Renovating Denver – One House at a Time

Framin’ and Strippin’

Just about done with the new master vaulted ceiling. What a project, but it’s totally worth it. Even without the drywall yet, we can tell it’s gonna be awesome.

Pleaase click thumbnails for larger photos

We are strippin’ the old pocket doors we found at the salvage yard. I bought this stuff called Citrustrip. It’s orange and smells like oranges. It’s supposed to be safer than other strippers. It seems to work pretty well. We’ve found the best way is to let the stripper sit on the door for 24 hours before using a putty knife to scrape the gooey paint away. A small wire brush works well to get the goo out of the cracks and crevaces. Cool, one side down, only 3 sides left!

Please click thumbnails for larger photos

Working on the Inside

We have been working on the interior framing, and are almost finished with the second floor. This floor will have a master bedroom suite with nice walk-in closet, a new master bathroom and French doors that open to the 2nd level deck above the front porch. We have decided to vault the ceiling in the master bedroom area. This means we have to sister the existing roof beams to make them stronger so we can take out the current ceiling beams. Check out these photos:

Pleaase click thumbnails for larger photos

Here are some shots of the master bathroom. There will be a huge shower (maybe steam?), 2 sinks and a toilet. Sorry, no tub – we thought a sick shower was better than some skimpy shower/tub combo. I’m happy with our choice. There will be a jetted tub in the other bathroom. Check out this sweet old metal tank we found behind a wall in the bathroom. Something to do with the radiators, maybe an expansion tank? We’ll reuse it somehow, maybe a planter outside?

Please click thumbnails for larger photos

 

Here are some shots of the framing for the second bathroom. This bathroom is shared by the 2nd and 3rd bedrooms on this level and only accessible through each bedroom (no common hallway entrance). This is a little weird, but the only way to make a 2nd bathroom work on this floor! Also a shot of the doors for this floor.

Please click thumbnails for larger photos

We have started to think about stripping some of the paint on the trim and doors. Everything is white right now. I bought this orange citrus paint stripper that seems to work well. We tested one area of the staircase:

Please click thumbnails for larger photos

We were planning to open up all the walls on the first floor. We are definitely taking down this wall, which used to have a pocket door (at one point in time)

We have reconsidered and might re-incorporate pocket doors in the front room. That way, we could leave the doors open most of the time, but close off the room for office use or possibly for a guest bedroom. When we pulled down the plaster we saw there was already a pocket frame (no door though!) built into one of the walls. We went to the salvage yard and found a pair of 30″ pocket doors that would work great for the new pocket door wall. The existing pocket door frame holds a 48 x 90 inch door … it’s a mammoth and will be difficult to find probably. There is one online (in Iowa) that I’m looking at, have to see how much $$ to ship.

Please click thumbnails for larger photos

 

 

We started tearing down the wall between the sunroom and the kitchen. Well, not tearing it down, but seeing what was behind the plaster and drywall. We found exposed bricks under the drywall in the sunroom. And we also found a window. This made us think we want to open this wall up a little more (get rid of the column between the doorway and window). This would open the sunroom up to the kitchen more. I use the term “sunroom” loosely, I guess. It’s certainly not a sunroom now, there is no sun even though it faces west. Need more windows and doors with glass!

 

Last thing – we started tearing off the old laminate flooring that was covering the beautiful wood floors. We kept going back and forth on whether we wanted to lay new floors or whether we should tear off the old flooring and refinish. Mike answered that question when he started pulling the floor up. There is heart pine with a beautiful patina finish under the stuff, some came up easily after prying nails off, but some was harder to pull up, as it was glued to the floor. A few shots:

 

Building the Deck

The front porch/deck has been going up this week! The first step was to get the ledger attached to the brick face. Then the deck supports were constructed and installed. Below are some photos of the framing process, Tony used his truck at one point to raise the main support. One of the photos below is an upclose of the *awesome* awnings. Just kidding, I can’t wait for them to go, but this photo does have great detail of the dentil molding and the corbels, which are staying.

Please click thumbnails for larger photos

We have been hammering out the plans for the second floor. Now that we decided not too finish the attic, we want to create a master bath and a second bath on the upper level. Here are some photos in the master bath area. The photos show a wall in the middle of the room which will be torn down. We are really combining a closet and a bathroom for this space. The bathroom will have a curve in the wall, which is great architecturally, but a bitch when laying out a bathroom. We decided to lose the master bathtub, in lieu of a large master shower. I know this might seem silly to do, but we’ll put a jetted tub in the second bathroom. There just isn’t the space in these old houses for everything.

Please click thumbnails for larger photos

More wallpaper found! This came from the main staircase area on the lower level. I think the entire hall may have had this paper, we found some upstairs as well. I love the gold sheen in this paper and would love to emulate it somewhere in the new interior design. The last is a victorian wallpaper reproduction I found online, it has a similar feeling, although not totally the same at all.

Please click thumbnails for larger photos

A Case of the Mondays

When I got to the house this morning, Tony (our friend/contractor) said, “We’ve got some problems”

Uh-oh. The plumber who started the project is in jail. For 18 months.

What can we do other than find someone new? Hopefully we can find someone who can pick up where he left off.

So, at least the deck/porch materials got delivered today! We chose GeoDeck for the deck, it’s a composite material that does not need maintenance. We ordered this really nice steel blue color, and I love it. The deck is pretty much ready to be built. We just need the mason to come and tuckpoint and prepare the area where the ledger will attach to the house. Some of the bricks were a little loose, and luckily, the mason arrived late this morning to set up his gear.

We will need an expert mason for several more projects, but at least for now he can start where the ledger needs to go. We are also having the mason “cut away” brick to enlarge the window opening on the second floor to accomodate French doors.

He will also brick up the columns for the porch and build a half wall around the porch. Precision is critical – so it was great to have the mason and the deck builder collaborate on exactly how it will be built.

Please click thumbnail for larger photo

Planning the Inside

So, yeah… we’ve been working with an architect since October on planning the inside. We’ve had so many different plans, I feel my head is spinning over the whole thing. I might be jinxing us, but I think we finally have a direction.

At first, we wanted to finish the currently unfinished attic space. We saw another home nearby with a finished master suite in the attic – bedroom, office, closet, bathroom. That sounded fantastic and we thought we could do the same, but we soon realized the space was not there. Our architect suggested we raise the 2 dormers on the home to get some more headroom in the attic. Although this sounded like an expensive option, we were wow-ed by the idea of a master suite. We went through with all the drawings for this and had it approved by the Landmark Commission (remember the home is in a historic district, so all exterior changes must first be approved by them). We thought they were the tough ones. Turns out it was the zoning committee that had the problem. They wanted us to wait until the middle of April to run the plans through the zoning board (it was the middle of January when we found this out). So, not being able to wait 3 months just to have the plans approved, we decided to rework our inside layout.

Turns out, we probably won’t be finishing the attic. We may pull some attic space above the master bedroom to vault the ceiling. We may keep the attic space for storage and add a pull down stair system to access it. But no bedrooms will be up there.

The second floor will have 3 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms. We will pull space from one of the bedrooms to add the second bathroom (currently there is only 1 up there). This will allow us to create a master suite on this level.

Images to come …

Cool Old Things We Have Found During Demolition

During the demolition phase, we found lots of old stuff in the walls and ceilings. Tons of newspapers, the oldest dating back to the late 1800s… something in the headlines about the Spanish-American War!

1890s
We know the home was built in 1891 by the Fleming Brothers. One of them, Jessie E. Fleming, was also the first owner/occupant of the home in the late 1800s – early 1900s. We found some cool stuff from the 1890s, including these items that possibly belonged to Jessie Fleming. The first is a postcard advertisement for Chocolat Menier. The name “Jessie” is written in pencil on the back of the card.

Please click thumbnail for larger photo

The singer booklet is small and has some additional inside pages with some great illustrations. These booklets were distributed at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Perhaps Jessie attended?

Please click thumbnail for larger photo

This is a piece of paper hand written in pencil. It’s dirty, and doesn’t look like much at first, but when you read it closely, it looks like a budget for a house. Listed are items such as: bricks, nails, windows, flooring, fence, mantel, stairs, lumber, paint, etc. We are assuming this is the original budget for this home! Wish I could build this today for $1400!

Please click thumbnail for larger photo

 

1920s
In the 1920, Sarah A. Grant lived here. We think we found her eyeglasses case.

Please click thumbnail for larger photo

 

1940s and 50s
Some work must have been done in the 40s or 50s. We found a can of Drano dating to 1941. Also the bottle of wine has a stamp on the back from 1952.

Please click thumbnail for larger photo

Our plumber found this tag on one of the old pipes. It’s an inspection tag from the Plumbing Department of the City/County of Denver from 1946. Max Kreutz was the inspector.

Please click thumbnail for larger photo

 

Let’s Get It Started, Yeah!

Finally the weather is cooperating! We have the permit to demo/rebuild the deck/porch. We also have a permit to demo the inside.

First we started with demo’ing the awning outside.

Please click thumbnail for larger photo

Then, we started on the inside walls. Mike started in what was apartment 1. He knocked down the walls separating the bathroom and closet and removed the built in cabinetry. He also removed the kitchen cabinets and fixtures.

Please click thumbnail for larger photo

We continued demo’ing walls on the main level. The last photo in the row below shows how we knocked down the wall separating the main floor from the basement level. A wall had been built cutting off the stairway down to the basement. A couple of knocks with the hammer and down it went.

Please click thumbnail for larger photo

Demolition continued on the second floor. We pulled out some of the dropped ceilings. This exposed the attic! The first photo in the row below shows where we took down the wall/door separating the upstairs from the main stairway.

Please click thumbnail for larger photo

 

Other Highlights:

We hired a plumber to start removing old pipes. We will eventually be replacing all the pipes with copper lines, they are currently galvanized steel (bad, bad!). He began by replacing the main shutoff valve for the house.

We have been finding some cool old wall paper under layers and layers of paint. This photo below shows a close up of some wall paper found in the kitchen of the upstairs apartment (#3)

We continue to find old newspapers, postcards and artifacts from different periods throughout the home’s existence. Photos and more info to come on that!

Please click thumbnail for larger photo

 

2006/2007 Denver Snow

Well, since the tenants have been out, we’ve been trying to start the demolition, but the weather doesn’t want to cooperate. This has been the craziest winter so far since we’ve been here in Colorado. At least our dog is loving it!

Apartment 1 – Studio Apartment

Apartment 1 is accessible from the common hallway inside the front door. This apartment has a small living room with super styly brown laminate floors! The kitchen has a cool old Dixie stove.

Please click thumbnail for larger photo

 

Apartment 2 – 1 BD Apartment

Apartment 2 is accessible from the common hallway inside the front door. This apartment has a living area, large kitchen, bathroom and bedroom (in the addition). The kitchen of this apartment will be the kitchen of the new single family house.

Please click thumbnail for larger photo

 

Apartment 3 – 2 BD Apartment

Apartment 3 is accessible from the common hallway inside the front door and up the stairway. This apartment has a living area, a kitchen, a bathroom and 2 bedrooms. There is a back door entrance to a small deck and stairs down to the backyard.

Please click thumbnail for larger photo

 

Apartment 4 – Basement Apartment (1 BD)

I don’t have any photos of this apartment!

The Outside

The front porch project is exciting. The current state of affairs is a fiberglass awning being held up by rod iron posts with vines growing out of control all over the awning. Besides being an eyesore, the awning does not compliment the 1890s architecture of the home, in fact it screams “1950″. We plan to tear down the main awning and the second level window awnings.

Please click thumbnail for larger photo

Before we contacted an architect, we went around the neighborhood and captured “inspiration houses”. Some of these homes even look like they may have been built by the Fleming Brothers. Since this house is located in the Baker Historic District, all exterior changes must be approved by the Landmark Commission before you can get a permit. It was helpful to have these “inspiration houses” to show the LC to show that our plan was historically significant.

Please click thumbnail for larger photo

The concrete slab for the front porch is in great shape, so we can build from that. We are planning to build three masonry columns and a half wall on top ot the concrete slab. The columns will reach up to the second story and support a second level exterior deck. We will replace one of the second story windows with French doors that open out to the new deck. We have discovered that there will even be a city view from this deck! The sketch below was the architect’s first rendition of these front features, we fell in love immediately

Please click thumbnail for larger photo