Might as well post a few pics of one bedroom wall in my 1912 farmhouse

keyser soze · 03-18-2008, 12:53 PM

We moved in during May 05. I've now finished 95% of the interior of the home and have to touch up some of the first stuff I did (since I used craptastic Behr paint). I hope to have it for sale in the next month even though I know it will be awhile before it sells. We aren't taking as bad of a hit here as a lot of places so maybe things will work out.

This is one wall in an upstairs bedroom. We painted the paneling as a temporary fix so that my brother could live here for a few months. When it came time to fix the room... well see for yourself.

When I moved in. My g/f and I actually slept in this room for 5 months while I fixed the downstairs enough to get the hardwoods done. We only got rained on once while we were sleeping.

We took down the paneling and found out that there had been a leak around the chimney that had been neglected for some time then covered up. The other side of the chimney wall in another bed was just as bad.

Once we removed the plaster we found poorly framed walls. They had to come out as well. The closets on either side of the chimney couldn't stay so out they came out too. Plaster and rough cut heart pine 2x4's are really heavy.

keyser soze · 03-18-2008, 12:54 PM

We then framed in new walls and sheetrocked the new walls and sheetrocked over the plaster on the other walls in both rooms. I missed getting a pic of the new framing, 16 hour days have a way of making you forget things I guess.

Now that's better. We reused all of the original casings and baseboard to make it look brand spanking old.

What do you think? Did we do a decent restoration instead of a remodel? We tried.

Knucklez · 03-18-2008, 07:47 PM

look'n good! i like your choice of door trim, its in character with the age of the house.

Knucklez

**AtlanticWBConst.** · 03-18-2008, 08:44 PM

Wow, what a nightmare you had in the beginning.

Looks great - Nice job!

keyser soze · 03-18-2008, 09:43 PM

knucklez, that's the original 1912 trim. We saved 97% of it. What we broke we stole from the insides of the closets and replaced with new crap. We marked each piece, sanded off the old paint edges and nasties, repainted, made furring strips to match the new elevations, and reinstalled. Worth every minute. Oh, and all of the same doors went back where they were too.

Atlantic, I'm humbled to get a compliment from you.

jrclen · 03-20-2008, 05:32 PM

Looks real nice. What did you do about the leaky chimney?

keyser soze · 03-20-2008, 06:54 PM

New roof on the whole house fixed the leaky chimney. Some roofing cement around the chimney is what really sealed it I guess. That was last year. We spent two years with strategically placed trash cans and buckets in the attic (4 of them). All of the leaks were slow enough (and so was the rain) that the water in the buckets would evaporate between rains. I got used to it but people think I'm crazy when I tell them about it. Maybe they're right.

At first I thought you were talking about the chimney itself with the cracked mortar. I didn't know what to do about it that wouldn't cost a lot so I went with some ventless gas logs that were on sale. I wanted a real fire place but I didn't want to hassle with sleeving such a tall chimney. And even then I wouldn't be truly comfortable with it.

I made myself an 18 ga stainless chimney cap to kill the draft and am going to make a little metal shield to go in the bottom of the chimney opening to kick the heat out into the living room. Right now all of the heat goes straight up the chimney to my awesome cap. I put a fat bead of silicon on top of the chimney, seated the cap and put two tapcons into the bricks to hold it down. It has a 2" lip that turns down on the sides of the chimney so that no rain will come down anymore. Also no more birds in the chimney. That sure was annoying. I painted the cap flat black beforehand so it looks pretty sharp for being home made. Well, I made it at a metal shop but you know what I mean.

Weekend Warrior DIY · 03-27-2008, 02:39 PM

Nice stuff, I should post some of my pics from my remodel, ongoing, of our 1870's farm house.

Good job.

wombosi · 06-29-2008, 03:03 PM

hey keyser,
awesome work, man.

i had been searching for this post for ages because i remembered the cool trim but couldn't find this again. finally just did.

do you guys have any idea if you can find stuff like that today? i know the rosettes you can.

what about the door casing? is that a plinth block at the bottom, or it all one piece?

i want to do something similar in my place.

nice work.

keyser soze · 06-29-2008, 11:24 PM

I guess those are plinth blocks since they are not all one piece. I know the store down the street has the rosettes but I've never asked about the bottom pieces. Didn't know what they were called, thanks.