A few house pics

[Byugal]

We had our old house moved to our property in September. It was a long wait...had bought it in March, and had been trying to buy it since the previous September. So far, we have built a front porch, a sunporch, and a mud room, and done a little work to the inside.

This is the house as it sat on a mover's lot....where it had been for 6 or 7 years. I had called about it when it first came on the lot, but was told it was sold. Still, it sat for years, and after Hurricane Ike, the front door blew in, and I went back to see it again. I called about it and was told the owner couldn't get it moved. Months later, we found out the reason. He was in prison. He had completely paid for it though, and we got the number of his sister, and she said he just wanted to re-coup some of his money, so we bought it for $15,000...moving already had been paid.

It looks awfully rough....had been a brick house and water seeped behind the mortar and caused some rot. Bricks were removed to move it and it had sat cut in half for all those years. It is an L shaped house, so was cut in the middle bedroom,
right where the top of the L joins the bottom.



Here it is, coming onto our land.



They did a good job of putting it back together, especially considering how long it had been cut in two and was slightly warped.

We built a porch across the front.



We built a sunporch and mud room inside the L.



We put Hardie plank on it and used these old windows in the gable ends that I've been saving for 20 years.


The room that was cut in half, we framed into an addition to the bathroom, and the other part, computer room. This window that goes in the area beside the toilet, is one that I have saved for 30 years.



The house had been advertised as an old farm house...had been the foreman's house on a large ranch near here. It was built from debris left over from the 1900 hurricane that almost wiped out Galveston. It has 3 x 12 floor joists, and it is as solid as a rock....although I know that looking at the before picture, you wouldn't think that.

We found a house that was being torn down and was able to get the hardwood flooring out of it and enough beadboard to do
the part of the bathroom where the tub will be. (I have lived for 13 years without a decent bathroom, and I want a nice,
big one in this house. One part will just be for the tub, and the other part, made where we framed up the cut in the house will be for the toilet, shower, and lavatory. We have enough flooring to patch where needed and enough to do the sunporch too. We also got 30 2 x 6 fir sills, a door, and a few windows...all for $200.

I can bore you with more pictures...but this is enough for now.

[angolito]

what an undertaking!!!!! the house has so much charm, and i really appreciate re-use of existing materials. good for you.

good idea with the "l" ..... it looks huge, for just a mudroom!

don't worry about boring us with more photos

[moonshadow317]

I agree with Sarah. That's some project you have there. You must certainly bore us some more with pictures Pleeease

[moonshadow317]

Whoops double post

[CountryGirl]

I'm impressed!! Persistence pays off.
Your windows were worth saving all those years.
Please more pictures.

Susan

[Byugal]

The picture doesn't show the mud room. Just the sunporch. We made an L inside the L. The mud room is just off the kitchen and the sunporch also has a french door that opens to the kitchen. We plan to put the tv out there and a place for
every day dining. Truth be known, we will probably "live" in the one room, mostly. We used some of the windows in the house for the sunporch. Like, we took one out of the bedroom, and one out of the hall. The one we took out of the bedroom, we boarded up and made a solid wall, but the one in the hall, we used an old window from an old school that was torn down. It is just a fixed in place window...and thought about putting a stained glass window, but didn't have one handy that was the right size, so instead, we may just replace some of the panes with colored glass.



The bathroom had a very small, high window. We took that out and put it in the mud room, and took another school
house window and turned it on it's side, and then added two skinny windows next to each end. One of the skinny windows was missing a pane and a mutin (?), so we took it out of the other side too. It matched up, more or less.



We bought a clawfoot tub to go in front of that window. We are going to put the tub up on a platform, because if we had put the window down to the tub, it would have been too low to look right in the room.

This is the tub. Haven't gotten it in yet, but this is at the shop where I got it.



We had to completely rebuild the front of the house where it had rotted out from the original porch being torn off. Here is a scary picture for you!



We thought we needed a 40" door but once they started rebuilding the front, we realized to make it completely symmetrical, we needed a 36" door. We found a nice old door with a full length, beveled glass. We were bringing it home the same day we brought the bathtub home. I told my husband that tying it off wasn't enough...he needed to at least pack some boxes or something around it. Well, he always takes chances and usually gets by. But, we were driving down the highway....rather he was driving...and looked in the side mirror and could no longer see the door. It had
fallen against the tub...broke the glass in a hundred pieces. I didn't say anything. I know he felt bad...nothing could
fix it now.

With all the money spent on the house, couldn't go out and buy another door...but rummaged through my collection of
old doors and found one that I bought many years ago for $5 at a yard sale. I thought it would make a nice garden shed door, maybe, some day. So, we painted it, filled in the holes and had to add a piece at the top, because someone had
cut it off, once upon a time. It doesn't look bad...sort of goes with the windows. I don't have a picture of it, but
will take one. It will do until we find another one...or maybe we will just keep this one.

Since the computer room is long and narrow, we put an extra big window in it....used it's original window in the sunporch...and used this old door that I got at Habitat Re-Store, a few years ago. The door was on clearance, half
off, so I got it for $50. They said a lot of people wanted it, but it is 32" and too narrow for most people to use. I
thought it would make a good interior door.

We went to an antique architecture place to find a back plate for a door knob and ended up splurging on this door knob for it. It was on sale, 25% off, and
is glass, not acryllic, and brass and came with all the hardware...the little piece that the knob turns into, and even a little tool to adjust it.





Here's a picture that shows the Hardie Plank on it.



The roof has been torn off, tar paper put on and is tarped...waiting for it to quit raining long enough we can put a new roof on it. Hopefully within a week or so. Will put a metal roof. The yellow color is the pre-primed color on the Hardie. Some was white and some was yellow. I haven't decided what color to paint it.

[KathyJB]

but rummaged through my collection of old doors and found one that I bought many years ago for $5 at a yard sale.

I like you! And another Texan to boot! Did you get a lot of rain yesterday?

[Byugal]

Yes, and I hear it is going to rain most of next week. We've had this place for 13 years, and I have never seen so much mud here. And, I am sick of cold weather, too. We actually had snow in November. I live near Galveston, so not used to very much cold.

As for the door....I've been saving windows and doors and all kinds of architectural flotsam and jetsam...for many years.

[KathyJB]

Yes, and I hear it is going to rain most of next week. We've had this place for 13 years, and I have never seen so much mud here. And, I am sick of cold weather, too.

I just hope the rain doesn't stop once Spring and Summer get here. We did have great weather last week, and It isn't set to rain tomorrow or Tuesday, but then again, it's Texas. I live in Colorado County by the way.

[rehabbingisgreen]

Wow you've really been busy! Love that door btw!!