Remodeling phase 1: bedroom and bath

Our remodeling project has begun. Let the craziness begin!

Phase 1 is tackling a bedroom and bathroom upstairs. Phase 2 will include the entire first floor, including a new kitchen. And then phase 3 is back upstairs, to add a master bath and rip out our nasty duplex kitchen and make the upstairs into bedrooms. But I am getting ahead of myself. This is going to take YEARS.

For now, we focus on just two rooms upstairs.

The plans

Here is the before layout. A big problem with this bath is that since the roof it pitched, the shower is only about four feet high. The dotted line between the bed and bath represents where that roof pitch starts.


Here is the after plan. The room placement similar, except we steal some room for the bathroom from the bedroom:

Before photos

The bath looks OK in this photo, but the big problems are hard to see: the pitched low roof, junky vinyl floor, dog eaten woodwork, broken window covered with flaky lead paint, discount vanity sink, and leaky toilet.


Here you can see why a shower would not be a possibility for anyone over 5 feet. You can also see one of the many, many cracks in the ceiling:

Here is the bedroom before, which we were sleeping in. It was actually the nicest bedroom in the house, but we were having ice dam problems due to the lack of insulation in that pitched roof, and also the windows were not entirely operational.


The rooms now

What have we done? Um, tore it all out. Here's the old bathroom.


Former bedroom:


Another view of the bathroom:


And one minor accident (restaged here) along the way... whoops! Everyone's ok!


The chaos has begun! Lord help us.

It's been awhile.

Well. Hello there! It's been awhile. I've fallen a bit behind on blogging. Um, like a whole year. We've, uh, been a bit busy:


It's true that pregnancy takes some of your brain cells and diverts them away from their normal activities. The scientists can't prove it yet, but I would guess that's because they are mostly men. This blog became a casualty. It was hard enough to get anything beyond regular functioning done, let alone write about it on the blog.

But, I'm going to try to make a comeback. We have some exciting things ahead of us with our new project house. We've been here almost a year now, and while we've mostly focused on raising baby, we've also started to get together our plans for the house renovation. We're working with an architect, and the house is gonna awesome. It's a big project, will be a lot of work, and will take a long time. But we are super excited about it, and we've got a lot to talk about.

In Search of New Blog Name
So! In honor of the blog comeback, I think it's time for a new blog name. But, I haven't thought of it yet. Got any ideas?

The new blog name should:

• Focus on house remodeling and design (with a few cute baby pictures thrown in here and there.)
• Be positive, because I want to focus on why we're doing this, not the inevitable grumbles and struggles along the way. For example, thisoldshitter.com doesn't fit the bill. "Old shitter" is the first nickname we gave to the house, and while it's accurate, it's a little obscene and definitely not positive.
• Be short and catchy, so that I can tell people, "hey, check out thisurl.com," and so they will actually remember it.
• Shouldn't focus on a specific design style, because we haven't defined our design style yet. The closest we've found to naming the style we're going after is scandanavian modern, or farmhouse modern, but we won't know until we get there, so we don't want to put ourselves in the wrong category. We'll use lots of natural materials, and the design will will be simple and clean, but also warm, friendly and super functional.
  
• Could include minneapolis or mpls, as that indicates the urban location of our home.
  
• Could reference the fact that it's an old house becoming new again, or an old house transformed. Our house was built in 1923, but when we're done, it will be almost all new. The form is very simple, almost a farmhouse, with hardly any redeeming things to save in the renovation. We loved the fact that it was a blank slate that we could work within - ensuring that we have a roof over our head while we transform the entire space. We're not adding on, we're just working within the existing square footage and foot print.
  
• Shouldn't be too personal - i.e. I don't want to include our last names or address.
• Might include that we are doing a lot of work ourselves. We'll hire people to do parts of the project so that we finish before 20 years from now, but we'll be taking on a large part of it ourselves.
  
• Might include that we'll be budget and value conscious, but not cheap. Long lasting, beautiful, natural materials are not the cheapest choice, and we definitely have pretty big budget limitations to work within. Champagne taste, beer budget. We'll need to be creative and resourceful.

Wow, that turned into a long list of requirements for a short little blog name. Can you think of anything that fits the bill?

More before pictures + how we removed heavy smoke smells from the walls

Well, we did it. We successfully moved into the new place, which we are now referring to as the "sweet dump." I am tired. It's been non stop moving, packing, organizing. We close on the old place tomorrow.

We got lucky and both renters moved out April 1, so we had about 2 weeks to clean and paint, which has made a HUGE HUGE difference. The pictures below were taken after both tenants had moved out and the place was empty, as we just started painting. The big thing which cannot be expressed by these photos is the incredible SMELL of the first level. The former tenants smoked heavily. Here's how we got rid of the smoke smell.

Smoke removal for walls and rooms with heavy smokers
-Wash all rooms where heavy smoking occurred repeatedly with TSP
-Wash all rooms repeatedly with a product from Odor Matic, a local Twin Cities company, which did wonders and actually leached the nicotine out of the walls.
-Repeat. Some rooms got washed 8-9 times. Wash until the wall stop oozing nasty nicotine. Yuck!
-Primed the walls, ceilings, and all all woodwork with a product called BIN. This is a product similar to Killz but works better for woodwork and for smoke.
-Repeat
-Painted 2 coats with regular paint (we have had good luck with Behr paint.)

So, um, that was a lot of work. My job was to write the checks, as I was lucky that the guys on Chad's landscaping crew were willing to do this dirty work. I loved the feeling of sitting at work while all the nasty crap got done on the house. I think we've already done more on this house than has been done in the last 50 years.






We already have a good before and after shot just from the tenants moving out:

Before:




After:

Kitchen designs

So, I downloaded the IKEA kitchen design program and started playing around with some kitchen designs. Here is where I left off:
The space in the right lower corner would be a bathroom. The area in front of the sink would be a breakfast bar open to the living room.

It's a big work in progress!

Laundry Ideas

Where to put the laundry? Upstairs, main floor, or basement? We won't know our options until we get further into the redesign, but I would love to move the laundry into either the main floor or upstairs - but there has got to be enough space for storage and hanging clothes, and I am not sure if we have it.

Some ideas from Better Homes and Gardens: Laundry Rooms

I like the sink and the hanging storage:

Love the sink - looks old and super functional. I wonder how much it costs. Probably more than my fridge. :)

Another nice layout, but no room for hanging clothes.
A nice little laundry space.

Kitchen Cabinet Inspiration

More ideas from apartment therapy: Christen's "Beautiful Goofball" Apartment

I love the cut out handles in the cabinets and the marble countertops.

Inspiration: Kitchen

More kitchen inspiration from Apartment Therapy: Jason Weinbeck's Mid Century Frugal Fix Up . This place is in Richfield, MN.

Our first big project at the new place is likely to be the kitchen, so I've been gathering up ideas and inspiration for the design.

Nice choice of materials (on a budget) in this cute little kitchen. The cabinets are from IKEA, we will definitely be considering them as a source in our design. The tile was cut down from standard 12 by 12 tiles to save money.

Inspiration: Kitchen & Dining Room

Some inspiration on the new place from Apartment Therapy: Midcentury Organic Remodel

The kitchen/dining room layout could be similiar to this (of course, we have a 1920s house and not a 1950s house).
I like the breakfast bar with seating. Not sure about having seating in front of the stove - seems dangerous and messy.

Love the dining table:

Why this house? Factor 1 - location

So, we had been looking at real estate for awhile. Years actually. It all started with an architect designed beauty that needed some work in west st paul. That was 2007. That was the first of a few houses that we lost out on because we were too slow, not sure, or undecided. It took us two years to get a little more decided on what we wanted in our next house. We had to look at a lot of houses and run through different scenarios. A bunch of factors went into our decision.

Factor 1 - Location

A big factor in buying the duplex was location. The age old truism in real estate. But location is about more than the value of your home, it's the place where you are going to spend a majority of your time. It's your start and end point. It's your neighbors and roads and parks and schools.

The only neighborhood we could both agree on was the one where we already lived - the longfellow area of Minneapolis. We knew we liked it. It's close to everything. We love being by the river and close to both downtowns. We didnt want to move to the suburbs. We love walking and riding our bikes.

But the choice was not without compromise.

Living in the city means a small lot. The new place is the same as our existing lot - about .12 acres, 50 ft by 120 or so. Not a lot of space to run a landscaping company. But it will work, because the alternative was the suburbs, and a long commute.

Also, the neighborhood is made up primarily of small homes, 1200 sq feet or so. The new place is 1900 sq feet. It is literally the biggest house on the block (but not by too much). We realize this is risky from a real estate perspective. However, there are a number of new homes going into the area, and lots of people fixing up their homes. The area is quiet, located in the heart of mpls and st paul, and is close to the river. We think its a great place to live, and we're doing this for us, so it's a risk we're willing to take.

Factor 2, to be continued: the budget.

I was at : 91 Silver Mountain Dr, Glenwood Springs, CO 81601,

Pictures of the new place - BEFORE

Well, it is happening. The old shitter is really ours. I suppose we need a new nickname now that it is almost ours (tomorrow). I think we are hurting the house's feelings with our negative talk. We need a new nickname with a little more encouragement. We need to boost up it's self esteem. Start to give it a little love.

There's a book from the 70s that posits that if you talk to plants, they grow better. We need to start applying this theory to this new house project of ours. No more negative talk. It's got a lot of "potential." It's gonna be beautiful - one day. It's like a pimply teenager. A little awkward, dressed up all funny, squeaky voice, bad manners.

So with that introduction, here are the pics. Squint your eyes a little and imagine something totally different, just the same shape on the outside. All grown up and beautiful.

Oh - and where is it? It's in the Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis, 5 blocks west of our current house.

Free money for energy efficient upgrades in Minnesota

Well, apparently there is a lot of free money out there for energy efficiency updates. Thank you Obama! We close on the new place on Monday, so we are starting to kick into high gear of planning. It appears that first on our list will be energy efficiency updates, since there is some pretty decent *free money* available to make this happen.

I found this really helpful overview of all the programs available in Minnesota: Minnesota Residential Energy Incentives PDF

Highlights include:

Heating, insulation, roofs, water heaters, windows and doors

Federal Tax Credit: 30% of cost up to $1,500 (for materials, not labor)
Expires: December 31, 2010

Energy Saver Rebate Program - 35% off, up to $10,000!!!!
We are definitely going to apply for this. It's a loan that refunds 35% of the cost of energy improvements, up to 10,000 back IN CASH. This is incredible. Funds are limited and will go fast.

DETAILS:
Rebates for 35% of eligible improvements, up to $10,000, as part of a home improvement loan. Eligible improvements include furnace, AC, windows, attic air sealing, attic & wall insulation, and water heaters.
Scheduled to begin in December, 2009.
Go to www.mnhousing.gov for more information.


Solar
With all the incentives out there, we are going to look into solar. Whoa. There is a TON to learn about here, we are just starting to dip our toes in the water.

Federal Tax Credit: 30% of cost with no upper limit
Expires: December 31, 2016
Use for: geothermal, solar, wind turbines

Minnesota State Solar Rebate Program
There seems to be a program that is specific to Minnesota, but that may have run out of funds. I need to check into this further.

One website i found said - "Minnesota's solar rebate program is funded by Xcel Energy. Homeowners can get a $2.00/watt rebate up to $20,000 with an additional $0.25/watt rebate for solar electric systems installed by NABCEP certified installers."

The state website says:
"This program has limited funds. Contact us to check the current status. If presently fully reserved, your name can be put on a waiting list. For more information: www.energy.mn.gov or Email: energy.info@state.mn.us"

Energy Star Appliances
Rebates (available through Minnesota retailers) for specific ENERGY STAR labeled appliances: refrigerators ($200); clothes washers ($200); dishwashers ($150); freezers ($100). Refrigerator rebates will require recycling of old refrigerator. Program is scheduled to begin in March, 2010.

Do's and Don'ts of Home Remodeling

In the last six years of remodeling our now almost perfect and hard to leave house, we've learned some lessons that we'll be able to apply to our next bigger & better project.

Here's the short list.

Do:

• Use grout the color of dirt for tiles. It never looks dirty.
• Install recessed lighting on dimmer switches. Simple, modern, moody or bright, makes stuff look good.
  
• Invest in good lighting. Brings a space to life and makes it much more usable.
• Invest in attic insulation. Easy, cheap, saves energy right away.
• Invest in a new furnace. This isn't cheap. But our furnace was from the 1940s. We got a huge boost in monthly savings from the new furnace, and it will make a difference for resale.
• Invest in gutters and regrading. We completely dried out our occasionally wet basement.
• Design smart storage solutions. Ikea has great inexpensive systems for storing just about everything.
  

Don't

• Get a glass shower door in the bathroom. Looks nice, but gets dirty so fast.
• Fix up 1920s windows. We spent a lot of time painting the interior and exterior of our old 1920s windows, and they still look old, and waste a lot of energy.
• Buy an LG over the range microwave with a vent hood. The microwave works fine, but the fan is really loud and weak.
  

Viva la house projects!

New House. No Kidding.

People, we're doing it.

We're buying a new house. I mean, new to us. It's old. 1920s old.

Seriously. We mean it. Ok, so we haven't closed yet, but we're gonna do it. We had the inspection and everything. There's no turning back without losing a pile of cash. I even turned off my automatic real estate searches. All 26 of them.

Here it is:


But don't get too excited. It's kind of in shambles. Not just kind of. Seriously. VERY.

You are going to think we're nuts. I think we're nuts. We're going to move from our lovely, nice, finished house to a smelly, ugly, catastrophe. (Seriously. Our nickname for it is "the old shitter." Chad said to me - "but I don't want to move into the old shitter", and it just stuck.)

But why, you ask?

Because it's got tons of POSSIBILITIES. Possibilities that we can actually afford to complete in the very near future.

We decided that we didn't want to wait until we were 40 to get the house we wanted. We wanted to find a way to make it happen now, while we are young, but on a budget. How could we do it? We went round and round. We almost bought tons of other houses. We stressed. We looked. It's not easy having champagne tastes on a PBR budget.

The option that finally made sense to us was to buy a run down house, for cheap, with good bones, good space, in a good neighborhood, that needs all new interior work, but no space additions. We found it. We bought it. Whew. All it took was a little over 2 years.

It's going to take some work. LOTS of work. TONS of work. But we get to make it our own. We get to make it 20 times better than the house we have now. Well, at least 4 x better, since it is twice as large, and since we now have some experience with this renovation stuff, hopeful we are twice as good at it. So that buys us four multipliers of improvement. We hope.

So, instead of going on a awesome tropical vacation, we get to go on a awesome home renovation adventure. Hmmm... wishing I could have both....

It's a duplex now, but we plan to convert to single family. Renters live in both floors, so we have some time until their lease is up to plan for the new adventure.

We're working with an architect friend to draft up the plans.. and also working through the logistics of being landlords.

Working to prepare for a new adventure ... but still dreaming of Thailand beaches. And winter hasn't even hit yet!

Floating House Of Brad Pitt

Cool house design - modern home floats in case of flood (New Orleans).


More images here

Writing Lesson of the Day: I and Me

So, I have to admit something. I got in a fight with my high school grammar teacher, and it's been haunting me ever since. I was sick with Mono, missed a lot of school, and then he wouldn't let me retake a big test. I went to the principal, and he told me I could drop the class, but that there were going to be difficult people in life that I would have to learn to deal with, and that I should start now by sticking to the class.

I dropped the class anyways.

Now, I'm constantly scouring the internet to make up for lessons I would have learned in that missed class. And, still working on that "dealing with difficult people" thing.

Grammar Lesson of the day: I and me
When you’re talking about yourself and someone else, be careful to use I and me correctly. Many people think it’s classier to always use I, and they end up getting it wrong half the time. The best way to know which one to use is to eliminate the other person from the sentence and see what you’ve got left.

Jenny and I went to the store. I went to the store. (That’s right.)

Grandma gave the cookies to Jenny and I. Grandma gave the cookies to I. (Nope.)

Grandma gave the cookies to me (that’s right).

Courtesy: Ten Common Writing Mistakes Your Spell Checker Won’t Find

Great Storytelling from Thai Commercial

on the lookout for inexpensive new modern home construction projects

We are on the lookout for examples of new, affordable and modern home construction, especially in the city.

Here is one example -- an 800 square foot house, built including land for $200/square foot --let us know if you know of more!

An Urban Pioneer
David Sarti is showing us that good things can come in small boxes

Happy 5th birthday frontyard: A pictoral history

2004


2005


2006


2007


2009


Here is a photo set that includes more photos from the history of our yard.

SE Asia trip: Photo highlights

For those of you who have short attention spans (and who doesn't?), here is a collection of my 18 favorite photos from our trip to Thailand, Cambodia and Laos this past winter.

Dream home slips through our fingers. Sad. :(

So, we decided we don't want to live in the suburbs.... which is why we missed out on this super awesome house at a super awesome price. Chad happened to drive by it, and by the time we checked on it.. the sale was pending. Sold in foreclosure for $315,000!!! INCREDIBLE! Now, we are sad. :(


Mid-Century Modern "Alcoa" Home For Sale in St. Louis Park, MN
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 3
Year Built: 1958
Area: 3600 square ft.

Mid-Century Contemporary Marvel! Post beam construction, combines decorative structural aluminum w/beautiful woods. Fantastic double lot, 3 bedroom, 3 Bathroom, open floor plan, vaulted ceilings, basement with 2 egress windows ready for finishing. Designed by Charles M. Goodman and constructed in 1958 as a project for the Alcoa Aluminum Company to showcase the wonders of Aluminum. Home needs restoration to bring back to original splendor.