House in Progress Diary

Okay, I'll admit it. I check your site every day. But, it's because we're near (Des Plaines) fixing up our 2nd generation big family bungalow filled with lots of the last generations 'stuff'. On your site I get to see folks who actually moved into a house FULL OF EVEN MORE STUFF THAN OURS!!! You're like the big league of what we're going through here - And, you guys are funny (and informative) too! Thanks for sharing and making me laugh. Lauren

Actually I do not remember how I became addicted to your weblog, but you were the first one I became addicted to. Now am addicted to fotolog, even have my own. Anyway as I was saying you are so ambition, funny, original and descriptive about every aspect of this restoration that it is hard not to come back daily to see what is going on. Now you need to understand I am not restoring a house. I live no where near Chicago and know nothing about the area but through this site. I just love the ongoing novel that you are producing. You have encouraged me to do a lot more research on the web and learn more about everything that has ever interested me. You ever get anything in your house that you have a question about concerning Oregon or Idaho and Washington I could probably come pretty close to answers without research. Thanks for this site.

Wow! We are so...man...I don't know the word! Um...verklempt? No...that means "overcome but not in a good way." Hmm...thesaurus, thesaurus... argh. Um, "overwhelmed in a good way and slightly nervous but also pleased, yet feeling as if we have to brush up on our grammer / punctuation and also not hipster enough to be worthy of any weblog attention."

What is the word for that?

Bed. That isn't the word for that. But I've really not been getting enough sleep. Bed. Bed.

(thank you. you guys are really nice. Sorry about the bad punctuation/grammer should you notice any.)

Love your site!! It has been fun to get "caught up" with what you have been doing. I can see why you'd be exhausted!!!

Anyhow, I stumbled across your site since I've been researching old homes. We just bought a 1910 home in Washington State - not sure I'd classify it as a Bungalow - but it's a home...and it's old.

You've convinced me to purchase a "Silent Paint Remover" for my husband... but I'm curious. How have you handled removing any lead paint??

I'm concerned for my daughter in our remodel job that she will be exposed to too much lead.

Any thoughts - or lessons learned??

Thanks,

Lisa
Seattle, WA

I also check your site every day. Almost one year ago my husband and I bought our first home, a 75 year old eclectic tudor revival in Jackson, MS. It is also a fixer-upper but with different sorts of things that need to be fixed which we are planning on doing most of ourselves. It had a major remodel in the 70's (we think) that changed the floor plan drastically. The house has good bones and we are not planning on undoing most of the floor plan changes, but needless to say, in the 70's they were not very concerned with maintaining the character of the house. Our work is much slower going than yours and most of the time I am very jealous of the progress ya'll are making. Luckily, our house in its current state is totally livable in even though not aesthetically pleasing. Also, we have a three year old daughter and a little boy due in June. This has not stopped us from pulling up about half the sheet vinyl flooring in the kitchen. One thing that I am also jealous of are the seemingly endless bungalow resources and the lack of tudor resources we have found. I'm sure bungalow people don't see the resources as endless but I have yet to come across an American Tudor magazine. I think the common factor is the concern for good craftsmanship. I love your site and it gives me so much inspiration for things that we can do to our own house. Best of luck and ask those wood window people if they can recommend anyone in the Jackson, MS area. :)

I'm up in Milwaukee, and we have the exact opposite situation as you -- my wife and I are in our mid-20s and just recently bought a house that was bought and remodeled/fixed up for a profit of $60,000 (although the guy spent at least 25-30k on materials and owned the house for 9 months).

The experience has taught us two lessons:
1) It's a lot easier to totally redo a house when it's empty -- every bit of floor on the first floor is freshly refinished birdseye maple -- that would have been a pain if we were living there, not to mention the complete gutting and re-building of the second floor.
2) Don't get myself into your situation. Every day I visit your site to remind myself why we paid $60000 to not have to think about reglazing tubs, replacing water heaters, windows, and all that stuff. I love working on my house, but I get to do fun projects, like decorating and running ethernet through the walls.
(No. 2 was not meant to gloat; you are very adamant about letting people learn the easy way [through your mistakes] to do things. Call it an education; I'm now positive that old house restoration is not my bag...)

That said, I find myself returning to your site every day.

I check your site just about every day too. I don't own a home, or live in the Midwest, but I LOVE bungalows and foursquares. I went through hell just painting a few years ago, and I like your site because it informs me of what I'll be in for if I'm every lucky enough to buy an old home, which is my dream! I wish you both the best of luck always.

Wahhh! Superfluity! That is the word of the day, Superfluity!

okey-dokey, lemme go backwards up the comments...

Sandra--I've looked into my Magic 8 Ball. I asked it if you would own the "home of your dreams" soon...it said "without a doubt." Look! You can see for yourself. Just give your monitor a good shake before you click.

Phil--You know, you put your finger on it. You really really really really have to love chaos and houses to do this. Really. For every dollar we put in, we spend hours of our life. Luckily, we enjoy this. Most days. But a lot of folks don't. Spend the time doing what you enjoy. That is really the point. (Plus, it is a good lesson to folks to undertake this with eyes WIDE open. Because, honestly, if you don't love this...it can really wreck havoc on a relationship. Stuff that we laugh about other people get divorced over. We are super bizarre that way. Know yourself AND your spouse before opening this can of worms.)

Adrien--We LOVE tudor revival bungalows...there is a lot of information on their style if you look at the Arts and Crafts movement in the UK. Aaron's parents live in one...so does Tudorhead/Mary (whom we greatly admire) on the American Bungalow Forum. You will find Tudor-Revival Bungalows sprinkled everywhere...and they are delightful as well as the heart of the original arts & crafts movement. So feel proud! (For wooden window craftspeople, hop onto Fine Homebuilding's Breaktime Forum...ask the folks there if they know of anyone closer to you. They are pretty connected!)

Lisa--1910 might be bungalow...you never know! Ours is 1914...if you have a sketch of the floorplan or some pics, you can post it in the "What Style is My Bungalow?" board at American Bungalow and they are very kind and supportive in examining it.

Lead paint...er...that's such a personal decision. I think the best advice is to find some way to paint over it or encapsulate it somehow. Lead paint is most dangerous when it becomes chips, dust or fumes. You don't want to breathe it, get it on anything that can get it in your mouth (food prep surfaces, linens, eating utensils or containers, etc.) If you think you may be dealing with lead paint, best to have it tested. Never sand a surface suspected to contain lead paint.

You might want to do more research on lead paint removal and decide what is best for you. A good thread at American Bungalow forum discussing the issue is here. Just be sure that you get ALL of the information and follow precautions. We are too regular everyday folks and I would feel awful if I gave you advice on something this sensitive and something happened.

So, I'll talk about paint removal in general instead. Okay, we are really moving along with the SPR. We used regular liquid wood stripper to do a part of a built-in that I felt was too close to new tile (I didn't know what the SPR would do to new ceramic or mortar.) Man. That was so painful and slow. It took me a whole 8-12 hours to do one narrow side of the cabinet. Meanwhile, I stripped the front doors in 3 hours with the SPR. We have found that the SPR works REALLY well on flat surfaces and is a little trickier with fancy molding or round corners. HOWEVER, I picked up this Warner 8in1 Scraper Pro from Lowes and its funny curves and edges make using the SPR on molding somewhat easier.

Whenever I create dust (plaster destruction, etc.), we've found it is good practice to seal the area off with plastic sheeting taped over doorways (with a piece of 2 x 4 at the bottom to make it lay flat). I wear an AO Safety Professional Respirator and safety glasses. (Why I look SOOOO attractive in many photos.) We use a washable HEPA filter in the Wet/Dry Vac and a window fan during work to pull any air particulate or fumes out of the room. When I am done, and before I leave the space, I wipe down any dust from tools and surfaces in the space and put them in a garbage bag. My husband hands in a rag and two bags, I take my shoes off and stand on the rag...stow the shoes in the bag. Then I take off my work clothes that were exposed and stuff them in the other bag. He immediately takes bags to laundry to be washed separately (and I rinse out the washer again when it is done and empty). I take a shower right away.

It is not a full proof method. It is really hard to live in the middle of this and keep things from being contaminated. I am more conservative (read that as: a safety freak) than many home improvement bravehearts. I am also a coward and a worrier and plan on having my lead levels and lungs tested at my yearly physical.

One more word about the Silent Paint Remover. Some LOVE it. Some don't. We read all of the instructions, practiced before using it, and have flat surfaces...it has been an excellent choice for us. A dealer who sells SPR approached us about trading advertising for his site and ours. I didn't feel comforable with that. I want to be able to say, "I hated this." or "This didn't work" with complete freedom from sponsors. (ergo, why we are trying to sell some things from the house elsewhere...mama needs a kitchen someday when we run out of profits from rehabbing the old condo. My ministry job isn't going to get us there :) You'll see an informational courtesy link to their site on our page and they put us up...but no favors, money or agreements have changed hands.

I think that is important to reading a review on any thing...find out if the writer of the review was cut a deal or sent a "gift" (usually free product). It will affect the credibiliy of the information. Nope. We pay full price...just like everyone else.

Take good care...off to bed soon. Long weekend coming up. I'll explain later.

wow, a shout-out on "house in progress!" thanks for the compliment---you made my day!!

A day later, I still want to reiterate that I wasn't gloating -- I want you to know that because I still find your work and motivations fascinating. You could look at me in the same light and say "what a kook for spending $60,000 to have somebody else do the work", and sometimes I think it myself. To each their own. Just don't want to rub it in your face; that wasn't the point.

Oh gosh Phil no! We didn't take it that way AT ALL! We think your point is excellent! (And we are VERY glad that you are enjoying the site.) You raised such an important issue which we hadn't addressed up until this point. That everyone has the option to "do their own" or "enjoy already done." And this exists on a spectrum...deciding HOW much home restoration or improvement that you have the time, money and stomach to tackle is a very serious decision. I'VE certainly enjoyed the work of others and have gladly invested in it in the past. I think, had we had the choice, we would have chosen something that needed less work and gladly paid for it...honestly. We would have. But this house was in the perfect location, the ceilings were high enough to accomodate Aaron's height (6'7") and that is unusual for a Chicago Bungalow, and it was affordable in a neighborhood which is quickly becoming not affordable (for us) with investment over time. So...we dig in :) But we're glad that you stop by. (And I'm also glad that we can see this as our 20-30 year home. I don't think I would want to do this much twice. Once is enough, thank you! But some folks thrive on it and are brilliant at it...you can check out Pumpkin Shell for an example of Home Improvement fortitude. She and her family are amazing.)