A thread about a house.

Intentionally left blank.

I'll start the thread on the second post so I can continually edit this first post to include links to the eleventybillion learn me/help me/ how do I/ wwgrmd type threads I'm bound to create.

I'll try and tidy up the first 2 posts and add some more pictures over the next couple of days.

Just over a month ago, my partner and I took possession of  run down 100+ year old double brick cottage. It sits on half an acre in a nice little town and eventually we'll all live happily ever after.....

We'd spent about 5 months searching for a character home, traveling through 3 states and entertaining all manner of rediculous moves and projects. Frustration had well and truly set in, and we were getting antsy and to the stage of "let's just buy something, anything, it doesn't have to be 'the one' this time around. I'd hit refresh for probably the hundredth time that day and this one came up. It was pretty much everything we'd been looking for, including the price. Our biggest stumbling point had been people wanting alot for homes that would still end up with an extensive list of work to bring them up to where we'd like them to be.

I called the agent, he was shocked when I told him which house I was calling about, it had been up maybe 20 minutes. "So given the price, what's wrong with it" were pretty much the first words out of my mouth. He proceeded to tell me the floors were sagging and in need of replacement, the kitchen and bathroom would need redoing and basically the the whole house would need a total restoration. Perfect!, When can we look! 2. Days later we did our first walk through, we had a long discussion after seeing it and not being scared into running screaming off into the distance. 

we got a local builder to do a walk through with it to check out the brickwork and to see if he could spot any major issues that I'd missed. It came back as "in pretty good shape for its age". At that point we made an unreasonably low offer, did the back and forth dance and finally agreed on a price. The rest is history.

In reply to daeman :

Cute house! Looking forward to more pics. 

You get a lot back in home restoration.

It is agonizing, slow work, but when you get to a good spot, it is awesome to have done it yourself. 

In for the strength in numbers.

My story of thrill / agony

The last month has more or less been cleaning up, the place was gross! It had been a rental for the last decade, and due to it being in rough condition, the caliber of Tennant's it housed were rough at best.

First day we had it all the carpets were torn out, they were beyond filthy and we wanted to see how much, if any, of the original timber floor was left and what kind of condition it was in. 

The hall, lounge and master bedroom all had their original Cypress pine boards. Most were in good condition, though a few had some splits, cupping and a few telltale signs of what looked to be termite damage. 

Then we came to the two worst rooms.... The agent said that he believed they'd been replaced, but no idea of when and what with. He was right, they had been... With particle board flooring.... Bleh. So with that being the case, we started to remove them so we could fix the subfloor issues and redo them with timber floors, the way it was originally.

First room had had the entire subfloor replaced, but they'd only used non-treated pine. Knowing what I know now, I'll assume they did the floors due to termites. The damage you see is rot. About 10 years ago the property was hit by a 1 in 100 year flood event. Water was trapped under the house and being soft wood, the floor joists in this room just disintegrated. Next room still had the original hardwood joists which are in pretty good condition, but the ends of a few of them are a bit soft due to minor rot.

At that point, we knew the remaining timber floors and substructures needed some attention, so made the call to remove them. The intention was to try and salvage as many of the original floorboards as possible. We spoke to a few people, who said "good luck, Cypress boards get pretty brittle". I tried punching nails through a few damaged boards, no good, the boards would split, and being on hard wood joists, driving the nails in was like trying to nail concrete. Trying to pry the boards up wasn't going to work without splitting them or damaging tongues and grooves, so I decided to see if I could pry them just enough to slip a reciprocating saw in between the boards an joists to cut the nails. This proved to be very successful, we managed to salvage 80-90 percent of the floor. Most of what we lost was damaged already. 

In reply to Pete Gossett :

More pics to follow, I'll have to get the from my partner, she's the project photographer, I get to caught up in "doing" and then curse that I forgot to get pics.

In reply to wheelsmithy :

I hope so,  I think there's something very satisfying in bringing a run down old home back to life and being it's custodian to allow it to carry on into the future. Hopefully it survives long past me, the same way that it has it's original builders and inhabitants.

Appreciate it it mate, no doubt I'll need the support and boost along the way. I'll do my best to try and keep the story interesting.

I'll definitely have a look through yours when I can, I love seeing what other people have endured and achieved.

Congratulations.  I knew you were looking for the right house for a loooong time.

As mentioned, alot of clean up has taken place. We've cut down a few trees, pruned back others and managed to reclaim the old vegie beds back from the weeds (spring has sprung and we'll be starting to plant out over the coming weeks)

We started cleaning up down the sides of the house to pull back any dirt and weeds from the foundations in order to get a better idea of what's happening with the house. We found alot of damp dirt down the side that has the storm water plumbing, and the canary in the mine was literally a dead bird. After pulling back weeds we saw a dead bird, half hanging out of a hole in the ground. It was strange to say the least, so I grabbed the shovel and started to dig around it... As I suspected, I almost immediately hit a pipe. The pipe was badly broken, and I'd say the poor old bird got stuck while trying to get a drink. 

So began the excavation of the storm water pipe to find a suitable place to repair it. I dug back towards the corner of the house.... Oh, they've joined it to the original earthenware pipe? Nope, they'd joined 100mm sewer pipe to 90mm stormwater pipe with concrete. No problem, I busted out the concrete, I'll just replace the broken section of pipe with 90mm stormwater, the way it's supposed to be done. I dug the other direction, to the next downpipe, it was clogged and I figured I could remove the earthenware y joiner and use an ew to pvc coupler to worth the whole section properly (well, properly enough given that the whole stormwater system will be redone again once we do the verandas and shedding.) Dug out the ew junction, only to find that they'd just stuffed 100mm sewer pipe in the other side. So far, 3 joints between non compatible parts, none of which were water tight.

I dug at the next down pipe, expecting maybe that was where it went back to the original earthenware plumbing.... Plastic pipe in, again, not water tight.... Dug the other side.... Plastic out, surprise surprise... Not water tight. I moved on to the last down pipe (at Which stage I'm already thinking, E36 M3, I'm going to be replacing the whole lot aren't I) and sure enough, another cobbled together mess, not water tight.

I began digging out all the old storm water system, some of the pipe was 80-90% blocked with dirt. 

So, 2 days, $150 and a E36 M3 load of digging, cutting and gluing, the storm water system has been replaced from the back corner of the house all the way to the gutter with 90mm pvc stormwater piping, the way it should be. Hopefully now the soil has a chance to dry out and it should put to bed any damp issues.

This is really neat. I've never seen a house constructed like this. I'm going to like this thread. 

In reply to Appleseed :

Thanks mate, appreciate it. speaking of, how's your new place?

Yep, the way the house is on the foundation is new to me, too. Usually there is a slab, a crawl space or a basement. I've never seen joists that close to the ground before.

I also had to double take on the "Spring has sprung" comment, but you're in a different hemisphere. How far away from Sydney is it?

 

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Thanks Seth. Yeah, it's definitely an old way of doing things, you wouldn't go and and build a house like this these days. 

In reply to Brett_Murphy :

The lack of crawlspace definitely isn't desirable, it contributed to the houses poor condition due to lack of access.  I'm hoping to include an inspection trapdoor in each room and clean up/ level the dirt underneath to rectify that. It'll be tight, bit I feel it's a necessary improvement.

Yeah, I'm in the land down under lol. Just waiting another week or two to be sure the Frost's have finished for the year. I'm about 5 hours from Sydney (was living in Sydney till early this year), 4 hours from Melbourne and 3 from Canberra. About 2 hours from the snow as well. All in all a nicely placed little rural town

We’re putting the “finishing touches” on our 100-year-old home purchase. It’s been quite the ride. I’m jealous of your floors and that sexy azz trim paint!!!

I have an uncle who bought a gigantic house on a hillside once.  It was from the late 1800’s and had settled nearly 6” on the downhill side.  (Why is Allroad on about all this you might ask)  Well, one of the major projects he undertook with that place was to excavate a full basement in place of the vintage pier footings the house was constructed on.  It may be worth your time and energy now to excavate under that place so when it needs future work you aren’t fighting insufficient crawlspaces.

In reply to poopshovel again :

Nice, I remember seeing your kitchen thread, you got one for the whole house?

Thanks, I think we saved enough original boards for the hall and lounge to be redone, the 3 bedrooms will get either new or reclaimed Cypress pine boards to match depending on availability. The trims were originally some kind of dark stained/shellacked finish so will be stripped and returned to that, or painted white because white or timber were the standard finishes at the time.

Also, gday my land land  brother 

In reply to KyAllroad (Jeremy) :

Due to how this place is constructed, I can't put a basement under the whole house, each room would have to be done individually. We will be removing as much dirt as we can do safely though, and as much as I don't want to remove the brick bearers because they're an original part of the house, they'll probably be replaced with beams and enough wiggle room left beneath the beams that an adult can slide underneath them.

daeman said:

Due to how this place is constructed,

A hundred years ago, somebody went, "Im going to build a house." And they did.

Good luck with the restoration. Nice Land Rover, too. 

In reply to daeman :

Not nearly as involved as your project, but my house, I suspect,  is newer. With a hell of a lot less character. 

Good luck, mate.  Remember, with all huge projects, small bites. 1,000 small bites and you can eat the ass off a rhino.

Just remember, south of the equator, screws go in counter clockwise... or is it that you drive your house on the left side of the road?  I forget.

In reply to Appleseed :

Mate, knowing how the last year or three has been for you, I'm stoked you've got a place and things are going better for you. 

Thanks, no doubt I'll need all the luck I can get! But you're right, you can eat almost anything with enough time, patience and jaw strength lol.

In reply to Curtis :

Wellll, I thought you hammered screws and screwed nails? So I'm all for getting an education. Thanks for the laugh Curtis

We've spent the last couple of days measuring up and clearing for new fencing so we can get some semblance of secure yard for our dog. Also been measuring up and looking at options for a garage and workshop.

Yesterday whilst cutting back trees along the fence line I bumped into one of the neighbors, we had a bit of a chat about how things are going, what our plans for the house are, fencing and various other things. Eventually we got to a point in the discussion where I mentioned we were contemplating having a bore drilled so we can have an almost limitless supply of water for growing produce, gardening and lawns.

The neighbor is of retirement age and has lived next door for about 15 years, when I mentioned the idea of a bore, he said we shouldn't have any dramas hitting water. He then went on to tell me there used to be a well on our property, and that the fella who used to live on the other side of him had an agreement with the previous owner of our place that he could run a pipe from the well to his property.

The house and both owners have gone, but the neighbor told me he's hit the pipe a few times whilst doing work on his place and gave me a rough idea where the pipe ran. We've seen no evidence of a well, but apparently it was covered over but he was pretty sure it hadn't been filled in. I figure I'm in for a bunch of digging to try and locate the pipe and trace it back to it's source. 

After my little chat with the neighbor, I told my partner about the possibility of a well being on the property, she was pretty dismissive at first. I explained if I can find the pipe, I'll find the well, but obviously it'll be another job for another day.

We went back to cleaning up the area which we think was the old chicken coup, it's beneath a few privet trees, so there was a ton of built up leaf litter along with a healthy mix of rubbish and debris. Eventually as we were getting close to done I moved a small concrete pad, about 2ft square. I started raking at the roots and leaf liter, and it sounds like more concrete.... There's random concrete slabs all through this area, I'll be spending time on the jackhammer later. Anyway, I clean down to the next layer of concrete, and it sounds suspiciously hollow.... Could it be?, Did we just accidentally find the well!?

Well well well..... What'd do we have here (bad pun is bad, I'll show myself out!)

The well has about 13ft of water in it and is about 25ft deep. Absolutely stoked! A well pump will be on the shopping list, I'll also have to investigate the water quality and licencing and the like.

I'm pretty sure that well co-starred in The Ring.