Style 1900 Magazine Shoot
Our dining room is featured on pg. 72 of the Winter 2012-13 issue of Style 1900 magazine. We’re honored to share our before and after story with readers
The Fireplace Works Again!
After 5 1/2 years in the house, we finally repaired the fireplace. Finally, warm cozy fires, just in time for Christmas!
Before and After: Fence
This post is a long time coming. The new cedar fence turned into our major house-related improvement project of 2011. We started in August and didn’t finish until Halloween!
Schoolhouse Electric Swoon
Last week I got the new Schoolhouse Electric catalog in the mail. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they started carrying housewares!
$257,000: Purchase and Payback
The Budget: Part 3 — Now its time to describe how we financed the project and how much we still owe
$257,000: Cost Breakdown
The Budget: Part 2 — We are ready to share the full itemized list of how we ended up spending $256,920.00… complete with pie charts!
$257,000: Project Rundown
The Budget: Part 1 — As an effort to be more transparent about our utter financial stupidity, we’ve decided to post about how our remodeling budget ballooned out of control
Virtual Tours: Living & Dining Room
We’ve put together some virtual tours of our restored living room and dining room look today
Virtual Tours To Come
This week we’re starting to take some proper after photos. Hopefully stitching them together into virtual tours for everyone to enjoy. As always, stay tuned!
Before and After: Floor Refinishing
We had our hardwood floors refinished a few weeks ago. We went back and forth trying to decide if we should try to refinish them ourselves or to hire it out
Wood Refinishing: Varnishing
We’ve come to the last step: touch-ups and varnishing with polyurethane. We’ll go into our technique and product of choice
Wood Refinishing: Staining
We’ve gotten to the “fun” part: staining! Why you should apply a wash coat, use gel stain, and get really sticky in the process!
Wood Refinishing: Sanding
Sanding is a bit more intuitive than staining or bleaching, but without the right tools and a lot of patience, it can be tedious. Learn from our experience on what to do and not do
Wood Refinishing: Bleaching
The second article in our wood refinishing series details the types of wood bleach available and the method that worked best for us
Wood Refinishing: Stripping
In the first entry of this series, we’ll go over the process we used to strip our home’s wood trim and built-ins using both chemical strippers and heat removal
How to Strip Fireplace Brick
We tried a number of stripping products and techniques and we think we’ve come up with a winning combo to increase efficiency and cut down on the elbow grease factor!
Porch Floor: Before and After
Last fall we stripped down our porch flooring. This relatively inexpensive project turned out to be much easier than expected
Our Progress
What have we been up to the past 9 months? Plenty! We have walls! We have paint! We have a stripped fireplace! Take a look!
Main Floor Demo: Before and After
We’ve completed the demolition of the old lath and plaster. We badly needed to insulate and the plaster would’ve needed extensive professional restoration, and our budget was tight
Basement Bath: Before and After
Finishing the basement was one of the best investments we have made. We love how the new bathroom turned out. It also moonlights as a laundry room. No more laundromat trips!
Kitchen Pantry Nook: Before and After
We’ve converted a enclosed porch into a usable kitchen space. Based on newspapers we found during demo, we believe it was enclosed in
Original Bathroom: Before and After
I cringe when I see the old photos of the bathroom before we moved in. But it looks great now! Come see our progress
Dormer and Staircase: Before and After
This part of the project was by far the most complex and hard to live through. I am so thankful for it to be over and to have a beautiful master suite to wake up in every morning
Master Bathroom: Before and After
We designed the master bathroom to have many historically accurate features. Since we couldn’t fit a clawfoot in the main bath, we added one here
Attic to Master Bedroom: Before and After
The attic in our home has always been used as living space, but never to code. At one point, embossed pressboard was used to wall it in! What a change we have now!
Kitchen: Before and After
Our kitchen has been transformed from a yellow and cyan abomination to a beautiful space for baking with abundant storage and period accents
Attic Demo: Before and After
First we cleaned out the attic area and took “before” photos as shown here: We started the demo the next morning. A couple hours into
Basement Mods & Final Contract
Just sent the final contract to the bank since we modified the basement plan. Here’s a comparison of the changes we’ve made
Screen Door: A Happy Ending
Our salvaged screen door from the Portland ReBuilding Center is complete! And it only took a week!
Front Door: Before and After
The door is done! After probably 40 hours of labor, our 92 year old front door has had a face lift. See our process photos and the finished product. It’s a beauty!
Style 1900 Magazine Shoot
Our dining room is featured on pg. 72 of the Winter 2012-13 issue of Style 1900 magazine. We’re honored to share our before and after story with readers
The Fireplace Works Again!
After 5 1/2 years in the house, we finally repaired the fireplace. Finally, warm cozy fires, just in time for Christmas!
In Memoriam: Elsie & Calo Lucas
To continue with my last post, I’d like to pay tribute to Elsie Lucas. She was the wife of the first owners son, Calo, and she shared some memories with me during a 2008 visit
House History: Catching up with the Lucas family
The past few days have been a boon in the research department. I especially enjoy it when family members of our home’s past owners stumble across my blog. Thanks Google!
Before and After: Fence
This post is a long time coming. The new cedar fence turned into our major house-related improvement project of 2011. We started in August and didn’t finish until Halloween!
The Homeowners
Dawn & Jeremy Peterson
Rose City Park,
Portland, Oregon
1914 craftsman bungalow restoration project began in March 2007
Phase I complete 2008
Phase II complete 2010
Phase III complete 2012
Phase IV …Camaraderie
Hi there, we are probably soon going to try and strip the 2 layers of
Hi- I love what you did. Where did you get your basketweave mosaic floor tile?
Thank you for the tip on the applying the oil based color putty after the
Where did you find those fantastic medicine cabinets?
Beautiful fence & gates. I appreciate your resourcefulness and attention to details. Your neighbors should