goof7ball

I am the proud owner of an 80 year old house in Seattle, and am wondering how many other people out there own old homes too.

So far my completed project list includes:
-Complete tearout and rebuild of bathroom (fixing dry rot along the way)
-Turned the unfinished basement into a family room
-Retiled counter tops in kitchen
-replaced galvanized water pipes with copper.
-replaced about 90% of the old knob and tube wiring (and tripled the number of outlets)
-scraped half-a-dozen layers of wallpaper
-tore off and replaced the roof (added back the eves that some imbecile (sp??) cut off 50 years ago).
-Built a tongue-and-groove cedar fence in the back yard and a cedar picket fence in the front yard
-resided ~30% of the house
.
.
.

I've learned many things (most of them the hard way) that I'd love to share, and I would love to hear from other people about what they are doing to their old homes.

cowlick

Wow - you've been busy. How long have you owned this house?
I own a 26 year old home in Seattle and I am gearing up to accomplish most of these tasks. On the plate for the near future are:
* Replace the facia boards on the roof
* Replace the siding on a corner of the house
* Rebuild 2 bathrooms.

Ya wanna come on over and show me how it's done?

__________________
"It's a long story," says I, and let him up.

jbrooks544

I used to do this as a job (carpenter).

The one thing that I learned was that I never wanted to buy and old house.

Unless I had enough money to have it gutted and fixed up all at once before I even moved in.

They are nice if you have time and energy to fix up or if you have a lot of money. For most people - we just hope they dont' get in over their head.

Dibbler

I bought a big old house 2 years ago. The house is located in the historic part of town. The records showed that it was built in 1925 but after I started working on it I found that most of the framing was done useing those old hand forged square nails. I did some research and found out it was built in 1858 and went through a hefty renovation in the 1920's.

Can anyone say..."Money pit"?

So far:

Replaced a snake of galvanized water lines with copper. Went from original 250' down to a more efficient 100'.

Replaced all gas lines made up of a mixture of galvanized and black pipe. The things leaked like crazy.

Gutted one bathroom. Haven't had time to rebuild yet.

Gutted second bathroom and replaced most fixtures, installed shower.

Replaced roof.

Replaced gutters.

Replaced 15 windows. Still have 15 to go.

Next project is to rip out the plaster ceiling in the basement so I can stabilize the main floor.

I figure I've got about 10 more years before I'm done.

Ashton

jimk

my house was built in 1897 on the north side of chicago.......2-storey frame house with a full basement.

bought it 8 years ago & man, did we get lucky. our neighborhood property values have gone up ~20% every year but last.

it was a total hole, though, and i was the anti-handy man when we moved in. learned by mistakes, sweat, and blood (literally).

projects done:

ripped off front & back porches - rebuilt
gutted & finished basement
painted all rooms at least twice by now....due to wife's tastes
stripped & refinished hardwood floors & woodwork throughout
landscaping


every job has been a total nightmare, too!! when you open up a wall in a 100 yr old house, nothing is square or straight like in the home depot how-to books.........

__________________
raw power is a guaranteed o.d.

raw power is a laughin' at you & me

-iggy

Randerolf

If you've seen a few of the threads taht I've made, you can tell that I live in an old house.

It's older than 50 years, but I'm not exactly sure how old it is.

-I've replaced some window panes in an old metal window.

-Taken out an wallmounted AC, and the wood pannel in the window.

- Rewire the all telephone wiring in the house.

-Replace some outlets.


About to:

paint and wallpapper the bathroom and paint the kitchen.

sipsake

We've just moved into a 1910 bungalow. It's been very well maintained so there wasn't much repair work to be done. Our home inspector gave it a good report.

My one big concern is the knob and tube wiring. Anybody have a ballpark figure on cost?

__________________
When life hands you a lemon, say "Oh yeah, I like lemons. What else you got?"

Henry Rollins

goof7ball

When I bought my 2000 sq. ft. house (back on '99) I had an electrician come out and give me an estimate for replacing all the knob and tube, as well as adding a few dozen new outlets. He came up with a price of ~$10000. I decided to pass, and over the last 4 years I have replaced most of the wiring myself. I don't regret that I didn't fork over the money to have it done professionally, but if I could do it again and I had the extra cash I would definitely hire it out.

goof7ball

Not a chance!

As soon as I finish working on my house I plan on taking a big long vacation on my couch! I can offer free advice though-

go to Dunn Lumber for your wood supplies - Home Depot sucks. Also make sure to buy pre-primed fascia boards.

What kind of siding do you have? If it is cedar lap siding, are the corners mitered? I have some tricks on how to cut the miters if you need to do that.

cowlick

It is cedar lap.

__________________
"It's a long story," says I, and let him up.

goof7ball

Are the corerns mitered (cut at ~45 degree angles and butted up against each other?) If yes, then read on:

Notice I said ~45 degree angles. If each piece of siding was installed flat against the sheating then the miter joint would be exactly 45 degrees. This, however, is not the case. Each piece is layered on top of the piece below it creating a new miter angle. You probably could measure the thickness of the siding at the point where each peice overlaps, then do some trigonometry to calculate the angle, but that would be hard. Instead, you can cut a shim as long as the fence on your miter saw, as thick as the siding at the point where the boards overlap, and about 1/4" tall. Now set the table on your miter saw to 45 degrees, place the shim against the fence, and the set the piece of siding with the thick side against the shim, and the thin side against the top of the fence. Swing the fence to 45 degrees on the opposite side to cut the opposing board. Thats it! Cut a few practive pieces and you are ready to go.

Note: It is much easier to cut the miter edge and then measure to the butt edge than it is the other way around. Also, always cut a little large and then trim if you need.

goof7ball

Oh yah, one more thing I didn't learn until it was too late. If you plan on painting your siding then buy the pre-primed variety - it is actually cheaper!

viejo gringo

Been there, done that...the only thing I could recommend would be either a LOT of money or several well placed satchel charges....the later will save a lot of money in the long run..

Leander

My house was built in 1913, and have been here since 2000. It is an old American Foursquare and I have tried to keep with the craftsman roots. What I've done so far:
painted first floor
redone all hardwood floors on first floor
replaced three ceilings
built an oak library
blown out a wall to make a master suite
built a linen closet
rewired nob and tube
made oak builtins for the new bedroom
refinished original oak woodwork including interior columns
gone insane
put in a patio because the wife had a bug up her ass
turned the third floor into a bastardised mother in law suite for the head up her ass step daughter
jeez, now I just want a beer

__________________
Just me and God, watching Scotty die..

mtsgsd

Our farmhouse was built in 1925. I don't know how old the barn is, but it could be the same age. We're lucky in that the former owners did a lot of modernization already ie. updated the wiring and plumbing, and converted the radiator heating to TWO central HVAC units (top of the line too!). They also enlarged the house some, but it could use some more stretching.

Now the bad news. I have to replace the crappy hardboard siding that is water damaged, along with maybe 25% of the facia which hasn't been painted in a long time. I've replaced quite a bit of the hardwood floor downstairs after removing the lousy carpeting, and the entire second floor needs it's flooring replaced! They used drywall screws by the pound to try to silence the squeeky floor before the carpet went down. Argh!

Then there's the plaster and lathe walls that were covered with a heavy coat of texture paint to try and cover the defects. The walls will be coming down. Luckily it's not in all the rooms. Along with this the barn will cost 15-20K to replace the shifting foundation, the siding and pour a floor so I can put a workshop in it.

Still and all a great place. I'm lucky in that I can do all the work myself, but we'll be busy for awhile.

FastShark85

1950's house:

Ripped down everything in the family room (walls, ceiling) down to joists and studs and re-drywalled (ceiling too) everything, painted, carpeted, crown molding.

Built my own fireplace mantle.

Completely gutted a bathroom, covered walls with tongue-and-groove wood planks, replaced sink and toilet, tiled floor.

Painted every room.

Added deck to the back of the house.

Ripped crappy wallpaper down in bathroom (different one) around the top of the shower (tile below) and covered with water-proof fiberglass.

Added motion detector lights all around yard.

Built dog run.

Replaced fence.

Installed ceiling fans and/or replaced light fixtures throughout house.

Gutted basement, installed paneling and drop ceiling. Carpeted.

Refinished wood floors on first floor.

Next project.....drywall or peg board garage walls and install shop lighting throughout. Maybe paint floor.

It's a never-ending process. The only things we've hired contractors to do is the wood floord refinishing, the carpeting and crown-molding and the deck installation. It's satisfying to do projects yourself, but with 3 kids there just isn't enough time anymore. I'm happier to spend cash to get stuff done now...and I can yell at someone other than myself when things are done wrong.

yellowgowild

1920's Bungalow. Bought it 4 months ago and it seems to be in perfect condition with everything updated. One major flaw though; the outside is covered in asbestos shingle. I took off one shingle and saw the wood siding underneath is perfect but I'm not sure how to go about safely taking off the rest of the asbestos. It's in great condition but to me it's ugly and will repel future buyers.

eagle1

Bought a house out in the Sultan/Startup are of Washington State back at the end of February. The origianl part of the house was built back in 1961 with a "Great Room" (diningroom and livingroom) and daylight basement built in '75 from what I can tell.

The previous owners of 9 years hardly did anything with the house or started something and never finished.

There was no texture on any of the walls or ceilings of the house.

In the three bedrooms, there is 2x6 cedar planks on the exterior walls. (great for my dust collection)

The master bath was this little room that had no sheetrock on the walls and one layer of subfloor. They had the tub, toilet, a beautiful pedistal sink just laying in the area. No wall between the bedroom and "bathroom". I took a week of "vacation" from the office and built the bathroom.

The kitchen cabinets were painted a "beautiful" mint green. After finding an old photograph that was taken in the kitchen, we decided to do some experimenting. We decided to strip and sand all the cabinets. We found benieth the two layers of paint a beautiful pine veneer finish on all of the cabinets. Talking about a total change over.

I'm still working on different projects but it is a fun and challengin process to turn the house into "our home"