1914 Craftsman Charm...with Baggage.

1914 Craftsman Bungalow with traditional dormer windows and strong wood pillars.

Guess what??  My husband and I are buying a house! Not just any house, mind you. A 1914 Craftsman-style bungalow. And I'm already gathering tons of inspiration on how to return it to its original (or near original) state. While recently updated with a bit of carpet and linoleum, the house maintains many of its Craftsman characteristics, so hopefully our reversions won't be too extensive. Take a look!

Beautiful inset cabinetry and wood floors are classic Craftsman traits, along with framed mirrored glass and high ceilings.

The kitchen, usually located in the back of a Craftsman house, has been updated with newer appliances and offers a lot of natural light.

I've read horror stories about how restoring houses has cost people not only their entire life savings, but their sanity, family and friends. I really don't want to go down that road.
I'm fortunate in that my husband is a general contractor, so we saved money on the initial cost of the house (because it's a fixer) as well as saving in the future on contractor fees. That's great because the house definitely has a lot of... well, baggage.

 

Historical Charm Means Baggage

A friend of mine once told me, "There's always a 'why' behind the 'what.'" For every issue we've come across, there's been a good reason for its presence that actually makes sense... in the context of the early 20th century. For example:

1. WHAT: There's a (small) sinkhole in the backyard. WHY: Most Craftsman homes (and most homes built around the 1900s) had clay pipes. We think the previous owners started fixing an untreated leak when the saturated ground collapsed. We're hoping it won't cost more than $1000 to fix it, unless we have to tie in to the city's main line (gulp!). FYI, if you have clay pipes, apparently they won't corrode underground as long as you flush rock salt down the pipes from time to time to clear out any invading roots.

Backyard with sinkhole near the basement door

2. WHAT: There's an upstairs closet with a toilet inside. They're calling it a "half bath", but there's not even a sink. The toilet is nestled right up against the wall, and I have no idea how anyone did any business in that tiny space. WHY: According to the tradition of the day, there was usually one bathroom, or powder room, downstairs so servants could easily powder their master's wigs. The idea stuck and it became popular throughout home architecture (named the powder room). The upstairs bathroom was never a Craftsman "thing", as far as we can tell, so this must have been a modern addition meant to solve a problem without having to spend a ton of money. Now it's a problem we'll have to solve.

3. WHAT: The walk-out basement is unfinished. The ceiling is barely high enough to allow this 5'4" gal to walk upright. The ground is dirt and pebble, and every time my husband talks about digging it down, I have awful mental images of the house collapsing with him underneath. WHY: Even though a lot of people think of California as having a warm climate, Sacramento winters can get below freezing. Folks knew that by building the footings of a house below the freezing line in the ground they could help protect the house from heaving upward when the ground froze. It's not a Craftsman thing, really. Just a cold climate thing.

In order to cut back on the amount of money it could take to restore the house to its original Craftsman glory, I've discovered some great tips at how to hint at the style without going crazy. (to be continued...)

Bone Hunting in the Housing Market

 

I've recently entered into the house hunt, and as a first-time home buyer, I've got a zillion questions and concerns when it comes to purchasing a home (many of which I don't even know I have yet). Houses feel like looming monsters to these untrained eyes, and since banks aren't releasing their inventory as quickly as I might wish (we're in the market for a short sale or foreclosure), I'm competing against 7-10 other buyers - many of whom can offer cash - for the same house in my price range. The hunt isn't easy, but I have one amazing weapon at my disposal - my husband.

Fortunately for me, I married a general contractor, and he's teaching me to look past all the off-putting "flesh" that sometimes comes with a foreclosure - stained carpet, ripped out appliances, tiny closets - and look deeper at the "bones" of the beast instead. By seeing a place for its potential, we're able to consider homes that other folks might shy away from.

If you're willing to put a little time and energy into remodeling, you might be able to save a few thousand dollars in the long run - not to mention gain a potential resale profit after increasing a home's value with the updates. Whether you've got a general contractor at your disposal or not, here are a few solid tips I've learned to consider when bidding on a home.

Room to Grow

We don't need a huge place right now since it's only the two of us, but eventually we want to have room for a few kids. We have a few search criteria options when considering potential homes. One is to only look at homes that have the amount of rooms we will eventually want (two to three, in our case) but don't necessarily need right now. The other is to look at lot size. Since Jamie can build on to a home, the best thing for us is to find a place that has an extended property line in the form of a backyard. That way we can bid on what we want now with the potential of adding on what we'll want later. Of course, it's always a good idea to consider the cost of the possible addition (permit price included) when making a bid. Will the present lower cost really be saving money in the long run if we just end up putting an extra $12 grand into the place two years down the road?

A larger backyard means future potential for adding on to a house. Meanwhile, I would be able to satisfy my immediate desire to garden. Courtesy of "Small House, Big Garden." (How appropriate!)

  A Firm Foundation

Another place we checked out happened to be in a cute older neighborhood next to a park. It was one of the first Victorian homes built in Sacramento. Huge trees lined each street, and we would have been near downtown yet still far enough away to enjoy the peace and quiet of a more suburban neighborhood. After further inspection, however, Jamie noticed a major crack that extended from the ground about three feet up the outside wall. It had been cleverly disguised with layers of paint, but his trained eye spotted the issue, and we decided we weren't willing to purchase a home that needed that kind of major re-shoring. (Other signs of a sinking foundation can be seen in the roof line. Be sure to look for sagging roofs when doing a preliminary inspection for a strong foundation.)

Cracks can be a sign of a weak foundation. Check out Askthebuilder.com for more detailed info regarding what to look for when checking out a home's structural stability.

Strong Bones

On the level with a firm foundation, strong bones play a part in finding the ideal home. This isn't limited to just the foundation - it includes internal walls as well. One property we looked at had a great living room, but the kitchen was somewhat small and closed off to the rest of the house. By considering the potential of the space, I was able to look past the current size and see it for what it could be. By knocking down the wall separating the kitchen from the living room, we could increase the kitchen size while creating a natural flow from room to room. The whole floor plan could be rearranged to fit our preferences since the house had strong studs and we weren't afraid of weakening the roof.

By knocking down a wall, a galley kitchen can be transformed into a larger, more open space like this San Francisco kitchen by small square design. Image courtesy of Design*Sponge.

Location, Location, Location

The saying is true - it's all about location. I could find an amazing property, but I can't transplant it into a safer neighborhood. One of our recent purchasing prospects happened to have great bones and a firm foundation, it skirted a neighborhood that had the occasional car break-in and gang activity (no thanks!) and lacked a driveway. My husband and I both decided that, while we may stand to gain some extra money from the investment, we weren't comfortable with the idea of me at home alone with a future little one, and while building a garage wouldn't be a problem, there wasn't enough room on the lot to do so.

Neighborhoods like this that offer both driveway parking and street parking are a plus for us since we don't want to park our car on the street every night.

So the house hunt continues! Are you on the market for a new home? Share your tips with this newbie!

Our Hobbit Home: Updating A Renter's Paradise

I like to lovingly refer to our rented duplex as a hobbit home. Jamie and I already have a penchant for collecting little nicknacks, books and unique furniture. Our place has a sort of layered, multi-patterned and cozy feel. There's always water in the kettle, and there's always cheese and good beer in the fridge. That paired with the mottled brown shag carpet (apparently saved from my grandmother's first house.. just kidding) makes for the perfect hobbit locale. Honestly, if I could live in a real hobbit house I would. Sans brown shag.

So even though I'm pretty comfortable in our rented home, I'm pretty eager to update and redecorate as much as I can for as little as I can. I have a really hard time with dark spaces (I may be an undiagnosed sufferer of seasonal affective disorder), and our hobbit hole feels a little more like "hole" than "hobbit".

The Kitchen

One project currently underway is turning our dark hole of a kitchen into a cheerful, bright hub. Since I spend a lot of my time in this room, I think it's important to enjoy it even if we're only renting.

Right now the kitchen only gets natural sunlight in the late afternoons from a small window over the sink. The main ceiling light seems to give off a candlelight yellow, which, when reflected off the brown cabinets and off-white wall paint, creates a sort of dingy vortex that makes me sleepy every time I go in there.


The biggest improvement would, of course, be to update the cabinets. But since the idea of sanding and repainting our kitchen cabinets a fresh white was shot down (Jamie understandably doesn't want us to put in a ton of work on a house we don't actually own), I had a few other ideas up my sleeve for how to freshen up the kitchen without making any permanent changes.

First I took off all the brass-plated (NOT solid brass, I found out...) handles from all the drawers and cabinets and set to work brushing away about 60 years of grime, oil and general mange. Unfortunately, I believed the hardware to be solid brass and not plated brass, and they require two very different cleaning techniques. So, while they're all "clean," most of the hardware looks just as dark as it did before I started. A lesson in TESTING the metal before cleaning! (Just use a magnet - if it sticks, it's plated. Read more about testing and cleaning brass at Centsational Girl's blog.) Now I just hope I get permission from the owners to spray paint the hardware a brighter brass or gold to add a bit of sparkle to the dark '60s cabinets:


Since we had a bit of semi-gloss white paint in the garage, I decided to repaint the inside of the cabinets above the stove so I could take the doors off and open up the space. The white paint really pops and adds an attractive contrast to the other cabinets. By filling the cabinet with cook books and canisters of noodles, beans and flour, there's more to look at and the space feels more active. Love the difference!

A really easy (and cheap) update was in changing out all the incandescent bulbs for fluorescent ones. We found a pack of 4 on sale at Home Depot for $1.53. If you're worried about using fluorescent bulbs because of their reputation for creating garish "hospital light," DON'T BE. This stereotypical fluorescent effect is quickly being replaced with a warmer white, like sunlight. This was the perfect effect I was hoping for, adding a desperately needed brightness to the kitchen while saving us money on our electric bill at the same time.

Next on the list is painting the kitchen chairs from their current darker finish and blue upholstery to a lighter off-white (or something lighter with a pattern), like this one from Home Dzine:


Or perhaps just reupholster the seats to something like this from Design*Sponge:


I also really want to cover the upper kitchen cabinets with fabric using liquid starch. Apparently it's fairly easy and doesn't damage the cabinets underneath when the fabric needs to be removed. Here's my inspiration from a favorite blog, Living in a Nutshell:

Stay tuned for more design updates from our little hobbit home!