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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A Healthy House Starts in the Basement

A wet basement is a problem.  That moisture will make its way up through your house, creating mold and mildew problems that contaminate the air you're breathing everyday.  And as we tighten up houses with better insulation and air sealing, that moisture becomes a bigger problem for the homeowners.

This house is at the bottom of a hill and while the basement is dry with our current drought, when I looked at it in late spring, it was pretty wet. The previous owners had cut a homemade channel across the basement to steer the water into a low spot. But it’s not an elegant fix and we want to ensure the new owners won’t have any water worries. 

DIY basement drainage

Trench around entire perimeter

So last week we put in a waterproofing system.  It's a big job that takes a full week, but will make a world of difference! 

If youve been following for awhile, you know the drill. Dave from Concrete Prescriptions begins by jackhammering the concrete around the perimeter and then hand digs a trench all the way around the house.  This will create a catch basin for any water entering the house.

Digging out the trench is a huge job

The trench gets filled with landscape fabric (so it won’t clog with silt over time) gravel and drainage pipe

So much drainage pipe is needed for the perimeter of the basement! 

The pipe is installed in the trench and pitched towards the sump pit

Everything gets covered with more gravel

 The walls get covered with 20 mil plastic, so any water that seeps in will get sent directly to the drainage pipe. 

Everything gets pitched downwards, so the water runs into the sump pit.

 

All the drainage pipes are connected in the lower part of the sump pit

Then the entire drainage system gets covered with concrete, for a nice, stable floor. 

The trench gets backfilled with concrete for a nice smooth floor

When the water begins to rise, the sump pump turns on and the water gets sent out of the building. How great is that? 

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