Roof Stuff

So - two of our last major renovation projects just collided - 1) We had a contractor last summer install a vent through the roof of the sleeping porch to vent the toilet in the half bath below, and 2) we then sheetrocked the sleeping porch, trying to finish out the space. (10 points if you can guess what comes next)

we have a leak. 

So - it turns out that the vent was not installed properly, water slowly got into the roof, and one night during an intense storm - we heard dripping and saw a steady stream of water coming right through our newly sheetrocked ceiling.

this vent is somehow improper. 

Getting Estimates
We reached out to two roofing companies based on Angie's list and yelp reviews for quotes to fix the leaking roof. Since they were going to be up there anyway, we thought this would be a nice chance to put in some more skylights to add natural light to our bedroom and the spare room beside it (something we've always wanted to do), and to take a look at the nasty skylight in the bathroom, which is a constant eyesore. Inevitably, both companies also found a couple other problems on the roof, stuff that was either installed incorrectly or just old and needed to be replaced. Thankfully, both companies said that the main roof was in good shape - a huge relief.

a view of the bathroom skylight from below

I don't think it's supposed to do that.

 

our big old skylight with some chimney leftovers

Both companies had different approaches to the issues - one wanted to just patch the roof and clean up the old skylight, while the other wanted to rip off and replace both. One company wanted to install two new skylights in the bedroom, while the other wanted to install solar tubes. We weighed both options, decided we wanted to do half of one quote and half of the other - and then I managed to negotiate the one company to match the other - so we got 2 new skylights in the master suite, replacing the old skylight, and ripping off and replacing the sleeping porch roof - all for the cost of the original quote. (I am apparently a master negotiator). We signed the contract and were ready to go the next morning.

Placement Issues:
So once we knew who we were using and had settled on skylights (instead of solar tubes), we had to tell them where to put them. This was a bigger issue than you might think, since we have lots of future plans for these spaces. We wanted the skylights centered in their rooms, but we have plans that will change the size and shape of these rooms (adding a new master closet, removing the current one). So we had to quickly map out where the future walls for the walk-in closet are going to go and where the ceiling fan will be once the current master closet is removed to figure out where to put them. They will look super weird until those changes get made, so this more or less committed us to actually doing all of these projects.

time to finalize the plan for the master suite so we can figure out where to put the skylights

Work Day:
Amazingly, they were able to get everything done in one day. I would have loved to stay home and watch, but had to go to work. Thankfully, the roofing guy took a bunch of pictures for me.

cutting a hole for a new skylight

building a new frame (apparently called a curb)

frame gets covered in roofing material

then they plop the new skylight on top

old nasty bathroom one gets replaced

check out all my roof bubbles!

 

oh - and they solved the original issue, by replacing everything on the sleeping porch

Closing thoughts - 
1) I am consistently disappointed every time we hire a contractor (who caused the original damage that led to all this). I feel like we decide to pay the extra money to have a professional do the work instead of doing it ourselves, because we think that means the work will be guaranteed to be done correctly, to code, and whatever else -- but every time, even well reviewed ones cut corners, create new problems, and leave me thinking I should've just done it myself, or hired the subcontractors directly. Working directly with the roofers on this one made things so much easier, even though we now have to find someone else to do the sheetrock work so we can actually see the skylights from below.

2) We now have quite a few sheetrock projects that are accumulating, between closing in the skylights, patching the sheetrock in the sleeping porch, and closing in the air conditioning vents, and maybe a couple more new ones I'm thinking about. I'm thinking about just hiring out sheetrock work in general, since this is really hard to do ourselves and a team that just does sheetrock is quick and relatively cheap.

3) Light is nice. Already the bathroom seems brighter. I very much look forward to cutting into the bedroom ceiling to see the new skylights to let in more light. This is a major downside of rowhouses - inherently dark.

4) It seems like we have to spend a lot of money just to maintain the house, and get to spend much less on actually making it nicer. I don't know if that's just a general rule for houses or old houses in particular - but I think I previously had the impression that houses were a little more resilient. Since we bought this house, we've spent a lot more money on maintenancy stuff than improvementy stuff - we've totally replaced all the guts of the house (water heater, boiler, pump), and replaced most of the pipes in the walls - all projects that aren't even noticeable.  Thankfully, because of the skylight work, the project was at least half about something that makes the house nicer. I'm ready to start working on projects that make the house feel nicer and more functional.

5) We are now committed to the master suite idea - so we are about to get moving on that project. Since it's on top of the kitchen, which also needs to be done - we're about to start both of those projects at once. It's going to be more complicated to do them together, but ultimately cheaper and better than having to tear things back out down the line - so stay tuned.

The Master Bedroom Closet and a New Wardrobe

A couple thoughts as spring settles in:

Hello, springtime. Let's talk about clothes. 

1. Goodbye, Winter Clothes! I don't want to think about winter ever again. In fact, every year as soon as it gets warmish, I boldly take all my coats and hats and heavy sweaters and store them away, out of sight. This is partly so that I have more room in my closet to see the stuff I'm actually using, but also because I hate winter and I don't want to be reminded that it will eventually return. (Actually - it's supposed to snow in a couple days. [sigh])
2. Hello, Spring Clothes! Just as the winter stuff is getting put away, the summer stuff is coming out of hiding. It's fun every year to pull out the things that were stored away a few months ago- something between getting a bunch of gifts and being reunited with old treasures.
3. What fits? To make things more complicated, this time last year I was massively pregnant, so none of these spring clothes were getting worn. In fact, between being pregnant for 9+ months, and then spending another 9+ months slowly losing the weight, it's been a really long time since a lot of my clothes fit me. I boxed up a bunch of them to put them out of sight, and now I'm starting to dig through everything to figure out what I have and what fits now.  
4. Less is More. One of the things I really liked about being pregnant was that I had a really tiny wardrobe (as in, number of items, not size of clothes). I refused to buy a lot of temporary clothes, so I literally only had about 5 outfits- which meant each day I knew exactly what I was going to wear. There are plenty of examples of smart people choosing to have a really small wardrobe to avoid wasting mental effort on trivial choices, so let's go ahead and argue that this is my intent, and not just being otherwise lazy and cheap.
5. See what you've got. An important part of being organized is being able to see everything you have. You can easily group similar items, and then avoid buying duplicates and know if something's missing. One major issue my closet has is that I can't see what's in it. There's a clothing bar hanging in front of shelves, blocking them from sight. I have a tall dresser hand-me-down with really deep drawers that clothes seem to disappear into. Plus, there are boxes of extra clothes hidden under the bed and various other places - so I have no idea what I have because I can't see any of it.  

The current master closet is this whole wall long, accessed through the door on the left

View to the right: It's a long and skinny closet, with a hanging rod in front of shelves 

So - with all that in mind - I decided to turn my efforts to my closet and the clothes in it. You may remember that our big plan is to convert the current master bedroom, the spare room beside it, and the old sleeping porch into one big master suite. We started it during the Big Renovation, which is now several years ago, when we turned the closet of the spare room into our washer/dryer closet. That small step was a huge improvement for laundry - but a big loss for closet space. We lost a very useful closet that the Spouse Man had been using, so he moved into the Greenroom and I had to move into the closet in the master bedroom. Despite the fact that it's quite big, the closet in the master bedroom is long and narrow, making it really difficult to actually see what's inside - turning it into a huge blackhole for clothes. Our plan is to create a new walk-in closet in the spare room which will be more open and accessible, and to knock down the current useless closet - making the bedroom bigger. I decided to start on making the new walk-in closet so that I could get my wardrobe better organized.

The Long-term Plan for a Master Suite

Step 1. Paint.
I started out by repainting the future closet space. When we first moved in, we (I) picked a tragic shade of baby blue. Then, when the contractors covered over the old door to the old closet, they left the new sheetrock primed white. I figured the new closet needed to be as light and bright as possible, so I just grabbed a leftover can of the slightly off-white shade that we used in the basement.

the corner of the spare room at the start, needing a paint job

Step 2. Get Shelves and Brackets
I priced out the options for wire shelving units, and was surprised to see that they were more expensive than getting real wood - which seems much more solid and attractive anyway. So I ran over to the Depot, picked up some 1x12 boards and brackets,  cut them down to size, and gave them a quick coat of white paint.

Step 3. Install Brackets and Shelves.
Then my spouse very nicely agreed to help me install the new shelves and brackets, which was great since it's easier as a two-man job, and he's not really benefitting from this project just now. He's still using the greenroom closet, so this project is all about me (for now). We just drilled pilot holes to find the stubs, then screwed the brackets into the studs- and then just screwed the boards onto the brackets. We made one high shelf for rarely needed items, one accessible shelf for things I use often, with a hanging bar beneath it, and then one lower shelf for shoes. We added a mirror too, and moved the bookcase that I made for the old office into the space.

brackets going up, saucily

Step 4. Move Everything into the New Space
Very quickly, I moved all my clothes over to the new spot. I was overwhelmed and confused to see that I had so much stuff, knowing that I wear a very small fraction of said stuff. It was clear that I needed to get organized and get rid of some things.

so much stuff.

Step 5. Make a Wardrobe Design Plan
Following my appreciation for a super small maternity wardrobe and my affinity for making design plans before a renovation - I decided to create a capsule wardrobe, if you will. Before we renovate a room, I spend an inordinate amount of time making a design plan. The process is really helpful for me to figure out what we have that I like, what we need for function, and then what looks good and goes together. This takes way more time than you might expect, but it's totally worth it. Once a design plan is done, I have my marching orders - I don't expect to get everything at once (though I occasionally toy with the idea by putting everything in my carts at once to see what it would cost), but I know what to watch for sales and things to keep my eyes open for. I figured the same process would work for a wardrobe too.

So, I scoured my go-to online shops for items I liked, put them all together in a powerpoint slide, and then culled and tweaked until I had a good collection. I tried to build off of the things I already have and like, adding in the stuff that is missing. It's built off a strict color scheme, so that everything goes with everything. I tried to balance the number of items - having more shirts than pants, some long-sleeve and some short-sleeve, etc. I also tried to balance the types of clothes I need with the lifestyle I actually have, (ie, one thing for a date night, one thing for a big meeting, lots of things for the average work day).

My Wardrobe Design Plan

Top Row: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Second Row: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Third Row: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Fourth Row: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Bottom Row: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Step 6. Cull Ruthlessly
Once I had set my wardrobe design plan, I went back and got rid of anything that didn't fit it. Anything that was outside of the color scheme was easy to get rid of. Next were the items that would definitely never fit again (I'm still losing baby weight, so I had to walk the fine line of keeping clothes that were slightly too small and would likely fit again, while ditching the clothes that were way too small and probably never fit to begin with.). Then I started working on shifting the proportions of things to more accurately fit my lifestyle - 5 black evening gowns were excessive, so I just picked my favorite one or two. It was striking to me how out of proportion everything was - I clearly like to shop for evening dresses and cardigans- you'd think I go to a lot more galas than I do. I had to ask myself, "Do I really need 5 blue v-neck sweaters?" (answer = no). I got everything down to a smaller number of clothes that I actually liked, that fit, and that went together. Everything that was culled went into a pile for goodwill (which will actually hang out at the house for a week or two in case i have second thoughts on anything).

Step 7. Shop with Purpose
Lastly, I had to pick up a few items that were missing. The design plan and culling process identified a couple items that were clearly needed, so I made a list. I did some targeted online shopping as things I had been eyeing went on sale, and then I actually went to the mall. I hate the mall, so I went during a weekday afternoon with a list in hand, knowing that I would be in and out as quickly as possible. I can't express how much I actually hate the mall - but there is value in actually trying things on sometimes.

all done 

from another angle

new use for my bookcase

lots of bins for gym clothes

the top shelf is great for things I don't need often

room between the hangers! 

a mirror on the other wall- framed by my race bibs

Concluding Thoughts:
Obviously the new closet isn't finished. This is only half the storage space we are planning on, and it's lacking some walls, doors, lights, etc. But, it goes a long way towards defining the space and figuring out the best layout for eventually finishing it. For now, this is a huge upgrade for my closet space and really allows me to see what I have. Plus, I'm now completely out of the closet in the master bedroom, so I can toy with the idea of just knocking it down to enlarge the room (perhaps a fun idea for a slow day this summer).

The whole wardrobe process really clarified for me that I have been shopping wrong for a long time. Clearly, just randomly ordering stuff that was on sale didn't result in a useful wardrobe - it just wasted money and left piles of randomness to take up space. I'm really embarrassed by the number of items that got donated with their original tags still on. So, now that I have a better closet space that allows me to see everything I have - I'm committing to being a better clothes shopper, knowing what I have and only shopping for what I need. The idea of a capsule wardrobe is to get down to just 37 items. I'm still way over that, but I made a lot of progress. I see this as more of an aspirational approach that will take constant work. While this is a project that will never be done, for now, it feels so much better knowing that I have a plan and a system in place.

Refinishing the Floors

As soon as we first looked at this house, I knew I wanted to refinish the floors for a couple of reasons.

1. The floors are currently not stained, which makes them very light and kind of yellow. I prefer a medium-tone, warmer brown color for floors.
2. The floors used to be a very dark stain that was removed lazily, so you can see bits of the old color in corners, under radiators and in other various places.
3. The finish has worn off in several places, making the wood really vulnerable to anything that gets spilled on it and an ugly grey color.
4. There are gouges and scrapes in lots of places.
5. There are a lot of paint drips (not from me) and other mysterious things stuck to the floors.

looking down at the spindles on the staircase- you can see the old dark stain that was never removed

some deep scratches in the bedroom

the floor looks grey where the finish has worn off

So, we knew we wanted to redo them, but never really made it a priority to get started. Since we're redoing the kid's room now, it seems like a good time to get in there, before a baby arrives. And as long as we're doing one room, we might as well do the whole floor. (Of course we would rather do the whole house, but we're going to cut this project in half both to reduce cost and chaos, and come back for the downstairs once the kitchen is ready. Our house has a fun feature of having pine upstairs and oak downstairs, which was common in the early 1900s, so it's not like the floors would match perfectly anyway.)

I would love to do this project myself. In fact, I have done this before, and it's not that big of a deal. But, my doctors wouldn't clear it, and Spouso didn't want to do it all by himself, so we opted to hire it out instead. (This is one project where you don't save that much by doing it yourself, so we didn't feel too bad contracting it out).

Step 1. Make Backup Plans
Once we got a few estimates, picked a flooring company and started talking through the logistics, we realized that we would be stuck downstairs for a couple days and nights. So we packed some clothes and moved the air mattress downstairs. We figured that we could shower at our neighborhood gym and brush our teeth in the kitchen sink, but had no good options for restrooms. So we installed a toilet in the future half bath. Probably most people don't need to start out their floor refinishing projects by adding toilets to their houses randomly, but this was sort of critical for us-- and it was going to get done eventually anyway.

halfbath is all finished! Let's call it "rustic-chic".

Step 2. Get Everything Out of the Way
We already worked on emptying out the new kid's room, but the rest of the upstairs still had lots of stuff in it. The night before they arrived, we quickly moved all the small stuff, drapes, wall art, and clothes out of the rooms. As much as possible got piled onto the sleeping porch, and the rest got dumped throughout the downstairs. When the floor guys arrived on the first day, they moved the heavy furniture out to the sleeping porch.

Step 3. Scrape and Sand
Then they started sanding down the floors to remove the dirt and grime, old finish, paint drips, scrapes, and whatnot. They hand-scraped the steps, getting at all the old dark stain that had been left behind. They used a big drum sander for the floors, and a smaller rotary sander to get closer to the walls. They hung some plastic sheets to cordon off the area to reduce dust, but it was still a pretty big mess. It was also ridiculously loud, so the cats were not happy.  This was a really long day, but they did a really good job. After they left, we were able to carefully walk on the freshly-sanded floors, but tried hard (but unsuccessfully) to keep the cats off.

stairs getting hand scraped

green room all sanded down

Step 4. Stain
Before they finished sanding on the first day, we tried out stain colors. We knew we wanted a medium, warmish tone, but weren't exactly sure which stain to pick. So we tried 3 samples of MinWax: Provincial, Early American, and Special Walnut. Once they were applied and somewhat dry, we quickly chose Special Walnut. I'm not particularly surprised, since this is just a lighter shade of the stain I usually use on furniture, but it was interesting how different they looked on the floor than in the pamphlet.

stain samples on the floor

stain colors on the website & pamphlet

The second day, after they finished a bit more sanding, they applied the stain. It went on pretty quickly and was immediately gorgeous. Then they left to let it dry overnight. There were slight fumes, but nothing serious, so we slept on the air mattress on the first floor again. Unlike the previous night, we really couldn't walk on the freshly-stained floors, so keeping both us and the cats out became the real trick of the evening. We had to build some serious box walls to keep them out. (Thankfully, we have no shortage of boxes right now).

green room with stain

cat box wall

Step 5. Install New Shoe Molding
Part of the project was to replace the shoe molding, which had to be removed for the sanding process. We wanted the new shoe molding to be painted, not stained, so we worked out a deal with the floor guys to drop off lots of shoe molding the first day. Then I painted it in the garage on the second day, where it hung out to dry. On the third day, they cut the painted shoe molding and installed it. This way, I didn't have to worry about trying to paint the shoe molding in place, where I would almost certainly end up painting the new floors, or having to use painter's tape which I'm not a big fan of anyway.

new shoe molding goes in, but there's a visible gap between it and the baseboards

Step 6. Finish
After they finished with the new shoe molding, they applied a sealant to the floor and then polyurethane. We opted for water-based poly instead of oil-based, because it has fewer fumes and dries faster. They put down 2 coats throughout the day, giving it a couple hours to soak in and dry between layers. Then they left to let it finish drying. The fumes were almost non-existent, but we needed to stay off the floors to let them dry and cure, so we stayed downstairs again and left the windows open upstairs.

green room with poly

piles of cats and all our stuff crammed in the dining room

Step 7. Caulk and Paint the Molding One Last Time
The next morning, I crawled out of the air mattress one last time to finish up the trim. They had already cut and installed the painted shoe molding, but there was a significant gap between the new shoe and the old baseboards. So I caulked the gap, let it dry, and then painted the caulk. Let me tell you how tired of molding I was at this point - now at least the third time I've had to scoot myself around the floor messing with the trim, which does look much better, but still looks lumpy and bumpy in lots of places.

the same corner I've been showing you- all done

Step 8. Move Back
The night of the fourth day, we carefully moved our bed back into our room. The next morning, the team showed up to quickly move the heavy furniture back into place. That night, we moved the last of the small things back where they belonged. In only five days, our house went from normal to disaster zone to better than normal. Now everything is finally back together and looking fantastic.

closeup of the floors - darker, shinier and without junk

The floors look great. I was worried when they initially put the stain down because it seemed a little too dark- but once the finish was dry and it had a nice sheen, I was totally convinced. Everything looks warm and classy. The floors are all uniform, without drips, scratches, bad spots or weirdness, and the trim really pops. We are very happy with all of the rooms, but most excited to finally get to put together the kid's room.

sneak peak of the kid's room- stuff starting to go in

Walls and Trim

Once everything was out of the office, we could finally get started on the minor renovations we had planned. We knew we wanted to take this opportunity to refinish the floors, which badly needed it, before the new furniture gets in the way and the kid arrives. It doesn't really make sense to do the floors for just one room, so we decided to redo the entire upstairs at once. But before we have our floors refinished into beautiful, fabulous floors, it makes sense to touch up all the paint to ensure that nothing gets dripped on them in the future. So, what was a small project of just touching up paint in a couple spots in the kid's room, turned into a major project of patching walls, touching up paint, and fixing up all the trim upstairs.

Step 1. Patch  & Paint the Walls
When we first moved in, I quickly painted all the walls to get rid of the really horrendous colors that we inherited from the previous owner. Because I was in a hurry, I didn't do a very thorough job. So, I went back to take the time now to patch cracks and holes. In all of the rooms, there were cracks along walls and at the tops of the doors and windows that formed as the house settled over time. I quickly patched them with a light coat of mud, and then painted.

patching cracks in the bedroom

Our house has been wired for cable several times, so there were a bunch of cables and outlets that didn't actually connect to anything anymore - so I pulled all of those out and patched the holes.

one of many useless cables running through the upstairs that got pulled out

patching over one of the old cable outlets in the green room

After I had patched and painted everything, I realized that the store had mixed the wrong color for the green room. So we had to take a second trip way out to the suburbs to get a new can of paint for the green room, and then I repainted again.

ak. definitely not the right color in the green room

after another coat of the right color - looking good again

Step 2. Replace the Outlets

An ongoing project in the house is to replace the nasty old yellow outlets with new bright white ones that disappear into the white trim. Since I was repainting the trim anyway, I figured that now was a good time to do it. I just flipped the circuit breaker, unscrewed the old outlets from the wall, and then carefully moved the wires from the old outlets to the new white ones, putting the wires in the same relative places as I went. Now all the outlets upstairs are new, white ones.

Step 3. Fix up Trim
Once the walls were in good shape and the new outlets were installed, I started working on the trim. First up, I removed anything that needed to come off. I pried off the shoe molding, which will prevent the floor sander from covering the whole floor. I pulled out any remaining useless cable and phone wires, and then I scraped everything to get rid of old caulk, flaking paint and other gunk. I then carefully swept and wiped everything down to get rid of paint chips and dust. Then I caulked to fill in all the gaps and cracks, using a caulk gun to run a line of caulk along anything that needed to be filled, and using my finger to smooth it. Then the trim got a new coat of white paint, and the walls got a quick coat of wall paint to make a smooth line along the edge of the molding. Sidenote - caulk is important for filling in gaps and making things look finished, but if you don't paint it- it attracts all the dust and hair in the house and quickly looks disgusting.

Before: a bad spot in the green room

After: caulked & painted, shoe molding removed

Step 4. Remove Lead Paint in Kid's Room
So while I was working on the green room, the hallway and our bedroom, R was focused on the new kid's room. Our house was built in the 1910s, and lead wasn't removed from paint until 1978 - so we knew we had lead paint in the house. For added safety, R decided to take on the project of removing the paint from the trim in the kid's room. (Apparently he chewed on his windowsill as a kid- so this was personal for him). We bought a whole bucket of enviro-friendly stripper, and he started slathering it on. Not surprisingly, it turns out we have dozens of layers of paint on the trim, so it took him three different passes to get the window nearly bare.

stripper doing its thing on the window trim

Between the fumes and the mess, we decided this wasn't the best approach. So we picked up a heat gun (which is basically just a super powered hair dryer), and he used it to finish the window and remove the paint in the door frames.

husband finishing up the window with the heat gun

Once he was done, I came in and caulked and painted the window and closet door frame. In retrospect - removing the paint wasn't a great idea. Stripping the paint made a huge mess and was probably more dangerous than just leaving it in place and covering it will a new coat of fresh paint. Maybe a better answer would be to remove the molding altogether and replace with something new - but that's expensive and feels wrong in an old house.

Anyway - now we are finally done and everything looks great. We stayed up late a couple nights getting everything finished up. This was a monster of a project that ate away several of our weekends. It was completely back breaking and totally thankless-  the kind of project that no one will notice once it's been done. Already it's hard to remember how cruddy it looked before, now that everything is so much cleaner and sharper now. But we finished in the nick of time- the floor guys get started today, and we couldn't be more excited. More on that soon!