Category Archives: Reno

The “Before” Shots

March 4, 2013Categories: RenoSarah @ 702 Park Project

Happy Monday, everyone! Charles and I made the trek again to meet with yet another contractor on Saturday. The meeting went really well and we were very impressed with the knowledge, experience, and honesty that this contractor possessed. Now let’s just hope his bid doesn’t break the bank!! We are hoping to have 2 bids in by Friday so that we can choose a contractor and move forward then. Keep your fingers crossed!

Thanks to my dad and his really nice camera, we now have a ton of “before” shots for the house. It’s a little scary to look through them now, but I can’t wait to compare them to the “after” shots! You can check them out here.

Do It Yo’self

February 26, 2013Categories: RenoSarah @ 702 Park Project

As I mentioned before, Charles and I created a complete list of work we want done on the house, broken out into phases. Now we are trying to decide where we can cut costs and do things ourselves. In an ideal world, we would already be living close to the house and could be much more hands on. But that’s life, right? So we are working on putting together some weekend projects and other things that we can do ourselves. Here are a few things we have come up with.

1. Paint. Don’t worry; we aren’t crazy enough to try to do the exterior ourselves…although I do peel a little more paint off the house each time I’m there. Hey, every little bit helps! But we could definitely paint some of the inside. We know the painters will fix any plaster that needs fixing and coat the walls and trim with primer, so we would just have to do the paint. I think we can handle that! And who knows, maybe a few of our lucky friends and family will be recruited to help. I promise free pizza and beer. :)

2. Shutters. A lot of the exterior shutters are looking pretty rough, but several of them can be saved. Some just need a little wood glue and a good cleaning, and all need some paint. I see a massive sheet in the yard with tons of shutters and a paint spray-gun. And voila! Good-as-new shutters.

3. Demolition. Y’all know I can’t wait to rip out that green tub! And the entire upstairs bathroom. And the carpet. And the vinyl flooring. You see where I’m going with this…

4. Refinish the pedestal tub. We’d like to use the antique pedestal tub that’s currently in the guest bathroom upstairs. It’s in pretty good condition, just needs a good cleaning, a few rust stains rubbed out, and a little paint.

5. Furniture and fixtures. Once it comes time to decorate, I will DEFINITELY be doing some DIY-ing! Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to share it all with you.

Unfortunately, it’s not a time issue keeping us from being more hands-on with this project. It’s a distance issue. But that’s ok, because soon it will be time to move in and decorate!! And I really can’t wait for that part! Stay tuned…

A Busy Weekend

February 18, 2013Categories: RenoSarah @ 702 Park Project

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend! We spent Saturday with my family celebrating my brother, Jason’s, birthday. We were planning to have an oyster roast, as we often do for his birthday, but NC and its crazy weather brought us SNOW! Seriously. It snowed all day. Last year at the oyster roast for his birthday, we were outside without jackets! But that didn’t stop us! My dad steamed 2 bushels of oysters…let me tell you, that’s A LOT of oysters for 6 people! Plus a bunch of shrimp too. But we finished ’em off like champs and then sat around feeling bloated and watched a few episodes of Modern Family. It was the perfect way to spend a Saturday! (Happy birthday, Jay!)

Aside from Jason’s birthday festivities, Charles and I ventured out to Lowe’s in the snow to look at a few finishes and get some ideas. For the kitchen, we decided on white cabinets, white quartz countertops with touches of gray/silver, and a slate blue/gray for the island cabinets. We also landed on keeping hardwoods in the kitchen. We looked at some pedestal sinks for the guest bathroom that we really liked too, but I’m hoping to find a more vintage one. I’ve scoured Craigslist and found a few that might work. I just haven’t been able to pull the trigger. Here’s what I’m going for:

On Sunday, Charles and I made the trip to go meet with one of our prospective contractors at the house. We met him at 2:00, and it was about 34 degrees! It was freeeeeeezing in that big drafty old house! I think our heads are still spinning a bit from the information overload. We still do not know all of the numbers, but we got a few estimates back. Some were right where we thought they would be. A few were actually lower. And a few were way higher! I guess that’s how it goes in this business. We talked in more detailed terms with the contractor about what we wanted and what our priorities are.

When we got up to what will be the master bath, we all sort of drew a blank. It’s a big room and an open canvas, but that also makes it hard to figure out where we want all the fixtures to go. Plus we have to think about reworking the plumbing. So as we stood there completely stumped, I decided to give my design guru a call. Charles’ cousin’s wife, Mary, is amazing at this sort of thing and always has great ideas and great style. (Check her out at The Remedy House!) Her and her husband, Michael, have flipped two houses; Michael is a realtor and Mary is about to be a realtor…so they are our go-to’s for a lot of questions. Mary kindly ran over and looked around and took a few dimensions, and I know she’ll come up with something perfect for that room. I can’t wait to see!

Charles and I spent the entire two and a half hours of the trip home making a priority list for everything we want to do with the house. We divided it all up into five phases:

1. Get the house safe and livable- this includes all exterior and infrastructure work, plus electrical work

2. Interior priorities- we went through by room and listed what the immediate needs are for each

3. Bathrooms- master bathroom first, then upstairs guest bathroom, downstairs bathroom, and ripping out the other upstairs bathroom

4. Kitchen- since our kitchen is ugly and dated, but functional, this is not a top priority; we’ll wait till we can do it right!

5. Other stuff- for example, fixing the garage doors, paving the driveway, and landscaping

It was a grueling process that took several hours, but we feel like we have everything in order now! We are expecting (ahem, hoping) to get bids back from the contractors on Friday. I’ll keep you posted…

Get a Tax Credit for Rehab

February 15, 2013Categories: RenoSarah @ 702 Park Project

The Taylor-Gaylor (soon to be Taylor-Gaylor-Gaylor) House is a historic property. Not just for our family, but for the state of NC. Charles and I wouldn’t dream of doing anything to it that would take away from it’s historical charm–except for maybe to rip out that green tub! ;)

So far in this process, we have learned a lot about the tax credits that NC has to offer homeowners who are renovating or restoring (or “rehabilitating,” so I’m told) a historic property. There is a federal credit of 20% for restoring income-producing property, so we won’t qualify for that. No way we are renting this place out after all of our hard work on our dream home!! But NC has a 30% credit for homeowners restoring a historic residence. It’s called the State Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit Program (catchy, huh?).

Here’s a few more interesting facts: first, the building must be registered with the National Register of Historic Places. Luckily, our house is located in one of the three cities in NC that are certified historic districts, so we shouldn’t have a problem there. Next, we must spend over $25,000 in a 24-month period. Oh lawd, please don’t let it take that long!!! But of course there’s a catch–all rehabilitation work must meet the Secretary of the Interior’s standards. This means that we would be wise to run all of our plans by the Department before making any changes. And I’ve heard they are sticklers! But hey, for a 30% credit on all renovation work, that’s totally worth it!

I would definitely encourage anyone interested in restoring a historic home to look into these tax breaks. You can find more information here. Preservation NC’s website also has lots of information.

And last but not least…for those of you who know the joke…”Let’s all go to rehab!” :)

The Game (Floor) Plan

February 10, 2013Categories: RenoSarah @ 702 Park Project

We can get into the details later. Let’s talk basics. Here are the changes we’d like to make to the overall layout of the house. Here’s a very amateur drawing of the current floorplan, thanks to Floor Planner. I love this site, and it’s free!! Score! It’s not exactly right and I’m sure some dimensions are off, but this will give you a general idea of the layout:

Here’s our rough plans for the renovation:

Let’s start with the first floor. The kitchen is incredibly cramped and outdated. We would like to extend cabinets all the way around the kitchen and add a large island to the center. I would love to have a two-tier island so I can have a gas range on the lower side and still have room for a breakfast bar on the other. I’ll get to the kitchen details in a later post. For now, I’ll just show you what the kitchen looks like today.

We would also like to update the bathroom on the first floor. Charles’ grandmother used the family den as a bedroom and this bathroom as her master bathroom. But since we are changing that up, we don’t see the need to have a full bath off of the den. I would like to rip out the atrocious green 1970s tub and build in extra storage. Then we just need to update the 1970s vanity and it will be a nice guest half bathroom.

Upstairs is where we are making some bigger changes. In the 1930s, the house was converted to a two-family house. The front two bedrooms remained part of the main house, and the back two bedrooms, a kitchenette, and a full bathroom were turned into an apartment. We have no plans of sharing our home, so this kitchenette has got to go! The good part is: because there’s a kitchen up there, we know the room is already set up with plumbing. Our plan is to rip out the kitchen and convert it into a glamorous master bathroom. I dream of a clawfoot tub, tile shower, massive separate vanities…and, wait for it…a BIG closet!!! Our plan is to knock out the wall between the existing kitchen pantry and the master closet and create one large room for all my shoes, clothes, bags, coats, scarves, and jewelry. Oh, and I guess Charles can have a corner too. :) Aren’t I the good wife?

Lastly, we have to make some major changes to the bathrooms upstairs. The back bathroom is very odd. There is a classic tub with a corner sink, and they are practically touching. Seriously, I can wash my hands while taking a bath. And then the toilet is in a separate closet. I propose switching the location of the toilet and tub (and installing a traditional shower/tub combo), which will give us room for a proper vanity. We’ll see what the contractor has to say about that.

Here’s the toughie. There’s this little bathroom in what was originally the “attic closet.” It’s a ~~room~~ hall that is about 3′ x 8′ and someone decided to install a shower, sink, and toilet, all of which you have to walk past to get to the stairs to the attic. We’ve already decided we are gutting that bad boy! But we’re not sure what to do with it. Of course we could use it for storage, or, as I suggested, a gift wrap closet. But Charles laughed endlessly at me for thinking that I need a gift wrap closet (little does he know!). I also feel like we will want an extra bathroom at some point…kids, guests, etc.

Any suggestions?

True Colors

February 7, 2013Categories: RenoSarah @ 702 Park Project

The outside of the house is the first impression you give the world. The color scheme, the landscaping, the light fixtures…all help to mold this impression. So it’s no surprise that we are having trouble deciding on a color scheme for the exterior. The house is currently painted yellow (well, what’s left of it) and has black shutters. I’m not crazy about this color scheme, mainly because I’ve never been a huge fan of yellow. I think it has something to do with the fact that I’m a very fair-skinned redhead and I have never been able to wear yellow. It’s just not a favorite color.

So the question is, where do we go from here? I found this awesome picture from Old House Colors (fitting name, right?) that lays out all of the classic paint colors. Forgive the dated quality of the picture. I suppose that’s appropriate.

Although not exciting at all, gray is easily my favorite color. But I’m hesitant to do too much gray on the inside for fear of it beginning to look drab. However, I think it could really pop on the outside if we keep all of the trim white and all of the shutters black. I really like the “light blue gray” on the top row, and the “yellow gray” in the middle. Here’s an example I found of the blue-gray with black and white accents. I think this would totally work on our house (sans the tacky chain link fence).

I’d also really like to paint the front door. There’s just something about a painted door that adds so much character. If we did the color scheme above, maybe a black door? White would definitely get too dirty and be way too much upkeep.

Any comments, thoughts, suggestions?