I’m excited to share our first month’s progress on the house with you guys! There’s not many pretty pictures yet, but there’s lot of stuff happening!
Let’s start with the biggest hurdle: the porches. This house has THREE porches – one huge wrap-around, and two smaller porches (one off of the nursery & one off of the kitchen). We knew this would be a huge part of our budget, but we underestimated just how huge it would be.
We got 3 contractors to come out and assess the work that needed to be done, and then we went with the lowest bid.
After considering multiple options, we decided that it would be wisest to rip out the current wood deck, replace support beams, and then lay new pressure treated wood on top.
PS – are you following me on Instagram? I’ve been posting lots of this in “real-time” – and you can see all of the progress using the #FixingUp1902 hashtag!
Once they laid the new supports, they put plywood & then roofing paper down to help with water getting in the cracks over time:
Then we hit a problem. The contractor told us that the columns were a mess – the stones that were supporting them were falling apart, and we would need to get a stone mason out to repair them, which would cost a whole lot of money that we just don’t have. Our other option was to tear out the existing columns & add all new ones. This totally messed up our budget, but we knew we’d have to do it. We are working on cutting down all other costs so we can stay within the original budget, but it’s going to be tight.
this was the column that was in the best shape
The columns are all in (we will paint them in the spring), the wood is down (they will get stained spring/summer 2016), the railings are all up, and they look beautiful!!
SO! Now the porches are finally DONE – and they look amazing. It will end up costing twice as much as our kitchen, which is so painful to me, but you’d better believe we’ll be getting good use out of that porch space! The other great thing is now we have peace of mind, knowing the biggest expense is over, and we have a super safe & sturdy porch.
Moving inside – I’ve been stripping wallpaper like it’s my job. Oh. my. goodness. Every single room in the house has wallpaper. We thought we had ONE room (the nursery) that wasn’t papered – only to find out that it was WHITE WALLPAPER. Come on!!
Oh, and don’t forget I’m 5 months pregnant!
The good news: after working multiple days a week on stripping wallpaper (for one month) we are down to the final two rooms. Hooray!!
Of course, stripping wallpaper is just the beginning. Then we are scrubbing any remaining adhesive, repairing holes/cracks in the plaster, sanding that down, and THEN we can get to painting the trim and the walls! I will be jumping up & down when that day finally comes!
There HAS been some painting started – the ceilings!! We really hate these ceilings (they’re throughout most of the bottom floor), but right now they’re not in the budget to replace/remove. We’re putting a few coats of crisp white paint on them and pretending they don’t bother us anymore
try to look past all of the construction mess – the wallpaper has been stripped & plaster has been fixed – almost time for paint!!
Of course, there’s always hiccups along the way. For instance – I stripped the small bathroom’s wallpaper to find some lovely salmon pink laminate walls underneath. Oh, and a bathroom remodel is definitely not in the budget. HA! This one will be interesting!
For having the house for only one month, I think we’re doing pretty well. Since this month was December, we also managed to celebrate Christmas and rang in 2015! This year will be huge for us – selling our current house, finishing renovations in the new house, moving, and having baby #2! We are going to be crazy people for a few months, but we’re looking forward to slowing down a little once the baby makes his/her arrival.
Make sure you’re following me on Instagram for house progress posts as we go along!
How wonderful for you! I love the railing and your home is going to be fantastic! I’ve been following you on IG too!
Thanks so much, Rondell!! I love sharing the process as it goes along on IG – it’s so fun to connect with all of you!!
You rock! I can’t believe you have that much finished in just a month with Issac too. 🙂 How are you feeling? The house is going to be so beautiful once you are all finished. I love all the old charm to it and the porches look amazing!
haha we’ve been there a LOT, Rachel!! Isaac has a whole slew of toys set up there…but of course all he wants to do is play with construction equipment 😉 Thank God – this pregnancy has been SO much better than Isaac’s!!! 🙂
Love the updates and the unrelenting adventure of restoration, Christina! Now that I have a photo of your lovely house I’m going to stalk the streets to see where you’re located so I can stop by on one of my walks. 🙂
I just came across your blog and LOVE everything you’ve done! All so gorgeous. Your blog is just the encouragement I needed. I am 6 months pregnant and renovating our 1916 home with my husband right now. So your story made me smile. We are just about done with wallpaper removal (yay!!) and demo. So I wanted to ask you about your plaster walls. Did you put a skim coat over them before painting? Or did you just prime and paint? The texture is pretty rough and I am worried about kids rubbing up against the walls and getting scratched if we don’t put a skim coat. Any advice would be appreciated ?!
I’ve been browsing your blog and your home is BEAUTIFUL! I have a 1915 home with tons of wallpaper throughout. What did you find to be the best way to remove multiple layers of wallpaper/paint?
Thank you so much, Melissa! We spent SO MUCH TIME stripping wallpaper in our home – I feel your pain! I wrote a post about it if it’s helpful for you 🙂 https://christinamariablog.com/tips-for-removing-wallpaper-from-plaster-walls-without-chemicals/