We have now been living in this house for two years and we have completed one room in our house. But hey, that's progress...right? It is probably fitting that the smallest room in the house is the one we finish first. It also happens to be the least used room but hey, progress is progress. I'm not sure how you would describe this bathroom when we first saw it. Weird...ugly...god-awful, all come to mind. Already a tiny room it was made less usable by having 3 doorways. One to the kitchen, one to the cellar and one to the front room which was being used as a bedroom. It had a toilet and a shower but no sink. There was a sink in the bedroom though. The wall adjacent to the kitchen was at an angle, at that time we believed that to be a modification to the bathroom.
looking into bathroom from kitchen
kitchen - bathroom in top left corner
looking from kitchen, through the bathroom into the front room
front room, this is the sink for the bathroom
looking from front room, through bathroom into kitchen
We began work in the bathroom by tearing the shower out. We knew that regardless of how we ended up remodeling this room we would rather have a sink than a shower. We also believed at that time that the slanted wall was a modification to fit the shower in. We wanted to get the shower out to decide if we would move the kitchen wall back.
Behind the shower we found the lathe that had been behind the original plaster. We also discovered that the slanted wall was original. the original framing was there, the lathe and behind that the old cast iron plumbing. This was quite puzzling to us. We have not been able to find any house plans from this era (1910) that would have had a bathroom layout such as this.
Next, we removed the wall separating the shower wall, this was recent construction, not the original design.
Behind the shower wall we found the rest of the window trim. Behind the trim we found the window weights from the original windows.
window trim that was covered up by the shower wall
window weights from the original window
another lovely feature...
bathroom with the shower removed
view of bathroom from kitchen, shower removed
As we continued gutting the house the remainder of the bathroom was torn out. Plaster, lathe, floor, toilet, we removed it all.
bathroom in top left, view from kitchen
looking from kitchen, through bathroom into front room
looking from front room, through bathroom into kitchen
Since we were spending all of our time working on this house we decided it would be helpful to have a toilet back in this bathroom. For a semblance of privacy I hung sheets to cover to surround the toilet. Still no sink, but at least we had hand sanitizer. Hey, it's a construction site after all.
We were now to the stage of putting things back together. We decided to frame in the doorway leading to the front room, so that would no longer be a doorway. The slanted wall on the kitchen side we had to rebuild but we decided to keep it in the original location. Since the wall had been compromised when the installed the shower we had to rebuild the wall. The wall supported the upstairs landing so we used floor jacks to support the landing while we rebuilt the wall.
Was the framing was complete we ran the new electricity and installed lights and an exhaust fan. The drain for the toilet was working, we just had to add a drain for a sink and run new water lines.
Once the plumbing and electrical was complete we installed the insulation.
bathroom, ready for drywall
Next step was the drywall.
During the drywall work the toilet was broken, I was not sad to get a new, clean, toilet.
view from kitchen, looking into bathroom
After the drywall work was completed and the walls were primed, we installed tile on the bathroom floor. Once that was complete I began painting. The paint palette I had a chosen was a tannish-mauve color with accents of grey and teal. I was planning to make our vanity and planned to paint it grey. This color scheme looked great on the Valspar brochure but I wasn't as keen on it once it was on the wall. However, there was way too much work to do on the house to worry about the paint color for a half bath.
In our desire to move forward with this room we decided to just buy a vanity so that we could get a sink in the bathroom and move on. I picked out a vanity that would fit in this space. Remember the slanted wall? Well, that means most bathroom vanities do not fit in this space. Because storage space is so limited in the house I really wanted a vanity rather than a pedestal sink.
But...once we got the vanity installed and the light fixture in I was even more convinced that I didn't care for the paint color. It was just too dull. The grey door didn't compliment the new vanity. The vanity made the walls look more brown than mauve. So, much to my husband's annoyance I went back to the paint counter. As you may remember from our previous projects, picking out a paint color can be quite challenging for us. My husband's method is to find something in the "oops" section and pretend that is the color he always wanted. My method is to narrow it down to something fairly specific like "earth tones" then collect about 80 or 90 paint chips, at least 10 paint samples and start from there.
painting 100+ year old trim is always fun!
After numerous false starts I finally found a color scheme I was happy with. Until I got it on the walls...sigh...
Meanwhile, we moved forward with cutting the trim for awkward doors. It turns out that no matter how long you stare at the wall angle and try to memorize it in your head you still can't cut it correctly without making a template.
I finally came to the conclusion that the door color just wasn't going to work. No matter how lovely it looked nestled up to the wall color when they were on the paint chip, they just didn't work in real life. So back to the paint department... My husband was so in love with me at this point.
But finally, it came together. I was happy with everything except the curtain (still looking for something different), and my husband was happy that I had finally made a decision and put down the paint brush.
Oh, and check out this doorknob!! We decided our kids really don't need to go to college and so we would just use their college fund for doorknobs! Sounds reasonable....right?
1. Decide to keep the shed rather than heeding the advice of tearing it down. 2. Pick the steepest part of your yard as the new location spot. 3. Make sure new location for shed is in the same spot you just stacked your firewood. 4. Re-locate and re-stack part woodpile. 5. Doubt that keeping the old shed is a good plan after all, price out the cost of a new shed. 6. Ensure that new location is squarely on top of largest underground rock on your property. 7. Begin digging footers for foundation, spend most of that time breaking up rock. 8. Notice that your recently stacked woodpile is still in the way. 9. Remove and re-stack part of woodpile. 10. Doubt that keeping the old shed is a good plan after all, price out the cost of a new shed. 11. Order concrete, mortar and block for foundation. 12. Drive to Northern Virginia to pick up favorite concrete mixer. 13. Have pallets of concrete, mortar and block delivered.
14. Layout string lines for footers. 15. Build forms for footers. 16. Mix concrete for footers. 17. Pour footers. 18. Let concrete footers set up. 19. Relocate part of the woodpile....just out of habit by now. 20. Doubt that keeping the old shed is a good plan after all, price out the cost of a new shed. 21. Layout string lines for block wall. 22. Find happy medium between building a foundation that is square and a foundation that will fit old shed. 23. Begin mixing mortar and laying block. 24. Use all the mountains of fill material you have from your house project. 25. Realize you will still need more fill material. 26. Doubt that keeping the old shed is a good plan after all, price out the cost of a new shed.
27. Realize that your woodpile is still in the way. Reluctant to move the woodpile yet again, decide to build a wood rack behind new foundation.
28. Recruit, a.k.a bribe, kids to help move logs. Again.
like father, like daughter
29. Pause to admire new wood rack.
30. Spend time considering how much wood you have left over.
31. Realize that you will have to tear off portion of shed that currently houses all of your worldly possessions. This will involve squeezing all of these boxes into an already packed cellar. 32. Doubt that keeping the old shed is a good plan after all, price out the cost of a new shed.
33. Begin dismantling side room on the shed. Continuing a trend previously noticed on the house project, this will involve removing 8 nails and 49 screws from every square foot.
34. Use sledge hammer to work out some frustration and also break up concrete pad in storage room. 35. Use broken concrete pad for additional fill material. 36. Realize you still do not have enough fill material. 37. Doubt that keeping the old shed is a good plan after all, price out the cost of a new shed.
38. Order 4 tons of gravel for fill material. 39. Have it rain the night before ensuring that the dump truck cannot back up to the foundation area. 40. Cart 4 tons of gravel by wheel barrow load to fill foundation. 41. Doubt that keeping the old shed is a good plan after all, price out the cost of a new shed. 42. Order 4 more tons of concrete for the pad. 43. Pour concrete pad by the simple process of opening two 60 pound bags of concrete mix, lift, pour into mixer, add water, mix, pour onto ground, add water to rinse mixer out, spread concrete out evenly. 44-140. Repeat 96 times.
141. Make your mark in wet concrete.
142. Continue dismantling the storage room off of the shed.
143. Realize that the trim for your entire house is stored in the shed and cannot sit outdoors. 144. Borrow a trailer to hold said trim. 145. Realize trim will not fit into trailer without removing all nails enabling said trim to be stacked neatly and compactly. 146. Doubt that keeping the old shed is a good plan after all, price out the cost of a new shed. 147. Spend entire day removing nails from trim, in order to store trim in trailer, in order to move shed. 148. Spend an additional day removing nails from said trim in order to store trim in trailer, in order to move shed. 149. Spend one last day removing nails from said trim in order to store trim in trailer, in order to move shed. 150. Begin bracing the shed for moving.
151. Beg, bribe and plead for friends and family to help you move the shed. 152. Send out meal options and beer lists in an attempt to entice family members to show up for moving day. 153. Breath a huge sigh of relief when they actually show up. 154. Lift the shed up, using a jack, enough to fix fence posts under the edge. 155. Begin moving the shed by pulling it forward with the help of a truck.
156. Immediately catch the back wall of the shed on a root, causing the back wall to pull loose from rest of building. 157. Doubt that keeping the old shed is a good plan after all...but it is probably too late to buy a new shed. 158. Halt all movement to reattach back wall and secure.
159. Begin forward movement of shed. Shed will now be moved using only muscle power and will be rolled downhill and at an angle toward the concrete pad.
160. Move shed a couple feet, stop. 161. Discuss plan for next few feet. 162. Re-adjust fence posts, discuss. 163. Move shed a couple feet, stop. 164. Discuss plan for next few feet. 165. Re-adjust fence posts, discuss.
166-952. Repeat 786 more times.
Happy to see the workers all wearing their shed moving uniform.
a small but mighty helper!
953. Use a car jack and a piece of 6x6, braced against a tree, to straighten back corner of shed.
954. Once shed is moved immediately plant a garden where the shed was located. This will hopefully erase all memories of the shed being in this location.
955. Now that the shed is on the concrete slab resume restoration project.
956. Jack up shed on each side to replace rotten base plates.
957. Attach shed to slab with anchor bolts.
958. Decide you will want a front porch on the shed.
959. Dig out area for front porch.
960. Build forms.
961. Buy more concrete.
962. Pour slab for front porch.
963. Set anchors for posts for future front porch.
964. Begin to frame in the front opening for the old, absolutely-not-square french doors we took from the front of the house.
965. Doubt that keeping the old shed was a good plan after all but no choice but to push forward.
966. Using siding from the section of the shed we removed, finish closing in the front of the shed.
967. Install french doors.
968. Set posts for front porch. 969. Build framing for roof for front porch. 970. Narrow paint colors for shed down to 64 options. 971. Decide not to even count trim color options. 972. Ensure that front porch roof-line meets existing-out-of-square-really-old-roof-line. 973. Narrow paint colors for shed down to 50 options. 974. Narrow trim color options down to double digits. 975. Remove shingles from sections of existing roof. 976. Narrow paint colors for shed down to 25 options. 977. Narrow trim color options down to...still too many. 978. Replace rotten portions of roof. 979. Replace sections of the rotten rafters. 980. Narrow paint colors for shed down to 5 options. 981. Narrow trim color options down to 10 options. 982. Install soffit boards with ventilation grills. 983. Finally pick paint color for shed. 984. Decide on trim color for shed just in time to begin painting. 985. Paint fascia boards and install. 986. Try to locate drip edge that will coordinate. 987. Fail to locate coordinating drip edge. 988. Find spray paint that coordinates with trim color. 989. Spray paint drip edge and install. 990. Install shingles on porch roof and repair existing shed roof.
991.Concerned that the project may be nearing completion, decide that the shed needs a window.
992. Cut hole in side of shed and install said window.
993. Decide that you cannot have a proper shed without electricity. 994. Begin digging trench to run utilities.
995. Decide that water would be nice too. 996. Run electric and water lines.
997. Install water spigot for future watering needs. 998. Fill in trench. 999. Plant grass seed over trench. 1000. Decide to wait till later to install beer fridge and a/c. From this...
Shed before relocation
to this...
Shed after relocation
1001. Decide that it is time to move on to the next project. 'til next time...
