Our Hillary confers with Desta moment.
“Remodeling is one of the top three stressors you can live through in a year.”
A friend mentioned that on a run this morning. All I keep thinking is I’m living out an episode of HGTV’s Love It or List It. I’ve watched every show and there always comes a moment when the interior designer Hillary Farr and construction crew discovers some hidden budget busting catastrophe with the homeowners’ house.
The homeowners on the show wanted a new kitchen, two new baths, office and built out basement. But because the roof is shot and the water leaches into the basement after all the dire repair work, what’s left of the family’s budget overs the cost of a new toilet.
Our project — our quest — for a new kitchen, bath, laundry area and TV room started with us cleaning out the space. That was a chore.
Took this photo before we left on vacation.
And we came home to this.
Look at this funky wallpaper that papered the plaster walls that were layered under plaster walls. Confusing?
But still no Hillary looking at her blonde able assistant Desta and saying, “These people are fill in the blank with the expletive of your choice.”
Until we started seeing rot.
And for reasons too numerous to address in a 500 word blog post, this was what the green room looked like a few days ago.
Looking back into what was our kitchen.
So if that wasn’t enough the next day, I asked Steven — our contractor — if there was any bad news today. Ha. Ha.
He looked at me. And I knew this was another Hillary “we are blanked” moment.
This is the beam that is holding up the back left side of our house.
Hurrah!
Honestly, it’s a good thing we started all this because one day, in the middle of the night, our beds would have dropped three feet to the ground when that 113 year old beam finally had enough.
So that’s all the crazy fun stuff rocking my world this week.
What’s new with you?
Linking up with Yeah Write’s Weekend Moonshine Grid. 🙂
One reason I am afraid to buy an older house is due to these kind of problems. The up side is that you found this problem before collapse.
Brett. We have lived in old houses most of our marriage. John would LOVE a new house. It’s a testament to his love for me. You do usually end up putting lots of money into things we can’t see. Plumbing, wiring, air conditioning. Leaking roof. This will be our first new kitchen ever. Too much money went to the other repairs. But I love old houses.
I love old houses too, but I knew we couldn’t afford to live in one. Can’t wait to see the finished product!
Thanks Jennifer. I can’t believe we are finally getting it done after living there 12 years. I guess there’s something to be said for delayed gratification.
Paula quote when we moved from Academy St.-“just once in my life I want to live in a house that has level floors.” What a wimp.
The good news is that they usually don’t replace beams. They place a new one just inside the old one and hold it up with permanent blocks or floor jacks.. Much less work.
OMG, you living an episode of love it or list but without Hilary’s amazing help! I guess you are right that hopefully this nightmare of a project is a good thing otherwise you might have fallen through the floor at some point. Wishing you tons of luck and wish I lived close because I love a good project! xoxo tiffani
Wow…what an undertaking. Hopefully that is the last of the bad news.
It would be lots of fun Tiffani if you could go with me to pick out things. I’ve got no clue but I can’t put it off forever.
Yes Dan, I think there will be jacks involved. He explained how they would do it — but my eyes glazed over. It’s like he was speaking Portuguese. No idea. And none of those floors — the kitchen, back den or back bedroom was level. Now we know why.
Wow! That sure doesn’t look fun. Bummer to find all the problems, but like you said, at least you found them now rather than when the house came crashing down. Hang on because this too will pass and you can look back and laugh…right?!
KC
Once upon a time I worked as a project manager for a general contractor. It was “fun” telling the owners of the house about the things we discovered.
Most of the time people were relatively good about it, but every now and then we would be accused of making something up so that we could earn a few more bucks.
Always thought it was kind of funny that it usually came from the person who knew nothing about construction but they always knew just enough to tell you what was B.S.
It’s comforting Jack that we trust our contractor. It’s like trusting your auto mechanic. If you can they are worth their weight in gold.
We will definitely laugh about living together in such close quarters KC. One day. 🙂
That wallpaper is so cool. What you absolutely should do is remove it carefully and then have it duplicated so you can sell it on a vintage homeowners site. Oh–it’s already gone? Too bad.
It’s funny Jane. My in-laws are such perservationists that my first thought upon seeing it was that they would research it and put the replica pattern back up. My neighbor had a good suggestion to save a peice and have it framed.
oh man!! we were planning a renovation in the near future and you just gave me a projectile anxiety attack!
it’s going to be great when it’s all done! until then i suggest, running, wine and ice cream.
Old houses are so worth the preservation effort. I bet it’s going to look beautiful when you’re done.
[…] Or your house could fall in. […]
Our last house was built in the 1880s, and yes, there were some moments like this. I swear the woodwork, the sky high celings, the quirky details made everyday like this worthwhile because we lived in beauty all the rest of the time.
[…] That’s the 100-year-old heart pine beam that was holding up the back left side of our house. These Hillary conferring with Desta renovation moments continue. […]
[…] not me. It’s this remodeling gig. It’s us all living in 650 square […]