Getting closer to completion

Part of the house is starting to look like a home. Pictured here is the living room. Andrew moved in a couple weeks ago, so we hung some curtains for privacy in a few rooms. The kids and I are making the best of traveling back and forth after school for dinner on weekdays and hanging out to help on weekends. Despite how much time he spends with the basketball team, Andrew's making good use of his time over here painting and finishing the final trim work. Basketball season will be over at the end of the month; and we didn't sign the kids up for any soccer or softball this semester, so we should be able to wrap this work up soon. Here's the general rundown of what's left to do:

• Cut and install aprons for each window sill
• Strip the final pieces of original trim and install on 6 doorways downstairs
• Install all the shoe mouldings
• Caulk all the nail holes and gaps in the trim
• Prime the remaining trim and all the shoe
• Two coats of the trim paint on everything including the stairs (so time consuming!)
• Clean all the doors, prime, paint, then install doorknobs
• Paint the girls room
• Cut in the wall color in a couple rooms
• Second coat the wall color in a couple rooms
• Touch up paint in most rooms
• Install and paint beadboard and trim on the bar side of kitchen peninsula
• Install toekicks in kitchen
• Tile the fireplace hearths
• Strip and/or paint the 3 antique mantles and install
• Build mantle from reclaimed newel posts, paint, and install in boy's room
• Call the Bathtub Man to refinish the tub in the hall bathroom when the dust settles
• Caulk the shower in the hall bathroom

I'm tired just thinking about it all! But we're pressing on...one day at a time. We just hired a realtor for the Browntown house, so there's plenty to be done to keep that house show ready too!  We'd appreciate your prayers at this time.  As always, if you run across someone looking for a home in Chattanooga, send them our way...we've got two they can pick from! :)

It's Official

We've officially been approved as finished with the Vance construction! Pictured here is our Certificate of Occupancy from the City of Chattanooga.

This is issued after the building inspector signs off on all of the final inspections for the different permits that have been pulled throughout the entire process. I can't tell you how thrilled, excited, relieved we are to have hit this milestone!

Now Andrew can move in - to keep the place occupied instead of vacant - and a buyer can come along and move in!! There are quite a few cosmetic tasks on the list to keep him busy while he's here: priming the trim, caulking the trim, painting the trim and doors, tiling the fireplace hearths, installing and painting the mantles, trimming out the chimneys, installing the doorknobs, touch-up paint on the walls, and adding beadboard to the kitchen bar. The kids and I will be running back and forth between the two houses so we can still spend time with him in the evenings.

I'll admit it is exhausting, but we'll do what we have to do until one or both of our houses sell! If you know of anyone looking for a beautiful home in Chattanooga, send them our way!! ;)

Cleaning Tip

Earlier this weekend, the floor refinishers applied the last round of sanding and top coat of polyurethane. Now that all the sheetrock is done, floors refinished, and brick scrubbed clean all the really dusty, dirty work is done. We noticed a film of light brown dust all over everything including the walls after the floors were sanded the first time.

Obviously we'd have to take care of that because there's more painting to be done, and it's just plain gross to li - plus it distorts the way the paint color looks. Cleaning all the walls, light fixtures, cabinets, and trim in a 2400 sq. ft. house seems like a daunting task. So I'm thrilled that we thought of this idea to help move along the process much quicker!

You know those old Swiffer wands we all got when they first time they came out? I'm pretty sure I haven't used mine at all in the house we've lived in the last 5 years, but I reached to the very back of the closet and got that little guy out. It's PERFECT for wiping the walls down all the way from the top (9'-10'+) to the baseboards without breaking my back or moving a stool or ladder from room to room!

The New Plan

Time just keeps ticking away; and honestly, we just haven't been able to get over to Vance to work on the house much. Once school started back in August, our schedule got crazy. I went back to work for the first time since becoming a mom nearly 9 years ago...I coached a middle school volleyball team (conference champions, by the way - woohoo!!)...and the kids were involved this semester in ballet, soccer, and cross country. There's not much progress to report on; although, I do need to catch everyone up on the developments over the summer (floors, kitchen, trim - look for new posts soon).

The biggest update to report, though, is that we've switched gears and have a new plan! Since we've wasted so much time getting Vance finished, we ate up all of the time we planned to have it on the market to sell. Therefore, we're about to get ourselves into a sticky situation with two house payments. So we made the decision about a month ago to go ahead and sell our Browntown house (please click here to see listing) and move to Vance. So far the interest has been good!! We'll still keep Vance for sale and just move again one day to the next adventure!

I'm really excited about returning to the Highland Park neighborhood, living in an old house again, and being close to downtown. There's definitely been something about it that I've missed these last few years.

Looking for a new home?

1705 Vance Avenue in Chattanooga is officially FOR SALE.  The finishing details are currently in progress, but potential home buyers are welcome to come take a look now...

Interior Paint Colors & Light Fixtures

Back in the Spring, shortly after the sheetrock was hung all throughout the interior, hubby got in there and primed away.  It's a whole lot of work with very little visible result - but definitely an important step.  The all-white walls are prettier to look at than the sheetrock mud, though!

Primer on Master Bedroom Walls

Exterior Paint

If there was an award for the worst blogger, surely I'd receive it.  It's now two months later and I'm finally posting an update.  Back in early May our painting contractor finished up the exterior, and we are so pleased with the outcome!

Finished Sheetrock

This is a little redundant of the last post about hanging sheetrock.  But if you appreciate sheetrock after it's been mudded and sanded, then you'll enjoy these pictures we took after we came back in town from Spring Break.  It's was a lovely feeling to see this done.  Since then Andrew has been priming all the walls & ceilings.  Last week, our exterior painter spent a rainy day indoors spraying the ceilings and closets with the usual white paint.

Living Room

Hanging Sheetrock

This is where a total gut job of a renovation turns into a real home, at least in our opinion. I can always visualize the layout of a home by seeing its frame or on paper. but when the sheetrock is hung, it really comes to life! Right before we traveled for Spring Break, we popped in to take these pictures of all the rooms with their newly hung sheetrock.

Foyer from Front Door

Rough In Inspections Passed

These little cards make us very happy!  We were amazed how quickly the inspectors came through after the electric, plumbing, and HVAC rough in was complete. Our contractor was really on top of scheduling things to happen back to back.  I remember on our previous projects having to wait around for inspections.  This is back in early March.  Right after this the insulation went in...and then you know what's next...sheetrock!

Catch Up Time

My apologies for taking the month of March and now half of April off from blogging.  I've been overwhelmed with mommy projects at home and couldn't find the time to catch everyone up on the Vance project.  Don't worry...we still took pictures along the way so you can see what you missed.  And don't think for a second that work ceased while I was away...in fact, Ronnie's crew is finished.  Yes, FINISHED!  The sheetrock is hung, mudded, and sanded which marks the end of our contract.

Overhangs

The rafter tails have what appear to be tongue and groove boards above them, even though they are very hard to see since they are so high up and so little of it shows.  Despite that we wanted to figure out how to duplicate that look on all of the new parts of the roof on the back of the house.  Here's our problem: for one, we didn't exactly communicate early on what our plans were so the carpenter thought he was going to build soffits around all of it.  So he just had decking on the unfinished rafters hanging over without any thought to appearance since he thought it would all be enclosed by the soffit.  That brings us to our next problem, now that we're retrofitting boards to the decking between the rafter tails, what do we use that isn't too thick and bulky and how does it fasten so that it doesn't pierce through the roof?  As luck would have it, I happened to notice some pine tongue and groove panel pieces on an endcap as we were making our way out of Lowes one evening.  Ronnie thought those might work; and after a few days, the carpenters were installing it.  We are very pleased with the outcome!  Once it's all painted the trim color, it's going to blend nicely with the old.

Exterior Carpentry

Front corner, lot side - frieze and fascia added

Rounding out the updates from this week are a few pictures of the work the carpenters are doing up along the edge of the roof.  The overhang on this house is not very big; and as far as we can tell, it was this way originally.  So I was unhappy with the thought of the siding going straight up to the eaves.  We decided to add a band of trim at the top which I learned is called a frieze.  When it's all painted the trim color, we think that this will add some nice dimension up there.

Plumbing And HVAC Are In Progress!

I knew the plumbers had begun work on the rough in earlier this week, but I was blown away to find all of the duct work installed in the upstairs rooms for the heating and air!  We're going with electric AC through out - of course - gas heat for the lower level and heat pump for the upper level.  This is the same way we did it in the Bailey house, and it worked out great having a split unit for a house this size.  Bean Heating & Air is handling the installation which is who did our first home on E. 13th Street.  I feel like we're in good hands.  Mr. Bean took a great deal of time discussing options with me when we did the walk thru, and it seems as if he's knowledgeable about installing HVAC systems in old houses.  That's always a good thing!

Porches & Exterior Doors

I had very low expectations today when I went to the house.  There were a couple rainy days this week, and I hadn't received as many calls from the contractor; so I wasn't expecting to see a whole lot of progress...plus they're still waiting on the gas company to come move the meter, and there was a delay in getting the door jambs from the lumber company.  But oh the surprise when I arrived this afternoon to find many new changes!  Let's start with the front porch:

Here you can see the front door!!!  And the 6x6 porch posts have been wrapped in 1" thick finish boards.

Happy Anniversary

This month marks a year that we've owned 1705 Vance.  To celebrate, the blog has been refreshed with new colors and a new home at RevivalOnVance.blogspot.com.  Unfortunately, the comments made on the old blog - as well as the followers - did not transfer over.  So please sign up to follow us again!  We'd also love to hear your feedback in the comments section.

Thanks for the support!

Siding is Up!

Last week we were thrilled to see the siding go up on the house. The carpenters are using a cement fiber board with a 5 1/2" reveal which is very close to the original siding. Even though there are many good reasons to use Hardieboard, we were so concerned all along about the reveal being too high. The big pieces of siding used on new construction just weren't going to work on the Vance house. Too much reveal would take away the historic feel of the home. So the general contractor, Ronnie, worked with us on it; and now we are all pleased with the outcome. This makes us very excited to pick out paint colors!!

Major Progress: Week 3

The end of January brought even more changes (and better weather!).  This week the Tyvek went up over the  plywood, the roof was finished (yes, started and finished in a couple days...amazing!), and - my favorite - the windows installed!!

I have no interest in being a roofer

Pieces used to frame the windows

 

Check out the house with windows installed!

Living Room

Upstairs Bathroom

Front Bedroom

Major Progress: Week 2

Rain, rain, and more rain...but there's a whole lot of framing going on!  This was the most exciting week...every day brought major changes.

Rebuilt walls on back of the house

Storage space

New foundation under bathroom

Future back door entrance

Dining room from back porch

Empty lot side

New porch foundation

Before old roof was torn off

Livingroom

New porch from above

Stairs!!

Newly expanded upstairs hall

Completely rebuilt master bath

Master walk-in closet

Master Bedroom from door

Master bedroom from bathroom

Front Bedroom

Front Bedroom with two closets

Closet in back bedroom

Completely rebuilt back bedroom

Upstairs bathroom

Upstairs bathroom toward hall

Going down the stairs

Kitchen

Guest bedroom/Office

Closet under stairs

Two days later back of the house

Neighbor's side

Back porch

Looking like a house now!!

Front with new porch roof

New front porch

New front porch

Front bedroom from hall

Front bedroom toward closets

Attic vent we didn't know was there

Laundry room

New back bedroom ceiling

Back bedroom toward closet

Master bedroom

Master closet

Master bathroom

Upstairs hall from back 

Upstairs hallway from bath