Stephen and Vivian House

More pictures

2011-11-27T15:44:00.001-08:00

Follow the link....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/evankreider/collections/72157627010542893/

Concrete work

2011-09-06T09:18:00.001-07:00

The roof is gone!

2011-08-29T09:51:00.000-07:00

It's on the way to the dump.

More pictures from Evan

2011-08-25T08:53:00.000-07:00

Pictures of the hole in the ground!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/evankreider/sets/72157627432208576/

Update and free firewood

2011-06-12T22:13:00.000-07:00

The permits are in process, our plans have become more extensive and since we have to fix the basement floor anyway we are going to put in an ADU to get some rental income. We hired an architect and an engineer and plans are submitted and we are lining up contractors as we are not going to do all of this ourselves.

Also, we took down a large tree which was in the middle of the power lines and messing up the sewer. Becuase of this we have lots of free firewood --- it needs to go!! Summer is coming, contact me if you want some firewood!

More pictures!

2011-04-25T07:39:00.000-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/evankreider/sets/72157626555492160/

And so we begin in Earnest

2011-03-21T10:18:00.000-07:00

On Friday we retained the service of an architect a guy named Terry Smith out of Federal Way. Terry has a real affinity for arts and crafts houses and he is going to get us all the way to the permit phase. Hopefully in 4 to 5 weeks. I think he is going to come up with some really good ideas to help us turn our home into something that fits our eclectic life style

It was an interesting weekend. Vivian and I took out the speakeasy. Special thanks go out to Stan Dyck for dropping by Saturday and helping move a ton of trash. We have moved to the dump in 5 separate trips a little over 5000 lbs of garbage and debris mostly from the removal of the speakeasy.

Sunday after finishing our dump runs we added some temporary posts in the basement to hold up some of the beams. I am impressed with how well this house was constructed. The lines are tight and after all these years there is very little sag in the floors. The foundation looks especially solid.

We have learned that when you do a renovation job of an almost 100 year old house, the walls and the ceilings often hold surprises. This house if proving quite interesting as you can see from the pictures. Both items were found stashed in the ceiling of the speakeasy near the chimney. Near the chimney is where the mice nest and we took out a number of old nests with quite a bit of mice poop.

I wonder what Wesley’s story is. Wesley was the name printed on the box that contained to gold dental bridge made up of 6 teeth. The teeth are pretty heavy so we expect to get a good price when we sell the scrap.

We met our neighbor Pete who lived up the alley a few house. Pete has lived in his house 17 years and he said that the family who owned our place had been in the house for years and years. I hope to hear some more stories about the family from the neighbors as we get to know everyone.

Photo Comments from Friends

2011-03-14T10:31:00.000-07:00

A bunch of our friends commented.....

WOW, that place is going to be gorgeous!!!!!!!!!!! Congrats!

OMG – you two are so brave………all that work would be to much for me……….please share the finish product………Pat

Stephen - I like it! It is quite charming - you have a good eye! And of course more of it's personality will be revealed after you're done - which will be in a couple of months, right?? Not too much to do :) I do hope you'll keep the 1920's picture on the wall of the speak easy of the customers arriving - very cool!!

I kind of miss living on Beacon Hill- it was fun. Congratulations! Looks like it’s going to be a beautiful home!

It looks like you might have a few weekends spoken for in the coming year. But a neat old house with lots of character.

There are some seriously charming aspects of your new house! I hope you plan to preserve the murals, among other things! Personally, I think maybe you can let go of some of the paneling….and the front stairs are scary!

Thanks for sharing the photos, Evan. I think I've got a real feeling for the place. I love that period, that style of house. So many of the windows have leaded glass and the fireplace is charming. I wonder if there are colored tiles under the coat of paint. There's a green that would have been somewhat common back then. I'm toying with the idea of adding some reproduction tiles to our fireplace to kick it up a notch. There's a ton work to be done here but I have complete confidence that Steve and Vivian can handle it with a little help from their friends. I wish I lived close enough to swing a hammer for the cause now and then. I think the ceiling fixtures alone cover the cost of the house especially when one throws in the basement bar complete with art!

I love the brick and rose bushes and the floors!!!! Very nice

Photos and the Water battle

2011-03-14T07:55:00.000-07:00

Vivian’s parents came down last Friday and her father Evan did a fairly extensive photo survey of the house, the before pictures. You can see them at the following link.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/evankreider/

I took a PTO day from work Friday and went up on the roof again to try and temporarily staunch the flow of water from the incredibly poor quality roof and gutters. We went back Sunday evening during the pouring rain to check on the house and lo and behold, no leaks. I hope the patches hold until we can get the new roof on. Water seems to be a theme with this house.

This weekend is demo, we want to gut the kitchen and the speakeasy if you are a friend feel free to come help Saturday. We will be there early

A Good and Crappy weekend

2011-03-07T08:14:00.000-08:00

Of course if you ask me how the weekend was I will answer “Good…and crappy” What a nasty dirty job cleaning out the sewer lines with a power snake. We had some visitors over the weekend to the house. It is nice people are dropping by. Our neighbors to the west all said hello and Eunice and her two boys came by Sunday for a visit as well. We had offers of food and Cuban coffees as we work. The neighbors seem very friendly. We have a very diverse group of neighbors including immigrants from Cuba, China, Vietnam, Ethiopia and Capitol Hill.

We now have to figure out how to get the plans drawn up so that we can get permits. Anybody know an architecture student? We promise more pictures soon

Where o where does the sewer go?

2011-03-06T19:22:00.000-08:00

Where o where does the sewer flow? Have you ever wondered what happens to your waste after you flush the toilet? Where does it go? Well, have you checked the basement???

Today, when we flushed the toilet, it emptied into the basement. Not into the sewer which had somehow gotten clogged up. Ugh. We put our other plans on hold and went to work on the plumbing issue. We rented the rotorooter snake thing from the Home Depot. It didn't look like it was working and we were ready to give up but after two hours the sewer started to flow properly! Hurray! However, being a bit overzealous Stephen managed to lose the metal drill thing that attaches to the snake in the sewer. So there is now a 2 inch metal thing in the sewer. The toilet flushes properly now but it's fluids only and no solids are allowed until the plumber has a chance to look at it.

On a plus note, we also diverted the gutters on the East away from the house and removed the blue tarp from the roof and patched it. With this and the sewer system cleanout we are hopefully well on the way to mitigating the moisture problem in the basement.

Waiting for a dry weekend

2011-03-04T10:22:00.000-08:00

OK, we really really really need to fix the roof but we can't do it in the rain! When will we have a dry weekend in Seattle?

Our home is featured on Seattle Bubble blog

2011-03-03T17:03:00.000-08:00

This is from The Tim, who blogs at Seattle Bubble:

I predict that at least one of these will pop back on the market within six to nine months as a rehab flip. Number two seems like an especially good candidate.

http://seattlebubble.com/blog/2011/03/02/cheapest-homes-march-2011-edition/

Number two is the one we bought Tim!

Floor Plans

2011-03-01T14:53:00.000-08:00

Here are the floor plans for the house which we drew up this weekend.

You will need to click on the pictures to enlarge.

This is the main floor.

And this is the basement:

And this is the second floor. We're pointing out where the peaks of the house are on the second floor, and not where each room is now.

Pictures of the house

2011-02-13T18:35:00.000-08:00

This is the front of the house:

It's got a large front porch!

And here is the back of the house, which is also how you get here by car: