this site chronicles the journey of one family’s restoration of a 1913 craftsman house.

we don’t know much about the history of the house yet, other than the last couple owners. the former owner, a single woman, lived here for 23 years. i’m convinced she vacuumed every day, because i’ve never removed ~20 year old carpet that was this clean. the owners before her, live a few doors down but are kinda reclusive… so we haven’t met ‘em. the house was a rental at that time.

the house is now in our hands. the general idea is to restore the exterior and the lower floor. make everything as original and/or period correct as possible, while still keeping modern safety and comfort (new electrical, plumbing, proper insulation… hvac, etc). the original windows will remain, and matching salvaged windows will hopefully be sourced for the upstairs.

the kitchen will need to be re-arranged a bit, but won’t get the all-too-often seen granite “modern gourmet upgrades”… rather a much more “authentic-ish” approach to the design and material selection.

the upper floor is a partially finished-in attic, and a “sun room.” with some work, it’ll fit a master suite (bedroom + private bath), two other bedrooms and another full bathroom. the upper bathrooms will likely deviate from the rest of the house a bit, due to really wanting a jacuzzi tub and stand-up showers… although every effort will be taken to keep the feel as appropriate to the rest of the house, as possible.

without changing the footprint of the house, it’ll go from a modest 2 bedroom 1 bath, to a 5 bedroom 3 bath… and there’s still and entire basement to explore further expansion (and spending).

i’m a former general contractor and plan on not hiring much of anything out. it’ll mean sore muscles, aches and pains, little free time (other than what’s spent with the family, of course), and a lot of work… but it’s also what i love to do. plus i’m a cheap bastard and cant see paying someone else to do what i can do myself. i’m sure i’ll kick myself in the ass for that quite a few times… but i’m stubborn, too…

-dan