BiggerPockets

Dirty Old Man House 4

Friday, February 10

Ok this Dirty Old Man is getting cleaned up, and soon will be a refined gentleman  :)   Yesterday we continued framing and opening up walls...it's really coming along nicely.  I had one awesome surprise tody and then one not so great surprise...it happens  :)

1st surprise: Check out the stucco/wood work below..it really gives this house some character.  It was uncovered when we removed the old siding.  I was planning on replacing siding, but now that I have some tudor charm, I'm going to break off any weak crumbling stucco, and reskim, then paint...This will look awesome (and is cheaper than replacing siding)!!

The second surprise I sorta knew was coming. The house has the old one and a half inch wide strips of oak hard wood floors..I love them, and they're not the easiest to find anymore. They've been preserved under carpet for years, and with some sanding, will come out beautifully!  Unfortunately, due to the roof leaking for the past few years, certain corners of a few rooms are rotted BAD.. I'll have to do my best to replace, and feather them in to make it look natural. It'll still look great, and I just hope we can keep most of the wood still. That'll save some on the budget :)

Other than that, the stairway going up is rebuilt and is now wide enough and has the appropriate slope to meet code.  I decided to keep the hallway wall open to the stairs instead of rebuilding, in order to keep the house feeling open and fresh.  I also have put a few arches throughout the house to mimic the front door. 

We also added a 1/2 bath under these stairs that will be perfect for entertaining.

I've been having some trouble locating a great place for the stairs that lead down to the basement. I didn't want to keep them under the main stairs because there were main beams and girders that would've been a pain (and expensive) to move to give the appropriate head clearance (80 inches here)...Also, I'm only finishing off the back 1/3 of the basement, so I wanted to move the basement stairway to the back of the house.  I had it planned out before so that it was jutting out into the breakfast area, along the back wall of the house.  It just looked strange, but I was able to keep the backdoor in place. I really hate having to fill in brick on old houses as sometimes it just doesn't look quite right. Anyways, I finally relented yesterday after talking to an interior designer who is absolutely correct. I'm moving the stairs to the old area where with the back door.  This area is more or less dead space anyways. Now I'll just add french doors to the back deck off the breakfast area. It will be a better. bigger, and more attractive space for sure--I'll just have to figure out how to make the bricks look good on the outside.  :)  Below is a pic where the stairs will go.  This space previously was a laundry room/walkway to back door.  Now that I'm moving laundry to upstairs by the master bedroom, this space will best be served as the stairway!  You can see a bit of the windows on the right.  This is the breakfast area off the kitchen, that will get the french doors.  :)

Questions, comments, thoughts, advice? Any and all is welcome :)

Comments

1. 

   Terri Pour-Rastegar Reply
   3 months ago

   I'm so happy you find all that tudor cottage charm under the siding! What a find! This is gonna be a really great little place.

2. 

   Jon K. Reply
   3 months ago

   Bryan, on that Oak flooring, have you considered taking it out of one room and using that to replace the bad sections in the other rooms? Or even out of closets if that is enough?

   How hands on are you personally on this job?

3. 

   Jim M. Reply
   3 months ago

   Man, I was over there like a week ago and it was all still together. I gotta get back over there and see what you've done. I guess it is a bit easier when you don't have to put on the second story and just have to blow out the walls...what were we thinking last year? I kid!

4. Reply
   3 months ago

   Great little house very charming. Nice you are thinking it out so thoroughly most people just rush it.

5. 

   Bryan A. Reply
   3 months ago

   thanks terri....it was great to pull up to the house and see that...got quite a rush...what real estate nerds we are when that gives me a rush, huh??? :)

   hey jon..that's an awesome idea...there is some of the same flooring in the 1/2 bath under the stairs that will be tiled...that will be pulled and replaced with subfloor, so i can use that...my next option, as you said, is to pull from closets, and put new floors in the closets..this way the visible floor has the same 'aged look'

   jim, thanks for checking in! soon we'll have pics of that home up here with a big ol' sold sign out in front :)

   to the last comment, for some reason, your name didn't pop up, but thanks for the kind words...this is a rather expensive area with picky buyers, so it's crucial to think and overthink every decision...i know this drives my framers crazy, but small choices now will have a huge impact on the finished product :)

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