Making Jamie's Workshop Habitable

Over October and November 2012, we made a lot of progress on Jamie's workshop.  His workshop is the attic of the garage building, about 20 x 35 feet in size.  Like any attic, it got very hot, to the point that it was virtually unusable in the summer.  There is a window unit, but it is not strong enough to deal with Galveston summer heat.  So in October, we hired a company, Champion Insulation out of Houston, to put in expanding foam "open cell" insulation.  After that was done, the ceiling was a mass of yellowish-white globby stuff. Jamie quickly got to work nailing up sheets of Luan plywood on the ceiling.  Here is how it looked by Thanksgiving:

(That's Jamie's niece on the left and ELISSA's bosun on the right.)

The Eastlake Mirror Arrives

I’m not entirely sure when we got the Eastlake mirror for the fireplace, but Jamie thinks it was before the ceiling moldings went up, so I’m putting it in September 2012.  We had been using a dresser mirror over the fireplace and it didn’t look quite right.

We were having trouble finding one to replace it, though, because the height of the ceilings meant that we needed a really big or tall mirror.  Finally we saw a nice Eastlake mirror at an estate sale but felt the asking price ($1000, reduced “for us” to $750) was too much.  There’s a whole somewhat amusing story as to how we came to purchase it later, which I won’t put here in case this blog ever goes public (we felt that there was some questionable conduct by a person involved).  Anyway, it fits the room beautifully and most people assume the fireplace and mirror came with the house.

And the Paint Goes On — the Breakfast Room

In July, Jamie finished preparing and painting the breakfast room.  This had taken a long time, and we had been living with the breakfast room in an unpainted state for so long that we had hung our pictures on the wall anyway:

(looking toward front door)

(looking toward kitchen)

But eventually it got done.  I painted numerous pieces of poster board with various yellows and we finally decided on one.  On July 13, 2012, I wrote in an email: “By the way, home improvement continues over here, with the nice layer of fine dust that comes with paint prep.  But soon the breakfast room will be a pretty light yellow, and we'll be able to eat in there again.”  On July 15, 2012, Jamie finished painting the breakfast room and we moved everything back in.  “That leaves only one big room [the main hallway, visible in the top photo abive with its floral wallpaper] left to be painted, and we've pretty much decided to hire someone to do that room, because there is plaster under the wallpaper and we don't know what to do with plaster.”

Here's the breakfast room after painting.  This was actually taken later in the year (at Thanksgiving) and includes a new red rug.  We had a black floral rug under the table initially, and it made the walls look greenish.  The red rug warms it up a bit.

Torrents in the Bathroom

Our first major rainstorm hit in July 2012.  Later, I walked into the back (guest) bathroom into puddles of water.  Naturally, I figured it had something to do with Jamie and the shower.  But the curtains were also soaked.  We figured out it was coming through the window.  When it rained again, we saw that it did not just trickle through, it gushed through at the top of the window frame, in streams that arced up to two feet from the window frame.  Until we could get it fixed, we put out buckets and pans to catch the streams.  In an email dated July 9, 2012, I told my mom, “There's no more water coming in right now, and we've cleaned up the water on the floor and have a dehumidifier in there.  But there's a ladder blocking access to the toilet, so we'll be using the other bath for a while anyway.”  The rain kept coming, and on July 15 I wrote: “[W]ith the recent downpours, we had rain spurting in around the guest bathroom window frame (to the tune of one to three gallons per downpour!).  Jamie inspected the outside and discovered a quarter-inch gap in the top of the window frame.  He has made temporary repairs (tape) and we've stayed dry since.  Ah, the joys of owning an older home!”  Later in July, we hired a gutter company to clean the gutters, install protective gutter guards, install a new downspout or two, and repair the window leak repaired by caulking and installing a metal threshold piece over the leaky window frame.

Beautiful New Curtains for the Living Room

The living room came with lace curtains for the windows, which was fine for filtering light and preventing people from being able to see into the house, but I wanted something more decorative.  Because the ceilings are so tall (13 feet), the windows are also very tall, especially one that goes all the way to the floor.  So I needed to order custom curtains.  I found a wonderful place called curtainsmade4u.com, and ordered curtains for the four living room windows using the fabric above, called "Mirth Lark."  It took a while for the curtains to arrive, but they were worth it.  They are beautifully made and the rich red in the fabric glows.  Here is a photo of the living room when the curtains went up in June 2012:

Plumbing Problems

After my move-in, we did not have as many big renovation tasks.  Instead, we started learning ways in which the house was defective.  These were not really old house issues so much as maintenance issues caused by indifferent custodianship over the last couple of decades.  For example, in May 2012, we learned that the shower pan under the walk-in shower was leaking and water was coming down under the house.  We also had bad leaks under the kitchen sink which caused the under-sink cabinets to get smelly and moldy.  We hired plumbers who fixed the shower pan leak and replaced the kitchen faucets to stop the leaking.  Fun.

April 17, 2012 – RBD MOVE IN!!!!

The movers came to the Houston house on April 17, 2012 and had all my stuff moved in by the end of the day.  Even before this, Jamie and I had moved a lot of stuff in my car as well as by renting a U-Haul once or twice.  The day before the move, Jamie was in an accident when a driver filed to stop behind him at a red light and totaled his car.  My move-in transformed the house into a colossal mess, with boxes and stuff everywhere.  Here's a view looking down the main hallway from the front door:

Another view looking down the main hallway from the other direction:

 Even the master bedroom had stuff stacked everywhere:

 Here's a view from the dining room looking into the "office," which seems to hold nothing but boxes at this point:

More Paint Goes on in April — the Living Room

The living room had to be painted before I moved in on April 17, 2012, because we couldn’t have done it afterward with all the rugs and furniture there.  So Jamie scrambled to get it done in early April after the floors were done but before I moved.  These photos were taken on April 12, and they show Jamie taping paper on our freshly-refinished floors to make sure no paint could get on them.

The closest "after" photo I have is two weeks later, after I had moved in and stuff is everywhere --- you can't see the color very well, but it's just a nice light beige or off white that sets off the white window trim.  We had tried about a dozen different colors (on poster board or on the wall itself) before settling on this one.

And the Paint Goes on in April – Guest Bedroom

On April 9, 2012, Jamie finished painting the guest room a beautiful color, Sherwin Williams Meander Blue, which we loved so much we ended up painting the back foyer and the main hallway (top half) the same color. Somehow we failed to take a photo of the freshly painted guest room -- probably due to getting ready to move my stuff from Houston.  So here is a "before" photo of the guest room and a sample of Meander Blue:

Refinishing Floors — March-April 2012

The above photo is of the living room, from the listing photos.  I actually thought the floors were lovely, with a rich dark patina from years of wax buildup.  But they were not in great shape and needed to be stripped, sanded and refinished.  Bill Hynek's team did this in March and April 2012.  Right after he gave us an estimate in mid-March, I got a contract on my house in Houston and was set for closing in April.  We were desperate to have the floors finished before my houseful of furniture and boxes arrived at the house.  Bill started on the floors, then went on vacation, then came back and finished up in April just before I moved in.  Because Jamie had already moved in, they had to move everything around the house as they worked, doing one room at a time.  Here is the living room floor --- sanded and ready for finishing --- on March 23, 2012:

We decided to have the floors finished with wax rather than polyurethane because we didn’t want to have to smell the polyurethane.  The living room walls remained unpainted during all this time.

Moving into March: Breakfast Room Cabinets!

With the little hutch moved out of the breakfast room, there was room to put built-in cabinets across one wall.  Above is a "before" picture showing the wall that we wanted to build cabinets across.  I drew a diagram of what we wanted, and our contractor built them in March 2012.  From an email:  “Because Gran's breakfast room was kind of the hub for our family and friends in Selma, the idea of having a breakfast room is really meaningful to me.  Probably the reason I want cabinets across one end of the room is that Gran's breakfast room had that.”  Below is a photo of an interim state of the cabinets, before the countertop and drawers/doors were installed:

And below are the finished cabinets --- well, finished except for painting the cabinets and staining the countertop.  To save money, we thought we'd do these things ourselves.  Jamie did eventually do the countertop stain, but we ended up paying someone else to paint them later in the year.  It also took a while to get the drawer pulls and lower cabinet handles installed.

A New Bedroom Light Fixture

As I mentioned before, we didn't like the light that hung in the master bedroom (above photo).  At an antique/junk shop we found a beat-up light that we liked.  It wasn’t an antique, but definitely qualified as vintage, judging from the state of the metal and electrical parts.  We thought it had good bones.  In late February 2012, Jamie re-wired it, cleaned it, painted the metal parts with a bronze paint, and hung it in the bedroom.  He also added a ceiling medallion.  The result:

Moving the Walk-In Closet

There is this wonderful kind of crazy walk-in closet in the house.  It's a nice size in square footage (for an old house), but is funny because it has a 13-foot ceiling like the rest of the house, and has shelving stacked up almost to the ceiling, most of which is completely inaccessible. Anyway, this closet opened onto the back bedroom, which we designated a guest bedroom.  Here is a peek into the closet from the guest bedroom:

We wanted it to open on the other side, onto the little hallway by the front bedroom, since we planned to use that as our master bedroom (note that it was only due to the Magnetite windows that we could do this -- otherwise the front bedroom would be too noisy due to Broadway traffic!).  So in mid-February 2012, our contractor’s workers moved the entire doorway (with frame, door and transom) to the new location, cut open the wall and installed the door there, sheetrocked and painted the old opening so you can’t tell it’s there, and removed all the shelves and clothes rods and turned them around to face the new door.  Here is the door assembly in its new location off the master bedroom.

The first photo below shows the sheetrocked wall in the guest bedroom where the walk-in closet door used to be.  The bottom photo is a glimpse into the closet in its new location, but before they put the clothes rods and shelves back in.  Our contractors discovered during this process that the closet used to be a hallway (right next to the main hallway) between the two bedrooms, and a prior owner closed it off to make the closet.

Moving the China Hutch

Here is the listing photo of a corner of the breakfast room, showing the built-in china hutch.  It was a very weird place to build in a hutch, because the wall next to it (on the left) had limited use without blocking the hutch.  It also was just odd visually, because it did not face the room.  We wanted to build cabinets across the entire interior/back wall of the breakfast room (the wall on the left as you're looking at the picture) and this hutch was in the way.  On the other hand, we really liked the hutch itself.  It has a very nice vintage character.  So on February 16, 2012, our contractors removed it from the wall.......

And we had it installed in the "back foyer."  That's the back of the hallway that is separated from the front part by a set of french doors.  Here it is in its new location (with the guest room in the background):

Later we hired people to finish the left side of it, which previously had been flush with a wall.  The hutch has served beautifully in its new location as a linen closet.

And the Paint Goes On - The Dining Room

The fun continued in February.  Our washer and dryer were installed on February 9, 2012.  The dining room was painted in February —  the above photo of the dining room in-progress was taken on Valentine’s Day.  The color is Sherwin Williams Gala Pink -- the same color that I had painted my dining room in Houston.  It's a really warm, luminous color.  (The living room was not be painted until late April or May because painting was interrupted by floor refinishing).  A note --- all of the prior posts are from the first 46 days we owned the house — from our closing on December 16, 2011 through the end of January 2012.  No wonder we felt like we were in permanent disarray.  I haven’t mentioned the dust, but dust was everywhere, all the time, from the constant sanding and paint prep work.

Fireplace and the $1000 Garage Sale Sofa

After Jamie moved in on January 26, 2012, he moved two items into the house from a storage unit -- a free-standing fireplace and this sofa (above left).  We had purchased the sofa for $250 at a garage sale almost a year earlier, in February 2011.  At that time, since we hadn't bought a house yet, we thought we could store the sofa in Jamie's Galveston apartment until we could put it in a house.  But when he got it to his apartment, it would not fit through the door.  So Jamie leased a storage unit at about $70 a month.  One year later..... that was an expensive garage sale sofa.  Fortunately, we were able to store the fireplace there as well, after we found it (also at a garage sale, for $100).  Here is a picture of the sofa when we bought it --- it was in great condition and suited our style and anticipated color scheme.

January 26, 2012 – Jamie Move-In Date!!!!

About a month and a half after our purchase date, Jamie moved in. Fortunately, he did not have a huge amount of stuff, because we still needed to have the floors done and all the walls painted.  Here, some of his stuff is piled in the office.  Below, Jamie has set up his computer temporarily in the breakfast room.

A New Stovetop

Also in January, we switched out the existing gas stove-top for an electric one.  Like many things, this did not go smoothly.  New new electric stovetop was installed on January 13, 2014, but not hooked up because the installer said electrical work was needed.  From a Jamie email on January 13, 2012: “The guy was a jerk from the moment he walked in.  He complained about the way the gas hook was done and said he was surprised the house hadn't blown up. . . . Then he said the stove top was too big( it wasn't) and then went on about how the electrician should have wired the outlet differently and on and on.  I tried to convince him that he should just go ahead and wire it the way it was,but  he refused - something about how they don't work with soft wired plugs or words to that effect.”  We had to hire our own electrician to hook up the stovetop.

Beadboard Wainscoting? Sorry, No

 We were very excited when we discovered beadboard wainscoting under the sheetrock in several locations.  I wrote in an email on January 15, 2012: “One really cool thing is that Jamie removed sheetrock from several places in the house and discovered original wood beadboard wainscoting underneath.  To the extent that time, money and energy permit, we're planning to expose this beautiful woodwork and refinish or paint it.  We think it might go throughout the house.”  Ha.  The wood was full of nails, and did not go all around any one room, so we covered it back up.  Actually, we paid other people to re-sheetrock the area.

Did I Mention Mold?

Here are some samples of what awaited us under the wallpaper.  From an email on January 15, 2012:  "Apparently, there is a kind of mold that thrives on wallpaper paste and is nourished by the moisture that comes up through walls and is trapped behind impervious vinyl wallpaper.  These days, fungicides are added to the paste, but that probably that wasn't the case when this wallpaper (which we're starting to regard as horrible) was installed.  Fortunately the mold does not go through the sheetrock.  We haven't found any other mold in the house.  Jamie has purchased washes that will kill the mold and then we'll paint the walls, and the conditions that were favorable for this mold will no longer exist."

This product became our friend:

My Partial Move into the Studio

Here is the beautiful studio!  This is looking toward the front of the studio (and the back of the house).  I partially moved in on January 12, bringing stuff from the Houston house.  From an email: "“On Saturday morning we rented a truck and packed it with 13 boxes of art supplies, plus easels, a drafting table, cabinets, two letterpress presses, an etching press, shelves, at least a dozen canvases, and other art-related miscellanea.  I had also found some great work tables on Craigslist made by a guy who only wanted $75 apiece.  We left enough room in the truck for two of them, and added them to the load.  I think the total work surface with these side-by-side is 5 feet by 5 1/2 feet. . . . We unloaded all of this in the alley behind the house in Galveston and carried them in to the studio.  This will be a wonderful place to work in the future."

This is an attempt to do a composite photo looking toward the back of the studio.

The Magic of Magnetite

Still in January!  Jamie had heard about this product called Magnetite, which may be used to turn a single-pane window into a double-paned window.  This was a fantastic product for us for several reasons.  Broadway is a pretty major thoroughfare with plenty of traffic, and you could easily hear traffic noise in the house.  Magnetite creates a pocket of air between the outside (original) pane and the Magnetite panel, which not only insulates against outside temperatures but also dampens noise.  Because the house is in a historical district, we did not have the option of simply replacing all the old windows with modern double-paned windows.  The Magnetite gives us the same effect.  It is a thick, strong, clear synthetic panel (they told Jamie it's the same substance used in airplane windows).  It has a metal rim that seals against a magnetic strip that is installed around the window frame.  This is supposed to create a complete seal.  We had these installed on (I believe) 12 windows.  We did not put it on the windows at the back of the house because we wanted to be able to hear everyday noises like bird song, and those windows are far enough from the street so that you don't hear traffic much.  The outcome was amazing.  You hear virtually no traffic noises, except for loud motorcycles and trucks, and there's not much you can do about those with any product.

But Wait --- Back at the Electrical Box....

It wasn't all fun and wallpaper in January 2012.  We also hired electrical people to upgrade the electrical service and correct some of the issues on the inspection report.  Jamie took some photos of the process.  If you've ever wondered what you would find if you removed your electrical panel box, it would be something like this.  (Note: do not try this at home.)

Still De-Wallpapering the Dining Room and Living Room

Jamie solved the challenge of reaching the upper parts of the walls by setting up this rolling scaffold.  Here, on January 29, 2012, you can see that the living room is mostly peeled.   I have the enzyme solution in a spray bottle and am working on getting the last areas of yellow paper off of the dining room walls.  The wallpaper removal in the dining room was complete on this day.

Before and After - Master Bedroom!

On January 24, 2012, Jamie had finished painting the master bedroom (see right) -- whether it was the first or second coat, I don't remember.  (You can click on this photo to see a larger version --- that's true of most of these posts.)   In this photo, the color looks similar to the material under the wallpaper in earlier photos, but it's actually a Sherwin Williams color, "Inviting Ivory."  We love it.  The lamp hanging there we didn't love, and it will be replaced soon.  Here's another view of the freshly painted bedroom, this one looking toward one of the front windows that overlook the porch:

Halfway Through January 2012

We got used to living with enormous amounts of debris.  Of course, it helped that neither of us had moved i n yet.  Jamie kept a large trash can in the living room and dining room area and we kept it full.