Steve and I have taken many leaps of faith in the past couple years but this house was certainly the biggest.
There were so many things that made it all wrong for us. It was only 1400 square feet, only had one bathroom, no basement, garage or usable outbuilding, no insulation, no heating or cooling… yet we bought the place.
In order to make the house right for us, Steve and I agreed on a complete gut and remodel, new roof, new windows, new siding, heating and cooling, an additional bathroom and a garage/shop.
We enlisted a builder to take on the garage/shop project and that was finished February 2016.
Our first project was the second floor. It had 400 square feet of finished attic space with sloped ceilings on the north and south walls and original double hung windows on the gable ends. Work started the summer of 2015, a few short weeks after we moved in.
After a number of delays, setbacks and projected completion dates that came and went we can finally say… the second floor is finished!
Do you remember what it looked like?
This was the front bedroom before…
and here it is now!
We extended the finished wall three feet further down the sloped ceiling to make room for an open closet.
This was the landing (looking from the front bedroom to the back bedroom) before…
and here it is now (we still need to install a railing)!
This was the back bedroom before…
and here it is now!
Read on to see how we did it!
Demo time
Demo was a long, physically demanding, dirty and sweaty process. There was 75 years of dust, dirt, cobwebs… hiding behind and on top of all those bead board planks. This was my arm after I removed my gloves the first day of demo.
Zach worked on the back bedroom. That’s a closet door he was standing in front of, can you imagine? (We have tall kids, so 5 foot tall closets would not do.) Zach was 6’0 at the time of this photo so you can see how low the ceiling was, about 6’6, and how short the bedroom doors were, about 5’10.
Gabi removed all the door hardware. We salvaged everything possible and we’ll reuse what we can, but some things are just cool to save because they were original.
This small door was for attic access behind the back bedroom.
Zach stuck with it and eventually removed the entire wall and most of the ceiling!
Steve helped us on the weekends.
Way to go guys!
Despite record temps over 100, for extended periods that summer, we persevered and competed the demo.
Onto the renovations!
The ceiling
In order to make this space usable we had to raise the ceiling. We moved the rafter ties up and gained 12 inches of head room that our tall kids (now 5’11 and 6’3) were grateful for. It also meant we could use standard height doors.
(In the picture below you can see the raised rafter ties towards the window and the last remaining original rafter tie towards the top of the picture.)
The skylight
We wanted to improve ventilation for the entire house, as well as bring in natural light to the landing, so Steve added a vented skylight at the top of the stairwell.
Leveling the floor
We removed the original pine flooring, leveled the floor joists and put down a new sub-floor.
Framing
We decided on a layout and framed up the rooms.
Chimney removal
We had two chimneys both of which needed removal. The one on the south side of the house was in pretty good shape but its location would put it in the entryway of the renovated first floor, so it had to go.
The chimney on the north side of the house was in poor repair and could not be salvaged but we were able to save a fair amount of the brick and will re-purpose it somehow.
Steve dismantled the exterior portion of the chimney and then I took it down to the level of the first floor.
A new roof
The 75 year old original tin shingled roof was replaced, thank you Dale’s Roofing!
Rough electric
Harrington Electric tore out all the old wiring in the second floor while preserving the first floor connections and then they re-wired the upstairs. Thanks guys!
Ahhh insulation
Our biggest blunder to date involved the insulation and you can read about it here!
Windows
I absolutely love our Marvin Integrity Wood Ultrex windows! You can read more here.
To satisfy building code for egress we had to use sliders on the second floor.
Shiplap
The entire second floor is covered with shiplap and I couldn’t be happier. It looks amazing! You can read more about our PacTrim shiplap here.
We were a few pieces shy of having all the walls covered on the second floor when Steve slipped in the stairwell injuring his shoulder.
Zach and I were able to finish the stairwell but we had our builder finish the ceiling. It was a bit tricky lining things up but nothing they couldn’t handle.
They did an amazing job!
Thanks Don, Mark, Derek and Perry.
Heating and cooling
We chose a mini-split heat pump system to heat and cool the second floor. They’re super efficient, very quiet and ductless (no duct work needed through the first floor) but they’re also big and boxy and have taken some getting used to. Ultimately they work great in the space and they help to reduce our carbon footprint.
Window trim
The windows got trimmed out, great job Steve!
Painting
Steve sprayed the second floor with Benjamin Moore White Dove in a satin finish. It’ so clean and bright!
Flooring
We installed engineered hardwood flooring by Chesapeake Hardwoods. We chose the Provence Manor Collection: European White Oak in Backing Stone. They are beautiful!
Steve you did a great job, bum arm and all!
The finishing touches
We chose very simple 1″ X 6″ baseboard trim and 1″ X 4″ door trim painted with Benjamin Moore White Dove in a semi-gloss finish.
We opted for smooth panel, solid core bedroom doors for ease of cutting the angled back bedroom door, which we had our builder do. It was a bit tricky, even for these experienced guys, but it turned out great!
The design of the house demanded a very simple light fixture for the stairwell. I found this wrought iron chandelier online at Bellacor, you can see it here,
Steve installed it the week before his surgery, don’t ask me how, I couldn’t watch. Thanks B it looks great!
Finishing the second floor was imperative before Steve’s surgery (December 30) and we did it with a couple days to spare. Gabi moved into her room on December 22 and Zach on December 24. They were so happy to finally have their own space.
After some touch up painting, a railing and some decorating we’ll move on to the first floor!
As always keep it simple and do it with sass!
Kimberly
The house looks beautiful …. high five to all of u
Thanks Tracy!
WOW!!! Looks so different already! You are all doing a great job! Cannot wait to come see it !
Thanks Tiffany. It really does look different. It was amazing to go through the before and after photos with Steve and then try to remember all the steps we took to get it done. It was a long process but definitely worth it.