After the old fireplace was removed and the new one was put in we had to recreate moldings that were long gone. To do this, we called our friends at SF Victoriana to recreate the moldings from a scribe. This is also how we had the staircase recreated. This time however, we had the luxury of cutting some of the molding we already had so they could create it perfectly.

After a week or so they had our paint grade poplar moldings done. Unfortunately it had to be created in three separate pieces because it was so tall. No matter, the nail gun loaded with brad nails made it easy to attach to the wall after lots of mitering and test fitting. All in all it turned out great and this room is finally complete.

Seems like all we do around the house as of late is paint. Its incredible what 20 hours of work and two gallons of paint will do for a room. For this room we chose to Benjamin Moore’s “Light Blue” in satin for a formal victorian look. The blue really helps to bring out the colors of the original stained glass and makes the original glass chandelier pop.

Luckily this room was white before hand which made things easy except for the ceiling which needed to be primed. The moldings were also in great shape except for a few cracks here and there which we quickly fixed. We finished all the trim in Benjamin Moore’s “Atrium White” as we have for the rest of the house to match.

While we were in there we decided to upgrade the window hardware. Some of it was missing and some of it was broken. A quick online order through Restoration Hardware and we had period correct window matches that are almost identical to the original.

Ugly chandelier aside, I have finally gotten around to updating my master bedroom. We’ve been so focused on the living areas for entertaining I haven’t had any time to focus on my room. Although I don’t spend much time in there, the time I do spend inst that pleasant. The colors were drab and sure didn’t make waking up for work any easier.

After trying out a few different colors I finally settled on Benjamin Moore’s Celadon Green for the base and Garden Path for the top border, the same as the border in the living room. For the moldings we used Benjamin Moore’s Atrium White as we have in the rest of the house. After three days of solid work and a few gallons of paint later the room looks perfect. It is now light and airy and reminds me of key lime pie.

This was one of the simplest projects we have tackled and made a pretty dramatic impact on the room. The room is much brighter and has a whole new sense of completeness that it was lacking before. Great bang for the buck. Also, since we had already updated most the electrical in the ceiling this project was complete in less than an hour.

We started from inside the room and marked exactly where we wanted the lights to go. It helps to have a second set of hands to measure everything up perfect and square. Then after the positions were marked I put on the Tyvek suit and climbed up into the ceiling (thats what happens when you are the skinny one). From there Brian would use a RotoZip to cut out the holes and I would feed him the power. Then the lights are fed up from inside the room and snapped into place. Its that easy!

Thats me climbing in the ceiling

Although the chandelier we replaced may be more original, as in old and added in the early 20th century, this period Tiffany chandelier also fits the style of the house and is more appropriate for the living of today. We picked this one up for a few hundred dollars from Lamps Plus. It gives off a much yellower light, even with CFLs, and hangs high and in the center of the room with a medallion that we added. Hopefully someone on eBay will find use for it. You can see more pictures of the old one and the new one here.

This, like any other project involving wiring in an old house, requires taking power from a modern circuit to alleviate the stress on the old knob and tube. Luckily, I am no stranger to climbing in the crawl space and already have pulled a new circuit. All of that went fairly easily as usual. Hanging the chandelier took a little longer however. This is the first time we have hung one where one didnt exist before, from installing the box in the ceiling with wiring, putting in a ceiling medallion, and hanging it.

All in all, its an easy project and following directions helps as always. We ran into trouble because we added a ceiling medallion that made the threaded rod that came with the chandelier too short. Luckily, when we pulled the old chandelier off the ceiling we found one that fit our needs. Even so we still tackled it in a few hours.

For pictures check out flickr.

About a year ago we had the house seismically retrofitted by covering the brick foundation in concrete and adding steel support beams (seen here); however, recently we were getting ready to build a new wine cellar and found old support beams and headers. Since we already had the foundation 70 percent retrofitted we decided to finish the rest. This time they dug another trench and filled with concrete and rebar to support another steel i-beam connected to an engineered wooden beam.

Now we have a wide open garage with very few supporting beams anywhere in the middle. The only two we have are covered by drywall which is soon to become the wine cellar. But we’ll go into more on that. For now, check out the pictures of the work here.

Its been a while since the last post so I decided to give an update as to the goings on with the house. Since the holiday season is upon us the work has slowed down. We have been doing some odds and ends around the house as always but mostly just relaxing and enjoying all the holiday parties, including our own. The picture above is of the house all lit up before our holiday shindig.

Next year we have a lot of projects planned including the backyard, shop, and wine cellar so stay tuned. Happy holidays.

Many of the joys of owning or even maintaining a home are fixing the little things; the things that don’t work quite right. The things that no one can really see but you. Wiring definitely falls into that category. In my house, I have three fuse boxes. Two of them are decades old when the house was still two units and the other one is a sub panel for the kitchen remodel.

Like other projects in the house when I know better than to tackle it myself I call in a specialist. In this case a licensed and insured electrician, Tim Moran. Some of you who read this blog know that I do a lot of my own electrical wiring, almost all of it actually. But when it comes to installing a new fuse panel and redoing some of the horrendous wiring its best to leave it to a licensed professional.

While Tim and his apprentice were in the basement replacing my old fuse boxes with a modern one I was doing some rewiring of my own. About the time that our seismic work was done my phones stopped working. Turns out it wasn’t a coincidence.

After a few hours of work on both of our parts the wiring was done and everything was back to normal. Now instead of three fuse panels there was one and all the wiring and conduit was cleaned up. Also, I fixed all the phones and ripped out all of the dead wires and hid everything that could be hidden. Not bad for a thousand bucks and a few hours of my time.

For those of you who are interested in working on telephones its quite simple actually. With the digital lines of today, the signal is carried over only two wires, usually red and green. Also, there’s only a maximum voltage of 30 volts and the current is low so it wont shock you. The only tool you will need is a lineman’s handset, also known as a butt set. They are often orange and look like a telephone handset with two wires that have alligator clips at each end. They are cheap and easy to find on the Internet or you could easily make one. Anyway, connect the alligator clips to a binding post or a wires in question and start looking for a dial tone. Now its just a matter of digging through that gaggle of wires and figuring out where they all go.

After 5 days of working straight for ten hours and a lot of follow up work including stain, multiple coats of varnish, and paint we are finally finished. I think it turned out wonderful and couldn’t be happier about the results. It was a great learning experience and not all that complicated as long as you have patience and some good do-it-yourself experience. The pride of building something like this yourself and saving thousands on highly skilled labor is enough to make me want to do it again someday.

Before and After

Before we had a huge dividing wall separating the downstairs living space from the staircase. This made the entry feel small and blocked the light from traveling further back into the first story of the house. Now we have this grand Victorian entrance with a matching banister throughout the house that hopefully pays homage to what this place looked like 119 years ago.

All of the pictures can be found on the Victorian Staircase Restoration Flickr Set.
There are many more posts where this came from. Here is a list of the all the posts in chronological order in case you missed any:

• Rebuilding a Long Forgotten Staircase
• Staircase Demolition Begins
• Staircase Build Day Two
• Staircase Build Day Three Begins
• Staircase Build Day Four
• Staircase Build Completed Day Five

As day five and the final day of the project comes to a close we have completed the build. All the moldings and trim are in. All the holes are filled. The entire staircase is sanded and its ready to be stained and painted. Its been a long five days, working about 10 to 12 hours each day. There’s still more ahead but it feels good to get the bulk completed.

I’d like to thank my dad for helping me to build my first staircase, Scott Bowles from SF Victoriana for recreating all of these components for us, and the Wood Works Company for creating our beautiful newel post. Without these folks the project would not have come together as well or as quickly as it did.

I’m off on vacation now but when I return I will stain and finalize the project, being sure to post pictures along the way. I have posted a few new pictures on my Flickr page as well for your enjoyment.

Follow up to Staircase Build Day Four