A Battle of the Sexes as We Demolish the Kitchen

         

Gary, Nancy and Larry (the Crew)
Have Breakfast on the Front Porch

It's Memorial Day weekend and the "crew" is having breakfast on the front porch. We were thankful Nancy and Gary (my sister and significant other)offered to come down and help demolish the kitchen and complete some other “little” jobs. Since we need to be able to stay at the house while we work on it, we moved the refrigerator out onto an enclosed area of the front porch and we set up a microwave and coffee maker in the family room. After assigning tasks to "Team Boys" and "Team Girls", work began.

Each team reviewed their lists of tasks and challenged one another to see who would be the first to finish. "Team Boys" got all the heavy lifting and removing tasks, while "Team Girls" was assigned those tasks that required a more gentle touch. From time to time, new tasks were added to ensure neither team finished before the weekend was over. (Hey, it was free labor!) While we came to demolish the kitchen, we realized everything in the laundry room (part of the porch that is being incorporated into the kitchen) needed to go too, except for the 45 gallon electric water heater that is eventually going to be replaced by a gas tankless model. By late in the afternoon, all the old appliances and cabinets had been removed from the kitchen/laundry room and placed in the car port where they would await pick-up by Habitat for Humanity.  With both rooms completed, "Team Boys" decided it was time to call it a day and returned to the front porch to enjoy a round of beers before we all headed to town for dinner.

Nancy Removes
Wainscoting Shadow Boxes

The next day, “Team Girls” and “Team Boys” continued to make their way through their respective lists. Like any home improvement project, every task took twice as long to complete as expected and we had to make numerous trips to Kellogg’s the local lumberyard/hardware store. Despite a change in ownership, this is the same lumber yard that was once run by the original owner of our big yellow house. Don't you think we should get a discount to support our renovations?

Gary and Larry Hang the
Living Room Chandelier

By the end of the weekend we saw light fixtures removed and installed, wainscoting shadow boxes and shoe molding removed, several doors detached from their hinges to make for a more open floor plan, bushes trimmed and the walls of a storage closet torn apart to confirm it could indeed be re-purposed into a “butler’s pantry”. We all went home sore and tired but feeling like we had accomplished a lot. Most importantly, Scott’s crew could start building our new kitchen.



And The Walls Come Tumbling Down

Renovations began this week! Our initial plan is to create a “wow” kitchen, refinish all the hard wood floors, and install a claw foot bathtub and new flooring in the master bathroom. Scott Noble will be overseeing this work for us, but we’ll be helping by doing some demolition and painting. Working without Scott, we’d also like to paint as many ceilings in the house as possible, maximize the storage capability in all of the bedroom closets, change out some of the light fixtures, and repurpose a closet under the stairs into a “butler’s pantry”. Since we want to get all this work done before the fall, we figure we have about 8 weekends to do it. We're confident Scott’s team will make their goals, but we’re not sure we can meet ours.



The Back Porch Becomes a
Mud Room and  Part of the Kitchen

While we were back in Northern VA doing our “day jobs”, Tommy Winslow and his crew removed the wall between the enclosed back porch and the kitchen. This area will become part of our kitchen, but will be used more like a mud room. Seeing this was once an outside load-bearing wall, the removal took more than a few swipes with the sledge hammer like we see on HGTV.  Since the wall also included what had once been the home's external back door and a window, both were removed carefully and placed in the carport in case they could be used elsewhere. While there is still some more work to do, it is already clear how much more space this change is going give us.



Timbers Covered with Bark and
Square Head Nails Revealed

 While looking at what remains of the original exterior wall, I was surprised to see it had been framed with rough cut 4X4 timbers—some of which were still covered in bark and square head nails. While Tommy tried to leave as much of the old clapboard on the walls of the old porch as was possible, sadly most of boards split and fell apart as they were being cut.

A dumpster is arriving tomorrow to collect all the refuse. Truth be told, I spent more than an hour going through the pile making sure nothing of historical value was being sent to the landfill.  



Everyone who knows me, knows I love to soak in the bathtub. That’s why it was so important that we find a space in our master bathroom to have one installed. While I hated to eliminate the only closet in the room, it was the most logical location for my new tub. I already know I am going to love soaking here.


Fantasizing About My New Bathtub

 

This is one brick that won’t be going into the dumpster. When the former owners repaved the driveway, they laid an engraved brick in honor of each of the homes’ previous owners. Not to be left out, they presented us with a brick of our own at settlement. How come Larry gets top billing when this is my dream house?



We Become an Official Part of the
Big Yellow House's History

 









Our Renovation Story Begins

Today we go to settlement on our big yellow house and I didn’t sleep a wink last night. I’ve bought and sold nine houses in my life, and I don’t remember being this excited since I bought my first townhome in the spring 1982. Instead of worrying about whether or not I could afford the mortgage, this time I tossed and turned thinking about all the things I want to do to help restore this home to its full glory.

As you can see from my first posting, our big yellow house is BIG. It is also in remarkably good shape for being 96 years old. Not only was it well built (its first owner was also the owner the town’s lumber mill), it’s been lovingly maintained and upgraded by its 7 former owners. Since all of the difficult work has been done, my job is to bring it into the second decade of the 21st century without losing its 1916 charm.

The Kitchen

Here are some pictures of what the house looked like the day we took possession. While small, the kitchen is a real charmer. Exposing the back of the fireplace was a stroke of genius by the former owners. While I know I want to expand the kitchen by incorporating a nearby enclosed sun porch, I don’t plan to make any changes to that fireplace.

The Foyer

The stain glass windows surrounding the front door are a trade mark of the home’s builder, Frank Fred Muth. Similar windows can be found in other homes around town constructed by the same builder. I like the simplicity of the geometric shapes.

The living room with its five large windows, built in bookcases, and working fireplace is a place I am certain to enjoy while reading a good book on Sunday afternoon. If I don’t want to hear Larry watching the football game in the nearby family room, I can always close the glass pocket doors.


The Living Room

 One of the first jobs Larry tackled was closing up the pet door on the back porch. Since the previous owners moved next door, their cat is a bit confused about where he lives. The silver duck tape on the swinging door should be a good clue he needs to try someplace else. 

Closing Up the Cat Door


While in good condition, my list of desired modifications is many times larger than my budget. I know I need to sort out what is a must have vs. a nice to have so we can prioritize and start renovations...but right now I want to do it all!

How We Got Our Big Yellow House

Tomorrow is the day we settle on our big yellow house.  Owning and renovating a historic home is something I’ve dreamt about for most of my life.  Having purchased 8 homes over the past 30 years you might be wondering, “What took you so long?”  The truth is it just wasn’t the right time.  I was too busy, living in the wrong place, didn’t have the money, or was married to the wrong man.  Then, in late 2010, I realized the wrong time was quickly becoming the right time.  With children launched and retirement rapidly approaching, Larry (my handy around the house new husband) and I realized we could live anywhere we wanted.  Secretly I wondered, “If not now, then when?”  So one evening, over a glass of wine, I shared my long-time dream with Larry. He agreed the wrong time was quickly becoming the right time and together we started our search for the perfect historic home. 

"The South's Prettiest Small Town"



Realizing we needed to find the perfect location before we could find the perfect historic house, we quickly settled on the four criteria that eventually led us to Edenton, NC : 

·    No more than a 4 hour drive from Northern Virginia

·    Small town (less than 35,000 people)

·    On the water (ocean/river/lake)

·    Sizable historic district with plenty of  shops and restaurants

We first visited Edenton in the fall of 2010 and for the next 18 months I stalked the town and their real estate market via the internet.When Larry asked what I wanted for Christmas in 2011, I didn’t hesitate a moment when I told him I wanted to go back to Edenton and look seriously at real estate.  One week later we had reservations at the Grandville Queen, one of Edenton's historically significant B&Bs, and I went to work surfing the internet identifying more than 26 historic homes I wanted to visit.

With my two sisters and their husbands in tow, the “big yellow house” was one of 26 homes for sale we strolled past as we carried out our walking tour of Edenton the week between Christmas and New Year’s.  At the end of two days, I had eliminated all but 6 homes and was anxious to see each from the inside.  A serendipitous meeting led us to realtor Fraser Kelly and the following day we visited 5 of those 6 homes.  Sadly, the “big yellow house” was already under contract and no longer available for viewing.  We left Edenton pretty sure we had found the right location, but not the “right house”.

Two weeks later we received a call from Fraser telling us the contract had fallen through on the “big yellow house” and it was back on the market.  Since Larry and my brother-in-laws were scheduled to complete some renovation work at our weekend home, we girls jumped in the car and took another road trip to Edenton.  It was love at first sight when I stepped inside the “big yellow house”.  Armed with a multitude of photos and a significant amount of video, I returned home to introduce Larry to what would ultimately become our new home.  Tomorrow, we become the 8^th owner of “our” big yellow house.  The list of families who lived here before us includes:  the Brown’s (1916), the Stephenson’s (1922), Mrs. Brown (1930), the Colombo’s (1968), the Underkofler’s  (1975), the Kearns’ (1994), and the Cumby’s (1998).