Water, water everywhere...

Last week, we talked about how to find and work with a good contractor and I promised y’all a post that featured my own experience with one this week.

First though, let’s talk about water. We all know that water is important to life, and lots of people like seeing it on their vacations, blah blah blah.

Where would you prefer there not be water though? Survey says, “In your basement!”

The day I looked at Isthmus House, there was water in the basement. That was an exceptionally rainy spring where pretty much everyone had water in their basements but I doubted that ours was going away.

After sealing up some cracks in the driveway (thanks to my dad) and buying one heavy duty dehumidifier, we had pretty minimal water problems with the exception of one really unpleasant (for me) storm but they weren’t quite gone. Now, yeah, I need to Drylok my basement and probably make my sump deeper and I’ll get to that but it’s all for naught if you don’t deal with the origination of the problem.

Since I can’t (and probably don’t want to) make it stop raining, I needed to look to the gutters. Turns out, cleaning helped (side note, clean your gutters every fall and spring) but they were in bad shape and needed to be replaced.

Gutters are vital to your home’s health. They move water off of your roof (likely the most expensive single purchase in any home), off of your siding/brick/trim/etc., and off of your foundation to more helpful places like your garden. That’s important to keeping structural integrity – and a clean and dry basement.

So, last fall, I got several bids, narrowed it down and promptly got busy immediately before one very early first snow. For me, that translated in bad ice dams on the roof this year, getting up to probably 8+ inches in places. 

 

Ice dams happen when there’s hot air under the snow and/or there’s a warm day here and there. The snow that’s fallen on the roof melts a bit and then refreezes to ice and stacks up. That can lead to severe roof damage when the ice takes the path of least resistance and goes under the shingles and additional gutter damage if it moves out. If your gutters are in good shape and clean, they’ll generally take care of the runoff from the snow melting in the first place and you won’t have to deal with things like salt pucks and socks.

My gutters were already in rough shape but, the day before my new ones were set to be installed, I found out they were actually separated from the house in places. Not so great for dealing with excess water I don’t want damaging my siding, foundation and basement.

Yeah, that light near the top of the ladder isn't supposed to be there...

I was pretty pleased when the crew showed up bright and early to get to work.

First, they had to detach the old ones without damaging my roof.

 

I was hoping against hope that we wouldn’t have any complications but I didn’t get that lucky this time.

There were a few places where the old crown molding underneath the gutters had completely rotted out to the point of crumbing at the touch. We cut those old pieces out and I headed to my favorite local salvage shop to try to find some old crown molding.
 

Fortunately, the owner had about 18 feet of molding that was similar enough to get away with (covered by the gutters, after all) and we could get back to work with me only $5 poorer from material acquisition.

 

Once the new trim was in its place, the crew got to putting up the new, seamless gutter.

It’s really pretty cool how they make them. The aluminum (.032 gauge) comes in a big roll that is then molded into the gutter (in my case, k-style – probably the shape you think of when you think gutters) shape.

 

It was hard to believe the before/after comparison even on the ground.

 

 

These are bigger troughs with bigger downspouts (3x4” instead of 2x3”) so that they can move about four times as much water off of my house/siding/foundation without overflowing in a downpour.

They also look pretty – although that really just means that now I have to paint all of my trim… Glad that was already in the plans!

 

So, with our new gutters, I’m hopeful for even less water in the basement and even more progress outside right around the corner. Stay tuned!

If you're going to let someone in your house...

I can’t believe I’m putting this in writing, but I can’t actually complete Isthmus House entirely on my own. Now, I know, some of you have heard me say that I don’t do the stuff that’s more likely to kill me (electrical, plumbing, etc.), but that’s not what I’m talking about in this case.

My family, friends, and the lovely proprietors of the salvage shops I frequent from various regions of the country are a few of the many contributors to Isthmus House that come to mind but there are times that these assemblies can’t give me the kind of help I need. (If you’re thinking “a shrink probably couldn’t either at this point,” shush.)

Once in a while, I have to call in the big guns – the contractors. We all want to work with only the good, but I’ve worked with a few dogs now (I mean no disrespect to our furry friends) and a few that have turned out great.  

 

This would have been more helpful than a few of my past experiences...

 

What makes the difference and how can you (probably) figure it out before you hire them?

 

Good news, I’ve developed something of a systematic checklist (hey, remember, project management funds Isthmus House):

1. Use Angie’s List or get referrals from friends/family. Angie’s List isn’t a hard, tried-and-true step, but it’s a good place to start and see reviews from other real people in your area. If you Google promo codes before signing up, you can usually get a membership for about 40% off. My membership was under $20 for two years.*
2. Pick a list of 5ish that you’ve heard good things about. If they have websites (still not that common for contractors), check them out. There might be samples of their work that can give you a better idea of how well you might fit as contractor/client.
3. Call and schedule times for contractors to come out and see the site, take measurements and get a better idea of your vision. Ideally, put them in back to back time slots to keep you efficient, keep the same scope of work and remind them that you have plenty of options.
4. Ask lots of questions and give detail about what you want including magazine tear outs, renderings, materials, etc. Are permitting fees included in their bids? If permits are required for anything you’re doing (check with the city), your contractors should be more than prepared to pull one. If you’re planning to provide some or all of the needed materials, they need to know the specifics to give you correct numbers. 
5. Establish clear expectations of timelines. Should you expect their proposal tomorrow, next week or next month? If they’re unresponsive or late, you may not want to work with them.
6. Remember, you don’t have to be friends with your contractor but you do need to respect and want to work with them and vice versa. Once the detailed bids come in, it’s okay to discuss the numbers further - many are willing to work with you to match or split the difference between bids received from competitors to win your business. The lowest bids might not be on par with the work others are offering so be fair and find middle ground you can both be happy with. 

*Side note: I don’t love the Big Deals (kind of like a Groupon) they offer. Yeah, they can be a good deal but I’ve seen more than a few of the contractors drop pretty hard in ratings shortly after one’s offered.

 

Once you’ve made your final decision, sign your accepted proposal (should be detail of the work that’s happening, when, by whom and costs) and get your house ready for some work!

Before they come in, make sure you follow through with what you said you would complete. If I tell my plumber that I’ll have the demo of a wall done so that he can get in, it’s not very nice (or professional) of me to add that work to his day – assuming they have the extra time, they charge by the hour and you’ll be paying a pretty penny for that demo.

When I pay anyone to do something around my house, I follow them around to learn – heck, maybe next time I can figure out what they did. If that’s never going to happen in your world, then at least pay attention to what’s happening so you can prevent a hole being cut in the wrong wall or something equally irritating. If you have questions, ask – it’s your home and you should always be comfortable in it.

I should probably own this shirt

 

If problems do arise, steer into the skid… so to speak. One general contractor’s statement has stuck with me, “We’ll do our best not to mess up but, if we do, we’ll do everything we can to fix it.” Work with your crew so that you’re happy with the final product.

Finally, once the work is complete, have a walkthrough with your contractor to make sure you’re good with the work completed. Once you are, write the check promptly (in the words of my dad, “fast pay makes fast friends”), get a receipt and write a review reflecting your experience. If they have a website or are on a website like Angie’s List, they may also really appreciate before and after pictures of your project.

And there you have it, my tried and as-true-as-possible formula for finding a reliable contractor and living to tell the tale.

Tune in again next week for more on our most recent adventure (which does involve a contractor!) at the House on the Isthmus!

 

You think it'll take that long? Nah...

This was never intended to be the long-term fix. When I first started looking into refinishing/painting/somethinging my kitchen cabinets, the estimates said it would take several weekends. I scoffed.

To be fair, I had my reasons. The best reason was that we have somewhere in the <10 sq. ft. range of counter top space. It would seem that that means not a lot of cabinetry too, right?

As y’all have already seen, stripping the first bank of cabinets was pretty easy. Surprisingly easy even, if a little exploratory. I’m really not sure what would possess someone to paint their cabinets bright orange…

When I got started on the second bank of cabinets one afternoon, I kind of expected to find orange paint under a few layers of paint again. Haha. Hahaha. This time, it was… 70s children, you should be expecting this… green!

The lower cabinets still had contact paper in them too so that had to go – it was wellllll past grimy (interestingly, this was previously our cleaning supply cabinet).

 

These cabinets weren’t too much harder than the last, although they were more challenging to get to in their own little corner and in a little worse shape than the others. This round meant lots of time on either ladders or standing on counter tops for me!

Like the other set, once they were fully stripped, I scrubbed them with TSP, tack clothed the heck out of them and gave them a coat of primer.

 

A couple of coats of paint later, and we were in business. You know… so long as we were open to having everyone and their cousins knowing all of the business since there were no doors.

With the doors sitting in the dining room with the rest of the kitchen stuff, it was time to get started.

Taking all of the painted on hardware off of 11 doors was the first bit of fun.

 

The hinges got lots of TLC from me with time in the crockpot (that’s just water, no chemicals!), a good scrubbing with an old toothbrush and toothpicks, another crockpot bath for a few, scrubbing in a baking soda and vinegar bath for a while for a few, some brass darkening solution and some additional rinsing.

I think it was worth it and I love that they look old and a little weathered – what do you think?

 

After sanding the doors down outside and with a mask and eye protection on (hint hint), washing them and waiting for them to dry, I spray-primered them. This was a first for me but seems to have still worked well to get the smoother finish I wanted. I would recommend that you have a clean paintbrush ready in case you get any splatters like I did.

 

It dried really quickly but I gave all of them a little extra time before adding 2 coats of new paint to match the cabinets themselves.

 

Some new handles (just interim!), reattaching the hinges, and the doors were ready to go back up with the help of The Roommate. 

In the end, it took several weekends – about 4, I think, if they’re added together – but I think it was completely worth it and made our kitchen feel much more livable until we complete the whole thing later this fall.

 

What do you think?

P.S. If you were concerned about these being original, so was I. We learned during this bank’s refinishing that they’re not original. This is a picture of the back of the base cabinets (and that’s a piece of baseboard in the back that wouldn’t have been there if these were original):

 

 

 

 

I think they had it right the first time...

I find it surprising how hard it is to find information about a house style that’s considered to be the most common American home style of all time - the Foursquare.

If you’re anything like me when I started this, you might be wondering what that means. Let’s take a mini-trip back to the origins of The House on the Isthmus.

Contracting and construction began on Isthmus House in 1908 and continued through 1910. It was one of the first in the Schenk-Atwood neighborhood – which I’ve learned in large part because I talk to my neighbors and their houses were all built a decade or two later. Somehow, magically, the original deed has been passed down all the way to me.

In the early 1900s, American Foursquares were becoming rather prevalent in large part because of the popularity of architect Frank Lloyd Wright (he has lots of projects in Wisconsin - one of the most well known locally, albeit newest, is the Monona Terrace only a few miles away).

Also known as Prairie style and available in a kit from Sears Roebuck (yep, you could totally order your house out of a catalog, complete with options for things like different flooring), they came with all of the pieces you needed already cut. Seems to me that the definition of some assembly required has changed rather a lot in the last hundred-ish years!

Can't say I'd mind spending $2243 on a house!

The Foursquare home is just that – four squares or quadrants on the top floor and four on the bottom in many cases. There are some variations on a theme, but it’s a pretty good general rule.

This one is pretty similar to Isthmus House’s layout – check out more layouts like this one here.

 

 

These homes were meant to be cozy family homes – they were never intended to have open layouts and expansive spaces. If you’re not sure what to do with some of the rooms these houses offer, check out The Not So Big House by Sarah Susanka. It features lots of Wright-esque homes like Isthmus House.

On the outside, many Foursquares also have dormers (windows that stick up vertically from a roof line) and open, full front porches like in the kit house add above. Isthmus House isn’t one of those though.

 

Despite having lots of renovations completed between the 1920s and 1960s, the House on the Isthmus remains an excellent 1910 example of a simple Foursquare with a hip roof and a small front porch. Sometimes it’s nice to remember that simple can be a good thing – and can maybe even make us think back to simpler times and ways of life when things were done well the first time. Maybe, just maybe, they had it right.