Insulate it!

ARGH!  Blogger ate my post.  And of course, like a dummy, I didn't save it anywhere before I posted it.  So, now I'll have to recreate it.

Over spring break, we did manage to cross one thing off our list and that we can call "done done."  Most things around here fall into the "done but..." category.

The powder room we put in a year and a half ago is lovely and the house sorely needed a bath on the main floor.  The only problem with it was how frigidly cold it was.  We put in a marble floor and if you went in there in stocking feet, it would make your bones brittle.  We had insulated the walls before we closed them up, but the floor was over the old scary bathroom, which was nearly outside.  We had gone ahead and insulated the ceiling in the old scary bathroom but thought we could do more.

You see, originally half the sun room was a screen porch and half was a maid's room.  The maid's room had two doorways; one into the kitchen and one to the back porch off the kitchen.  Whenever it was converted into the sun room, that door was simply covered over and then paneled over thusly:

So, when we built the powder room, we simply drywalled over this door.  On the porch, was an busted up old screen door that had been nailed closed.  So, to take care of the cold issue, we decided to insulate that doorway and see if that helps to keep that room from being so frigid.

We pried the screen door open, cut out all the old screen. Nailed a piece of beadboard paneling to the inside and stuffed the cavity between the screen and door with insulation.  We nailed it back shut and painted the whole thing white again.

So, that job is DONE DONE!

The ice box, well that's still a work in progress.  I'll save updates for a later time.

Walls, At Last!

We have walls, I tell you! We have walls! Plaster guys were here all last week working upstairs putting in drywall and repairing/skim coating the plaster and I have to say, it looks beautiful! So white and clean.


First the guest bedroom:




The Hallway and Bathroom:



The drywall guys said we were going to have to pull down all the plaster in the bathroom because it was so deteriorated due to the leaking skylight. Penny started to go up and work on that on Wednesday (her day off). The guys looked at her and asked if she was going to do it now. As she is having hand surgery on Monday, Wednesday was going to be the only opportunity for her to get the plaster down. I think her pitiful hand made him feel bad so he agreed to laminate the old plaster with new drywall and box in the opening for the medicine cabinet too!

Master Bedroom:




So, what's left?

Downstairs skimcoating/plaster repair has to be finished.
Electrical is wrapping up.
Need to install sink in golden bath.
Skylight has to be fixed as it still leaks.
Downspouts need to be installed.
Need to get a new stove/range as now both the stove and the oven have crapped out on me.
Need to dust and then prime.
Then we get to call in the floor folks to fix and refinish the floors.
THEN we get to move in. I'm still hoping for November 1, but I'm thinking that is going to be pushing it. We'll see.

It won't be perfectly completed, but it will be livable. We are hoping we will be able to put in the powder room downstairs now too. It would be nice to have a house that has two toilets.

I'll be back later in the week with more wall pictures. Promise

Stucco

Apologies for the delay in posting. We pulled two very long days last weekend and I never got a chance to post on Sunday. We are trying to get the walls all prepped and ready for drywall and skim coating of plaster. We'll be back at it this weekend as the plaster/drywall guy starts on Monday. That will make a HUGE difference.

The stucco work was started and completed last week.

Monday they delivered materials.


Tuesday they pulled down all the old plaster and nailed up a metal mesh.




Wednesday they skimmed on a first layer of concrete




Thursday they did another layer.



Friday they did the texture and packed up all their stuff and went home.



Insulation update: Our wonderful contractor, Tommy, found someone to come blow the insulation in and take the huge green machine back to Lowes. What a relief that was. Penny spent much of Saturday insulating the soon to be master bath using the blue fluffy stuff.


We spent the weekend trying to get the last of the wallpaper down in the stairwell and get the walls cleaned.



We will spend this weekend washing walls and getting all the little bits of wallpaper off. The plaster/drywall guy thinks he can do most all of it in a week. That may or may not include skim coating the ceilings. I hope we can get at least the downstairs ceilings done. With walls in and skimmed, I can start priming. Once primer is on, the floors can be done and then we can move in! Oh, I'm so hoping we can make the November 1 date. I am so ready to have something of a "real" home. Well, as much as we can get for now.

We got the quote on tiling the master bath and that is going to simply have to wait until we get the tax check in February. We should be able to get the downstairs bath in however. That will give us a bath and a half, most importantly, it will give us two toilets.

First Night

We slept in our new place for the first time last night and it was wonderful!

Some wonderful friends came to visit and provide free labor. Since there is no room at our little cabin in the woods, we decided to camp out in the new place. Yesterday, two of us went upstairs and scraped more wallpaper (argh!) while Penny and our other guest demo'd the sunporch. They took up the floor and pulled out the paneling in the area that is to be the new powder room. They uncovered the blocked up door. Then, we all showered and headed out for a fabulous seafood dinner and a terrific bottle of wine. Came back, and we each snuggled into our beds. The late afternoon had brought a lovely, and much needed rain storm, which cooled everything down. With the fans blowing, it was quite comfortable to sleep. We kept giggling that we were spending our first night in the house. Didn't hear any ghosts or goblins. We did hear a couple of drunks stumbling down the street at a rather early hour though.

All in all, it was a good night!

We see the light at the end of the demo tunnel. All major demo is done (I hope). I still have to remove wallpaper in the tiny bedroom, the closets, the sunroom and the golden bathroom (which has been de-paneled). Since there is only a week left before I go back to school, I hope to get all the wallpaper down and all the walls washed in the next week.

Things we've done last week: I washed the dining room walls so they are ready for whatever comes next. The paneling in the sleeping porch (soon to be master bath) has been pulled down. All the moldings that need removing have been removed. Sunroom floor has been pulled up and all that paneling has been removed that's going to be removed. Oh, I fixed the leaky faucet in the kitchen almost all by myself (with a little bit of guidance from my electrician). I was quite proud of myself that day.

What's happening this week: The HVAC system is almost finished and we should have AC (and heat) by next weekend. We are getting quotes on the framing/drywall work and the plumbing for the two baths we are installing. We went ahead today and purchased the medicine cabinets for all three bathrooms. Penny has Monday off so we are going to look at pedestal sinks for the master bath tomorrow. This is the style of sink I want in the master bath. Roofing guy is supposed to start sometime this week but do the major work next weekend. Things are moving rapidly. I think we'll probably spend the night here again so that we can get started in the morning.

BUT, the best thing is happening tomorrow! We are finally getting a washer and dryer!!!!!! OMG, I am so happy I could just cry. They will be installed sometime tomorrow. I am OVER THE MOON about this. For the past two months we have been begging laundry time from friends or going to the laundrymat.

So, on to the pictures. As demo winds down, the pics are less dramatic (except for the sunroom ones).

Bathroom without sparkly faux marble paneling (only to reveal pea soup green paint over more @#$% wallpaper)



Faucet Repair: I carefully removed all parts and laid them out in the order I removed them and even took a picture so that if things got mixed up, I would have a record of their order.


Sun Room Demo


Faux Bois Wallpaper

The room formerly known as the "blue room" without wallpaper

Demo Continues

Good Monday Morning.

The demolition continued throughout the weekend and I'm quite proud of our progress. Penny and I got most of the paneling throughout the house down and out. We also got the dining room and foyer carpeting out. Penny pulled up the flooring in the vestibule to reveal rotted/termite damaged floor boards. With some help from my friend Jamie, I got all the wall paper down in the dining room, all four layers of it. I still need to wash off the glue, but overall, the plaster in that room is in very good condition.

Some discoveries we have made:

1. Found the original kitchen doorway.
2. Discovered the reason why the previous owner would not allow us to do an invasive inspection in the foyer/vestibule. There's no plaster left in that wall at all. It also looks like a combination of water and termite damage. Some of the vertical beams will have to be replaced. But the good news is that the horizontal beam seems to be quite sound.
3. Despite the torrential rain last night, no leaks have been found in the house this morning.
4. Other than the vestibule, the floors seems to be in pretty good condition. We just have thousands of staples to pull.
5. Moldings in the foyer are plaster, as are the corbels under the arch. Neato!

Vestibule Demo


Vestibule floor


Dining Room Sans Wallpaper


Original Kitchen Doorway


Hot and Sweaty Penny


Hardwood Floors

What is a "Domus Aurea" and why have you called your house renovation blog after it?

Domus Aurea is a reference to Nero's grand villa he built at public expense in downtown Rome after he annexed the burned out city center. The decor relied heavily on gold leaf, hence the name. The ceilings were studded with precious and semi-precious stones. The walls were covered in ivory or frescoes. There was a large man-made lake and fountains flowing in and around it. It had nearly 300 rooms, but what their exact use was remains a mystery. It was rumored that Nero was running a brothel out of the place to help finance it, but this is rumor and not supported by historical documents.

Nero believed himself to be quite the actor and athlete. He was also something of a brute, committing fratricide, matricide, and spouse-icide. He participated in the Olympic Games as a charioteer and nearly managed to kill himself in an accident. The judges awarded him first place anyway. Just before he committed suicide, he is said to have muttered "What an artist dies with me!"

So, why did I name my house after such a place of decadence and debauchery? Well, once you step inside, the reasons become quite obvious.





Can you see all the gold in that place? I have affectionately dubbed it the "Porn Palace" which only heightens the comparison.

The resemblance does not stop there. Out front we have these two views:


Please note the fountain and man-made lake.

Also, note the varied style of architecture. From what the neighbor has told me, this little loop was built by a man named Cosby who got rich in WWI by selling scrap back to the government. After the war, he and his wife toured Europe and fell in love with the variety of houses. They returned and built these houses representing all the different styles they saw in Europe. This loop he called the "Keyhole" as it was on the western edge of the city and looks out over Byrd Park. Apparently, he lost his fortune when the stock market collapsed in 1929 and committed suicide. His wife moved out of the corner house and into one deeper in the loop. Two pairs of houses have been occupied by twin siblings. In one they even cut out doorways in order to be able to access each other from the inside. I can't wait to learn more history as we go along.