Our Next Project - Finishing Our Own House

I'm asked 'what's you next project?' every single day.  And the answer is - our house!  We moved in over a year ago, but never quite finished everything and I've been reluctant to share all the 'reveal' photos until it's done.  So now it's time to make some progress and get it done! 

Our 1898 home

Day 1 - three years ago

But first, a quick recap.  As best we can tell, our house was built in 1898 by the Loveitt family, as a small rental cottage.  Long term renters, the Dana's, bought the house in 1915.  They owned a lumber mill in Portland and our guess is they did some of the initial expansion to the house.  It continued to get added on to over the years.  And of course when we bought it, we needed to put our own stamp on it.

But first we had to unravel all those additions.  Many of them were obviously done by people with little understanding of construction techniques (after all, it was a summer rental cottage for many years), so we found lots and lots of problems.

Some of the big gotchas included:

The sill (the wooden beam that the house rests on over the foundation) on the west wall of the house was completely rotted out.  We're still not sure how those joists held anything up - because they were a mess too! We had to jack the house up to replace the sills and all the rotted floor joists.  It was a huge job and not part of our original scope of work!

Replacing the sill/joists meant we had to gut everything down to the crawlspace

We needed to turn off the water while we worked on the house, which led to the discovery that our water line was ancient and no longer acceptable to the Portland Water District.  So we had to dig up the front yard and replace the water lines.

The dormer addition on the back of the house had its structural members cut away at some point and it was collapsing into the dining room and sunroom.  It had to be torn off and a combo of steel and engineered beams were installed to create structural integrity into the frame. 

A 4 inch drop in an 8 foot wide room!!!!

Removing the dormer and reframing the roof solved a lot of structural issues

The new dormer is structurally sound and added an additional 8 feet to the 2nd floor

The next disaster - we discovered that the ceiling joists in the living room were dramatically undersized and needed to be replaced (especially since we were adding a bathroom to the second floor).  Again, a huge job!

It looks so weird without a living room ceiling!

We also found carpenters ants, powder post beetles, raccoon infestations......seriously, I wondered if we would be swarmed with locusts at some point.  And yes, at times we were tempted  to run away and call it quits, but we kept chugging forward, trying to get everything fixed. 

Carpenter ant infestation over a large window

Asbestos flooring

It's probably not surprising, but we found that there was asbestos on the heating ducts and some of the flooring.  That stuff on the trailer?  All asbestos that was professionally remediated.  

All of this was asbestos that had to be professionally removed from the house

And at long last, 17 months later, we could move in (for comparison, our typical project takes 6-9 months).  Whew!!  Was it finished?  No.  But we've been slowly picking away at it and I'm hopeful we can make lots of progress in the next couple of months.  

Moving day!

So please follow along as we try and finish them up.  It's come a very long way!

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Maison Mansard - the Wrap up

When we started renovating this house, we knew it had good bones.  Built in 1880, it was adjacent to Holy Cross church and when the old church was torn down to build a new one, the house got moved three blocks in and put on a new foundation (in 1960).  It stayed in the same family for all those years, until we bought it.

Our goal was simple - preserve the original elements (and in some cases recreate or add vintage features), while making updates for modern living.  Working on a Second Empire home with its mansard roof was an exciting undertaking.

The changes are obvious from the moment you drive up to the house.  Behind the faded yellow siding, we didn't find any original trim, so we looked to similar homes in the area to create period typical trim and color scheme.  There are so many good examples in the greater Portland area!

Second Empire - Mansard Roof Inspiration!

The guys installed all new siding, trim and we made traditional style brackets for the eaves.

These brackets are new - but made in a traditional style for a Second Empire home

I spent weeks stripping and refinishing antique balusters to replace the modern style railing that was on the house. And then carefully painting them in our triple color scheme. 

The guys also installed new windows, with a more typical two over two style window.  The balusters got installed on the front porch along with new lattice and trim. The result is a much more period appropriate exterior for a Second Empire home.

 And look at the antique front door I found.  Isn't it perfect! 

Finally, after many, many months, it all came together.  What a difference!

But the exterior was just the start - the interior also saw major upgrades.  We peeled back multiple dropped fiberboard panels to discover original 9 ½ foot ceilings.  

Oddly, this 1880 home didn’t have a fireplace, so we decided to add a gas one in the living room.

What a difference taller ceilings make!

Living Room and Foyer

One of my favorite features of the house was the antique window that we installed to replace the original casement window between the dining room and sunporch.

Isn't that window a big improvement?

We opened up doorways and a wall between the dining room and kitchen to create a more open floor plan, while maintaining the original room layout.

 

There was originally a wall next to that doorway that closed off the dining room and kitchen

The room that got the most ‘wow’s’ when people came to the Open House?  The kitchen.  What started as a dark, 1980’s time capsule is now a traditionally styled kitchen with lots of storage, an island with seating and a built in pantry.  Of course the taller ceilings and the large window we added over the sink made a big difference.

The stove is now a focal point, instead of hidden in a corner

There was an additional room on the first floor off of the foyer– a parlor maybe?  

We turned it into a study, but carved out enough space for a first floor powder room.  It's a tiny room, but we wanted to give it some character.  So we added wainscoting and I stenciled the walls with a mini print.  

We added a powder room on the first floor

The study is a fantastic space that the new owners plan to use as an office.  Kyle built these amazing bookcases.  Aren't they great?  The antique doors came from a wonderful follower that contacted me about them.  The wavy glass is hard to see in the photos, but it adds so much character to the room.

Isn't this a cozy room?

A key element to honoring the history of this house was including lots of details.  The original doorknobs were polished.  The newel post got cleaned up and polished.  The original door hinges were so brittle, we replaced them with beautiful replica ones.  It really is all about the details!

There is one more bonus room on the first floor.  Apparently this was originally a deck, that got enclosed at some point in time to create a 3 season porch.  

We added a heat source, replaced the missing skylights, and created a mudroom space (critical in Maine!).  

The closets and mud bench add so much functionality!

We replaced the steel door with this antique one - and the antique window!

What else changed?  There were lots of updates on the second floor. 

We took 3 rooms and combined them to create a primary suite.  The smallest bedroom became the primary bath and closet.  

And the former unheated storage room became a reading nook, with built in storage space.

The actual bedroom space was in the former 'big' bedroom.  The room faces southwest, so it gets wonderful light each afternoon.

The hall bath saw a big update, including the addition of a stackable laundry.

This bathroom floor is one of my favorites with the Carrara marble border

The other two bedrooms that are across the hall both got an overhaul.

 

The back bedroom was dark with wood paneling and a closet that jutted out into the room.  We changed all that and now it's a bright, inviting space.

The closet blocked a lot of sunlight! 

This room changed the least.  Like in the rest of the house, we installed cellulose insulation in all the walls.  Then we patched them up and painted them to match the rest of the house.  

After

Before

After 

At first glance, it looks like the hall bath just got a facelift.  But it was more than skin deep!  All new electrical, plumbing, fixtures, etc. made a huge difference!

I have to take a moment to mention all the behind the walls stuff that also make this house so special.  We updated all the plumbing and electric.  We used spray foam insulation to air seal and insulate the basement sills and four feet down along the walls.  We filled all the exterior walls with dense pack cellulose insulation. And we installed new heat pumps to provide heating and cooling.  It had a remarkable energy upgrade! 

Installing dense pack cellulose in the exterior walls is a messy business!

And that's a wrap!!  This project was a huge challenge, but totally worth it to see the final result.  The new owners have moved in and are busy making this their new home.  Thanks for following along over the last 9 months as we made the transformation!  

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