New York Renovator

I’m a tweener right now. Probably most of us in the Northern Hemisphere are! A “tweener” is what I call a person who is stuck between one weather season going out and another struggling to get in. In other words– we’ve reached the end of our tolerance for one season, and are eager to get into the next! While I like the snow and even the cold, I am sick of the ice and ice dams. Yet, I am torn, because I am one of the very rare people who dislike spring. Spring is wet, soggy, damp, cold, muddy. I am chilled more in spring weather then I am in the winter! I think it’s because spring is so clammy and damp. I dislike it. So I’m a tweener. Ready to see the winter go, but not really eager to see muddy spring come. Hmmm….

So far, spring is nowhere in sight...

In other news, we got approved for a home equity loan! HURRAY! I used credit cards and cash for the renovation expenses last summer. The cards had good promotional rates, which have now ended. So we applied for a loan and got approved. I like the scheduled payments, I like the routine. I’m praying with all my heart that we can get this loan paid off very soon, because we have the entire UPSTAIRS of the house to do yet!! Then, we tackle the exterior– we’ll need a new roof, new siding…. *sigh*

I am relatively new to home equity loans. Any kind of loan, especially on my beloved home, makes me nervous. Unfortunately, we don’t qualify for any VA Mortgage Loan or Streamline Refinance Program (that I am aware of, anyway). One of my out-of-state relatives raved about his Virginia VA Home Loan, but not for us. Oh well. It’s all out of pocket, all on our own. It is a REALLY gratifying feeling, though, to see your home’s value skyrocket because you sweated it out one summer. I am so proud of my kids, who helped with our renovations– thanks to our persistent work, we increased the value of our home AND “earned” money enough to refinance everything with a little extra, too. No wonder it’s called sweat equity! I am so thankful for my kids. I couldn’t have done this without them. And now, of course, comes the paying it all off!!! Which reminds me, I better get back to work….

It’s always so thrilling to see the first snow.

We got our heaters installed– hallelujah!!! They are terrific, they keep the house INCREDIBLY warm and they will cost half of what it cost us to run that forced-air furnace (and keep us warmer, to boot). The Hubs did all the plumbing for the lines– he did a remarkable job. Hallelujah, hallelujah! I feel like Aesop’s ant, finally ready for the winter. What a relief.

I’m also starting to conscientiously improve my health. It came crashing down during the renovation. I am on a high-nutrient diet, and am taking probiotics and iron and flax seed and all sorts of wonky pills. No acne pills yet, although my skin is so poor that I probably should. Today was the first day I started to feel a little energy creep back in. It didn’t last terribly long, but for a while there I actually felt almost healthy! It’s a big start. The renovation took an awful lot of out me. I wasn’t eating right or sleeping much, and besides the renovation I was also working my job part-time and managing the kids’ school work. But the hard part is over. The house is entirely wired with updated electrical. The water supply is new. The old furnace and toxic ducting system is out. We have heaters, we have a kitchen that works— ALL is WELL. It was so worth it.

Anyway, let it snow! Let the cold come! My house is insulated and has heaters! WHAT a great feeling.

This is the story of how we gutted our 1855 home’s kitchen and dining room. Read Part 1 and Part 2.

I have thus far blogged about the kitchen renovation. Originally, gutting the kitchen was my only goal. In an old house, it is SO easy to get carried away with multiple projects, because there is always so much to do. As I planned the kitchen job, I realized I’d have to do the dining room, too. Part of the renovation goal was to wire the house (I’d disconnected the old, decaying wiring in the house three years previously). We’d suffered all those years without any electricity in the bedrooms upstairs, the upstairs bath, and the dining room. I decided to gut the dining room, too. This way, I could wire the upstairs rooms from the opened dining room ceiling.

The house framing method is balloon-frame, a building fad in the mid 1800s. Studs sit on the foundation sill and reach all the way up to the roof rafters, like a hot air balloon seams. It quickly grew out of fashion because cutting wood at such lengths was expensive; and the drafts produced by the open cavity from basement to attic was a fire hazard. But I was able to snake wiring up the stud cavities.

Since there was no plumbing in the dining room walls, I thought renovating the room would be easy. However, the walls are 155 years old, wavy and narrow. Installing the sheetrock for this room was AGONIZING. If I ever had to hire for a job, it would be sheetrock. What exhausting, dirty, depressing work. Nothing is straight or plumb in this house, so the walls and ceiling looked terrible. Not to mention that at this time, Upstate New York suffered one of the hottest summers on record. We were absolutely soaked through. I drank about 1 to 2 gallons of iced tea every day. It was a big trial for us to work through this. So many times we wanted to quit.

Wavier than a surfer's paradise, I tell ya.

It was just my daughter and I who did the sheetrock, with later help from my son. It took us THREE GRUELING WEEKS to do this huge room. Never again...

The wavy ceiling turned out so poorly, we decided to paste embossed wallpaper on it. That was another GRUELING week of work.

I wanted to retain the Greek Revival architecture of the house, so I spent a long time building new trimwork for it. I love my miter saw!

The room was a tremendous challenge because it has four windows and SIX doorways. But here's the finished product.

Back to the kitchen project. I solved the [...]

Blogging has been at a lull lately, it seems. I got out of the routine during the renovation, but I’ve been slowly getting back into it. I’ve been in a rut, only going to the same blogs every day (and the blogs I visit are terrific), but I’m wanting a change of scenery, too. I’ve been thinking about renovating the website here, wanting to spruce up the place and do a little website construction around the blog. As much as I adore my WooThemes template here, it’s never really “fit” the blog. This blog should be a little more colorful and should display more content from the past, I believe. So I’ve been shopping around for new themes. It’s been difficult! I can’t seem to find one that matches.

So it seems that people aren’t visiting blogs as much right now. My comments across all blogs have gone way down. Odd thing is, my blogs probably got the most comments during my renovation over the summer! Now that I can blog again, comments have been light. Weird.

How about you? Are you looking to spruce up your design? Have you spent less time surfing blogs, or the same amount?

If you have a blog and I don’t know about it, leave your link in the comments so I can visit. I’m trying to expand my RSS feed reader by including more blogs.

Choosing lighting for the kitchen has been really difficult for me. The kitchen is very large, 12 x 23, but it has a lot of angles and doorways. And the ceilings are 9 feet. I eventually chose two sets of chandeliers, which I absolutely love.

But I can’t say I have been 100% settled with the choice of chandeliers. They would certainly spit out a lot of light, but they would also generate heat, and could possibly be more costly to have on (certainly more costly than fluorescent lighting).

My kitchen gets very hot in the late afternoon. It is situated on the southwestern side of the property. Dumb, I know. I didn’t plan it! But the sun comes blasting through the windows in the summer. And the area right outside the window is a HUGE asphalt parking lot (I didn’t do that, either!!). The house used to be a parsonage, and was once connected to the church nearby. The previous owners installed a HUGE parking lot right outside the back door all the way over to the church. It gets pretty hot. I have planted trees to provide shade, but they’ve only been there a few years. So it’s HOT in the summer.

Plus, I will be installing a gas space heater in the kitchen. I will eventually save up money to purchase a very nice little gas fireplace, to create a small “hearth” in the location, but for now, it will be a gas heater. And I’ve been reading that if you have a gas heater, you should either purchase a blower unit to move the heat around ($150 additional), or install ceiling fans to move the air.

CEILING FANS!

So I got them. Two of them. I think they will be perfect. I’m going to return the chandeliers. I love them, but the fans are much more functional and just as beautiful.

That’s renovation for you. I think it’s impossible to have EVERYTHING pre-planned. Things change. For example, we had no idea we would have to change the heating system in this house, until we opened walls and saw the condition of the ductwork. Unfortunately, things like this have broken the budget, but at least we are making the house more efficient, more comfortable, and more valuable. So I’m rolling with the punches these days. There really isn’t anything you can do.

Anyway, I’m pleased with my fans. I’ve read through the manual and I really like Hampton Bay brand. The manual is in ENGLISH and it actually makes sense!

TIP: Never install a ceiling fan using a plastic ceiling hanger work box. Use a metal box, it’s much, much sturdier.

This is a slightly older photo, when my desk was still plaster-dust free and the carpet had no sawdust embedded in its fibers.

One of the tougher things about living in the house you are renovating is the dirt. EVERYTHING is disgustingly dirty and dusty. And I am too busy and too exhausted to constantly clean it, and it is so pervasive. A dirty house can be depressing. It’s hard to eat from paper plates every day… to relax in junky plastic patio chairs every evening… to try to maintain the piles of laundry when you have no dryer and it rains every day… But we are pretty perky folk, doing our best to roll with the punches. And thank God, there have been no mishaps during this process. I knew from the beginning that this would be a stressful time… I had no idea how very stressful renovation on a major scale can be. Add to the mix all the other things going on this summer, and it’s been downright tough at times. But hope springs eternal.

I’ve been waiting for this moment for 13+ years. Probably more like 25 years. It’s finally here. It’s a HECK of a lot of work, but it’s here. Not only are we renovating two downstairs rooms (the two most important downstairs rooms, to boot), but we are totally installing a new electrical system, a new plumbing system, revising the central heating, and installing an Internet ethernet system. Plus, we’re insulating, planning for future renovations to to upstairs, adding walls, flooring, windows…. all on our own. Well, all on MY own. I am researching and studying and planning and constructing most of the jobs. I have some incredible brothers and sister in Christ helping me, and that has been my sustenance. And The Hubs had taken over the plumbing, which is a huge burden off my back. We’re getting it done!! I’m not going to say it’s a cakewalk, because it has not been. But we are progressing AND the end result will be so rewarding.

Only two more months!!!!

And oh WAIT til you see the “after” photos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’ve been interviewed by a realtor in Cleveland, Ohio, Cecilia Sherrard! She runs the You Should Own website. You can go to the site and read the interview here.

I have been reading the New York Renovator Blog for about a year. The updates are filled with humor and reality. I’ve enjoyed following this blog and the work being done to this home in New York. There are many older homes in the Cleveland, Ohio area, and many people buy these old homes to restore. I’ve witnessed amazing after shots and some of the work is stunning. If you’re thinking about rehabbing a century home, you’ll want to check this blog out even if you just need motivation. Also, make sure you read her tips at the bottom of this article. Yes, it’s long, but I think you’ll enjoy her tips and stories. This is my interview with Mrs. Mecomber who is truly a vibrant and energetic mother and wife. She’s now also… a renovator.

I was absolutely floored when Cecilia approached me for an interview. But she said that Ohioans are experiencing much of the same things we in New York are experiencing: a slow economy, high taxation, loss of manufacturing jobs, a slumpy housing market. Lots of us in the Rust Belt states have been unable to buy spanking-new homes (we’re just too busy buying new homes for our politicians, you know) and renovation has become “new again.”

Restoring older homes is not easy. But it is wasteful to junk an old house if it can be restored, and especially if it is less expensive to restore it than to build new. The population booms and busts have left our towns with cavernous lots full of empty houses, overdeveloped acres, and a mess in suburbia. I am one of many rooting for the new class of renovators here in the Northeast!

Thanks, Cecilia, for graciously sharing your webspace with my answers.