526 Lincoln Victorian - AKA The New Money Pit

Dinggus

Thank you for the help I subscribed to your thread, because I'm enjoying the projects you're knocking out quickly.

jomama45

George,

We must have similar tastes, as we have almost the same exact color on the walls of our living room, as well as trim & flooring, as you do in your office.............

coderguy

Yeah the dining room is "Merlot" or something like that. I won the office/living room battles though; so I'm happy. We love the white trim and my dad came in and did the ceilings antique white. We still need to do the trim in the dining room. I'll post pics when it is done; my wife is doing it.

coderguy

Well, I'm trying not to be overwhelmed; but more and more keeps coming up. I thought I should post an update and get some progress pictures here before I update the basement thread. I still have a lot of unanswered questions. I learned this week about the 3/4 wire house wiring (shared neutral vs separate).

One of the things I got done lately was to get back in the kneeling crawlspace and start getting it cleaned up/investigated. I previous removed a squirrel corpse and sealed a hole in the awning that was letting things in. I still haven't figured out a way to get the bird corpse out of where it is without breaking it apart. It's a skeleton at this point.

While cleaning; I discovered another body. I think it was either a squirrel or a chipmunk. Hopefully it wasn't a rat.

I scoured the room with the shop vac; removed bad insulation; etc. I just don't know what to do with the room (add a vent? Add insulation? ) There seems to also be remnants of the fire here - what do I do?!?!?! Old burnt insulation? Remove it? insulate over it? Oh, and yes that is a cold air return you see. It is no longer hooked up but isn't closed off; so it is a just a big air connector to the basement. Here are the pictures:






I also did more investigation in the back yard. I got the slope of the yard measured and finished up my initial render in sketchup. I will now render what I'd like to do and see if it works. I also investigated the porch a bit and documented how bad the angles there are. I think it can just be jacked up; I'll post pictures.

I have also made a little progress on my home automation project. I can't wait to finish up my large post about that.

Dinggus

You use google sketchup as well? Also, if there was a previous fire, wouldn't it be noted when you bought the house?

coderguy

The inspector didn't notice anything. The real estate agent missed the permit; so we found out about 3 weeks after sale. The joists are all sistered/etc. The only problem from it was lack of cleaning up. A lot of debris was simply pushed into different places (duct work especially).

coderguy

So here are current and possible future renders of the backyard. We are thinking either a grass, poured patio slab; paving brick patio or very low deck?

What is really nice is seeing how removing the three seasons room opens up the backyard.

Attached Thumbnails

   

Dinggus

What program are you using?

coderguy

Google sketchup, the free version. Was really horrible at it in the beginning; starting to get better.

Dinggus

I have it, just never tried to play with it, looks difficult.

coderguy

Got started taking the room down. Didn't plan on the double roof! The base of the thing was already rotting; wouldn't have made it too many more years.

Didn't finish; the dump closed earlier than I thought so next weekend we'll do a few more trips and that will be everything. Will be cheaper than the dumpster; though a little time wasted.

The room was literally caulked to the house (except the roof; which IS a big huge stubborn million nail roof).

Here is the fun stuff:

Walls that were caulked on to the house:



Since the "foundation" was rotting, it was already sinking in the NW corner:


Leveling compound makes a great doorway:


One last look:

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We cut the roof off so we could demo the room quickly and carefully remove the pieces later:


Removed the front wall, then up the center so it would fall inward at that point


One wall didn't come all the way down with the rest, but we got her:



A picture of the rotting "Foundation"


Will post more after the rest of the cleanup and then again when the wall is fully repaired.

Edit: That is my best friend in the pics; not me.

Dinggus

Going to look good! Already can see the amount of space it took up.

coderguy

Well, the room is gone. Before/After:



Still have a little rubble to haul away. The back of the house needs work/etc. But there are more serious problems now to work on. It's a little progress though and we like the backyard with an open feeling.

coderguy

The basement troubles continue. I have a thread up about it; but no answers

I've been digging up bricks/etc and basically just digging out the foundation at the northwest corner of the house. The disaster is that there is nothing between the foundation cinder blocks and the rear beam of the house. There is a little mortar on the inside; so that it doesn't look like a problem from the basement. But now when you stand in the basement you can see the sunlight coming in under the beam and it appears to be rotting at the corner.

I also dug out a large stump today. There are two more. They will come out when the basement gets dug out though. It felt good to pull the stump out!

Painting in the living room is almost finished. Just some trim left; then the upstairs hallway and we are done! I've begun replacing the cheap beige outlets with the correct amperage white ones. Looks much nicer.

Here are some pics to illustrate the basement problems. It appears our beams are rotting. I was troubled because I couldn't find where the dirt ended and the basement began. It's as if someone poured a bag of cement or something... (left pic). The white stuff in the right picture is self leveling compound. It was poured liberally between the rooms to make it seem like a level transition.



You can help me out here (for the love of god, somebody help!)
The huge water in basement epic picture thread. Money has run out, water hasn't.

Anti-wingnut

That is a very unsafe ladder set-up