Our old house started out being two 1 room houses built in the mid to late 1800s, they were joined in the early 1900s and then a laundry room, bedroom and bath was added on the back. In the 30's there was a minor fire and while fixing it, an attic bedroom and staircase was built. In the mid 1900s a large oversized 4 car garage was added on that was bigger than the entire house. When we bought it, we took half of the garage and turned it into 2 bedrooms, master bath, and freezer/storage room. New roofing and siding was added. Total remodel and new kitchen cabinets was next. The last thing to remodel was the attic bedroom which we started last week and it is turning out to be the most cobbled together mess than the whole house was! The floor sagged in the middle and bounced when you walked across it. Mike started removing the floor and found that a full floor including joists and tongue and groove flooring had been added on top of an existing floor! He removed the next flooring which was 1 inch ship-board lap lumber and finally found the original joists. With that much weight on them they had sagged 3 1/2 inches in the middle. He ran new joist next to the old ones and leveled the floor and is almost finished with the flooring. Now it is level and doesn't bounce! And now our old house is finally finished!
I know it's been a long haul for you but you must be so glad it's finished at last. Now you can sit back with pride and admire all the work you've put into it. We've been in this cottage (built in 1685) for thirty years and are still finding things we didn't know were there. When we started the bathroom make-over we discovered that plumbing had been installed behind a wall for a tumble drier. I can only presume that the bathroom was therefore once a laundry room.
Wow, that was a big surprise. We haven't found anything that drastic in our house, but we did find some very terrible framing in our basement that we had to redo. Seems small compared to what you found!
Most of our friends couldn't figure out why we bought the house but it was something we could pay cash for and still have the money left to fix it up. Also we have one and a half lots with a 20 x 36 foot shop that was already on it. Anyway, this is what we started with. (1)Removing cabinets ( the kitchen was blood red and the adjoining laundry room was vivid purple! The first rooms painted! (2) the only way to the garage from inside (3) Mike starting to cut the opening for a galss sliding door (4) part of my kitchen for 2 months (5) The new entrance to the garage addition (6 & 7) Before new siding (8 & 9) after siding and new door (10) existing shop
I planted trees before I had a kitchen to cook in (can you tell what is more important to me?) We lived just around the corner from where we live now, before we moved to Texas for 4 years. The people that bought our old house was in foreclosure and I was able to buy a lot of my lawn ornaments back and , even though she had destroyed the yard, I was also able to find quite a few plants and a shrub that was still alive. Iris Pallida, sedum, hyacinths, 2 clematis, hosta's, siberian iris, day lily, phlox, a huge honeysuckle vine, plus a black lace leaf elderberry! I needed a garden immediately to plant them in plus get a veggie garden in. There for a while we were meeting ourselves every time we turned a corner!
I said our old house was finished...structurally. We have been working upstairs for the last 2 days. We have the ceiling and walls painted, just some touch ups needed. We are going to look at carpet tomorrow. Then I'll paint the hand rails. I've ordered a southwest style border print so when it arrives I'll put it up. I have a few western pictures to hang. The carpet and border may take a while to arrive but I'll post pictures when it's done.
You've certainly made great strides with your new home. Blood red and purple walls - yes I'd have got rid of them quickly too!! Mike has done a wonderful job of fixing it up and everything is coming together really well. Funnily enough when we moved into our cottage the first thing I did was to clear the garden area and start planting. Looks as though we think alike doesn't it? I'll look forward to your next batch of photographs.
We had to paint the bannister after the carpet was laid because the roll of carpet had to slide over the bannister to get it in the room. Narrow stairs plus a 3 ft. by 3ft. landing PLUS sloping roofline. It is an attic bedroom and is now my DGD bedroom and she loves it. I'll post pictures when we get back from vacation.
