Craftsman Full Gut & 2nd Story Addition!

Craftsman Full Gut & 2nd Story Addition!

Real Estate Agent · Weatherford, TX · Member since 2011 · 726 posts · 284 votes

Howdy!  This isn't "My" deal, but I get to be directly involved, and part of the process.  I am working part time with an HVAC contractor who has started remodeling 100 year old houses as a "hobby".  It doesn't make him the margin some accomplished flippers achieve here, but what they do with these houses is amazing!

This particular house was purchased for cash.  He has an agent that he works with (sadly before I got my license) whom he asked to door-knock about this house.  Sure enough, the owners were old and ready to sell.  It was in really rough shape.  Nearly every surface in the house will need to be touched, and in some cases gutted down to the dirt.  I will post lots of pics along the way.

The house was purchased at the end of last year.  I've been involved since the 2nd week of January, working in Sketchup to model the house as is existed, then work up plans for the new layout.  So plumbers, framers, the city, etc. will have what they need.  Meeting with the project manager, owner & his wife nearly daily to talk about options and changes, and take pics of te transformation. 

Getting paid to learn Sketchup on the fly, and learn the ins and outs of a ground-up full gut renovation along the way!  

5Reply
356 views

Most Popular Reply

Contractor · Denver, CO · Member since 2009 · 399 posts · 166 votes
10y

Where the plans engineered?  I hope you put a foundation in there before adding a second floor.  Looks like the whole house sits on blocks. I wouldn't cut that bottom chord either. It's holding the roof together. 

See this reply in the discussion

80 Replies

Jump to latestLatest
  • Real Estate Agent · Weatherford, TX · Member since 2011 · 726 posts · 284 votes
    10y

    Here is the exterior of the house.  Not sure when it was built,  but definitely before indoor bathrooms were the norm.  This house was built without a bathroom.  One was added 40 or 50 years ago in the main hallway.

  • Real Estate Agent · Weatherford, TX · Member since 2011 · 726 posts · 284 votes
    10y

    Here are some BEFORE pictures of the inside.  These are after some demo, but the floors were mostly still in.  

    It's hard to see from the pictures, but the original ceilings in the rooms were 11.5 feet!!! So what we're going to do, is lower the ceiling height to 9', and build an upstairs with 2 beds, a bath, and "bonus" space.  There's 9' between the 11.5' Ceiling and the top of the roof pitch.  

    This one is the enclosed porch addition.  We'll reframe all this to match the rest of the house.  

    Haven't decided if we're keeping these windows, or replacing.

    Keeping this beauty, unless we have to demo it for some safety reason down the road. 

  • Real Estate Agent · Weatherford, TX · Member since 2011 · 726 posts · 284 votes
    10y

    This next set of pics shows some of the Sketchup work I've been doing.  I'll post more as things are finalized.

  • Investor · San ramon, CA · Member since 2011 · 145 posts · 33 votes
    10y

    Shane

    Looking forward to following this project. What's been your experience thus far with sketchup? The great thing about REI that I love is the continuing education which is key to success.

  • Real Estate Agent · Weatherford, TX · Member since 2011 · 726 posts · 284 votes
    10y

    I like it. Don't have any other experience to compare it to though.  Its easy to learn. Videos and tutorials aplenty.  I've learned the program, built a house, and redesigned the house in about 60 hrs.  I'll post more Sketchup pics once we finanlize a couple things.

  • Professional · San Diego, CA · Member since 2014 · 232 posts · 20 votes
    10y

    wow!

  • Contractor · Denver, CO · Member since 2009 · 399 posts · 166 votes
    10y

    Where the plans engineered?  I hope you put a foundation in there before adding a second floor.  Looks like the whole house sits on blocks. I wouldn't cut that bottom chord either. It's holding the roof together. 

  • Real Estate Agent · Weatherford, TX · Member since 2011 · 726 posts · 284 votes
    10y

    Hey Emilio, we're reinforcing the supporting structure. It will still be on blocks, but very well supported to hold the additional weight.  City will approve. We just did one similar.  The roof will be partially rebuilt as well when we do the dormers.  We're rebuilding from the inside out, bracing and restructuring as we go.  Slow and steady.

  • Residential Real Estate Agent · Hattiesburg, MS · Member since 2011 · 475 posts · 141 votes
    10y

    Wow!   Do you mind sharing the proposed budget for this project?   Has got to be 100k+

  • Real Estate Agent · Weatherford, TX · Member since 2011 · 726 posts · 284 votes
    10y

    somewhere around $100k. We have most budgeted except cabinetry/custom carpentry.  May be closer to $120k. I'll update as I know. :)

  • Contractor · Denver, CO · Member since 2009 · 399 posts · 166 votes
    10y

    Love those old buildings. Taking them apart is like opening a time capsule. Looking forward to more pics. 

  • Real Estate Agent · Weatherford, TX · Member since 2011 · 726 posts · 284 votes
    10y

    So, about contractors...

    We hired a leveling contractor on recommendation from a fellow investor here in town.  It didn't work out so well.  We told them our plans, explained that we were popping out dormers and there would be additional weight from the added framing, etc.  Fully Expecting them to quote and perform work as discussed.  We ended up paying 3800 in labor and materials, and we're having to do all the work over again.  All of it.  We've spent the last 2 weeks going through every lower beam, joist, & floor structure to make sure it's right.  We took out everything they did, and had to redo it.  Very frustrating and costly.  Yes, we could have had them come back a 3rd, 4th, time...but sometimes you just have to cut losses and move on.

  • Real Estate Agent · Weatherford, TX · Member since 2011 · 726 posts · 284 votes
    10y

    Our labor crew is very small right now.  I've learned in all "service" industries, you have 3 choices, from which you can only have 2.  Quality, Speed, Cheap.  Right now we're working with Quality and Cheap.  Here's how it's setup currently:

    1)Owner/Flipper : Has an HVAC business, now remodeling old style houses as well.

    2)His Wife: "Design Consultant" is a good description.  All the design decisions filter through her.

    3)Project Manager - this is new this time.  Paid hourly (see #4) and will also receive a cut of the profit after the house sells.  This is the 1st time with this arrangement.

    4) Engineer/Framing Foreman/Trim & Custom Carpentry - Same Guy as #3

    5) Carpenter's helper - paid hourly

    6) 2 General Hands  - paid hourly

    7) Computer Sketchup Modeler, Photographer, design consultant (that's me) - paid hourly

    So far we've only hired outside contractors for the leveling (fail), and rough plumbing (more info later).  Slow moving through the leveling process with only 2 guys working on it, and replacing lots of 100 year old wood.

  • Real Estate Agent · Weatherford, TX · Member since 2011 · 726 posts · 284 votes
    10y

    Time for more pictures! Here are some with the floors out, and some of the work that was done by the other leveling company.  

    From Front Door looking all the way through to back door

    Back corner where kitchen, back room, and porch addition was.

    Hard to see but this is some of the work done by the leveling company.  New beams, but didn't support fully.  And wan't even remotely level just in this room.

  • Real Estate Agent · Weatherford, TX · Member since 2011 · 726 posts · 284 votes
    10y

    Here are some pictures of the leveling work we've done.  The last piece of that should be done today, and hopefully subfloor/decking.

    yep, the discerning eye can tell those are 2x12's blocked down the center. This master ain't goin' nowhere :)

  • Real Estate Agent · Weatherford, TX · Member since 2011 · 726 posts · 284 votes
    10y

    1st floor rough plumbing is in as well.  We did hire a local plumber for this part.  One we're familiar with.

    Love how easy the pex is to deal with!  Nothing like open floors to make plumbing easier!

  • Real Estate Agent · Weatherford, TX · Member since 2011 · 726 posts · 284 votes
    10y

    This is my favorite pic so far!  Looks just like this EVERYWHERE in the house now!

  • Real Estate Agent · Weatherford, TX · Member since 2011 · 726 posts · 284 votes
    10y

    Got more walls out and some subfloor in.

  • Real Estate Agent · Weatherford, TX · Member since 2011 · 726 posts · 284 votes
    10y

    Working with a small in-house crew, and not subbing everything out...things move a little slowly sometimes.  But we have PROGRESS!

    We got all the interior walls out except the ones attached to the fireplace.  

    Also got all the subfloor in, and started popping lines for downstairs framing. 

    1st Floor Framing going in!  West Kitchen Wall, with water heater closet & West Utility Room Wall

    Powder Room

    Sorry the "tall" pictures didn't upload correctly.    It's awesome to see the downstairs taking shape.  Once all the downstairs is framed in, I'll go back and take measurements, and adjust the plan in Sketchup so we can submit it to the city for approval eventually.  Some parts of this rehab are "grandfathered", some we'll need permits for.   So we're taking good pics and notes, in case they want to see how we fixed anything already covered up. 

  • Blue Springs, MO · Member since 2015 · 481 posts · 313 votes
    10y

    A lot of work.  Hope it goes well for you!

    IT tip: you can take a "screen shot" of whatever is currently on your Mac screen, and get an image file on the desktop.  This may result in clearer pictures than just holding up your phone to the screen.  :)  https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201361 has the directions.

    A screen shot won't help if somebody (like the city/county) needs to be able to "take apart" the plans - like, turning off the drywall and finish floor so they can see the framing details.  For that, they'll need the full Sketchup file.  Screen shots are good for questions like "should the walls in this room be blue or green?", if you can't get your design consultant and the computer in the same room; you can render it different ways and then email the screenshots and let them pick.

  • Real Estate Agent · Weatherford, TX · Member since 2011 · 726 posts · 284 votes
    10y

    Thanks @Matt R.! I just took those with my phone so they would be in my Google Photos folder automatically.  That's where I pull the photos I post here.   I'm having fun with groups and layers, showing/hiding, etc.

  • Real Estate Agent · Weatherford, TX · Member since 2011 · 726 posts · 284 votes
    10y

    In Lieu of renting roll-off's, the owner decided to buy a dump trailer.  Cost to dump construction debris if the top isn't heaping is about $115 per load.  It's a 7 yard trailer, they charge for 5, giving credit for unused space between boards, etc.

  • Real Estate Agent · Weatherford, TX · Member since 2011 · 726 posts · 284 votes
    10y

    90% of 1st floor framing is complete.  Working on header beams and stairwell now.

    This pic is the beam where the stairs top out on 2nd floor.

    This big guy goes over the hallway & kitchen openings.  We decided to do "open to the ceiling" instead of lower cased openings.  Note the 2x6 "straps" in place to hold the walls plumb.

    Stair Stringers Going in.  On the west side of the stairwell, there will be 6 stairs exposed to the open living/dining, and the rest "walled in".

    Here's the view from the living/dining side.

    We like things as close to perfect as possible for these "old" remodels.  Close doesn't cut it when you're shooting for "higher than the comps" like the last one we sold.  This stairwell work was actually taken down and re-hung this morning because it was a little off level top to bottom.

  • Architect · Papillion, NE · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 840 votes
    10y

    @Dash SivaNice sketchup! Love the pics you posted.

  • Real Estate Agent · Weatherford, TX · Member since 2011 · 726 posts · 284 votes
    10y

    Here's what a wall inside a wall looks like!

    This whole exterior will be gone.  The gable & exterior wall will be completely rebuilt.  Where the gable is now, will be the dormer for an upstairs bedroom.  And there will be no more 12inch "bump out" on this part of the house.  It will be a straight exterior wall from front to back.  Also building this section of the new wall with 2x6 studs, to help support the additional weight of upstairs.  This gabled section used to be a 5x14 porch that someone closed in 20 years ago.  Poor construction on the walls, so we ripped it all out and rebuilt in line with the front-of-the-house wall.

    Here's the original (left side of photo)

    This is after supporting foundation, before framing.

    This is exterior wall framing (new). Note the 2x6 studs & plates.

    Here's what it looks like with the old wall cut out and new sheathing on the new wall.

Join the conversationCreate a free account to reply, vote on answers and follow this thread.