526 Lincoln Victorian - AKA The New Money Pit

coderguy

Hello everyone,

I was supposed to post this a week ago. We purchased this home in January after a low offer was accepted just before Christmas. We had some extra inspections done; but they didn't catch anything. The home hid everything well until after close. We still love the place and I have put countless hours into it already. This thread will cover everything possible; from small projects to large and calls for help. I hope everyone can enjoy this thread as much as I have enjoyed lurking for the last year. Let's get started with an intro to our new Victorian as it was purchased.

From the front:


Master Bedroom:


Living Room:


Dining Room:


We will see some more pictures later; and the next post will go into current projects. All of these pictures were while the home was still staged. I would post more and better but I'm trying to get a grip on putting images in the forum. Next post; first project.

coderguy

Well, the first project was supposed to be converting a bedroom to an office; as one of us would soon work from home and we were tired of the cramped double purpose office/guest bedroom at our condo. This was supposed to be the room I was allowed to do heavy work on; we had no intention of buying a fixer upper.

The room is this bedroom:




The plan:

1. Bamboo Floors
2. Robin's Egg Blue walls
3. Some kind of white trim (ivory?). Classic White
4. Built in closet (for converting back to bedroom later, and for storage now)
5. Nice ceiling fan

I would at some point receive help on this forum with the floors. But first; I had to take up the carpet; and this is when we found what the inspector and the realtor missed:








I will link to the blog post later for the 'long' story; for the DIY forums; I'll act as if I didn't freak out and run around for two hours mumbling about "she's gonna divorce me, omg". I got my tools and got right to making it a reliable; sturdy and flat floor! Oh, and the whole second floor was this way.

Here are some pics after step 1:




I ripped up all bad boards within reason. I wanted to replace the whole thing. I was told this was a bad idea (boards went under walls). I put new boards with spacers to match the height of the old wood; and I trimmed the boards with the circular set to the correct depth so they would fit width wise. I then went from joist to joist putting in long screws. I alternated between old joist and new (they are sistered). The floor came out pretty solid; but not perfect.

In order to get the floor 'flat'; I ended up putting down plywood, but we will get to that in the next post when I conclude project 1 and then return to the disaster...

note: I had to remove a lot of images :-(

no1hustler

Nice looking house. You mentioned a blog, can you post a link?

coderguy

http://georgefrick.blogspot.com

coderguy

Progress! Not of the DIY variety; but I will be posting about that very soon (misplaced memory card from the camera).

We had the trees in the back removed and it is a great relief!!

Before:


After:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZCFGHkJfX0...0/101_0486.JPG

This greatly pleased the neighbor!. More pictures here: http://georgefrick.blogspot.com/2011...-are-gone.html

coderguy

I got the old sink moved out of the basement; and I bought the new one. I have it all 'pre-piped' except for the connection to the drain. I did a one way air valve since there is nowhere to put a vent. Below is a picture of the current problem/stall in work. When I removed the cast iron sink; I had to cut the pvc pipe running to the drain. As soon as I started cutting it; the rusted pipe on the sink broke and the pvc fell away - it wasn't attached to anything at the drain.

I can't put the new sink in until this mystery is solved (how to connect it up); and I also have to wait until after the drain tile is done in the basement. I've moved on the planning the new basement stairs and working on the window wells outside.




In other news; I found another corpse (did I mention the squirrel in the attic?). There is a bird corpse in the wall/floor - how did it get in there!?!?! I finished all the closet built ins; a whole series is coming on that. I still need to post the rest of the office stuff; and the furnace stuff. Will be getting things on here whenever I have a chance.

Jim F

I find the full size pics on the site much easier to follow that trying to navigate to a photo site. If you are planning to make this thread an epic whole house project that is how I would go with the pics. Also look at Scott's thread German House Rebuild for ideas on how to keep it interesting for your visitors.

coderguy

Wanted to make a post about the office being done; one of many posts I hadn't gotten around to. This is all DIY stuff that I did...

Got the built ins done in the closet:


Then got the ceiling fan in. I started by getting up into the attic and finding the spot where the outlet was. It was a black outlet box and it actually said on it that it could support weight. It was odd; and I didn't believe it (was nailed sideways into joist). I measured the depth etc and made a wide fat T bracket that fit down on top of the box that I could mount to both joists and then mount the box/ceiling fan to. Then I installed the ceiling fan.



I've gotten soooo much more done; will be posting everything asap. I really need help with more basement stuff... I hope to get my questions posted.

With the floor, paint, trim, closet and fan in; we consider the office complete! With the new HVAC and the ceiling fan, it is very easy to both heat and cool the office!

My next post will be the 'super post' about our HVAC disaster; I've been getting the pics/etc together for quite a while now.

Dinggus

House looks beautiful and I'm loving the office color walls.

coderguy

I finally got the HVAC story together with all the pictures. I don't want to create the post twice and there isn't much DIY; but it is an interesting part of the story of this house...

http://georgefrick.blogspot.com/2011...vac-story.html

Hope you enjoy, and any advice on 'fixing up' the poor install is welcome. I plan to tape/seal sometime this summer; will post pictures of that here.

Worked on the front porch this weekend; getting the pictures together. So many questions...

coderguy

Well, Scott and I got the garage gutters up this weekend. It poured this morning and they were working great. One less source of water in the backyard; as they are both run to the alley. The alley has a great pitch and a sewer very close; so the water can drain well.

Here are two before pictures:



Here are the completed gutters and post-install pictures:




Measured the gutters and got 4 end caps on. Filled the end cap with the seam glue and hammered on with rubber mallet. Crimped. Drilled and did pop rivets dipped in the seam glue - two on back; two on bottom; 1 on front. For the ends we also did one in the 'nose'.

Cut two 2-foot-5-inch pieces to be the joiners. Spread seam glue on the entire joining piece / seamer. Folded it around and crimped real good. Let dry a bit then same pop rivet treatment.

Measured and marked for downspouts; cut out oval and spread seem glue all over downspout adapter. Four pop rivets on each as well.

Marked from top of drip plate on non-spout side to bottom of drip on other. Attached to roof using mounting brackets in every other stud.

Joined long downspout runs as shown - pop rivet on all four sides dipped in seam glue. Made sure all downspouts ran into lower piece instead of onto. Mounted to wall every 6 feet or so.

Working great; need to get up there with the white gutter paint and touchup over the seam glue that is showing.

Using aluminum screws on elbows to allow for maintenance.

Onto the next project...

Dinggus

Can I ask how much the gutters cost you? For some reason North Carolina residents don't believe in gutters or peep holes for the front doors. Plus when it rains, it pours here and I am thinking about adding gutters, and making a drainage pipe go to the street.

coderguy

We did 45 feet of gutter and about 30 feet of downspout. The total came to 154.74 not including the pop rivet gun and aluminum screws for putting together the elbows. Total cost came to about $175.00 I would estimate, since I may have missed some things below. Everything was purchased at HD.

Supply list:
4 x 10 foot gutter.
4 x 10 foot downsput
17 X hanger
5 x elbows
5 x bands
2 x seamer kit with sealant
4 x end caps
2 x plastic outlet
1 x rivet 100 packet (Aluminum)
1 x "dripper flipper" downspout extender
1 x 10oz gutter sealant (caulk gun size)
1 x tube gutter sealant (small tube)
1 x pack aluminum screws

Dinggus

Thanks, did you read a DIY article or did you already know how to hang gutters? Don't you have to hang them slightly bent so the water goes toward the downspout?

coderguy

We used a chalk line to mark so that the far side was about 1.5 inches higher than the side with the downspout. I can try to get a picture that shows that they are on a pretty good angle towards the spout.

I used a combination of research:
http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/how-...442134,00.html

http://www.familyhandyman.com/DIY-Pr...nstall-gutters

I also read any threads I could find on here. Finally I walked around the neighborhood scoping gutters; especially in the alleys so I could look at other garages - which were dry; which were failing, etc.

I also saw a Holmes on Homes episode where he mentions stuff like "Don't just mount the gutter into nothing; take the time and find the studs on the other side". I tried to do this; but if I missed any... oops. Went inside garage and found first stud; tried to match it on outside by measuring. Then just did the on-center measure for the rest.