Adding a powder room! … The “Before”

Posted on May 27, 2014 by lyndsayss

Although we LOVE living in this historic home, one thing that gets old really quick is having to go all the way upstairs to use the restroom….or if you prefer you can use the random toilet in the middle of the basement. Either way, there is no first floor restroom in this home. Not only is it slightly uncomfortable when we have guests over there have been many a time when Raul and I get into a fight over who gets to go to the bathroom first 😉

We knew that when we started a kitchen remodel we would add a 1/2 bath or powder room somewhere. The layout of the first floor only left us two real options- convert the dining room closet or convert the utility room off of the kitchen. We chose to go with the utility room because there was a lot more space to work with and easier connection to existing plumbing. Although we would have liked to add the powder room further away from the place where we prepare food, we had limited options.

What we are currently using as a utility/mud room is at the far north end of the kitchen:

This room also provided us access to our backyard. Remember that exterior door that I talked about removing here?

The room was a total disaster when we started. Chipped and cracked plaster, painted trim, fake brick floor (wth?!), peeling paint, shelf brackets with no shelves…

…the best solution was just to rip it all out.

And that makes the very last of the plaster dust!

Can I just get a minute to say…

WOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

We were pleasantly surprised to find that the room already contained hot and cold water lines and a vent to the outside of the house. That means that at one time this was also used as a laundry room. Now tell me, what person in their right mind would move the washer and dryer from the first floor down to the basement!? Grrr!! I shall now silently curse him or her (oh let’s be honest only a “him” would do something like this!) everytime I transport 4 full laundry baskets from the 2nd floor to the basement and back up. Mind you my glutes are thankful but that’s about it!

We rerouted the lines to the center of the room and prepared to create a connection point for a fabulous wall-mounted faucet.

Raul had the briliant idea of using an antique sewing machine as our bathroom vanity. I am so excited to see this little project to completion. We found a great vintage piece on Craigslist for $50 bucks. Check it out!

After a little scrubbing and a bit of shining up with tung oil the new vanity was starting to look great! Even little Ruco was fascinated by the transformation! 😉

Progress is under way! Here’s to having a toilet on the first floor in just a few short weeks!

Help out our neighborhood! Please vote for Justin and Rachel!

Posted on May 22, 2014 by lyndsayss

Hello blog readers!

I want to introduce you to a couple friends of mine! This pair is extra special because they’re neighbors, too! Justin and Rachel live around the corner from us and have an awesome Queen Anne style home that they are painstakingly restoring. They are both young architects with a passion for preservation and improving our neighborhood and downtown area. As you can imagine, we have a lot in common. 😉

Recently, they entered a contest sponsored by Davinci Roofscapes to win $5K which they will use to paint the exterior of the home this summer.

“We love our historic home in the up and coming neighborhood of Williams Woodland Park. It was one of the first planned communities in Fort Wayne, IN at the turn of the 20th century, where many of the areas prominent citizens chose to locate. The homes were built with such character and charm, and have seen many changes over the past 110 years. Our half timbered Queen Anne is no exception. It has been plagued by white washing over all the details, and deterioration of many wood turnings and other architectural features. It has been slow going, and a lot of work trying to bring this beauty back from years of neglect. One of the major projects recently completed was replacing the original damaged slate roof (which had been overlaid with asphalt shingles) with the durable, long-lasting, and beautiful DaVinci Bellaforte Slate tiles in the “Villa’ color blend. The roof has set a great stage to bring this old home back to life with color, whereas it’s current white facade disappears into the background. As a young newlywed couple, we have hopes of our home honoring the amazing history of the people whom have lived here before us. However, at the same time, we want to ‘Shake it Up” by reflecting the modernity, liveliness, and creativity with which we live our lives! We are hoping our home will be yet another colorful asset to our beautiful neighborhood!”

– Justin + Rachel

Can you imagine how cool this house will look with a little color? The architectural details will just pop! They are currently in 2nd place and deserve to win so much! Please help them out!

Step 1: Follow this link and “like” the Facebook page for Davinci Roofscapes

Step 2: Follow this link and vote for Justin and Rachel’s awesome home “White Washed in Williams Woodland”

Voting ends June 1st so let’s help them win this thing!

THANK YOU!!

GUEST POST: A few words from my mother!

Posted on May 8, 2014 by lyndsayss

Hello all, today I am writing as a guest writer on Lyndsay’s blog. I am the Mom, and I perform most of the behind the scenes tasks. You don’t see me much in the pictures, but I do work as a helper most of the time.

My tasks include, but are not limited to, preparing breakfast, lunch or dinner, washing dishes, catching up on Raul and Lyndsay’s laundry, trips to Lowe’s and Menard’s, sweeping up dust, picking up scraps and of course watching the new puppy Ruco. I hate mudding and sanding drywall the most, I am not very good at staining boards, and I can’t read a tape measure. However, I do

watch Rehab Addict. Today I would like to share a trick I learned from Nicole Curtis, the Rehab Addict.

HOW TO: Remove old layers of paint from hardware.

First I gave up my big old crock pot. I filled it with water and turned it on HIGH. I placed all the old door and window hardware into the pot and just let it “cook ” for a long while, about 2-3 hours. Make sure you use tongs or some other tool to get your old hardware out, this water will be HOT!

When we removed the hardware, the paint just fell off completely. No stripping or chemicals necessary!

A small amount of elbow grease to remove the loose paint, and a bit of shining up and the hardware was sparkling like new!

At last…I have made a contribution to RESTORING THIS OLE HOUSE!

Until next time,

Sheila

First, the window…Now, the door!

Posted on May 1, 2014 by lyndsayss

Once we were able to get our new window installed we were faced with the task of removing a second window from the north side of the kitchen and replacing it with a door. This task was perhaps a bit more complicated because it also involved closing off our current back door. It’s complicated but I will try to explain the best that I can with pictures.

If you take a look at the picture below you will see the window on the right that we wanted to remove. In the space left by the window we will be installing an exterior door that will lead directly to the back porch. This is the door that I talked about in the post here. The door that you see on the left side of the photo currently opens into a utility closet off the back of the kitchen. We are converting that utility closet into our only downstairs bathroom and so, understandably, a door leading to the outside of the house has gotta go!

I’ll skip some of the boring details- this process of removing the 2nd window was pretty similar to the process of removing the first window. Wash, Rinse, Repeat. Once the window was out we had to remove additional siding and parts of the house below the window opening in order to expand the hole so that we could install a door.

Now, let me rewind for a moment. I had been working on refinishing the door we purchased from The Woodshack for a couple of weeks. It took hours of stripping and sanding to get the door down to bare wood. I’m not sure of the exact age of the door but it was old enough that the finish that was on it was caked on and no amount of heat or chemical stripper would remove it. We resorted to scrubbing the entire door with a wire brush. The work was painstaking…but rewarding. I am so happy with the end result.

Once the door has been refinished we were able to bring it upstairs and install it in the opening created by my dad.

We were able to hang the door with only a few minor setbacks. We had some issues because after 100 years things just aren’t square anymore! After some adjustments we were able to get the door opening and closing properly. Then, the process of closing up all the holes started.