Renovating my childhood home - 1973 brick ranch

[Alisamer]

12 hours ago, CTRLZero said:

Your renovation process is such an inspiration.  I’ve needed a solution to hide the top of a curtain gap, and now I’m feeling motivated to try a home decor project.  I turned to You Tube and think I’ve found a good solution using foam board for a cornice.  The woman who put the cornice together didn’t iron her fabric.  I was so disturbed!  First thing on my checklist is iron the fabric before gluing it to the foam board, lol.

Sorry to interrupt your renovation thread, but it was such a funny thing, I had to share.   🙃

 

That's awesome! I love hearing more ideas - and we have been going down all sorts of youtube rabbit holes getting ideas. And while I rarely bother to iron my clothing (I will, sometimes, iron my doll's clothing though...), I do agree for stuff like that you just have to iron! It makes such a difference!

Yesterday we ended up pulling up the top layer of vinyl (installed in the mid 80s) from the kitchen, so the kitchen and dining room would be level with each other and not need a threshold in between since it's such a large span there. It was annoying hard work (whatever glue they used on the seams could have held up a skyscraper) but with lots of hammering and scraping and pulling we got it all up. Then we put down about 4 long rows of flooring spanning the dining room and kitchen. We also pulled up the vinyl floor in the hall bath and discovered a lot of the floor problem there was simply terrible previous repair work. They replaced some subflooring in a piecemeal puzzle fashion and tried to using leveling compound to cover the shoddiness, and it's all a huge mess. We may simply lay thin subfloor (or even just plywood) sheets over the whole mess to unify it, leveling it as best we can, and then put the new floor on top of that. Structurally it seems fine there, so that should be a quick solution. 

HVAC guys are coming today! I'm not sure if they'll complete the job today, but they are coming and working on it so that will be a huge step forward. 

Our parents are headed out of town with one of their many seniors groups to go see a show in VA, so they are taking the night off from the house. I was hoping I could as well, but no dice. Middle sister and I will head over there just for a short time this evening - the plan is to do paint touch-ups and to paint the cabinets in the bathrooms. 

Friday will be second coats of paint ont he bathroom cabinets, and putting down the rest of the floor in the kitchen and dining room. That'll leave just closets and bathrooms to put down floors. Saturday we plan to do the floor in the small bathroom, and hopefully get that room 100% finished renovation-wise. I'll just need to add a mirror above the sink and scrub out the shower again, then hang the shower curtain, and it'll be done. I might add decorative touches at some point (I'm thinking tile above the sink, maybe, and a curtain on the window) but it'll basically be done. We might also get the flooring done and the toilet installed in the hall bath. The tub in there needs help, but for now it might get a good scrub and a shower curtain to cover it. It may eventually need reglazing or something. 

So much progress, but every time I think we're almost done with a room I remember something else that needs done! Floor is down, but oops it needs molding. Oh I forgot we have to replace the light fixture there. Oh wait, we need to replace all the outlets in the whole house...

But we are getting there. Slowly but surely. 

[CTRLZero]

1 hour ago, Alisamer said:

And while I rarely bother to iron my clothing (I will, sometimes, iron my doll's clothing though...), I do agree for stuff like that you just have to iron! It makes such a difference!

I haven’t ironed in so long that I’m not even sure where my iron is right now.  The wrinkly cornice in the video was in a small bathroom, so I’m sure it would bother me every time I used the facilities, lol.

Our daughter bought a house about a year ago and is slowly adding her own personality to it.  She recently had a kitchen “bump-out” room wallpapered.  Here is her cat inspecting the finished product.

 

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I’m amazed at how much you’ve accomplished.  You are definitely a talented and hard worker. 

[Alisamer]

3 hours ago, CTRLZero said:

I haven’t ironed in so long that I’m not even sure where my iron is right now.  The wrinkly cornice in the video was in a small bathroom, so I’m sure it would bother me every time I used the facilities, lol.

Our daughter bought a house about a year ago and is slowly adding her own personality to it.  She recently had a kitchen “bump-out” room wallpapered.  Here is her cat inspecting the finished product.

 

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I’m amazed at how much you’ve accomplished.  You are definitely a talented and hard worker. 

I love that! And such a cute kitty!

We have been working super super hard. I am lucky that for the most part my family is involved and helping, along with our friend Mary (whose father was a plumber and took her along on jobs often) and her child Em. (I am not 100% sure but I think Em is using nonbinary pronouns at the moment though they haven't specifically mentioned it to me, so I'm using them in case.) It also helps that my dad was a farmer and mechanic and brought us up knowing how to use his equipment, and that he has a LOT of that equipment. Yesterday I was cutting a board using the saw out on the deck and he told me he was "So glad you all know how to use my stuff!"

If we didn't have access to his equipment and such this would probably take a lot longer and be more expensive and difficult. 

[Alisamer]

Yesterday was "an easy day" - which means we still worked a couple hours on the house. We touched up paint in several places, put first coats of paint on the cabinets in the bathrooms, and painted the sides of the kitchen cabinets that show into the dining room. We're still kind of up in the air about the timing on painting the kitchen cabinets. 

What we did discover, though, was that the previous owners had painted over the existing backsplash in the kitchen... which was the formica like the counters, a kind of green snowflake design. We scraped all that paint off and the kitchen looks infinitely better. I do think once we have the new floor down, though, the need to paint the cabinets will be more obvious. 

The HVAC guys did some work yesterday, and will likely be back there today. Dad says he's going to go in during the day while there is light and start on replacing the electrical outlets that need to be switched out - they are all old, some are aged to beige, and a few are simply broken entirely. We will also be adding GFCI outlets to the bathrooms, kitchen, and utility room. Mom says she's going to go today and get new light switches as well, since we are replacing out electrical things. 

Tonight we will put second coats of paint on the bathroom cabinets and the bit in the kitchen that needs it, then finish installing the floor in the kitchen and dining room. We are about 1/3 done in there with flooring. After that will be the flooring in the small bathroom. 

There will be a bunch of minor things to do still after that, but the major work will be mostly done. So maybe next week instead of working every evening at the new house I can work on packing at my current house.

My sister wants me to move my bedroom stuff in first and go ahead and move myself in. I say we can't get the bedroom furniture out of the current house without moving out all the living room furniture first, and I want to be ready to move the cat in with me when I move. He's pretty clingy. So we will see how that works out. In any case there'll be small stuff still - window treatments, for example, and figuring out where all the furniture is going to go. At some point I'm going to need to take a major Ikea trip but that's not in the budget this week. 

[Alisamer]

Took the first day off from the house today since we closed! I really needed the break. 
 

Yesterday we finished all the flooring except the hall bath. We found the subfloor in that room had been “repaired” by putting down random scraps of subfloor like a cheap puzzle and then slathering some sort of crumbly spackle situation on top. It’s awful. Our solution is to screw down the pieces as they are all loose, clean up the crumbly mess, and put down sheets of new half-inch plywood over it all to make it more solid and level. Then we can put down the floor and install the new toilet. That’ll have that bathroom done except the tub which might need reglazing, but it can wait. 
 

We got the quarter round molding down everywhere there’s not a heat register as the HVAC guys are coming back Monday or Tuesday to finish up their part and then we can finish that too. After that is mostly smaller stuff: replacing outlets, replacing light switches, replacing a couple light fixtures, etc. 

[Alisamer]

This is neverending, it seems, but we are moving toward the finish line regardless.

Last night I went over for a couple hours (had to work late) and spackled all the nail holes in the quarter round molding at the floor. With the exception of the bathrooms, that is done. We also put down thresholds in the doors that needed them. My parents have been going over during the day when there is light, and replacing electrical outlets and light switches. The HVAC guys are ALMOST finished - they still have to install some of the register covers and the gas company needs to run the line so they can hook that up, but the majority of their work is done. 

I am going over tomorrow (hopefully for a short-ish time) so my sister and I can work on a couple places where the floor we put down doesn't quite go under the trim around a couple doors. It's very small areas so we are probably going to fill them with wood filler just so they aren't noticeable. We will probably do a few more smaller things while we are there. Then, Thursday and Friday, the plan is for me to stay home and work hard on packing up my current house. This weekend we plan to deal with the interior doors (sister wants to paint them black, and a couple need cat doors installed!), installing window blinds, and replacing a couple light fixtures. Sister and dad are going to also work on the floor in the hall bath, so hopefully that can be done (and the toilet installed!) so that bathroom will be done except the tub. I'll get a nice shower curtain to cover it as a temporary solution. We may be able to start moving things over to the house after work next week, and the week after move in earnest! I hope! 

The kitchen cabinets won't be done, yet. But that's OK, we can do that later, it's really a weekend project I think. The kitchen is usable as-is, and that's what I need in the short term.

[Alisamer]

I need to take more photos but we've been so busy! There is one light fixture being replaced today, and we've taken three truckloads of stuff from my current house to the new one. The interior doors have been painted, and cat doors will be added to a couple of them today or tomorrow. The floor in the hall bath should be done within the next couple days as well. The goal is for me to be moved in next weekend! Chances are we won't be completely finished (the art studio has tons of shelving to come down in one house and go back up in the other for example) but I should be actually living there next weekend. My plan is to pack as much as possible and send over a load of stuff each evening after work, and then I'm taking Friday off to take care of getting the internet moved and a packing blitz accomplished. 

I put a little chandelier in the foyer, it's sparkly and cute. I got an amazing deal on a TV stand with an electric fireplace and we got that put together yesterday. The HVAC is working (actually had to run the AC yesterday for a bit). There'll still be little things of course to do over time - painting the kitchen cabinets is the biggest thing, and then exterior stuff this coming spring and summer. But we have made huge progress in a short amount of time, I think! 

I still need to edit more progress videos and take lots more pictures, but I'm super excited we've gotten so much done so quickly. 

[Alisamer]

I didn't make it over to the house yesterday, after working and voting and such, but my sister apparently all on her own did the flooring in the hall bathroom. The doors are reportedly all up with cat doors installed as appropriate (on my bedroom door, on the hall bathroom door, and on the door to the large linen closet in that bathroom which is where the litter box will be). I think the toilet needs to be installed (it's new) in that bathroom, and there are a couple things I ordered for the shower in the small bathroom that need to be installed - little things meant to keep the curtain liner curved in at the walls, some clips to hold the curtain to the wall, and some panels that go on the side and bottom to contain the worst of the splashes. I had to order an extra-long shower curtain liner, and it's just a little TOO long so we may need to hem that as well. The sofa is in the house. I still have TONS of packing and moving to do, but I took Friday off to pack, get some errands run, and have the internet run to the house. 

It probably had internet before. There were 4-10 coax cables and multiple phone lines coming up through the floor in literally EVERY ROOM. They were not tech savvy people so IDK what the heck they had going on there. If they had TVs on half of those cables it'd look like a security monitor room! Some of the lines had been cut and pulled right out. Some were just randomly all over the place. We cut them all and got rid of all that cable since we had no way to know what was connected to anything, so I'm having them come and hook things up new on Friday. 

My current plan for the cat is the day we move my bedroom stuff over, I'll move him to the new house in the early afternoon or whenever is most convenient. I plan to put him in the hall bathroom with his cat bed, food, water, and his litter box where it will be kept long term and let him get settled in there. Then, probably in the evening when the chaos has calmed and most people are gone, I'll open the cat door on that bathroom door so he can come out and explore if he chooses but can go back in to the enclosed room if he feels like he needs to. 

[Alisamer]

So I am living in the house!

Saturday was my first night there. We aren't quite finished moving things from the old house, and I have TONS of unpacking to do, but me and Buddy are living in the new house. Hopefully we will get all the moving done in the old house this week, and then it just needs a good clean and to do a few cosmetic touch-ups to it. I expect I'll spend the long Thanksgiving weekend unpacking. 

I do hope I can get it in reasonable shape by Thanksgiving day, as the big family gathering is going to be at my sister's house very nearby, so it's likely people will want to come visit. And we are having a BIG family gathering this year! I think a couple of my cousins aren't coming, but we have a first family visit by a serious boyfriend of one cousin, and rarely-seen cousins from the other side of the family who will be in town (they live in Georgia). They asked my mom about good restaurants for Thanksgiving dinner and of course we invited them to join us instead. 

I know my art studio is unlikely to be ready in any shape by then. And the small bedroom/exercise room is box storage central right now. But I'm making progress.

With some minor issues like having to dry off after my shower with microfiber cloths from the kitchen cabinet because I couldn't find what box the towels were in, and spending a good 20 minutes searching for a phone charging cable.

But I'm in, the house is usable, the cat is in and settled (though he hides in the bathroom closet when things get busy in the house) and the fish are all in as well. 

 

[Alisamer]

Whew. 99% of things are OUT of the old house. Just a couple little things and some stuff we are donating left to get out of there. We are going over this evening to give it a good top to bottom cleaning and get those last things - we may need to do some paint touch ups on Tuesday evening but we are basically done with that house at that point.

The art studio in the new house is usable! We hung shelves and blinds on the windows, put up bookcases, and got the work tables (doors on bookshelves) in and situated. There's still lots of unboxing of things and organizing to do, but that was the biggest issue left and it is now done. I also now have a mirror over the sink in my small bathroom. And, a washer and dryer! 

So after Tuesday hopefully I'll be done with the old house and can get the selling process moving, and will just be unpacking and organizing in the new house. We do still have to paint the closet doors and re-hang those, but that's the last renovation thing that has to be done really. 

[byzant]

Can I ask sorry to be dense is a 70s home considered an old house in America? So interesting to see the renovation efforts 

[Alisamer]

20 hours ago, byzant said:

Can I ask sorry to be dense is a 70s home considered an old house in America? So interesting to see the renovation efforts 

I don’t have a good answer really because it’s so relative. Like, the house I moved out of was built circa 1900 so I’d consider that old, but it had been completely renovated in the mid 2000s with only the foundation, framing and floors original, so it looked more new. This one is typical for the street it’s on, but is surrounded by neighborhoods built in the last 5-15 years so looks “old” in comparison to those. 

I wouldn’t say this one was “old” necessarily being from the 70s. If you told me “an old house” I’d kind of think Victorian era most likely? But a younger person might be reminded of grandma’s house with this one and think “old” because of that!
 

I think it’s also a population thing. Like a very old house in this area would have likely been a farmhouse. In the mountains some early cabins survive. The towns were built up around the textile mills in the early 1900s here I think. I’d expect nothing pre civil war at all in bigger Southern cities particularly Atlanta. 

[byzant]

Ahh that's really interesting thank you. Good luck with the renovation 

[Alisamer]

11 minutes ago, byzant said:

Ahh that's really interesting thank you. Good luck with the renovation 

Thanks! We are mostly done. Mostly. Just a few small things left.

I see you are in Scotland, so I get the question about what is considered "old"! I know you have some really old old historic stuff there! (My family is apparently also from Scotland and Ireland way back, particularly associated with the village of Abernethy - but our first person in the US was sent over as an indentured servant in 1652, something to do with Cromwell!) In the mainland US, other than Native American pueblos in the Southwest, there's not much older than the 1600s in most places, and most of what is seems to be in the Northeast. Apparently in NC where I live the oldest known house dates originally from the 1710s, and it's been moved and added on to and such over time. 

I got very little house related stuff done this weekend. I did get a tiny bit of unpacking done, but not nearly enough. Thanksgiving we had 24 people, the next day I basically recovered from people-ing, Saturday there was a funeral and the rest of the day was helping my sister with her Christmas decor, and Sunday I got a little done and then helped mom with her Christmas decor. I'm making progress, but it's slow. We still need to deal with the closet doors, also.

I did however show my old house to my aunt and cousin, and they are wanting to buy! We just have to work out the details and price and it'll be a cash sale, so hopefully will be all done quickly.

[byzant]

Very very cool  that you can track your ancestors that far back! I've a super common surname so mine just get lost in the history of smithes and Jones. Yes we have some ancient stuff but having lived in a four hundred year old attic I currently prefer my cosy 1960s house -much warmer n less hoops to jump through wen renovation repairing 

 

Amazing news about the sale so much easier if toy can do it directly. Good luck on setting the price ! 

[Alisamer]

13 minutes ago, byzant said:

Very very cool  that you can track your ancestors that far back! I've a super common surname so mine just get lost in the history of smithes and Jones. Yes we have some ancient stuff but having lived in a four hundred year old attic I currently prefer my cosy 1960s house -much warmer n less hoops to jump through wen renovation repairing 

 

Amazing news about the sale so much easier if toy can do it directly. Good luck on setting the price ! 

We have lots of Smiths, too! Those are super hard - SOOO many "John Smiths". Luckily with the Abernethy's some were military of rank during the American Revolution and that made them easier to trace (despite most being "Robert Abernethy" married to someone named Sarah) and once we got back to that one guy who was transported it was minor aristocracy for the most part so there was some paper trail to be followed back into legend. Most of the other branches of the family were much harder to trace back though. 

Interestingly, despite all but a tiny bit being Scottish and Irish and that area, my DNA says no Irish, no Scottish. Just English. And a little Scandinavian, LOL! 

[byzant]

Isn't it weird how many patterns you find with names-we had a thousand hanahs oddly and annoying 90 percent of folk who don't go by their actual names so we have amazing story's but then you find out uncle Ken actually wasn't Ken he was peter or Eric was actually christened Charlie very funny.

The complete opposite for the chap my sisters married to; he's  from a tiny Scottish Island which is fascinating as almost no research needed you can find all his relatives back at least 300 yrs in the local church yard. Though interpreting the local accent is something else -a lot of its borrowed from Norwegian! 

Interesting re the dna mines so boring entirely ulster /Scottish as maybe I should have expected from the red hair and freckles

[Alisamer]

Not too many updates, as I'm moved in! Still unpacking, so I haven't been taking photos or video because of all the boxes everywhere. But I'm making really good progress.

We do still have to paint and re-mount the closet doors. 

I am resigned to not much Christmas decorating this year, but here's what I ended up with:

My sister and I had bought this inflatable dragon to prank our younger sister with, but never ended up sneaking into her yard and setting it up. So now it's in my yard. I'm not usually a huge fan of inflatables but a dragon with hot cocoa? OK! There are also lights along the gutters of the house. 

This is a little 18" tree I found cheap, it's a rose gold to white ombre. It looks kind of pitiful from outside the house, but is festive at least. 

There's also a small tree in the art studio, I need to get a photo of that one still. 

Current stresses are about selling my old house. Aunt who is supposed to be buying it texted today that she got the inspection report and "there's so much more to repair than we thought!" which freaked me out. But I read it and other than a couple things that need to be looked at by a contractor the majority of them were things like "needs caulk between the backsplash and counter in the half bath" and "door to the hall bath sticks slightly" and "electrical outlet in the half bath jiggles slightly" and "the panel cover on the water heater is missing a screw." There are also what I'd consider non-issues like "the water heater is 15 years old" and "there's a tree next to the house, it's possible it could drop a branch on the roof someday" or "the front steps don't have handrails" (there are large brick platforms either side of the steps, there's plenty to hold onto there).

I know not everyone is handy. But I think aunt is a bit overestimating some of the work required. I'm going to go this weekend with a screwdriver, some sandpaper, and caulk and fix several of those problems. And since her contractor is the one replacing the roof (thanks insurance!) I'm meeting with him on Tuesday at the house and can see what he thinks is an actual repair that needs to be made and what is just the inspector being picky. 

My worry is that she'll back out of the sale, and I'll have to put it on the market. Not too big a deal, but I have essentially two mortgage payments until it sells.

[CTRLZero]

Sorry to interrupt your home renovation thread (again!), but we finally put up my light-blocking cornice today and thought I’d post a photo.  We still need to tweak some flaws, and are keeping our fingers crossed that the whole thing doesn’t fall down, but doesn’t look too bad for a first try.

 

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