Attic Stairs

Finally, I can now get into the attic without crawling through a tiny hole in the closet. Seriously, what were they thinking back then? Isn't it nice to have storage space up there?

So I wanted to have some fun, and cutting holes in the ceiling and re-framing attic access doors was right up my alley for a couple of weekends. It was easy, considering that I didn't have to worry about making a mess, nor the structural integrity. I mean, if it broke at this point I could still fix it without a bunch of problems. Nonetheless, the attic openings were a simple matter of cutting through the plaster to find the placement, slicing through the joists, adding a few members and hanging to ladder access doors.

Sounds fun, right! Let's go cutting...

First I started by cutting the lathe out where the first door was to go. That allowed me to relatively easily get into the attic. Then I nailed 2 x 6's on both sides of the future cut joists to shore up the ceiling framing. Next I sawzalled the joists at the proper dimensions and created the opening. Lastly I nailed the everliving crap out of a couple 2 x 6's (that was the existing ceiling joist depth) to frame out the opening. I actually used doubled up framing on the sides and not both ends, which is discussed differently in the directions. But I'm not sure under the circumstances that it's going to matter.

The door was a fancier version of the standard wooden ladder type door. The door I decided on was about $40 more, but it fashioned metal steps and more sturdy construction. Plus, it was much easier to install. It was a 2-piece installation, placing the simple metal frame in place first and hanging the stairs on second. And the feet are adjustable without cutting the stair legs. It is very cool and well engineered.


The door also features a cushion stop closing device, because it is pneumatic vs. spring driven. I believe it to be well worth the extra investment so far. In case you're wondering, it is a Werner product.

Once the first door was installed and operational, I began work on the second. I wasn't able to move a couple pieces of 4' x 8' plywood through the installed opening, so I would have to wait until I had the other opening framed, but not compelted to move the 2 sheets I bought into the attic. Mostly I wanted something more sturdy to stand on - my knees were killing me after the first opening installtion (that was weekend #1).

Cutting out the lath to make a clean cut was relatively easy from above. The sawzall made clean slices through everything, including the joists, once they were shored up with top mounted braces. This is during the removal process for the South unit. Speaking of that, I wanted to make sure to have 2 attic accesses in this house to increase storage capacity. I'll have to building an attic enclosure wall later on, but I think it's worth it.

And we're done. That was 2 weekends worth of work. Well worth the final effort.

This is what the sill looks like for the attic windows. Pretty destroyed, but salvageable considering it is the only original portion of the exterior that I'm keeping. Plus I'm going to "resotre" it. That will probably consist of slapping some epoxy finishing putty to the sill and painting the crap out of it.

That wraps up this installment. Next time will go through the work that I've had done by a very usefull and skilled laborer...

Let's Start Some Demolition!

About the same time I started finishing off the drawings, I had the hankerin' to do some demolition. It's just something quite fun to do sometimes.

I had hired someone to clean out the majority of the existing debris. So when I started, it was nice and clean. Only to get dirty again. You pretty much figure this cycle's going to occur about a million times. So I started out with the built-ins and the front room and moved as far as I could over a couple weekends.

This is the work that was completed long before I purchased the house. Originally, the bathtub (a clawfoot) was connected to the house plumbing by garden hose. I really hope to provide better better installed plumbing than that down the road. I'm sure it worked just fine. This is the ceiling / floor of the bathroom upstairs.

Downstairs, the basement is relatively clean and water free. It is a bit tighter that my current basement, but will serve as wonderful storage in the future. Don't worry about that pool of water. I'm going to power was the walls and fix the main drain sometime soon.

Moving on to the basement entrance: the basement door, along with the windows, had been boarded up previously. My simple goal was to open it up and let the basement breathe. I had some help from my little brother (www.bbbsci.org), Charles too. He rather enjoyed weilding the sledge and pry-bar.

It is truly amazing how little crap it takes to fill a dumpster. I haven't even really begun demolition yet and I've already filled up our 20 yarder. I had to order another. AND it was 6.3 tons (which is 1.3 over the limit for which I have to pay extra). Didn't seem like it was 6.3 tons when i tried to lift it. Ha ha.

Starting with the built-ins, I removed them (in one piece each thankfully) and put them aside. Next was to clean off only as much plaster as was needed. This whole place is being covered with gyp. brd. (drywall) anyway. I also hired a laborer to pull trim and remove nails from the existing trim. I want to keep it for a number of reasons. Possible re-use is one, saving dumpster space is another. It comes in handy as spacers is a third. You just never know when it will come in handy to have some original trim lying around. That and lathe.

Here's the same room about 2 weeks later. Seems like it continues to fill up with crap, too. Such as my doors from previous salvage expeditions, duct board and other components that seem necessary to keep for future use:

Charles and I got up into the attic through the 20 x 20 hole in one of the closet ceilings (what were they thinking back then?). We found a cool, old, preserved newspaper from 1927. I guess the house was probably built just before or right around there. It was so brittle that it cracked if you tried to move it, but still neat nonetheless.

Oh. What's this? This is one of our latest home brews! I think actually these 2 beers are our "Stolen Goods Honey Porter" and "Big Buck Oatmeal Stout." The Porter was named appropriately because the day after we brewed, the garage...errr, brewer....was broken into and stuff was stolen. Thankfully not brewery stuff, but all stuff = $$, right! This is some good stuff though.

Next up will be the attic door demolition and installation. Stay tuned.

Finally the new Remodel

All right. I'm finally to the new remodel. Seeing as how I'm an architect, and rather experienced in drafting, I started off by drawing up some plans for the remodel. I thought this would be a couple week endeavor. Turns out I was wrong...again. It was more like 80 hours of work to get these things to the same level as we would a normal project.

Check 'em out here: http://www.customgroup.biz/1342/

The nice thing about having drawings, is the ability for mulitple contractors to price the SAME thing. "Apples to apples" comparison as they say. The other nice thing is that I've already thought through most everything that will be involved. So when someone has a detail question, the answer has probably been on my mind once or twice before the question was even asked. Maybe this is more of a professional ability now that I have experience...I don't know. Trust me though, drawings are worth it and they help.

Here's the house, somewhat un-demolished, but probably cleaned up from the original, trashed out out condition:

The porch is so skewed that it needs to be torn off and re-built. I would rather it be a hip instead of a gable, so that's what is proposed. The proposed new porch will be split-face block, with a new concrete cap. The porch columns were adapted from a design I saw in Nashville, IN this fall while there with Sheri (see below).

From the back of the house, you can tell that the second floor is kind of cut short. The bathroom, which is the only room past the main bearing wall on the west side (back) of the house, is woefully under-sized and simply too small. Not to mention that when we originally looked at the house five years ago, it was plumbed with garden hose. No kidding. The plan is to add on a master suite above the kitchen, and extend it past the first floor exterior wall to create a screened in porch off the kitchen. Too cool, huh?

Check out the old built-ins. The take up too much space on the interior, so I decided to take them out. Fortunatley, after a little TLC, they came right out in one piece. Instead of trashing them, I'm going to try and re-use them in the dining room, along the wall as relief and a book shelf.

Most of the house is in relatively decent shape, except for what has already been demolished in the past. All of the walls are plaster on wood lath. The exterior walls, including the middle wall between the units, have no exterior sheathing. This is weird to me. The interior face of the studs have a beefed up, ship-lapped and dadoed lath that acts as many components for the building frame, including lateral bracing for the exterior walls. Where the plaster is in relatively good shape, we are leaving it in place, cutting out the bad and unnecessary sections, and covering everything wonderful, new 5/8" and 1/2" gypsum board (drywall).

next time, more demo but with my little brother...

Outside Improvements

I'd like to be able to say that by changing the exterior appearance, I can change the neighborhood. But that's not likely to happen. I do like to set a good example though. And maybe one day down the road, the example will be taken on as a challenge by someone that lives nearby. They might say "I want my yard to look like THAT!" And hopefully for a good reason.

I finally got around to having the porch masonry repaired. It needed some TLC, which included new limeston wall caps, some tuckpointing and some areas simply needed to be rebuilt. If you ever have any masonry work done on your house, please follow this simple advice: Match the darn mortar color, even if it's only in the same color range.

I wouldn't recommend the guys who did this work to anyone, it was very average. But it certainly does the job on dressing up the porch back to its original look.

Then there's the shed. I put the posts in the ground about 9 months before I got around to building it, so it looked like I was signaling to aliens for a while during the Winter. But the custom design worked out well. Still no pictures of the finished product yet. It was completed in August 2006.

Actually, the shed came before the deck, but there are more deck pictures, so here goes. I love building decks. I had to rent an auger to drill the piers because the dirt was so incredibly hard. But I didn't realize until it was too late that you really need to pre-water the holes about 24 hours before drilling to make the deep, dense soil softer. Especially in the dead of summer. Adam (my brother) helped me set the main posts.

Once the posts were set, I began framing the deck joists. A ledger had already been lag screwed in to the house framing to support the house side. We were finally able to to use that foresight for good.

Completing the deck included a lattice screen wall that was installed to accept viney plantings and a railing. For the railing ballusters I bought relatively expensive powder-coated aluminum pre-formed ballusters. They're available at Lowe's and the other home improvement stores I'm sure and dress up what would've probably been 2 x 2 treated wood chamfered at the top and bottom. But at $5 a piece -- well I only needed five boxes.

It's late and I'm out. Next up I'll start on the 1342 Remodel. Stay tuned.

1334 - 6 | Before & After

Let's just do this the simple way and save a bit of time. A lot of people have already *experienced* the before and after...after all, this project has been going on for over five years now.

It's funny that when I started it I took regular 35mm photos, most of which are somewhere in the attic and unavailable at the moment. So this whole "let's do a before and after" is backfiring as I'm typing this. However, I have a couple views digitally from the North unit, which was the last of the house to really get finished off. Keep in mind that at one time this place was torn to the studs (and in some cases just beyond).

Here's the front room with drywall hung and halfway finished. No stair rail yet. I was still waiting to learn welding to make the steel railing.

Here's the front room in progress. The stair rail has been installed, the finish coat of drywall mud applied, the crown moulding hung, and the lauan flooring installed. What a mess. This is what happens when your work room is the last room you want to finish off. Somehow all of this ended up in the basement (but much more organized).

And finally, the front room lived in. I still have a huge punch list at this point, but it's livable for all intents and purposes. On the punch list is tiling the far wall of the dining room with some slate tile my parents gave me. The only picture of that I can find is after this one. It is waaaay cool.

And finally, the tile freshly installed (without grout if you can see those little tile spacers):

Here's the same drill with the kitchen:

What a transformation. Gosh, I never realized how much crap it seems that we have on the counter.

Next up are some outside features that have changed over the years so far...