Creating a Sunroom in the Craftsman Cottage

A sunroom in Maine is an incredible luxury.  Our winters are long and cold, so to have a sunny spot to curl up with a book and look out at the cold outside (after you've pushed the dog/cat out of the way, because that will be their favorite spot!) - is a wonderful thing.     

Sunroom Concept

We've been able to include a sunroom in a couple of properties (including our own home), so I was excited to create one at this house too.  The front porch faces southwest, so it's the perfect location for this room.

But first we had to assess the existing porch.  Just looking at it, you can tell it has problems.  It droops on the left side, the shingles where the roof attaches to the house are coming off, and the decking is covered with plywood - which still doesn't hide the distinctive trampoline bounce on the floor.

So we started to open it up.  First discovery - the porch was held up with a log, with a big split in it!  It was sitting on a concrete block, but under that block there was just a bunch of rocks - there wasn't a true footing.  That explains how it kept drooping over the years.  The other discovery, the joists ran the long way across the front of the house (so they were overspanned for the length of the porch).  Oh, and one of of the joists had fallen out, which probably explained the trampoline bounce.

So we decided repair didn't make sense.  The guys had to pull apart that side of the porch, pour true concrete footings and rebuild.  But once we did that, I started to wonder if that part of the porch was original.  You see, the foundation has mock stonework.  The original builders molded the concrete as they poured it to look like large stones.  They didn't bother with that on the back of the house (where the public wouldn't see it), but they did where the long porch was.  So it must have been a public space.  There is also a window there, which doesn't make much sense if it was under a porch.  So our guess is it was added at some point.  The porch in front of the door with the steps is original (no mock stonework under there).

Once the guys got the porch squared up with the new footings and supports, we had to address the porch roof.  It was slipping off of the front of the house, which explained the tilted roof and unattached shingles.  It had dropped a few inches, but thankfully we discovered the root cause and got it repaired.  But geez.....that's a lot of issues for one porch!

Going

 

In addition, we had to address the dangerous front porch steps.  Dave tackled them with a jackhammer and soon they were a pile of rubble.  We will rebuild with wooden stairs, once the new walkway is in place.

Going

Gone!

Kyle got the rest of the sunroom framed in and it was exciting to see it start to take shape.  One of my favorite features is the new location for the original stained glass window.  I have to admit, I held my breath as it got moved.  But I love it next to the front door.  It's the first thing you notice when you come up the porch.  And on the interior, when the sunlight hits it, it brings those glorious colors into the sunroom. 

The rest of the windows were installed and it really started to feel like a room.

New windows going in

And here's the first peek, as the guys started to cut the opening between the living room and sunroom.  Isn't it great?  It makes the whole living room seem brighter, now that it's not in the shadow of the front porch.

And the exterior view???  It's looking good!  Next we will have spray foam insulation installed underneath, to keep it nice and warm.  And then we can start trimming it out - with front steps!

No more sloping porch! 

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In Search of Taller Ceilings

There are so many things I love about this house - but the low (six foot, six inch) ceilings on the second floor aren't one of them.  Fixing them is a big project and will take a sizable portion of our budget - but it's totally worth it!

6' 6" ceilings 

So, what's involved?  The existing roofline is supported by a series of rafters, nailed into a narrow 1x6" ridge board across the top of the house.  We need to swap the wimpy ridge board out with a structural ridge beam, comprised of 2- 12 inch engineered beams.  The beams will be held up with structural posts that are posted from the top of the roof, all the way to the basement.  

It's a big job for the professionals!  We planned for a week's worth of work to get the major framing complete.  The guys started by removing the chimney (it was for the old forced hot air, oil furnace), to open up space for the new structural support post in the middle of the house.

 

With that out of the way, they built temporary walls to hold up the roof, while they installed these big LVLs and their supporting posts.

New Ridge Beam Going Up

And as the temporary wall came out, the moment I'd been waiting for happened - we had a huge open space!  

Now that it was opened up, we debated a bit on how tall the new ceilings should be and decided 9 feet would be a great height.  So new collar ties went across rafters, to establish the new ceiling height.

9 foot ceiling heights

Look how big that space is! 

With the new ceiling height, I had a lot of flexibility on how to change the floor plan.  What seemed to work the best was to make the original hallway smaller and increase the size of two bedrooms.

Before

To-Be

New Walls Getting Framed Up

The old giant bathroom can now be one family bath and a half bath for the primary bedroom with the new floor plan. 

The old extra large bathroom will now be a full and a half bath

Photos can't really show how dramatic the changes are.  The rooms feel so much bigger and more spacious!  It's a total change that will make it much more appealing to a new family.  

New Primary Closet Getting Framed Up

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Taming the Jungle - Brambles, Thorns and Vines....Oh My!

The yard at the Craftsman Cottage is pretty fabulous.  Why?  Well, it's twice the size of a typical SoPo yard - 200 feet deep and 50 feet wide.  That's a huge plus!

But it's hard to tell, because it was so overgrown with so many invasive plants (bittersweet, wild rose, and grapevines!!) it looks like a jungle out there.  

The invasive species have taken over and I'd really like to make it more useful for a future homeowner.

Bittersweet vine and wild rose

Grapevines have overtaken tree canopy across the rear of the property

But I also want to save the trees!  As best I can tell, there are maples, crabapples and possibly aspen trees back there - they're just being strangled by all the invasive plants.   Look at how this vine has impacted this maple tree. 

The Tammaro Landscaping crew came to our rescue.  They brought in the big equipment to pull out all the invasives.  But it also took lots of hand tools to cut the invasive vines out of all the trees. 

The yard started to look better right away! 

They moved truckloads of invasives off of the property. 

It starts to look better right away!  We didn't even know that fence was there! 

They seeded the new topsoil and now I'm trying to get some grass to grow, before it gets too cold!

Ta da!!!  What a difference! 

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The Porch/Mudroom/Half Bath Challenge

One of the things I really like about the Craftsman Cottage is there is a half bath on the first floor.  That's something that many buyers desperately want and I'm thrilled we will have one.

But it has so many problems.  As best I can tell, this started as a porch entrance to the house (one stair stringer is still there). At some point it got enclosed and became an unheated mudroom. And the last owners added fixtures to make it a half bath (still unheated).  

But it’s a big space for two bathroom fixtures, so we are going change it up a bit and make part of the space storage with the other side a half bath with a pocket door. 

Before Floor Plan

Plan to divide room and create additional storage

But before any of that can happen, we had to investigate why the room tilts so much. 

I guess we weren’t surprised to find out that the posts holding it up had completely rotted out. That explains the trampoline effect you feel when you walk to the closet corner! 

He could stick his whole hand under the post holding up the porch!!!

So the guys got to work and jacked the porch up.  Now it's nice and level!  And suddenly that exterior door is freed up and can be removed for new framing. 

And when that was done, I noticed that what I assumed was a beadboard wall was actually a door!  When I pried it open, it contained a big collection of laxatives - from multiple decades.
 

Why would someone have a medicine cabinet in their mudroom?  No idea. Why is it in a stud wall, right next to the exterior clapboards?  Again, no idea.  Any why does the wallpaper look like it's burned around the edges?  It's a southwest facing wall, so maybe summer sun could heat it up so much that it darkened?  So many mysteries!  But it how has a new nickname - the Constipation Closet!!

Introducing the Constipation Closet!!!

So many old school drugs (and some shampoo - in the mudroom!)

Our local South Portland Historical Society is taking most of the bottles (look for an exhibit on turn-of-the-century medicine cabinets in the future!) and the Androscoggin Historical Society wants the Dr. True's Elixir bottle (it has 1851 Auburn, Maine printed on the back, but maybe that's just a copyright date, since the house wasn't built until 1925).  I wish someone wanted the Senecot cans - these are from their clinical trials in 1957 and look brand new!!

Dow's Drug in South Portland!

Belladonna!!!  Highly toxic!

We have gutted the porch and rebuilding has started. Once that’s complete, electrical and plumbing will get totally redone.  And finally, the whole room will get well insulated, to keep that plumbing nice and warm. 

This stud is half a log!

Framing the new half bath with pocket door

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