little house remodel

[Jens]

Our house is an older (1930) house.  A little craftsman cottage.  It doesn't really fit with this site too much, but I thought there might be good ideas or inspiration for people in a thread about the work that I have, and am doing on it.
Background:
In February of this year (2007), my family and I moved from New Hampshire to Knoxville, TN.  My mother took out a credit line against her ranch, and financed us to buy a 2900 square foot craftsman in a run down part of town.  We got down here after 19 hours of driving, and went to the rental we had set up.  We had been told by our friends that it was alright, and kinda cute, and when we got to it, it was nothing of the sort!  So my wife, our four kids, and I, moved in with Marc, his wife DeLacey, and their two kids (three every other weekend when her son is with them), in their 2200 square foot house.  The plan was to live with them until our house was livable, but after just a few weeks of working on it, it was quite evident that there was a lot more needed than could be accomplished in short order.  My wife was going a bit crazy there, so I drove around the neighborhood and came across this little 2 bedroom 1 bath that was for sale by owner.

I had met a guy a few days before this, who is a real estate broker, and investor, and so I took a shot in the dark and gave him a call.  Two weeks later, I had received a private money loan from him, and we signed on the house.  I started working on it, it was the beginning of March, and I have been working on it since.
      The inside was carpeted, had dropped ceiling tile, and fake paneling in every room except the kitchen and bath.
Living room

dining room

bath


Originally, we were just going to take that stuff off, paint, and cute the place up so that I could get back to work on the big house.  When I pulled the ceilings though, I found that all of the plaster ceilings were horribly bowed.  I made the decision to rip them out, and reframe everything but the kitchen ceiling.  Thats when the snowball started rolling, and got bigger.  I have this problem, where good isn't good enough, unless its close enough to perfect that nobody except someone else like me would notice.  even if it isn't seen, I can't just put band-aids on things.  before too long, the whole place had new sheetrock, electrical, plumbing, ceiling framing, a loft over 3/4 of the house, vaulted ceiling in the living room, new floor framing in the bathroom (which used to be a porch, and so had a dropped beadboard ceiling, and a plank floor 2 inches lower than the house), and more ideas for built-ins and extensive stained trim, than a house this size has a right to.  There was a window in the dining room, but when the plaster got messed up, and had to be replaced, I decided to build a 2x8 foot bump out, with built in cabinets in its place.


from kitchen looking to front door

from dining to kitchen

vaulted living room

loft, only about 5 ft to peak, enough for kids for now


So there is the start of this thread.  I am going to take some more photos today, and be able to get up to date.  The hard part is, not only do I have to work on other peoples stuff to pay the bills, but we are living in it as I work on it, and my DW keeps changing my priorities for me.  I can't think of a single project I have been able to actually complete!  Bathroom is almost done, windows are built and in bump out, kitchen is thrown together and semi functional, beams going up in living room, aluminum siding removed, fireplace ready to be prettied up with tile and a new hearth so we can get woodstove it it. 

I am going to go now, and continue on my beams, maybe I'll get the rest of them done today!  will do my best to update regularly, and I hope you'ns (obscure sothern term) are interested.

For some reason the first three photos are sideways.  I'll try to fix the problem later so you can actually see them.

[alcowboy]

Looking good! HGTV has nothing on you!

[glenn kangiser]

Thanks for posting this, Jens.

Anything others can learn from is welcome here.  I know you like to do things first class.  Remodels are another way many may be tempted to go in this economy.

[Sassy]

Way to go!  Quite impressive so far    I'm looking forward to seeing the ongoing progress 

[Jens]

Here is what the bump out has ended up looking like so far.

And from the inside...finally built the windows and got them installed!  That only took like 6 months.

And here are some updated photos of the interior.  Same angles, more or less, as before.



I was going to take a photo of the bathroom, but it is bathing day.  The my wife would kill me if she saw a photo of it today on the web.  Some of you may call me a good husband, you may be right, I prefer to think of myself as simply a self-preservationist in these matters.

The last few days I have been working on the beams in the living room.  I couldn't afford nice thick beams, or nice clear 1x to build mitered boxed beams, so I layered up 3 pieces of 2x, dropping the center one an inch.  I figured instead of trying to hide the true composition of the beams, it'd be better to celebrate its form, regardless of its original utility. 





The strange looking cuts in the half beams (on the walls), are an ode to the post and beam tradition of lap joints.  A 1.5x1.5 inch piece of contrasting wood will go in the hole there, and sit proud of the surface of the beam.  I am working on the post and beam work that will go around the fireplace now, but I drew it in google sketch up so that others could understand what is in my head.  That is the hardest part for me with building a house.  I have to explain what the finished product will look like.  I see our house with all of its woodwork, and built-ins already finished.  Much of the things I am doing now in here, are things that I planned for, and prepared for in the framing process, so it is quite nice, and about time others get to see some of them.


Got my hot tea now, going back down to the basement to work on the beams some more.  BTW, the green on the front of the fireplace will be tile, they just don't have green tile in the program.

[Jens]

I have most of the pieces for the fireplace beams cut out and pre-assembled in the basement.  It looks so cool!  I'm excited, and I can't wait to get it installed.  I have gotten to where I am so often surprised by the things I build.  A lot of the woodworking I do starts off with a plan, some just an idea, then I buy some stock and get to work.  Mistakes get made, pieces get cut wrong, this part changes, and so the other side must too, and "look at that...that would look really cool" starts happening over and over again.  Its almost like God is the one building, and I am just holding the tools.  For those of you who don't believe in God, go ahead and replace with your higher power.  Gotta go to Home Depot and get a coupla sticks before they close, then come back and sand all 36 separate pieces.  You know, back in the day, I think I could handle being the carpenter who had to cut all of this stuff by hand, but I wouldn't want to do the sanding!

[glenn kangiser]

I think it will look great Jens.  Nice work.

[Jens]

Some updated photos of the post and beam project.  The in progress one is blurry, but gives an idea of how the thing goes together. 




Still have the mantle to build, and the metal straps that will go around the posts, and square oak pegs at the joinery locations.  The whole thing will be stained a medium brown, and covered in shellac, then waxed.

[apaknad]

very nice! there is so much nice work by so many people here. i hope i don't get embarassed when i start my project.

[Sassy]

very nice! there is so much nice work by so many people here. i hope i don't get embarassed when i start my project.

Hey, then you just call it "rustic"   

Jens, beautiful work - I love the bump out, too - the way you put the windows. 

[apaknad]

i can do rustic, thanx sassy. Rustic...ie., ididn't mess up, it was designed that way.

[alcowboy]

WOW! Very nice! I wish I had that kind of carpentry skills - or any carpentry skills for that matter. LOL!

[ScottA]

Nice work.

[Jens]

Thanks for the kind words everybody.  Nothing wrong with rustic, nothing wrong at all.  In fact, one of these days I would love to have a rustic cabin, with log furniture, hand hewn with an axe.  I would also like to build that cabin with nothing but hand tools though, so I know nobody is going to accuse me of being sane anytime soon.  Sassy, the bump out is based on a design by Gustav Stickley.  His design however, did not have the side lights, and the three windows were art glass.  My mother is going to build some art glass windows for the sidelights for us, which is great since it means that is one less thing I have to do!  The exterior of the bump out is based on some that I have seen in town on Craftsman houses, made to look more like cabinetry than just another contour of the house, it will not be painted the same deep red that we chose for the siding on the main body of the house.  I am thrilled to see all of the work on this site, and to know that I am not the only one who can at the same time be very proud of it, yet wishing I had done some things a little differently.  Happens everytime.  Just remember too, if you mess up on one side, turn the mistake into another contour, and match it on the other side.  You think Michelangelo broke down all of the plaster when he messed up?  You gotta just be patient, and nurture the new form as it takes shape.

[Bishopknight]

I like it alot Jens, are you using a router for the carpentry?

[Jens]

This was built using a router with 7/8" and 1/4" round over bits, circular saw, table saw with regular and dado blades, chop saw, jig saw, belt and orbital sanders, and hand chisels.  Basic light duty shop set up.  I say light duty shop, because no planers, jointers, or band saws were used.  could all be done with a decent router, skil saw, and hand tools, would just take longer.  It is actually a pretty simply concept, the design just kept growing.can take some cross section photos of post assembly if interested.

[Jens]

the wife decided to take a photo of the bathroom, some time ago.  I've been kinda lazy with the posting.  Putting the stuff on the computer, then on photobucketet, then on here, just remembering to take the photos is hard enough for me to do! 

[Ernest T. Bass]

It's amazing what you've done to that place, Jens... Have you ever wished you just started from scratch?

[Jens]

All the time!  Doesn't make much of a difference though, after all, I can't change that.  Would be about 10-15k more to go from scratch.  See my thread about needing mental help to read about how difficult it is for me to not just abandon this, and focus on a homestead.  It will be the right time sooner or later.

[John Raabe]

Jens:

Such a great project. Thanks for taking the photos, filling in the story and letting us come along for the ride.

You are a very good craftsman and I enjoyed reading your comments on your process of evolving ideas. I wrote this article about "thought experiments" that I observed from my father: http://www.countryplans.com/thought-ex.html

I think you must do something similar - but you have a much finer appreciation of detail and design than my father did.

Most impressive and I love how your wood stove is coming along.

[Mike 870]

Jens what was involved in framing your bump out?  How do you make it so the floor of the bumpout has structural integrity?  Or do you assume since there will be a built in it won't really have any extra weight on it.  I was thinking of making a bump out for our living room, because our couch doesn't really fit with the love seat we have.  I wanted to make one big enough to slide the couch back about 2 feet.

[Jens]

Thanks so much for the kind words John, I think I might be blushing. 

Mike, the joists in this house run perpendicular to the wall that is bumped out.  I used 8' joists, stubbing them out 2', and sistering them on to the old joists.  These are the joists for the bump out, they cantilever over the foundation wall.  The rule of thumb on cantilevers, is to have 2/3 inside, 1/3 outside the fulcrum point.  So these could have been 6 footers.  Sistering on, I run nails on a 16 inch pattern, 2 in a 2x4, 3 for 2x6, 4 for 2x8 and 2x10, five for 2x12.  So every 16 inches along the length, there are four 16d nails connecting the joists together.  Yes it doesn't have much load on it, but from everything I've learned through the years, this method is still sound for a load bearing wall too. 



If your joists are parallel to the wall you want to bump out, it is more work.  First, you still have to come back 2/3, which usually means two joists need to be cut off.  The stub joists on the outer part of the bump out should be doubled.  Then, the joist to which they mount should be doubled.



Hope that clears it up a bit.  If anyone has any additions, or modifications to this advice feel free.  This is just how I have been taught.

Little tip: when you have to run a doubled header joist, with other joists coming off of it (or in rafter systems), put up the inside part of the header alone first.  Raise your joists into place, and end nail through the first layer of the header into the joist.  Then come back through and double up the header.  In some areas, this negates the need for joist hangers, in others it'll just hold that much better.  Joist hangers get expensive in a hurry!

Oh yeah, install blocking between the new stub joists where they exit over the foundation mudsill.  Let their inside edge be flush with the outside of the sill, seal the gap with caulk or foam to block drafts.  Now you have more strength, and something to attach the underside plywood of the bump out to.

[Mike 870]

Nice, thanks.  I can't for the life of me think of which way my joists run without going to check. 

The project is looking great.

[Dog]

Jens...you do really great work! I can't wait to see the pictures of the art glass your mom is creating. That will be such a special tie in. The bump out window was a smart move. I bet it makes the space feel really nice.

[Jens]

Thanks Dog.  Yeah, the bump out makes a dining room that is 11x13 really spacious even though two doors, and the main walkway through the house travel down one side.  Once we have all of the built-ins in there, we will have plenty of storage, so that our small kitchen is not beleaguered with too much service and dinner ware.