A Victorian Renovation Project
Floors
We decide to do the floors too!! But it’s like a puzzle. We finish a couple of rooms and empty them. Floor crew comes in and does those floors. We let them dry and move stuff into them to empty other rooms so that drywall crew can finish walls and then floor crew can come for floors. And we repeat the shuffle.
Here are the first three rooms!!
Before and After
And the office
They look so much better!! You don’t even realize how bad they were until you see the new floors next to the old. What an improvement!!
Vanity for the Bathroom
I searched on Facebook Marketplace for a vanity but just didn’t find one.
Ken installed the new floor. Radiator was repainted and installed.
And a new vanity ordered from Wayfair. Unfortunately, it didn’t arrive!! Said it was delivered, but wasn’t here. I shipped it to New Jersey!!
So, I spent two days driving down, and back to retrieve the vanity and light fixtures. Changed my shipping address and am trying to double check now.
There’s still work to do!! Ken has to finish the molding behind the vanity. We have to level it. Plumb it and pick up the faucet set for it. But it shipped safely to New Jersey — no damage, despite a terrible looking box and it made it up to Vermont via Kia Mini-van without damage!!
Progress!!
More walls removed
It’s all moving along. Slowly… but moving.
We are removing more walls for electric and to replumb the radiators.
Here are a few more pics of the destruction and rebuilding.
First the walls and ceilings are removed. New wiring, plumbing for the heat system and some plumbing for the bathroom.
The Kitchen is TRASHED
Well, room by room, walls are being removed. Plaster, lathe, all cut out. The rumbling of saws rattles the house.
The kitchen was one of the few rooms that was usable. Actually, one of TWO rooms that we were living in.
And they took down the walls — the ceiling and now we can get the electric redone. Move the plumbing and get ready for a new kitchen!!
And we have to finish pulling out the chimney.
We Found the 3rd Bathroom!!
Imagine — you buy a house, and they tell you it has three bathrooms, but every time you look at the house, it only has one full and one– half bathroom. What do they mean THREE? I told the insurance company, no there are two. I’ll let you know when/IF we find a third!!
Well, low and behold we did find a third. Now there is clearly some plumbing in the attic for a bathroom, but it was never finished. So, we didn’t count that. Actually, two toilet flanges.
But we found a whole different bathroom!!
Where?
In the parlor!!
Right in the parlor. No walls, just all of the plumbing for a bathroom.
Our initial reaction was — that has got to go!! Who has a bathroom in the parlor. Our assumption is that someone couldn’t do stairs and the parlor was used as a bedroom and the bathroom added. We don’t actually know. What do you think??
Well, after living in the house a bit, we decided to keep it!! We are adding a wall to enclose it. It will have a door from the dining room. Having a first-floor bathroom just seems to make sense. We still have to build the wall and I need a really TINY sink. A toilet with a 10-inch rough in (a new term I learned!!), standard is 12. So, I am also on the hunt for that.
There’s lots to do in the meantime. But eventually — there will be a first-floor bath closet!!
Tub is IN!!
The Evolution of a Bathroom….
Getting the original tub OUT took some work. They actually cut it in half. I think I missed that picture!!
Prepped the floor — leveling it for new tub install. We decided to keep it in the same place. We had considered rearranging the entire thing. But there really wasn’t a good way to do it. Or we didn’t see one.
New tub is in and functional as of the beginning of August!! We went from the end of May through June and July with NO working shower or tub!! Thankfully, warm days allowed us to rinse off outside with the hose in the driveway…
Usable but not complete!!
No Bathtub-Shower – YET
Well, we had hoped for the bathtub and shower install this week, but it didn’t happen!! Perhaps next week!!
We did see some progress, definitely slower than we want. Electrical is going in well and has gotten as far as they can get for the moment. More to come on Monday, now that the garbage is out of the upstairs bedroom.
There was also a little bit of progress on the structural repair on the side of the house. The space is totally opened up and the sill has been rebuilt. This week, they should be able to close the rest of that up and install the new window.
Plumbing
Plumbing is in for each radiator on the second floor and bathroom is ready for install of tub/shower. So again, hoping that is THIS WEEK!!
Several great bike rides exploring the area.
Beautiful roads, a few hills — here and there, and lots to explore. So many covered bridges. It is great. It’s part of why we moved here. So despite all the work that WE should be doing, we are also riding.
Many Projects all at Once
In addition to the porch roof, the gutters, we have the ongoing projects: replumbing the heat system for the radiators, rewiring the entire house, and tearing walls out to allow for that, and repairing the structural damage from the lack of gutters.
Rewiring
We are three weeks in on the rewiring of the entire house. Residential Remedies is doing a fantastic job!! There is new wired everywhere!! Or so it feels. Not yet connected but in the walls and ready to connect once the new drywall is up!!
Everyone asks how we are doing with no electricity — and we are fine!! We have electricity we just have OLD OLD OLD electric and it needs to be replaced. We knew if going in and had planned for it. Some rooms only had one outlet. Now we will have outlets on each wall and sometimes more than one outlet on a wall!!
We’ve been picking up fixtures, driving far to get them!! Electric ceiling fans in each bedroom, and on the front porch. New outdoor lights (there really aren’t any in the back), so now we will have lights on the garage and at both backdoors in addition to motion activated flood lights. Very exciting!!
We have porch lights currently and will be keeping those.
We took one chandelier in to get rewired and it turns out it is both electric and gas. So only part of it can be rewired. I will post a pick when we get it back!!
Heat System
Great progress on the heat system.
The boiler is in and put together. And now pipes are being run INSIDE the walls instead of outside. Any piping on the outside is copper, so that it looks good. Inside the walls is white plastic (pex) piping. Much improved.
So right now, the new piping is run for all of the radiators on the second floor and many on the first. We haven’t pulled the walls out in the kitchen yet. We are all waiting until other things are done and it can be coordinated effort to get it demolished and replumbed, wired and back together as quickly as possible.
Structural Repair
The structural repair is moving along as well. Weather has been a factor in getting it completed. But this week they actually pulled out the window, cut out the sill and the posts (?). Robear Construction is completing this job.
Thankfully, they closed up the hole with a piece of plywood to help me sleep!!
They have built supports on each floor of the house during the repair. You can see in the pictures the damage on the sill, and other parts of the wall. This was a result of the gutters being off the house and the volume of water that was hitting this particular wall from the roof.
Coming soon…. we have found a few cool things in the house… and will be sharing those soon!!
A bone, a secret bathroom, letters in the wall, photos…. so check back soon to see them!!
2nd Project DONE!!
Our second project complete is the porch roof. It was a tin roof with many leaks. Now it’s a rubber roof with no leaks!! Also came in over budget as the wood underneath the roof had to be replaced. Adding several thousand to the cost.
Lesson learned: ASK –>> what are the other potential things that could be needed to complete this job and what are the costs. This added cost was predictable and we should have planned for it.
These pictures … well there’s not much to see really!!
First Project DONE!!
I am far behind on this. But the first project is done!! Gutters are ON the house!! The house has endured so much damage as a result of the gutters being stolen years ago.
The neighbor told us that years ago the house was being painted and that the painter had taken the beautiful copper gutters off the house and they were in the back yard. They were stolen. So sad because copper gutters are beautiful, but so expensive now.
We had white gutters installed. They are large 6 inch gutters which really fill the space and make the house look so much better.
It was also our first surprise!! This is going to cost more!!
The fascia was mostly rotten and needed to be replaced. They tore it off and replaced it with a white plastic “wood” product. So, not painting and will never rot!!
They cut and make the gutters right on site out of this truck. It only took a couple of days for the crew to have the new gutters up with downspouts. We have on leak that they will come back to repair.
Not my best picture, but… if you look closely at both the porch roof and the upper, you can see clean new gutters finishing off the house!!
They really clean it up well.
Completed by RoofsR Us.
