Our 1960's build thread.

[vw fiend]

We bought and closed on our house back in July. You guys have been great so far, and answered alot of questions for me:

Tile: http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=4001037
Switches and Plugs: http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3979023
Doorbell: http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3932269
Water Softener: http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3885468
Non-typical Mortgage questions:http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3786902
Original Offer: http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3657399

Needless to say, you guys have been great so far. The house:

[vw fiend]

One project we're finishing up in the next few weeks is the kitchen.
Before:

During:

Now:

Modified by vw fiend at 10:13 PM 10-8-2008

Modified by vw fiend at 9:23 PM 11-17-2008

Modified by vw fiend at 9:24 PM 11-17-2008


Modified by vw fiend at 9:24 PM 11-17-2008

[vw fiend]

Before:

After:

[vw fiend]

Before and After:

[vw fiend]

And the climbing wall that came with the house in the basement stairwell:

[unimogken]

Nice work!

Was your place on heating oil?
Looks like you removed the tank that was behind your washer/dryer.

What did you end up doing for heat?

[vw fiend]

Quote, originally posted by unimogken »

Nice work! Was your place on heating oil? Looks like you removed the tank that was behind your washer/dryer. What did you end up doing for heat?

The tank was unused and mostly empty. The house had previously been upgraded to forced air - but the furnace and AC were ancient. We upgraded to an 85% (i think) efficient Amana furnace and AC compressor.

[woofster]

That's looking great! The house has so much character. I love it from the outside. The inside is starting to shape up quite nicely too.

[Bibs]

i love the outside of that house. The stone work is great.
good job on the inside, too. I did a rehab on my 20 yearl old home, the previous owners had really let it go.

Looking back, it was a crazy amount of work in a short time. I think I'm too old to try that again!
Good luck.

[Phrost]

Looking really good!

More pictures of the outside please. Go around the house and get closeups

[vw fiend]

I'll try to remember to get out there and take some more pictures. the outside will be getting more attention now thats its cooler, and we finally have a working kitchen.

[VegasJetta]

That tank must have been fun to take out...

[vw fiend]

Quote, originally posted by VegasJetta »

That tank must have been fun to take out...

we cut it in half horizontally and took it up the basement stairs. it wasnt easy by any means. basement still smells like fuel oil, luckily there wasnt much left in the tank at all.

we use sherwinn williams paint, and just did the dining room in a darker shade of gray. a norm 69 lamp, and new carpet at some point will finish the room off.

[Hostile]

Looks good, love the climbing wall!

I wish I could convince my wife to line our 3 flights of stairs with climbing holds.

[vw fiend]

Before:

After:

[28]

more pics of the kitchen? Looks like close to the same colors I might be going with.

[vw fiend]

The walls are actually a very light blue, and we're still waiting on the countertop:

[Ghost of VW TANK]

woah, your kitchen layout looks almost identical to mine.....

[71DubBugBug]

the kitchen looks great
nice work

[vw fiend]

We ordered a vanity from Lowes, it was marked $350 with granite undermount sink - neat thing is, it was mis-marked at that price, it should have been $471. They had to sell it to us for the advertised price, so the $500 GC we got when we bought the cabinets came in handy. I did this tonight (moved the pedestal from another bathroom in prep for the vanity we just bought):

and I did this over the weekend:

[Hostile]

Nice, you can't even tell in the pic.

[whitemike]

Looks good, I love the exterior!

[insanojet]

Quote, originally posted by vw fiend »

question:

that vent you filled in..... where did it go to? did it go the the furnace/utility room? if so that's your combustion air (assuming). is your house natural gas?

[vw fiend]

Quote, originally posted by insanojet »

question: that vent you filled in..... where did it go to? did it go the the furnace/utility room? if so that's your combustion air (assuming). is your house natural gas?

with my luck, and the previous owners eccentricity, it goes to the mustard gas room.

the vent went into the crawl under the master bedroom - which was an addition to the house (when I don't know, house is '61). so the crawl to that side of the house is seperate from the crawl under the other bedrooms, which is seperate from the basement, which is where the nat. gas furnace is.

he was nice enough to cut a random hole on the back of the house and fill it with a rusty fan, on the side opposite the vent i filled, but in wood siding instead of stone. I'm going to make that a proper vent in the next few weeks.

[insanojet]

Quote, originally posted by vw fiend »

with my luck, and the previous owners eccentricity, it goes to the mustard gas room. the vent went into the crawl under the master bedroom - which was an addition to the house (when I don't know, house is '61). so the crawl to that side of the house is seperate from the crawl under the other bedrooms, which is seperate from the basement, which is where the nat. gas furnace is. he was nice enough to cut a random hole on the back of the house and fill it with a rusty fan, on the side opposite the vent i filled, but in wood siding instead of stone. I'm going to make that a proper vent in the next few weeks.

cool. i do/did hvac for a living. you need to have enough air for your furnace to not spew out CO. There's a calculation you do to figure it out..... What kind of system does it have? A/C?

[vw fiend]

it had an ancient westinghouse AC compressor that hadnt been used since the early 90's, and a highboy in the basement that we had service records starting in '82. we replaced it with a 95% efficient furnace and a new AC compressor both made by Amana.

the furnace vents through the the front of the house, instead of the chimney like it used to. the basement has two (soon to be replaced) windows, and 3-4 more vents along the back of the house in the crawl. 1800sqft house, on top of a 900sqft basement, hopefully thats enough vents?

[vw fiend]

this is what we started with today (Sunday the 26th):

Mid-day (started at 1ish, finished at 7:30 in the dark):

i finished the length show above, all 46 ft of gutter board and soffit, no pics tonight because it was dark when i finished. new gutters go up in a week to repalce the crappy ones PO put in. had to take the dental molding down to get the soffit out, so that will have to go back up too...

[vw fiend]

mostly finished product:

[vw fiend]

i'm thinking white on the trim and gutters, and a gray or green on the wood parts. any thoughts on whether that will look good? think the shutters should be completely ditched, or trimmed out to look slightly arts and crafts? seamless gutters go in a week from tomorrow. this is a door, but something like this:

[KjTAssaSIN817]

nice work - in for updates

[vw fiend]

Big week.

Fixed the rear soffett and gutter board. He had left an extra 1.75" overhang on the gutterboard that drove me nuts, and needed removing:

the tool:

plastic crap that came down in favor of plywood with vents:

Modified by vw fiend at 8:25 PM 11-6-2008

Modified by vw fiend at 9:33 PM 11-6-2008


Modified by vw fiend at 9:34 PM 11-6-2008

[vw fiend]

Then yesterday:



Modified by vw fiend at 9:35 PM 11-6-2008

[vw fiend]

Also yesterday:



Modified by vw fiend at 9:35 PM 11-6-2008

[osiris]

Most of your new pics aren't showing up for me.

[vw fiend]

hopefully fixed. picasa is fickle sometimes.