What I've been working on the past 7 months (many pics, 56k death)

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What I've been working on the past 7 months (many pics, 56k death)

Reply #15 – October 08, 2006, 11:18:35 PM

Who said I can't do a T5 swap or HO conversion? The only reason I haven't is because I'm spending all my time on the house :D Actually the HO conversion is officially out. The 351 is going in

Cougarcragar: The old couple that had the house (they were in their 90's when they died months apart, him when he rolled his '72 Bronco and her from pancreatic cancer) must have smoked like chimneys. There was actually a hardened nicotine resin covering everything in the house - walls, trim, light fixtures, ceiling fans, windows, etc. Thankfully it's all gone now.

To anyone considering doing this: Unless you like doing this kind of work, don't. In addition to the cost (I've got upwards of $30k in renovations so far, and that is materials only. Labour has been free because it's been me doing it) it was a HELL of a lot of work. Aside from the few days I did the suspension upgrades to the 'Bird I have had zero free time. Hell, I've still got a TC rear sitting on jackstands in the garage, waiting for rebuilding the traction lock and installation into the car. Then there's all the TC body parts still waiting to go in...

What I've been working on the past 7 months (many pics, 56k death)

Reply #16 – October 09, 2006, 09:42:11 AM

Wow, great work!
I don't know why you didn't keep the floral wall paper though :rolleyes:

What I've been working on the past 7 months (many pics, 56k death)

Reply #17 – October 09, 2006, 10:35:20 AM

For $30k that is amazing. I love house work, hate drywall work but love most everything else.

What I've been working on the past 7 months (many pics, 56k death)

Reply #18 – October 09, 2006, 12:19:15 PM

Looks like a looooooot of painting involved there.

I just recently refinished a 50-some odd year old dresser from our house to put in my apartment. I wanted the dresser, but the paint on it had to go (years ago my mom painted the body red, and the drawers blue, green, and yellow....

) I was gonna strip the entire thing and redo it, but as I started stripping the paint off I found that it had 3 other coats of paint under what my mom had put on there (from my grandma repainting it). It was such a pain in the ass stripping the paint, I actually ended up just stripping the faces of the drawers and the top bare, sanded em down, stained them with "golden oak" and put some tung oil on there. Then I painted the rest black. It actually looks really nice :) It was definitely not fun, though.

What I've been working on the past 7 months (many pics, 56k death)

Reply #19 – October 09, 2006, 08:45:23 PM

Nice work!! When I was married and building my TBirds, I was doing the same thing. The TBirds were a way for me to get out of the house and retain some sanity!!

The house we restored was built in 1916, and was pretty much an identical type of project. I can't tell you how many sheets of sheetrock we hauled in and nailed up, but I don't wanna do it again any time soon!!

We made about $90k on the sale of the house when finished, but we also had about $30k tied up in the renovation along with all the free labor me and the ex put into it. I loved the house when it was finished, but man, that was a lot of work!! We sold the house when the divorce went through. I would have liked to keep it, but the timing just wasn't right...

Before you hung the sheetrock, did you take all the plaster down to the lathe, or did you sheetrock over the plaster? We took all the plaster down in the entire house, as most of it was flakiing anyway. That was by FAR the worst part of the job!! What a friggin mess!! But, it gave me the opportunity to put all new plumbing and wiring in!

I wouldn't mind doing another restoration like that, but I won't do it while living in it at the same time! :)

What I've been working on the past 7 months (many pics, 56k death)

Reply #20 – October 09, 2006, 09:00:18 PM

Looks GREAT. Keep up the good work.

But I would save some of the house work for winter and work on the car before it gets too cold. Inless the garge is heated.

What I've been working on the past 7 months (many pics, 56k death)

Reply #21 – October 10, 2006, 09:20:12 AM

Quote from: TBirdNutt;107688

Before you hung the sheetrock, did you take all the plaster down to the lathe, or did you sheetrock over the plaster? We took all the plaster down in the entire house, as most of it was flakiing anyway. That was by FAR the worst part of the job!! What a friggin mess!! But, it gave me the opportunity to put all new plumbing and wiring in!

On walls that needed plumbing and wiring I did, but on walls that only needed drywall I just out the drywall right over the plaster.

Quote from: 5.8fastcat;107695

Looks GREAT. Keep up the good work.

But I would save some of the house work for winter and work on the car before it gets too cold. Inless the garge is heated.

The garage is heated

I'm gathering parts for the rear end swap now (master cylinder, trac-lock rebuild kit, brake cables, etc)

What I've been working on the past 7 months (many pics, 56k death)

Reply #22 – October 10, 2006, 10:50:19 AM

Dude, Im absolutely in love with your house. Youve done an amazing job, not to mention, you pulled off keeping the house rather vintage, and country looking, while still making it more modern. I love it.

Wait...I dont give compliments..........uhh.....meh.

What I've been working on the past 7 months (many pics, 56k death)

Reply #23 – October 10, 2006, 11:41:17 AM

That is super nice. You must have been working non-stop to get all that done pretty much by yourself in only seven months. I really like what you did with the dining room. A lot of newer houses combine the dining room with the kitchen or living room and it's nice to see one with an actual room to eat in made as the centerpiece of the house, so to speak. I wonder how many families have spent time together over dinner in that room over the past 100 years.

I'm sorry it took you so long to get that settlement money, but I'm glad to see that things are working out for you now.

What I've been working on the past 7 months (many pics, 56k death)

Reply #24 – October 10, 2006, 03:35:15 PM

Yes, the settlement money took a while but it was well worth the wait. As an aside, had I not had the back injuries I probably would have gotten three times as much done in less time. Working two or three hours a day before the pain gets too great takes a long time to add up, especially as I wasn'tworking particularly fast when I was working (between trying to take it easy and trying to figure out what the hell I was doing). The doctor was glad I was doing it, though - he said it would help strengthen my back muscles as long as I didn't get stupid. The fact I lost about 30 pounds (half from the extra exercize, half from the 40-mile one-way trip to fast food) probably helped too.

It's amazing the things a person can come up with when trying to do big things, too. Simple but very useful things, such as a pair of 2X4's nailed together in a "T" to hold drywall sheets up to the ceiling while I was screwing them in, f'rinstance.

Shawn: Keeping the "antique" look was very high on my list of priorities. I did not want to make this old house look modern, I wanted to make it look old (but in new condition). That's why I tried to paint it in its original colours where possible or practical (the livingroom and diningroom) while using old-style colours in other rooms where the original colours were either not visible or not acceptable (the bathroom is now a pale slate blue instead of bright pink, for example). I also tried to salvage the original wood trim where it could be salvaged, and to replicate it where it couldn't be salvaged. The dining room, for example, had long ago had all of its original colonial trim and molding removed, to be replaced with those plain brown mahogany things you see in a lot of 30-40 year old houses. When I enlarged the room, removed the wood panelling, and added the wainscotting, I installed colonial style mouldings (the baseboard will be installed this week). I would have loved to have saved that orginal maple hardwood flooring in the diningroom, but when the wall came down the hardwood no longer covered the entire floor, and it was in very bad shape anyway. Even when it came to chossing light fixtures I went with old-looking. Somehow a modern stainless steel and glass chandelier wouldn't look right in that dining room ceiling. I really lucked out with the one I chose, too - the chandelier and wall sconces were on for half price when I found 'em :D

Basically I leapfrogged past the last time this house was renovated (early-mid 70's judging by the wallpaper and wood panelling) and tried to capture its original character. I'm sure ol' George and Neta Burns (the old couple that owned the house) liked their wood panelling at the time, but it was simply a dated design. True classical designs (simple, earth-tone paints, real colonial trim, hardwood and ceramic floors, etc) are never dated. People build new houses today and try to capture that classical look, but a copy is only a copy. When you look through my century-old windows and see the flaws and ripples in the glass and the hand made cedar wood frames you know you're looking through history. They may not be the most effective at keeping the heat in, but they still exude a certain warmth. You just can't get that feeling with vinyl and aluminum.

That brings me to the siding. At some point about 35 years ago ol' George had the place done in vinyl siding. I have nothing against vinyl as it is an excellent, durable, zero maintenance house covering. I just don't like the stuff on this house. I may try painting it next summer, or I may go with a new siding. If I go with vinyl again it will be the type with 4" "boards" instead of the 8" ones on the house now. I may also go with this new suff that is almost like asbestos (some kind of fibre) but looks like cedar shakes. Depends on the price or my mood, I guess. Anyway, that's a long way off...

What I've been working on the past 7 months (many pics, 56k death)

Reply #25 – October 10, 2006, 04:11:20 PM

Carm, a double-4 or double-5 Dutch-lap style would look great on your house. It is made to replicate heritage wood panels. My father is a siding contractor...I know a little bit about that stuff.

You can also have the existing vinyl siding painted, for sure. For now it would be a lot cheaper, and you'd probably get a good 10-15 years before the paint fades enough to do again.

What I've been working on the past 7 months (many pics, 56k death)

Reply #26 – October 10, 2006, 07:09:08 PM

Nice!!!

What I've been working on the past 7 months (many pics, 56k death)

Reply #27 – October 11, 2006, 12:24:51 AM

Looking good!! with infinitly more character than all the cookie cutter houses I see going up around Winnipeg.

Another sideing idea: If you like the rustic look but want to keep the maintence free and cheep aspect of vinal sideing; try using rustic pine (or other softwood) timbers placed vertically to break up sections of vinal sideing. In otherwords, have timbers running vertically every 6 feet, then fill the sections in with horizontal sideing. Perhaps finish the gables with "W" framed timbers and cedar shakes? With this look you can dado the timbers to overlap the ends of the sideing rows eliminiating some of the "cheepness" look of strait vinal sideing. That look is popular around here.

What I've been working on the past 7 months (many pics, 56k death)

Reply #28 – October 11, 2006, 09:02:06 AM

Are you using well water out there? When you did the plumbing, did you end up setting up any filtration system?

We're on well water, and jesus christ the water here tastes like ass.

What I've been working on the past 7 months (many pics, 56k death)

Reply #29 – October 11, 2006, 09:09:15 AM

I am on well water, and I installed an undersink reverse-osmosis filter. I figured there was no point in installing a "whole house" filter. Who cares whether the toilet, laundry or bathtub water tastes like jesus christ's ass? :D

Even then I rarely drink out of the tap. I've got one of those spring water dispensers in the kitchen. Still, I cook with tap water, hence the filter.