Old House My House

"Blowing up" the house

2012-05-22T13:23:04-04:00

One of our daughters asked, “Can I be there when they blow the house up?” We had to explain to her that demolition doesn’t mean “blow up,” and that our house would be taken apart piece by piece so every usable part could be salvaged for re-use in other homes.

We were able to stop by periodically during the week as the deconstruction crew worked. We couldn’t go in the house because of hazardous dust, but we were able to watch as materials that couldn’t be re-used were sent down the long yellow tubes into the dumpster. It was fun to be able to check in on the progress through the webcams when they went live, too. Even more interesting for our whole family was watching the piles of salvaged materials accumulate in the yard—bookshelves, light fixtures, toilets, a stove, pine floors, interior doors, and even the outlet covers.

Now that the deconstruction is complete we've finally been able to go inside. With the entire structure empty, we can better visualize what the new space will look like, since we’re going to have an open floor plan. In a way, it's actually kind of beautiful (in some places, the light shines through the cracks in the exterior siding). Finally, the process of constructing our new home begins!

Welcome to Essex

2012-05-18T12:39:32-04:00

It’s not every day that you get to appear on your favorite TV show—one that you've watched faithfully for years—but fate has dealt us a good hand. Our project is the restoration of a 1935 three-bedroom cottage in Essex, Massachusetts. The house has seen better days, but it sits beautifully on six-plus acres on the side of a wooded hilltop, with great views of Essex Bay and the Atlantic beyond. Well, at least we think the views are great. Right now, they're a bit obscured pending the arrival of Roger Cook and his team. No doubt I’ll be contributing some sweat equity once they get here, and I have a chain saw at the ready!

My wife and I live nearby the Essex cottage, and intend to use it as a residence for my in-laws. They are in the “bad knee and hip club,” so our design objective will be to accommodate one-floor living, with easy access to and from the house. The house has good “bones” and an intriguing history (more on that in a future blog). We will do a top-to-bottom restoration, upgrade all the systems (including geothermal for heating and cooling), remove a clunky dormer at the rear of the house and replace it with a proper structure that accentuates the roof line, and add a new kitchen and four-season sunroom. And we will do it all in nine months…

We purchased the Essex cottage in January, and were picked for "This Old House" soon after. In short, order, we have found an architect, designer, and landscape planner, met the cast and production team, secured the necessary permits, and finalized the design. And what could be better than asking Norm Abrams or Tom Silva for their thoughts on the latest in flooring and roofing, Rich Trethewey for the latest in green tech for waste water, or Roger Cook for advice on restoring the woodlands and thwarting the forsythia that occupies some choice real estate outside the main house? For the next nine months or so, they get us, and we get them. Can’t wait! P.S.

We like Kevin O’Connor, too…

Swedish inspiration

2012-05-07T11:50:23-04:00

So, why am I so obsessed with Swedish style and craftsmanship? Maybe it has something to do with my ancestry. My great grandparents immigrated to Connecticut from Sweden in the 1890s, and I grew up hearing stories about Sweden from my grandmother. I also had lots of visual reminders of our Swedish ancestry at Christmastime, when my grandmother, mother and aunt would bring out the many Swedish ornaments that decorated our home. We always had strings of tiny Swedish flags on our Christmas tree, which my father topped off with a set of painted wooden Dala horses—one to represent each family member.

When I was a kid, most of the walls in our suburban Connecticut Cape Cod were painted white to emulate the Scandinavian Modern look my parents admired. For example, our kitchen was painted Swedish blue. This contrasted with most of our neighbor’s houses, which were mostly a 1970’s take on Colonial Revival. But I always loved the clean, crisp lines of Swedish design, and envisioned living in a house that would have a mix of bright space and natural wood.

This house represents the opportunity for my husband and I to create that space within the confines of an urban Queen Anne. The house was built in 1887—around the same time my great grandparents arrived here from Sweden. In fact, one of my great grandfathers was a stone mason in Middletown, Connecticut, working on houses that are similar to the multi-family houses in our neighborhood. My other great grandfather—"B.B."—was a builder in New Britain, Connectircut (the "For Sale" sign above is from one of his houses, and hangs in our house today).

Kind of cool to think that Grandpa B.B. left his quaint, rural home in Sweden to come to New England to build houses just like the one where my family will be living. I hope our New England exterior will house a Swedish soul.

How we finally bought our house

2012-04-20T12:36:32-04:00

A few days after the disappointment of realizing we had lost out on buying "The House Around the Corner (HAC)," our Realtor, Carol Kelly, emailed me with the news that there was another house listed in the same neighborhood. Within minutes, my neighbor, Bliss, had emailed me about the house, too. When John and I looked up the location, we were thrilled. But we were warned that the house needed some “upgrading” on the inside.

We went to see the house that afternoon, and immediately saw the potential: high ceilings, a relatively large side yard, a pretty exterior, lots of light streaming through the windows, a finished attic space with cathedral ceilings, and a roof deck! Best of all, we liked the location even better than the HAC. We knew pretty much immediately that we were going to make an offer.

Of course, the downside was that the interior needed a complete remodel. But the HAC gave us a vision for what this place could be. Better yet, we would truly be able to make it our own! Once again, offers were due over the weekend, and once again, there were many other families who seemed very interested. Carol advised us to make a strong offer, and that our best bet would be to make that offer without any contingencies. We thought maybe we could have an inspection done during the open house, but were unable to find an inspector who could do it that quickly. We finally decided that we would waive the inspection. Carol called a builder friend and asked if he would come take a look at the house for us and give us his opinion. He thought it was in good shape structurally. He also gave us an idea of what it might cost to renovate. We decided to move ahead with the offer. Sure enough, there were eight other offers. But much to our delight, ours was the one they accepted!

We got in touch with Marcus Gleysteen, the architect for the HAC, and decided to work with him because we knew he could turn this house into the kind of home we envisioned for our family.

Fast forward to March, when "This Old House" had just taken us on as their next project house. The producers, Deb and Jen, wanted to hear about our “inspiration” for the project. I told them about the HAC, and how it had led us to Marcus. Deb asked if it might be possible for them to see the HAC. I was unsure, as I didn’t have any connection to the couple who bought the house. But once again, I relied on Carol to help us out. She was able to get in touch with the family, and they agreed to let me and the TOH producers see the house. Julie, the homeowner, was gracious and lovely. She gave us the grand tour, and made us feel comfortable. She even agreed to let "This Old House" film a segment in their house. It was kind of funny to realize that she was the person we had been bidding against. But I couldn’t be happier with how everything turned out for us and for them. And I am looking forward to being neighbors!

The Bidding War

2012-04-20T11:50:30-04:00

First, let me say how excited my husband, John, and I are that our house has been chosen to be remodeled on "This Old House!" We still need to pinch ourselves several times a day to believe that we are really going to have our house and yard done by Tom, Norm, Richard and Roger! We have no idea how we got so lucky.

The Thursday in October before we bought our house on Avon Hill, in Cambridge we had seen another house on the market just around the corner (pictured above). There was a feeding frenzy at this "House Around the Corner (HAC)," with many potential buyers milling about, whispering with their realtors—including a very pregnant looking woman and her husband.

It was a beautiful, and surprisingly original, remodeled two-family house. We had been looking at houses for a long time and hadn’t come across anything like it. We loved the simplicity of the interior and the accent created by its Douglas Fir wood ceilings. We especially liked the way wood ceilings were used to define individual spaces in the open living area. They provided a visual cue that marked off the different rooms, while still keeping the open, flowing feel that we wanted. We also loved the wide staircase that led from the first floor all the way up the third creating a soaring, open feeling. The other thing we noted was the quality of the craftsmanship.

We instantly fell in love with this house, but, unfortunately, it was clear to us that many other people had fallen in love with it, too. The sellers accepted all the offers on a Saturday evening, and soon got back to us, asking for our “best offer.” It came down to a bidding war between us—and the pregnant couple! Over the next twelve hours, the bidding war went back and forth until we hit the very top of our budget and backed out. We had made the right decision, because it was more than we wanted to spend. But I'll admit, I was disappointed. Having watched the market for a few years, it felt like the chances of another house we would like as much coming on the market in this particular neighborhood were slim.

To be continued...

Will it match?

2011-11-10T16:39:17-05:00

When we were signing on to be featured on This Old House TV's next season, we were told by many who had been involved in past seasons that we would need to take a leap of faith when doing this. I think that can mean a lot of things, but for us, it's meant really learning to trust a team of experts, and let them guide us through an incredible process. This applies to all the wonderful folks who have advised us throughout this project, but, as I've discussed before, one of the things I've most enjoyed has been working with the Terrat Elms design team.

Not only do they have creative, cool, and fun ideas, they are also down-to-earth, smart, and really get that Joe and I do not lead a "designer" life. We like comfort, entertaining, and piling up with lots of people, dogs, cats, etc. to watch a movie on a friday night. We allow pizza on the couch, drinks in the living room, and don't have a lot of rules in our home. Whether that is good or bad is for another discussion, but either way, it's how we choose to live. And they have done an incredible job of integrating our personal, comfortable style into the final design.

As we've worked with Dee and Andrew more and more, we've gotten to the point of completely trusting them (we have "leapt", so to speak). Joe and I both arrived at that moment at different points. I got there a bit earlier on when I was asking if we should stick with the all-white kitchen I had always envisioned, or go for a less matchy-match look with the island. I vacillated a lot, but it was Dee Elms who convinced me that trying something different on the island would be a fun, interesting element, and was worth reconsidering. For Joe, it was at a weekly team meeting when they were presenting some of their ideas, and he kept asking about various items "Will it match?" Jen Wells, one of the show's producers, was smart enough to pull Joe aside and remind him that, of course it will match—we are working with designers who know what they are doing!

Since then, we have left a lot of the decisions up to them (paint colors, fabrics, etc.). So deep is our trust that, sometimes, we don't even look a paint color they've recommended before agreeing to it. Now, I realize that most of us never get to work with designers (I certainly never had; it's just a benefit to working with TOH), but it's been a great lesson in taking some chances and having some fun in our living space—something I think we will have achieved here. I know that, in the future, I will tend to err on the side of taking risks when it comes to putting together a room, even though I probably won't have a design team advising me every step of the way!

The kitchen table

2011-11-03T17:37:59-04:00

One of the first things Joe wanted to do when we moved into our house was to build a wrap-around seating area in our kitchen where we could nestle our kitchen table. We loved the idea of gathering the whole family there for meals and celebrations, and have always admired this element in other homes. It was on the to-do list for a long time, but never quite made it to the top. Until now.

Joe's dream was to build our table using some reclaimed wood we found in our attic. So we were incredibly excited when TOH introduced us to Stephen Staples, a craftsman and furniture designer who has worked with the show before and specializes in using reclaimed lumber to create beautiful custom furniture. We were fortunate to be able to sit down with Stephen to design a table that will fit the new space perfectly. Steve is actually providing the wood for the table (turns out that the wood in our attic is not long enough for this project, but we are still finding other uses for it!). Our designers saw the above table and suggested we use it as a model. The black painted legs give it a cool, updated look, while the thick reclaimed wood keeps it period appropriate and authentic to the house. Joe and I both were incredibly impressed by Steve's eye and his talent, and are ecstatic to see the finished product.

5-4-3-2-1

2011-11-03T17:16:48-04:00

Okay, the countdown has really begun. And, oh my—the craftsmanship that is coming from Tom's team now! Wow! I've always trusted their work completely, but seeing them go start to finish with their projects makes me continuously appreciative of this team. The mudroom stairs are still a work in progress, but they have done an incredible job, and its future beauty is starting to emerge.

They have also done a simple trim around the main entry door that really pops, and are finishing work on the front door itself to make it more weather proof. So much has happened in the past two weeks—windows and doors were installed, plumbing is complete, electric is all set (and inspected), insulation is being blown in, exterior painting has begun, landscaping continues, and the study's old floorboards (above) have been revealed and will be finished this week. Our do-it-yourself projects are in full swing as well. We are 3/4 of the way through the garage (it is largely painted, rotted boards are replaced, and trim and battens are going up next), and Joe and his friends have erected a large shed from a do-it-yourself home kit in the back (also to be painted...sigh...that's my job in this house). Joe is trying to gear up for his last two projects--installing Trex decking out back, and setting up his shop in the garage. We may need to call for help from Tom on the Trex stuff though, as we are running out of time! I will continue to try to report regularly over these next few weeks.

This Old Garage

2011-10-24T13:55:07-04:00

As I've mentioned before, Joe and I live our lives in a constant state of biting off more than we can chew. In that spirit, we decided to paint our garage ourselves. Because of Massachusetts lead laws, costs for hiring painters has skyrocketed, so we took on what we thought was a manageable project. I prepped and painted the entire interior of our house (with help from many lovely and wonderful family members), so I was pretty confident in my DIY painting abilities. Joe doesn't paint, but brings carpentry knowledge to the table, so we make a good team. We scheduled the project over two long weekends last month—one for prepping, one for painting—and asked for help from my dad and a few other saints (thank you Tom, Seth, Anne and John!!). We thought that would be plenty of time. Guess what? IT WASN'T!!

We arrived on a Saturday morning armed with HEPA masks, goggles, paint supplies and scaffolding. But just a few hours into it, I started wondering which was more painful: delivering my first born child, or painting the garage. I decided it was the latter. Sensing my agony, Joe took on the role of Chief Cheerleader and encouraged me to keep going. We scraped. And scraped. And scraped and scraped. We stopped passersby on the street, begging for help, and, finally, we ended the long weekend with a garage that looked like the photo above. (Oh, did I mention that we decided to remove the entire facade and have Joe rebuild it?) But don't worry. Since then, Joe has rebuilt the front, and my dad and I tackled priming and painting, though we had to seek Tom Silva's help on two rotted, termite ridden sills.

Cool stuff!

2011-10-24T13:10:27-04:00

We recently had the opportunity to work with ChromaLab, a small, very cool company that our designers introduced us to. Their work falls into the category of really cool stuff (one of my favorite examples of their work can be seen above) that designers know about, and we don't! We've asked them to do some work in our half-bath and study, and I can't wait to see what the final product looks like. These talented artists do many things, but what we will be working with them on is a hand-done specialty finish they will create offsite, then apply to the 1/2 bath wall. I think it goes on like wallpaper, but the coolest thing is that we get to choose the design. They can do just about any color, shape, or size, and we had fun with Dee, Andrew and Crystal (of Terrat Elms Interior Design) in picking a design. We went with a funky, fun, and very different print for the 1/2 bath, and a very traditional painted overlay for the study (a room we are keeping as traditional as possible). Check out the cool work they do here.Considering my inability to draw even stick figures, I am truly a fan of the artistry and creativity that goes into this!

Goodbye, dirty old driveway!

2011-10-17T19:12:22-04:00

One of the things I loved most about our house when we bought it was the natural country feel of its dirt driveway. Unfortunately, most of its charm was lost several time each year when it turned into a virtual mud pit, thanks to our incredibly high water table. This has not been lost on our dogs, who love playing around in all that mud, nor or daughter, who enjoys all the puddle jumping, as well as the mud pies we've made with her. Despite its pleasures, Joe and I were ready for an update. We contemplated pouring gravel over the mud, which is what the previous owners did (though they were much better than we were about replenishing the gravel). Thankfully, Roger Cook helped us come up with a cool alternative. His relatively inexpensive solution involved laying down a traditional driveway, letting it set for about six weeks, then laying an oil coating with embedded stone over the top. It creates a more natural look than a regular driveway—with zero maintenance. Thanks, Roger!

Landscaping

2011-10-04T17:56:15-04:00

Last summer, we asked our landscape architect Jenn Nawada to come up with a long-term "dream plan" that would incorporate several major changes we hope to put in place over the next several years (feel free to ask Joe about his planned pickleball court).

No doubt we were pretty excited by what she came up with. Jenn's a great listener, who was able to integrate what we wanted with a few fun ideas of her own, including a flower cutting garden (love the idea, though I'm not sure my green thumb will be up to the task). There will still be a few more iterations of the plan as we move along, but it's really fun to think through the specifics.

Since Joe and I don't know too much about plants, we asked Jenn and Roger Cook to recommend native, historically accurate, easy-to-maintain plants that will be reasonably priced and offer some privacy in the long term. Tall order, huh? They actually have a few ideas that meet most of these criteria, and we're looking forward to making some decisions.

Counters and cabinets and lighting, oh my!

2011-09-27T13:00:37-04:00

Photo: Keller & Keller

“So many decisions, so little time.” That’s been our motto throughout this project. While Joe and I like to think of ourselves as decisive people who are efficient and agile in our decision making, I’m not sure if our self assessment is as accurate as we might think. There are SO MANY decisions to be made here! As avid do-it-yourselfers, we thought we knew what to expect. But we were wrong.

Apparently, working on a bathroom update that takes over 1.5 years to complete—which we once did amid many other small projects—is not the same as tackling the major projects we are managing right now. For our DIY bathroom renovation, we essentially had 18 months to make about four decisions (wall color, toilet type, fixtures, flooring), but the timeline and scope of this project are a bit different. Tom and his team work fast, which means we need to make decisions fast. And so we've discovered every possible Web site out there for quality reviews (Consumer Reports tops that list, but there are countless others). We've also managed to find all the showrooms within 10 miles of our home, and the short list of people we know who have already done this. All of these resources have been a huge help.

Above is a recent photograph of Joe and I with the TOH team trying to figure out what to do with some of our salvaged wood (the results of those decisions will be revealed in an upcoming issue of This Old House magazine). Believe me, Joe and I both appreciate how exciting and fun this all is. After all, while choosing the right countertops and appliances is a big deal and all, it’s not like we're trying to achieve world peace. Thinking about it this way always helps us keep perspective.

Chief Gawker

2011-09-27T11:17:28-04:00

I wanted to dedicate a blog post to my dad, who we have labeled this season's This Old House "Chief Gawker" (a title he, in fact, endorsed). I don't think there's anyone who is having more fun with this renovation than he is. He watches the webcam constantly, attends as many filming days as he can, and has been a HUGE help on various projects Joe and I have been taking on. He also comes by to mow the lawn a lot, a small task that we greatly appreciate and can't seem to keep up with as of late! He spent about 50 hours last week removing lead paint from our garage windows (more on that in another post!), and actually seemed to enjoy himself. Here's a shot of the Chief Gawker doing what he does best—watching the action with a camera in hand. Thanks Dad!!

The perfect solution

2011-09-21T13:30:08-04:00

Joe and I are almost always in sync about our vision for the house. Sure, sometimes our opinons differ on, say, which shade of blue to use, but seldom do we bicker about entire color schemes. We did, however, have to really talk—and really listen—to each other when it came to making a decision about the entry to our new pantry.

Originally, we envisioned a heavy sliding barn door like the one pictured in an earlier blog entry. But when it came time to make a final decision, I started leaning toward a simpler, pocket-style door. I figured it would be lighter and easier to manage. I was also worried the barn door would make the kitchen almost too rustic looking—that, coupled with all the exposed wood ceiling beams, it would make the room feel more like a ski lodge and less like the airy kitchen I was aiming for.

Unfortunately, Joe wanted to stick to our original plan. So we went back and forth, poring over magazines and Web sites for ideas. Still, we couldn't find anything that appealed to both of us. That is until Andrew Terrat, one of our fabulous designers from Terrat Elms Designs, showed us a picture he had found in a magazine of double sliding doors that were much thinner and more lightweight than the ones we were picturing.

Joe and I were equally excited about this idea. Especially when we realized we had two matching old doors from the house that were no longer in use. After measuring them out, we determined they would fit perfectly!

The fact that we are re-using parts of our nearly 300 year old house makes us really happy with this solution. We will likely paint the doors white to match our cabinets, and put them on sliders over a black chalkboard wall. Sure, it's a work in progress, but I'm confident we'll end up with a finished product that will make both of us happy.