Have you ever noticed on HGTV they never spend any time talking about plumbing, electrical and HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning).  I'm not sure if it's because it doesn't make 'good TV' and people would rather see paint colors and tile samples, or if that's how they make their budgets as low as possible.  The stuff in the basement and behind the walls is pricey!  New laundry area with all new electrical and plumbing Since we work on old homes that often have original wiring and plumbing, we take this stuff seriously!  And like most of the houses we ..read more

This is the half bath.  It's in the basement (at the bottom of the stairs).  It's certainly not pretty.  And it has a big, big problem. See that mirror and what looks like a cabinet?  It's the electrical panel.  Yup, right over top of the toilet. Building codes say you can't have anything within 3 feet of the electric panel - because you need space to  stand and work on it.  And anything involving water and electricity is a big no-no! So the city building inspector said we could 1) move the electrical panel (big, big job that means moving all the electric ..read more

We received our building permits, so I wanted to share our plans as we get the project started.  We aren't making big structural changes to this house.  But we are updating it with modern conveniences (like a dishwasher! And more than one electrical per bedroom!) to make it far more functional for the next owners.  Of course we will also be improving the energy efficiency of the entire house. The first floor will see most of the changes.  We are opening up a couple of walls to improve traffic flow.  But the big change is completely gutting the kitchen and updating it w ..read more

As much as we loved living in this house, there was one feature that freaked me out - or as I thought of it, the Deathtrap!  The entry from the driveway is a tight little 3x3 square foot space with a few steps up to the kitchen and lots of steps down to the basement.  Even with a glass door, you can't see into the landing and when you open the door, you can pitch someone standing there down the steps (ask me how I know!).   Side entrance - aka the death trap!!! ? And to close the door, you have to go up a couple of steps to get out of the way of the swinging door. &nb ..read more

If you buy a new house today, chances are it won't have much in the way of built-in cabinetry.  But when this house was built, that was a hallmark of a quality home - and this one has more built ins than any house I've ever seen.  And they're brilliantly tucked into what would be wasted spaces.   Let's start upstairs and work our way down.  The hallway has this great built-in - with a large cabinet at the  top and lots of drawers below.  The bathroom has a cute cabinet/drawer unit built into the space at the edge of the dormer.  Such a great use of otherwise ..read more

My husband keeps reminding me that now that we are living in the 1898 House, I have the rest of my life to get everything done.  That's a good reminder with my broken wrist, since it's putting a big damper on all my plans.   Thankfully, work is still moving forward to get the house finished.  The guys are focused on getting the sun porch done.  (You might remember this was a late 'phase 2' part of our plan.  We want to use it as it was intended - a 3 season porch.  So we saved it till later as we worked to get the main house completed, so we could move in.)   ..read more

We had a 'Before' Open House a few weeks ago, so local folks could come take a peek at the house before we start demo.  It's always a lot of fun to chat with folks and get their thoughts on potential changes we are thinking about. And it's always fascinating to see what their opinions are.  Case in point - the dining room has two built in hutches. One is full sized and the other is smaller, because it's built over the back of the fireplace.   I want to open the wall between the kitchen and dining room.  But that begs the question, should we keep the big hutch?  Or tea ..read more

We moved into this house for what we thought would be 9 months, while we renovated a home for ourselves.  18 months later, we've finally moved out and can start renovating this sweet place.  We loved living here - great neighbors, walkable to everything and a fabulous, private backyard.  The guys keep joking that this is the nicest SoPo Cottage house we've ever bought.  It doesn't have all the major challenges that many of our projects do.  But after living in it for awhile, I've got a good idea what needs to be changed to make it work better for modern living.  F ..read more

Yes, we have moved in.  But we didn't have everything completely finished!  So we are trying to prioritize all the details that really make a house a home.   First example, the dining room hutch.   This hutch was in the house when we bought it.  We assumed it was old, but as we worked on the house, we discovered it had a Brosco sticker on the back.....so maybe not that old!  We still order materials from Brosco today.   Nonetheless, we wanted to keep it.  We love how it's built into the wall and provides a focal point for the dining room.  And we ..read more

The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of activity, getting us ready for the big day! It's hard to believe, but after almost 17 months, we have moved in!  Is it done?  Well.......not everything is complete, but all the critical elements are finished for a Certificate of Occupancy from the city - with a few provisions that we need to complete. As usual, Murphy's Law was in full effect and we were constantly adapting to keep things moving forward for move day.   A key element was getting our heating system installed.  The lead installer was sick for our install d ..read more