How to learn more about your old home

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm a preservationist. While the dictionary.com definition might not be particularly interesting, it translates in real life as working to make an old home shine again while staying true to its time and originality - and working against those that would prefer to see it in a landfill or gutted and refitted with "new everything."

One of the things I've struggled with here at the House on the Isthmus is how to determine my house's history through the years.

While I still haven't found original plans, we made one huge leap forward this week.

As usual, the back story:

Many of our readers are aware that there have been worked and reworked plans throughout this home. Some were changed because of budget, some because of surprises, some because new information came to light about the house that made me think we should leave or remove pieces.

In cases where there was new information, it was usually that I found something hidden like a piece of baseboard behind a cabinet, a pristine wood floor underneath a plastic one or siding behind brick veneer.

It seemed that it would be so much easier if only I could know for sure at least some of what was changed and when.

It's worth noting that we've only needed to pull one permit so far on this project. That's definitely going to change as we get closer to the finish line, but it's been nice while it's lasted. While drawing up plans for the latest permit submission, it occurred to me that permits (along with seemingly everything else, like having a Bagster, which I don't recommend) might be kept on file permanently at the City.

Funny enough, I had an inspector in my home that very day to sign off on our sole permit to date and he confirmed my hunch and added that anything from yesteryear (pre-2002) from microfiche was theoretically converted to digital copies!

Last week, I tried to make it to the municipal building's computer - aka the only place to reference these documents - and missed computer shutting off time by about 60 seconds. Fortunately, I also made a friend in the office who offered to send me copies should he have time... and he did!

What we found was incredible. Along with the misfiled building permits for my next door neighbor's house and garage (interestingly filed under a different address that doesn't exist but should), I got every other permit ever filed - 20 pages worth in total.

Some were just funny - like the permit for the TV installation:

Mr. Charles Badenna's permit for TV installation circa 1952

While others gave me important information about what the house likely looked like (or didn't) originally:

A permit issued to Mr. James Crossen in 1958 to install picture windows and brick veneer - thanks a lot!

I also learned that past owners were told to put up handrails on various stairways for many, many years - six mentions in permits and letters/citations! Guess that's just one more thing to make sure gets done properly throughout this restoration!

You can often learn things like this about your home's history, too. Contact your city inspector's office or the local historical society for old photos of homes like yours or maybe even yours!

This gives us a great frame of reference - what might you find?

Let's not blow up the house...

I know last week there was a small teaser for things going on at Isthmus House but I think it's worth another week until we continue that story!

This week, let's talk about other things that are happening around here - like doing my best to not blow the place up.

That might seem a bit vague but I promise we'll get there after a brief review:

In the last month or two, we've had lots of people come in to look at the house for bids, lots of work done (so stay tuned!), and lots of my time spent here as well. With all of this going on, it seemed pertinent to invite a friend (see: also local real estate expert) to take a look around and let me know if there were any areas that needed course correction.

Mostly, this was good news. Lots of projects in progress and, while it's not like I'll be selling any time soon, plans were moving resale value in the right direction. One major timeline change was needed though: the upstairs kitchen (aka my workshop) had to go.

The original plan for that kitchen had been to wait until after the first floor kitchen was completed and then gut it to make it a huge master bedroom. In the meantime, it made a nice place to do things like strip cabinet doors, wash out paintbrushes and keep all of my tools.

With the new plan, it was leaving and pronto.

First was getting all of my stuff out of it. If you've ever hired a contractor for a project, you know how many tools they generally have on hand. Think along those lines, add the heaviest thing I own that everything was housed in and consider that it was all going to the basement.

Once I'd moved all of that (let's just say it took a few trips) and The Roommate helped me get my old door collection downstairs, it was time to move the appliances out.

That sounds easy enough, right? Yeaaaah, but gas lines generally shouldn't be messed with and we were dealing with a still-connected gas range. If I was going to have my plumber out in the interest of disconnecting it and not blowing up the house doing it myself, I was going to make the most of the visit.

We also needed to take care of the kitchen sink - which was easier said than done since it required sawing the drain out of the wall.

To get started on getting our plumber enough room to do his job, I had to first disconnect the sink:

Disconnecting the P-trap and supply lines took about 30 seconds - but the rest was glued in

Recycling a plaster container as a drain catch - why not?

After disconnecting the trap, I had to remove all of the sink clamps keeping the sink attached underneath the counter top. It was simple to unscrew all of the brackets - it just got a little old after the first ten!

No more sink!

Once the sink was finally out, the counter top just needed a nudge - or yank - in the right direction before I could carry it out. And finally, I could get to my cabinetry!

No more counter!

The next day, Jake sawed it right off and foamed the drain shut since I'm determined no one will ever make this a kitchen again!

He also successfully refrained from blowing up my house (told you we'd come full circle!) while removing the world's largest gas line from my soon-to-be master bedroom AND study-to-be (more on that later).

Then, our friends came over to try to help us actually get rid of the appliances by throwing them (nicely, gently and in a controlled fashion) over our balcony. Sadly, we ended up deciding that three men plus a large appliance plus two women on a small balcony with a waist high railing might not be the best idea for balance and control and resorted instead to movers to get all of our appliances out to the yard for our impending garage sale where both ranges and refrigerators subsequently sold! 

Deciding that this was a potential missed opportunity for friends getting to throw stuff off the balcony, they instead ripped apart my nailed in place cabinets (I tried to save them for salvage and couldn't when they fell apart with almost no force) and threw the pieces into the yard below.

We have a bit of a mess in the backyard now but we'll use the clean pieces for fires and the rest will be recycled where possible.

So the master is underway and looking better already, although you might have to take my word for it:

The best part? It turns out they built the cabinets notched in over the original baseboards - so they're intact and just need to be repainted!

Now, I wonder where else we'll need baseboards - guess you'll just have to wait and find out next week!

Something this way comes...

There are a few things happening around Isthmus House these days... we're finishing up the first floor! 

Now, that sounds like it'll take a few days, right? "Finishing" a lot longer than that though!

Today, let's talk about how to prepare your home for drywall installation.

There are a couple of things that need to be considered when you're looking at installing drywall:

1. How to protect your hardwood floors

2. How to keep dust out of the rest of your home

First, get all of your things out of the way. This might seem obvious, but you need it in a place where it won't be damaged (or get dusty) and won't get in the way. We missed two jackets in the hallway behind a door and they took ages to clean up. For us, that meant our front sunroom:

We stacked nearly everything in there... 

Then one of The Roommates that was moving shortly purchased a love seat intended to go in the basement. It didn't fit, so our kitchen got a little full too:

Once everything was tucked away, uh, securely (including our dishes?), it was time to take care of floors and dust migration prevention. 

First up was turning off the HVAC. There's no point in trying to block doorways if you're just going to dirty up your vents and send drywall dust through the house. It's unpleasant for a few days but I promise, it's a necessary step!

Next was putting plastic over all of the doors. I'm not going to tell you it blocks 100% of every dust mite but it makes things way better. I purchased 3mm plastic that comes in a large roll. I'm glad I chose it instead of the cheaper, thinner, easily torn plastic to protect our things. 

To get it up, I recommend tacking up the top corners with masking tape before taping every nook and cranny down with masking tape. Make sure you're using tape that will stay but won't do damage to any walls you're not changing. I used a pro painter's tape.

It's worth putting up thick plastic on not only doorways that will be closed for the duration of your drywall project but also over doorways that will still be used for general traffic flow. 

To deal with said doorways, I purchased zipper doors. A small kit that allows you to zip and unzip a doorway as needed, I can't recommend these highly enough to keep some semblance of real life but I'll warn you now - read the instructions and follow them exactly!

As you can see, I briefly switched to duct tape as well

The other aspect of preparing your home for drywall is protecting your floors. To do this, use rosin paper.

Starting in the furthest corner of the furthest room you plan to paper (i.e. set up so that you don't have to walk over your newly lain paper) set your first row of paper running sideways about an inch and a half off the wall and tape that edge down, running a continuous strip of tape from corner to corner. 

For the next row, overlap your first row by a couple of inches before taping your new row down to the first. The room's edges can either be taped as you go or all at the end as you finish each room. We went for taping as we went so that we didn't accidentally mess ourselves up later.

The last thing you'll need to do is remove delicate light fixtures, ceiling fans, etc. Especially if your ceilings are being drywalled, be nice to your installers and to your light fixtures and take them down to take care of them.

Now that you have all the know-how to protect your home, what do you think of our little project? Looks like a bit of a mess this week! Come back next week to see it looking a bit better!

How to rewire a ceiling light fixture - the easy way!

Looking at my ceilings, light-less, for the last few weeks hasn't been easy. For one, it was dark. For two, I knew I needed a light fixture by today and I didn't have one.

Answering this need was my lovely family during my recent visit to Detroit. 

The Detroit area has many old homes that are being ripped down because they're vacant (not a good reason to raze a house), because they're too run down (this is occasionally legitimate) or because they've been victims of arson and can't be repaired (again, sometimes legitimate).

In Old House Parts: A Tale of Love and Hate, I mention that I appreciate the old parts that are pulled from homes because I need them for mine but, in general, I'd much prefer they were just left alone. If that have to be pulled out, I appreciate them going to places that restore them properly.

I bought one such ceiling fixture in Detroit that wasn't restored or rewired that was just sitting on a sofa in a rather nice shop where I've bought other such fixtures. After a bit of haggling, we ended up at a grand total of $135 for what would have likely cost me about $400 finished. 

With two days to rewire, however, I was going to have a little trouble finding someone to do it for me. Time for some quick DIY-learning!

If you want to rewire a light fixture like mine, you'll need the following supplies:

• Lamp cord (18 gauge wire) - they make a really nice rayon covered one, but I've only been able to find it online. In my time crunch, I just got a spool from Home Depot. I got 300 volt wire which, with three arms, could take three 100-watt light bulbs - more than enough for our study.
• Wire strippers - make sure they can handle the kind of 18 gauge wire you purchase
• Needle nose pliers
• Sockets (if you're replacing the existing ones)
• Electrical tape
• Wire nuts - read the packaging to see how many strands of 18 gauge wire the various sizes can take
• Screwdriver

Assuming your fixture is already detached, start by laying out your supplies (1) - I chose my empty floor, but a decent sized table would likely work just as well. 

Once you're set up, TAKE A PHOTO. You'll want to unscrew the various pieces of your fixture, taking photos after each step (2). These will be your best friend when it comes to putting your fixture back together. I also took this opportunity to carefully clean my fixture, making sure it was completely dry before reassembling.

When your fixture is open, you should see wires. If they've already been cut from the arms, they'll just be in the body of your lamp. Otherwise, you might have additional taking apart to do after you cut the wires leading to the arms.

Once everything's off, you should be left with a very basic fixture without sockets (again, I'm assuming you're replacing them).

You'll need a length of cord for each arm of your fixture. I threaded mine through before cutting to length to make sure I had enough but mine were about an arm's length. Cut off the necessary length using the cutting section of your wire strippers (3).

When you're looking at the wires, you'll want to check which one has either ridges or a black stripe or something along those lines. That's your neutral wire (kind of like an initial ground) and the other, which should be smooth or without markings, is your hot wire.

The tiny ridges are on the top wire

Separate the two wires enough so that you can reach different sides of your new socket with each wire (4).

Starting with the neutral wire, strip about a half inch of the wire coating off (5). You'll then attach it to the silver screw by winding the wire clockwise (6). Then repeat the process with your hot wire and the brass screw, making sure both screws are tightened (7).

Put the socket cap (I don't know what it's really called but we're going with it) over your newly wired socket, threading the wire through the top (8).

What I did the first time (no cap)

What I did the second time

Cap attached - they can be a little challenging to fully snap down

Reattach the socket to the fixture (9), making sure you thread through all of the necessary openings. In my case, that meant about four places throughout the arm of the lamp to get to the body before I could reassemble the arm (10).

This doesn't work, take off the little switch by unscrewing it

Reattach the switch after your new socket is in place

Repeat steps 3-10 for each arm of your fixture, ending with the wires in the middle of the body of your lamp.

Cut another long piece of wire - enough to come from the body of your fixture up through any chains, attachments and ceiling fixtures and leave some left over (11). Mine was about four feet to be on the safe side.

Separate the ends of the neutral wires from the hot wires coming from the arms of your fixture (it's fine if they're still attached in some places) and strip the coating off of the ends of the neutrals. Do the same with your new main wire's neutral that's going to be threaded up the top (12).

It should look like this

Twist the ends of the neutral wires together in a clockwise direction (13). Take a wire connector and further twist the wires with it, ensuring that no wires are sticking out or splaying - give it a small tug to ensure it stays in place (14).

Repeat steps 13 and 14 with your hot wires. I added a piece of electrical tape around the wires to keep things tidy.

You should be left with a fixture body that looks something like this:

Thread the ends of your main wire up through the center of your fixture and reassemble your fixture, checking your before photos frequently to ensure you don't skip a piece (15). If you feel resistance, don't force it. Instead, move your wires around a bit to try to make it a bit easier to slide through.

Finally, hang your light and add some Edison bulbs for a nostalgic feel - the soft light is an added bonus!

I did this all for about $200 in a fixture (that could have easily cost double or more) and all of the necessary parts! We couldn't be happier with how it looks and, hey, now we even have light!

What do you think?

Disclaimers: I didn't need a dedicated ground wire in the fixture itself because of the study's particular wiring in the ceiling going back to the panel. Don't assume you don't! If you don't know what you're doing with the wiring in your ceilings, hire an electrician. Some areas require that wires run alongside the chain instead of through - check your local codes.