Rehabber’s Rehab

Beautiful Pines in the Northwoods

This week we took a well earned vacation to the Northwoods of Wisconsin.  It was perfect timing because by Tuesday I was competely exhausted from staying up until 1am every night breathing in plaster dust and wielding a hammer.  We made a token attempt at work on Tuesday morning, but after about an hour it was clear that neither of our hearts were in it at the time.  Looking around at the complete mess we had created I just felt tired and overwhelmed.

The timing on our vacation was perfect as we had arranged to get the floors redone while we were gone, and would be unable to work in the house anyway, and couldn’t walk on the floors over the weekend while they dried.  Also it was so much easier to get them done while the house is empty and we didn’t have to deal with the furniture. (more…)

So I spent the day stripping paint off of the trim, and this post was originally going to be a How-To, however, the process was so inefficient and frustrating I don’t think that I can presume to tell anyone how to attempt this process.

I want to strip and stain most of the trim in the house because it’s all original and it all matches and has the same pointed detail at the top.  Plus I love the look of all matching unpainted stained trim that you see in a lot of those old craftsman homes.  The trim that was above the demi-wall between the living and dining rooms I intended to put above the large window in the sunroom to help integrate that room with the rest of the house and not have it look like such an addition.

So after reading several how-to’s, I though i could easily tackle this project myself in not much time.  Perhaps these people who wrote these how-to’s, who made this project sound so easy, did not have seven layers of paint to contend with.  Perhaps they did not have to deal with the unbelievably dark stain and several layers of varnish underneath the paint.  I hate them.  The paint did not come off easily or evenly.  The wood underneath looks a little splotchy due to the chemicals and uneven paint.

For others stuck in this nightmare, when I figure out a good way to do this, I’ll let you know. Here are the pictures from my first attempt.

When we first thought about having a party for demolition, I thought who would want to come and get dirty and help us with the nasty part of our remodel. It turns out quite a few people wanted to come to help, to get dirty, to destroy stuff, and to fulfill their curiosity for our new project.

After we closed we went straight over to the house and started ripping up the carpets. While dragging out the remains of the 30 year old carpet I couldn’t help but notice that there was a lot of work to do and that Matt, Liz and I could only do so much. Amazingly almost a 100% of our RSVP’s came which doesn’t usually happen even for a strictly “fun” party.

We are so appreciative of everyone who came. We exceeded my expectations of what we could get done and how willing people were to contribute and jump whole-heartedly into the fun that I know demolition to be.

AND NOW FOR THE PRESENTATION OF THE 2008 “DEMI” ACADEMY AWARDS (more…)

Closing Today!!  I am very excited.  So excited that, although I am not a morning person, I voluntarily got up at 6:00am because I couldn’t sleep anymore.

Ink now happily looking out his favorite window

The cat woke us up knocking around because the shade was down on his favorite window and he could not look outside. Bad move on our part.  But once I woken up, instead of groaning and falling back to sleep, my brain switched on thinking about all the things we are going to do to the house, and that was it.  This is a strange occurance because my brain doesn’t usually start working until I’ve been awake for at least 45 minutes.

So we’re closing today, and I’m so excited that I am up talking to the only thing that’s awake in this house besides me.

Our friends Kim and Terry brought up concerns about having friends run wild throwing hammers into walls hitting electrical lines, water pipes, etc.  Kim and Terry know our friends and their concerns are warranted.  However, the bashing will not be so haphazard and the most reckless of offenders (Drew) are well known and will be monitored closely.  Below is my tentative schedule for the wrecking party and inaugural weekend.  Besides being safe, we want to provide enough “activities” that are safe, enjoyable and allow people to either just hangout or dive-in completely.  Everyone should dress appropriately regardless of your participation level.

PRE-PARTY PLANS:

1.  Documentation- This is important to any project for several reasons.  It is great to see the impact of a project when you can view before and after images of the home.  The changes are dramatic and allows friends and family to share in your project.  Also documentation allows you to compare the difference that various improvements make and how much valuable those improvements when compared with the cost of the project.  We missed out on documenting thoroughly the Rice street project, so we are going to make sure and get lots of pictures from the beginning to end and get a couple of walk through videos. (more…)