Well, another year gone by, another room done! (Actually, this took 10 months.) I give you the renovation of our horrible bedroom to what I like to think of as a nice shiny gem today. It's furnished now and sleeping here is like sleeping in a nice B&B! I hope you like the end results...I certainly know you can appreciate the hard work that went into it.
Enjoy!
Eric
I was going to ask about that hardware also. I like the flat head screws and how nicely it cleaned it. I don't they those exist at the run of the mill hardware store.
I'm curious about the chimney that came out. What is the story on that? I am guessing it started to come out at the roofline, and you took it out from a second floor bedroom. Is that work continuing to the basement?
The closet seems to have been reconfigured. Perhaps the original house had no closet at all.
Nice work.
American Foursquare with Prairie and Colonial Revival influences
Thanks everyone...
Nezwick, the sander is a rental drum sander. The original floorboards were very cupped with a head and shoulders effect to each board. I had to pound every nail in the floor about 1/8th inch deeper into the face of the wood so the sander would not hit them. Then, starting with a coarse grit (36) on the drum, just started going along the floor (with the grain) and gradually taking the crown of the wood down until successive smoother grits made it totally even and smooth. There is still plenty of wood left. I'd say maybe 1/16th to 1/8th of an inch was removed in thickness.
Kansas and Daniel, the hardware is patented 1875 and the screws are salvaged originals. The latches themselves were dipped in chemical stripper to remove the built up paint and regain the "spring" effect these teapot locks have (to release them, you have to press the little handle down.) I only use slotted screws for authenticity although it is becoming very hard to find them...home depot no longer carries them. You can always find great window hardware on ebay though.
As for the chimney, I had to remove it as it was deteriorating badly, so I took it down from the roof one floor at a time...it was long gone before reconstruction began because we needed it gone so i could jack the house up on this side to replace our rotted out sill.
I built the closet because the one in the room was virtually unusable. You are correct...originally the house had no closets. The one I replaced was likely built in the 1960's. In fact, this bedroom was originally two smaller rooms...you can see in the floor before sanding a line of bare wood between two fields of green paint, and a hole with a stud cut flush with the floor. It is believed the wall was torn out to make one large room in the early 1930's.
