Restore a House – 12 Steps

Restore a House – 12 Simple Steps

If you go about the job, by yourself and by your own hand,  and we are talking about the task of restoring a house, it might take years.

RESTORE A QUEEN ANNE HOME

We know of people who decided to restore a house and they were challenged as they restored a 1902 Queen Anne Victorian home.

SEE LINK http://1902 Queen Anne Victorian.

LINK TO MORE ON

HOME DESIGNS OTHER THAN QUEEN ANNE STYLE.

This was a big substantial home of twenty-two rooms. It all takes time, and by the end of the third year they were pretty much finished with the task of restoring ROOM FIVE. That left only 17 rooms!

The exterior restoration was a massive job, which took two years. It has been well said, “you need really need two things : time, or money. Let’s face it – you need BOTH.”

Renovating and/or restoring an old house is a heck of a process. The truth is that a lot of people will not, and cannot, do it themselves.  Fair enough!

Look at the alternative. Imagine you have a builder, and the work is carried out before you move in. That would be more practical.
 
Do you wonder what it would be like? Restore a house?

RESTORE A HOUSE – ONE WAY TO LOOK AT IT.

STEP ONE – YOUR VISION.

It could be said that the first step would best be “beginning with the end in mind.” By this we mean that you envisage the final result, set out plans for achieving a targeted goal, and proceed working toward that goal with full awareness of what will ultimately be achieved.

One might achieve this by going into the first room with a glass of cabernet merlot, sitting in an old chair for as long as it takes the finish the glass, and slowly, tasting every mouthful as if it were the very essence of life, finish the drink while you think about your desired outcome.

restore a house

As the wine vanishes, it is replaced by a vision, and that foresight creates a spectacle where you see the result by looking forward into the future with your imagination, knowledge, and experience, all coming into play to create in your mind’s eye exactly what you want it to look like when it’s all done.

Most people have difficulty with this because they don’t have the education, the experience, or the confidence. Now, some of our would-be renovators “sort of know” what they want, but they cannot capture its spirit on paper.

Often they miss out because they don’t believe in miracles. We do.

This is not necessarily, to our mind, a religious experience of some kind; the reality is that miracles do occur.

They end up feeling it is best to get expert help. To restore a house is no mean feat.

We concur. You can hire a designer or an architect.

Sure thing!

Perhaps instead you hire the builder of your choice?

Better still a designer builder, who uses the latest technology, and here we are talking 3D Modelling.

restore a house

This is exciting stuff. Because with the expert assistance you will soon be able to see the outcome in plans, and, hopefully, also, a 3D model.

Soon will come the finished product.

THE PITCH

We are speaking to you alone, but the odds are that there is someone else involved in this project of yours. A family member, a friend, or business partner?

So you may have to persuade this fellow traveller to see things your way. They could have different ideas on how to restore a house.

restore

With close family members it is one thing. But with other people it is different. When dealing with a business partner the focus is more on money, and who has the power to choose outcome A or outcome B.

If you have an idea, you tell the other person, and you tell them what it’s going to look like. You provide advice as to why it will be a great outcome. Of course, you may have to convince a builder or a contractor. A lot of builders will automatically say, not a good idea, not practical, cannot be done, too expensive, or some such other negative. You have to cope with that.

THE LISTS.

 These lists describe what we need? You set a date for when you will need it?

What will it cost to restore a house, and in particular this house?

What do we have in our possession already?

What is our overall timeline?

Ensure that funds are available to cover all planned steps and allow a contingency.

NOW THAT ALL THE LISTS ARE COMPLETE.

It has been said that the task of restoring a house can “make you feel like your life is spiralling out of control.”

Attributed to: Amy Dorsch Heavilin LINK https://vivaciousvictorian.com/2013/09/18/love-at-first-sight/

To some degree, the lists and the timelines can help you acquire some sort of control over the process, and this is despite the fact that “things happen.” You can just make an adjustment and you are still in control.

More importantly, with the entire process set out in a schedule you have a chance of picking up pace, slotting an alternative in, and adjusting to ensure progress is maintained even if delayed a tiny bit.

So you should feel good. Restore a house is on the way.

THE DECONSTRUCTION

This is an excellent point of view. We mean the writer “saying deconstruction instead of demolition” because there may be items of value. There could be material or equipment that can be preserved and reused during the process. That is good idea, because if you can save pieces you “double benefit” because the cost of taking away the rubbish must be added to the replacement purchase price. Save what you can.

There are often some rooms, poorly built, or badly maintained that will need internal demolition in full. A lot of rooms tacked on in the middle of last century were simply cheap and nasty “add-ons.”

Now it is quite different when it comes to the very best rooms, that is the original rooms, as with these rooms there will be VERY little taken out. There will be some updating for electrical and/or plumbing fixtures, and sometimes one has to repair damage. In the past we have had experiences, such as being forced to remove not only wallpaper, but also the lathe and plaster underneath. In your case if the plaster ceiling or wall is damaged, then  try and keep the cornice intact and “butt-in” to that.

Beautiful cornices are well worth preserving, at all costs.

  THE PROBLEM*

 Many of the steps are easy to budget for, and the timeline seems definable and manageable.

Then comes the problem.

This step may totally surprise or even shock you. It is the part of the process where you get hit with a big delays and/or extra costs.

restore a house brings shock

It ALWAYS happens. Some say.

You might like to call it “hitting snags,” but this is when you discover that something was done incorrectly (as an example , we remember a time when the carpenters built the house frame, with the entire house, its load-bearing internal walls and all, facing backwards – P.S. this is something best discovered early).

Or say you have to fix something, any items that you had not expected to replace or repair, like you were counting on utilising the existing HWS and found it was not a goer.

You might find that you have to spend many hours researching for a method to do something in a completely different way due to the horrible facts: that what you have, will not work.

These problems can be shattering if you are not prepared for them. They say that there is comfort in numbers, and so in this way you get it double-barrelled, with two major disasters looming at the same time. This can put your project in total disorder, or make you really feel that you cannot manage.

Take a deep breath, and say, “I can do it.” Thank goodness!

A creative thinker can often come up with solutions, and the trick is to stay calm and be a little flexible. Say the painter was supposed to paint the architraves black, but he did the weatherboards as well.

Wow!

Solutions.

1. Chase the painter all the way to the Antartic.

2. New weatherboards.

3. Take a month off and think about it.

4. Get him to buy a tin of white paint.

The out-of-the-box thinker may come up with a fantastic solution that works for all.  

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

 
The electrical wiring may be good, but in a restoration you likely need updating and some new work. There is often some damage to repair, termite amage, rotted timber, poorly executed paiting, don’t forget plumbing update.

Bringing new services into a house, or even updating existing ones is not always easy. Access may be quite a problem. Pulling up floors or cutting plaster is often necessary. Make sure you fix all the problems before going on to the fnail stages of completion.

THE LAND OF TEDIUM

 
According to one home renovator, “This is usually when steps 4, 5, and 6 do a little waltz with each other. They repeat, they get mixed up, you go crazy….. 4, 5, 6, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 4, 5, 4, 6, 6, 4, 5……..This is also where you go through the Stages of Grief – Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.”

Being professionals, we rarely get to feel that way, but we understand it well enough. Part of that is empathy and the other part is the past experiences, dismal, tiring, and expensive stuff-ups that made us work and think overtime.

Problem a good idea to get a professional and let them have those worries!

Those stages work for home restoration.

Sometimes, rather than go through hell, you are better off to change the plan and do something else, something that will work, something that will not break the bank, and something that can help you to keep moving forward.

There is an old saying “don’t change horses midstream.” But if you take time to think, to question, to debate and to ponder, you might reverse a problem and resolve it with high style and aplomb.

WHILE WE ARE AT IT.

 Goodness! This sounds a bit like changing horses in the middle of the bloody river.

restore - don't change horses

SOURCE: https://www.opentravel.cl/the-andean-ride/

Yes, OK. You decide to do something that you never were planning to do, and you do this without a great deal of thought.

You think, “Oh well, because of this and because of that, anyway, we might as well add these other things to the lists now because it’ll be easier to do it now, than it would be to do it later.”

Why not ride the same horse across and then change horses?

This step is fraught with danger. We know someone, who, wanting to make a customer happy, agreed at the very last minute to change the mortar colour to black. Unfortunately, unbeknown to all and sundry, the bricklayer had started much earlier than agreed, and the front walls were already up. GAME, SET, AND MORTAR.

This sort of leap of good faith will often go awry and it just about always makes your budget take a hit.
 
**Note: This step can occur at any time throughout all other steps.

SEE THE LIGHT.

restore the light

 
Things have been going well. The project has moved along nicely.

Happy days!

Now about this stage, your eyes are really open on the vision thing.

SOURCE FOR SEE THE LIGHT: ANNIE LENNOX

Yes, you can now begin to see that that room, and that room, etc. is going to be finished. True to form, you discover the thrill of the chase that started back in the beginning. Yep. You can get going on the bit where things go back into place. Here we are talking about skirtings and architraves going back on, and that sort of thing. The house is taking shape.

THE ACTUAL LIGHT.

 
Speaking on behalf of ourselves, we are lovers of light. Let’s begin with natural light, the sun rising in the East, the beautiful flooding light from the North, and even that Sinking Sun in the West kind of thing. At all times the sunlight plays its part. Provided you have properly planned for the house to invite the sun in, and preferably provided access in all the right places at the right time of the day, you will be happy.

Internal Lighting is just as important. If the restoral house does not have any original light fittings?

Well someone has the job to source the right light fittings. Choose the perfect piece for each and every room. Install them, sit back, and enjoy them. Oh heaven, all those chandeliers, exotic wall lamps, bedroom light stands, and efficient reading lamps, all aglow, and shining bright.

 THE PRETTY

 Pretty Pink Paint. Walls of fashionable, classy Wallpaper.

Loads of Colour. The rustic collection, eclectic to the utmost, rolling in smooth woolen rugs, all matched by exotic, fabulous-looking furniture. Loads of massive, softening curtains. This is a wonderful mix of pattern and texture.

It is the finishing touch to all that you love.

You now have the sheer joy of making each room exactly the kind of place that you want to live in.  This is where your personality can shine, and the architecture of the room can be what it was designed to be.

BACK TO THE VISION

 Now it really exists. You can sit down in that old rocking chair and relax with another glass of cabernet merlot. Take a photo and send it to your friends, or if you like you can exhibit it on Facebook.

 We have circled and we have watched from above. We have swooped in on occasion.

The circle is complete and we have returned to our chosen starting place. This is where you come full circle and arrive back at Step One.

 
Now you know what it’s like to restore a house.

We can say that it is inspiring, albeit frustrating at times. It is certainly a lot harder if you choose to do this without the assistance of an expert.

Of course, one must remember that a lot of renovations require building work, including structural work, along with a necessity for a building permit, the involvement of an appropriately licenced builder, and on top of all that, the added bonus of having home warranty insurance.

Happy restorations.