months ago we first saw a house at 2121 E Marshall in the neighborhood of Church Hill.  It was rough; a duplex that had seen plenty of abuse and little maintenance, but was also in a great location that has seen extensive home renovations. It took a little while for us to decide to take the challenge on together, but on July 29th we closed on the house and began our journey to renovate 2121 E Marshall.  We'll update this blog as often as possible so everyone can see the progress and so you all can keep us motivated to finish the job.

Ben