Thanksgiving at the DIY Disaster House

Well, it's the start of the Holiday season and this year Andy and I have a lot to be thankful for.  One year ago we would have never imagined that we would now be living in our own house, with our two cats, working like dogs to turn this house into a home.

We had some good motivation to work hard on the house over the past month because we decided we wanted to host Thanksgiving  this year.  It was nothing fancy, but it was great to have our family come over and see what we have done with the house so far, such as...

OUR BEDROOM!!!

Finally, we are done with our room (ok well 99% done because I still need to convince Andy to put up a ceiling fan).  This room was certainly a labor of love.  When we started out we estimated it would take us about a month to complete the room; we were quite mistaken.  I have no doubts that a professional could have been finished in no time, but when you are new to this whole "DIY" stuff, it takes a little longer to get going, not to mention the only time we could do any significant work was on the weekends when we were actually home.

Nevertheless, working on our bedroom was a great learning experience.  Andy, who was never handy before, learned a lot about repairing and patching old walls and ceilings, and he even learned a little electrical work along the way.  I must admit I'm proud of the work Andy has done so far and admire his dedication to researching into how to do things correctly.

I also got to learn a little about patching and plastering walls, but most of what I did on the room was paint.

I think Andy and I both learned that no matter what the project you start, you need to expect it to take WAY longer than planned.  Even if the project itself is going smoothly, at least for the most part, life gets in the way with clogged sewer pipes, squirrel infestations and just general maintenance and upkeep of the house.  Next time we will hopefully set a more reasonable time frame for ourselves.

Most importantly, I think, I learned that trying to restore an old house takes A LOT of patience, a trait I sometimes lack.  I know I got impatient with how long it was taking; Andy got impatient when I asked him to explain everything he was doing and why he chose to do it that way instead of another; I got impatient with Andy for being impatient with me.  Hopefully now we have both learned to just roll with the punches and have fun along the way.  Maybe we'll even adopt the next squirrel that comes in the house as a pet.

The Evolution of Our Bedroom:

At our inspection...

When we moved in...

 

During renovation...

 

     
 

The final result....

 

NEXT UP:  The Den!

SQUIRREL!!!

Well it has about a week since Andy came face to face with a squirrel in our third floor. We've had a trap in our eaves baited with sunflower seeds but have had no luck catching anything...until tonight. Apparently this furry fella dislikes the snow and cold as much as the rest of us and came in to get warm.

Unfortunately it's back out into the cold for him as he has been safely relocated to an undisclosed location away from our house.

"I'm gonna catch it in the coat... And smack it with the hammer"

When we left you last time we were about to venture deep into the ceiling and walls of our bathroom to try to discover the source of the burning/smoldering smell.  Andy used his amazing sense of smell to locate the source to a particular area of the ceiling and that's where he began to cut.  It didn't take long to figure out what Andy was smelling.  As soon as he cut a hole he discovered an old, decaying squirrel!  Poor Andy, not only did he discover the squirrel but it was completely up to him to discard the squirrel as well, I was NOT going to be involved at all.

How or why a decaying squirrel produced an odor that was similar to a burning smell is a mystery, but the smell seems to be gone now that our (not so) furry friend is gone.

Finding a dead squirrel in your ceiling is certainly distressing, but you know what's worse?

Finding one staring at you when you come out of the bathroom!

Friday night around 3:30 in the morning Andy went up to our third floor bathroom (since our second floor bathroom still has a hole in the ceiling) and when he came out he saw an adolescent squirrel staring back at him!  He yelled down the stairs to wake me up and groggy and blurry eyed I went upstairs to see what was causing the commotion.  Andy tells me there's a squirrel in the house.  I don't think I comprehended what he was saying until I actually saw it running underneath our baseboard heating.

We thought how are we EVER going to catch a squirrel?  We didn't have a large dog to chase it around our house, or a Santa coat and hammer to catch it with, but some how Andy did manage to corner it and lure it into a box.  We released it out in our driveway after which I'm sure he ran right back into our eaves!

The most troubling part of this experience is knowing that if there was one adolescent in our house, there must be more!!  We went out got a Havahart trap, baited it with sunflower seeds and now we're just waiting...

Oh the joys of home ownership!

This Week, on the DIY Disaster Zone...

I have fun with a stud finder, Andy goes in the closet, we wonder what that smell in the bathroom is and more!

We've been in our new house for about two and half months, and while I still have not been able to unpack our bedroom and clothes, I thought it was about time to start hanging things on our walls!  Our living room actually looks put together now, and the wall paper is even starting to really grow on me!

We also put up the custom coat rack my dad made for us, no more laying coats on the kitchen table and chairs!

We were able to make some progress in our bedroom this week as well and Andy learned something new at the same time!  Now that our room is painted we decided we needed new outlets and light switches, so my dad taught Andy how to remove and replace an outlet.  Perhaps my dad didn't think Andy was ready for light switches yet because he did those himself.

Andy also continued to work in our closets, patching and sanding the walls, trying to get them ready to paint, it's the one thing that's really keeping us from being able to move in to our room.







We also got some things done recently that we've been meaning to do for a while.

We had the roof over our second floor porch replaced.  It was very old and in rough shape so we knew we needed to get it done before the winter.  Golini Roofing of Wakefield did the roof and they did a great job.  Hopefully the rest of our roof can wait a few years.

We also finally put down a floor in our second floor bathroom.  When we had our hardwood floors redone the only room we didn't do was the second floor bathroom because the previous owners had replaced the sewer pipe and there was a large piece of floor missing with some plywood in its place.  We knew it would a while before we completely renovate the bathroom but we needed a quick fix in the mean time so Andy and his brother Jon (thanks Jon!) put down vinyl tile.  It actually looks really good!










There have also been somethings about the house that we haven't been able to figure out.  First, we've found a bizarre mark on the ceiling in a bunch of rooms, including our (future) bedroom, dining room, and the downstairs and upstairs porches.

We can't figure out what they mean, we threw out the idea that the previous owners were thinking of installing central air, but it doesn't make sense to put in the porches as well.  Any one have a clue?





And lastly, for a little while we have been noticing a burning smell in our second floor bathroom.  We had our electrician look at the fixtures and outlets and they all looked fine, but the smell continues and now it's time to delve deeper...

Next week on the DIY Disaster Zone...

Will we be able to figure out what's going on in our bathroom?  And will the bathroom survive Andy's investigation?  Tune in next week to find out!

Finally!

What a productive weekend!

We finally finished switching over our electrical from the old fuse boxes to the new new circuit breaker box...

Well actually the electrician did this.

We finally got our new washer and dryer hooked up...

Actually my dad did this.

And we finally got our outside planters done...

Well it was actually my mother-in-law who did these.

But as for our bedroom...

well that's still not done.  Soon though, very soon.  

No One Warned Me About Painter's Claw

Over the past few weeks Andy and I have been hard at work, trying to get our bedroom finished so we can finally set up our bed and bureaus, unpack our suitcases, move our mattress off the floor and stop living in what we refer to as our "crack den."  Andy finally got all the horsehair cracks patched and sanded.  We primed the walls and even have the first few coats of paint on the walls.  All it took was several weeks longer than expected and a severe case of painter's claw in my right hand.  At one point I tried to put down my paint brush but was unable to pry my fingers open.  Perhaps I am not doing something right???

Anyways, our first major project is almost complete (the closets still have to be patched, sanded and painted) and it feels great to almost accomplish something ourselves. 

Pictures of our new bedroom to come soon!

SERENITY NOW!

This weekend Andy and I as well as our two cats finally officially moved in. We had a stressful yet productive day on Saturday, moving some boxes, patching some cracks in our bedroom walls and doing some cleaning in the kitchen and bathrooms. We also had the electrician over who started to get our wiring up to code. And of course my dad was there telling everybody what they should be doing and that whatever they were doing could wait until he thinks it should be done. By Saturday evening all we wanted to do was take a shower and pick up some takeout. But as Murphy's Law states, that which can go wrong, will. As I was taking my shower Andy was just doing a few more things around the house and when he went down to the basement he happened to notice the shower water had backed up into the basement sink and was now overflowing! Luckily Andy had had the foresight to put all of our furniture up on blocks in the basement, just in case anything should happen.

Andy and my dad figured we had a clogged sewer pipe so Sunday morning we called Roto-Rooter to fix the problem. He snaked the pipe and discovered that it was full of tree roots that had grown their way into the pipe. He showed Andy the culprit roots that were removed from our sewer pipe but I decided just to take his word on it.

      

After the Roto-Rooter man left, Andy pointed out that the only jobs that seem to get finished around our house are the ones we pay people to do.

By Sunday evening though we had gotten some furniture up and it was starting to feel like home.

                                                

Even Bella is adjusting well. 

Why should I DIY? You do it.

Andy pitched in and did what he does best for this project...wrote a check.

One of the first things Andy wanted to do when we moved in was get the floors done.  We knew it was now or never and it was way out of our DIY abilities so we got it done professionally.  Special thanks to Kham Floor Sanding out of Quincy, MA.  Our Realtor referred him to us and we are thrilled with the results.

Guest Bedroom Before

Guest Bedroom After

Downstairs Hallway

No Rest for the Wicked

Day 1: Hard at Work

The ink on our brand new mortgage barely had time to dry before we were hard at work at our new house.  Our first projects are our master bedroom and den so we can at least have a finished place to relax and sleep.  We spent Friday stripping wallpaper from our bedroom.

 

Under that paper we found some some cracked and crumbly horsehair plaster walls.

Andy started talking about ripping down the walls all the way to the studs.  I started seeing $$$ flashing before my eyes.  Luckily, after we had a slightly more skilled DIYer (my father) assess the situation, we were able to determine the walls can simply be patched and sanded.

Day 2: Our First Trip the Emergency Room

After such a productive first day, we were excited to get back to work on Saturday.  We still needed to take   down a wall of wood paneling from the bedroom, strip the paper from our den and also take down a paneled wall from the den.

Much of the paper came off very easily because the previous owner was quite fond of vinyl wallpaper.  We were able to simply rip most of it down.

The paneling, however, was another issue...

Andy got the first panel down and had it on the floor when he stepped right on a nail.  It went through his Croc and into his foot.  Since Andy hadn't had a tetanus shot in over a decade, we had to take our first house related trip to the hospital so he could get his shot and an antibiotic to stave off any infection.  Andy learned an important lesson that day, don't do demo work in Crocs.  Don't worry, his foot his fine, though his ego might still be a little hurt.

Day 3:  Back to Work

Despite a minor setback on Saturday, Sunday we were right back to work and got a bunch of yard work done.  We removed a bunch of vines that were  crawling up the side of our house and cut down some trees that had been growing through fences, out of our deck, and one that was threatening to take over our flowing cherry tree.  Finally after completing the prep for the flooring guys to get to work this week we are looking forward to a few days off.

A Little History

On Friday, July 20th my husband and I closed on our first house.  It's a grand old turn of the century fixer-upper and we are planning on fixing it up ourselves.  Neither me nor my husband have any prior DIY experience, except for making our own card box for our wedding three years ago.  This time we've taken on a slightly larger box.


At the closing the owner's daughter gave us a little bit of history of the house.  Her family had lived there for 57 years and were only the second family to own the house.  The house was built back in 1910 by a local banker for his bride.  The house originally had a formal living room and dining room, a maid's kitchen and a large pantry with floor to ceiling sliding glass cabinets.  In between the kitchen and the dining room was a sliding door where the maid could pass dinner to the butler to serve.  Up on the third floor the banker had built himself a large billiard room next to the maid's room.  We learned that around the house was an orchard of apple and pear trees and to the left of the picture of the house were the banker's tennis courts.

Now it's ours.  There are no maids, no butlers, no tennis courts and no orchards, just two less than novice DIYers who are excited to restore this house and turn it into our dream home.