Thoughtful Restovation

I was chatting with an acquaintance recently and, not surprisingly, the topic of the house came up. Project progress and whether we're done yet are the most common conversation starters. He didn't ask this, but every once in a while someone will ask when we're going to sell and do it again. Judging by the amount of time we've taken so far, we're obviously not in it for a "quick flip".

As you might expect, quick flippers and some  of the popular TV shows about old houses aren't terribly popular on old house websites. Mostly those sites are populated with people who have a passion for preserving old houses and their criticism is of the "remuddling" decisions that run counter to the design ethos of old houses or work that destroys the house's character.

As we prepare for the upcoming tour I've thought a bit about our approach to our house. I'd classify it as thoughtful restovation (restoration and renovation) of a historic building.

Where it makes sense, we've restored things and found period pieces of hardware to replace broken or missing pieces. If that's not possible, we've sometimes found appropriate reproductions. We've also tried to keep with the style of the house and used period colors in many cases. That doesn't mean we're fanatics about originality however.

In other cases, we've renovated using modern materials, etc. In those cases we carefully considered the house and the modern way of living. We've tried to stay in harmony with the style of the house, borrowing original design cues from elsewhere in the house while understanding that it's not a museum or a time capsule, but rather a house in which a family lives.

So far, we've received a lot of good feedback that we've successfully balanced the competing forces.

Art

Now that the hallways are done, the art gallery can begin.

It will be a process, like any other.

The first piece we hung is called "Carriage Houses of Saint Paul - II". Our carriage house is one of those featured in the collection. This is the second in a series of photographs of carriage houses in Saint Paul.

We originally met the artist as he was creating this piece. He was riding his bike around Saint Paul looking for interesting carriage houses to photograph and he stopped by our place.

The Society of Architectural Historians

I mentioned in a previous post that we had a deadline. And here is why...

The Society of Architectural Historians has their 2018 international conference in Saint Paul  April 18-22.

At this point the tour featuring our house (TR17 - Cass Gilbert in Saint Paul) is already fully booked, but space is available on other events open to the public for those who are interested. There are quite a few events for those interested in architectural history.

Carpet

My last task was to use a belt sander to ease the transition between the dressing room and overflow closet.  As hard as I tried, I couldn't get subfloor that was quite the right thickness. Other than breaking three belts in the process, it went pretty well...

And I finished in time for the carpet installers who came Wednesday.

We now have carpet on the back stairs between the first and second floors.

The back stairs have always been a little slippery, so the carpet helps significantly.

The color works well with the walls and the runners in the hallways.

For continuity, it also has a pattern that's similar to the attic carpet.

After eons without, there's now carpet in my closet as well.

I couldn't have carpet until she did, naturally.

It matches the carpet in the dressing room for SWMBO.

Or the other way 'round.

OK, the reality is that the remnant from the dressing room was installed in my closet.

Now that her dressing room has carpet, her little piggies are happy.

And that means everyone is happy.

She stood there for a couple of minutes wiggling her toes and purring like a happy kitten. The dog had no idea what was going on, but at least he didn't pee on the new carpet.

And they did a great job on the transition to the master bath.

3.29 Miles

That's how far I walked today without ever leaving the house.

All I did was finish painting the closet in the dressing room, installed the rest of its trim, and install the remaining trim in my closet.

That's a lot of trips up and down the stairs from the second floor to the saw in the basement...

Now I'm almost ready for the carpet installer.

I Love the Smell of Impervo in the Morning

Along the way we didn't quite get to 100% completion on two of the closets in the master suite. Mostly that was due to previous deadlines. We rushed to get things "done enough" for the party or tour, but not 100%. Now is the time to finish because the carpet is coming.

In the linen closet the shelves were installed before the drywall was completely mudded. Over the past week I've been mudding so I can eventually prime and paint the walls.

Also, the base molding and door frame were never installed in the closet interior.

I saved the matching door frame moldings and needed to prep and paint them.

And my closet in the master is missing the base molding and door casing inside the closet.

All have been prepped, primed and have a first finish coat on them.

More Deadlines

We were asked to host a tour in the spring. A group of architects will be in town and we'll be giving them a tour.

Of course that means we now have a deadline to get a bunch of stuff done.

There has been a lot going on at work, so I knew I wouldn't have time to do some of the things on the list. We have a few good people to call on though.

A call went out to William the painter. He's done high quality work for us in the past and had an opening in his schedule. Arrangements were made and he completed the work in about a week - far quicker than I would have been able to do it.

I had a little carpentry to complete beforehand and managed to get it done in time for him.

He painted the back hall on the second floor.

He had to prep and paint all the woodwork and the final coat on the walls.

He also did some touch-up on the attic stairs.

And the back stairs from the main floor to the second floor.

The treads were previously grey and are now chocolate brown, which coordinates better with the stained front stairs.

The handrail was also cleaned up and re-stained.

The balusters were also repainted.

And lastly, the woodwork and walls of the back hall on the main floor.

Looks much better now!

Can't Touch This

The thermostat in the carriage house quit working.

Naturally that comes under my responsibilities as Head of Facilities.

On a regular basis people mess with the settings on it, so I'm not surprised that it finally called it quits.

So I purchased and installed a new one.

It's going to get this sign taped to it...

If that doesn't do the trick I'm going to get a lock...

Plumbing Redux

Long-time readers will recall The Master Bath Plumbing Saga.

It continued.

The toilet always filled slowly after being flushed.

It was a minor annoyance, but I finally got annoyed enough to do something about it.

I figured the valve was full of junk from the original saga.

So while getting materials for my next project I picked up a replacement fill valve and installed it this morning.

Replacing these doesn't take too long. The important thing is to make sure you have all the water out of the tank first...

Works great now!

Cigars

Before Christmas I hosted an open house for people I work with.

Some had been here before and tagged along on tours to see the changes.

Others had not been here before and received the full tour.

Often people ask if the house is haunted. In response I usually tell the story of the light in the  makeup mirror.

Now I have another story to tell.

During the tour with a handful of people, we were in the Study. I was describing how its style is much more masculine than the Music Room. I mentioned that typically after dinner, the ladies would have gone to the Music Room and the men would have gone to the Study to have a cognac and cigar.

After I finished explaining, one of the ladies mentioned that she could smell cigar smoke. We all paused for a moment and could smell it too.

It wasn't a faint odor; it was noticeable.

I'm in the study typing this and it doesn't smell of cigar smoke now.  And there hasn't been a cigar smoke odor in this room in the past either.

Another thing that's hard to explain...