This project was my obsession from November 2009, when I decided to start it, to October 2011, when the exterior work (painting and landscaping) was finally complete.
The house was built in 1928. The original portion of the house is just the two front rooms, it's log construction, so it was very interesting to restore. Sometime before 1954, the addition was added, and that is where the boudoir room and dressing room are. The entire building is an L-shape.
We found out I was pregnant (surprise!) in the summer of 2011, so my husband ended up finishing the painting for me, as it didn't seem like a good idea for a gestating woman to be up on a ladder operating a high-pressure spray gun. Sometimes, he's awesome like that.
I also had the help of my daughter, who was three years old when I started the project. She's a great little assistant when it comes to things like throwing things in the garbage (there was a LOT of that) and sweeping. And I kept momma cats with their kittens in the house, so she would play with those while I worked. The fact that my first child is awesome is the only way I could have juggled motherhood/running a business/farm life during the insanity of the restoration. At the time, we did not have local babysitting/a support system, so it really is a miracle that this project got finished at all.
Kitten break! At one point, I had three litters of kittens in the building. It cleaned out the mouse problem. But that's a lot of kittens, so after that I spayed and neutered everything on the place.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
I'll post the before/after photos here, but if you want the full, ongoing project including narrative, except in reverse chronological order, you can click [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and go to my blog, where I chronicled the whole thing in excruciating, unnecessary detail.
Also, be prepared to think that I was insane to tackle such a project. In retrospect, I was. But I love my studio, it's the coolest little building ever, and it would be crazy expensive to replicate the kind of character it has. I also love the history behind it - my father-in-law, of whom I was very fond, was born two years after the house was built, and partially raised his first three children there before building the "new" house where my family lives now. My kids are the fourth generation to enjoy it, and I just can't put a dollar value on that.
Things my husband did:
Rebuilt the chimney (using original bricks)
Painted all of the outside of the house except the front/south side
Helped install the wood stove, including putting in the chimney liner
Drove the box truck to the dump many, many times while I was cleaning out the interior
Put the strapping on the roof
Helped move/lift the large, heavy things - original woodstove, big deep freezes etc.
Things I did with the help of family:
Fixing broken floor joists in studio room (husband and my brother were in charge of that)
Building front porch (husband and brother and sister in law helped with the main porch, my mom and I built the walkway)
Wallpapering (had help from my mom and sister in law)
Adding new outlets (my dad is my electrician)
Things I hired out:
Refinishing the original hardwood floors - I didn't want to screw those up. I found an adorable Quebecois military man who did an amazing job for me. Also, they don't make much money in the Canadian forces, so I was happy to do my part in supporting our military people by giving him a buttload of my money. Also, he was adorable. Did I mention that he was adorable?
Putting tin on the roof (we tried, but then my husband blew out his knee, and it's an extremely steep roof, so I called a professional. Sadly, none of them were adorable.)
Things I did by myself:
EVERYTHING ELSE. I'm not kidding. Everything from carving pieces of wood out of a 2x4 to repair the original door (CHARACTER!!!!), to re-glazing windows, repairing drywall, painting, stripping lino, more painting, finishing carpentry, to reupholstering furniture, to sewing pillows and curtains. Hi, I'm Jennifer, and I have a DIY problem.
Outside, before:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Outside, after: There is nice landscaping under the snow, I just found this photo faster.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Meeting room, before: This is with about 75% of the junk gone. You've seen hoarders, right? It was kind of like that - a place for everyone to dump stuff since approximately 1975.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Meeting room, after:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Studio room, before:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Studio room, ready for the quarter round to be put back on the baseboards: This room had broken joists and a couple of rotted spots in the original hardwood, so we repaired that and then I laid the laminate. I do have a more finished photo of this somewhere, but I found this one first.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Boudoir room, before. I couldn't even really photograph this room before I cleaned it out, as it was filled to waist height with junk:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Boudoir room, after:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Dressing room, before: I spent days upon days repairing the drywall in here. I stopped counting at 300 holes in the walls. Those suckers are flawless now!!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Dressing room, after:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
There's also a video tour on YouTube that I did after the interior was finished, so if you want to lose five minutes of your life listening to me being a dork, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].
The house was built in 1928. The original portion of the house is just the two front rooms, it's log construction, so it was very interesting to restore. Sometime before 1954, the addition was added, and that is where the boudoir room and dressing room are. The entire building is an L-shape.
We found out I was pregnant (surprise!) in the summer of 2011, so my husband ended up finishing the painting for me, as it didn't seem like a good idea for a gestating woman to be up on a ladder operating a high-pressure spray gun. Sometimes, he's awesome like that.
I also had the help of my daughter, who was three years old when I started the project. She's a great little assistant when it comes to things like throwing things in the garbage (there was a LOT of that) and sweeping. And I kept momma cats with their kittens in the house, so she would play with those while I worked. The fact that my first child is awesome is the only way I could have juggled motherhood/running a business/farm life during the insanity of the restoration. At the time, we did not have local babysitting/a support system, so it really is a miracle that this project got finished at all.
Kitten break! At one point, I had three litters of kittens in the building. It cleaned out the mouse problem. But that's a lot of kittens, so after that I spayed and neutered everything on the place.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
I'll post the before/after photos here, but if you want the full, ongoing project including narrative, except in reverse chronological order, you can click [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and go to my blog, where I chronicled the whole thing in excruciating, unnecessary detail.
Also, be prepared to think that I was insane to tackle such a project. In retrospect, I was. But I love my studio, it's the coolest little building ever, and it would be crazy expensive to replicate the kind of character it has. I also love the history behind it - my father-in-law, of whom I was very fond, was born two years after the house was built, and partially raised his first three children there before building the "new" house where my family lives now. My kids are the fourth generation to enjoy it, and I just can't put a dollar value on that.
Things my husband did:
Rebuilt the chimney (using original bricks)
Painted all of the outside of the house except the front/south side
Helped install the wood stove, including putting in the chimney liner
Drove the box truck to the dump many, many times while I was cleaning out the interior
Put the strapping on the roof
Helped move/lift the large, heavy things - original woodstove, big deep freezes etc.
Things I did with the help of family:
Fixing broken floor joists in studio room (husband and my brother were in charge of that)
Building front porch (husband and brother and sister in law helped with the main porch, my mom and I built the walkway)
Wallpapering (had help from my mom and sister in law)
Adding new outlets (my dad is my electrician)
Things I hired out:
Refinishing the original hardwood floors - I didn't want to screw those up. I found an adorable Quebecois military man who did an amazing job for me. Also, they don't make much money in the Canadian forces, so I was happy to do my part in supporting our military people by giving him a buttload of my money. Also, he was adorable. Did I mention that he was adorable?
Putting tin on the roof (we tried, but then my husband blew out his knee, and it's an extremely steep roof, so I called a professional. Sadly, none of them were adorable.)
Things I did by myself:
EVERYTHING ELSE. I'm not kidding. Everything from carving pieces of wood out of a 2x4 to repair the original door (CHARACTER!!!!), to re-glazing windows, repairing drywall, painting, stripping lino, more painting, finishing carpentry, to reupholstering furniture, to sewing pillows and curtains. Hi, I'm Jennifer, and I have a DIY problem.
Outside, before:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Outside, after: There is nice landscaping under the snow, I just found this photo faster.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Meeting room, before: This is with about 75% of the junk gone. You've seen hoarders, right? It was kind of like that - a place for everyone to dump stuff since approximately 1975.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Meeting room, after:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Studio room, before:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Studio room, ready for the quarter round to be put back on the baseboards: This room had broken joists and a couple of rotted spots in the original hardwood, so we repaired that and then I laid the laminate. I do have a more finished photo of this somewhere, but I found this one first.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Boudoir room, before. I couldn't even really photograph this room before I cleaned it out, as it was filled to waist height with junk:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Boudoir room, after:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Dressing room, before: I spent days upon days repairing the drywall in here. I stopped counting at 300 holes in the walls. Those suckers are flawless now!!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Dressing room, after:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
There's also a video tour on YouTube that I did after the interior was finished, so if you want to lose five minutes of your life listening to me being a dork, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].
