Bought an Old House

Ashley my wife decided to move back to an old town I lived in, Carey Ohio. So we did, bought us an old house that was built supposedly in 1910 but finding out more and more it was closer to 1850.

Oh and it was a ***** House.

We got it cheaply because it was UGLY and i mean UUGGLLLY interior.. Shag carpet everywhere. Yellow ceilings, wall paper everywhere.. ugliest kind..

so we refab the looks so far.

This is living room day we walked in from buying it.

This is what it looked like during redrocrating

And now, upgraded electrical wiring, outlets, switches, paint, everything!

We had old knob wiring, that some turd spliced 14-2 into w/ a 10amp breaker. ripped it all out and made it safer with 12-2 20 amp breaker. Never knew electrical was so easy/hard at the same time.

oh yeah.. paint isnt cracked or drawled on, its Weather/Crackle paint.. here is a close up

its a red and blue back, then you put on the white with glaze, so you see the red/blue between the cracks. really pretty in person

 

[SwaintaN]

little FYI

Just a little FYI, if you get into electrical, check your local codes. Better to go by codes or better. Its not as hard as you would think and there is plenty of Youtube Vids.

Most general wiring will take a 12-2 Wire. Standard home breakers are 15-20amp.

Another Tip I was given right before I started mine, which was helpful. If you put in a junction box. Write on the junction box what breaker number it is. Also junction box placement. Try to place it directly under the room your installing wiring.

Tip 2: DO NOT throw out OLD WIRING.. strip it down! turn it in!! youll be surprised how much money you get back from your old wiring. the money return from scraping copper will help you on your next project!!

Now crackle/weathered paint... Dont really follow the rules on it.. if you got questions or want to do it.. let me know.. ill tell you what was easier for us.

 

[Paul]

Looks good - - nice to see an old house where they haven't slathered 20 coats of paint on the millwork around doors/windows/etc. Probably wood under the shag carpet ? ? Great equity to be gained in home improvements done right.

Keep up the good work. . .

Paul
'91 Sport

 

[SwaintaN]

yeah we pulled up the shag and found natural hardwood floors.. we will be refinishing the floors this summer.. The trim in the living room was cheap ol plastic crap. I remade all the trim for living room and nook.. all of it! no paint down stairs just WALL paper EVERYWHERE.. now stairs and upstairs was different. The kidses rooms had Wall paper and shag carpet, again good wood floors, ripped wall paper down painted their rooms. we added ceiling fans in all the rooms, they had the original pull chain by the door for light, that was it!

they also painted ALL the TRIM and DOORS upstairs.. i gotta remake all of it as well. Weve got everything painted but the hallway.. Its wall paper and about 6 layers of paint, EVEN ON THE CEILING!!

 

[devo]

Sounds like you're making a lot of progress. It's a very cool project

Any pictures of the exterior?

LOL, forgot I was logged in as Devo. Devo aka Rick

 

[RangerX]

Ditto on the outside pics, I love old houses!

 

[SwaintaN]

Out Door

Yeah I have out door pics, one from the realtor and one right before snow fall. I finally got a garage when we bought this place!! Man have I put it to use! They put siding on in the early 80s, new roof in 2000. So outside is SOMEWHAT updated.. till next year when we expand the garage and reside the garage and house.

Realtor Pic

Updated Pics.

The brick around the bottom will be painted this year plus fixed. Ill make sure I post what and how I did it. It will be done right. Plus shutters will match brick and so will roof, all of that is going red, putting on a metal roof, not tin, the metal ones. Then vynl siding that looks like wood.

edit: and yes those are the original pillars from late 1800s/early 1900s

 

[SwaintaN]

Dinning Room.

So our Dinning Room was the same way. Same old shag green grass carpet. Wall Paper every where, yellow ceilings, old electrical. Cover plates the size of my rims. Tore out the carpet found wood floors, but the dinning room floors need LOTS of work this summer. Same paint theme, Red and Blue back, White top w/ crackle. Also cut a huge hole in the wall so you could see into the Kitchen and make it feel more open.

We left the trim alone, it stayed old school trim.. Only thing I will do to the trim is pull it off, refinish it. But saving the style and original wood.

This was the restart of the remodel of the wall... It started because wife wouldnt make her mind up to do it or not, threw the hammer at the wall and said "now we can patch it or finish it" finally she said do it.

Old native wood in the house, we kept the wood, its safe and put up, problem with remodeling again, CALL IN and find out your codes, building permits etc.

Support walls info... Easy way to tell if you have a support wall that your working with is to look at the direction of your joist in the floor in the basement and attic, if its same direction as the wall, its not a support wall.. Im not licensed, so take that as you will at your own risk. Its just a random fyi.

We feathered in the new drywall into the old plaster. and finished up.

This was before finish up and before i made trim (matches the rest of the house) for the hole in the wall.

 

[SwaintaN]

Tips

so i was thinking the other day... i would share some money saving (long term not short term) tips..

remember always have to spend a little to save a lot.

Tip1
Outlet Air Removal..Loosing hot/cold air...
Needed:
window caulk
foam insulators for outlets (menards has cheapest)
scissors
caulk gun
flat head
paper towels

Cut your caulk tube but leave a fine pointed tip. Have your outlets insulators ready, already broken apart, centers poped out etc. Now take off your outlet cover (plug in, light switches etc). use your fine bead line of caulk around the outlet box where it meets the wall. follow it up with your insulator and put face plate back on. not just exterior walls, do this to interior walls as well.

a lot of people do not realize how much air from outside comes through these. this stops your air from going outside and from outside air coming in. ill add pictures when we do the next room. as we remodel rooms, we do that as well.

the paper towels are so if you get any of the caulk on the paint... kinda obvious. flat head, because 99.999999% of outlet covers are flat head

Tip 2
Hot water hotter equals less money.
Needed:
Foam wrap for pipes (proper size)

So most people think the foam wrap for pipes is just for pipe exposed to crawl spaces or coldness... nope... this is a good tip.. especially if you like hot water.

buy enough of the wrap (size your need) just for your HOT pipes not your cold. wrap EVERY hot pipe with the foam wrap, throw you a piece of electrical tape every few inches to keep it on...

what this does is not allow the heat from the pipe to escape but keep the pipe warmer. thus keeping the pipe warmer, means less that your hot water heater has to warm up... thus saving money...

along with this tip is same with hot water heater insulation. most people dont even realize they can do it.. yeep... again not just for areas that get REALLY cold.. if you wrap your hot water heater with hot water heater insulation.. it does the same thing! keeps your tank from loosing heat, keeping it hotter.. which means element will be on less, saving you either gas/electric.


Just thought I would throw all this out there...

 

[FIND]

I LOVE insulated pipes. Aside from the savings from not having to use so much water to get hot water places, it just is nice being able to turn on a faucet and get hot water so much faster. I mean, it is nearly immediately compared to uninsulated pipes. Plus, the water comes out so much hotter, so you can turn down your water heater, since you aren't heating the air around your pipes and losing all that heat along the way.

I think that insulating my pipes was the BEST thing I ever did in my last house. There are a lot of things you can do to save money, or make a home more energy efficient... but leaving cosmetics aside, I think the thing that always made me happiest were my insulated pipes. Getting hot water in my 2nd floor bathroom on the opposite end of the house from my water heater in the basement only a few seconds after turning on the faucet... Yeah, that by itself made sneaking foam into crawl spaces or squeezing it through walls all worth while.

 

[unclemeat]

Be careful when remediating old paint. Anything older than 1978 has lead. Do compleate cleanups, keep dust down or use a HEPA filter. Disposable clothing (tyvac suits), gloves, a good dust mask. Also good ventelation and isolating rooms with poly sheeting. Keep children away. Otherwise have a ball!

 

[SwaintaN]

Be careful when remediating old paint. Anything older than 1978 has lead. Do compleate cleanups, keep dust down or use a HEPA filter. Disposable clothing (tyvac suits), gloves, a good dust mask. Also good ventelation and isolating rooms with poly sheeting. Keep children away. Otherwise have a ball!

yeah i feel ya on that one. im glad that the only paint we had to mess with was on drywall and late 80s sticky board. when they shittyly built the closets up stairs they were made with drywall instead of plaster. plus the ceiling is that stick n peel square crap. but yes that is a good thing for people to remember!

I LOVE insulated pipes. Aside from the savings from not having to use so much water to get hot water places, it just is nice being able to turn on a faucet and get hot water so much faster. .......Getting hot water in my 2nd floor bathroom on the opposite end of the house from my water heater in the basement only a few seconds after turning on the faucet... Yeah, that by itself made sneaking foam into crawl spaces or squeezing it through walls all worth while.

hell yeah! this summer we are redoing our upstairs bathroom and its like yours, on opposite side of the house furthest away from hot water heater. when we open the wall to remove the old steel water piping to install PEX plumbing we are wrapping the hot pipe for it as well... people dont realize how much it does save you in the long run.

 

[SwaintaN]

I think one of the best updates ever to this house has been what we got to do from taxes.. While most people over look the small things like this, we celebrated! Again with no electric to the spot, already had it ran, just need money for fan and medallion and hardware..

Day 1 like stated before as move in

And fan install! OMG WHAT A DIFFERENCE in air and looks, plus and i mean a BIG plus! The room is lit!!!! We can see!!!
Im thinking.. haha.... Plus you can see my pilot hole. This is where it all begins.

Of course i cut the hole to large, wasnt able to get hand in.. so had to, nothing a medallion wont fix.

And up... this was night one of if up, since this pic, ive changed out the bulbs to the daylight bulbs.. again most people over look it, i notice the little things. Plus this means ceiling fan works and so does my 3 way switch.

Haha you can see my oversized TV. But yeah, kept it up with the theme. Old antiqued bronze finish with old wood paddles. Its one of the super quiet fans, energy saving and dust barrier on the blades.

 

[Paul]

. . . and who knew Reba wanted a cool $1.8 mil for her 48 acre farm estate in Wilson County, Tennessee ? ? ? ?

I did not. . .

Looks good.

Paul
'91 Sport

 

[SwaintaN]

lol i said oversized tv

 

[SwaintaN]

as the fights have calmed and work needs to be done. but havent gotten much further.. did do some photo chopping.. lol i would suggest lots of pics during a remodel.. we will be doing one again this winter.. side porch gets closed into a laundry room to get the laundry up...

photo shop b4 and after living room.

 

[SwaintaN]

flooding and flood prep

Continuing with the old house. There was a flood just 2 days before xmas... So lost the Washer/Dryer/Furnace and made the hot water heater on its last leg..

This wasnt even the highest point..

So i took some measurements... figured cheaper to leave in basement but flood ready instead of adding a room on first floor.

Time to throw down some masonry skills..
This is where the washer/dryer flooded..

Not done yet. but the bricks are mortared, most of the gravel is in place.. soon finish gravel and add concrete..

This was the area beside the furnace. This will get the hot water heater, and new water supplies away from the floor.

However from the flood I did get a new furnace that is 80 percent efficient instead of dinosaur 30 percent.. and we got a new central air unit.

 

[OffTrac]

Ouch. Are you going to add a sump pump?

 

[SwaintaN]

i had a submersible sump pump ready to turn on.. but i was a sleep when flood started..

wont be doing in-ground sump pump due to conflicts with insurance company if one is installed... so there where be two submersibles one at each end wired up and hosed so a switch upstairs can just be flipped.

 

[toypaseo]

You can't have ones that come on automatically when needed?